The New York Knicks are facing somewhat of a puzzle at the point guard position as Derrick Rose sits out after undergoing ankle surgery and Kemba Walker aggravated his left knee.
Rose isn’t expected to make a return for at least eight weeks, leaving Tom Thibodeau with unproven options to sift through. While he has confidence in rookie Miles McBride based on his defense alone, Thibs lacks professional scorers, most represented by the team’s blowout against the Toronto Raptors on Sunday afternoon.
On Friday, they also dropped a tough loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, scoring just 80 points. The team currently has one listed point guard on the active roster, McBride. He posted just seven points against Oklahoma City and two points against Toronto.
Until Walker can make a return, the Knicks are going to have to find supplements elsewhere. The lack of facilitation has been apparent, especially with Julius Randle on the NBA’s health and safety protocols list. Randle is averaging five assists per game, the most on the team by a significant margin.
With Randle essentially being the team’s best assist man given the attention he commands, the Knicks have witnessed a tremendous drop-off in offensive efficiency and legitimate ball movement with him out of the lineup. Oddly, this goes against the narrative that Randle was a net-negative for the team, but they are clearly lost in translation without his services.
Over the weekend, though, the Knicks signed Ryan Arcidiacono, formerly a Villanova star, to a 10-day contract. Shams Charania of The Athletic believes there’s a strong possibility that Arcidiacono sticks for the season.
The 27-year-old point guard has four seasons of NBA experience under his belt with the Chicago Bulls. While he hasn’t made an impact this year, he averaged 3.1 points, 1.3 assists, and shot 37% from three point range last year over 44 games.
While the former Bull isn’t exactly an offensive maestro, he can spread the ball effectively and play at an NBA pace with comfort. Hopefully, the Knicks can extract a bit of value out of Ryan, given their lack of depth at the point guard position.