A Familiar Script

On an emotional night, we were reminded why Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett had to go - for their sake, and New York's.

Happy Sunday, everyone.

A Familiar Script

Of all the storylines, analysis and emotions that emerged from last night’s basketball game-turned-tearjerker-turned blowout, there was one number lost in the hoopla that I find myself unable to shake:

11.

As in, 11 assists for Immanuel Quickly - the unquestioned point guard for the Toronto Raptors, today, tomorrow, and for the foreseeable future.

That’s what Quickley is, even if he wasn’t considered a floor general coming out of college. It was his late-season scoring, and not his passing, that got him picked in the first round. At around two assists per game, his comps were Lou Williams and Jamal Crawford, not Chris Paul or Trae Young.

And that’s what the Knicks thought they were getting, which is part of the reason he never got a chance to be a true point guard in New York. The other reason, of course, is the man who arrived halfway through Quickley’s tenure - a free agent who completely changed the franchise’s fortunes, and in doing so, inadvertently punched Immanuel Quickley’s ticket out of town.

Even today, in the new “positionless” NBA, there are some hard and fast rules that refuse to go away. One of them is an old school tenet that courses through the veins of New York’s old school coach:

Size matters.

It is a philosophy born out of results, both past and present. With the exception of a scant few teams blessed with small guards who punched several levels above their weight class - the late 80’s Pistons and ‘19 Raptors, essentially - contenders are afforded one small guard in their starting five, not two. That rings as true today as it ever has, with behemoths like the Nuggets, Celtics, Timberwolves and Clippers at or near the top of the standings.

That reality, in conjunction with Brunson’s arrival, is ultimately what ushered out Immanuel Quickley (and RJ Barrett alongside him) and ushered in a dude who makes the Knicks bigger, badder, and more of a royal pain in the ass to deal with than ever before.

We’ve see the results of this decision on full display ever since the trade. It is impossible to ignore, whether we’re looking at a worst-to-first defensive rating, or simply feeling pity for opposing offenses who must now deal with the largest front line in the sport.

But while the Knicks may be a better team today than they were three weeks ago, last night was also a reminder that they almost certainly have less talent. Quickley is as advertised in a full time role, while Barrett’s flaws have been minimized by a Toronto offense that has done a fantastic job of exploiting his strengths while minimizing his weaknesses.

Most fans always suspected that the best was yet to come for both of these former franchise pillars, which is why they rightly received the sort of hero’s welcome usually reserved for players far older than 23.

Talent and fit…the two principles of team building that are in conversation with one another more in basketball than in every other team sport put together. They are connected at the hip and impossible to separate, even if they’re often at odds with one another¹.

18 months ago, the Knicks signed a superstar point guard with immense talent. From that day forward, everything became about fitting the roster around those talents, even if it meant sacrificing talent in the process. He reminded us last night that he is worth that level of compromise.

It is not an unfamiliar one for this franchise.

56 years ago, the Knicks sent 29-year-old 4-time All-Star Walt Bellamy to Detroit in exchange for 28-year-old 3-time All-Star Dave DeBusschere.

To this day, it is the only trade in NBA history in which an eventual Top 75 All-Time player (DeBusschere) was traded for a future Hall-of-Famer (Bellamy) when both players were under under the age of 30.

Because of New York’s immediate & immense success in the aftermath of the trade, it gets forgotten that Bellamy had his own fair share of success after leaving the Big Apple. Even though he would never make another All-Star team, he guided the Hawks to four separate postseason appearances, including the 1970 conference finals. He would twice receive MVP votes after leaving the Knicks, and even today, is one of just nine players to amass at least 20,000 points and 14,000 rebounds.

But on the same roster as Willis Reed, more than anything else, Walt Bellamy was a guy who got in the way. Moving Reed to center unlocked the greatest Knicks team in franchise history.

Moving Quickley and Barrett for Anunoby is a fun house mirror version of that trade - similar in concept but unique in execution. Both times, the team looked at the landscape and realized that in a league where premium resources are scarce, they were not making the most of what they had. Those Knicks knew that a center should play center, just like this front office (and more importantly, Masai Ujiri) knew that a starting point guard should be a starting point guard. You always have to give to get with NBA trades, and there’s always pain involved, but that pain lessens, just a bit, when the loss in talent is balanced by the improvement in fit.

That’s what happened in 1968. In the modern adaptation of the deal, OG plays the role of DeBusschere while both IQ and RJ double as Bellamy in different ways - Barrett as the player Anunoby replaced; Quickley as the unfortunate casualty of an ill-fitting roster.

And just like the eventual Hall-of-Famer benefited from a change of scenery, it’s abundantly clear that the pride of so many fans (“they raised them,” as Julius put it about Quick and Barrett after the game) will be better off for the move.

As for the Knicks, they have to hope the best is also yet to come.

The easy counter - that New York don’t have an MVP on the roster like those Knicks did in Willis Reed - appears to be more short-sighted by the day.

Jalen Brunson is one year older than Reed was when the Bellamy trade went down. At the time, Willis was a four-time All-Star and two-time 2nd Team All-NBA honoree, but he wasn’t yet viewed as a future Most Valuable Player. Similarly, for many NBA fans, Brunson is still an afterthought in the conversation about the best players in the game.

He will not be for long.

In making the ultimate investment in their starting point guard by sending their other starting point guard to a new home, the Knicks are betting they can follow the same blueprint from half a century ago.

If Jalen Brunson has anything to say about it, it will pay off in spades.

🏀

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

1. I really wish the ridiculous Farrelly brothers movie “Stuck on You” isn’t the first analogy that came to mind when I wrote this sentence. Alas…