The Best Point Guard

For crying out loud, haven’t we been practicing all sorts of new plays?

Is it just because the Pistons’ defense has gotten that much worse?

I feel like our playstyle has changed more than ever before. We’ve been featuring Crawford, featuring Ariza, and we even let Jalen Rose be the primary option when he came off the bench.

But they just can’t seem to stop us.

The Knicks’ locker room was filled with complaints.

It’s not like they wanted this to happen.

They felt deeply wronged. How could they play like *that* and still not manage to lose?

’But I made a big declaration!’

Isaiah Thomas was also getting antsy. He didn’t want to be seen as a hypocrite.

But the second half of the game went the exact same way.

The Pistons were like a deer in headlights. They were genuinely too worried about the destructive force of Su Xi and Randolph. On top of that, with Ben Wallace and Larry Brown gone, even though Sanders was just following the established system... a leaky defense is a leaky defense.

It got to the point where, by the fourth quarter, the Knicks were focusing all their attention on sharpening their defensive skills.

They used the opportunity to work on their team’s defensive chemistry.

Even though the Knicks lacked great individual defenders, their team chemistry was exceptionally high, and they played with a lot of hustle. This led to a very direct result: the Pistons couldn’t even gain much of an advantage when it turned into a defensive slugfest.

In the end, the Knicks "scraped by" with a 95-91 victory—their first win since announcing their change in philosophy.

Then came the second game, the third, the fourth...

The Knicks’ winning streak continued.

What was even more frustrating was that whenever a top team played the Knicks, they would invariably rest one or two of their core stars. They projected an attitude of, ’We don’t want to go all-out against you; we’re not looking for a bloodbath.’

Isaiah Thomas was practically hopping mad and ready to start cussing people out.

What in the world was going on?

But he also realized he couldn’t quite comprehend the Knicks’ current tactical system and playstyle. He had always been a hands-off manager. The specific tactics were figured out by the players themselves based on their unique skills, then pieced together by the three assistant coaches, and finally adjusted on the court by Su Xi in real time.

Isaiah Thomas was basically just there for show.

In the second half of the season, they continued to win far more than they lost. Their number one rank in the league standings was unshakable.

From the All-Star break to mid-April, as the season neared its end, the Knicks only lost to six teams: the Pacers, Nuggets, Magic, Bucks, Bulls, and SuperSonics.

By this point, the Knicks had already shattered their franchise record for wins in a single season.

They had secured 67 wins. With three games left, if they won them all, the Knicks would reach a historic 70 wins.

No one would have dared to imagine this before the season began.

After all, when Su Xi first joined the team, the entire world questioned his ability to lead, believing he couldn’t produce results with a weak team. People thought that just getting the Knicks to the playoffs would be an impressive feat.

After all, it took "The Chosen One" three years to even get the Cavaliers into the playoffs.

However, what was happening now was once again making people reconsider the meaning of "The Chosen One."

Who the hell was the *real* Chosen One?

The Knicks’ situation was far worse than Cleveland’s had been. When Su Xi arrived, the Knicks were an absolute dumpster fire.

But look at them now.

The Knicks had a lock on first place, while Cleveland had finally squeezed into the Eastern Conference playoff bracket and was now desperately trying to avoid a first-round matchup against them.

The current top eight standings in the East were: Knicks, Pacers, Heat, Pistons, Brooklyn Nets, Wizards, Cavaliers, and Bulls.

The Eastern Conference was clearly divided. The records of the top four teams were miles ahead of the bottom four. The teams in the lower half of the bracket were practically garbage. The competition wasn’t the least bit fierce; the Bulls managed to squeak in with only 36 wins.

In contrast, the competition in the West was far more intense.

The San Antonio Spurs, Phoenix Suns, Mavericks, Nuggets, Grizzlies, Clippers, Lakers, and King were the current top eight. It was pretty much a given that these would be the eight teams in the playoffs.

The Houston Rockets, who had been so ambitious before the season, were once again left on the outside looking in at the playoffs.

Before the season, Tracy McGrady had sworn that he was in the best shape of his career. Now, his story had changed: he claimed he’d been playing hurt and wished his teammates would provide more support.

The inconsistency was quite amusing.

But for Tracy McGrady, this was nothing out of the ordinary.

He didn’t even have the integrity of Isaiah Thomas. After making his big pronouncements, Thomas was now mortified. He had explicitly said they weren’t going to chase wins, yet they’d accidentally rocketed to first in the league and broken the franchise record. How could he show his face? It wasn’t a humblebrag, either; he genuinely felt terrible about it.

Lately, Isaiah Thomas had stopped making public appearances and speaking to the media.

This came as a relief to many other teams.

After all, Thomas had a seriously foul mouth when he got going.

This season, Su Xi was averaging 23.8 points, 11.6 assists, 8.8 rebounds, 3.1 steals, and 1.5 blocks per game. A stat line of that magnitude was a rarity in the league’s history.

And in terms of their incredible record, it was a once-in-a-century achievement.

Therefore, when the league began discussing the regular season MVP, his name inevitably had to be at the very top of the list.

If Su Xi couldn’t win the regular season MVP with a performance like that, then who could?

Tim Duncan? Shaquille O’Neal? Steve Nash? Or that man who was averaging 36.8 points per game and had dropped 81 in a single night?

They all had their merits, but choosing any one of them would leave plenty of people unconvinced.

But if you chose Su Xi, no one could argue.