Ian Begley was one of the very few Knicks beat writers to actually have a game recap of the Knicks’ preseason debut :
MORRIS EJECTED: Marcus Morris was ejected 13 seconds into the second half for doing something you don’t see often. First, he appeared to hit Justin Anderson, his defender, with an elbow when he swung his arms through to create space. That happens regularly in the NBA. Here’s the odd part. He then hit Anderson in the head with the ball and started jawing with him. He received a flagrant-two, presumably for the whole sequence.
Sometimes, the league suspends a player who commits a flagrant-two if it’s deemed he acted intentionally. So Morris may not be available for Friday’s game against Washington.
Morris was fantastic in the first half, leading the Knicks with 17 points and seven rebounds. He hit three of his four 3-point attempts and helped New York build a 15-point lead. After Morris’ ejection, Washington outscored New York by 15 over the next six minutes to tie the game.
BARRETT DEBUT: RJ Barrett impacted the game on both ends of the floor in the third quarter. He had nine points, two assists, two rebounds and one steal to help New York rebuild its lead. Barrett’s strength was apparent midway through the quarter when he used his body to create space and convert layups on back-to-back possessions. He also knocked down a 3-pointer and drew a charge in the quarter.
It was a productive stretch after a slow start for Barrett. The No. 3 overall pick missed his first four 3-point attempts in the first half and had one turnover. As is always the case with preseason basketball, it’s silly to overreact to anything you saw from Barrett tonight.
I was impressed with Barrett when I watched the game later. It’s nice to have one of those special top of the draft type guys. A lot of his issues seem to be fixable ones. He certainly has a lot of talent. He’ll be a lot of fun to watch this season.
The Knicks luckily get to play this same shitty Wizards team in their second preseason game. That’s a nice way to build up some early confidence!
44 replies on “SNY.com: Takeaways from Knicks’ 104-99 win over Wizards, including RJ Barrett’s first preseason game”
okay who wrote free hong kong?
OMG we are back! I am free!
@1 lol
didn’t know Silver reads the Blogger
We’re back!
The site came down with the same mystery ailment that Bobby Portis has.
lmao
Great way to start the thread!
One semigood Frank performance with high +/- was enough to destroy electronics !!!
Welcome Back KB !
Mike shut down the blog because the lamestream media doesn’t want to hear the truth about Mitchell Robinson
I thought arguing about KP, Frank, politics, management, advanced stats models, etc.. and almost always having the minority opinion was a little stressful for me at times, but not as stressful as not being able to tell everyone how valuable Frank is going to be if we are just patient. 🙂
(I wrote this the morning after the game and couldn’t post it til now)
It’s a preseason game against what’s likely to be one of the worst teams in the league this season, so only so much you can take out of it. That said, you’d rather see good signs from people than not, and we saw a bunch.
RJ carried the team in the second half. Randle looked good as the focus of the offense, though the defense could also look as indifferent as advertised. Frank’s confident play carries over from FIBA, and even though the shooting wasn’t good, the team played better with him on the court. Knox looked much better going to the basket now that he’s bulked up a bit. Morris, Taj, and Ellington all looked like exactly what they are: competent role players who are vastly better than a lot of guys we’ve given rotation minutes to lately. Mitch is still Mitch: incredibly raw, but so athletic that he can cover for many of the things he still doesn’t know how to do.
I was pleased.
Also, I saw this stat retweeted a bunch while we were dark here:
How much of that is Frank vs Payton (who looked good distributing on the break, less impressively so in the halfcourt), and how much is that Frank and RJ played together a lot in the second house, when Morris wasn’t availble to shoot every time he got the ball?
@11
Obviously a very small sample, but I’m not the only one here that’s been saying he thinks Frank and Barrett could be a great pairing. IMO, they could be a dream combination if both develop their outside shot a little over time and Barrett proves to be solid on D.
Barrett, Frank, and Robinson could be a nice start for patient individuals. If those 3 guys all play solid D, I love Randle in almost every other way. We can afford to have 1 weaker defensive link on the court. Need to improve our shooting,
One other thing (I don’t say this as a biased Frank fan).
If Dennis Smith Jr is already having back issues, it’s reasonable to wonder how many games he’s going to miss and if he’s eventually going to need back surgery. It makes more sense to keep Frank when you can’t be sure about DSJs back both long and short term.
Mike was just paying homage to Derrick Rose’s greatest moment as a Knick.
I liked what I saw from Barrett in the second half, he started missing every shot but then realized he could go inside and create better shots. It was a good performance overall and that’s what matters in preseason.
Good to be back! Probably good for KB to be down while a major scandal erupted. Screw you Kevin Durant!!!
Good piece on Sachin Gupta, creator of the Trade Machine….
https://theathletic.com/1275020/2019/10/10/rodeos-trade-machines-and-pick-swaps-inside-sachin-guptas-road-to-minnesota/
Welcome back! I’ve been going through withdrawal!
man did that suck, BC, u trollin us?
Totally what I had guessed was going on. I honestly cannot believe how insane Moreytweetgate has gotten, so nothing would surprise me at this point.
The thing that was impressive to me about RJ’s game the other night was that he was playing a team-oriented brand of ball. He wasn’t really heroballing or jacking up lots of shots. He played 39 minutes, took 13 FGA and got to the line for 5 FTA. At Duke he drove into the teeth of the defense a lot and forced up loads of high degree-of-difficulty, low-percentage shots a la Carmelo Anthony but you didn’t see him do that in the first preseason game.
+1
@12 – Bingo. The one thing that I focused on watching in that first pre-season game was RJ’s defense and I came away impressed. You can add Knox to that list of “if they” players.
BTW, I want to point out a great and honest interview with NBA Scout Bryan Oringher where he breaks down most of the players.
My take-away was a low ceiling for Knox and that Iggy could, after a few years, be the steal of the draft. It that turns out to be true, then Perry starts to look great with back-to-back hits on 2nd rounders.
Yay!!! I didn’t have anything to read for the past few days. Thought I lost everyone forever.
Huh, surprised site is operational. Kurylo is a Ukrainian name so I figured he’s Russian Ukrainian and bought a one-way ticket out of the US.
Somebody check on Jowles. He’s never gone this long without posting and that includes his honeymoon.
PENT UP POSTER ALERT
We missed the debut of another all-in-one metric for Strat to rail against. I’m thinking 538’s RAPTOR’s gotta be accurate because they ranked all players by season (>1000 MP) since 2013-14 and Knox had the 3rd worst season. On a positive note, the top 3 rookies from last year are: Luka, Shamet, and Mitch.
Speaking of Mitch, he needs to start taking those open jumpers or he’ll be a dodo bird when he hits his prime. In 5 years almost all centers will have to be able to hit the 3 ball. Mitch has the advantage though compared to guys like Brook and Marc because he’ll be at the rim in 2 dribbles and 3 steps if defender tries to close out at the arc.
RJ is a better player with the ball and he needs to be a SG to maximize his effectiveness. Our future starting lineup – 3 years out – is Frank/RJ/?/Randle/Mitch. I checked and there are no marquee SFs other than Giannis in summer of 2021 even though we’d have plenty of money to spend. May have to go trade route.
Maybe it’s better Trier and Dot don’t play. Given it’s their contract year, we might be able to re-sign them cheap. Dot I think’s a RFA but Trier is a UFA? And then this is the front office which could have re-signed Vonleh and Kornet at a smidge more than vet min. BTW Noah had a nice RAPTOR metric at $2m/yr.
wow, i barely noticed the site was down
Glad the site is back!
When exactly did the site crash? I woke up Wednesday morning with a nasty stomach virus or some such thing that laid me low all of that day and most of yesterday, though I did finally eat last night for the first time in over 36 hours.. My stomach is still unsettled today, but better. I don’t think I even tried to view the site on Wed., but I did see that it was down yesterday.
I got a flu shot at CVS Tuesday night. Coincidence? Probably been 20 years or more since my last stomach virus incident. Maybe the site and I got the same bug?
🙂
first profound thought i’ve been meaning to share with someone, anyone, you all for the last couple of days:
perspective is the difference between a riot and a protest…
been reading up on hong kong and its history the last couple of days…the only thing i could really remember before that was that hong kong had played a key role in the opium wars…
i’m not sure how things will end for the folks in hong kong…supposedly they have to like 2047 to enjoy their current “freedoms”/previous rights…
i don’t know, mostly i think things will end in tanks and guns…usually the folks with the tanks win…the wild card being the enormous wealth of the area…
@25…i don’t know clash, uncle sam taught me to stay way clear of any sort of community injections…there could be some saltpeter in there…
I told Mike that hiring these guys Parnas and Fruman to fix the site seemed like a bad idea but he just wouldn’t listen….
I can’t listen now while doing work stuff, but what specifically did he say about Knox that led to that as the takeaway? I’m pessimistic about the kid, but the sales job on him was always that he was a swing for the fences pick with a potentially very high ceiling.
@27
I’ve never had a bad reaction from a flu shot before, so could just be coincidence. I did have some moderate lower abdominal pain about an hour or so after the shot. Lasted about an hour. Again, could be coincidence…but now that’s two coincidences. Hmm.
second profound thought of the day: holy shit – i watched most of trump’s rally in minnesota last night…it was absolutely fascinating…
what a great public speaker…i’m not talking about the content in his words (fucking amoral and evil he is) – just his ability to connect and incite – amazing…
as a kid i was fascinated with a lot of those old world war 2 history shows…i remember the first time i saw a clip of hitler at a rally…i had no idea someone could move a large crowd like that…
i have about as much desire to hear what he was actually saying as i do to listen to jeffery dahmer telling us all why he liked eating people, but…
the ability to influence large groups of people with just your will and words is an incredible ability…potentially dangerous for sure…
watching trump last night was like watching a hate child of hitler and jim jones perform…that dude is not going to be easy to defeat…no doubt, get out and vote…
@30…as long as all your “key” appendages are still functioning properly – things should be okay 🙂
Just checked – Zo will be a RFA so it might be best to limit his and Dot’s minutes and then hope to re-sign them cheap. Is it possible this is the strategy of the FO?
Pet peeve – I hate the way players practice their 3 balls. Korver, Nash and Nowitzki all have said they tried to mimic actual game conditions as much as possible. In the case of Nash and Nowitzki (I don’t know about Korver), this happened early on before they went on to be dead-eye shooters.
Maybe Frank’s just a crappy shooter (his airball % is very worrisome) but the word is he hits his 3’s when it’s just him practicing alone. In the videos I’ve watched, some guy rebounds the ball and tosses it to him and he shoots. Now if Frank were recovering from an ACL injury, sure. But there’s gotta be a better way – maybe something like this:
– Frank’s gotta have the same level of fatigue as in an actual game (wind sprints)
– The ball should be passed to him from different angles that mimic how he would receive them in a game (not just from paint)
– He should be open but someone should be closing out on him
– He should vary the location after every shot. Nowitzki talked about how Nash and him used to play something similar to a game of horse but that it was more tailored to actual game conditions
I knew I’d figure out who you are eventually. You’re projectknicks, you’re just keeping the racism in your back pocket.
I just think there’s more legit competition for minutes, and the team is much less desperate than it was last year for someone who could create off the dribble. Between Randle, Barrett, and whoever starts at point guard, we have other players who can break down the defense, often with less tunnel vision than Iso-Zo had. And depending on how Fizdale configures the starting lineup, we also have other instant offense options off the bench. Trier definitely has value, whether or us or another team, but he also doesn’t feel essential.
Also regarding future free agents, Bondy’s story today, while written in the most alarmist tones, did serve as a reminder that Mitch’s amazing contract has one downside: if the Knicks pick up both of the team options for years 3 & 4, he becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of it. Which means the smart play will be to pick up the year 3 option and then negotiate an extension. And if he improves as we’re all assuming he will, he will very quickly cease to be the greatest bargain in the NBA.
Based on how they assembled this team, I think this year is going to be very different than previous seasons.
First, when you sign guys like Taj and Mook, you know that they’re not just playing lip service to toughness and that’s a great cultural approach for the kids.
Second, there are legit players 15 deep. None are super-stars but most would be fits as role players on championship caliber teams. That means that kids like Knox, Ntilikina and Trier need to up their game to keep pace.
Third, they’ll be stashing guys in the G-League with obvious intent to trade some of the 1+1 contracts for picks and get even younger.
We should all have figured out by now that until this team makes the playoffs and does some damage, free agents won’t come here. For this season I want to sit back and see improvement. I’m predicting 25-30 wins (27’s the number in my head). Anything below 25 will be a disappointment. Anything over 30 is gravy. We learned last year that being the worst team doesn’t guarantee getting the best draftee.
1-2 days after KB went ‘out indefinitely’ i visited sb nation knicks blog to check it out and get some kb-substitute.
After reading a few posts with stat comparisons of Portis vs Kornet on who is better defender between them by comparing opponent team’s lowest fg i knew i wasn’t the only knickerblogger-refugee around….(probably).
Jowles is probably having withdrawal symptoms. Let me summon him:
Kevin Knox has a gravity effect!!! His misses create shots for others–Kobe assists!! Knox would be Mitch if he ONLY took 5 shots a game!!!
High usage=better player.
Okay, Jowles will be along shortly.
As Bill Walton once said, “Marv, it’s not how many shots you make. It’s how many you take.”
If Dr Naismith was reading Knickerblogger, a basketball Win would probably have been about shooting percentage and not total points !
Not enough. Jowles was probably clicking every minute on the first two days of the outage. On the 3rd day I’m guessing he went into catatonic shock staring at the screen. Not even a favorable mention of Melo could rouse him from this state.
But I think I have the cure. What will be required is for Lady Jowles to bring up this thread and click on THIS LINK. If the revealed image does not jolt him out of his stupor, we have to go with the nuclear option. Lady Jowles, click on THIS LINK.
Was going to say, it may only work for Ruruland and Melo.
hey jowles…
What’s with all this fawning over Jowles? He’s a unrestricted free agent. If KB is cool he’ll resign here after a while.