R.I.P. Don Nelson

A former Knicks coach passed away. Plus, some updates on the Knicks' second rounders, and we say hi to No. 63 on the Knicks 100.

Good Morning! Before we get to today’s entrant onto the Knicks 100, we have a few pieces of news…

Rest in Peace, Don Nelson. Nelson’s brief stint as head coach in New York didn’t work out great, but he still had one of the league’s great coaching careers after a stellar stint as a player with the Celtics. He is as memorable a character as the NBA has ever seen, and his legend only seemed to grow over time. He will be missed.

Bye bye Jack Kayil (for now), but maybe not Tyler Nickel. Kayil, the 39th pick in the draft, announced he’s staying in Europe on a new five-year deal, presumably with a reasonable buy-out should the opportunity arise for him to play in the NBA. Meanwhile, there’s no update on Nickel, taken 47th, possibly returning back to college, but Ian Begley reported that Nickel is “all in on starting his pro career.” James Edwards III reported that New York tendered qualifying offers to both Kayil and Nickel, thus retaining their draft rights.

Finally, we have 3 confirmed preseason dates for New York: Thursday, October 8 vs the Wizards; Tuesday October 13 at Toronto, and Thursday October 15 vs the Raps at home.

Before we get to No. 63 on the Knicks 100, a quick refresher on who from the Leon Rose era has appeared on the list thus far: 100. Alec Burks, 85. Jordan Clarkson, 81. Jose Alvarado, 74. Derrick Rose, and 70. Isaiah Hartenstein. Which brings us to…

The Knicks 100: No. 63 - Immanuel Quickley

Let it not be forgotten that in Jalen Brunson’s debut season with the Knicks - one in which New York won a playoff series for the first time in a decade and Brunson proclaimed himself a potential franchise savior - the most memorable game was one that Brunson watched from the sideline.

With Jalen nursing an injury he suffered two nights earlier in Miami and the Knicks riding an eight-game winning streak, the 45-19 Celtics awaited, looking for revenge after falling in MSG the previous week. In the previous matchup, Immanuel Quickley was pretty good, scoring a team-high 23 points off the bench to further solidify his status as 6th Man of the Year front-runner.

Turns out, we hadn’t seen anything yet.

Playing 55 out of a possible 58 minutes (more than anyone has played in an NBA game since, by the by), Immanuel Quickley strutted, danced and dined out on the Boston parquet. Putting up 38 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, four steals and two blocks, Quick issued a proclamation: Whatever future awaited this burgeoning Knicks core, he was going to play an instrumental role.

He was right. Just not in the way we thought.

Less than a year later, IQ was the newly minted starting point guard of the Toronto Raptors, the jewel of a trade that would also send RJ Barrett to his home country and bring OG Anunoby to the Big Apple. That summer, Quick signed a contract that would make him one of the highest paid point guards in the NBA - $7.5 million higher in the first season, in fact, than the man he once played understudy to in New York.

On the surface, Quickley finally had everything he’d been seeking. He got his own team, a massive payday, and the freedom to pen his narrative without anyone or anything standing in the way.

I wonder if it was all worth it.

Among the top “What If’s” of the last five years, the Quickley one is near the top of my list.

Namely, how would the future have unfolded if he accepted the contract the Knicks wanted to give him?

Reporting at the time stated that the front office wanted to extend him, with fair market value pegged between $16 million and $20 million annually. I distinctly remember hearing that the Knicks were willing to enter that range, and Quickley seemed to love being a Knick.

Instead, he was flipped for Anunoby, who will appear much closer to 6th on this list than 60th despite playing nearly 100 fewer regular season games as a Knick than Quickley. Could they have still gotten Anunoby with a package that didn’t include IQ? If so, the draft capital required to sweeten the pot wouldn’t have allowed the Mikal Bridges trade to happen. In this alternate universe, would Quick have eventually graduated to the starting two-guard spot, likely under a different coach? Or would he have been the outgoing salary to get Mikal, and we’d now be watching him spread his wings across the river?

Quickley’s decision to bet on himself was arguably the singular pivot point of the Brunson era other then Brunson himself joining the franchise. The toughest part for IQ? His departure was lamented for all of 72 hours, right up until we all got a look at Anunoby’s picture perfect fit and the juggernaut these new Knicks threatened to become.

It doesn’t change Quickley’s role in the larger story though. His resume is too filled with games that gave Knicks fans goosebumps - that rare feeling of watching a star grow and develop before our eyes. The Boston game may be his masterpiece, but he painted enough memorable works of art to fill a wing in the MET. There was something about an Immanuel Quickley Game that just felt different.

Is 63 the right spot for him on the list? Off the vibes alone, some would argue that he’s deseving of a top 50 spot. The absence of any notable playoff performances would suggest something around 75, or maybe even lower. I split the difference, and put him just below two other scoring guards who will always be joined at the hip:

I mentioned a few newsletters ago that Nate Robinson and Jeremy Lin were two of the three players on the list who never made either the playoffs or an All-Star game as a Knick. Jamal Crawford is the third.

It’s funny…amidst the dreary stretch from 2004 to 2008, when the Knicks won an average of 28 games over four seasons before Donnie Walsh took over and began preparing for a run at LeBron, Crawford is one of the few players who emerged unscathed. Even then, fans pegged him as someone who could have been part of the eventual solution, which is what made Walsh’s decision to salary dump his contract 11 games into the Mike D’Antoni era so interesting. Crawford was off the best season of his career, averaging an efficient 20 points for a team that was a game over .500 when he left.

He’d go on to establish himself as one of the great reserves in NBA history, winning the first of three 6th Man trophies in his first season after leaving the Knicks and making the second round four times. In New York though, there was far too much turmoil for his scoring to have a positive impact. Still, he’s one of two players from the post-Ewing/pre-Melo era to rank inside the top 30 all-time in franchise scoring, slotting in at 29th.

The other, naturally, is Stephon Marbury, who comes in 30th.

Should Marbury be higher than Crawford on the list? Other than scoring, Marbury has Crawford beat in every category. He was more efficient, dished more assists, and accumulated far more win shares, ranking 28th in Knicks history in that metric (J. Crossover is 49th). He was also the best player on a playoff team, which isn’t a title that a ton of folks can lay claim to, even if that 2004 series against New Jersey was the ultimate exercise in futility.

And yet to this day, he remains a controversial figure. Stefan Bondy got in some hot water over this tweet during the playoffs, but Bondy isn’t alone. A significant portion of the fan base has few positive memories associated with the man who would go on to have a hall of fame second act on the other side of the world. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: no player in history could have “saved” the Knicks in the state they were in for much of Marbury’s tenure. Even if Steph didn’t always help matters, he was far from the biggest issue. That’s why I have him just ahead of both Quickley and Crawford.

Next up: we get back to the 2026 Knicks, and a player whose legend grew exponentially over the course of this playoff run.

🏀

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”