ESPN Top 100 Reaction

6 Knicks made the list. Do any of them have a legit gripe about being too low? Plus some new quotes from Mike Brown and Josh Hart.

Good morning! New York’s preseason tips off tomorrow at noon. In the meantime, the Knicks seem to be enjoying their trip overseas.

Before we start today, THANK YOU to everyone who reached out regarding interning at KFS. I promise you I’ve been perusing all the emails and will reach out to everyone shortly.

On the news front, Mike Brown gave some extended thoughts on his plan for minutes distribution yesterday. Per Stefan Bondy:

“The biggest thing is trying to make sure you watch everybody’s minutes instead of trying to chase games. There might be some games where maybe you throw the towel in early. It’s important to win, but you also have to understand, ‘Hey, I want to keep this guy’s minutes here, this guy’s minutes here, this guy’s minutes here, instead of trying to extend everybody’s minutes. Because if the season is long, we don’t want anybody worn out by the end.”

We’ll see how the averages wind up comparing to recent seasons under Thibs.

Speaking of guys who have played a lot of minutes, Josh Hart put the blame on himself for last season’s loss to Indiana, saying “I just didn’t have nothing left” by the conference finals. After making 18-of-42 shots from behind the arc in the first two rounds, Hart made just two of his 11 attempts from distance vs the Pacers. How much should his playoff struggled impact his ranking league-wide? Let’s get into that right now…

ESPN Top 100 Ranks: Yay or Nay?

Today’s question comes to us from Ariel Elkayam:

I would be interested in your take on the Knicks player placement in ESPN’s recent 1-100 rankings. What would be your rankings for each of our top 5-6 players?

As someone who has tried to do lists like this in the past, let me first say that I don’t envy anyone with the task. It’s hard enough to rank the top 10 or 20 players in the NBA. Going to 100 is abject insanity.

But that’s exactly why ESPN does it: to generate discussion, and hopefully, clicks. It’s also why these rankings should all be taken with a grain of salt. While I’d never suggest that the voters intentionally placed players in certain spots to raise eyebrows, the whole point of these lists is to get people talking, and people tend to talk more about stuff that is controversial.

With that as the backdrop, I’ll go through the six players ESPN included and render a verdict on whether each one was too high, too low, or just right, starting with…

92. Mitchell Robinson (down from 82 in 2024)

• Notable players in range: P.J. Washington - 95, Jakob Poeltl - 93, Naz Reid - 90

Given that Washington, Poeltl and Reid all signed contract extensions this summer worth between $22.5 and $26 million annually, I’d say Mitch was fairly placed in this range, especially with his iffy injury history. Washington in particular was the third most important player on a Finals team not long ago, which is nothing to sneeze at.

At the same time, guys like Zach Edey (88) and Jonas Valanciunas (87) are slightly higher than Mitch, which seems odd, to say nothing of the empty husk of Bradley Beal (86) or the unproven Jaden Ivey (85). All in all, I’d say Robinson should at least be in the top 90, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes the top 75 in 2026 if he has a remotely healthy season.

69. Josh Hart (down from 61)