Maybe the Knicks won’t be better but they will be as likeable — even more compelling than last season’s revival campaign.
Close to 10 players will be trotted out for Monday’s annual Media Day in Tarrytown — including Kemba Walker and his megawatt Bronx smile. Most are personable, amiable and solid teammates.
Good guys, good players. It’s going to be a good season.
How good will likely depend on whether Walker’s knees hold up and if he resembles something close to All-Star form — the way Derrick Rose looked down the stretch last season.
“The thing that I love about our team is their togetherness and their commitment’’ Knicks reigning NBA Coach of the Year Tom Thibodeau said Friday in breaking his own 3½-month silence. “All summer long, they’re in here every day. We know we have to improve, and we’re looking forward to the challenge. It’s a new and different challenge every year, and we have to be ready for it.’’
Journalists wrote novels about what the Knicks should do with their league-high cap space.
What they’ve done — for now — is roll it back with a defense-rich, 41-31 squad, hoping 31-year-old Kemba Walker can be the final answer at point guard. And hoping Evan Fournier will add enough scoring punch to make up for not being nearly the defender the departed Reggie Bullock was at shooting guard.
“There are a lot of teams in our conference that have gotten better, but our focus is gonna be on exactly what’s in front of us each and every day,’’ Thibodeau added in his non-superlative, stick-to-the-script remarks.
Knicks president Leon Rose attempted to do something bolder in the offseason with that cap space but the end product still is refreshing.
“Continuity and flexibility” is Rose’s mantra. After the revolving-door rosters of the Isiah Thomas-Donnie-Walsh-Phil Jackson-Steve Mills years, it’s a breath of fresh air.
Miami can have Kyle Lowry running the show, Phoenix can make another run at The Finals with Chris Paul in the Valley of the Sun. The Bulls can throw all that loot at unproven Lonzo Ball. The Nets can attempt to stay healthy — and attract some more fans — with their starry Big 3.
The Knicks? They will stick with first-time All-Star Julius Randle as the face of the franchise — as down-home a citizen as there is for an NBA megastar.
Randle is married, with two young kids, an adoring college-sweetheart wife and an uneventful Twitter account.
On Friday, Thibodeau called Randle “a gym rat’’. The somewhat-lifted COVID-19 restrictions probably won’t distract Randle.
Leon Rose has provided aid to Randle in Walker and the $78 million Frenchman, Fournier, who has had his injuries, too. But the Olympic star is considered a tough-minded competitor by his former Orlando coach Steve Clifford, one of Thibodeau’s best friends.
“Evan Fournier and Kemba Walker are two excellent basketball players, their résumés speak for themselves,’’ Leon Rose said Friday as he broke a 14-month media boycott with a 43-minute chat. “Just as importantly, guys that we felt would fit into this culture, that would fit into what Coach and his staff is about. And we really look forward to them coming in and helping us get better, which is what our goal is.’’
Nerlens Noel, Derrick Rose, all-Brooklyn grinder Taj Gibson and Alec “Swiss Army knife’’ Burks were re-signed.
RJ Barrett, the Knicks hope, is the next All-Star to emerge soon in following Randle’s momentum. Barrett battles as hard in the last minutes of a 20-point rout as in a tied game.
“People tend to forget, he’s 21 years old,’’ Thibodeau said. “He averaged 18 points per game on a playoff team. He’s hungry, he’s driven. He’s smart, he’s competitive. Those are all the characteristics we’re looking for. That’s why he’ll continue to get better.’’
No one envisioned Randle would go from very decent player to a monster in his seventh NBA season. Credit Thibodeau’s player-development skill because in November 2020, management looked at other free-agent power forwards, including Jerami Grant.
“That internal growth, like at the start of last year I mentioned about Julius and at the end of the year now we have an All-Star,’’ Thibodeau said. “So hopefully we can develop another one.’’
Joining the party again are the Knicks’ two 2020 first-round picks — fan-favorite Immanuel Quickley and Brooklynite Obi Toppin. Maybe the NBA has begun to figure out Quickley, but Toppin is ready to explode with more minutes as a high-flying energizer behind Randle.
Toppin likes being in his hometown, one of three native New Yorkers on the squad.
“The second half of the year he played really well, and he played well in the playoffs,’’ Thibodeau said. “And I think he took maybe two days off and he was back in the gym, and you guys all saw him in summer league and he played really well. He and Quick have been phenomenal. Right from the end of last season all the way through the summer, it helped set the tone for the young guys that were drafted.’’
The two key 2021 draft picks, West Virginia point guard Miles McBride and shooting guard Quentin Grimes, showed out at summer league in Las Vegas. McBride, tough-as-nails as a former quarterback in Cincinnati, looks ready to contribute if Walker’s knees can’t hack a full schedule.
If center Mitchell Robinson, who is not yet cleared for full contact in training camp, is soon rattling rims and blocking shots and staying healthy, the Knicks could well maintain their fourth-place standing in the improved East.
A lot has to go right, though, after the Knicks capitalized on every oddity of a pandemic season and closed 16-4 before their first-round ouster to Atlanta.
“Last year’s team had a great work ethic, a great togetherness, they played smart and we got better as the season went along,’’ Thibodeau said. “The foundation is in place and just build off of that.’’
Whatever the result, it’s going to be so much fun to watch it unfold.
