This project is all about pain. I’m not talking about falling over trying to bring all the groceries in at once and scraping your knee pain, I’m talking about psychological pain. I’m talking about being a fan of the New York Knicks. Specifically the 2018-19 New York Knicks, who tied the 2014-15 Knicks with a 17-65 record which are the worst in franchise history. But the odd thing about that 2018-19 Knicks squad is that they actually weren’t statistically the worst Knicks team ever, despite sharing the worst ever record. So why were they so bad? Why am I so fascinated by a horrible team? Those questions and possibly more are what I am trying to answer.
Code
library(tidyverse)library(ggrepel)library(gt)Knicks <-read_csv("NBA.csv")OffRtg <- Knicks %>%filter(season ==2019)%>%filter(team =="New York Knicks") %>%mutate(TeamSeason =paste(team, season))NYK <- Knicks %>%filter(team =="New York Knicks")ggplot() +geom_point(data=Knicks, aes(x=d_rtg, y=o_rtg), color="grey") +geom_point(data=NYK, aes(x=d_rtg, y=o_rtg), color="blue") +geom_point(data=OffRtg, aes(x=d_rtg, y=o_rtg), color="red") +geom_text_repel(data=OffRtg, aes(x=d_rtg, y=o_rtg, label=TeamSeason)) +labs(x="Defensive Rating", y="Offensive Rating", title="Knicks Offensive and Defensive Failures", subtitle="The Knicks ineptitude is so terrible that even when they are not the worst they still are somehow.", caption="Source: Data Provider | By Austin K" ) +theme_minimal() +theme(plot.title =element_text(size =20, face ="bold"),axis.title =element_text(size =8), plot.subtitle =element_text(size=10), panel.grid.minor =element_blank(),plot.title.position ="plot" )
This scatterplot details every Knicks squad from 1980-2021 and their offensive and defensive ratings. As you can see above they were far from the worst in either category. Which again begs the question; why were they so terrible?
Code
playoffs <- NYK %>%filter(season ==1994| season ==1995| season ==1980| season ==1982| season ==1983| season ==1987| season ==1988| season ==1989| season ==1990| season ==1991| season ==1992| season ==1993| season ==1996| season ==1997| season ==1998| season ==1999| season ==2000| season ==2003| season ==2010| season ==2011| season ==2012| season ==2020)bad <- NYK %>%filter(season ==2019)ggplot() +geom_bar(data=NYK, aes(x=season, weight=w),fill="grey") +geom_bar(data=playoffs, aes(x=season, weight=w),fill="blue") +geom_bar(data=bad, aes(x=season, weight=w),fill="orange") +labs(x="Season", y="Wins", title="Knicks used to be good", subtitle="The Knicks are literally bad for your mental health, stop watching them.", caption="Source: Data Provider | By Austin K" ) +theme_minimal() +theme(plot.title =element_text(size =20, face ="bold"),axis.title =element_text(size =8), plot.subtitle =element_text(size=10), panel.grid.minor =element_blank(),plot.title.position ="plot" )
On this chart the win totals from all the Knicks teams in the data are portrayed. This shows the long stretch of success for the Knicks from the late 80s into the early 2000s before a nosedive into mediocrity and depression for the once great team and their rabid fanbase. This shows how fast a solid foundation can crumble and wither into a team that made the playoffs only three times during the 2010s.
Code
NYK %>%filter(season!=2020) %>%top_n(10, wt=-w) %>%select(season, w, l, e_fg_percent) %>%gt() %>%cols_label(e_fg_percent ="Effective Field Goal Percentage",season ="Season",w ="W",l ="L" ) %>%tab_header(title ="Where the 2018-19 Knicks rank among the worst",subtitle ="This will compare effective field goal percentage with the worst teams in Knicks history." ) %>%tab_style(style =cell_text(color ="black", weight ="bold", align ="left"),locations =cells_title("title") ) %>%tab_style(style =cell_text(color ="black", align ="left"),locations =cells_title("subtitle") ) %>%tab_source_note(source_note =md("**By:** Austin Knippelmeir | **Source:** Basketball Reference"))%>%tab_style(locations =cells_column_labels(columns =everything()),style =list(cell_borders(sides ="bottom", weight =px(3)),cell_text(weight ="bold", size=12) )) %>%tab_style(style =list(cell_fill(color ="blue"),cell_text(color ="orange") ),locations =cells_body(rows = season =="2019") )
Where the 2018-19 Knicks rank among the worst
This will compare effective field goal percentage with the worst teams in Knicks history.
Effective field goal percentage can be a valuable metric to see how efficient a team truly is offensively and for this Knicks team, theirs was not good. I took the 10 worst Knicks teams from 1980-2020, excluding 2020 which was a COVID-19 shortened season, and compared them to see where they each ranked against the others. We can see that it is not nearly the worst. Of course, offense has ticked up since some of these teams took the court and I do think that the era that these teams were pulled from do have a part to play in the confusion.
Overall this has taught me one thing; the Knicks are their own anomaly. Looking at the stats, rankings and other pieces show that this Knicks team is far from the “worst” in franchise history looking at the statistics and analytics yet they sit alone at the top with the 2014-15 Knicks as the worst Knicks teams in their long history with a record of 17-65. Having watched these teams I can say I don’t understand either. What I do know is that the New York Knicks are tragic, very very tragic.
