Pelicans 102, Knicks 91: A night to forget

The Knicks found the newest in a long line of new lows against the lowly Pelicans at home. Can this game finally be the wake-up call needed for their head coach and star player?

A night to forget

It’s impossible to me that anybody wants to read this. Why would you put yourself through that? This game was an absolute catastrophe. Everything Knick fans feared about this season manifested itself in one 48-minute long nightmare. If you are here, you probably already know what happened; the Knicks got annihilated from start to finish by a team that, once again, looked much more interested in playing together than the Knicks did. 

The last thing any of you want is a breakdown of this game. It’s another in the rapidly growing list of Knick games most of us would prefer to forget. So what do we talk about? Euphoria’s Maude Apatow was at the game rocking Knicks gear, that’s pretty sweet. No, unfortunately, there’s still plenty to discuss. Because, while the Knicks did not put their best foot forward, this game still had potential long-term ramifications. What were they? Why do they matter? Let’s sift through the fallout and try to figure out where the Knicks go from here.

A quick recap

In case any of you reading this have and used one of those dope memory zap devices that Tommy Lee Jones used in Men In Black on yourself, let’s do a quick run through of last night’s game. The Knicks started the game in a familiar fashion — sloppily. They could not get anything to fall, tying their lowest first half point total with 42. Despite that, there were a few positives. For starters, there was a defensive energy that seemed contagious amongst the entire Knick roster. The Pelicans scored just 46 points, and even that felt like more than they deserved, as the Knicks were flying around determined to make up for their offensive woes. RJ Barrett, tasked with the difficult assignment of chasing Brandon Ingram around, was especially impressive. It felt like almost every time Ingram attempted a shot, Barrett was right there with him.

And then… the third quarter happened. Gone was the team looking to fight for every possession, replaced by the more familiar one, the one that seems to have bought into their preseason hype without having accomplished anything (more on that later). In just over eight minutes, a 4-point deficit transformed into a 24-point thrashing. The Knicks did nothing well, and worse, it didn’t even look like they cared. This includes their coach Tom Thibodeau, who takes pride in being a man with a hammer who sees every dilemma as a nail, who sat by and watched this entire massacre unfold and did nothing. By the time Immanuel Quickley, Quentin Grimes, and Obi Toppin, all of whom finished the game with plus-minuses in the positive double digits, entered the game, it was well out of hand. Naturally, the bench unit fought back and even had a decent 3-point look to cut the deficit to seven late in the fourth quarter. But, for all intents and purposes, the game was over when the starters checked out in the third quarter to a chorus of boos.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Mitchell Robinson, who continued his strong play in spite of his fellow starters’ futility. Robinson had 17 points on 6-7 shooting and 15 rebounds to go along with it. While fellow starters Barrett, Julius Randle, Evan Fournier, and Kemba Walker all had plus-minuses of -21 or worse, Robinson was just -1 in his 30 minutes. The Knicks’ best minutes came when Robinson played with the bench. He was, by a wide margin, the Knicks’ best player last night.

Julius Randle

I couldn’t decide whether to start here or with Thibs. This likely won’t be fair, but it’s 2:00 AM and I’m writing a game recap about a basketball game nobody wants to remember. I’m putting more effort into this game than some Knicks, especially Julius Randle, had the decency to provide last night. I’ve earned a one night free pass.

Let’s, once again, start with the game. I actually did not hate Randle’s first shift. While his shooting struggles continued, Randle had five assists in the first quarter alone. He was hopping around looking to make himself involved despite his lack of a shot. I especially noticed him trying to build chemistry with Walker, as if he were determined to prove that the duo can work together. 

After that, there were no positives. None. It’s not that he missed shots. Missing shots would have been a step up. He was completely invisible. The last half of the third quarter was particularly damning. I had the misfortune of rewatching the game for tomorrow’s clip thread, and I invite anyone who is skeptical of what I am about to say to do the same, but this stretch of the game was the most checked out I have seen Randle in his tenure as a Knick. Which is pretty freaking impressive considering whatever the 2019-2020 season was. Randle stood in place on the perimeter, once again determined, but this time to not be involved at all. When the basketball randomly found his hands, he played hot potato with it, even with the most glaring mismatches.

That’s Jose Alvarado — who had a really cool postgame interview by the way, check it out — and he is listed at an extremely generous 6-foot. The Pelicans don’t even send a double. Does this look like the Julius Randle we saw last season? So what has happened? Is he hurt? Probably. But it has to be more than that. Because there are still times we see glimpses of the man every Knick fan fell in love with a year ago. 

Occam’s razor tells me it’s mental. This isn’t some thinly-veiled shot at Randle, nor is it some baseless hot take that he “can’t handle New York.” We know he can handle New York. He’s done it before! But this is a pot of water that has been waiting to boil over for quite some time now. What’s saddest to me is that I believe the origin of Randle’s struggles came with good intentions. You see, the goal of the Knicks’ offseason was to alleviate the burden Randle bore last season. They knew he was bound to regress as a shooter, so they wanted to offset that by putting teammates next to him who would make his life easier and put him in better spots, the way he so often does for others. What the front office didn’t consider, however, is that, from a certain perspective, Randle’s basketball life was incredibly simple last year. There were no qualms about whose team it was, nor mouths he had to feed. This was Julius Randle’s basketball team, and he had free rein to do what he wanted, when he wanted. 

Fast forward to this season and, all of a sudden, Randle had company aboard the Usage Train. Which brings us back to the origins of Randle’s struggles; I believe Randle wanted this new paradigm to work. I believe he wanted it to work so badly that he sacrificed his personal comfort and flow in pursuit of accommodating his new partners in crime. After all, Randle trusts himself, and he had built a season’s worth of good will with the loyal New York faithful. 

What Randle likely did not expect was that he would not ever find his footing. That amidst a slew of lineup and rotation changes, the single constant would be Randle himself continuing to struggle. To go along with that, it did not help matters that Obi Toppin came out of the gate firing on all cylinders. And with Thibodeau all but refusing to allow Randle to share the court with Toppin, the further the Knicks limped their way along this season, the more Knick fans began to lose patience with their laboring superstar, because they realized that every minute they watched him struggle was a minute they could be watching Obi Toppin.

Randle, of course, hasn’t helped himself along the way. Fifteen days ago, as the raucous crowd roared during an inspiring comeback many believed would jumpstart another midseason turnaround, Randle stuck his thumbs down at the crowd, signaling for them to, as he’d later confirm, “shut the fuck up.” Aside from one practice, he has not spoken with the press since. After last night’s game, the Knicks sent 21-year-old Barrett to sit in front of the New York media and answer for the team’s crimes. Barrett answered each question with poise and professionalism, but he’s not the man who should have been sitting in that chair. No. The man who should have faced the media down was last seen checking out of the basketball game with 1:28 left in the third quarter to a chorus of cheers from the Mecca crowd. The cheers were not sarcastic. They chanted one name — O-bi Top-pin.

Tom Thibodeau

Which brings us to Thibodeau. After reading that diatribe about Randle you’re probably thinking, “oh, so it’s easy, he wants to trade Randle and rebuild the rotation around the wide array of impressive young players the Knicks possess.” Surprisingly, that is not the case. I said before the season that, due to circumstance and outlier shooting numbers, it was likely we’d never see Randle play a season as good as the last ever again. I stand by that. But I still believe in Randle on this team.

I believe in him because, despite his struggles, we have seen the major skillset he possesses. I also do not believe Randle is as mediocre a shooter as he has been this season. Most importantly, I don’t think Randle, along with most of the rest of the Knicks roster, has been optimized this season. Randle plays almost 100% of his minutes on the floor with a center who cannot hurt the opposing defense outside of three feet. Worse, the Knicks start an incredibly high percentage of their action with their center as the primary ball screener. This leaves Randle to do the majority of his damage as a primary ball handler or in isolation from the elbow. Sort of defeats the purpose of alleviating Randle’s burden, no?

Randle isn’t the only one this affects. Randle’s backup, Toppin, who doesn’t possess a meaningful fraction of Randle’s creation or shooting ability, is even more reliant on receiving the ball with an advantage, in space, to thrive. Thibodeau has shown little interest in pushing that button. Toppin, like Randle, also spends the majority of his time on the court with a center, and is used very infrequently as the primary screener. Thibodeau, instead, opts to have Toppin, barely a 20% 3-point shooter, stand in the corner and “space.” Unsurprisingly, the majority of Toppin’s impact has come off of random cuts or in transition. 

Thibodeau’s stubbornness carries over to his rotations, which are as rigid as they are aimless. Immanuel Quickley, drafted in the same round of the same draft as Toppin, doesn’t create rim pressure. So, despite a carousel of injuries, benchings, and COVID absences, Quickley, another of the Knicks’ biggest catalysts for success, has started just two games. Remember, Thibodeau is the same man who started Elfrid Payton every opportunity he could last season. 

The biggest issue, however, brings us full circle — Thibodeau refuses to play Toppin and Randle together. The truth of the matter is, there may not be a more important question than if Toppin and Randle can play together. Because, if they can’t, the Knicks need to adjust and adapt. There’s no point to them both being on the team if their combined ceiling for any game is 48 minutes. But not only does Thibodeau seemingly lack interest in the question, he refuses to even ask.

So, as Randle exited the court last night hearing Toppin’s name chanted, I couldn’t help but think that Randle’s growing frustration was, at least somewhat, Thibodeau’s doing. Because while the words Randle heard were “Obi Toppin,” the meaning behind them, to him, were “sit Julius Randle.” And why shouldn’t they be? Tom Thibodeau has turned this into a zero-sum equation. In order for Toppin to play more, Randle has to play less.

Looking ahead

Let’s start with the obvious — the Knicks are in trouble. They’re now two games under .500 and one game behind both the Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors for the second play-in game. In addition, they have the second-most difficult strength of schedule to finish the season. While most Knick fans did not have championship aspirations, choosing to view this instead as a bridge year, there was still a plethora of optimism headed into this season. That seems to have faded as well. 

The Knicks also need to figure out what exactly their goals are. Just because they’re not winning a championship this season doesn’t mean it won’t matter. What do they want from the starting lineup? Is it to maximize the production and chemistry of Randle and Barrett? If so, one of Walker or Fournier needs to go. They somehow went from a one man show to too many mouths to feed. 

To go along with that, this game emphasized the need for flexibility. As I mentioned earlier, the Knicks have an abundance of young players at their disposal. Between Barrett, Quickley, Toppin, Quentin Grimes, Robinson, not to mention the rarely used Jericho Sims and Deuce McBride, it is essential the team finds a way to see what units can work together and what don’t. 

To be clear, I’m not calling for a tank. I know that goes against everything in Coach Thibodeau’s fiber. But a middle ground exists. There are ways to get Quickley more time with Barrett and Randle. There are paths to getting Toppin 20 minutes a game off the bench as opposed to 10. That path involves him sharing the court with Randle 5-10 minutes a night. Will Thibodeau give it a try? Or will he continue to hammer this nail against the wall? I guess only time will tell.