Stephen A. Smith Claims the Knicks Have Hit Ceiling

This most recent season of New York Knicks basketball was one for the history books. Even though they exited the playoffs without returning to championship-winning glory, they snapped a 25-year long streak without a single appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals and gave the Indiana Pacers a good challenge in fighting for the chance to advance to the NBA Finals before losing in six.

Even with the historic franchise finally surging back into positive relevancy with their best playoff run in a quarter century, some analysts can't help but figure that it's all downhill from here.

Stephen A. Smith has been one of the most outspoken ambassadors for the Knicks since rising into the most dominant talking head in sports media over the last decade, but the New Yorker is not optimistic about his team's chances of surpassing this kind of success with this core.

"As this current Knicks team is constructed, the ceiling is what we just witnessed," he proclaimed on Tuesday's edition of First Take, the daily morning sports talk show he anchors.

"Last time I checked, Indiana isn't going away," he continued. "Cleveland will be back. Teams like Orlando, you gotta watch out for. Boston, you can't summarily dismiss. One can easily argue that the New York Knicks have been figured out."

He goes on to absolve often-critiqued head coach Tom Thibodeau of the blame, and points the finger at New York's front office for spending as much as they did on Mikal Bridges. Five first-round picks was a hefty price to pay for someone who's never made an All-Star team and an inconsistent presence on a contending team, he says.

"It's just a daunting situation with the talent that exists in the wild, wild west combined with what exists in the east...I don't see the Knicks getting any further than they did just now. This was their best chance to get to the finals, and I think it will be for the foreseeable future unless a miracle happens."