Our New York Knicks evaluations from 2015-16 move on with big man Kyle O’Quinn.
Another year, another postseason being watched at home for the New York Knicks.
As has become the trend, the Knicks finished up their 2015-16 campaign both out of the playoff picture and well-below .500. With questions circling around Phil Jackson and his thus-far flailing regime in New York, having a successful offseason will be a major goal for the Knicks if they want to finally become relevant in the Eastern Conference again.
A big part of having a succesful offseason will be looking back at the past season and seeing which individual players succeeded, which players struggled, and what it means for them moving forward. With Jeff Hornacek in as the team’s new head coach, there’s sure to be a lot of turnover on the roster, as Jackson and the Knicks look to transition into this new era of New York basketball.
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 and finished the season in New York. We kicked off the player evaluations by examining the disappointing season of Kevin Seraphin yesterday, so who’s up next?
A fellow big man in his first year in New York, Kyle O’Quinn.
O’Quinn was essentially brought in as a mirror to Seraphin. Someone that could be a big body down low, occasionally go off for a big game, and otherwise be an unspectacular but solid backup presence in the frontcourt.
Still though, there was a bit more hype surrounding O’Quinn.
While he may not have been a big number guy in Orlando during his three-year stint with the Magic, averaging 6.2 points in 17.2 minutes per game in his best season, there were high beliefs that he could use his aggressiveness to be a really nice addition to a club that needed an edge.
Those beliefs were so high, in fact, that Phil Jackson inked the 26-year-old from Flushing, Queens to a four-year, $16 million deal last offseason. For someone who had started just 41 games prior to this season and was a pretty much unknown commodity, that’s a relatively major commitment.
Much like Kevin Seraphin, things never really came to fruition for the big fella.
When he did manage to get consistent minutes, he played well for the Knicks though. He had a 19-point performance back in February that included 7-for-10 shooting, and played his role of big body enforcer excellently, garnering his second highest rebound totals for the season despite the second lowest minutes played of his career.
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O’Quinn also showed flashes of being a complete offensive player, hitting five threes and shooting 49 percent in the 10-to-16 feet range. For someone as big and angry as O’Quinn, who stands at 6-foot 10-inches and weighs in at 250 Ibs, the ability to consistently be an offensive weapon will be big in his continued development with the Knicks.
The key problem for O’Quinn this season wasn’t so much in his own consistency, but in the consistency of which he was used.
For instance, over a six-game stretch in December, O’Quinn averaged 18 MPG, shot 69 percent, and dropped 7.8 PPG and 6.7 RPG. His reward? Two games on the bench, followed by a 13-game stretch that saw him play only 8.2 minutes a night.
Obviously, coaching is an on-the-fly job. O’Quinn’s legs could have been tired, he could have been sick, or been dealing with an injury that saw him sit those two games. Of course, it also doesn’t help that the Knicks saw a head coaching change midseason, as Derek Fisher was fired and replaced by the aggressively incompetent Kurt Rambis.
Whatever the reason for O’Quinn’s bizarre usage strategy, both he and the Knicks need to find a way for him to consistently see 15 minutes of playing time a night in the future. The fact of the matter is that when he’s on the court, he’s a proven difference maker for the Knicks bench.
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Luckily, there will be plenty of time for the team to carve a nice player out of O’Quinn, who clearly has it in him. Due to make $3.9 million next year and $4.1 million the year after that, the bearded beast will more than likely be back for more next year, hopefully finding a consistency to his usage so the Knicks can enjoy having the big fella banging around down low.