And We're Off!

The Knicks start the preseason off on a high note.

Good Morning! Boy did that feel good. It didn’t hit me until about a half hour before tip off that the Knicks were actually going to play a game last night. Maybe I had internalized that the never-ending offseason would just keep going. Regardless, it was worth the wait.

I’ll have a full recap below. First though, a quick note…I’ll be away tomorrow through Monday, but fear not: there will be newsletters in your inbox just like normal. The only change is that a full recap of Friday night’s game won’t be coming until Tuesday. Other than that, it’ll be as if I never left.

Game Recap: Knicks 117, Pistons 96

⌚️30 Seconds or Less: New York dominated this one pretty much throughout. Jalen Brunson stole the show early with an impressive array of tough shot making, while RJ Barrett and Julius Randle eventually found their groove. The defense was in midseason form, led by Mitchell Robinson’s rim protection and Deuce McBride disrupting the passing lanes. Everyone shook off the rust and had some plays to feel good about. Best of all? No arguing over minutes…for one night at least.

🤕 Injury Front: Quentin Grimes and Jericho Sims both missed this game with injuries that are not deemed serious, although their status for Friday night is still uncertain. Cam Reddish was ruled out of the game at halftime after playing 11 first half minutes. He appeared to be limping at one point, and after the game, Thibs said it was a sprained ankle. He’ll be re-examined today.

🗣 Quote of the Night: Jalen Brunson wasn’t the only player to make his Knicks debut last night, as Isaiah Hartenstein also suited up for the first time. He finished with a tidy eight points and seven rebounds in 27 minutes, including two makes in three tries from downtown. After the game, he spoke about his role with a unit he thinks “can be one of the best benches in the league,” and specifically the pairing with Obi Toppin:

“I think me and Obi [Toppin] can feed off each other really well and we play the same position, so we kind of interchanged a lot this game and it was really good…[Coach Thibodeu] told me that Obi [Toppin] and I can change positions, so I am going to shoot it when I am open, but I will always try to make the right play.”

This harkens back to Thibs’ recent comments about playing “five-out.” As Benji Ritholtz recently pointed out on Twitter, to Thibodeau, the center is whoever happens to be setting the screen and doing the rolling. When Hart talks about him and Obi playing the same position and interchanging, he basically means that they’ll alternate possessions in which one guy screens and rolls and the other guy flares out behind the arc. Nice to have such options with your backup bigs.

😒 Picking Nits: Hard to find much to complain about on this night. That said, there are two players on the roster whose playing time may largely be tied to their ability to consistently knock down threes. Obi Toppin has a rotation spot locked up, but his evolution as an offensive weapon depends on his outside shooting, and he was 0-of-4 from deep. The other guy is Deuce McBride, who probably won’t have a rotation spot absent someone getting injured. While he was a force on defense (an absurd six steals in 23 minutes), he missed all three of his looks from downtown. If Thibs is going to call his number without hesitation when any of Brunson, Rose or IQ go down, the shot has to become more of a threat.

📸 Play of the Game: There were a few contenders, but nothing quite beats the combo of RJ on the break and an Obi flush from the rafters:

🤔Rotation Observations: Not much to take from this one. Derrick Rose played just five and a half minutes, which opened the door for McBride to thrive. Thibs said afterwards Rose’s low minutes total was planned and not injury-related. The starters all played between 18 and 23 minutes, so not much to see there, while Cam’s insertion into the rotation seems directly tied to Grimes’ absence.

Maybe the most notable thing is that in the first half, Julius Randle came out of the gate struggling to make shots and find an offensive rhythm. Obi Toppin entered with three and a half to go in the first, and ended up played 11 first half minutes and 22 total. Considering Thibs said before the game that his first half rotation would be more or less like a regular season game, perhaps this is a sign of things to come.

💫 Stars of the Game 💫

⭐️ RJ Barrett / Julius Randle: New York’s success or failure this season is probably going to be tied to these to players more than anyone else. We sort of know what the rest of the roster is going to provide. If one of these guys plays at close to an All-Star level? Fantastic. If they both do? I’m not even prepared to think about such a scenario.

So far, so good though. RJ was incredibly efficient, going 8-of-14 for 21 points, and did a great job letting the game come to him without forcing the action. Randle had a dicier go of things at first, but had a two-minute stretch early in the third when he was 4-for-4 and looked like the idealized version of himself, at least on this roster. A combination of quick decisions, and yes, a couple makes from deep gave us a look into what this team’s ceiling just might be moving forward.

Honorable mention to Deuce McBride for the last star. He really was excellent despite struggling from the field. He continues to pop off the screen as a defender, and makes the defense feel him in a way that is rare for a small guard. One way or another, he’s going to force his way onto the court for meaningful playing time this season.

⭐️⭐️ Mitchell Robinson: He only played 18 minutes, but Mitch exerted his will on the game in that short time, swatting three shots and deterring the Pistons anytime they came close to the rim. He also reminded everyone that he’s going to gobble up his own team’s misses at a significant rate. Watch his quickness and perfect timing as he tosses aside Detroit’s new starting power forward like a rag doll:

Afterwards, Thibs had high praise for Robinson, shouting out the extra work he’s been putting in. According to the coach, “the game has slowed down for him” and “he is standing out a lot in practice all the time.” Oh, and he called him the best offensive rebounder in the league. Not bad.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Jalen Brunson: So that’s what a point guard looks like!

The Wait is Over

Life as a Knicks fans has no shortage of depressing moments, but among those that don’t involve a game, a trade, or a blown draft pick, the debate surrounding “Best Point Guard of the 2010's” had to be right up there.

You remember it, surely. Around December of 2020, when local publications were putting together their All-Decade teams for the Knicks, there was an ardent yet pathetic discussion about who should be the floor general for this theoretical team.

Should it be Jeremy Lin, who played 35 games for the franchise? Or Pablo Prigioni, who delighted fans with his pesky play and flair for the game? Most eventually settled on Raymond Felton, who was here for all of two and a half seasons, one of which was spent co-point guarding with Jason Kidd.

That’s been the state of things since Stephon Marbury departed in 2008, and it’s not like Marbury was any great shakes either. Talent? He had all of it. The leadership ability to pull a team from the depths of Crazytown, USA? He was too busy participating in the madness.

Before Marbury, we have to go back to Charlie Ward and Chris Childs, both of whom had their moments during the franchise’s most successful stretch since the championship years, but they’ll always be remembered more for what they weren’t than what they were. Before that, you have to reach all the way back to the 80’s, when Michael Ray Richardson, Mark Jackson and Rod Strickland left so many fans wondering what could have been rather than fully appreciating what was.

It is a legacy of point guards which rivals that of Jets quarterbacks, at least since Joe Namath, who ruled the city and the NFL back when Clyde ruled the hardwood as the last great Knicks point guard. So many false hopes in recent years have made us think, ever briefly, that the draught might be close to an end. From Derrick Rose (the first time) to Frank Ntilikina to Kemba Walker, we’ve talked ourselves into our fair share of saviors.

So sure enough, it’s the hometown kid that professed himself as anything but a savior who finally breaks the curse.

It’s only one performance, against a Pistons team that isn’t very good, and in a game that doesn’t count at that. But we know the goods when we see the goods, and Jalen Brunson is the goods.

Not since Carmelo Anthony was still in his All-NBA form have the Knicks had a guy who could bend defenses quite like this. Kristaps Porzingis had a three-week stretch when he looked like Dirk crossed with Hakeem, but the rest of the time, it was more about when he’d fully harness his powers, future tense all the way.

Julius Randle accumulated accolades two seasons ago, but did so as a relentless bludgeon - the power forward version of early 2000’s Allen Iverson. He wasn’t very efficient, but he didn’t need to be. The team was perfectly constructed around him, and as long as he dominated the rock and kept coming at opponents, eventually, they’d begin to wear down.

Brunson is a different animal. He is a shot-maker in the purest sense, similar to Melo. At his peak, Anthony made more tough shots than anyone this side of Kobe, but even during his best Knick years he was never much better than league-average efficiency. Brunson, on the other hand, has been one of the most efficient players in basketball for the last two years. Last night, in going 7-for-9 from the field en route to 16 points, he reminded us why that is.

The best offensive players in the NBA achieve that designation because they can score even when the defense knows what’s coming, gears up to stop it…and is still left helpless. The very best do all of that, but do it in a variety of ways, and from a variety of locations on the court.

That last part is the only hole in Brunson’s game, in that his shot creation is limited mostly to inside the arc. In a way though, it makes his exploits even more impressive. His palette has fewer colors than most of the league’s superstars, but he manages to paint the same beautiful pictures nonetheless.

When you add in the unflappable decision-making (five assists to just one turnover last night), his off-ball impact (he hit a couple of spot up 3-pointers) and his grittiness at the other end (three offensive fouls drawn, including two charges, all in the first half…of a preseason game), and it’s no wonder Tom Thibodeau wasted no time gushing about his new lead ball-handler after the game:

Tim Bontemps @TimBontemps

Tom Thibodeau with a lengthy answer after tonight’s win on the many things he likes about Jalen Brunson’s game. “Jalen can provide whatever you need.”

Of course, for Jalen Brunson to truly end the point guard dry spell that has befallen New York for several decades, he’ll need to do the one thing Clyde was known for more than anything: win. To do that, other forces - including many outside of his control - will have to cooperate.

But in the NBA, a team is usually only as good as its best player. For the Knicks, that designation is now Brunson’s in no uncertain terms.

How far can he take them in that capacity? We may not know for certain quite yet, but we can be sure he’s been waiting to answer that very question all his life.

His New York story began last night, and with it, the wait is finally over.

🏀

That’s it for today! If you enjoy this newsletter and like the Mets, don’t forget to subscribe to JB’s Metropolitan, or his hockey newsletter, Isles Fix. See y’all soon! #BlackLivesMatter