Poor Effort Leads to a Loss. Again.

Ten months ago, Julius Randle declared: "We need to be coached. We need to be held accountable. So if we're not doing our job, he's going to tell us about it… We can handle it."

Ten months ago, the Knicks were wrapping up the 2020-21 regular season. They had the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference, finishing the year ten games above .500 (41-31) and securing home-court advantage in the playoffs in the process.  

Early in the Knicks' stunningly successful 20-21 campaign, guard Austin Rivers told reporters a crucial key to the team's hot start was head coach Tom Thibodeau's attention to detail and damaging nature. "There's no negotiation; it's Thibs' way or the highway," Rivers explained. "If you want to play, you have to play his way. His way just means hard… Thibs is all about effort."

In the days leading up to the Knicks' first-round showdown with the Atlanta Hawks, All-NBA forward Julius Randle (who would soon be named the winner of the NBA's Most Improved Player award) was asked about Thibodeau's notoriously tough coaching style and what impact Thibs' brand of tough love had on Randle and his teammates. 

"That's what we need," Randle said. "We need to be coached. We need to be held accountable. So if we're not doing our job, he's going to tell us about it. That's how it should be. We should hold each other accountable as well. The standard that we set every day, and we have to live up to that. We have to do the right things every day."

"We can handle it," Randle declared. "We're not a fragile group."

We are less than a year removed from those quotes and that team - yet, it seems like a lifetime ago.