In a vacuum, the Knicks already blew their best chance.
They got past the Celtics, the team that the front office specifically built this group to beat. They dodged the 64-win Cavs, who crashed and burned on the other side of the bracket. They got to face a lower seed in the Eastern Conference Finals, a team that they almost defeated last year with a mountain of injuries.
And yet, they lost. In a vacuum, they weren’t going to get a chance like this again. They have no flexibility to upgrade, while the case can be made, they were lucky to get past Boston.