Here’s the thing:
You want to feel the way you felt last May, when the Knicks were appointment television three, four nights a week. You miss those days when you would get your game face ready by lunchtime, impatiently count the minutes down until tip-off so you could tell Joel Embiid what you really think of him, or Tyrese Haliburton.
Mostly, so you could lend your full-throated support to helping nudge the Knicks through one more 2 ½-hour tour through a basketball hellscape. The sore throat you woke up with the next morning was a tax you were willing to pay. The Knicks played 13 playoff games last spring, and each one beat you up.
And now you ask yourself: “Is this all there is?”
You have the early-season blues and the early-season blahs. Part of that is because you’re looking at a team right now that looks a lot different than the one for which you were so willing — eager, even — to jump on a metaphorical hand grenade in April and May. You find yourself checking out Timberwolves box scores, something that was never part of your morning routine, alongside the crossword, Wordle and Immaculate Grid.
You see the Thunder out to a 7-0 start without one minute yet from Isaiah Hartenstein (say the name softly, respectfully), still out with a hand injury. Maybe you even sigh wistfully as you see RJ Barrett up north, taking still another step forward in Year Six.
And maybe it’s the record. The Knicks are 3-3. That feels about right, sea level. Hard to get too excited. Hard to get too angry. Hard to get … worked up.
It’ll happen, though.
It will. Look, if you check in here regularly to get my takes on the Knicks, then you remember that I wrote this the day before the Knicks opened the season in Boston a couple weeks ago: “If we reach Nov. 13 and the Knicks are bringing a record like 4-6 — or worse — with them to the Garden to face the Bulls, know that it is possible.”
It’s probably worth remembering that last year’s Knicks team — the beloved bunch that Knicks fans were all but clamoring should have a banner raised for them after their inspiring shorthanded run last spring — were 2-4 after six games. The best six-game start the Knicks have ever had in five years under Tom Thibodeau is 5-1 — and that was three years ago, when they finished 37-45 and out of the money entirely.
Thibodeau teams take time to jell. Thibodeau teams take time to find themselves. They usually hit their stride right around the New Year, and it would only make sense that this team will take some time to find itself with Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns still integrating their games into the Knicks’ complicated fabric.
Here’s the thing, though.
They’re already playing offense at an exceedingly high level — as well as the Knicks have ever played under Thibodeau on that end of the floor. They are third in the league in offensive efficiency behind Boston and Cleveland (a combined 15-1), tops in 3-point percentage, fifth overall. They also pass the eye test: The starters are five highly skilled players who already fit well together, just six games in.
Their defense … well, that’s something else. But one of the annual traditions of Thibodeau’s Knicks teams is the extended process turning Thibs’ defensive vision to action. Last year’s team gave up 146 points to Milwaukee on Dec. 5, the 20th game, and 140 on Dec. 30, game 32; from then on there were 16 different games in which they held opponents under 100.
“When you’re not shooting well, you’d like to rely on your defense,” Thibodeau said after the Knicks lost to the Rockets on Monday, renewing a theme he’s fallen back on time after time in his time here.
It’s hard to believe that won’t happen. By the time the Knicks return home Friday, they’ll have played five out of seven away from the Garden. If they can beat old friend Trae Young and the Hawks on Wednesday in Atlanta, they’ll make it home with a 4-3 record, with so much season left to play. Even if it’s 3-4: A lot of time between here and April.
And that’s the hardest part. It’s impossible to replicate the sizzle — and the stakes — of May in November, December, January. It just is. As electric as Citi Field was in October, there are going to be a lot of chilly nights next April and May, no matter who’s on the team, when Mets fans will ask themselves: We couldn’t have watched this on TV?
The Knicks are 3-3. They’re still learning each other. They’re still figuring things out. The first 10 games are a bear. They’ll be fine.
