So the three game mirage has come and gone while the Knicks crash landed back to Earth in back-to-back wire-to-wire beatings. There's no smoking gun to fix a performance like this either. The team collectively shot 21% from three point land and 35% from the field. Defensively, there were no answers for Embiid or Simmons or Reddikk. This team has an identity crisis. The rotation has been in constant flux with players' roles drastically shifting from DNP's to starting line-ups and back again. The goals laid out early were focused on defense and pace but that has vanished almost entirely. Fizdale said he'd like to have everything set in place after 25 games, well last night was the 23rd game and the offense is still sloppy while the defense has gotten more inconsistent. So let's dive into the worst game of the season and try to figure WTF is going on.
Mudiay: So the Mudiay cycle has typically been a couple of good games followed by a collection of awful ones. This time around we saw promising play from Mudiay for a longer stint and some signs that it could be sustainable. But over the last 5 games we can pick out one actual good performance amid four duds. He's averaging 38% from the field in that stretch and just 2.2 apg as the starting PG. Last night was when this run hit the floor though. Mudiay had 3 points, 1 assist and 1 rebound over 20 minutes play and like everyone else, he was victimized any time he needed to chase JJ Reddikk. He's gonna ride the wave of that hot streak to good will for a while longer, but if his play doesn't pick up (and his play has been trending downward) then the fans will be back to wanting him banished sooner than later.
THJ: There are two camps with regards to THJ. One is trying to figure out what happened to Timmy that caused his play to drop off a cliff after a really great start with all star level play and the other is saying "that was fool's gold and you've now got the real Tim Hardaway Jr." I'm clinging to that first camp because we're in trouble if the second group is right; but Tim's now had a stretch of struggles that matches the good one. His season averages are crashing like Bitcoin value. What really makes this alarming is that his one reliable facet was that he could get you points...not lately. Last night he got 5 points, 3 assists and 2 steals while shooting 1 for 11 from the field and missing all 6 of his three point attempts. He's been a single digit scorer in 2 of the last 4 games and hasn't broken 45% from the field in 5. This team desperately needs Timmy to get it together as the focal point of the offense and a leader.
Mario: So we got a bit of Super Mario for a change yesterday. Mario Hezonja came out and got a bunch of steals, knocked down his open three pointers without pump faking until the defense arrived and attacked in transition effectively. There were still some "omg wtf" moments on offense, but they were outnumbered by good decisions and impact plays. 17 points, 5 rebounds and 4 steals highlight the comeback perfomance box score after 26 minutes of play and 7 for 15 shooting. This was a rare brightspot on an ugly night and a glimpse of the potential that fans hoped he could get closer to reaching.
Vonleh: Vonleh only played 18 minutes and got a solid 4 points and 7 boards in that span. He was 2 for 6 from the field and ran into some foul issues in the first half, then just saw his minutes cut because the game was in garbage time by the start of the fourth. Overall while many players stood out as bad, he was just forgettable with an impact minimized by the futility of virtually everyone he shared the court with.
Kanter: Kanter had 17 points on 6 of 9 from the field and made Embiid look bad on some of his more advanced post moves. But the rest of Enes' game was somewhere from "meh" to "yuck." He grabbed 6 boards which is solid but kinda disappointing considering who we're talking about. With bigs in foul trouble again, Kanter got stuck on Embiid a lot more than we'd like to see and that went about as badly as you would expect. To make things worse it was back to turnover prone Kanter that we got early in the season with a tally of 4 TO's to just 1 assist. I won't pick on him too much though because like Vonleh, Kanter was relatively solid compared to the rest of the Knicks.
Burke: Trey Burke's only consistent value to the team is as a volume scorer but he hasn't even been doing that lately. Burke went 1 for 6 last night, tallying 7 points thanks to free throws and adding in 1 assist, 1 board and 1 steal over 16 minutes. Over the last four games Burke's high mark for field goal percentage is 25% while averaging 9 attempts per game in that span. To make matters worse, he's just pounding the rock without much creation since coming back into the rotation. He's played 8 games and had that one 11 assist game which was nice and promising and really ought to skew the data but somehow he's still only averaging 2.8 apg in that span as the back-up PG. He needs to give the Knicks SOMETHING...because similar to Mudiay, he's riding good will from a 4 game stretch while the rest of his season has been forgettable or flat out bad.
Trier: He's young, he's played well and he had a near triple-double off sheer willpower the night before. All of that is my way of saying, yeah Trier was as bad as most everyone else last night but it's more forgivable. Zo had 8 points, 3 boards and 1 assist to 3 TO's off 3 makes on 11 shots. The rookie struggled so much that Fiz benched him during the garbage time run to get some minutes for Ron Baker. As a positive note, he made a really good read and got Mitch the ball against a mismatch for his sole assist...there's some vision and awareness to his game that could be built upon and he's starting to flash that potential even if only once last night.
Knox: Kevin Knox had his most promising in a long time last night. He came out extremely active off the ball and on defense and flashed his scoring potential on a dribble drive through a pick and roll with a second screener in the paint to create confusion. That playcall led to an easy lay-up and me wondering out loud "why don't we do that for him multiple times a game." I don't mean that specific play, I just mean calling ANY play for Knox. Get him the ball in motion, get him the ball to catch and shoot in space or give him a screen to initiate from but stop leaving him out there to make due with inconsistent touches and nothing coming easy. That said, most of Knox's touches came from him grabbing boards and handling himself or playing in the garbage time unit that had no iso-players to dominate the rock. Knox finished 3 for 9 from the field to add 9 points, 7 boards and an assist to the box score. Hopefully he continues to have that energy on the boards because it's flashed in prior games but this time stayed more consistent and also led to some of his best plays in the game even when they were just making smart passes in transition.
Frank: Literally the worst performance of his NBA career happened in the first half imo. Frank got caught on screens chasing Reddikk and then gave up a lay-up to Mcconnell. On the only three touches he got before his first half benching, Frank forced a shot every time. It wasn't instinctual play, it was overthinking in a new direction is all, "If I don't make a shot I'm getting benched" being that direction. Frank as the SF just isn't working. Players are looking him off because they don't trust his jumper and he no longer gets the PnR opportunities which were showing so much promise early on. The brightside is that he got 5 actual minutes at Point Guard last night and managed 2 assists at that point, which matched Mudiay and Burke who ran point for 36 minutes combined. So at least Frank had that going for him on a night where his defense was as bad as everybody else.
Dot: It took Fiz too long to go to Damyean Dotson, not that I think he'd have changed the trajectory of the game, but Dot has earned a rotation spot regardless of who we bench. Dotson immediately forced a TO with his defense and was one of our lone bright spots on offense. The sophomore pumped in 16 points on 6 for 11 shooting while grabbing 4 boards and 3 steals in 24 minutes. If it wasn't for Dot's return, the past two nights are probably unwatchable. While most players looked disheartened at times, Dot never let his energy dwindle. All I'm really looking for from Fiz is to put this kid out there in a set role and let's see how Dotson develops in that role. I don't see an excuse to play Hezonja over Dot as a starter, but whether it's energy and scoring off the bench or intangibles with the starters; I'd like to see Dot put into a consistent position to build skills for his role in the future...because he looks every bit a piece of our future.
Mitch: The first half foul trouble had me thinking "we might have to roll back expectations a bit." It wasn't so much because of mistakes either, it was more that Mitch seemed to struggle again with a stronger big man in Embiid. Strength is going to take time to develop for Mitch but avoiding reach ins or bad touch fouls when players dribble at him can happen sooner. Mitch played a smarter second half and started to have some successful plays against Embiid, then picked up more of his trademark blocks by the time it was all said and done. Mitch still only logged 17 minutes but tallied 5 points, 6 boards and 4 blocks in that limited action. The rookie did have a pair of TO's but that comes with the territory. Now if he can keep avoiding foul trouble, he'll belong at there a lot more because Mitch is an absolute presence on the interior. Small sidenote...I'm still waiting for the Knick guards to find Mitch with better lob passes, apparently that happened when MSG crashed last night, but that means I'm still waiting to see it.
Baker: Played hard but without much time or chance to show anything.
Fiz: The Knicks are just Iso heavy right now and it's unwatchable when the iso guys are all getting shut down. There's no back-up plans either, it's just try the next guy out with the same types of isolation plays until someone gets hot. Fizdale's shining moment came from just calling an actual play for Knox and trying to get Dot in the game earlier (but still after the deficit was in double digits already). The team played terribly for a second straight night and there was no Trier performance to salvage the scoreboard and make it look competitive last night. The sink or swim approach has Frank and Knox forcing everything they touch which isn't far off of what a few of the FA's to be have been doing most of this season (and have been rewarded for). The Knicks are relying on a hot hand...any hot hand...but not doing much to spark anybody. Fiz is still searching for answers and consistency from anybody not named Kanter right now. That includes vets, reclamation projects and rookies (only exception is Dotson but his inconsistency has been minutes based instead which is still on Fizdale). I'm not off the Fiz bandwagon though; I'm really hopeful that the experiment stuff fades away soon and that he'll start settling into more consistent rotations. At least then it will be fair to expect consistency from the players, but for now; I'm just waiting to figure out what anybody's role will even be next season when the honus will shift from development to winning games.
