New York Knicks: 3 early takeaways from the games we’ve seen so far

2. The New York Knicks are high-energy

As we know, the Knicks were dead last when it came to scoring in transition. Every time they took to the court last season, everyone looked like they just came back from eating a Thanksgiving dinner, and they all had the itus (shoutout to you if you watch The Boondocks). There were too many times I could recall Randle side-stepping his way up the court or watching [insert any point guard] just swinging the ball over to either Marcus Morris or Randle to painfully witness them try and execute a half-court set.

However, the Knicks will play at a faster pace this season based on their preseason games. Some may say that this is a reach, but we shouldn’t be surprised, considering Thibodeau stated that he wanted the team to push the pace during his presser. Also, it’s par for the course for a Thibodeau led team to play at high speed. Per Cleaning the Glass, the Chicago Bulls ranked in the top 7 of transition points scored off rebounds three of his five years there, while the Minnesota Timberwolves ranked in the top 12 of all transition points for two of his three seasons with the team.

Watching the Knicks hustle to get back on defense and quickly attack the rim in transition was a beautiful sight to see. It wasn’t consistently pretty basketball while they were rushing up and down the court (except for the final preseason game against the Cavaliers), but the effort was there when watching this team. Whether it was Knox or Randle bursting up the court to try and get the easy lay-in; Obi Toppin hustling back on defense to pick up his man before the opposing team could get into their set, and Quickley playing aggressive on-ball defense by using his swiftness to cause a turnover and then using his athleticism to create for his teammates on offense.

Now we shouldn’t be surprised that the players I just mentioned were able to play at such a high speed because Thibodeau did say that Randle, Knox, Toppin, and Quickley came in well-conditioned to camp. Thibodeau also mentioned Barrett came into camp being well-conditioned, and that showed by Barrett’s ability to log a lot of minutes and play efficiently thus far.

It would be unfair not to recognize Payton and Smith’s effort on the floor – even with their limitations and shaky level of play. We saw both guards trying to push the offense’s pace to catch defenses off guard, yet it wasn’t always successful (especially for Payton against the Pacers). But both were playing defense with a lot of energy, especially Smith during the preseason. Smith was essential with his 5 steals to help with the come from behind victory in the first matchup against the Cavaliers.

We should continue to expect this team to be pushing the pace this entire season because 1) Thibodeau mentioned he wanted to get easy transition points; 2) this team is still young and should use their youthful energy to race teams up and down the court; and 3) because of the team’s young age, they’re still learning how to execute half-court sets.