New York Knicks: What does the All-Rookie Team mean for Immanuel Quickley?

New York Knicks: What does the all-rookie team say about Quickley’s future?

The all-rookie teams can be deceptive at times.  Just because you were one of the ten best rookies one year does not promise you’ll have one of the ten best careers of that rookie class, and vice versa.

For evidence, look no further than the Knick’s own two stars. Neither Barrett nor Randle made their year’s all-rookie roster and now look at them. After Zion and Ja Morant, Barrett is the clear best player out of that 2019 draft class. The same goes for Julius Randle, who after Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic is the best player out of the 2014 Draft (Zach LaVine fans can go boil a fish).

Still, an all-rookie selection is not meaningless.  Yes, you’ll occasionally see a Terence Davis make the team and do nothing to follow it up, or a Josh Jackson, or a Yogi Ferrell, but more often than not the all-rookie teams turn out better players than not.

Over the past five years of All-Rookie selections (not counting this year’s), there have only been 9 players who now average less than 24 minutes a game in the NBA.

1. Yogi Ferrell
2. Eric Paschall
3. Terence Davis
4. Dennis Smith
5. Willy Hernangomez
6. Marquese Chriss
7. Jahlil Okafor
8. Emmanuel Mudiay
9. Willie Cauley-Stein

Contrast that to the 14 players off that list who have made all-star teams and you start to see that while the All-Rookie team doesn’t promise anything, it’s a good omen of things to come. The All-Stars are…

1. Karl-Anthony Towns
2. Kristaps Porzingis
3. Devin Booker
4. Nikola Jokic
5. D’Angelo Russell
6. Joel Embiid
7. Jaylen Brown
8. Brandon Ingram
9. Ben Simmons
10. Donovan Mitchell
11. Jayson Tatum
12. Luka Doncic
13. Trae Young
14. Zion Williamson

50 all-rookie players in the past five years, 9 of them are busts, 26 of them are valuable role players, 14 of them are all-stars, 1 of them is Ja Morant.

Now, it must be said that Quickley is most likely going to fall into that middle category.  He doesn’t ooze all-star potential the way some of these guys do.  Of those 14 all-stars only 3 of them were selected to the all-rookie 2nd team, but that doesn’t mean we can count Quickley out.

Personally, I see him being like a Malcolm Brogdon type. Never quite an all-star perhaps, but someone who can be the 3rd banana on a contending team, and the 4th banana on a title team.

If that’s what the Knicks got out of the 25th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft then that’s worth a tip of the hat, a shake of the hand, and the recognition of a job well done. Just another reason why the new front office looks like an upgrade over the last.

Congrats to Immanuel Quickley, you deserve it.