Shane Larkin: Diamond In The Rough

So far, there haven’t been many bright spots that have come out of the Knicks’ tempestuous 5-30 season. But one of the bright spots that’s been caught in the losing deluge all season is sophomore Shane Larkin.

The 2013 draft was a draft in which the Knicks, miraculously, had a first round pick to spare. Fans were hoping that Barry Larkin’s son would fall to number 24; at 5’11, it was hard not to look at Larkin’s swiftness and massive athleticism for a decent bench point guard. Then, the Mavericks snagged him at the 18th pick and then Tim Hardaway Jr. was eventually taken with the 24th, which wasn’t a popular pick to fans at the time, but the THJ approval rating has shifted upwards since then.

When the Tyson Chandler trade happened, hearing Larkin was a piece in the trade was a great thing to hear, because looking back it now through more than a quarter of the season, he’s been fitting nicely into this unfortunate train wreck of a team. I was more of the “I’m excited for Jose Calderon,” opinion, because, yes, Phil Jackson somehow was traded Raymond “Legal Troubles” Felton away, but also because a point guard with fantastic distributing abilities was finally going to take over the Knicks’ floor general position. Also, Calderon was returning to his traditional position, because Rick Carlisle played Monta Ellis at point guard in Dallas 95% of the time, followed by Calderon at the two.

But Calderon went down with a hamstring injury for the first 13 games of the season, which meant that Larkin got the nod at starting PG on opening night against the Bulls. While the showing wasn’t too good, however, it meant that Larkin was going to be getting extensive playing time with no Calderon, with Pablo Prigioni right behind him at second fiddle.

Ever since Calderon’s November return, Larkin has been relegated to the bench, but he’s had the majority of his impressive showings this season off the bench, as well as having decent showings as a starter. His last five showings in particular stick out the most, especially on the defensive end, where he’s averaged 2.4 steals a contest, accounting for a STL% of 5% flat, which is definitely better than his starting counterpart, Calderon, where he can barely attach himself to his assignment’s hip while defending. Larkin has also  shot .469% from the field, averaging 2.4 assists, and producing a 120 ORtg throughout that five game span. Not bad.

According to NBA.com/stats, Larkin has hit 48.5% of his catch and shoot threes in on the year in exactly one catch and shoot attempt per game, which is definitely the best part of his game aside from his lateral quickness and fiery first step; his 3P% is just above 40% on 46 attempts. Some may say that the sample size is minuscule, but for Larkin, that’s pretty good.

Considering that the Knicks are probably tanking (I say probably because they have tried pretty hard in quite a few games this year), it wouldn’t hurt for Derek Fisher do exactly what Rick Carlisle did last season with Monta Ellis, start, in this case, Larkin and Calderon as the one-two punch, because why not? How many times have we heard the phrase “they have nothing to lose?” this season? They certainly have the games to lose, but Larkin’s baseball hall of fame father Barry is, indeed, correct about Larkin playing on a team that struggling mightily. From a New York Post article:

"He wishes they would win, but I think he feels they are all in the same learning process and they are all going through this together. He’s trying to figure it out.’’"

Well, Barry, I think your son has done a great job figuring the majority of it out.

As funny as it sounds, going from a perennial playoff team to the worst team (to most people) is a good adjustment. Larkin did play in 48 games last year for the Mavs, but in very limited minutes, only playing 10.2 a game. His minutes have doubled this season, so far averaging 23.2 minutes a contest, because of, again, Calderon’s injury, Pablo Prigioni’s old age and, the most important reason of them all, he’s on a god awful team that has Quincy Acy starting and Andrea Bargnani.

The one thing that stinks, though, other than the Knicks greasy record is that Larkin’s team option wasn’t picked up. Yes, to be fair, who knew that he would be in the starting lineup on opening night and the emergency starter for the beginning of the season? Still, $1.6M is pretty hard to turn down, especially on an unproven guard that has lots of potential upside. Larkin can still sign with the team, but he would have to take the same offer that was contained in his team option of $1.6M.

So, what could possibly go wrong with taking back Larkin, one of our best young assets, this upcoming offseason, where the Knicks will finally have a cap-rich inventory that’s not just the mid-level or bi-annual exception? He’s done fairly well on a team that is clearly in cahoots. And with the substantial possibility of having a competent team with cogs all around Carmelo Anthony come next season, Larkin is definitely capable of doing even more.