New York Knicks: Surprises And Disappointments Of The 2016-17 Season

Disappointment: Mindaugas Kuzminskas

Mindaugas Kuzminskas, a 28 year old rookie from Lithuania, wasn’t really a known international player. He had the opportunity to come to the league a couple of times, but he believed he wasn’t truly ready.

He still isn’t truly ready.

From a pure basketball standpoint, he has a decent shot and has shown a knack for getting to the basket and hitting us with some surprise posters. But at a lanky 6’9″ with a 215-pound frame, he leaves a lot to be desired athletically.

When he came into the league, the Knicks were hoping to add another shooter. So far, he’s only shooting the deep ball at a 31.5 percent clip. He’s extremely accurate from the corner, shooting a stellar 40 percent, but all other 3s are falling at just a 24 percent clip.

We can give him the benefit of the doubt, as his shot selection has been Carmelo-esque and European players often take time to adjust to the longer 3-ball.

Besides shooting, his defense has been lackluster, as well. Diving into advanced stats, we can see that when Kuz is on the floor, 1.7 percent of the opponents’ possessions end in a steal by him and 1.0% of the opponents’ shot attempts are blocked by him

Those rates are almost identical to the rates of Carmelo Anthony, a player who has been bashed his whole career for a lack of defense.

But defense doesn’t always translate to steals and blocks. One can play good defense by bringing energy and hustle. But Kuzminskas’ defensive plus minus over 100 possessions is a -2.6. To compare, Anthony’s defensive plus minus this season is a -2.3.

The best thing he’s given us this season has been our new rally cry: KUUUUUUUUZZZZZZZ.