Throw away those 3-1 preseason record, epic come-from-behind win, and that blissful last five quarters of New York Knicks basketball.
The real games are about to begin.
And we’re about to find out whether the preseason hype is real or not for this new-look Knicks under a perennial playoff coach in Tom Thibodeau.
“My coach at Dayton used to put it in terms that preseason games are rubber bullets. And when you get to the real games that count, those are real bullets. We’re jumping on the fire,” said Knicks lottery pick Obi Toppin on a zoom call on the eve of his official NBA debut.
Toppin’s baptism of fire will have to go through All-Star forward Domantas Sabonis and tough big man Myles Turner as the Knicks open the season against the Indiana Pacers Wednesday night on the road.
With the Knicks’ frontline further decimated by Omari Spellman’s non-inclusion in the active roster list due to injury, Toppin is expected to play backup to starting power forward Julius Randle.
The #Knicks have put Omari Spellman under inactive list elevating Theo Pinson (2-way contract) to active roster. pic.twitter.com/MVi7ZIMKKm
— alder almo (@alderalmo) December 22, 2020
Randle and RJ Barrett, who was consistently good in the preseason, are the only two players locked for a starting role.
The three other positions are still up for grabs with a revolving door of players seeing action in the preseason.
10-man regular rotation
Thibodeau has yet to decide on a starting lineup but hinted that he would use a 10-man regular rotation to start the season.
“And we’re still meeting every day about rotation and it’s pretty tight. It will sort itself out as we go along but you have to base it on performance and merit and what the guys have done. We have a pretty idea of who the 10 are and then the question is who do we start,” Thibodeau said on his zoom call after Tuesday’s practice. “And there’s a couple of positions that are basically 50-50 positions. We’re still evaluating that.”
Based on the injury report and the preseason games, Austin Rivers (pulled groin) and the pair of Ignas Brazdeikis and Theo Pinson are the easy scratches from the regular rotation.
That leaves two more Knicks to sit at the end of the bench.
Judging by how Thibodeau shuffled his players during the preseason, it’s pretty clear that the tough decision will come on the backcourt.
Mitchell Robinson and Nerlens Noel are interchangeable at the center spot. Randle and Toppin are the only power forwards on the Knicks’ roster. Kevin Knox has spelled RJ Barrett off the bench. Elfrid Payton is the only pure point guard in the lineup. Quickley might have earned a spot after playing sensational in the Knicks’ last two preseason games.
Outside looking in
On the surface, Frank Ntilikina and Dennis Smith Jr., who will become restricted free agents next summer, along with veterans Alec Burks and Reggie Bullock could be the players from the outside looking in. But when Thibodeau was asked about Randle’s preseason performance, he also credited the other veterans, including Burks and Bullock, for their leadership.
“I like the way Julius has been from the summer to all the practices. Not only him like we need a team of leaders. What Elfrid has done, Alec Burks or Reggie [Bullock]. They’re really positive veterans. Sometimes, that’s not always the case. But they come in every day. They practice hard. They play for the team. I think they’re really good for our young guys. You don’t want to lean on just one guy. You want a team of leaders and I think we’re starting to see that,” Thibodeau said.
When he touched on Ntilikina’s role after the French guard played more off the ball during the preseason, Thibodeau’s answer gave away more clues on what the Knicks rotation would look like.
“The thing I like about him [Ntilikina] is he can do both. The same thing with Quick. I think the versatility, what we’re seeing a lot of now is that you have a point guard, you have three wings and a big. So it’s not traditional like it has been in the past. And I like the fact that we have point guards that can do that, Quick did that in college, and similar to the way I used my guards in Chicago,” Thibodeau explained.
Crowded backcourt
Thibodeau used to roll out lineups with two guards, a wing, and two traditional big men in his previous stops. But during the preseason, Thibodeau has also experimented with smaller lineups. Most of the time, he only played one traditional center in either Robinson or Noel and even none for some stretches when he wanted to see Randle and Toppin together.
At the backcourt, he went to Payton and Burks at the start, with Smith Jr. and Ntilikina coming off the bench, but the emergence of Quickley has muddled the guard rotation.
When Ntilikina was out, Quickley played alongside Smith Jr before taking it over the point guard position in the Knicks’ last five quarters.Â
“And I think it’s a great advantage to have because defensively, point guards are used to guarding guys off the dribble. And now you can put them on catch and shoot, getting around screens and that sort of thing,” Thibodeau said.Â
“Sometimes you can get a sort of advantage that way. And then of course the rim reads are all the same for every player. So I think you could play guys [with the same position]. When you look at today’s NBA, oftentimes you see more than one point guard on the floor. You might see two combo guards on the floor together. That’s what I do like about our roster,” he added.
The glut in the backcourt is a welcome problem for Thibodeau. But someone has to give. Who could those be?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Follow this writer on Twitter: @alderalmo