Knicks Stars Refute Claims Team Chemistry Issues Could Be Season-Long Dilemma

The New York Knicks might have a lot of fixing to do if they want to regain their hot start this season.

Things have not been going well for the Knicks in their last few games. They are coming off back-to-back losses, and head coach Tom Thibodeau is not happy about it.

Lashing out at his team’s disappointing 112-100 defeat to the Milwaukee Bucks, Thibodeau claimed that for all they know, the “season’s over,” and the Knicks, particularly the starters, are still figuring out how to win games.

“When it’s 10 games, you say we need 20,” Thibodeau told the media of his five starters. “When it’s 20, you say 30, When it’s 30, you say it’s 40. Before you know it, the season’s over. It’s a bunch of b----–t .”

However, this is not how the Knicks starters see it.

According to Knicks forward RJ Barrett, “any new team” needs ample time to finally find its rhythm.

“Everything takes time — any new team,” Barrett told the New York Post. “No one’s going to have it right away off the bat. It takes time. We’re trying to figure out who we are if we’re going to be consistent.”

Barrett is one of the most consistent scorers for the Knicks this season. In fact, even in the team’s last two defeats, he managed to average 20-plus points on both games.

Knicks’ new backcourt Evan Fournier, on the other hand, has become the Knicks’ most reliable three-point shooter this season, having 36% from beyond the arc to date.

Like Barrett, Fournier too is certain that the Knicks will soon get along well inside the court as long as they continue to share the ball.

“We have to find that rhythm that we had early on — those first five games of the season,” Fournier said. “So just make sure we share the ball. Sometimes you pass the ball just to pass the ball and the rhythm is going to come back. Once we all touch the ball, you get a good rhythm, you get better shots. And then we all feel good. I think that’s the main thing going forward.”

Julius Randle, meanwhile, acknowledged that they had been outperformed by opponents in some games. Apart from the offense, Randle also put an emphasis on the team’s significant drop on the defensive end.

However, the All-Star big man is also confident that the team can get through it over time.

“I definitely think there are games where we’re being outworked, outrebounded,” Randle concluded. “Our identity’s not our defensive end [like] how it has been.”

“But we know that,” he continued. “We know we got to fix it. We just got to keep working at it, just keep coming together and stay together.”