The New York Knicks Release 2020-21 Preseason Schedule

The New York Knicks officially announced their 2020-2021 preseason schedule on Friday. The team is slated to play four games – two on the road and two at home. 

They kick off against the Pistons on Friday, December 11th in Detroit at Little Caesar’s Arena. They play the Pistons again in Detroit on Sunday followed by a couple of home games later in the week against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Those games will be played on December 16th and December 18th, respectively. The goal of the schedule is to limit travel and exposure to account for the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The NBA will soon release the first half of the regular season NBA schedule, which will only be 72 games. The back half of that schedule will be revealed later on in the season so the NBA has an opportunity to adjust to problems that arise (missed games, COVID infections, etc.). Training camps will start opening up on Tuesday, December 2nd. 

The shortened season could theoretically benefit an outlier performance from a rebuilding team like the Knicks, but the likelihood is that they will be amongst the league’s worst by the end of the season. That doesn’t mean that the next few weeks won’t be important, though. 

The preseason is crucial for all teams, but it’ll be a vital time for a Knicks squad that has a lot of moving parts. The organization decided to move on from several contributors last season, and will need an opportunity to gel under a new roster and coach. 

Most importantly, they’ll need to strike that delicate balance of feeding the veterans and giving enough run to the younger players. RJ Barrett will be one of the many young faces that Tom Thibodeau will be looking to help develop early on:  

“It’s been great. Obviously, there’s a lot of work to be done. These are the initial steps. And so, I think the offseason is critical for any young player so obviously you could get going on with the development piece which I think is critical but that holds true for all our players. But he’s been great, he’s been eager. He’s working hard and if he does that day after day, he will improve quite a bit.”

Thibodeau enters his Knicks tenure with a rocky past that has been written about several times before. His heavy handed allocation of minutes and tenure in Minnesota still leave a lot of questions to be answered, but there will be plenty to be learned during the preseason. 

One of the biggest questions will be determining the starting point guard. Elfrid Payton had a respectable season last year by averaging 10 points, 7.2 assists and 4.7 rebounds. His 16.0 PER masked an abominable 47 true shooting percentage, but the Knicks still performed like a 37-win team with him on the court.

On the flip side they’ll have the option to give Frank Ntilikina another crack at the starting gig. He’s been unable to run away with the job in his three-year career, but he came in as a raw rookie and has shown flashes that are worth investing in. The team has also played well with Ntilikina on the court, but it may ultimately be best for him to slot in as a secondary ball handler moving forward. Dennis Smith Jr. suffered a tragic loss last season and never seemed to find his footing. Austin Rivers currently has the most years remaining on a non-rookie scale contract for the Knicks, but profiles more as a combo guard. It’ll likely be a mishmash of all of the above until one starts to stand above the rest. 

The preseason will give an indication of how Thibodeau wants to run his rotation. He obviously is a proponent of defense, but Julius Randle is currently the highest paid player on the roster. It’s likely he gets significant playing time, even though his fit next to Mitchell Robinson and Barrett is borderline disastrous. Thibodeau will have to evaluate how those pieces fit together while trying to get minutes for the newly prized rookie.

The likelihood is that the veterans win out to begin the season, but the preseason could say a lot about Thibodeau and the youngsters if they’re able to earn minutes early on in a crowded rotation.