The Knicks are better than their so-so start and theyll figure it out

Here’s the thing: You want to feel the way you felt last May, when the Knicks were appointment television three, four nights a week.You miss those days when you would get your game face ready by lunchtime, impatiently count the minutes down until tip-off so you could tell Joel Embiid what you really think of him, or Tyrese Haliburton. Mostly, so you could lend your full-throated support to helping nudge the Knicks through one more 2 ½-hour tour through a basketball hellscape.

The sore throat you woke up with the next morning was a tax you were willing to pay.The Knicks played 13 playoff games last spring, and each one beat you up. And now you ask yourself: “Is this all there is?” You have the early-season blues and the early-season blahs.

Part of that is because you’re looking at a team right now that looks a lot different than the one for which you were so willing — eager, even — to jump on a metaphorical hand grenade in April and May.You find yourself checking out Timberwolves box scores, something that was never part of your morning routine, alongside the crossword, Wordle and Immaculate Grid. You see the Thunder out to a 7-0 start without one minute yet from Isaiah Hartenstein (say the name softly, respectfully), still out with a hand injury.

Maybe you even sigh wistfully as you see RJ Barrett up north, taking still another step forward in Year Six. And maybe it’s the record.The Knicks are 3-3.

That feels about right, sea level.Hard to get too excited.

Hard to get too angry.Hard to get … worked up. It’ll happen, though. It will.

Look, if you check in here regularly to get my takes on the Knicks, then you remember that I wrote this the day before the Knicks opened the season in Boston a couple weeks ago: “If we reach Nov.13 and the Knicks are bringing a record like 4-6 — or worse — with them to the Garden to face the Bulls, know that it is possible.” It’s probably worth remembering that last year’s Knicks team — th...