New York Knicks: 5 reasons for optimism heading into 2019 offseason

4. The promising, young talents have impressed

Even though the New York Knicks may not have any candidates for Rookie of the Year or the All-Rookie First Team when the voting is over, the young talent is still here. Keeping in mind that there is another top-notch prospect on his way to The Big Apple, the future seems certainly bright for the Knicks.

With the unfortunate Kristaps Porzingis saga, the Knicks added an extra young talent to their roster, a very explosive guard, Dennis Smith Jr., who just wrapped up his sophomore season.

Smith took a step back once Luka Doncic was added to the Dallas Mavericks, as he could no longer be the team’s main ball-handler. Predictable as it was, his numbers also took a step back, as he averaged 3.8 fewer field goal attempts per game — something rather unlikely to happen on a rookie to sophomore transition.

But once he set foot in New York, Smith was able to pick up exactly where he left off. On a team that was destined to fail, head coach David Fizdale did not push DSJ to his limits, ultimately using his services just 21 times out of the possible 31 games that he could’ve played in.

Nevertheless, this did not prevent Smith from being a walking highlight reel and doing stuff like this:

One couldn’t possibly talk about impressive young talents without mentioning Mitchell Robinson, however. After completing his rookie season, Robinson looks like the biggest steal of the draft, as he was selected with the 36th pick.

If the other 29 teams could’ve gazed into the future at what Robinson was truly capable of, it would’ve be a huge surprise to see him fall out of the lottery. The rookie averaged 2.4 blocks per game in just 20.6 minutes per game, ranking him as the league’s second-best shot-blocker. Talk about utilizing your second round selection.