The Knicks find themselves in the middle of a four-game winning streak that has led the fans and organization to realize that less may indeed be more.
It’s a tough reality to accept in a city like New York, but it’s certainly been the case when it comes to the team’s playing rotation. After featuring a 10 or even 11-man rotation through the early portion of the season, the Knicks recently cut their rotation down to nine and have seen the move pay immediate dividends.
In fact, at the end of the 2022-23 NBA season, fans may look back at the Dallas Mavericks game on December 3rd as a major turning point in New York’s season.
The Knicks lost that game 121-100 at the Garden, while playing 13 different players. Some of that was obviously due to the blowout nature of the game, but head coach Tom Thibodeau used 11 different players while the game was still in doubt, including Derrick Rose and Cam Reddish.
The next night, New York used just nine players, cutting Rose and Reddish out of the rotation completely. The result was a 92-81 victory over the 17-10 Cleveland Cavaliers in which New York held Cleveland to just 34.9% shooting from the field.
New York then beat the Hawks 111-89 while holding them to 37.6% shooting and followed that up with a 121-102 win over the Hornets and a 112-99 win over the Kings.
But New York isn’t just winning these games, they’re doing so handily and are thriving in areas that have been a real problem so far this season.
Since the rotation was shortened, the team is 1st in the NBA in rebounding and 1st in the NBA in opponent’s points per game, holding teams to 93 points per game. That raised New York up to 14th in the league, allowing 112.9 points per game on the season.
Since three of the four teams they have beaten over that time would also qualify for the playoffs if the season ended today, it hasn’t exactly been a cakewalk schedule.
While this could just be a hot stretch, the changes to the rotation are significant enough to warrant a closer look. The two key changes were the complete removal of both Derrick Rose and Evan Fournier and the addition of both Quentin Grimes and Miles McBride.
Grimes was moved into the rotation before the Mavericks game, but his presence has become more crucial of late. In five December games, he’s averaging 10.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.4 assists while playing elite perimeter defense. It’s that type of well-rounded profile that made him the Jazz’s top target when they were looking to trade Donovan Mitchell.
Grimes’ ability to defend on the perimeter has been a crucial upgrade over the poor defense of Fournier and has allowed the team to cover up for some of the defensive weaknesses that RJ Barrett and Julius Randle possess.
However, adding McBride to the second unit to play alongside Quickley has been equally as important. The West Virginia product has averaged 22 minutes per game during the four-game winning streak after playing double-digit minutes just three times during the entire early part of the season. Quickley has also seen his minutes increase to 26.4 per game over the streak.
That’s significant since Grimes, Quickley, and McBride are the team’s three best defenders based on Defensive Win Share, which is “a player statistic that attributes credit to players based on their ability to prevent opposing teams from scoring.” It takes into account other statistics, including minutes played, league points per possession, and defensive rating, among others.
New York now has a rotation that features eight of their ten best defenders and will actually be improved once Obi Toppin, who is their 4th-best defender by Defensive Win Share, is able to return from injury. Playing your best defenders may seem like a simple recipe, but it’s one that’s been a game-changer for New York.
With Jalen Brunson now nursing a sore ankle, more will likely be asked of Grimes, Quickley, and McBride and could provide them an opportunity to show just how crucial they are to this team’s continued success.
Yet, on top of the short-term improvement, the change in the rotation has highlighted a potentially intriguing future in the Garden.
Six of the players in the new nine-man rotation are players New York drafted, and five of them are still on their rookie scale deals. Which means that if this new-look Knicks team turns this four-game hot streak into a legitimate and sustainable improvement, we could be witnessing the true rebuilding of New York Knicks basketball.
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