Opening Night! Knicks First Game Assessment #KnicksTape

Last night the Knicks played the Oklahoma City Thunder in their season opener and were defeated 105 to 80. The Knicks leading scorer was Kristaps Porzingis who put up 31 points, 12 rebounds and 1 assist. Carmelo Anthony who played his first game against his former team after seven years finished the game with 22 points. New acquistion Paul George had 28 points and reigning NBA league MVP Russell Westbrook led his team with an impresive triple double with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 16 assists. New Knicks acquisitions Ennes Kanter had 10 points Ramon Sessions had 3 points, Tim Hardaway Jr. had 8 points and Michael Beasley left the game early with what seemed to be a sprained ankle with only 2 points only playing one minute.

Kristaps led the Knicks in minutes with 38 and Enes Kanter played 22 Ramon Sessions played 21 , Courtney Lee played 31 and Tim Hardaway Jr played 29. I took a lot of positives away from the Knick's loss as well as a lot of negatives. One positive being that our young and rising star Kristaps Porzingis showed a lot of confidence and a lot of poise stepping up and guarding Carmelo Anthony throughout the game. Kristaps also took smart shots and it showed through his very efficient stat line going 11 for 25 from the field and 2 of 6 from three point range. He looked as confident as ever and had no problem being aggressive on defense as he had 1 impressive block on Melo.

Another positive that took I away was Enes Kanter's role on the team. He didn’t have crazy stats in the game but he shot an efficient 5 for 10 with 7 rebounds and seemed to be very vocal on the defensive side of the ball by leading the team with 3 steals.

Now some of the negatives that I took away was coach Hornacek's rotational discretion. Newly drafted point guard Frank Ntilikina played eight minutes with zero points and took two shots. I was glad to see him aggressive even though they were both shots were air balls, and to be fair to Hornacek it was noted that Frank was coming off of a knee injury but if coach Hornacheck expects our young players to progress he needs to keep them on the court for longer spurts of time.

Another disappointing takeaway that I saw from the game was Willy Hernangomez avaliblity as he only played four minutes of garbage time all during the end of the game Hernangomez has proven time and time again (last season and preseason) that he is well equipped to be a very key aspect in the Knicks's offensive asinal. It was later said in a press conference by coach Hornacek that he had not earned his minutes due to his lazy defense during the preseason, which I can respect from a coaching point of view. Earning your minutes is important and nothing should come as entitled but like I said these young players need to be on the court.

I can’t say that I’m surprised at Tim Hardaway is spotty performance as he shot 3 for 10 with 8 points even though he was on the court for 29 minutes. That’s the kind of performance he gave us when he was on the team prior to him being traded to the Hawks but I will give him more time to evolve and become more comfortable as one of the Knicks primary scoring options.

Going forward I hope to see young players like Willy Hernangomez, Franklin Ntilikina, Ennes Kanter, Tim Hardaway Jr. and even Ron Baker becoming more comfortable and more poised with the young Knicks team. Obviously I don’t expect an eighth seed or any type of playoff spot for that matter and hope for a great pick so we can continue our rebuilding process with a young but if we can have a positive season and show promise, maybe that can attract some free agents or even some positive outlook for our fans for the first time in a while. Without Melo the ball flows a lot better and without Phil Jackson's triangle offense you can see players being a lot more comfortable with dribbling the ball in space. The ball was moving with a lot more fluidity and screens were being utilized by our guards.

As I said I’m still very excited about the season despite the loss that we had a team to a very talented Oklahoma City Thunder team with Paul George shooting lights out, Carmelo Anthony of course being a lethal scorer and Russell Westbrook doing what he does best being the former league MVP from last year.

The Knicks take on the Detroit Pistons for our home opener on Saturday, October 21 and hopefully they give the great New York Knicks fans of Madison Square Garden a good show.

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