IQ + Obi = everything nice?
Since a pivotal moment of this season — a March 4 loss on the road to the Phoenix Suns — the Knicks have had a resurgence, led by second-year players Immanuel Quickley and Obi Toppin. How have they made the Knicks so much better?
This has been a season of distinct seasons for the New York Knicks. The 5-1 start that felt like a jumping off from last year but turned out to be no more than a flashback. A year ago, Derrick Rose’s arrival in New York marked the sea change toward success; this year, his right ankle injury in mid-December meant the 2022 Knicks played most of their games without their two best players from a year ago: Rose and 2021 Julius Randle. Sports scholars are divided on the actual moment Randle went from a down year to open warfare with the fans, but we all know it happened.
March 4, 2022 seemed, at the time, memorable only for how the Knicks lost.
That was also the night Randle was ejected for trying to shove Cameron Johnson out of existence. Something else happened that night to mark the final and perhaps most meaningful demarcation of this season. That night, Immanuel Quickley played more than 21 minutes – 26:51, to be exact. That was, at the time, exceptional playing time for IQ. In the ten games before that loss, he played fewer than 21 minutes eight times. In the past 18 games, Quickley has played 21-plus in every one.
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