Knicks: Derrick Williams Is NY’s Most Important Player In 2015-16

Are you sitting down? You might want to before I release the hottest take of the entire summer — OK, are you good? If the New York Knicks — the very same team that finished a game behind a Philadelphia 76ers franchise that was openly trying to fail — are to return to the NBA Playoffs in 2015-16, then Derrick Williams is the most important piece of the puzzle.

Not Carmelo Anthony, not Kristaps Porzingis, not Arron Afflalo — it is the wayward former No. 2 overall pick that will ultimately decide the fate of the franchise so desperate to return to relevancy.

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Williams, who averaged 8.3 points and 2.7 rebounds in 19 minutes per game behind Jason Thompson in Sacramento last year, now finds himself as the Knicks’ deputized power forward with just the 20-year-old Latvian and Lou Amundson as his backup. Last April, the Knicks trotted out a torrid Cole Aldrich–Jason Smith frontcourt, so it’s hard not to see the potential upside in Williams despite the underwhelming start to his career thus far.

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In Anthony’s final game before shutting it down in February, he labored through a 9-of-20 shooting night for 24 points — but the Knicks lost by 14. Their next highest leading scorer was Amar’e Stoudemire, who is now in Miami, with 14 points and the promising Langston Galloway with nine.

The following game, in the absence of their only All-Star, the aforementioned Jason Smith put up an insane 25 shots against Orlando; then Galloway lead the team in attempts twice in row, followed by the ever-volatile Andrea Bargnani chipping in with team-highs along the way towards a dismal 7-21 finish.

Needless to say, the Knicks were a bad team with Anthony, but they were absolutely abysmal without him. When you depend on Stoudemire’s old bones, Galloway’s streaky shooting, or the enigma of Bargnani on a nightly basis — P.S.: good luck, Brooklyn — then you’re asking for trouble. Last season, the Knicks were a staggeringly bad 5-22 in games where Anthony shot 49.9 percent or lower from the field. On the other hand, the Knicks were just 5-8 in games that he shot .500 or better — which leads us to two conclusions:

The Knicks were really bad last year.
Even so, Anthony cannot do it on his own.

The signings of Robin Lopez and Arron Afflalo should help buoy the Knicks’ offense, but probably not as much as people assume. Lopez scored over 20 points just once last year and Afflalo, a three-point shooter whose three-point percentage dropped from 43 percent to 35 percent in 2014-2015, isn’t the slasher he used to be. Enter Derrick Williams.

Of course, the problems with Williams are the same as they’ve always been — he’d like to play small forward, but he’s not a fantastic jump shooter and is a bit undersized to guard athletes like LeBron James. Additionally, Williams is just 6’8″ and the majority of power forwards easily outweigh him in the post. However, on a very basic level, Williams will be asked to score this year in New York — and boy, oh, boy, can he score.

Thanks to Phil Jackson and Derek Fisher’s affinity for the Triangle, it’s likely that the Knicks will start with Derrick Williams at power forward as the offense will require Anthony at the 3. This, ultimately, will allow Williams room for creativity and plenty of one-on-one situations, something that the smaller, quicker tweener can use to his advantage.

In the very likely situation that Anthony ends up in his preferred low-post position, teams won’t be able to crash on him as Williams has proven himself to be plenty capable from behind the arc in brief glimpses. A blistering 56 percent season at Arizona in 2010 is far in the past, but Williams is just 24 years of age, so there’s time to improve.

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What you see in the highlights linked here is a smattering display of alley-oops, dunks and athletic plays around the rim. Among the laundry list of missing pieces in New York, the closest things they had to freak athletes were traded to Cleveland before the deadline. If there is an opportunity to run the floor in 2015, it will likely be Williams making the effort and execution.

Divisionally, Williams will have 12 games against the average to below-average defending of Brooklyn’s Thaddeus Young and Thomas Robinson; Boston’s David Lee, Jared Sullinger, and Amir Johnson; and Toronto’s Patrick Patterson and Luis Scola. Only against Philadelphia, ironically, will Williams be completely overmatched, but the other opportunities should have him salivating.

With nobody behind him except for the tiny, un-NBA-ready Porzingis and a stunning lack of other athletes around him, Williams could be in for a wonderfully above average season. Simply just being a great scoring athlete should take plenty of the pressure and load off of Anthony’s back night after night. With Galloway, Anthony and Afflalo all scoping out the perimeter, there should be plenty of room for Williams to do what he does best: slash, cut and abuse slower defenders.

At the end of the day, New York is taking a small gamble on a potentially huge reward. Last year, particularly after the departure of J.R. Smith, Anthony was the only reliable creator of offense for the Knicks, so Williams will pay immediate dividends on that end. Now, this isn’t to say that Williams is the odds on favorite to win the NBA’s Most Improved Player, but don’t be surprised when he has the best year of his young career.

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