Twenty-four games into the season, the Knicks are 11-13. Two years ago, when the consensus around New York was that Head Coach Tom Thibodeau or Tibs as Knicks fans call him, would change the culture of the Knicks, and he proved a lot of people right, finishing as the 4th seed in the eastern conference and winning coach of the year.
Now of course Knicks fans get to thinking that maybe Thibodeau’s ways will just come to forition in the future like they have in the past, but right now it seems he has forgotten how to coach.
Players like RJ Barrett were supposed to take big leaps in their game and the reason this team didn’t go all in on superstar Donovan Mitchell, Re-signing Barrett to a four year $120 million dollar deal. RJ Barrett is a stunning 469th in the advanced metric value over replacement. There are only 472 players in the league. That is an embarrassing stat for RJ fans. Even with stud point guard Jalen Brunson being the player the Knicks expected and more, the MVP on the Knicks right now is Immanuel Quickley, and he doesnt get the minutes to prove his worth.
Immanuel Quickley or as fans call him “IQ” was a steal for the Knicks, going 25th overall pick out of Kentucky in the 2020 draft, and made an immediate impact for the Knicks and became a fan favorite in his first year. When stepping on the floor IQ averaged 11 points on a measly 19 minutes per game, and shot extremely efficiently from 3 (38.9%).
New York Knicks electric combo guard Immanuel Quickley entered his third season with three goals: get better defensively, shoot better than 40 percent from the field, and have consistency, and so far so good. He is averaging only 10 points but is shooting 41% from the field, and putting up a career high in assists averaging 4.5 and leading the team in steals with over 1 per game. The consistency is not there yet, but one in every 4 games when Tibs finally decides to give him some minutes he has games like last week vs Dallas where he puts up 23 points on 7-11 shooting of only 29 minutes.
Quickley bulked up in the offseason gaining around 15 pounds not only to get better at finishing around the rim, but also to have a stronger body to pressure opposing guards, and this has shown a change in his game especially on the defensive side.
These are some defensive stats I think you should see about Quickley compared to the rest of The New York Knicks, he is currently
-1st in Defensive Rating
-1st in Net Rating
-1st in OPP FG%
-1st in STL
The Knicks defensive rating with Immanuel Quickley on the court is #1 in the NBA, and with him off the court its #30 in the NBA. And most impressive is his +/- splits on the court is +43, while No one on the Knicks is over +17.
Quickley was known by many Knicks fans for his patent smooth to watch floater in the lane, but Immanuel Quickley’s finishing has taken a big leap. He is up to shooting over 50% from two this season, over his first two seasons he shot 43%. He also finishes through contact a lot better which he avoided in the past, last season he was in the 58th percentile for contact finish rate, and this season the 87th.
Recently Quickly has been rumored in trades with Evan Fournier or Cam reddish, which for the Knicks is not surprising. Doing the wrong thing and getting rid of a player like IQ is in the Knicks DNA and wouldn’t surprise any of the Knicks Fandome.
This young core has a lot of potential, and with the addition of Jalen Brunson the Knicks thought they can take that step into playoff territory, but night in and night out the Knicks find a way to lose close games, and don’t look like anything special in a stacked eastern conference. If the Knicks were smart they would start to give more minutes to there second unit, which is dominating there first unit in every advanced metric, but Tibs seems to have too much pride in there supposed “star players” and has a unique style of coaching which involves not playing the young players as much as he should. Seems like he is fighting for his job at this point and it’s hurting the future of the knicks.
The knicks have a special player in IQ, who has a strong work ethic and will continue to grow as a player on both sides of the ball, so Knicks fans better hope that they keep him, Tibs will play him over 20 minutes a game, or this potential star will continue to waste his potential on the bench on a team that looks like there going to be a 9 seed in the eastern conference this year.
