With the New York Knicks 2015-16 season officially in the books, it’s time to look back at some of the teams players and the individual years they each had, as well as how they’ll play into the Kniks future. Up first? Kevin Seraphin.
For the New York Knicks and their fans, this feeling has become all too similar.
Just a year removed from a dreadful 17-win campaign in 2014-15, the Knicks once again found themselves on the outside of the playoff picture, finishing the year at 32-50 despite a 20-20 start.
Now with the playoffs in full swing, the Knicks will have to look both back at their team from this year to see what went wrong and look to the future to see where the franchise is going.
With a new head coach in Jeff Hornacek, but the same Phil Jackson regime in charge, it makes for an extremely interesting dynamic as the team moves into its offseason.
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With that thought in mind, we’ll be looking back at each player who saw action in at least half the Knicks games this season, as well as finished the season in New York. Who do we start with?
None other than one of the newer Knicks, role-playing big man Kevin Seraphin.
Seraphin joined the Knicks on a one year, $2.8 million deal last offseason, leaving the Washington Wizards after five years in the nation’s capitol.
Coming off his best season, including a 52 percent shooting mark and 6.6 points per game in just 15 minutes of action a night, the Frenchman was believed to be primed to be a backup to Kristaps Porzingis and Robin Lopez down low.
In the triangle offense, that meant a lot of important playing time, as bigs are routinely asked to make plays in the Phil Jackson-favored system.
The results were less than exciting.
A year removed from what may have been his best season, Seraphin slogged through what may have been his worst season this year.
His 526 minutes played were a career-low, as was his 41 percent shooting mark.
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Things just never seemed to materialize for the 26-year-old Seraphin, who showed some flashes early on that he could be a nice player for the Knicks.
A 6-for-8, 12-point performance back in November had many hoping he could become a serviceable bench presence, but consistency proved to be an issue that he could never really shake.
A big game on Nov. 29 was followed by a three month double-digit drought and it was pretty much during that time that Seraphin saw his minutes all but disappear in favor of Kyle O’Quinn. He played in only 25 of the Knicks’ 51 games during that time period, much of it during garbage time.
Listen, when the core highlight of your season is absolutely trucking a small child, you’ve had a rough go of things.
Still though, there’s some reason to believe Seraphin can develop into a decent player. He’s not a particularly athletic guy, but at 6-foot-10 and 278 pounds, he’s a big body and scrappy player that can be a nice piece for teams in needs of some muscle down low.
That doesn’t even mention the fact that he can quietly do some nice stuff for you offensively.
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He has nice scoring ability in the post, even shooting 54 percent in this dreadful season, and has flashed the ability to range out and make some jumpers, going 48 percent in the 3-10 foot range last season in Washington and 44 percent from the 10-16 foot range.
Seraphin’s defense has been equally impressive at points, as opponents have shot 48.4 percent against Seraphin-led teams with the big fella on the court compared to 49.7 percent with him off. That isn’t a huge difference, but it’s something worth mentioning.
Big Kev gets off the books this summer and after making just $2.8 million this season and not really earning much more with his performance this year, likely won’t be looking for much of a raise in free agency.
With that in mind, Seraphin will likely be someone Phil Jackson puts on the back burner until some of the bigger free agents fall and the Knicks’ cap space and roster situation become more clear.
This is a guy that can be a bruiser down low, has nice post moves and can shoot. Maybe this season was an outlier and he can be a nice role player for a Knicks’ playoff push. Maybe it isn’t.
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Depending on who Phil can lure to New York, Seraphin might be able to get one more shot at success with the Knicks.