Deciding on Dejounte

Today we look at an upscale fix for New York's bench woes.

Good morning! We have a two-game weekend ahead for the new look Knicks, starting with a date with the reigning league MVP who may be on his way to another trophy…

Game Night(s)

TONIGHT: Knicks at Sixers, 7:30 pm, ESPN

TOMORROW: Knicks at Wizards, 7:00 pm, MSG

Injury Report: Furkan Korkman and Robert Covington are questionable, while De’Anthony Melton is out. Landry Shamet is dealing with a hamstring issue for Washington.

Halftime Zoom: Here’s the link for tonight, but I’ll be off tomorrow.

What to watch for: Like the Knicks, the Sixers’ starting five is a major strength. The grouping of Embiid, Maxey, Tobias Harris, Nic Batum and Kelly Oubre Jr has a positive 34.0 net rating in 219 minutes. For as good as New York’s starters have looked together, playing Philly’s first five to a draw will be a tall order. It bears watching how Thibs deploys Anunoby, who could be used on a less threatening Sixer so he can offer regular help on Embiid.

All this being said, I’m wondering who wins the bench minutes. The Sixers will be thin behind their starters if Covington and/or Kork are out. It could be those minutes, and not the ones featuring the star players, that wind up determining the game.

Speaking of the bench…

Friday Mailbag

Today’s mailbag features all of two questions, but I loaded up on the answers to both. We start off with everyone’s favorite television critic, who joins the chorus of critics worries about New York’s current bench predicament…

Alan Sepinwall asks…The bench unit obviously needs an upgrade, because Deuce simply isn’t a point guard. Pretend for a moment that Leon is not going to make an all-in move before the deadline, or even a significant move like trading for DJM or Brogdon. So we’d be trading a minor asset for a useful but flawed player. Considering all of that, which is more important for that second unit: a good facilitator, or a good scorer?

I’m getting ahead of my answer to the next question, but I think it’s pretty clearly a good facilitator.

Let’s go on the premise that Julius will be on the court for all of the non-Brunson minutes from now on. For as much as the backup offense has been Clockwork Orange-level painful to watch, ultimately, the ball should be in Randle’s hands for the majority of those possessions.

That means figuring out ways to make life easier for him.

This…is not the way to do that:

The play starts out well in theory, with Julius getting the switch he wanted (thank the Lord he recognized here that Caruso is not a matchup to attack). After that though, we see both Jevon Carter and Ayo Dosunmu sag off of their respective defenders and converge upon New York’s power forward, causing an easy turnover and two even easier points.

Needless to say, Julius needs to do a better job of anticipating and reacting to the double team. Given how far Dosunmu played off of Grimes, that was proper the kick out to make. At the same time, teams will continue to treat Deuce as a non-shooter, which is something of a problem with Josh Hart also on the floor.

The more time Randle has with backup units, the better he’ll get at making reads, but it’s also unfair to ask him to do this much heavy lifting on every possession. I also don’t know how much better “better” will really get with Julius, who has the occasional issues making quick, correct reads.

Getting another scorer would give the Knicks someone else who can create advantages that can then be capitalized on, but is any “minor” piece, as Alan puts it, really going to be a better option than Julius?

Far better would be to get someone who can put Randle in advantageous situations, like getting downhill, or at the very least, not having to navigate a thicket of bodies to attain good post position. Simply acquiring a ball handler who a) knows how to run a pick & roll, b) teams can’t sag off of and c) can punish teams for going under screens should be enough to unlock enough efficient possessions to make these minutes tenable. Between Grimes being able to space the court, Hart running around doing Josh Hart things, and Precious (hopefully) getting more comfortable in the offense, this doesn’t seem like an unattainable goal.

(Yes, the implication here is that Deuce goes back to riding the pine, but players will miss games, and he’ll get another opportunity at some point. I’m just not sure he’s ready now, although I’d give it more time before pulling the plug.)

As for a more extreme option…

Literally almost everyone asks… Should the Knicks trade for Dejounte Murray?