Are the Knicks contenders or a bunch of pretenders? Is New York a legitimate threat to any of the Western Conference favorites?
Judging by Saturday’s outing, winning the chip is still a no-no thing.
Here’s what we’ve heard of late.
On Franz Wagner’s skillset:
“He’s big first of all, he’s long, strong. He’s a three level scorer. He’s got a great pace and confidence about his game. He’s got great footwork. He likes to go right, but he can go left, cut left…he’s crafty enough and skilled enough where he can come back to it with all sorts of things, whether it’s the euro or the spin dribble.
“Offensively, he can score at all three levels, he’s a pretty good athlete. That footwork when he’s attacking — he can stop and spin, fade away, which makes him real tough to guard.”
On the Knicks’ struggles against Orlando:
“They were physical with us [in the first game]. They’re really good in that regard. They did a great job attacking the rim, whether it was in transition or in the front court.
“We didn’t do a great job guarding the basketball. Our shifts weren’t quite there. And then they rebounded pretty good, especially in that first half. So we have to do a better job in those area.
“And then offensively try to play the pick and roll two on two. We turned the ball over a few times early in the game. So we have to do a better job with our decision making when we get in the paint and trying to be the aggressors, try to get them on their heels because they definitely had us on our heels that night.”
On enduring another injury following Landry Shamet’s on Saturday:
“I’m gonna keep preaching: it’s about next-man up. In our case it’s next-man up, next-man up, next-man up or something like that. We have to have guys ready to play especially some guys that hadn’t played minutes. They don’t have to come in and do a lot. They just have to come in and play hard and continue trying to play the way that we play on both ends of the floor.”
On advancing the offense and starting to call plays:
“We have a couple in. We’re not quite there where we can call them on the fly all the time, but yes. We have a few of them in that we lean on, try to lean on.”
On players executing transition actions not yet taught:
“Seeing stuff like that tells me, ‘OK, they’re starting to get it.’ We could still be better, but we’re starting to get it a little bit. Therefore we can start implementing a couple of calls.
“We started trying to figure out how to balance the floor, which is the big thing. In our league, teams are so good with everything, if your spacing is not right, the first thing is to play with pace but your spacing has to be right. So we started to get the spacing right, even though the initial action to start the dominos wasn’t quite right.
“We spaced it right and we fell into that.”
On Rodney Rogers’ passing:
“It was amazing what [Rogers] did. We were a young team, and after he hit that third [3-pointer], we were celebrating like we won.
“I was with him in Denver back in the day, and he obviously was a really good basketball player but a good human being, too.”
On his fourth-quarter usage:
“I just think just where the balls find me. In the Miami game I’m coming in, I got the ball a couple times and drove. And they helped, I think we got two good looks. Missed them both.
“But I think it’s just the opportunity that comes. It’s usually what it is — the ball finds me. I think if you watch, if it doesn’t find me, it’s just in the offense and trying to figure it out. And sometimes it happens like that. The game does that.”
On defensive lapses in the Magic loss:
“[Defending] on ball, we got to be better. But also there was no secondary help, no second effort. That’s the biggest thing.
“There are going to be blow-bys. There’s going to be stuff that happens, miscommunications. But we weren’t connected. We weren’t on our toes and ready to make a play. I think we were on our heels a little bit and reacting late, which I think is unacceptable.”
On Shamet’s comments after leaving Saturday’s game:
“He said he was OK… As long as he’s OK, his mental is OK. Just praying for the best and hoping everything is okay. Definitely going to need him out there.
“Wouldn’t want that for anybody, to go down and get hurt in the game, especially Landry I’m close with and dealing with probably the same shoulder thing. Just praying for the best and hoping everything is okay, Definitely going to need him out there.”
On Landry Shamet’s injury:
“It was tough, man. He’s been playing his ass off. He’s been such a big contributor to our team and these last couple weeks he’s been able to show the NBA and fans of New York why he’s so valuable. It sucks that that happened [when] he’s right now rolling and has good momentum in his game.”
On the Knicks’ poor defense against Orlando:
“That’s just a bad job on us. Obviously, there are guys who are out there that we could have played off of a little bit, and we didn’t do that.
“We let guys drive across the paint and do all that kind of stuff with no help, no resistance, so we’ve got to watch the film and get better.”
On grabbing Jalen Suggs by the neck during a loose ball:
“It was a loose ball. Obviously, we’re jockeying for the ball. I wasn’t even looking at him. I was looking at the basketball, and I didn’t realize I hit him in the neck until they slowed it down second by second. A play where bodies are flying and hands are flying. Unfortunately, I got him there. But it was nothing purposeful. That stuff’s happening like this. I don’t think I had enough time to process on a loose ball grabbing him by the neck.”
On losing Shamet to injury:
“First and foremost we hope he’s good. More so mentally… someone like Lan, someone who’d been battling and feel like it’s just a freak accident here and there. So it’s tough. Now it’s like they say, next man up, and we’ve got to figure out.”
“[He’s a] guy who worked so hard to get back and has been playing great. It’s just tough, but knowing him he’s going to be back better than ever.”
On missing the second half due to illness:
“I’m better now. I was lightheaded, almost dizzy on the sideline; it kicked in. I probably shouldn’t have been yelling at [the referee] like that. That started it, but much better now. … It was scary.”