Fan Overreaction: New York Knicks Preseason Thoughts
275 days. 10 months to the day from the last time the New York Knicks took the hardwood. What felt like an eternity for the fanbase is thankfully and mercifully over, and now there is actual basketball being played by the orange & blue. And boy, does that basketball need to be overanalyzed and overreacted to!
A lot has changed during the interim, and for more details on the Knicks’ off-season moves, click here.
Over the weekend, the squad traveled to Detroit to take on the Pistons, a team that many expect to share the bottom of the standings with the Knicks, and this matchup, coupled with no competitive play for anyone in such a long time, led to ridiculously sloppy play. I was texted multiple times that these games resembled Little League play or a Summer Rec league, and I saw no lies with those observations. Some of the takeaways from the action will likely become more clear as more games are played: was it rust or was it real? Only time will tell! The teams split the matchups with the Knicks winning the first game, 90-84, and then losing the second bout, 99-91. Points were at a premium at the Little Caesars Arena.
I’m going to use the classic icebreaker, “Two Roses and a Thorn” to organize my thoughts here, in honor of the Knicks’ opposing point guard for the first two preseason games: Derrick Rose. Might I add that it’s funny how the basketball world works that Coach Tom Thibodeau returns to the sideline for the first time in two years, and has to face his former point guard, the pair of which helped the Chicago Bulls rise to highs they hadn’t seen since Michael Jordan, and haven’t seen since Thibs and Rose left the Windy City.
Rose #1: RJ Barrett, last year’s #3 pick, and seemingly the face-of-franchise, looked like a majorly improved player in his first two outings. He started off abysmally, missing his first six shots, and NBA Twitter was quick to roast the 20-year-old. Nothing quite like Knicks for clicks, am I right? However, then fans could literally see Barrett shake the rust off as he proceeded to become on fire NBA Jam style, making 17 of his next 27 field goals, an efficiency that almost doesn’t make sense to say aloud. The way he was scoring was important too as he was living inside the arc: drilling mid-range jumpers off the dribble, and finishing above the rim. His three-point shot will continue to be a question mark, and fans will anxiously hold their breath as he shoots from the outside, knowing quite well that his path to stardom hinges on the ability to be respectable from behind the line. Perhaps no player on the current roster needs to pop more so than RJB this season — for the front office and fans to know that there is truly a foundational piece in the building already. The flight home from Detroit must have had Thibs and his staff excited to concoct more ways for the offense to be handed over to their young wing, as he continues to prove he deserves to be the main initiator.
Thorn #1: The offense resembled the offense of last year’s team: terrible at 3-pointers, bad at free-throws, and not a lot of cohesiveness or selflessness. This is going to be a trend worth following for a bunch of reasons: the long layoff between games meant that guys had forgotten the speed of NBA defenses, the adjustment to eerily quiet arenas with no fans, a bunch of new teammates, and an entirely new set of coaches. However, no matter what plays the Knicks run, there will not be a top-15 offense on this squad, and likely not even a top-20. There simply aren’t enough players who can create their own shot with any consistency on the roster, outside of Barrett, the battering ram better known as Julius Randle, and hopefully, off-season addition Austin Rivers (who sat out the first two games with a groin injury). Even the most loyal Knicks fans are likely asking themselves how much of Randle they can intake this year as his patented spin-move into traffic has not improved, and the awry passes and lazy effort still seems to be there. Where will the easy baskets come from for this team so they can remain competitive throughout the year? It’ll likely fall on the entire squad pushing the pace in transition, and creating easier shots that way, instead of waiting to attack a set half court defense. Just minutes into his debut, rookie Obi Toppin gave a glimpse in what his hyper-active playstyle can offer and what the team will need to emulate this season as they go through their growing pains.
Rose #2: It’s been only two preseason games, so no reason to end on a negative note. Let’s find one more glimpse of positivity to wrap these over-reactions up. How about the Thibs effect already showing itself? No matter what lineup that was out there, and there were a lot of funky combos, the defensive intensity was palpable. Intensity feels the right adjective here because it wasn’t always good defense, as guys sometimes over-rotated and over-helped but hey, any fan would rather see their team trying too hard than not trying at all. Dennis Smith Jr. and Frank Ntilikina were disruptive point-of-attack defenders, Mitchell Robinson and Nerlens Noel combined for 11 stocks (steals + blocks) in two games, and everyone else seemed to be closing off the paint and forcing the Pistons to take difficult jumpers. In addition to all the bright spots on the defensive end, nothing made me smile more than the angry Thibs timeouts, and seeing him yell at the refs. After a revolving door of coaches since the Knicks last playoff berth in 2013, I want someone who can be a leader of men and establish accountability in the organization. Seeing our head coach get irate with mental lapses during a preseason game is inspiring, and if it makes this fan want to run through a wall, I can only hope the players feel the same way. Having Coach Thibs man the sidelines this weekend, I feel confident that the Knicks will fight in more games than they did in previous years. Baby steps for the franchise.
Looking forward to seeing more roses and less thorns in the Knicks’ next two preseason games vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers, as the squad returns to the World’s Most Famous Arena.
