Completing the Puzzle

It's time we recognize what Leon Rose has been able to accomplish since taking over. Plus, a look back at this weekend's games.

Good morning! I hope you had an enjoyable weekend and got to watch some of the scintillating performances put forth by these young Knicks. Today we’ll recap and analyze both of the games, and then move on to a big picture view of where the Knicks stand in light of where they were just two short years ago.

Before we get to all that, remember: training camp opens in just six weeks! If you’d like to become a bigger part of the fifth ranked sports newsletter on Substack, you know what to do:

🗣 News & Notes ✍️

🏀 The Knicks sixth game of Summer League will be played today at 7 pm against the Atlanta Hawks. Marc Berman reported that this is a consolation game, so it’s possible that this will be their final outing before we see the team play preseason ball in October.

🏀 According to Marc Stein, the league is likely to release the schedule in the next 7 to 10 days. Yes, I will go way overboard in analyzing it once it drops.

🏀 Rokas, we hardly knew ya’.

Knicks rookie Rokas Jokubaitis left the team to go back to Spain, where he will presumably play this season for FC Barcelona. Overall, he looked solid in his short moments of playing time, and we’ll be sure to track his progress overseas as the season progresses.

🏀 As first reported by Alder Almo, Mitchell Robinson arrived in Vegas prior to New York’s Friday night game. The Knicks Twitter account later posted some pictures of him working with Kenny Payne, who is on hand there. Almo also previously reported that some of the Knicks’ coaching staff has been on hand in Robinson’s home state of Louisiana to work with him over the summer, although it’s unclear how long that went on. Hopefully wherever and with whomever he’s working, we see dividends come game time.

🏀 Game Night 🏀

The Knicks played twice this weekend, splitting their two contests but offering plenty to be excited about in each one.

Saturday: Knicks 103, Cavs 94

The Knicks dominated this one for most of the night, leading by as many as 21 points in the fourth quarter before they let their guard down and allowed the Cavs to cut the lead to three points. Thankfully, one of the stars of the weekend hit his biggest shot yet to stop the bleeding…

The Deuce remains on the loose!

…before their other Saturday headliner put the game away for good:

Grimy.

Both Deuce McBride and Quentin Grimes had a larger opportunity to shine in this one due to the absence of Immanuel Quickley, who sat out with a sore groin. I guess now that Frank is no longer a Knick, someone needs to carry on this all important mantle.

The biggest takeaway from this one was that the Knicks couldn’t miss from deep. They’d been a feast or famine team through four games, with two outings in which they shot under 30 percent from three and two others at 40 percent or higher. On Saturday, they made 20 of 37 attempts from long range for a conversion rate of 54.1 percent. It was beautiful.

It seems like the team has also made a concerted effort to modernize their shot selection in Vegas. Through Saturday’s games, only the Celtics had averaged more than New York’s 35.2 deep attempts per game and only three teams were converting those looks at a higher rate than the Knicks’ 36.4 percent. New York has four players in the top 50 in 3-point attempts per game and two (Quickley and Grimes) in the top 10.

Hopefully all of this is an indication that they’ll be higher than the bottom-10 in 3-point field goal frequency like they were last season.

Friday: Knicks 87, Pistons 93

This was an inverse version of Saturday’s game, as New York came out inept on offense, scoring just 48 points through three quarters and hitting just six of their first 27 attempts from long range.

A few of the Knicks finished with “avert your eyes” level shooting lines, with Immanuel Quickley and Deuce McBride combining to go 6-for-32 from the field. Neither could hold a candle to Reid Travis though, who managed to go 0-for-8 from the field shooting almost exclusively around the basket.

Someone needs to hang his Friday shot chart above a urinal in Springfield:

On the flip side, we had quite a night from Obi Toppin. He displayed his unique blend of finesse, power and smooth shooting en route to 31 points on 20 shots, with nine boards, three blocks and two steals to boot. He’s the only player in Vegas averaging 23 & 8 and has solidified his case for more playing time next season. Much more on him below.

The other bright spot was the spirited comeback the Knicks displayed in the fourth. Down by 16 points with under two minutes left, New York used a pressing, trapping defense to cut 13 points off the lead in 90 seconds flat. An overaggressive McBride got called for a foul with 22 seconds left though, and after two Saben Lee free throws and a blocked IQ drive, another fake Knicks comeback was complete.

Lastly, for those wondering how New York did against the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, it was a mixed bag. Cade Cunningham went off from deep, converting 7-of-10 from behind the arc, which helped him finish a plus-23 in 28 minutes. He only had one 2-point field goal though, and just three assists to go with three turnovers. Personally, I thought he was just OK, and that New York’s hounding defense did well to make his life difficult.

💫 Stars of the Weekend 💫

⭐️ Deuce McBride: His 23-point outing that included five made 3’s in eight attempts on Saturday will get most of the attention, as it probably should. Not only did he hit the biggest shot of the game, but also had a stretch when he hit three triples in 60 seconds late in the second quarter, including a final one that had the Thomas & Mack center sounding like the Garden in late April:

He also continues to show a complete and total disregard for other people’s possessions, routinely committing blatant acts of larceny in plain site.

I mean, this wasn’t quite Zion/Knox-level soul snatching, but it was close:

For me though, the most impressive part of his weekend came on Friday night. Despite not being able to throw the ball in the Colorado River from atop the Hoover Dam, McBride still found ways to impact the game in a positive manner. His defense remains unrelenting at all times, and none of his shots ever seem forced or ill-timed.

He’s going to a part of Tom Thibodeau’s plans this season. Book it.

⭐️ ⭐️ Obi Toppin: One year and five Summer League games into the Obi Experience, I still don’t know quite what to make of Toppin.

On one hand, he is a power player at his core, able to bully his way into the post against mismatches. His touch around the rim has been inconsistent in Summer League but he’s had his fair share of pretty conversions:

On the other hand, Toppin has a move or three every game that make you think he fancies himself a latter day George Gervin.

Like, how many bigs in the league do stuff like this?

It’s not just the occasional finger rolls either. Toppin has been flashing the sort of midrange J that the best wings in the league keep in their bag, and has even attempted a few floaters.

When you add in a 3-pointer that looks much smoother and quicker…

…there’s really no telling what kind of offensive player he can be when he puts it all together.

Here’s the only thing I know for sure: the man needs time on the court. Whatever this is needs water to grow. Here’s hoping they give him far more of it in his sophomore campaign.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Quentin Grimes: Just like we were right not to get too low on Grimes after his 8-for-30 start, we shouldn’t get too high on him after a 43 point weekend on 14-of-30 shooting overall and 9-of-20 from deep.

But Grimes went into Sunday as the only player in Vegas averaging three 3’s, three assists and six boards per game. In addition to his defense and 3-point percentage picking up, he’s also been showing more diversity in his game, putting the ball on the floor driving to the rim than he was early on. After attempting just one free throw in his first four games, Grimes took seven on Saturday night, including the and-one on this pretty move into the paint:

The Knicks probably aren’t going to be the relative picture of health that they were last season. Even if RJ Barrett is a cyborg, the odds are that Fournier, Burks and Quickley will miss games somewhere along the way.

If they do, Grimes has shown that he’s worthy of filling in in a pinch, which is all that we could have hoped for with the 25th pick.

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Completing the Puzzle

As anyone who watched either of the postgame live streams this weekend already knows, I’m on vacation this week.

Nothing crazy…just a family place out on the East End of Long Island where we engage in simple pleasures like scenic sunsets, a cold brew or three, and of course, puzzles:

I love puzzles. I don’t know exactly what it is about them that I enjoy, but it probably has to do with the fact that they’re both a challenge and something you know you can conquer with hard work and perseverance. There are not many hard things in life that don’t come with a significant risk of failure, and the only way to fail at a puzzle is to give up.

A little over two years ago, I don’t think I could have blamed any Knicks fan who did exactly that - give up - after the summer they were promised instead turned into a Lana Del Rey song. The front office went all in on a two-piece puzzle and then watched helplessly as they were the only coastal team left empty handed. KD and Kyrie to Brooklyn. Kawhi and PG to the Clips. AD joining LeBron in LA. New York had cleared the puzzle table and were left pieceless.

Or so we thought. We are now a little more than two years removed from June 30, 2019, and anyone who gave up their Knicks fandom that day has to at least be second-guessing their decision. New York is coming off a four-seed and will enter next season in the thick of the presumptive Eastern Conference playoff picture. They don’t yet have a contending roster, but that shouldn’t belittle what they’ve done, and more importantly, the short amount of time they’ve done it in.

I was thinking about all that’s taken place over the last two years as I was trying to discern sky from sea in my Valencia puzzle¹. Puzzles take time, and the only trait you really need to complete one is patience. That time is what makes completion so special; you know you’ve earned it, because it doesn’t happen overnight.

NBA teams are no different. I was often asked last season if I’d have traded the spunky bunch of Knick go-getters for Brooklyn’s Big Three and my answer was always the same: not in a million years. That’s because the journey is where it’s at.

Thibs likes to say that the magic is in the work, but that phrase should apply to roster building every bit as much as practice sessions. Putting together that puzzle usually takes a lot of time, and yet here we are, with a roster that has almost completely turned over from what was there going into the summer of 2019. Only Mitchell Robinson and Kevin Knox remain from the group that finished up the 2018-19 campaign, and Knox may very well be the 15th man for the current group. Everyone else has been replaced.

Take a look at the box score from the final game of that season:

They lost to a .500 Detroit Pistons team by 26 points that night. I was there, sadly enough. It was an odd scene…everyone there knew full well that other than Robinson, no one they were seeing on the court was going to be a part of anything moving forward.

We had faith that magic would happen in the ensuing months, and that faith in the future was all we had to ignore what was as depressing a present as you could imagine. Aside from Robinson, not a single player on the roster for that game is currently a part of an NBA rotation. Most are out of the league altogether.

Fast forward to now. Next season, the Knicks will likely trot out a starting five of Kemba Walker, Evan Fournier, RJ Barrett, Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson, with a backup grouping of Derrick Rose, Immanuel Quickley, Alec Burks, Obi Toppin and Nerlens Noel, and the indefatigable Taj Gibson waiting in the garage for when he’s needed, as well as the two rooks who combined for 51 on Saturday night.

There are a few notable things about the group that Leon Rose has assembled:

1. Doubling Down: Rose has already re-signed as many Knicks to second (and in one case, third) contracts than other regimes in the previous 20 years combined.

   Much is made of the Charlie Ward rookie contract curse, but New York’s absurd turnover rate extends to players acquired via trade and free agency as well. Since 2000, the only players to re-up with the club after their initial acquisition are Pablo Prigioni, Kenyon Martin and JR Smith in 2013, Carmelo Anthony in 2014, Lance Thomas in 2016, and Ron Baker in 2017.

   Now, this regime has inked six existing Knicks to new pacts in just the last two summers: Randle, Rose, Burks, Noel, Elfrid Payton, and Taj Gibson twice. Among the many issues plaguing this franchise since the 90’s has been their consistent inconsistency. It’s nice to see Leon & Co trying to change that.

2. Mixing it up: For as much as the Knicks have clearly shifted into “win now” mode, they’ve also done a nice job of maintaining a roster that has a chance to be good both now and later, Dame rumors be damned.

   On one hand, New York has six players on their first NBA contracts who all figure to contribute this season in RJ Barrett, Mitchell Robinson, Obi Toppin, Immanuel Quickley, Quentin Grimes and Deuce McBride². In addition, their two highest salaried players are precisely the ages you’d want your big money guys to be: 26 (Randle) and 28 (Fournier). Finally, the veteran leaders play a prominent enough role to be heard in the locker room.

   Whether intentional or happy accident, this is exactly how an NBA roster should be set up.

3. Defined Roles: Think about how many years the Knicks entered a season with some combination of the same two questions: “Who the hell is going to play [position x]?” and “How is [sad sack coach y] going to find time for all these guys?”

   With this crew, there’s not only a clear first and second five, but also an opportunity for the reserves to see minutes. Thanks to the “handle with care” point guard rotation, rookies McBride (if Quickley plays the wing) and Grimes (if Quickley runs point) should get time when Walker and Rose sit. The biggest rotation question in my mind is whether they can find Obi Toppin enough minutes as a featured member of the offense, but if this is the biggest quandary, things are probably in a good place.

The puzzle is not supposed to come together this fast, not when you strike out on your Plan A in such spectacular fashion like the Knicks did in 2019. They did indeed spend all of their league high cap number that June, but only one of the names above - Randle - was part of that summer splurge.

Look at the other teams who made the playoffs last season. None of them have a roster more thoroughly unrecognizable from what existed before the summer of 2019 than the Knicks. The only two on par with New York - Brooklyn, who still has Joe Harris, and the Clippers, who still employ Patrick Beverly - are the teams that got their star duo as they planned.

The Knicks aren’t on the level of either the Nets or Clips precisely because they don’t have that guy, let alone two. It’s why I don’t think it occurred to me to write something like this until now. We don’t celebrate “better than mediocre” in New York. It’s not in our nature and never will be.

That said, it’s probably time we pay Leon Rose & Co. their due. They’ve put this thing together far faster than anyone could have possibly expected given what they were handed back in March of 2020. The puzzle isn’t yet complete, but it’s getting there. not so slowly but definitely surely.

One piece at a time.

🏀

That’s it for today! If you enjoy this newsletter and like the Mets, don’t forget to subscribe to JB’s Metropolitan. See everyone soon! #BlackLivesMatter

1. By the way, I had heard of Valencia before discovering this puzzle, but never knew where it was or that it had such a cool looking building there. My new mission in life is to go to Valencia.

2. Feel free to add Kevin Knox to this list at your peril.