The Strickland Knicks mailbag: Point guard by committee, heart hurts & heart hunger
Matthew Miranda tackles YOUR mailbag questions from yesteryear. Literally, they were asked in December, but it’s cool!
Hello true believers! I was very sick for a while, but I got better. So we’re covering December’s mailbag questions here in January. We’ll have a January edition soon, should Allah permit it.
1)
I think the answer to Jack’s second question -- “yes” -- relieves some of the pressure on the trio you mentioned in question one.
As of Friday’s loss in Cleveland, three Knicks have started at least 10 games and averaged at least 3.4 assists per game: Julius Randle, Elfrid Payton and RJ Barrett. Of the 18 teams currently in playoff position, only two can claim such diversity in their diming — Milwaukee (Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday) and Boston (Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart). Teams can succeed using more of a playmaker-by-committee than the singular messianic point guard we’re always longing for.
Continuity is easy to overlook, but in basketball as in romance, marriage and shoplifting, familiarity is the key to success. The six Knicks who’ve played the most minutes this year were all on the team last year. Barrett’s assist rate has climbed from 12.8% to 14.3% while his turnover rate’s fallen from 12.9% to 8.6%.
Of course, continuity is no good if the love or the loving is continually off-key. You need to be able to change things up, and the Knicks have benefited here, too. Payton’s current assist rate would be the lowest of his career, whereas his usage rate is a career-high 24.2%; after never taking more than 13.6 shots per 36 minutes, he’s close to 16 this season. As for Randle, his assists rate is nearly 33%, a meteoric rise for a player who never broke the 20% mark before. His current rate is more than double what he put up the prior three seasons.
Sharing is caring, but caring is also sharing. This year’s Knicks are making a point of spreading not only the wealth, but the spreading, too. Last season the only Knicks to play 20+ minutes per with an assist rate over 15% were Randle, Payton and Ntilikina. This season there are four -- Randle, Payton, Alec Burks (in just three games) and Austin Rivers. Quickley isn’t far off from joining them (18.6 minutes/18%), nor is Barrett (37.5 minutes/14.3%).
The “everybody eats” ethos seems typical of Tom Thibodeau teams. In Thibs’ first four years in Chicago his Bulls finished ninth, fifth, eighth and 10th; his first year in Minnesota the Timberwolves were ninth. The Knicks had been up around 20th this season before their recent offensive stupor dropped them to 29th.
I imagine RJ, IQ and an idealized, actually healthy Ntilikina all have the playmaking chops to be part of a community approach to playmaking. Maybe that ends up being enough moving forward. Maybe the answer to the Knicks’ point guard problems was already on the roster. Just not where we were looking.
2)
One of the blessings of following the Knicks as long as I have is that Kristaps Porziņģis doesn’t crack my all-time top-10 as far as meaningful Knicks. If you never dated before or you only been in love once or twice, I get it -- every breakup feels like Armageddon. I’ve been up and down too many times with this franchise to get hung up on someone who played fewer games here than Iman Shumpert.
I don’t care if KP wins no rings, one ring or eight rings, nor whether he’s in Dallas, Los Angeles or Real Madrid. I supported trading him the day it happened -- not because I thought he was ungrateful, but because it never made sense to hand a max contract with no injury protections to a player who never looked like a #1 option, who was never healthy and whose build made his durability a question mark the day he entered the league.
Ntilikina becoming an All-Star elsewhere would sting because it was known since the Knicks drafted him that he was a long-term project. I think KP’s rapid rise may have hurt Frank in some people’s eyes. Remember that Porziņģis was viewed as a project and burst onto the scene quicker than anyone dared to dream. Then Frank came along and I think some people were tired of waiting before the waiting had even started. Plus the organization has never seemed committed to Ntilikina, jerking around his minutes and his roles. He’s on his fourth coach in his fourth season. Almost every recipe ever calls for bringing something to a boil, then letting it simmer for a while. The Knicks have done neither with Frank.
The eruption of joy and light this fan base will produce if Ntilikina ever became an All-Star in New York would make a supernova don shades. Short of the Knicks winning a championship, I’m not sure I can imagine a bigger thing happening with this team.
3) Would you rather have Dennis Smith Jr. or Allonzo Trier on this team right now? Or Emmanuel Mudiay?
-- stingy d
I feel this is a leading question designed to make me once again proclaim my undying love for Mudiay, a love that will never die. However, I thought about it some and surprised myself with my answer. I choose Trier. Pro’ly for the same reason my favorite Star Wars character, surprisingly, turned out to be Kylo Ren...or if you prefer a more recondite reference, Roxanne from the BBC series Hex. Nothing moves me like a good redemption arc.
The idea of ball-stopper Trier on this team suggests the potassium cyanide Jonestown used to poison the Kool-Aid. But what if Trier were transformed playing under a real coach on a winning team? What if their collective unselfishness found a willing convert in Allonzo? A 24-year-old with Trier’s microwavability coupled with the desire to share the Thibs gospel? Reggie Bullock and Alec Burks are both 29. Wouldn’t mind a youngster who can spot-up from deep and create his own shot. Don’t worry, Mudiay. We’ll always have Memphis.
4)
TIER 1: A HUG AT THE DOOR AND NOTHING MORE
Ignas Brazdeikis/Immanuel Quickley/Omari Spellman = Let’s be friends, a.k.a. Let’s not drag this nothing out into something, ‘cuz it’s not anything.
TIER 2: A KISS ON THE CHEEK; MAYBE CALL IN A WEEK
Julius Randle/Elfrid Payton/RJ Barrett/Mitchell Robinson/Austin Rivers = We’re never gonna be a thing, but sometimes it’s better to be alone with somebody else.
TIER 3: YOU’RE NO V.I.P., BUT WE CAN HAVE FUN, YOU AND ME
Reggie Bullock/Nerlens Noel/Kevin Knox = I’m never gonna love you. But we’re all pink inside.
TIER 4: WINE ME. DINE ME. YOU KNOW THE REST…
Dennis Smith Jr./Obi Toppin: If you’re as pleasing on the heart as you are on the eyes, my heart, eyes and all other bits are yours.
TIER 5: PUT A RING ON IT, IN IT AND ALL OVER IT
Frank Ntilikina:
