Are the Jets about to emulate the Knicks' path to success?

There are two ways teams try to win in the NBA. One is the Super Team route, which works but is only limited to a select few franchises. The other is to "Trust the Process" which forces fans to endure years of futility and doesn't work anyway.

The New York Jets and New York Knicks have both been struggling for the past several years, but not necessarily actively tanking. In each case, they've made efforts to retain some respectability only to disappoint in the long run as lottery picks and quarterbacks of the future have fallen short of expectations.

There are key differences between the NFL and NBA, the most important of which is the bigger rosters in the NFL which makes team-building more essential and quick fixes less effective.

In the NFL, the super team approach doesn't generally work and many teams in recent years, including the Jets, have "won the offseason" only to be humbled when the games begun.

The other key difference is that the NBA has a draft lottery, which can make or break a team's strategy if they lose for several years to try and get a superstar via the draft. In the absence of any lottery luck, the Knicks have sought to turn their fortunes around by attracting good players to New York.

However, with becoming a super team not an option for the Knicks as the allure of owning the city wasn't enough to persuade any big money star that the franchise was ready to overcome years of front office dysfunction and none of their high draft picks having developed into a franchise-level player, the Knicks adopted a more patient approach over the past two years.

Having filled out their roster with some low-level veteran role player types on modest contracts, the Knicks have finally seen some of their youngsters developing well with competent players around them. Crucially, they took a flyer on an under-achieving former lottery pick and Julius Randle has developed into the kind of all-star they've been missing to lead them. Finally, and perhaps most importantly of all, they added a respected head coach who knows what he's doing in Tom Thibodeau.

Already you should start to see the similarities between the the Knicks approach and what the Jets have done so far. Smart, low-risk moves, taking a chance on potential high-upside players and fostering an environment where young players can succeed. Also, with Robert Saleh in place, they'll hope they have the coach that can make it all work.

If you're not following the NBA, the Knicks are currently looking good for the playoffs as they're three games over .500 having endured seven losing seasons in a row prior to this.

The Jets, who haven't played in a postseason game since January 2011 (with every other NFL team having played in at least one since 2016), will hope to turn their fortunes around in similar fashion.

We'll have to wait and see whether Saleh is the guy - and clearly Joe Douglas has some make or break decisions coming up. For now, though, the Jets have taken an approach which has turned around the fortunes of their near-neighbors and will hope that similar success is just around the corner.