How They Drew It Up: Week 1
The Knicks had a competitive first week of the 2022-23 season, with a tight loss to the Grizzlies and a blowout win over the Pistons. Even so, there were good things, and plenty of bad as well. Drew Steele breaks down the week that was for the Knicks.
Welcome again to another edition of your favorite basketball film analyst’s favorite basketball film analysis article. I don’t really know if anyone learns anything productive when reading this, but I hope they feel the vibes of what I tend to notice when watching a Knicks game. I want you to run through an emotional gamut of joy, laughter, anger, and confusion. You know, fandom.
Week 1 is in the books for the New York Knicks and it was a somewhat fun roller coaster ride — think Rolling Thunder at Six Flags Great Adventure — of two rather different games. In the season opener, the Knicks lost to the Memphis Grizzlies in overtime despite awful, dreadful, and downright disappointing games from RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, Mitchell Robinson, and Obi Toppin. They were buoyed by a very good and complete game from Julius Randle, a second-half surge from Jalen Brunson, and heroics from the one and only #CamFam, Cam Reddish. The Knicks followed that game up with a good old-fashioned beatdown of the Detroit Pistons. In that game, the core Knicks young players who stunk it up in Memphis put on a show for the Garden crowd despite an appearance from Grundle and his sidekick Evan Fournier.
There were a good amount of moments from these two games. The home opener was much more fun than the Memphis game, so that will be highlighted a bit more. Do we really want to punish ourselves and rewatch RJ Barrett’s first half and overtime defense? I certainly don’t, especially after rewatching all of his layup bricks.
Sorry, I am bringing down the mood. Let’s pick it right back up and get into the videos. First up, #CamFam, baby!
#CamFam delivers in the clutch
The out-of-bounds play the Knicks ran at the end of regulation to force overtime was surprisingly decent, and was made to look very good primarily because of a big defensive error by the Grizzlies. Here’s the play:
Brunson waits for Barrett to get freed up from the screen to do a handoff right back to Brunson. It appears Memphis is late on their switch, because Ja went for the steal. Why? Who knows. Either way, Brunson gets a head of steam and drives to the middle of the court. #CamFam’s defender is not doing one of the best Clyde-isms, “see the ball, see your man,” and completely loses Reddish on the baseline. Instead, he is doing what you do for effectively every other defensive possession besides this specific one and steps in front of Brunson to take away the layup. Memphis was up by three and New York did not have any fouls left. Give Brunson the layup and stick with your man.
Instead, Brunson gives a money pass to Cam and he drains the corner three. It’s a great look, but it never should have happened. Too bad overtime was a dud, because that would have been a nice win to start the season. #CamFam redeems himself!
Barrett and Randle lock up Morant
I know I mentioned Barrett was not good in the Memphis game, but he did step up the defense in the second half before he decided to get caught on every screen in overtime. Fun fact: Ja Morant had six turnovers that game, five of them happening in the second half and in overtime. Let’s highlight one of those turnovers, because it’s just excellent defense from both Barrett and Randle
Memphis decides to run a fake 1–5 pick-and-roll that’s actually a 1–4 pick-and-roll. Odd play call to me, because Memphis running a 1–5 pick-and-roll means Steven Adams is the screener and Isaiah Hartenstein is playing in drop coverage. Instead, it’s Brandon Clarke as the screener and Randle as the other defender. Randle plays up on Morant, Clarke sets a terrible screen, Barrett gets immediately over it to get the strip. Morant had absolutely nowhere to go because Randle had him bottled up from below, Barrett from over the top, and Clarke in no-man’s land. Knicks get out in transition leading to an RJ trip to the line.
In what was mostly a not good defensive game, a play like this shines through a bit more. Especially when most of the game was like this…
Put a body on someone!
In this play, Tyus Jones gets some free space off a high pick-and-roll in semi-transition from Xavier Tillman Sr. Quickley does get a solid contest despite the good screen, but it was all for naught. Why? Because Hartenstein didn’t want to box out.
Big Zeke is just ball watching without a care in the world. Tillman blows right by him without any sort of impediment. Tillman gets in great offensive rebounding position, gets the rebound, and has an even easier layup. This type of effort is very frustrating to watch. Whoever grabs the individual rebound ultimately doesn’t matter because defensive rebounding impacts at the team level. Boxing out is the most important aspect of rebounding. Okay, maybe actually securing the rebound is, but I think you get the point. Always box out your man when the shot goes up.
The duo of Randle and Fournier
There is a very simple reason why the next clip is here: Julius Randle short roll.
If Randle is going to be on the team and he’s getting minutes, Thibs and Co. can at least run plays like this for him to put him in the best position to personally succeed while adding positive value to the team. Memphis goes to trap Fournier, Randle correctly slips, and Fournier delivers the pass as he should have. Randle now has a clear runway to the rim. The read is simple: Adams is either going to stay with Mitch or help off Mitch to take away the drive. Adams takes away the drive, leaving Robinson open. Randle makes the correct read for an easy dunk. Do more of this for Randle, please.
Chef Brunson in the kitchen
This is straight up a highlight you see on SportsCenter. Jaden Ivey, welcome to the NBA:
It was either this or Brunson cookin’ Cade Cunningham. Either way, the footwork in impeccable, and I’m all in on Jalen Brunson. He’s the goods.
Always pick up the ball handler
Look at this nonsense:
Apparently, Detroit was totally fine allowing Jalen Brunson to bring the ball up with no one picking him up on defense. It looks like Ivey decided to cross sides of the court to pick up Barrett even though Bogdonovic was already on that side of the court. Whatever the reason may be, it’s still completely inexcusable to allow that shot to happen.
Knicks-related: Brunson hitting pull-up threes like that at a higher rate will make him an All-Star.
Dallas Palace of Analysis crossover event
If you haven’t watched the third episode of the Webby-nominated series “Dallas Palace of Analysis,” not only are you missing out on great content, you should do so now and then skip the following and go straight to the video. The Strickland’s own Dallas discussed one of the core tenets of a Thomas Thibodeau defense: protect the paint at all costs. The Knicks will leave players in the corners open on purpose in order to make sure a layup is not given up.
There is a notable downside to having these sort of “automatics” on defense: you’re leaving shooters open and the recovery distance from the paint to the perimeter is daunting if you’re doing it over and over on a nightly basis. This is what happens when you get a cross-matchup on defense where Robinson is not guarding the screener on the possession, rather the forward who’s going to spot up in the corner.
Ivey has the step on Barrett, Robinson comes in to collapse, and Randle gives a Grundle amount of effort to “stop” the penetration. This is just a basic read for Ivey to hit Bey wide open in the corner. And this is somehow not the worst defensive possession from Julius Randle in this game. Bonkers, man. Bonkers.
More bad defense…
It’s actually rather amusing that I’m highlighting bad defense in a blowout win against the Pistons where Immanuel “God’s Son” Quickley dropped a cool and easy 20-7-7 game. I can’t shake bad defense, especially when it’s low-effort. I was originally going to highlight three different clips of matador defense from the dynamic duo of Grundle and Evan “Don’t Google Me” Fournier. I instead picked this gem because it’s Bojan Bogdonovic again looking like he’s a superstar.
Bogdonovic is picked up extremely late in semi-transition, to the point where someone could reasonably argue that he actually was not picked up. Both Robinson and Brunson are pointing over to Bogdonovic. Barrett has Ivey, so I’m almost certain Fournier was on the opposite side of the court because, you know, reasons. The inevitable blow-by happens and Randle rotates to help. Randle, for whatever reason, thinks he’s some sort of intimidating defender and tries to do that fake “I’m gonna defend you” type of move that never works unless you’re playing a small child at the park. I was irate when this play happened. It’s some of the worst defense you will see at any level of basketball. Don’t be like Grundle, guys. Contest the goddamn shot!
RJ “Delano” Barrett
You know, because he drops dimes and the old white man on the US dime… you know what, let’s start over.
RJ Barrett dishing and swishing
That’s better. Alright, let us end on a happy and fun note, because that home opener was legitimately fun and exciting. What we are about to watch is good defense leading to better offense. This play should be the identity of this team moving forward. They have the players to do this consistently. It will be up the Tom Thibodeau to hold the players accountable and, more importantly, himself accountable to install this ideology. Let’s go to the tape:
I’m pretty sure that’s Isiah “Beef Stew” Stewart who’s supposed to set a screen for Cunningham to drive into the heart of the Knick defense. It’s not a good screen. Barrett gets immediately over the “screen” and stays in great position on Cunningham. Cade cannot get Barrett on his hip properly to gain leverage, and by the time he gets some free space, Cunningham is met by Robinson. Barrett is in great position for the rebound, grabs it, and starts to run. Beautiful. Just beautiful.
That alone could be the highlight, but Barrett drops an absolute DIME to an actually hustling Julius Randle in transition. None of the Pistons pick him up. Randle has an easy path to the basket, Barrett finds him, and BOOM, an easy two points. This is the beautiful basketball I want to see at the Garden each and every night.
