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The Knicks reached the midpoint of the season earlier this week, hitting the 41-game mark with a 22-19 record before adding a win to that total with Wednesday’s 119-113 victory over the Pacers.
Like students across the country, the Knicks’ midterm grades are in, and their bell curve is reflective of a roller-coaster first half — including winning streaks of eight and four games sandwiched around a five-game losing skid in the past month — that has them vying for their second playoff berth in three years following last season’s step back to 37-45.
Remember, in Tom Thibodeau’s first season in New York, in which he eventually earned Coach of the Year honors, the Knicks were a .500 team (18-18) before closing 23-13 to earn the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference.
For that reason, let’s give them a solid B and maybe even a B+ as an overall team grade with the second half and potential playoff success ultimately determining whether they graduate with honors.
Here are the Knicks’ individual grades for the first half (note: allstats are through Game 41, the season’s official midpoint):
Jalen Brunson: A
Finally ending a mostly horrendous two decades of point guard play, the running compliment for Brunson from Thibodeau has been that the $104 million point guard regularly provides the Knicks whatever the team needs on a game-to-game basis, including leading the team in fourth-quarter scoring. Easily one of the soundest free-agent signings in team history.
Julius Randle: A-
Randle devolved from the league’s Most Improved Player and a second-team All-NBA power forward in 2020-21 to a brooding player last season, including decreased counting and rate stats and a public feud with the Garden faithful. Randle has reestablished himself as a bona fide All-Star candidate without missing a game this season, ranking among the league’s top 20 in scoring and rebounding while shooting better from the floor and from 3-point range. He’s averaged nearly 30 points and more than 12 rebounds per game since early December.
Quentin Grimes: A-
The 2021 late first-round pick (25th overall) has earned Thibodeau’s trust and established himself as a contributor on both ends, including being asked to guard opponents as diverse as point guards Ja Morant and Trae Young and big wing Pascal Siakam. Since joining the starting lineup full-time on Nov. 20, Grimes is contributing more than 12 points in about 34 minutes per game.
RJ Barrett: B+
After signing him to a four-year extension worth $107 million guaranteed, the Knicks’ hopes of the former No. 3 overall pick making the next jump into All-Star territory in his fourth season haven’t come to fruition. Barrett was averaging slightly more than the career-best 20.0 points per game he’d posted last season before a one-minute stint in Dallas on Dec. 27 knocked him below that figure and caused him to miss time due to a lacerated finger. Still, the former Duke star was coming on following a slow shooting start to the season, averaging 23.2 points and connecting on 42.4 percent of his 3-point attempts over a dozen December games before he was injured.
Immanuel Quickley: B+
Still as streaky an outside shooter as anyone on the roster, the third-year combo guard has raised his worth — either to the Knicks or a possible suitor in a trade — with seven straight starts at either backcourt spot during the games Brunson and Barrett recently missed due to injuries. In that time, he averaged 20.3 points, 5.9 assists (including a career-high 15 assists in one game) and 5.3 rebounds in more than 42 minutes per start. Quickley also sports the best individual defensive rating on the team.
Mitchell Robinson: B
Another homegrown player the Knicks invested in over the summer (four years, $60 million), the 7-foot center is still limited mostly to dunks and put-backs on offense (7.5 points per game). But his presence around the rim at both ends — he ranked second in the league in offensive rebounding and fifth in blocked shots — makes Robinson an important player in Thibodeau’s system.
Miles McBride: B
Deuce also has made an impact defensively on the second unit since being added to the rotation, and the second-year guard is starting to find some offensive rhythm and confidence in his shot. McBride still was shooting just 28 percent from 3-point range and 36 percent overall, but those numbers rose to 54.5 percent from long distance and 46.2 percent from the floor in his past four games entering Wednesday night against Indiana.
Jericho Sims: B
The second-year big man earned playing time alongside Isaiah Hartenstein on the second unit while Obi Toppin was sidelined, and didn’t look out of place when shifting from center to power forward. Frankly, it’s mildly surprising Sims dropped out of the nine-man rotation Monday against Milwaukee, especially due to his ability to defend multiple positions and to rebound.
Derrick Rose: C
Thibodeau has a longstanding working relationship with the former league MVP, so Rose being dropped from the rotation in November was telling after he came back from season-ending ankle surgery one year ago. The 34-year-old guard still has an occasional throwback moment when he’s gotten on the court, and he still has value as a sage mentor for the team’s young backcourt players.
Obi Toppin: C-
The 2020 lottery pick was hitting 3-pointers at a career-best clip, better than 35 percent, when he suffered a non-displaced fracture of his right fibula on Dec. 7. With Randle back in workhorse mode in his absence, the minutes will continue to be tough to find consistently for Toppin, as evidenced by his scant eight minutes of playing time in his return to the lineup Monday.
Isaiah Hartenstein: C-
Billed as a big who can stretch the floor and be used as a facilitating passer out of the post when he was signed to a two-year deal worth $16 million over the summer, Hartenstein hasn’t gotten untracked despite appearing in every game this season (seven starts) and logging a career-high 19.1 minutes per game. His points (8.3 to 5.3 per game), assists (2.4 to 0.8), field-goal percentage (.626 to .486) and 3-point percentage (.467 to .242) were all down considerably from last season with the Clippers.
Evan Fournier: D
With another $18 million left on his contract next season, Fournier has gone from setting the franchise record for 3-pointers made in a season to the end of the bench for more than six weeks before a return to the second unit in recent weeks due to injuries. The Knicks will continue to try to find a taker for the 30-year-old veteran’s contract.
Cam Reddish: F
Barrett’s former Duke teammate made eight starts and appeared in 20 games early this season, particularly while Grimes was sidelined because of a foot injury. He had a few decent moments, including 22 points in the season opener in Memphis and 26 on Nov. 13 against Oklahoma City. The Knicks will continue to seek a trade, but they won’t recoup anything close to the first-rounder they dealt to the Hawks last February for Reddish.
Rest of bench: INC: Ryan Arcidiacano and Svi Mykhailiuk had their contracts guaranteed for the rest of the season last week, but neither has played any meaningful minutes.
Tom Thibodeau: B+
The defensive-minded coach finally flipped his rotation in late November, replacing Rose, Fournier and Reddish for bigger roles for Grimes, Quickley and McBride. The move seems to have worked, helping the club overcome a 10-13 start with 12 wins in 18 games through the 41-game turn. After last year’s playoff whiff, the Knicks at least have set themselves up to be in position to grab the coveted sixth spot in the East and avoid the 7-10 play-in.
Front office: B-
The Brunson move, including adding his father, Rick, to the coaching staff, has turned out to be a shrewd move by team president Leon Rose, and well worth the minor tampering penalties levied by the NBA. Knicks fans are still awaiting that promised big-ticket addition from Rose, who couldn’t/wouldn’t translate their assemblage of future first-round picks to close a deal for Donovan Mitchell in the offseason.
Numbers don’t always tell the whole story
The 28-year-old Arcidiacono had totaled just 25 minutes in 10 brief appearances entering Wednesday’s game, but I thought this quote from Brunson on the recent Toronto road trip about his former Villanova teammate’s importance to the Knicks was worth sharing.
“Obviously, me and Ryan go way back,” Brunson said. “He’s been great. He comes in and works his butt off every day. He’s always here early, always doing the little things, he’s always one of the first ones up off the bench. He’s a high-character guy. He’s always been that way. He’s obviously one of my best friends. He’s just been special. It’s a credit to him and how he’s worked really hard. He’s always been that way, and I don’t see that changing.”
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