These New York Knicks and their expectations. Derrick Rose won’t shut up about the Knicks being a “super team.” Courtney Lee called the Knicks “contenders.” Kristaps Porzingis made a reasonable statement on Saturday, saying that making the playoffs was the primary goal for the team. Now, Brandon Jennings is basically saying: “Nah, screw that; we’re aiming higher.” From The Stashed’s “33rd & 7th” podcast with Anthony Donahue (Transcribed by ESPN’s Ian Begley):
“I’m as hungry as I’ve ever been now. I’m on a one-year deal. I’m coming off an Achilles injury, everybody [wrote] me off. So right now I’m hungry, I’m more hungry than ever.”
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“At the end of the day, right now I just want to win, man. I just want to be in a winning environment,” Jennings, whose teams have won 45 percent of the games he’s played in, told Donahue. “I’m in the biggest market, the greatest basketball city, the Mecca, so who cares [about coming off the bench]? Let’s just win. We win, the whole city loves us.”
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“Playoffs is good, but just making the first round isn’t good enough,” he said. “So I’m going to go out on a limb and put a little more pressure on us. If we make the playoffs, we’ve got to get out of the first round.”
That’s ambitious for a team that won 32 games last year. Of course, the Knicks’ roster this year is dramatically different with the additions of Rose, Joakim Noah, Courtney Lee, and of course Jennings. Besides, ambition is good. You want your team to overachieve, not fall short of expectations. One of the more interesting storylines this season will be seeing how much noise this Knicks team can make.
