New York Knicks: 6 players who have smaller or lost roles from last season

Wayne Ellington

Wayne Ellington was an effective three-point shooter for the past decade with a laundry list of teams, including a career 38.4 percent mark with the Miami Heat in parts of three seasons. He started 165 games along the way, but, for the most part, came off the bench.

With the New York Knicks, 11 of Ellington’s 12 appearances have been in a reserve role, which was probably expected, given RJ Barrett‘s presence at shooting guard and Marcus Morris taking small forward next to him.

However, after taking a significant bench role in the season’s first handful of games, Ellington has not played in three games due to coach’s decision. If not for two appearances that combined for 11 seconds, the number of missed games would have nearly doubled.

Along the way, the veteran guard has shot just 32.6 percent from the field and 29.3 percent on three-pointers. Both are, by far, career-lows, and there is no sign of him regaining playing time and making more shots, especially with Damyean Dotson‘s recent resurgence.

Ellington averaged 24.5 minutes per game with two teams in 2018-19. At 13.4 right now, he is nowhere close to reaching that number, let alone the 21.1 minutes for his career. It will be a long climb for him to relevance, and with a contract, the Knicks can back out of in 2020, this may happen with another team.