Can the Knicks Be Considered the NBA's Eastern Conference Favorites?

The New York Knicks' quick work of the Cleveland Cavaliers and the potential for home cooking at Madison Square Garden paint an interesting playoff picture.

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The deeper the New York Knicks venture into the NBA Playoffs, the tort of "Act like you've been there before" toward their jubilant fanbase becomes increasingly irrelevant. 

Considering the fact their last Eastern Conference Finals appearance came in the year 2000, many have literally never been there before and fewer probably remember that appearance. 

Ending that drought would be the Knicks' prize if they prevail in the upcoming Eastern semifinals, which tip off against the Miami Heat on Sunday afternoon (1 p.m. ET, ABC). The full Eastern semifinal field was confirmed on Thursday after the second-seeded Boston Celtics' Game 6 victory over Atlanta set four-to-seven dates with the third-ranked Philadelphia 76ers. New York previously punched its semifinal ticket with a five-game triumph over the Cleveland Cavaliers, completing that process on Wednesday. 

Thanks to the NBA's reluctance to re-seed its playoff brackets (a practice its NHL counterparts abandoned in 2014), the fifth-seeded Knicks have surprisingly earned homecourt advantage for their revived rivalry against No. 8 Miami, which shockingly disposed of the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in five games.

That's not the only potential shift in status for the long-suffering Knicks franchise: have the Eastern Conference's medical and on-court developments made them the favorites among the right coast's final four? 

Usually any talk of the Knicks being "favorites" in spring centers upon whatever odds they landed at the NBA Draft Lottery. This Knicks team, however, has prided itself on shifting its new-century paradigms, a movement best captured by the fact they handled business so convincingly on Wednesday night, clinching the win over Cavs in their first opportunity to do so. Now facing a Miami group that needed extra steps to make the proper playoff, the Knicks find themselves in unfamiliar territory as the undisputed top option in a playoff series.

So should they be the overall favorite in the East? 

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The Case For It

The united injury report amongst remaining Eastern Conference contenders would make for a formidable All-Star team. 

Deniers of Miami's success could easily blame a hobbled Giannis Antetokounmpo for Milwaukee's loss. Joel Embiid missed the final part of the 76ers' four-game sweep of the downtrodden Brooklyn Nets. Jimmy Butler's brilliance has been partly necessary because Tyler Herro is out for the remainder of the postseason. The Celtics have emerged mostly unscathed with the exception of lingering hand woes for Jaylen Brown but it still took far longer than necessary to take down the seventh-seeded Hawks.

The Knicks weren't exempt from the carnage: losing Quentin Grimes in the latter portions of the series was bad enough (leading some of Josh Hart's first meaningful minutes in the Knicks' starting five, in which he looked like anything but a playoff virgin) but the absence of an All-Star like Julius Randle is the stuff of postseason nightmares, an ailment that sinks championships. New York, however, has found ways to win without Randle, turning the postseason into a bit of a role reversal.

Whereas Randle's return to All-Star form helped mask the shortcomings of high-profile homegrown talent (i.e. RJ Barrett, Obi Toppin) during the regular season, the spectators have repaid the favor and then some in the early stages of the playoffs: Barrett has adapted well to defenses that limit the outside shot as a rim attacker while Toppin has provided quality minutes. Elsewhere in the lineup, Mitchell Robinson is putting up a bona fide MVP performance in the interior while Jalen Brunson continues to fulfill every expectation a $104 million contract placed upon him. 

This postseason has already shown that one can throw seeds out the window. The Knicks' adaptability and handling of business shows that they're adapting to the role of the favorite quite well. Look no further than their record against their remaining Eastern competition, against whom they've conducted themselves remarkably well: with their 0-3 mark against the Bucks no longer relevant, the Knicks are 8-4 against Boston, Miami, and Philadelphia this year.  

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The Case Against It

Denying the chance to "act like you've been there before" is perhaps the only smear of getting to play with a sense of healthy reckless abandon. As another famous New Yorker known for wearing shades of blue was once told, "With great power, comes great responsibility." The Knicks are now blessed ... and cursed ... with such powers in the increasingly open, explosive, and volatile Eastern Conference.

There's no school or education for adapting to homecourt advantage or being a true title contender in the NBA. The Association ledgers are often dotted with established contenders and usual suspects, some of whom (Milwaukee, Memphis) are already gone. Others (Brooklyn) falter along the way while others (possibly Sacramento) survive an 82-game trial by fire to join the bettors' choices in the respective conference penthouse.

What the Knicks currently deal with is perhaps the definition of a first-world problem, especially through the very niche lens of NBA playoff contention: they've earned entry into the Eastern Conference's premier levels and might not know how to conduct themselves once there. They've proven capable of mingling with the elites, which now has to include the former top seed and previous finalists from Miami, in the regular season but, as several teams have already learned the hard way, the playoffs are a different animal. 

The new century has seen several teams rise from the dregs of non-contention to leap into the Finals. Sometimes that's the result of big moves (i.e. the 2008 Celtics, the 2002-03 New Jersey Nets) other times it can be about a downtrodden franchise coming together (the 2021 Phoenix Suns). Becoming the favorite is a burdened privilege of sorts, one the Knicks haven't fully earned quite yet. 

The Verdict

To their credit, the Knicks firmly refuse to wear the label of the favorite, and it only feels right to honor that request. The permeating theme throughout the Cleveland series was an acknowledgment that the high-octane grittiness of the Cavaliers could've come back to have bitten the Knicks at any time. A franchise so historically downtrodden as the Knicks is also likely well aware of what Miami's capable of.

New York has done well in relatively consequence-free settings and will likely continue to work with that sense of healthy, constructive recklessness as their postseason trip continues. Outside forces may try to horn in on that mindset, but that's where further adaptability can help them out.

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Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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