25 for 25: OG Anunoby & Immanuel Quickley
Two players who were traded for one another occupy spots 18 & 19 on my list.
Good morning! Are we in the middle of Simmons Watch 2025? Apparently so! In some actual news, another assistant coach - the Pacers’ Mike Weinar - has removed himself from consideration for New York’s top assistant job, according to Stef Bondy. Like with Pablo, family considerations were sighted. As I opined after Prigioni did the same, it’s naive to think the unique considerations of this particular situation aren’t factoring in to these decisions. Such is life, I suppose. As first reported by Frank Isola, the Hornets’ Chris Jent remains a candidate for the job.
Other than that, the dog days of summer drag on, but that won’t stop me from continuing the countdown of the Top 25 Knicks of the last 25 seasons…
No. 18 OG Anunoby & No. 19 Immanuel Quickley
Along my journey as the author of this here newsletter, there have been a few responses to something I’ve written that will always stand out in my mind. One of the first among them involves Immanuel Quickley.
The date was December 16, 2020. Normally, that’s about eight weeks into an NBA season, but because of the pandemic, opening night was still a week away.
New York had already played two preseason games. Quickley was a DNP-CD in the first before getting nine uneventful fourth quarter minutes in the second. Months earlier, many skeptics lambasted the IQ pick as a foolish reach by unknowing executives out of their depth. The Kentucky connection that was supposed to help save the Knicks would be their undoing. Going into the third preseason contest, those critics looked prescient.
And then, like a bat out of hell, Immanuel Quickly lit a starved fan base on fire. Despite shooting only 3-of-11 from the field, IQ looked the part of a damn fine NBA player - a pleasant surprise that came without warning as the 2020 summer league had been cancelled. Seeing him shine in a Knicks uniform for the first time, I may have gotten a little ahead of my skis:
Was I crazy, or crazy like a fox? That’s up for debate, but at the time, there’s no question I was throwing caution to the wind.
So, it seemed, was everyone else.
