5 reasons the New York Knicks are doomed

4. No bench

In basketball it’s critical for the reserves to be able to hold down the fort while the starters get their much-needed rest. For New York, this is of extra importance since they have injuring-prone players in Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah and an aging superstar in Carmelo Anthony. However, New York ranks 22nd in bench minutes played and 20th in bench points. These numbers are not going to cut it for this team. And a bench of Kyle O’Quinn (4.5 PPG, 2.9 RPG), Lance Thomas (3.9 PPG, 2.4 RPG) and Sasha Vujacic (1.7 PPG, 1.7 RPG) is not going to be able to consistently put up enough points to keep this team in games when the starters are out.

One of the big problems with this New York bench is their lack of depth at the point guard position. Given Derrick Rose’s tendency to get hurt, you would think they would have three point guards on the roster. But Brandon Jennings is the only other official point guard on the team. The question is: when Rose gets hurt again, who is going to play backup point guard behind Jennings? During the preseason, when Rose was away from the team, Jennings saw a ton of minutes and was mediocre at best. If Rose goes down with an injury –and you know he more than likely will– the whole Knicks offense is going to suffer badly.

ESPN predicted a 35-win season for the Knicks, a number that many fans scoffed at. But if New York doesn’t find a creative way to increase their bench production, we may well see that prediction become a reality. TNT analyst Charles Barkley voiced his opinion a few weeks ago that the Knicks should bring Kristaps Porzingis off the bench. The thinking here is that Porzingis could benefit from being the first option off the bench rather than a third option in the starting five. It seems questionable given how rapidly the youngster is developing, but it might be worth a try if bench production doesn’t improve.