The Knicks are on a barreling path towards the number one pick and a choice between one of the coveted Duke freshmen. As they look forward to the summer, here’s some things Knicks fans can take away from the first half of the season.
What a season it has been for the New York Knicks‘ players and fans. This season wasn’t going to be a playoff one. It’s what fans expected going in to the year. I mean we knew it around June of 2018. But as the clock turned to midnight and confetti rained to bring in 2019, the Knicks are exactly where writers expected them.
At 10-31, the Knicks season is all but over. I don’t see a 41 win streak happening. I don’t even see this team winning another 10 games to be quite frank. Speaking of frank, second-year guard Frank Ntilikina hasn’t been getting steady play and has been injured as of late.
With a steady diet of development talks it had some of the writers around the team baffled. Players like Dameyean Dotson and Trey Burke had racked DNP’s throughout the campaign. Enes Kanter has seen a steady decrease in his minutes over the last month. Maybe those guys aren’t in the future after the season ends, but if development is the key point of the season, why aren’t we developing the young guys?
But it hasn’t been all bad, right? Right.
Rookie Kevin Knox has seen has game improve. It culminated with a Rookie of the Month honor for the month of December after averaging 17 points and 6 rebounds to end the calendar year. He has continued to improve game after game and is looking like a great piece going forward to play along with centerpiece and recovering big Kristap Porzingis.
There’s also Mitchell Robinson. The second round draft pick has shown his defensive prowess. He has shown his willingness to go after the shot, but has also shown the ability to get into foul trouble which has happened on a consistent basis. If he can improve his footwork, I can him getting a Defensive Player of the Year award in the future.
And we can’t write a piece about the Knicks first half without including undrafted rookie Allonzo Trier. He went from a two way G League deal and turned it into a two year one. He has had a promising start of the season but has settled down some, hitting the proverbial ‘rookie wall.’ But if he can continue to improve and show some consistency on the offensive end, the sky’s the limit for that kid.
Noah Vonleh has shown some spark in his game, playing better than anyone has expected in his role and could be a part of the future going forward.
But that’s about it. That’s the season in the nutshell. Development is all that the Knicks have looking forward and the fans are buckled in hoping to hit the lottery come June. But like every lottery, there’s more than one ticket. So fans can hope for some ping pong ball magic, and a superstar free agent wanting to play in The Garden. Until then, we have what we have and when you know, you know.
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