The Knicks won in definitive fashion on their home floor against one of the teams in the NBA that’s struggling more than they are right now. Can this be a springboard for the Knicks? And ultimately does the development of their young guys make this season worth it regardless?

A basketball game was played at Madison Square Garden last night! Spoiler alert, the Knicks were the better team to step onto the court. By far. Those of you reading this likely know the meaning behind that statement — it’s hard to be meaningfully worse than the Knicks right now. But, boy were the Kings bad.

How much meaning can we put into a game where the opposing team, missing its best player De’Aaron Fox, treated it like an exhibition game? Was this the game to turn the Knicks’ season around? Or was it a band-aid for a bullet wound? Let’s dive in.

A familiar start, an encouraging bounce-back

While the scoreboard didn’t fully reflect it (again, thank you Kings!), the Knicks came out a bit sluggish. It’s abundantly clear at this point that Kemba Walker is not working. With RJ Barrett taking a leap forward in the month of January, he can no longer be ignored as a primary initiator. What this means is that Walker, who plays almost the entirety of his minutes with Barrett, along with Julius Randle and Evan Fournier, spends very little time with the ball in his hands. Asking Kemba to contribute without the ball is like asking Randle to face the media after a loss. Too soon?

Fortunately for the Knicks, Fournier came to play. As Clyde loves to point out, Fournier has been the king of hot starts recently, and he continued that trend last night. What I found most encouraging about his start was not the shots falling, but the process that occurred to create the shots themselves. Slowly but surely, Fournier seems to be rediscovering the chemistry with Randle that was so prevalent out of the gate of the season. At one point in the first quarter they assisted each other on three straight 3-pointers.

Randle, by the way, was quite solid. It’s never been about his shooting struggles, some regression was expected in that department. But effort should not be as volatile as it has been. And it wasn’t last night. Randle, despite continuing to cede a percentage of his usage to accommodate his teammates, battled for offensive rebounds and made multiple defensive rotations he had been missing recently. It never felt like he was checked out of the game. Unfortunately, that’s the bar he’s set.

Aside from Fournier, the stars of the first half were Mitchell Robinson and Alec Burks. Robinson was a monster, and probably the most valuable player in the game. Oftentimes he is a one-man defense, tasked with plugging multiple leaks in the Knicks’ coverage. Last night he did just about every time. When he wasn’t protecting the paint, he was obliterating the undersized Kings front court on the offensive glass. The value of Robinson’s ability to impact a game without scoring or even a play being called for him cannot be understated.

Burks’ game was much needed, for both him individually and the team. Burks, perhaps taxed from Thibodeau’s overuse of him, had been slumping for a few weeks. After leading the Kings by 10 at the end of the first quarter, the Knicks’ bench struggled at the start of the second. Burks picked them up, pushing the pace scoring 9 of his 21 points in the second. When he wasn’t scoring he was finding his teammates for lobs in the early offense. Behind Burks’ strong play, the Knicks entered the half with a 13-point lead.

The youth movement

The game, which never really felt in doubt, got out of hand late in the third quarter, loosening head coach Tom Thibodeau’s typically tight grip on the game. All five starters checked out of the game and did not return, giving way for the bench mob to shine in the Garden. They did not disappoint. Quentin Grimes and Obi Toppin led the way, wowing the Knicks faithful with effort and highlight plays, one of which (a pass fake to euro step drive) had Clyde comparing Toppin to two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. 

A game like this means very little if the highlights don’t feel like progression or sustainability. I think this is why Knick fans, looking for any reason to find optimism, came away from last night’s game feeling overwhelmingly positive — because Grimes, Toppin, and Robinson, three of their most important young pieces, each flashed skills that show they are progressing the way we want them to.

Robinson grabbed an offensive rebound near the free throw line and, seeing the defense over-anticipate a kick out, pivoted and took a dribble towards the basket before laying the ball in easily over a defender. Grimes was everywhere defensively and shot with confidence, per usual, but last night he created multiple baskets for himself in isolation, showing a filthy hesitation dribble. And Toppin, still not close to optimized in the Knicks’ scheme, continues to find ways to contribute, capping off his stellar night with a left handed layup off-the-bounce we have seen very little of in his short career.

This game may have felt meaningless to some, and I can understand why. After all, I did compare the Kings’ effort-level to that of a team playing an exhibition game. But sometimes a meaningless game like this can be just what a team needs. Do I think the Knicks are going to have a miraculous late-season push into the playoffs? Probably not. But, if anything, that makes what we saw last night even more meaningful. For 29 teams, each season is going to end in disappointment. That’s the nature of the National Basketball Association. The good franchises are the ones that find progress and value in the disappointing seasons. Think back to the Knicks of 2014-2020 — were any of those seven losing seasons productive towards the franchise’s greater good? The answer is no. But these Knicks, highlighted by the growth of Grimes, Toppin, and Robinson, as well as Immanuel Quickley and Barrett, give fans hope that, for the first time in a long time, they are on the right path.