Tonight will be a fascinating test of the Knicks’ season. They enter tonight’s game at 3-4 and are hosting the 4-4 Suns. Both teams were expected to be among the worst teams in the NBA, but after starting off the season terribly, the Suns have turned things around after firing their head coach, Earl Watson, and benching temperamental star point guard, Eric Bledsoe. Since then, the Suns have been scoring like crazy and have evened their record on the season after an impressive come from behind victory against the Washington Wizards on the second night of a back-to-back.
The Suns have replaced Bledsoe with undrafted point guard Mike James, who has been bouncing around Europe for the past five seasons (perhaps the Knicks should have given him a look) and James has responded well, but the real key to their turnaround has been slightly better defense and strong offense by TJ Warren and Devin Booker.
Kristaps Porzingis is dealing with an illness, so hopefully he’ll be in good shape tonight (he’s playing, but who knows how truly healthy he is).
Despite the Suns’ strong recent play, they really should be looking to get some team to take Tyson Chandler. He makes less sense for them than Courtney Lee does for the Knicks. Marquese Chriss and Alex Len really have to start taking care of the middle.
Let’s hope that Good Tim Hardaway Jr. shows up tonight. Plus, of course, it’s always good to hope for maybe tonight being the game that Ntilikina has a good scoring game.
Let’s go, Knicks!