New York Knicks need to give Derrick Williams more minutes

Derrick Williams has fallen off the New York Knicks’ ship. He needs to be installed into the rotation like he was earlier in the season.

Kurt Rambis has been coaching for the Knicks for quite a few games now. In that span, players who often saw decent minutes are now drifting slowly out of the rotation.

Meanwhile, Carmelo Anthony is still getting plenty of playing time while his knees are a lingering concern for the New York Knicks. In fact Melo played 41 minutes in a blowout loss to Miami. He only wound up shooting 9-0f-24, though he managed to score 25 points. In no way is that amount of playing time acceptable in a game like this.

The second that a game is out of reach, Rambis should be taking Melo out in order to rest him, and develop the other players that fight so hard just to make an impact on this team. Enter Derrick Williams.

Derrick Williams is one of the key contributors off the bench and Rambis doesn’t seem to realize that Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports /

Up until Derek Fisher was fired, Williams was seeing decent playing time coming off the bench. He had a few games with insane scoring outbursts that really gave the Knicks a strong punch off the bench.

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Maybe it’s because their names aren’t similar, but Kurt Rambis seems to dislike giving Williams his playing time. In the Knicks’ past six games, Williams has played in a competitive game for no more than 14 minutes, with the exception of the game against Orlando (21 minutes). The Knicks managed to keep Orlando from catching up, so Williams’ playing time came as garbage minutes, essentially. He also, however, received a DNP against the Pacers, which is not something Knicks fans should be happy about.

Prior to Rambis’ reign as coach, Williams was seeing decent minutes off the bench and contributing a lot more than the likes of Kyle O’Quinn on both ends of the floor. O’Quinn puts in effort, but he is not like Derrick Williams. Williams is not afraid to drive to the rim, or take shots from anywhere on the court. This is a quality that is hardly existent in the guards on the team, with the exception of Jerian Grant.

Langston Galloway and Jose Calderon tend to settle for jumpers off the dribble as opposed to pushing the ball down low. Arron Afflalo does like to make his way to the paint, but all too often relies on his fading jumper. Sasha Vujacic — who rarely plays to begin with — just shoots from anywhere without question.