New York Knicks: Ranking the newcomers
6. Elfrid Payton
A lot can be said about Elfrid Payton. Entering his sixth season in the league and on his fourth team in the last two years, Payton seems to have become a journeyman. Thus, it may be redemption time for Payton.
On the plus side, Elfrid is an extremely prolific passer, having averaged 7.6 assists per game for the 2018-19 season, which was more than James Harden and De’Aaron Fox.
He is an all-around point guard that can attack the paint, resulting in him usually shooting a remarkably percentage on his 2-point attempts.
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On the downside, Payton is a very bad 3-point shooter, which is somewhat unacceptable for a point guard in today’s NBA. Furthermore, even though he barely surpasses that 30 percent mark for his entire career, he has become even more confident at shooting from outside the arc.
During his rookie season, 5.9 percent of his total field goal attempts were 3-pointers. Last season, that number was at 25.5 percent. This would be pretty ordinary for any other player, except that Payton has not worked on becoming a better shooter. And yet, he is letting them fly.
5. Reggie Bullock
Reggie Bullock is the second sharpshooter that the New York Knicks brought in in order to bring harmony into the 3-point shooting chaos of the past season. An even better shooter than Ellington, Bullock shot 44.5 percent from behind the arc in 2017-18, placing himself as the second-best shooter in the league.
Unfortunately, the Knicks won’t be able to enjoy that sweet shooting of his from Day 1 since Bullock is currently recovering from the herniated disk surgery he had back in July. There is no timetable yet set for his return, but he is expected to be re-evaluated in November.
Bullock is, however, a below-average perimeter defender. This could specifically cause a number of problems if he is thrown against some of the most prolific scorers in the league at the shooting guard or small forward position.
4. Bobby Portis
Bobby Portis is one of the 6.2 quadrillion power forwards acquired by the Knicks during this past offseason. He is yet another case of a player that hasn’t found a permanent home, as this will be his third team in under 12 months.
During his — up to now — short NBA career, he has averaged 10.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game, though he had a career year in 2018-19 as he upped those numbers respectively to averages of 14.2 and 8.1 per game.
A somewhat overlooked aspect of his game is his ability to stretch the floor. Portis, a 39.3 percent 3-point shooter during 2018-19, shot the ninth-highest 3-point percentage among big men with more than 20 attempts last season.
It is pretty much certain that we won’t be seeing Bobby Portis fight for the tip-off in the Knicks games as that spot is much likely taken by Mitchell Robinson. But what Portis will bring to the table will be the outside shot at the power forward/center position, allowing the team’s slashers to attack the paint more easily.