New York Knicks: Mirror, mirror
The Step Back has been born from the aesthetics and traditions of the Hardwood Paroxysm Basketball Network. In the past, Hardwood Paroxysm has produced a massive stand-alone season preview. This year, that preview effort has been rolled up into the launch of The Step Back.
The Step Back’s writers and illustrators have prepared a hefty deep-dive into each team, built from multiple smaller sections. This year’s theme is television comedies and each section is named after some of our favorite sitcoms. For links to all 30 teams, as well as details about the focus of each section, check out our guide on how to read this preview.
Community
By Andrew Tobolowsky (@andytobo)
The overarching theme of the New York Knicks’ season is: dysfunction.
And Porzingis.
When I initially signed up for this piece, I was going to say “hubris”, courtesy of Derrick Rose’s belief that the media was referring to the Knicks of all things as a super team. Because of Rose, Carmelo, and Joakim Noah, names to conjure with six years ago but not of much interest today.
Then, like everyone else, I became aware (really late) of how horrifying the accusations against him are, and I didn’t want to talk about Derrick Rose, basketball player, at all.
But, there’s probably nothing worse to be in the sporting world (other than like a Cleveland Browns fan) than a bad Knicks team with big enough names to give casual fans hope. When New York teams disappoint, everyone in the world knows about them, all the time. Frank Isola becomes a part of our lives. There’s more conversation about Melo’s comparative stature than about global warming.
By the way, despite disappointing Knicks fans, the Olympics give us a quadrennial chance to see how good ‘Melo can be with good players. He’s a guy who can absolutely do it all, just not as efficiently or as impactfully as some others can do some things. We’re talking about a guy who’s never averaged worse than 21.8-6.6 as a Knick, and usually higher (including a 29-7 year in 2013). It’s the Knicks that made him look disappointing, not the reverse
This, however, is still a very not good team. Let’s say Kristaps was as good or almost as good as the amazing Karl-Anthony Towns last year, which by itself makes last year a once in a decade event for draft classes. The difference is literally everything else about their teams. The Wolves are young and talented at every position and just added a guy with great potential at point with Kris Dunn. The Knicks are..
Eh….
They’re league average or worse at three positions (PG, SG, C), and not with young players. Rose and Jennings at point should be fascinating. They didn’t have a draft pick for the most New York Knicks possible reason: they traded them in 2011 and 2013. The Nuggets got the right to swap picks with them for Carmelo and they traded the one they get back for Andrea Bargnani. This kind of lack of foresight is why they are where they are. Kristaps might be somebody to build around, now this is behind them, but only if they hurry up.
Long story short, they’re counting on resurgences from old, injury prone players to be decent and the depth behind them is extremely bad. It’s another dysfunctional year in the big apple, but with, sadly, brighter headlines.
Frasier
By Derek James (@DerekJamesNBA)
I imagine the Knicks as a scrawny kid flexing while looking into a mirror and imagining himself with a hulking frame. While stuck in the present reality, the team seems torn between who they are and who they truly want to be: a super team.
The Knicks have had two strong offseasons back-to-back. They’ve come a long way from having Alexey Shved running the point, and now have Derrick Rose and Brandon Jennings. They added Joakim Noah behind Kristaps Porzingis; not having to be a featured player may go a long way to preserving Noah’s health. Adding Courtney Lee as a 3-and-D player next to Carmelo Anthony was a slick addition as well.
And then the picture gets blurry.
The Knicks have very little in the way of a bench. Lance Thomas and Brandon Jennings are solid role players but can they be Sixth Men on a team who believes itself to be great? It only gets more questionable as you go. Sasha Vujacic? Lou Amundson? Kyle O’Quinn? None of these players inspire tons of confidence. The Knicks spent a lot of money betting that Joakim Noah can remain healthy, which so far hasn’t panned out in the preseason. If Noah can’t get on the court, who gives this team a lift? Justin Holliday? It’s hard to see.
If the Knicks are abnormally healthy and they can rely heavily on the starters, their thin bench may matter less. Carmelo Anthony is on the wrong side of 30 and has dealt with knee injuries for three straight years. Jennings, Rose, and Noah have all dealt with significant injuries in their career. This makes this gamble especially risky with a potential payoff that may not be so high in 2016.
Four years ago, this roster potentially could have actualized itself as a contender in the Eastern Conference. If that were the case, they could very well contend for the second seed in the East. However, that’s not how this works. Assuming health, the Knicks are likely a good team rather than a great team. That’s not a slight as teams like Sacramento and Minnesota have spent over a decade trying to be good; the Knicks may have figured out how to do it in just a few years.
While the Knicks may not be the super team they envision in the mirror, they should be proud of the team they see in the reflection. If the goal is to improve year over year, the Knicks have once again accomplished that — just not to the extent that some believe.
Third Rock from the Sun
By Quinten Rosborough (@QRosborough)
The 2009 NBA Draft was supposed to be the beginning of a new era of sorts for the New York Knicks. Gone was head coach/GM/Team President Isiah Thomas — Donnie Walsh and in turn, Mike D’Antoni had arrived, and after purging the roster of Jamal Crawford, Zach Randolph, Tim Thomas, and Stephon Marbury, it was time for the Knicks to begin the long road back to relevance.
With D’Antoni at the helm, many thought the Knicks would use the draft to find his next Steve Nash. The 2009 draft was oddly awash with first-round talent at the point guard position, and with the Knicks picking 8th that year, the Knicks seemed destined to end up with a Steph Curry, Ricky Rubio or Tyreke Evans, or at a minimum a Jrue Holiday, Ty Lawson, Eric Maynor or Jeff Teague, if they found a way to acquire a later pick.
The benefit of hindsight makes Curry the obvious choice here (alas, the Warriors picked him just one spot ahead of the Knicks), with his sweet stroke and the improved distribution skills he showed off in his final year at Davidson on paper, Curry would have been the perfect fit for a Mike D’Antoni offense (plus, under D’Antoni, his defensive shortcomings would never be an issue). But in spirit, no point guard appeared more Knick-ian than Brandon Jennings.
With a game equal parts playground and prep-school, Jennings seemed destined to return the archetype to the vaunted status it once held, giving the city it’s first dominant point guard since Mark Jackson was traded away in 1992. But alas, with Jennings still on the board, the Knicks instead took Jordan Hill (who they would later trade for Tracy McGrady in the next season), and Jennings fell to the 10th pick, where he was selected by the Bucks.
After passing on Jennings, the Knicks were never really able to find their long-term solution at point guard, trotting out both veterans like Chauncey Billups, Mike Bibby and Jason Kidd, and young guys like Toney Douglas, Jeremy Lin and Shane Larkin. But now, five losing seasons, three head coaches, and two general managers later, the Knicks have righted their wrong. The Knicks have finally found their point guard.
Let’s be honest for a second here, save for a 55-point game here, and a triple-double there, Jennings wasn’t always the platonic ideal of a point guard that I’ve made him out to be here. He made the playoffs once in Milwaukee before being quickly shipped out to Detroit, and the first year and a half of his stint with the Pistons was largely forgettable. But then, halfway through the 2014-15 season, the Pistons waived Josh Smith, and over the next 16 games Jennings began to realize his potential as a top-flight floor general.
Smith’s departure allowed the entire Pistons roster to play with a newfound confidence, but no one improved more than Jennings, who finally began to resemble the unstoppable force he was during his senior season at Oak Hill Academy. Jennings lead the Pistons to a 12-4 record over that period, including impressive wins over the Cleveland Cavaliers, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, and Atlanta Hawks, twice. Averaging 20 points and 7 assists during that period, Jennings was well on his way to winning that year’s Most Improved Player award, but then the rug was pulled out from under him. In a game against the Milwaukee Bucks, the franchise that drafted him, he ruptured his achilles tendon, ending his season.
Jennings would return to the court 12 months later, briefly backing up new Pistons point guard Reggie Jackson before being shipped off to Orlando, where he would spend the final months of his contract logging minutes for a Magic team eliminated from playoff contention.
It was a brief period, sure, but for one month in 2015, Brandon Jennings was the architect of one of the most devastating offenses in the NBA, earning victories over multiple 50-win teams, and eventual conference champions. In signing Jennings this offseason, the New York Knicks are banking on Jennings returning to this level of play. And with off- (and on-) court issues surrounding starting point guard Derrick Rose, Jennings will have plenty of opportunities to do so.
Perfect Strangers
by Matt D’Anna (@hoop_nerd)
Ten Word Analysis: The pieces don’t seem to fit quite right.
TeamSPACE charts are based on mapped clusters of shot activity. These areas are affectionately called Hunting Grounds, because they are the areas on the court where a player hunts for shots — and successfully scores most often. TeamSPACE takes the Hunting Grounds of all five players in a lineup and puts them on the court together — because, you know, they have to share that physical space, and there is only one ball.
In the past, it was one color per player; which meant that blending colors represented overlapping spaces for shot activity. But this time around, these are not your ordinary TeamSPACE shot maps. Each lineup is analyzed in the aggregate — one color! — and that unit is compared that unit to the rest of the league. So you will see a persistent red layer on every chart, highlighting the league’s Hunting Grounds from last season. The most prolific locations should come as no surprise: the paint, the corners, most of the top of the arc, and a couple of dabs at the foul line and top of the key.
So…how were these lineups chosen for each team? In the past, it’s been about projecting the starting lineup, estimating the most used lineup, or even designing the “most favoritest” lineup. This year? It’s the these charts represent the “most interestingly feasible” lineups….what? That’s a loaded phrase, so let’s unpack it a bit.
The goal is to identify the collection of five players on a team that could potentially play together, and if they did, the offensive results could be glorious. Ideally these lineups aren’t too far-fetched, but also slightly off-kilter and confusing to an opposing defense. While this type of analysis is not conducive for assessing defense, somewhat reasonable decisions are attempted to be made. So while it’s tempting to just put all the best shooters together…how realistic is it (outside of Houston, at least)? And, full disclosure: I favor some stretch in my lineups. It not only provides plenty of high-octane potential, but getting stretchy is also on par with current league-wide trends.
Each TeamSPACE chart has a couple of other sitcom-related features:
Family Matters: You’ll notice a series of Jaleel White’s across half court. Each lineup is scored on a scale of 0-7 Steve Urkels for how well it matches league-wide trends. Remember, there’s seven league Hunting Grounds (right corner three; at the rim; left corner three; foul line/top of the key; right wing; middle 3pt; left wing). A lineup gains points for matching each area; it loses points for messy excess shot activity.
Odd Couple: “Most interestingly feasible” is obviously debatable, so in order to account for some of those decisions, you’ll see Oscar and Felix on each chart. Often, there are players that are in the lineup…and maybe/probably they should not be. They get the Oscar label. And, there are those players that are out of the lineup…and maybe/probably should be included. They are the Felix for their team.
And briefly, a word about data. These strange visual displays are based on last season’s shot data, weighted by made buckets — so rookies and season-long injuries are sadly excluded. This analysis is nothing without the help of Darryl Blackport, and the research materials available at Basketball-Reference and NBA.com. Further, these charts feature some of the best logo re-designs I could curate from the ol’ Information Superhighway, including Dribbble.com and Pinterest. I made none of the logos; I merely selected some of my favorites. Enjoy!
Everybody Loves Raymond
By Jaylyn Cook (@yasiin_jay42)
The entire state of New York doesn’t deserve Kristaps Porzingis. Don’t get mad at me. Y’all Knicks fans were the ones booing the dude when NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that Phil Jackson selected him fourth overall during the 2015 Draft. Some of you literally CRIED TEARS OF PAIN as he put on his official draft day snapback.
Knicks fans showed out like they said Danilo Gallinari’s name over the loudspeakers. They hated on this kid before he even had a chance to step on the hallowed Madison Square Garden court. However, it didn’t take very long for them (or the rest of the NBA fanbase) to embrace the one they now call “The PorzinGAWD.”
Nowadays, everybody loves Kristaps. Even Stephen A. Smith, who scorched earth with his blistering post-Draft take, has come to accept the Latvian standout as the future of his beloved Knickerbockers. This general change of heart wasn’t just because Porzingis is a 7-3, athletically versatile forward who can stretch the floor like Silly Putty. It’s also got a lot to do with the fact that he’s a genuinely magnetic guy.
You may have first become aware of that fact when this video — featuring Porzingis and a couple of his Baloncesto Sevilla teammates dancing to “What is Love?” — started to make its rounds throughout the Twittersphere. Despite being blessed with immense talent and making more money than most of us could ever imagine, Porzingis is just like any other 21-year-old: he’s relaxed, he’s got a sense of humor, and he really just wants to make a name for himself.
Oh, he also doesn’t forget. Keep that in mind before you prematurely boo him again. All of these aspects of his personality are both endearing and completely relatable. They’ll also cast a major bright spot on what’s expected to be another woefully terrible season for the Knicks.
I mean, let’s face it: Other than Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, and Real American Hero Carmelo Anthony, who else can you name on the Knicks roster? I’ll wait. Your rebuttal is a little too late, and ultimately, it doesn’t really matter. The point here is that they’re going to be bad AGAIN, and watching Porzingis be his fun, usual self while ballin’ so hard is going to be the only thing that’ll keep any of you sane. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.
In short, enjoy the PorzinGAWD as much as you can these next few months, Knicks fans. You may not have always appreciated him, but just be thankful that you’ve got him.
Boy Meets World
By John Bauman (@bauman_john)
The Knicks hit paydirt drafting Kristaps Porzingis. Call him what you want — Porzingod, Special K or your favorite nickname for the 7-3 forward — but I prefer Kevin Durant’s description of a basketball unicorn.
What Durant was getting at was how rare it is for the skills that Porzingis has to all be wrapped up in one, athletic yet massive, body. He can protect the rim (1.9 blocks per game in 2015-16,) shoot (33.3 percent from three-point land,) rebound (7.3 boards per game) and score (averaged 14.3 points last season.) That’s amazing.
When you watch Porzingis, what stands out is that it doesn’t feel like you are watching a seven-footer with the kinds of athletic things he does. He’s got touch around the rim, can run the floor just fine and shows off a lot of athleticism around the boards with putback dunks and the like. Also, he spaces the floor on one end with his shooting, while defending the paint and protecting the rim on the other end. He’s a two-way, all-around player.
Whatever you want to say about Phil Jackson, the GM of the New York Knicks, you have to give him credit for making the right call with this pick. Remember, the crowd gave Porzingis his fair share of boos on draft night, and Jackson took the flack for making him the fourth overall pick. But Porzingis is a game-changing, franchise-altering player for the New York Knicks. It can’t be understated how big of a get he was for this franchise.
Porzingis’ addition to the team makes the Knicks look pretty good in the young talent category, regardless of the rest of the roster. New York does have some auxiliary, high floor guys at the bottom of the roster who fill certain roles. Marshall Plumlee of Duke can crash the boards and keep the offense moving with screens and as a capable passer. Ron Baker of Wichita State can shoot. J.P. Tokoto needed a jump shot at UNC and still hasn’t found a consistent one in the NBA.
Perhaps the most intriguing young talent outside of Porzingod, then, is Willy Hernangomez. He was an early second round pick of the 76ers in 2015 before his rights were traded to the Knicks on draft night. He’s signed with the team after playing last season in Real Madrid.
He figures to be at least a part of the rotation, because he’s been playing a good bit in the preseason. The Knicks have Porzingis, Joakim Noah, Kyle O’Quinn and Lou Amundson also penciled in softly on the depth chart, but Hernangomez could erase a couple of those names because of some of the unique skills he possesses for a big. He’s already been flashing an above-average passing ability, which could help open up a Knicks roster that is short on floor space.
The key to the development of Hernangomez, Porzingis and all the Knicks young cogs is Jeff Hornacek, the new head coach. He comes over from Phoenix after three seasons there, and will be the key that will try to unlock the potential in all of the players there. There’s been talk about whether the Knicks will run the Triangle, or whether they will abandon it. Only time will tell on this front, but this much is true — with Porzingis, the basketball unicorn, the flamingo or whatever you want to call him on the roster, the Knicks have a young star in the making.