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Once again, the New York Knicks have fallen in the NBA Playoffs to the Indiana Pacers. Only this time, losing a series to the Pacers stings more since the Knicks were on the doorstep of winning the Eastern Conference Finals and heading to the NBA Finals.
As the offseason begins earlier than New York had hoped, Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau is appreciative of his team for not giving up and fighting until the very end. However, Thibodeau is already looking ahead and challenging his team for not reaching their ultimate goals this season.
“There's disappointment because you fall short of what your goal is,” Thibodeau stated in his immediate postgame remarks on Saturday night, via SNY. “In the end, there's only going to be one team that achieves the goal. And so I think the challenge for us is to look at it for what it is. We finished in the top three, but we're falling short of the ultimate goal.
“So for us, it's to use that for motivation and determination to work all summer to prepare ourselves to make the final step and keep improving so we can achieve our goal.”
This is a tough series for the Knicks to lose, given all the roster changes they made last summer.
Aside from trading a handful of first-round picks for Mikal Bridges, Leon Rose and his front office also leveraged Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to acquire All-Star big man Karl-Anthony Towns. In this championship series against Indiana, Towns averaged 24.8 points and 12.2 rebounds per game.
The future is unknown in New York.
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Other than Jalen Brunson, any player could be on the move in yet another offseason move to try and pursue a championship. There are also some early questions being asked about Thibodeau's long-term outlook with the Knicks after falling short of their ultimate goals yet again.
Thibodeau recognizes that changes are needed, which is why he is heading into the offseason ready to come up with an answer as to what his team needs.
“You look at your team, and I think you analyze what the strengths and weaknesses of the team are, and then you're always thinking about improvement,” Thibodeau continued. “How do we improve what we have? And I think you always start with the internal improvement. You have the order of the draft, free agency, and, of course, all the trade possibilities. Leon and his staff — there's always a lot of talk that goes on.
“They (will) analyze whether something makes sense and can improve our team. We aren't going to do something just to do something.”
A lot of uncertainty faces the Eastern Conference entering the offseason due to Jayson Tatum's injury with the Boston Celtics and Giannis Antetokounmpo's future being unknown with the Milwaukee Bucks. There is still an opportunity for the Knicks to compete for a championship, but key decisions in the summer will dictate their future.
As for now, the Knicks will head back home to New York City thinking that they squandered a key chance to make the NBA Finals.
