The NBA’s Preseason is finally over. Naturally, then, it’s time to rank some teams.
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Tag: Julius Randle
Kemba Walker is Coming Home
Note: this post was originally published for The Strickland. Give them a click!
Got a mismatch!
Walker, on McGhee with four.
Kemba Walker — stepback — Walker — CARDIAC KEMBA!
Yes: Kemba Walker, who grew up in the Bronx, went to high school in Harlem, and hit that shot heard round the world in Midtown, is returning to the Mecca to play point guard for the New York Knicks.
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Julius Randle, the Most Improved Player of Game 2
Note: this post was originally published for The Strickland. Give them a click!
Julius Randle has not been himself.
The Knicks’ newly minted star put up just 15 points in each of Games 1 and 2, the first time all season long he scored 15 or fewer in back to back games. He clearly hasn’t looked himself, and whether it’s the Hawks or himself, somebody has been in his head. However, midway through game 2, Randle made some concrete adjustments that could change the course of the series – or at the very least, force the Hawks to go back to the drawing board.
The first half of Game 2, however, wasn’t it.
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The Butterfly Effect: Has Immanuel Quickley unexpectedly become the Knicks’ best asset?
Note: this post was originally published for The Strickland. Give them a click!
I never check a weather forecast until 1 or 2 days before.
It’s simply far too difficult to predict – infinitesimal changes on one side of the globe can cause massive swings in the climate on the other. As the old saying goes, a butterfly flapping its wings in Tokyo can cause a tornado in Tennessee. The Butterfly Effect – a tiny, seemingly irrelevant occurrence may cause colossal consequences weeks, or even years, later.
On July 1st, 2019, the New York Knicks verbally agreed to sign Reggie Bullock to a 2-year, $21 million contract.
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Game 1 of Season 2: RJ Barrett’s 2020-21 Debut
Note: this post was originally published for The Strickland. Give them a click!
When asked in The Strickland’s preseason roundtable what Thibs’ most frustrating lineup trend would be, I said “Elf/guard/RJ/Randle/Mitch is my nightmare, and not because I don’t like RJ and Mitch, but because I do! These guys need the opportunity to not only play with spacing and show the front office whether or not they can be pieces on a winning team one day, but also grow with their current young’uns as much as possible. I’d rather see RJ come off the bench than stand on the wing and watch Elf/Randle buddy ball, or drive to the rim into seven help defenders at once.”
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Optimizing the Knicks’ Offseason
Note: this post was originally published for The Strickland. Give them a click!
The New York Knicks are entering yet another pivotal offseason.
There are a myriad of decisions to be made by the front office: which free agents to add, which current team options to accept or decline (which they did today), and how many minutes to play each player per game once the season actually tips off. Luckily for them, they have a lot of flexibility — they have control over how they use their salary cap, roster spots, and minutes allocations throughout the season.
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To Be Frank: A Ntilikina Deep Dive
Note: this post was originally published for The Strickland. Give them a click!
Hello. Welcome. I see you’re here to read a deep dive about Frank Ntilikina. I sincerely respect the decision.
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The (Mostly Positive) Early Returns for RJ Barrett
After such a humilating offseason, the New York Knicks need any semblance of hope. They’re currently 1-6 and battling a slew of concerns for this season and beyond. However, they’ve taken solace in the early returns from their #3 overall draft pick in RJ Barrett.
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Atlantic Division Preview: Last Year’s – and Potentially This Year’s – NBA Champs
Welcome to the sixth of the Corner Three 2019-2020 NBA division-by-division season previews. In each of these previews, we use RJ Garcia’s player-by-player ratings (based on on/off metrics and career trajectory) and per-game minutes projections (taking into account potential minutes lost to injury) to project overall team quality for the upcoming season. RJ and Derek Reifer also provide their own analyses and commentary to provide any context and additional insights.
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#NBATwitter: A Study
Twitter is the lifeblood of the NBA.
As described by the Washington Post, it’s “a sports bar that doesn’t close, where the stars pull up a seat next to you”. According to Twitter itself, the NBA was the most tweeted-about sports league in 2018, and it’s no surprise, as the online home of the players houses more organic drama than any episode of The Bachelor. From burner accounts of superstars and GMs, to asking for trades and reacting to them, to basketball players doing what they do best – shooting their shot, fans of the NBA know there’s no way to track their favorite league quite like Twitter.
Corner Three 