The Knicks meet the Magic on Wednesday looking to snap a three-game losing streak, while the status of Donte DiVincenzo remains up in the air after he limped off the floor in Monday's loss to the Rockets with an apparent hamstring issue.
DiVincenzo is the latest to join the Knicks' long line of walking wounded, and C-Mac says it is reaching a point where Tom Thibodeau and company need to start prioritizing getting healthy for a potential playoff run, even if it means sacrificing a push for one of the top seeds in the Eastern Conference.
"Does there come a point where you look at things and say to yourself, 'We're gonna be missing Anunoby for a month. We're gonna be missing Randle for more than that. Jalen Brunson can't do it all by himself. He can't carry us to the second or third seed,'" C-Mac said. "At what point do you say, 'I can't keep chasing every single win and running everybody else into the ground.'
"You're seeing guys who have been in bench roles suddenly having to step up and play all these minutes…ultimately, this team is not going to win as presently constituted. We know that. I know you have to make the playoffs…but I'll tell you where this team is if DiVincenzo is run into the ground and can't go."
The Knicks need to make sure they don't slip past the sixth seed and into the play-in seeds, but C-Mac says as long as they play well enough to avoid that, then the priority should be getting healthy and not putting other key players at risk of injury by playing them 40-plus minutes a night while the injured heal.
"If you believe this team is a championship contender when healthy…you're gonna need all of those pieces ready come playoff time, and that is far more important than what seed they get," C-Mac said. "If they have to play Boston earlier in the playoffs, they were going to have to go through them anyway."
