The Knicks are off to an average start. Before getting blown out by the Nets on Wednesday, the Knicks were 5-5, 0-5 against teams above .500 and 5-0 against teams below .500 while being 16th in offense and 16th in defense, incredibly average. That, of course, has changed after the loss on Wednesday; they are now 23rd in offense and 19th in defense after the eye opening blowout defeat to the Nets. Let’s dive into what the 2022-23 Knicks can be and the trade they did not make in September.
The Knicks most played lineup thus far has been Jalen Brunson, Evan Fournier, RJ Barrett, Julius Randle, and Mitchell Robinson (who has missed the last 3 games due to injury). They have played 110 minutes together this season with an offensive rating of 107.7 and a defensive rating of 116.0, that is a net rating of -9.2, which is last in the league for 5 player lineups that have played at least 100 minutes. This is a unit that does not defend, the backcourt of Brunson and Fournier is not expected to be good defensively so they need to be great offensively and they have not been. Julius Randle has been good, averaging 20.5 points and 9.1 rebounds on shooting splits of .46/.35/.74, that is really good, not the player he was in 2021 where he made All-NBA but that is not who Julius Randle is, he is a good player who can give you 20 and 10 every night and that is what he has done to start the season. RJ Barrett has also had a productive start to the season at 19.3 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. He has not shot the 3 well, 30.6% on the season, so if he starts making more 3’s his point total should get to that 23 to 24 range you would like it to be at this point. Of course the passing is still developing but I like RJ Barrett and although he has not been great and needs to be better, I think he will play better as the season goes along. Jalen Brunson is really good and was a needed addition the Knicks got this past summer. Again, he has not shot the 3 well, 29.5%, but he has done a good job setting up the offense and is off to a good start at 19.2 points and 6.8 assists. The center position is good, both Mitchell Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstien are good players and are interchangeable and I am a huge fan of their 3rd center as well in Jericho Sims. The issue has been the 2 guard… and well there is a player who plays for the Cavaliers who could have filled that spot very well.
Quentin Grimes is a good player, good defensive player and good 3 point shooter, a guy I think the Knicks and their fans are overvaluing him but a good player and someone who should be a part of their future. Obi Toppin is a fine player, I’m not the biggest fan, he is a 4 with limited positional flexibility, who has shot the 3 pointer better this season but is not too much of a needle mover to me. Immanuel Quickley is very confident in himself but has shot the ball poorly this season and is, again, just a fine player, not a needle mover. Deuce McBride, Cam Reddish, even RJ Barrett are there as well, who are all young players who could become something but Donovan Mitchell is so good and wanted to be a Knick, he is even from the New York area. The Knicks overvalued the picks they traded for at the draft, though I am not sure how highly valued they expected a lottery protected pick from the Wizards to be across the league. I understand being nervous about trading your own picks but the Knicks are in the middle and Donovan Mitchell could have at least lifted them to a playoff team and helped attract another star to want to play with him and become a Knick. Cleveland traded 3 picks and 2 swaps, you could have traded more than that because you had all your picks plus extra. The point of trading for Donovan Mitchell was not to just trade for Donovan Mitchell and say this is our team, the point of trading for Donovan Mitchell was to help attract a guy to want to play with Mitchell and potentially build something special in one of the NBA’s biggest and best markets.
The Knicks are an average team. They do not do anything that wows you, they don’t have any players, or young players, that wow you, and they have not beaten teams that do have players that wow you. I understand why they did not want to trade all their picks for Mitchell, it would have been a massive risk. However, as I said with the Nets last week, you have to take that chance when it presents itself because when you don’t take that chance, you have no chance and are stuck in purgatory or are hitting reset and praying for lottery balls, the same thing the Knicks have been doing for years now.
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