James Dolan, Tom Thibodeau think Knicks have a strong foundation for future
Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns dunks during the first half of an NBA game against Golden State on Saturday in San Francisco. Credit: AP/Benjamin Fanjoy
SAN FRANCISCO — As Golden State took the floor Saturday evening, Steve Kerr, in his 11th season coaching the team, put out a lineup that included Steph Curry, in his 16th season with the franchise, and Draymond Green, in his 13th. Even coming off the bench, Kevon Looney was in his 10th season with the organization.
Compare that to the Knicks. Mitchell Robinson is the longest-tenured player on the roster at seven seasons. Every teammate from his first three seasons — along with the coach — is gone.
So when Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan appeared on The Roommates Show podcast hosted by Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, he accurately pointed out that the Knicks are in the first stages of whatever this group will become.
With the addition of Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges before the start of this season, the Knicks’ front office, led by Leon Rose, has assembled a roster that is in a similar age range and the contracts are aligned. While tweaks around the edges may come, this group will grow together. And now it’s up to the pieces to live up to the potential.
“We have a team that’s going to be together for a while,” Dolan said on the podcast, which was released this past week. “Leon has done a good job of lining up the contracts. So this isn’t our only season. So we’re going to play a bunch of seasons together. You take a look at teams like Boston that have played together, they get to draw off something that they built off that period of time.
“And for this team, that’s really the challenge today, going into the playoffs. It’s to build that inside of the team, something that we can draw on.
“In order to do that, the first thing you have to have is belief that you can win, that you can win the championship. You really, really believe that. You’re not going to worry about podcasts. You’re going to worry about how you’re playing with the other guys, how the communication is going. What you can do to be better.
“. . . Just give it time and I think it will happen.”
Hart, who joined the Knicks in a midseason deal in the 2022-23 season, agreed.
“I think so,” he said. “Obviously, there’s been teams where they’ve been together a while. Boston, they’ve been together for several years. They’ve made a couple of trades, but they were in their window the last couple of years. They made progress, obviously small tweaks to add to the roster. Sometimes it takes time. We’re in a generation now where everybody wants it now, now, now.”
Golden State has endured ups and downs, winning four titles with this group and also having a season in which it had the worst record in the NBA. But through it all, the group stayed together — finally parting with Klay Thompson this past summer to break up the Splash Brothers combo with Curry. But with the core in place, they entered Saturday with a 38-28 record.
“I think everyone’s race is different,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “So everyone has to run their own race. You look at your team and you have to analyze what the strengths and weaknesses are, and then you build your plan around that. I think going into the season, if you have a new team, the challenge is how quickly can you get everyone onto the same team. If you’re in [Golden State’s] position where you’ve had the core of the team together, there’s different challenges with that as well. Whatever your race is, study it, prepare for it.”
“There were times when we sort have reached for that shiny, sparkly object,” Dolan said. “Maybe this is what we need. Especially when things weren’t going well.
“Let’s bring in this guy and maybe he’ll turn it all around for us. Sometimes it’s players, sometimes it’s a coach. What I learned over time is that doesn’t work. It really doesn’t. You really have to do the fundamentals, the basics. You’ve got to build a team. You’ve got to build an organization. There is no waving a wand over a team and all of a sudden make it a great team. It doesn’t happen.”
Towns, who was the last major piece in, believes that the pieces are here now.
“I think we have a lot of talent on this team from top to bottom, not just the starting five but all the way to — we would like to say the deep bench, but I don’t look at us like that,” Towns said. “So we got a bunch of talent. We got a great bunch of [guys]. So we have an opportunity to do something special, and it’s up to us to grasp that opportunity, take it and run with it.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
