Knicks Take Knox

When I opened my phone on Thursday morning and saw the Bleacher Report alert that “The Knicks were highly interested in Kentucky Forward Kevin Knox,” I didn’t know how to feel. Knox is a pretty good player — he managed to score an efficient 34 points against Press Virginia earlier this year. He also struggled in the NCAA tournament against Buffalo and Kansas State. He’s a great shooter, a good defender, and should be a great addition to the Knicks, but I will never like him.

Kevin Knox carried Kentucky over West Virginia last winter with 34 points and 5 three pointers (photo via SEC Country)

He made it clear that he was going to go to Duke (my favorite team), but then at the last second, he changed his mind to Duke’s recruiting rival — John Calipari and the Kentucky Wildcats. I firmly believe that Knox would’ve put Duke at a higher level than last year’s national champion Villanova. So yeah, I don’t like him, but he is a pretty good player.

On the board when the Knicks took Knox were Michael Porter Jr, Mikal Bridges, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Miles Bridges. After the Cavs surprised by choosing Collin Sexton over Porter, I fully expected the Knicks to take the risk on Porter, and was slowly starting to talk myself into it, because why not? My only criticism of the Knicks is that if they were trying to play it safe and stay away from Porter, why would they reach on Knox if Mikal Bridges was still available? Bridges is a much more complete player, but then again, he is four years older than Knox, so time will tell if the Knicks got this one right.

The Knicks also took Mitchell Robinson in the second round, a pick that I really like. Any player like Robinson — a very highly rated high school who refused to play in college and was largely forgotten about — seems to have great success in the NBA. Even though the Knicks are a terribly run organization, I think that they have a chance of having Robinson live up to his potential.

 

Duke Comes Back… Again

Duke is a very young team. They mainly play eight guys. Seven of them are underclassmen, and five of those seven are freshmen. They are incredibly inexperienced, making it seem ridiculous that this team has put together so many comebacks in hopeless situations. Youthful mistakes and poor defense have consistently put Duke into a hole early in their games, but the ridiculous amount of talent the Blue Devils have have consistently bailed them out.

Freshman Marvin Bagley III has had six double doubles through only eight games this season. (photo via sportingnews.com)

Last night, Duke was down 21-6 only 5 minutes and 56 seconds into the game. Even this early into a game, this situation seemed pretty hopeless for Duke. However, two nights earlier, Duke faced a 16 point deficit late in the second half against Texas, but they managed to send that game into overtime and win. Florida’s grew to 17, but in the second half, Freshmen Marvin Bagley III and Gary Trent Jr led Duke back into the game, and once again, they managed to win by three points. Projected top 3 pick Bagley scored 30 points to go along with 15 rebounds against Florida — a similar stat line to his 34 points and 15 rebounds in Duke’s comeback win against Texas. Gary Trent scored 15 points against Florida and 17 against Texas, including an and-one layup to put Duke up by one point in the final thirty seconds of regulation.

The Portland State Vikings? Really?

Duke has had many ups and downs this season, including a 4 point halftime deficit to the Vikings of Portland State. Coming into the year, I assumed that Duke — given how young they are — would lose a couple of games early in the year but then figure it out in February and win the tournament as a 2 seed. The struggles have most certainly been there, but the young team looks very experienced in staying poised despite large deficits, so maybe Duke’s run of dominance will come earlier than I expected.