New York Knicks: 5 takeaways from 2017-18 Media Day

5. The “New” New York Knicks

The biggest change heading into the new season was the trading away of Carmelo Anthony this past weekend to the Oklahoma City Thunder. In return, the Knicks acquired forwards Doug McDermott and Enes Kanter, two young talented players to add to a hungry roster.

Kanter was a force off the bench for the Thunder, providing valuable minutes and low post scoring to complement the amazing Russell Westbrook. McDermott hasn’t had a spectacular start to his career since being drafted by the Chicago Bulls a few years ago, but has the potential to be an explosive scorer off the Knicks bench.

McDermott addressed his thoughts at the podium on joining the Knicks and playing in head coach Jeff Hornacek‘s offense.

"“Coach [Jeff] Hornacek kind of harped on that to us last night because if we want to play the way we want to play offensively, it starts with stops. You can’t really get up and down the floor if the ball is going through the basket every time. That’s something I’ve been working on, trying to become a lot better team defender to help out and get more time on the floor.”"

Kanter followed up McDermott’s comments with some thoughts of his own from the defensive end to help the team.

"“Defense is about communication and trust. And if you trust your teammate and you know that he has your back then you feel way better on defense. Every time I’m out there I’m going to trust my teammates. That’s what I’ve been working on a lot. Especially this summer. So I think defense is a team thing, it’s not one by one, it’s a team thing. I think we’ve got to stick together and just try to do our best.”"