It's official fam, New York Knicks basketball is back with a preseason victory over the Washington Wizards 104 - 99. The Wizards are by no means a good team and Bradley Beal only played 16 minutes, so it's hard for me to say how much of this was a mirage. This team looked like a far cry from the one that closed last season with flashes coming from a handful of youngsters in otherwise listless performances. Tonight's Knicks played some defense and had depth to the tenth man. But the Knicks barely beat a pretty weak Washington side, so why do I feel so optimistic? Simply put it comes down to the youth. When the Knicks flirted with a third quarter collapse, it was RJ Barrett leading the way for the Knicks. The rookie was flanked by Frank Ntilikina and Kevin Knox as key contributors for most of the second half and David Fizdale rode the trio of recent lottery picks to a victory. Those are the players that matter this season. Ntilikina, Knox and Mitch all showed signs of improvement and RJ Barrett stepped up when the team needed him to. In the regular season, they might not have gotten the opportunity to close out. Instead we got to watch the kids flirt with failure, but finish on a win. I'll take that!
Barrett: RJ Barrett turned a rough first half into a clutch second half. After the Knicks blew a 16 point lead, it wasn't any of the shiny new vets that steadied the way with buckets. It was RJ Barrett on a series of forays into the lane that brought the team back to life. This was especially impressive after Barrett had bricked a number of open looks in the first half. The Maple Mamba rarely forced the issue and while there were signs of nerves, the Knicks prized pick looked every bit the part of a top three selection. Barrett finished 6/13 from the field and 2/6 from three to tally 17 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 turnovers. He didn't shoot particularly well, but never hesitated on a good look while rarely forcing the issue. On the defensive end Barrett was solid all night, not afraid of contact or overwhelmed by the pace on the floor. The kid locked in and had himself a hell of a debut for the Knicks. Let's just hope he doesn't burn out and hit a rookie wall, 39 minutes is a lot for anybody let alone a rookie. RJ looked a jump shot away from having the complete package.
Morris: Marcus Morris might have forced a few jumpers early in the first half, but it was hard to tell because it felt like everything he put up was going in. Morris put up 17 points while knocking down 3/4 three pointers. He and Julius Randle attacked relentlessly and the Wizards didn't see to have an answer for it. Then the second half started and Morris immediately got himself ejected over a near altercation with Justin Anderson. Morris brothers do not have any luck in preseason games involving the Knicks. Anyway, in his time out there, Marcus Morris looked like an offensive force. He added 7 rebounds and 2 assists to that 17 point total while shooting 6/12 from the field. Morris seemed read to shoulder the scoring load and the game probably doesn't get so close if he doesn't get thrown out.
Randle: It was the good, the bad and the ugly with Julius Randle tonight. The good was everything he did in the first half, attacking in transition, grabbing boards and moving the ball when defenders collapsed. The bad was Randle's defensive play. While there were signs of attentiveness and effort, there were noticeable plays in which the Knicks prize offseason acquisition visibly got beat for a basket too easily. The ugly was a series of forced drives in the second half that saw Randle turn the ball over and get blocked repeatedly. That probably sounds worse than it was though. Randle showed himself to be near unstoppable when he gets going in transition and made some beautiful dimes throughout the course of the game, including a couple that got RJ Barrett going off of easy takes. Randle finished with 11 points, 5 assists, 7 boards and 4 TO's. He may have to adjust to defenses keying on him at times, but Randle has the vision and ball handling to make defenses pay when he figures it out.
Payton: In a word, Elfrid Payton's game was steady. He set the tone for the team by pushing a fast pace and getting the ball moving from player to player. He provided good effort on defense along the way and got after a couple of long rebounds. There isn't much to complain about from what Elfrid Payton did out there, but steady doesn't scream exciting either. Payton provided 5 points, 5 assists and 2 boards in his 25 minutes of play. He also added two steals. The issue is that nothing stood out either. He was the definition of a game manager and that's it.
Robinson: It's crazy how spoiled Mitchell Robinson has made me with his defensive performances. The Knicks sophomore blocked 4 shots and picked up 2 steals in less than 30 minutes of play but it felt like a typical night in the office for him. Mitch swatting shots is just expected. Someone tried a turn around jumper in a post up situation against Robinson and I just chuckled when the ball got swatted. When will they learn? Anyway, Mitch put up 5 points and 7 boards on 2/7 from the field. He didn't lie about attempting shots either. We saw a face up jumper as one of his misses, but it didn't look bad either. Mitch wasn't great around the rack in this one, but he also was the recipient of some pretty off base lobs. Guys took a while to figure out the lobs last year too, I have no idea why that's so difficult. The biggest news is that Mitch only tallied 3 fouls in 29 minutes of play, but it wasn't without going for a pump fake and fouling a guy. Either way, it felt like Mitch did all of this without kicking it into gear. That's not to say he played lazy because, but there's another level of intensity that he's capable of reaching.
Knox: The numbers may not fly off the stat sheet for Kevin Knox, but there were wrinkles in the sophomore's performance that suggested he's already taken a step forward from his rookie season. In 29 minutes Knox put up 12 points and 7 rebounds on 5/12 from the field and 2/6 from three. But it was the little things that Knox did which stood out so much. For one, Knox attacked at all three levels and with a far stronger looking body the kid didn't get knocked off balance whenever he took contact. There was a marked improvement in the small forward's decision making as well. Last season, many times it felt like Knox decided to shoot before he'd seen what the defense was giving him. Last night however, he was made adjustments with his 1 assist tally coming off a nice read on a drive and on other occasions he found open players rather than forcing a shot up. On the defensive end, while nothing really popped from Knox's performance the mental errors and bad reads of his rookie season never really showed up either. Another bit from last season was that Knox had some impressive rebounding performances but plenty of disappointing nights on the glass as well. One game isn't enough to put that inconsistency to bed, but the aforementioned strength and balance Knox displayed should help translate to more nights pushing close to 10 boards than nights flirting with 3. Knox is still very much a work in progress, when Morris got ejected Knox was unable to replace that scoring punch in the face of Justin Anderson's tight defensive play. But the scoring ability on three levels, the decision making improvement and leap that his body has taken all bode well for someone with almost a year to go before he can legally buy alcohol.
Frank: The most polarizing of the Knicks youngsters had another night shooting 30% from the field and yet managed to look like a completely different player compared to his injury plagued sophomore campaign. Frank Ntilikina put up 9 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists to 2 turnovers over the course of 23 minutes. He shot 3/10 from the field and 1/4 from three but it was his style of play that looked so promising. Frank took jumpers without any hesitation, his one three ball came a moment after he'd missed his third attempt of the game. We'd seen Frank hesitate and tighten up in those circumstances in the past, but he just stayed on the attack. The assist total isn't telling the whole story either. Frank found a handful of open shooters who didn't convert and he also had some of those good old Frank hockey assists. That is to say, on one play Frank attacked a screen but didn't have the angle to find Randle with a mismatched switch. Ntilikina swung the ball to a player with the angle and Randle was still rewarded for a well set pick. The defense was as advertised also, with a stand out block from Frank where his long arms helped cover a gap between himself and the shooter. Frank's ball handling improvement was also clear as day. Wizards players bodied him up sometimes up the entire court and they sometimes threw switches to try and catch him by surprise. None of that really worked. The biggest issue for Frank was a few missteps in the close out. He rushed the ball up court and got called for an offensive foul while protecting the lead late and his blocked jumper came in this span as well. But both mistakes came from aggression rather than timid play and you can deal with those while Frank is producing positive results more often than not. His defense can cover for a handful of mistakes as long as he's attacking and demanding attention on offense.
Taj: Taj Gibson was the veteran presence that the second unit needed. Gibson flashed some range as well, he's always had a bit of space to step out but Taj knocked down 2/4 three pointers in the second half. The elder statesman of the Knicks filled it up in short time. Gibson needed just 19 minutes to post 16 points, 9 rebounds and 2 assists while being a steady presence when ball handlers needed a good screen or someone to swing the ball to and reset. The biggest downside for Taj were multiple illegal screen violations to the tune of 3 TO's but he was efficient overall going 5/9 shooting with that 50% three point clip to boot. In short, Gibson was a positive impact player all night. Fiz may have some trouble splitting minutes with all of Taj, Randle and Morris showing strong; Robinson being guaranteed big minutes; and Bobby Portis missed last night with a rib injury. There may be too many cooks but that's a better problem to have than last season when all he had was Mitch and Vonleh.
I love seeing fukkery like this
