Are the Knicks a Title Contender?

The New York Knicks were one of the surprise teams in the NBA last year, exceeding expectations by a mile. This offseason they decided to go out and make some major changes to their roster. They acquired Karl Anthony Towns a top big man in basketball and Mikal Bridges someone who is primarily looked at as a top wing defender around the league. These moves led to the departure of 6 first round picks, Julius Randle, and Donte Divincenzo. A major landscape shake up for a team that just came to within a game of the Conference Finals, banged up, nonetheless. The Knicks have had some struggles early on this season but that might be expected after trading away two major pieces if your team and acquiring two new ones. New York must start putting it together fast if they want to be considered as one of the top teams in the league. It's no secret that the team certainly does not have the same feel to it as it did last season, but does that mean that they can't do better than last year? If the Knicks can put it together, they have the nucleus of star players, but it just feels like the team isn't deep enough. The Knicks play down to their competition a lot and that's an issue for a so-called championship caliber team. The Knicks can silence all the doubters by winning 5-6 games in a row and creating some separation between them and the middle tier teams in the standings. They are supposed to be better than teams like the Orlando Magic and the Atlanta Hawks but right now they all are hovering around a similar record with the Magic holding more separation from other teams then the Knicks do. The Magic are having an impressive start to the season even without their budding young star Paolo Banchero. Can the Knicks potentially be worse than the Magic when both teams are fully healthy? It certainly feels like it right now.