When it comes to big structural dilemmas, the Knicks have been a perennial powerhouse around the NBA, leading the league in front office overhauls, oafish July maneuvers and a couple-few too many trade machine martinis for lunch. They’ve been humping away at this goofy post since well before they poached Big Snacks from the end of the bar in Seattle. Over the past couple seasons, Scott Perry has pushed incremental progress on the organization and it’s seen the Knicks go from laughingstock to hacky joke. 

One of the team’s major selling points right now is future flexibility. Organizational futurismo is cute and all, but the on-court product only lives for the violence of the moment. Here in this wreckage, the Knicks are searching for someone who can open a shattered jar of pickles for them. Don’t ask why. A common refrain for the solution to life’s ills is to simply get a guard, any guard, who can shoot. That, of course, doesn’t account for the pieces of the structure already in place. Not to mention any generic DJ Augustin-type barely makes any waves given the Knicks’ penchant to stargaze through the light pollution. The dense city skyline glowering over the game like a salivating brute holding a rabbit by it’s ears. A crude knife expectantly held up to the star of its ass.  

Still with me? Anyway. Shooting from range is a grave concern for the Knicks, who were 29th in 3-point attempts and 27th in percentage last year. On the interior, things weren’t much different, aside from the dialed-up frequency. They were tied for eighth in field goal attempts inside of 10 feet, according to NBA.com, at 40.8 per game, which is good on the surface. However, in a true blast of misfortune, they shot an unfortunate 55% on these theoretically good shots. That left them for dead at 28th in the league, despite Mitchell Robinson setting the historical record for field goal percentage. Can’t make this up. NBA defenses leaving four and five guys open for various reasons proved to be a death blow. Who’da thunk it.

So what happens if the Knicks add talent in the draft and free agency, but don’t address their point guard deficiencies? Will Fred VanVleet or the DJ Augustins of the world truly consider jumping their respective ships? To here!? Do young players add enough value to help change your course if they aren’t megastars? How can the Knicks cut into their inability to stretch defenses? Is passing ingenuity enough to unclog the offensive arteries? To answer for this and so much more I’ve enlisted the help of our trusty Professor, Matthew Miranda. 

Jonathan Schulman: ¡Profesor! So nice to get a chance to chat with you about one of my favorite upside guys available this offseason. I am pathetically hopeful that Leon Rose can add Harry Giles to this Knicks squadron. Positively dying of HGiiizzle thirst! Admittedly I’m a total sucker for a sneaky bounce pass through a gauntlet of defenders. Hell, I might even pull for Kyle O’Quinn to return even if they do nab Giles. I don’t care!

I just have a feeling there may be a little more tang on this Bake & Shark than we’ve been led to believe. His spectacular array of touch passes, shovels, slips, flips, taps, wraps, lariats, whistlers and sparklers could add a greased up new dimension to a clunky group of gears wont to grind in their own loch of friction. Am I too hopped up on the passing acumen? I know it can’t open up everything, but certainly it could help orchestrate an offense devoid of a virtuoso performer. Helping the team learn, Pavlovian style, to be smart and hard cutters could mitigate their lack of creativity off the bounce and might encourage less ball dominance and isolationism. Add to that, coach Tom Thibodeau has had success with a pivot passer in Joakim Noah previously. What is your impression of Harry Giles? 

Matthew Miranda: Giles brings options at the center spot that no other Knick can, at least on the offensive end. Over his first two seasons, Giles, who turned 22 in April, averaged 17-plus points and 3.5 assists per 36. Though his assist-to-turnover ratio was actually a smidge worse than Julius Randle’s, that hasn’t stopped Harry the Third from anointing himself the best non-Jokić passing big man in the Association. Assuming Randle is still a Knick starter next year, an even easier assumption than “masks help prevent virus germs from spreading,” Giles would likely replace Bobby Portis as New York’s big bringing bumps off the bench. 

In life, you never know what’s coming. The best you can hope for is to have options. Remember when the Knicks visited the Clippers last season? And Montrezl Harrell ate Mitch for breakfast?

JS: Do I have to?

MM: I’m not saying Giles would have shut him down. But he’d give the roster the option of throwing out a different look. Some nights you’re not gonna stop someone from making shots, but you can slow their roll by making them play some defense. In late-and-close games when you need more than the threat of a lob to your center, Giles offers more. Where do you think Giles’ strengths stack up vs. Portis’ shooting or Gibson’s defense and character-y-ness?

JS: I don’t know if I’d be comfy letting Giles run the back line of my defense like I am with Gibson, but that goes for basically all 22-year-olds. However! I already have more confidence in his ability to perform different types of surgeries from the high and low post than I do with Portis. To a complete and flaming hell with that right hand baby hook, Bobby. How these two shoot the ball from range is a different and sobering story, though. My hope with Giles is he can give you 15 punchy minutes from the backup center spot. Blast a few screens to get guys loose and sneak some assists through to timely cutters.

Speaking of surgical precision, the post-op on Giles is just a teency-weency pinch of extremely frightening and threatening red flaggery. In high school he was the No. 1 recruit on ESPN’s top 100 for 2016. A do-it-all big man with excellent scoring touch and instincts as a playmaker. He was majorly sidetracked by an ACL and MCL tear in his left leg as a sophomore. When he came back, he excelled as a junior despite the monstrous leg brace he sported. Then as a senior he tore his ACL again only minutes into debuting with Oak Hill Academy. 

Despite all that, he was still highly regarded among his peers and joined up with Duke for the 2016-17 season. Unfortunately, he promptly had to go under the knife for another knee surgery that kept him out for almost two months. He ended up playing 26 games for the Blue Devils in extremely limited minutes with a handful of starts and decided to jump right into the draft, somewhat surprisingly. Sacramento took him at 20 and sat him directly. He got to learn and practice for a year and seems to have understood and accepted his role within the organization as an energy big to rebound, set screens and keep the ball moving. He’s not quite as gigundous, but he seems to me like a longer, more thought-provoking Noah Vonleh.

MM: “A longer, more thought-provoking Noah Vonleh” sounds like a dream I once had. I’d sign up for that no questions asked, though I’m not sure what to make of Giles’ defense, ultimately. After Sacramento declined to pick up his fourth-year option last offseason, Tony Xypteras of Sactown Royalty criticized them for jettisoning a player whose defense is one of his “three best skills.” But other Kings aficionados bemoan Giles as a deterrent, perhaps because as a center he put up the same 2.3% block percentage as Kevin Knox. 

Giles’ upside is always upended by upheaval — how do we evaluate a lottery-level talent who’s played fewer minutes three years after being drafted than Mitchell Robinson did last year? The offensive end is where Giles shines, but even those tea leaves are muddy. He shot 56% from the field last year, and even better while starting 14 of Sacramento’s final 15 games, when they went 9-5. He made 83% of his shot attempts from 0-3 feet, a better mark than the rim-running, record-setting Robinson. There were minor improvements between Giles’ first-year numbers and last year’s from 10-16 feet (39% to 42%) and 16 feet out to the arc (33% to 38%). He did not attempt a 3-pointer all season, and increased the long twos. Add all that up, and I don’t know what to make of it. Then again, he was playing for the Kings, the Left Coast Knicks. How much do we factor in in-house ineptitude when investigating Giles?

JS: He said that a long time before he was drafted by the Kings, but it sorta makes perfect sense. The spirit is so kindred I even read “Kings” as “Knicks” whenever I see it. Anyway, Giles’ progress was clear, I think the Kings just didn’t want to have a large stable of young, talented guys looking for big pay days. They weighed his injury history as the heaviest factor and then inexpertly cut ties. Quite clearly, the Kings Knicksed. 

As for his defense, he definitely lays it all out for loose balls and does an excellent job reading the play to cut off passing lanes or make drivers uncomfortable without reaching. His blocks often come as a result of expert footwork, cutting off the path, bellying up and throwing his arms to the sky to see if you have the basketball gods on your side. This assertive and close quarters style does throw him in foul jail quite regularly, sorry to report.  One of Harry’s favorite fouls is the deeply damaging moving screen. He committed exactly 100 fouls in 38 games this year, in just under 600 minutes. Two consecutive seasons of being on pace to absolutely foul out per 36 is not so hot. For comparison’s sake, Mitchell Robinson, the foul-proniest Knick in recent memory, committed 194 fouls, but played 23 more games and 833 more minutes.

MM: Imagine the Knicks going all mad scientist next season and letting Mitch and Giles each go full bore for 24 minutes a night! They’d combine for 24 points, 18 rebounds, 5 blocks and 12 fouls per game.

Giles’ passing chops suggest someone who sees a few moves ahead. Last summer, the Kings gave four years and $85M to Harrison Barnes. Marvin Bagley, who plays the same position as Giles, is a year younger and was selected second overall just two years ago. Buddy Hield’s $94 million extension wasn’t official until two days before the season opener, but it’s not like that move came outta left field. De’Aaron Fox is gonna get paid sooner than later. That’s a lot of mouths to feed.

Giles came to camp out of shape, which led Vlade Divac, the then-Sacramento GM, to decline Giles’ fourth-year option; talk around the team that summer was that Giles was “the only Kings player who didn’t show up regularly to work out and get ready.” Maybe that’s a red flag. Or maybe Giles concluded (not unfairly) that busting his ass for a perennial loser who might not give him a pay raise — knowing every time he landed after jumping could lead to the injury that jeopardized or even ended his career — was a sucker move. By having his option declined, Giles now has the freedom to sign with whomever he likes earlier than many of his peers. 

And yet, would anyone capable of such five-dimensional chess go through all that to end up a backup for the Kings of the East? I think Giles would be an intriguing signing for New York. A couple seasons back, the Knicks made it a habit to kick the tires on recent lottery talents — Trey Burke, Emmanuel Mudiay, Noah Vonleh, and Mario Hezonja. Hitting on one of those moves could pay off for years.

JS: We might be huffing some conspiratorial glue, but I think a potential Giles signing is exactly what you say. Can the Knicks turn a distressed asset into a solid contributor given the chance to carve out a larger role? New York’s development program has proven largely unimpressive over the past several years. Most of their new project players come in as one thing and leave a year or two later completely unaltered. Perhaps Giles’ internal drive is enough to stem the tide. His fire might also inspire the more reserved and low-key personalities to punch out a little more bravado.  

Some of Giles’ struggles come from adjusting to the pro game, being young, and trying too hard to make a great impression. Some of that will be whittled away with time. Other parts of his game might never come around, though. His jump shot, for example, is not doing him any favors.

It looks competent out to 15-18 feet, but smart bigs drop 10 feet off him, clogging his passing lanes, because the jumper is highly clunktivated. He honestly seems content to not line those up, and defenses won’t want to press up too much because he can zip a pass behind your firewall. In part, his disinterest in shooting is a structure of the offense. When you have creators and scorers on the wings like Fox, Hield, and Bogdan Bogdanovic, it probably is foolhardy to fire at will. For his part, when Giles can face up from the top of the key with space to attack, he gets much more comfortable. He can finish with force and from tough angles going left or right. If he isn’t headed downhill, he tends to pull the string.  

The other faint glimmer of hope about his jumper is maybe limited minutes led to a risk-averse brand of ball. In perilously small sample size theatre, he played four games for the Stockton Kings and went randomly rampaging, averaging a point a minute. He hit 8-12 from distance out of nowhere. He then went on to not shoot a single triple last year, and you could see the extra oomph he has to thrust into it when he did let if fly from deep. His free throw percentage is buns too, and that ain’t helping: sub-70% for his career. Last season’s uptick to .767 is nice, but in a shortened season on fewer than 50 attempts, we might just be looking at a free throw stroke of luck.

So at 22, with no real jumper in sight, immense foul issues, some turnover hijinks we didn’t even get to, and as tumultuous an injury history as you can have, what keeps you coming back to this guy? How does it feel like it makes sense to add Harry Giles to this patchwork youth quilt?

MM: I think it’s because Giles offers definition, whereas the Knick roster is still mostly gibberish.

Whoever the Knicks draft this offseason, that player will be the only player guaranteed a spot on the team two years from now. Mitch, RJ Barrett and Kevin Knox all have team options; Randle’s contract is partially guaranteed. Robinson and Barrett are all but assured of still being here in 2022, but the lack of definition applies to positions, too. Is Barrett a 2? A 3? A someday slightly smaller version of Randle at the 4? Is Knox a stretch 4? Or a big 3? Can Robinson establish himself as a starting 5, or is he better as a spark off the bench?

A lot of talk around the Knicks centers on the big-picture stuff: top-shelf lottery talents or the biggest free agents or trade candidates. Yet the Knicks never move up in the draft and rarely sign big free agents. Imagining a successful bench isn’t as sexy as speculating about Killian Hayes or Giannis Antetokounmpo, but it’s good, wholesome family fun. Giles is young, inexpensive, talented, and brings a skill set we haven’t seen much around these parts of late. He’s fiery and he can dime. It’s a start.