NY Knicks: Predicting the starting lineup as camp opens

Predicting the Knicks’ starting shooting guard: Austin Rivers

The Knicks signed Austin Rivers to a three-year, $10 million contract, with the final two years non-guaranteed. It’s a great deal for the Knicks to add a player who is still young-ish (28) and can do all of the things they need in the starting lineup: provide shooting and defense.

If you were asking me which player on the roster is best suited to play the two-guard, independent of lineup fit, I would argue for Alec Burks. I like his game a lot. He can pretty much do everything Rivers can do, but offers more playmaking ability as a facilitator, which is precisely why I prefer him as the first guard off the bench.

With Rivers in the starting lineup, the Knicks can rely more on Barrett to create along the wing, and then use Burks as a facilitator in lineups that might include a second shooting guard.

Evaluating Rivers’s positional fit is a bit tricky after he played in the vacuum of Houston’s system with James Harden and Russell Westbrook, and before that, with Chris Paul.

The problem with having both Mitchell Robinson and RJ Barrett as the young cornerstone pieces in the starting lineup is that neither of them can shoot from the perimeter. That puts a lot of pressure on the Knicks to find shooting at the other positions. While Toppin could turn into a stretch four, we need to see how he transitions to the NBA three-point line. The Knicks don’t have a point guard on the roster who is a consistent long-distance scorer.

That leaves the second guard position as a key place to inject shooting. Rivers shot 35.6 percent from three last year on four attempts per game in the layup-or-three lineup in Houston. That was a stark improvement over the previous season when he struggled to find his shot. However, he is a 34.8 percent perimeter shooter, we know he can knock down a three.