Knicks are 5-6. Last season we needed 41 games to reach 5 wins, 5-36.
We're winning inspite of Fisher switching our 4th quarter rotation on a daily basis. Just off the top of my head, we lost 3 games last week where we were leading by 6 or 8+ points going into the final 5 mins. Our execution come crunch time is nonexistant, and this time we can't lay all the blame on Melo. Against Cleveland, from the 9th to the 6th minute we had Melo, Porzingis, Lopez, Grant on the bench, as Fisher went with Calderon, Thomas, Amundson, Galloway, and Early. Cleveland went on a run that saw our 7 point lead diminish until we were tied. And for some reason, even though Willams was our best player in the preseason, he's been riding the bench thus far, barely playing 13 mins.
With the exception of Fisher, Knicks are looking pretty good. Afflalo coming back has strengthened our starting unit, sending Sasha to the bench, and he's already capitalising on the space Melo offers on the offensive end. If he stays healthy, I think he'll be a major key in our return to the playoffs. Porzingis has been a breathe of fresh air, hard working, great rebounding hunger (remember the doubters that assumed he'd be too skinny to hustle for rebounds), a sweet shooting touch, and he's shown some fantastic footwork i the lowpost (defensively and offensively), and his leftside baseline turnaround hookshot is practically unblockable.
But lost in the midst of Porzingis chat, are Grant and Galloway. Sooner , rather than later, even Fisher will wise up and promote one of them to start in place of Calderon (Knick fans have just assumed he's still starting due to the ownership of naked pictures of somebody, somewhere, with influence, otherwise how on earth is he still starting?). Grant is still showing a little bit of rookie shock, he has his ups and downs, but he's going to be a beast once he gets going (incidently, did you know his father is Harvey Grant? aka the lessor known twin of Horace Grant? I only found out last week! Man I used to despise Horace Grant, how long ago was that?). Galloway has improved tremendously since last season, and certainly deserves to be our starter, and finisher.
Overall, a Knicks update that is actually more positive than negative. And yes, it's been literally years since we last felt the latter sentence was accurate.
Playoffs, here we come.