We, as Knicks fans, tend to use a lot of hyperbole. As the most passionate, desperate fanbase in the NBA, we tend to overreact very quickly and either forget about recent history or optimistically expect that things will work out different this time around.

It is truly as insane as it is hyper-emotional. I’m going to call this sort of mindset IKFT, or Irrational Knicks Fan Thinking. We are all familiar with this mindset and we all likely possess this sort of thinking as Knicks fans in one way or another. If you don’t think you do, you are most likely experiencing IKFT for thinking that you don’t.

But some have it more severe than others and in different ways than others. Some types of IKFT are relatively simple and don’t even have to do with production.

Like thinking that Knicks fans are the best in the world. Or that The Garden is the best arena in the world. Maybe IKFT leads you to think that Patrick Ewing was better than Olajuwon. Or that Willis Reed hobbling on to the court for Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals was the greatest example of leadership in the entire history of sports. Or that Reggie Sucks (note: he does).

You get my point. We can all probably hand-pick a couple examples of IKFT we all personally suffer from if we are being honest with ourselves. Honestly, if you can’t you probably aren’t a real Knicks fan. All fans have an emotional attachment to the team and emotional thought beats out rational thought every time.

Other forms of IKFT have more to do with the product currently on the floor. That is the kind of IKFT I would like to touch on here because I’ll be damned if I’m going to write a rant arguing against the merits of Willis Reed or Patrick Ewing. I’m not a commy.

An example of long-term IKFT I have seen a lot of lately are all the fans who have decided to overlook the past and put their trust and faith in Steve Mills (editor’s note: shocking I have to put this in here but… The Roach) turning around the Knicks for the better, despite the fact that he has no legitimate basketball experience and has personally had a hand in running the Knicks straight into the ground for nearly two decades now.

A popular example of short-term IKFT are all the Knicks fans who believe the team as currently constructed is poised to make a push for a playoff spot this year.

I swear, whenever the Knicks put together any sort of decent stretch of basketball the thought immediately becomes “Playoffs!” instead of just enjoying the positives for what they are. And there ARE positives so let’s start with that…

· The Knicks core is young.

· Porzingis has made an even greater 3rd year leap than we all hoped that he would make, despite a recent shooting slump, legitimately turning into one of the most dangerous all-around forces in the entire NBA at only 22 years old.

· Despite his inconsistency, Tim Hardaway Jr. has shown flashes of brilliance and hasn’t looked like a total waste of cap space.

· Enes Kanter has become a force down low and a really fun player to root for.

· Coutney Lee is underrated (also, he is underrated) (editor’s note: and underrated).

· Jarrett Jack is a savvy veteran surprise.

· Lance Thomas is our fearless unquestioned team-leader and the exact kind of blue-collar intangible glue guy every team drools over (editor’s note: yea all that, and the fact that he’s not, and the fact that he’s equivalent to any dumpster in any alleyway).

· KOQ is a monster of a human being who does a lot of good things on the basketball court (editor’s note: at least until the New Year). McDermott hits 3s and makes smart cuts that KOQ is good at finding him for slick backdoor connections.

· Beasley gets buckets.

· Frank is dripping with potential and despite still being raw he has shown many flashes of what he might be capable of doing down the road.

· Hornacek is well-liked and respected by the players and has this pretty poorly constructed roster playing competitive basketball thus far, and has orchestrated an offense that has limited the Knicks modern-NBA deficiencies (lacking an attacking point guard and 3-point shooting).

All those positives are various degrees of exciting (with the most exciting, of course, being that Beasley gets Buckets). The problem with severe cases of IKFT is that with every positive step comes unrealistic hyperbole. It also leads to over-the-top catastrophizing when things start to crumble into the ground, but let’s stick to the positive hyperbole for now.

The go-to IKFT is calling the Knicks a playoff contender. Of course. Other common examples this season include “The Knicks are finally good!” “The Knicks haven’t been this competitive/exciting in years!” “The Knicks are better now because they traded Melo!” and the list goes on and on.

However, none of those things are actual reality. It is just hyperbole based solely on emotional thought. I like to view hyperbole as ignorance disguised as fact. Shit you turn to when you are either ignorant to, or simply avoiding, real facts and logic. And that’s exactly what this is. It’s irrational, emotional narratives being disguised as factual logic.

Looking at just the past few seasons for reference, you can easily see that short-term IKFT kicking in with that sort of hyperbole. Two years ago the Knicks were rocking early on after their 17 win tank-job and the Garden was fully back with Porzingis-induced hysteria. That team had a .500 record in January, which is likely a feat this 2017-18 team fails to accomplish. Finished with 32 wins.

Then there’s last season. Looking back exactly one year ago (December 11th), the Knicks had an exciting road win (!) (Editor’s note: !!) against the Lakers in which Porzingis led the way with a dominant 25 point, 13 board, 7 block performance. Melo approached a triple double with his understated 13/7/7 line, Brandon Jennings chipped in with 19 and 6 off the bench while provoking flashbacks to the “Showtime” Lakers with his personal electricity, and Derrick Rose completely put D’Angelo Russell in his back pocket by virtue of a 25 point night on 12/16 shooting that included the dagger floater in the closing seconds. The road win (!!) (editor’s note: !!!) improved the team’s record to 14-10, which I believe was 2nd or 3rd in the East at that time. Finished with 31 wins.

Are you trying to tell me that those teams weren’t “exciting” or that they weren’t “competitive” on December 11th? That you didn’t expect them to be playoff contenders as well?

Or that on December 11th this year’s current team is thought to be better than the Knicks were thought to be on December 11th 2016 or 2015? Honestly, of the 3, this year’s team has arguably been the least impressive, but the hyperbole lives on nonetheless.

IKFT tends to lead to tunnel vision and a very short-term memory. It overlooks troubling facts, like the Knicks now playing a league-leading 17 home games and possessing an abysmal 1-8 road record (including losses to the Hawks and Bulls now). It overlooks analytics, like the Knicks hitting less 3s per game than any team in the NBA while allowing the 2nd most in a 3-point-centric NBA environment. It overlooks recent history, like our similarly hot starts and horrid finishes the past two seasons.

If you were able to consider all these factors you would clearly be extremely wary of using the sort of hyperbole that has been used early on this season.

I mean I have personally even witnessed this same crowd credit Steve Mills (editor’s note: The Roach) for moves he made and claim that he is deserving of our trust despite his dark history with the organization, spanning 13 years now, no less than 20 fucking games into the season! I’m emotional as fuck, one can clearly tell that from my excessive rants; but by now I have to abide by the “fool me once shame on you, fool me a million fucking times shame on me.”

The Roach (editor’s note: Papa Roach)? Not letting that fucking cockroach fool me into getting excited about this team, while buying right into Dolan’s (editor’s note: The Troll) agenda of getting the fans back onboard with his personal reclamation project.

A .500 record? Not going to fool myself into thinking it’s sustainable after watching the past two teams crumble apart after New Years while also being aware of their current analytical trends.

Getting excited about the Knicks being a competitive team in March or early April is like getting excited about St. John’s basketball being a competitive team in March or early April (editor’s note: sad, accurate, and funny at the same time… also questionable comparison coming from Michael - once proud Johnnies fan turned trader by attending Syracuse). It isn’t likely.

Why can’t we just enjoy the small victories without immediately running to “Playoffs?” in our minds, or crediting the fucking Roach 10 games into the season for an overrated decent start, due primarily to Phil’s moves anyway?

The reason I lead up with this is because, as we have been pointing out for awhile now, this team still has a ton of issues in addition to all the positive signs that significantly hinders their potential for this season. A weekend like the one the Knicks just endured shows exactly why.

I can’t stress these things enough. Jarrett Jack is a nice savvy veteran and Hornacek has done a really underrated job in coming up with a functional, fluid offensive scheme that limits the significant deficiency of not having an attacking point guard on the roster as currently constructed (Again: why the fuck is “Trigga” Trey Burke dropping BUCKETS in the 914 while Ron Baker and Ramon Sessions waste precious cargo in the 212?) (editor’s note: We miss you Kuz, RIP).

But at the end of the day, in the NBA right now, for the most part, you are who your point guard is. What Jarrett Jack is, is a 34 year-old journeyman point-guard whose days as a serviceable NBA starter are long behind him, if they ever truly existed to begin with.

Sorry if that sounds harsh, I’m a fan of the guy and have been for a long time now, but he is who he is. If you look at Jack realistically instead of through the IKFT lens, then you wouldn’t take comments like that as a insult, because they aren’t meant to be.

If you don’t have a point guard who is at least a THREAT to attack the basket and keep defenses honest than you severely limit how effectively you run pick and rolls and get shooters open… AKA the exact style of play the NBA is revolved around today. If you look at the final standings from the past couple of season you will find that the level of a team’s PG play has become ridiculously indicative of their spot in the final standings.

In addition to that, the NBA has become a 3-point shooting league. There are no more traditional 5 positions in the NBA, despite the Knicks stubborn inhibition to grasp on to these outdated concepts over and over again while running an inside-out offense featuring potential stretch-5 nightmare Porzingis playing alongside a lumbering low-post center for his entire career still.

The Knicks make less 3-pointers than anybody in the League. Top three 3-point shooting teams in the NBA right now? Houston (20-4), Golden State (21-6), Cleveland (19-8)? Teams who make the least? Knicks (13-13), Minnesota (16-12), Sacramento (8-18).

HOWEVA, the Wolves are at least middle of the pack (no pun intended) in defending the 3-ball. The Knicks currently allow the 2nd most threes per game in the entire League, trailing only Sacramento! In the NBA today, if you don’t make 3s and you don’t defend them well, you’re not gonna have a good time.

I hate to say it, but the Knicks are a bit fraudulent. Something else I don’t really mean as an insult because looking at this team rationally there is a lot to love, but compared to what they are made out to be through IKFT, I definitely see them as overrated for a variety of reasons.