Knicks have yet to answer critical question — and time is running out

These Jekyll-and-Hyde Knicks are running out of time to answer a critical question. 

What is their identity? 

Their first season under Mike Brown has been a roller-coaster filled with high highs and low lows. There are stretches where they look like bona fide contenders. There are other times — particularly against the Pistons, against whom they went 0-3 this year — where they alarmingly look like pretenders. Sometimes — like last week against the Rockets, when they made a season-high 18-point comeback — both forms emerge in the same game. 

“We just gotta be the best version of ourselves come playoff time,” Karl-Anthony Towns said after the blowout loss in Cleveland on Tuesday night. “Right now, we’re all trying to figure it out. Still figuring out the system, we’re trying to figure out all the new things we’re doing, the nuances that go with it, the changes we’re trying to make. It’s still a work in progress. 

“I know being in New York, everybody wants that finished product right now. You want instant gratification, but we’re still trying to figure out a lot. We still feel like a fresh team. We’ve still got a lot of things we’re trying to figure out in this system, I’m trying to figure out in this system, we’re all trying to figure out in this system so that we could impact winning the most.” 

No, the Knicks don’t need to be a finished product right now. But by Game 59, they should be closer than where they currently are.