Now that we are past the 'pre-season games', where are we?

[garyd]

We don’t have a true 20 ppg scorer (as yet), but we have seen some of the following: The Knicks will have a very deep team that aids in both full-out defense and finding a hot hand on offense. They also move the ball up court quickly and around the court more.

Other improvements: Barrett looks like he did in college. Knox has a great look and confidence in his 3 point shot. Quickley has shown some ability here, Others who haven't been seen much in pre-season have shown in their career to be better than last year's Knicks group. Free throws should be better. Even Randle had 8 assists in yesterday's game (Quickley had 5 and Toppin had 4).

With Noel here the pressure is on Robinson to play smarter to stay on the court, and the last 2 games shows that is a real possibility. The PG position remains a little nebulous still at this point. Quickley looks good but hasn't faced a better than average pro guard yet.

Obi Toppin is not free swinging, and may have a longer learning cycle than figured. But he has shown ability. Alberts named him and the other 4 mates on the Floor "Obi and the 4 Tops". I just hope its "Not the same old song". Ok, excuse me "I can't help myself".

We have 2 season games at home but have 5 games on the road. 5 of the 7 games are vs. teams that won 43 or more games last year.

[axios]

Obi needs to work on his jumper, bc i don’t see him banging against the bigs in this league and hope IQ or someone can feed him the ball. Didn’t realize what a monster Patrick Williams was. Big kid.

[Deleted]

Dec 19, 2020 17:45:40 GMT -5 garyd said:

We don’t have a true 20 ppg scorer (as yet), but we have seen some of the following: The Knicks will have a very deep team that aids in both full-out defense and finding a hot hand on offense. They also move the ball up court quickly and around the court more.

Other improvements: Barrett looks like he did in college. Knox has a great look and confidence in his 3 point shot. Quickley has shown some ability here, Others who haven't been seen much in pre-season have shown in their career to be better than last year's Knicks group. Free throws should be better. Even Randle had 8 assists in yesterday's game (Quickley had 5 and Toppin had 4).

With Noel here the pressure is on Robinson to play smarter to stay on the court, and the last 2 games shows that is a real possibility. The PG position remains a little nebulous still at this point. Quickley looks good but hasn't faced a better than average pro guard yet.

Obi Toppin is not free swinging, and may have a longer learning cycle than figured. But he has shown ability. Alberts named him and the other 4 mates on the Floor "Obi and the 4 Tops". I just hope its "Not the same old song". Ok, excuse me "I can't help myself".

We have 2 season games at home but have 5 games on the road. 5 of the 7 games are vs. teams that won 43 or more games last year.

Nice post Mr Stubbs

[garyd]

Ah you can just call me Levi!

[irish2u2]

As Gary so astutely points out the Knicks need reliable scoring. RJ isn’t there yet. I do feel positive for a huge second year from him. He gets it and he’s been pretty aggressive getting his shot. In pre-season. Randle is reliable but he isn’t a superstar type scorer. IQ can certainly be a good scorer but that will take time. I have some real hope that Kevin Knox has worked himself into the rotation and he certainly can be important as a long distance threat BUT he has to play inside too. Both Bullock and Burks plus IQ offer additional long distance shooting. With Mitchell Robinson and Nerlens Noel the Knicks have a solid inside defensive/rebounding presence and between the two you are looking at 18+ points and likely 18+ rebounds plus 4 or 5 blocks. 

Defensively there has to be patience but eventually the Knicks will play Tom Thibodeau basketball. I am a little shocked they didn’t give MKG a longer look because he is certainly a Thibs type player but there a lot of swing players on this team. Right now I think the roster count is 17 players though Iggy and Pinson are hanging on by their finger nails. 

Repeating what somebody else has stated the Knicks are a decently deep team though a stretch big man would fill a need. So let’s look at what the Knicks have, what they need, what roles need to be filled and who fills them.

Let’s start with the front court. The bigs are Robinson, Noel, Randle, Knox, Toppin, Spellman, Burks, Bullock, RJ and at times Ntilikina. You have pretty decent 3 point shooting at the SF with Knox, Bullock and Burks. You certainly have length for defense and rebounding at center but the big questions are can Mitch stay out of foul trouble and can Noel stay healthy.It should be noted that Mitch played 5 ½ quarters without fouling.  Even on a diet of hustle points center is a string position for the Knicks and both Randle and Spellman can play the post BUT as I stated earlier a good shooting power player would be nice. 

Randle is not going to be the source for fans ire that he was last year because he has less of a load to bear. The Knicks need his scoring and rebounding and he is an underrated and undervalued passer but it would be great if he could shoot the trey. That ability makes Randle an easy sell as a key contributor to the ball club. Kevin Knox can shoot the three. Really well. He looks like a different player and while he still has a ways to go on offense by playing better inside and in the post and on defense especially rebounding I see great progress. I certainly see a rotational player and maybe a starter. Maybe even a good starter.  John Calipari has said all along that Year Three was the year Kevin Knox showed he is an impact player. This is Year Three.

A lot of us, including me, expect a lot from Obi Toppin. We will have to be more patient. Eventually I see Obi as a 20 PPG type player but right now he is reluctant to do anything more than look for lobs. He has the shooting skills and he just needs a little confidence in the skills he already has and meanwhile he has shown some surprising talent passing the ball and better than advertised rebounding. Defensively he’s a project.   Spellman is insurance. He has some ability but he looks 30 lbs plus too heavy. 

You look at a projected rotation and certainly Mitch is the starting center, Randle the starting PF and for now Bullock the starting SF with Noel, Toppin and Knox all seeing the backup minutes. 

If IQ is the real deal, and I think he just might be, things in the Knicks backcourt look dramatically better because RJ Barrett looks to be in breakout form. He had some great games in the pre-season but the one that impressed me the most and showed me RJ is ready to be a star was the first game against Detroit when RJ missed his first 6 shots. He took 10 more shots and hit 7 of them to have a more respectable 7-16 shooting night. Barrett averaged over 18 PPG and 50% shooting plus over 85% from the FT line in the pre-season. He averaged double figure shots, good rebounding and passing and better than average defense. The only negative was 3 point shooting where RJ was 2 for 15. The form was good though and the improvement in all other areas of the game warrant some optimism he will become a better 3 point shooter. Now throw in Alec Burks, Austin Rivers and Frank Ntilikina in the guard mix and it doesn’t look too bad especially if IQ and RJ can form our backcourt of the future. 

If Jared Harper is the real deal it puts Payton and DSJ on the bench. If not Payton was always a good choice as a backup PG although even that wasn’t written in stone as DSJ showed some improved defensive chops and he actually hit a few treys. 

Does this all sound like I’m actually hopeful for this season? I’m not.   There are just too many “ifs” on this team. Is RJ demonstrable better? Will Randle cut down on the mistakes? Can Mitch stay out of foul trouble? Can Noel stay healthy? The big question is can IQ be the PG we have been looking for all these seasons? Even if all these questions have favorable there is a simple truth that has to be addressed.

All the prime superstars are signing deals with their current teams. If our guys develop as I hope they can the addition of a Giannis or AD puts them in the championship equation. But the Knicks won’t get Giannis, AD or any other impact superstar unless they revert to their old strategy of going after slightly over the hill superstars or superstars with health issues. The Knicks have to draft and develop their franchise cornerstone player. Right now I think RJ is more Robin than Batman. Can he or Obi be Batman? I don’t know. I do think that a team that has RJ, Obi, Mitch and IQ playing to their potential is exactly what can attract a superstar. I’m fine with that but I prefer to use the draft and just fill in with free agency. When you draft players you have more control over them.

Free agency may be out but trades are not and keep in mind a trade put AD on the Lakers. We have lots of nice pieces and a ton of prime draft picks. While the players are the big area of interest I want to see what Rose and Thibs can do adding and developing talent. To me what they do is every bit as important as what the players do.

Still no prediction. I loved the last game against Cleveland but I’m pragmatic. The Knicks aren’t shooting 52% from beyond the arc on a steady basis.  But if the Knicks can get above 35% as a team from the 3 point line and with the defense they will be playing they could be an interesting team to watch though still 2 years from actually being a competitive playoff team.  

[ReneNYG1]

The coaching staff has had such a short time with the team and I see huge improvement,I'm exciting to see the improvement we can make after a couple of months of practice.