Bing bong
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
Soundtrack for this post — NSFW language
There’s a certain understandable skepticism when certain franchises find success in the NBA, as if a trap door will open to expose the natural Hell we’re used to at a moment’s notice. This applies to the Sacramento Kings, Minnesota Timberwolves, the Charlotte Hornets and the beloved, beguiled New York Knickerbockers.
That’s one reason why so many smart people didn’t expect great things from the Knicks this season: we are conditioned to expect mediocrity in that uniform, and even when there are spurts of confidence (the early Melo era, for example), the bottom falls out quickly and without warning.
There are other reasons that reasonable people doubted the Knicks would follow up being a shocking No. 4 seed with more success this season.
Julius Randle became a first-time All-Star in his seventh NBA season, scoring more, racking up more assists and shooting better than had ever looked possible in his pro career before. How many thought that performance was if not a protracted fluke unlikely to be repeated?
There is the Tom Thibodeau trope, that he can get teams to play over their heads for a time by squeezing the pulp of willpower, but that it’s not sustainable and could fall apart in the hypercompetitive playoffs, where everyone is at maximal effort.
There was the Hawks series. That was brutal. But as I noted in the preseason, that’s a bad matchup and the Knicks aren’t playing Atlanta every night.
There is longstanding skepticism of Evan Fournier as a quality NBA starter, which is mostly about the fact that he spent the bulk of his career with the mediocre-at-best 2010s Orlando Magic before an uninspiring trimester abroad in Boston. Fournier is a career 38% deep shooter on high frequency and doesn’t try to do what he can’t. Take away his name, his jersey colors and the trappings of expecting more than what a player offers, and of course teams would be interested in signing him to fill a backcourt void.
There is skepticism that Kemba Walker can still be a highly productive NBA point guard. That skepticism was founded rightly based on what Boston saw last season. New York is asking him to do even less than what the Celtics did, and it seems to be working out okay for now.
I’m not sure what the deal with R.J. Barrett has been. High lottery pick. Supreme potential and a raging prep career. He went to Duke. He plays for the New York Knicks. He had shown real flashes, especially on defense. Under these conditions he should be the most overhyped player on the planet. And yet he’s been … a little underrated? A little underhyped?
Perhaps not anymore. What he did to the Pelicans on Saturday was mesmerizing.
That looks like someone who will make All-NBA before their seventh season in the league.
Behind Randle, Fournier and Barrett, with quality contributions from Walker, Mitchell Robinson and Derrick Rose, under the schemes and direction of Thibodeau, the Knicks are 5-1, tied for the best record in the NBA. Those wins include games against the Sixers, the 5-1 Bulls and the Celtics. New York currently has the No. 3 offense in the NBA. Everything is going right, and nothing in particular seems unstable. The trap door isn’t ajar. Someone deadbolted that thing.
The crazy thing is that, for a change, this all looks sustainable. The Knicks have a stable front office and coaching situation. Randle will turn just 27 years old this month. Barrett is only 21. Even Fournier, who feels like he’s been around forever (he was on the infamous Iguodala Nuggets team with Anthony Randolph, Jordan Hamilton and Andre Miller), just turned 29.
The Knicks don’t have any long-term albatross or even potential albatross contracts on the books.
The Knicks have all of their future first-round picks. In fact, the Knicks also have future first-round picks owed to them from the Hornets (2022, but likely to be deferred due to protections) and Mavericks (2023).
And again, the Knicks are 5-1 to start the season. Maybe holding onto a top-5 offense is unreasonable. Maybe fighting for the No. 1 seed over the course of a long season is not in the cards. Maybe the championship is a bit much at this juncture.
But this is as real and sustainable as success has been for the Knicks since the ‘90s. Embrace it, nourish it, love it. The Knicks are back. Bing bong, indeed.
Scores
Friday
Magic 109, Raptors 110 — Toronto was up 12 with two minutes left but the Magic had a shot to win it as, um, uh OG Anunoby had a bad stretch in the last moments. But Toronto held on.
Pacers 98, Nets 105 — James Harden had 19 free throw attempts. The world is healing. Also, out of character KD moment No. 1 of the weekend. This was a tech and a fine. He says he was trying to hit the backboard but has no idea why he did it.
Mavericks 75, Nuggets 106 — Whew. Dallas has played two legitimately good teams this season and lost those games by a combined 57. Not great.
Cavaliers 101, Lakers 113 — LeBron returned to action.
Saturday
Celtics 112, Wizards 115 (2OT) — Boston apparently loves losing in double overtime this season. Jaylen Brown was electric, Jayson Tatum was inefficient and had a couple of disaster plays in critical moments. Bradley Beal exploded and Spencer Dinwiddie had some key plays. Thriller of a game.
Magic 103, Pistons 110 — Detroit picks up its first win of the season in Cade Cunningham’s first game of the season. COINCIDENCE? Yeah, probably: Cunningham was 1/8 with two assists and two turnovers.
Raptors 97, Pacers 94 — Toronto again almost fumbled a game with a late turnover from Fred VanVleet up six with 33 seconds to go. But hey, 2-0 on the weekend. Meanwhile, Indiana is off to a disaster start for the Second Rick Carlisle era.
Hawks 94, Sixers 122 — Philadelphia powering through it.
Jazz 99, Bulls 107 — Utah had an uncharacteristically bad offensive game. Give Chicago credit for, if nothing else, taking advantage. DeMar DeRozan was in the zone. I love the burgeoning chemistry between Lonzo Ball and Zach LaVine. Good team.
Heat 129, Grizzlies 103 — Jimmy Butler is the early season MVP.
Nuggets 93, Wolves 91 — Brutal finish for Minnesota with a chance to take Denver to overtime.
Karl-Anthony Towns gets the clutch strip, Anthony Edwards hears the shot clock buzzer and passes with an open court ahead of him, Will Barton gets the chasedown block, Nikola Jokic gets back into the play to cancel Edwards’ final attempt. Let’s never mind that Barton was out-of-bounds when he touched the ball and the Wolves should have had an inbounds play with a little more than two seconds left, with a chance to tie or go ahead.
Sunday
Kings 99, Mavericks 105 — A supposedly close game it never for a second felt like Sacramento would win. Kristaps Porzingis remains out.
Jazz 107, Bucks 95 — Utah looks really impressive once again.
Pistons 91, Nets 117 — Out of character KD moment No. 2 of the weekend. This was an ejection.
Rockets 85, Lakers 95 — Folks, is Carmelo Anthony the Lakers MVP so far this season?
Schedule
Inordinately busy Monday. Games on League Pass unless otherwise noted. All times Eastern.
Cavaliers at Hornets, 7
Spurs at Pacers, 7
Blazers at Sixers, 7
Wizards at Hawks, 7:30
Bulls at Celtics, 7:30
Raptors at Knicks, 7:30, NBA TV
Nuggets at Grizzlies, 8
Magic at Wolves, 8
Thunder at Clippers, 10:30
Links
Brutal: Patrick Williams expected to miss the entire regular season with a bad wrist injury.
Rob Mahoney on the challenge of building a contender around the genius of LaMelo Ball.
Illuminating thread about the history of masks in the NBA.
Amazing horror story from Katie Heindl regarding James Harden and the new foul rules.
ALL CAPS NBA IS BACK. (NSFW language)
Kelly Dwyer with some good ol’ HOT OR NOT takes. ($)
And finally: be a Boban today.
Be excellent to each other.