New York Knicks: Ranking the 5 best shooters on the roster

New York Knicks Top-5 Shooters: #1 Immanuel Quickley

Is sophomore guard Immanuel Quickley already the Knicks’ best shooter? Is that fair to the veterans?

I understand if it seems premature, but I’m not going to simply demote Quickley because of his experience. Who are we kidding, I sincerely believe Immanuel Quickley is the best shooter on the New York Knicks and that he will soon be one of the best in the entire NBA.

Just a natural shooter. Charmin ultra-soft touch on his shot and it shows with very few rim-outs on his misses. The soft touch comes up in his floater game as well.

Immanuel Quickley’s rookie season saw him shoot 38.9% from 3 and 89.1% from the free throw line.

Quickley was a bench sparkplug in his rookie year. A stick of dynamite who could be thrown onto the court and completely take over the game with his scoring.

There are levels to shooting and Immanuel Quickley has given us all the reason to believe that he can be someone who ranks at the highest level. He’s someone who takes a lot of difficult, long-range threes coming off of movement. Coach Tom Thibodeau has said that he wants Quickley to take those shots because, well, he’s one of the few players in the league who can hit them at a consistent clip.

He’s only going to get better. Quickley’s shooting reminds me of someone like Chauncey Billups. You’re always confident it’s going to go in. The shooting form is quick, fluid, calm, and collected.

As Quickley starts to showcase more ability to drive and hit shots closer to the rim, it’s only going to open up his shooting even more. This isn’t a spot-up shooter, this is someone who can maneuver a defense with the ball in their hands and hit 3-point shots from Hell’s Kitchen.

Immanuel Quickley will be shooting over 40% from 3 and 90% from the free throw line before you know it.

Honorable Mention: RJ Barrett

This pains me to not have young Rowan Alexander Barrett on this list after the shooting season he had.

Why did society determine that 5 was a nice number to use when making lists and countdowns? When the all mighty gods created math, did they realize it would mean that I have to leave RJ Barrett off of this list?

Simply put, Barrett isn’t someone who can create his own 3-point shot…yet. He was assisted on a whopping 98% of his 3-pointers last season… almost every single one he took. Everyone else on this list can hit their long-range shots off the dribble.

I’m not bringing this stat up to poopoo on RJ Barrett’s amazing season that saw him shoot over 40% from 3.

Rather, I am only bringing up these stats because I’m comparing him to great shooters. We’ve gone from wondering if RJ Barrett could be a shooter at all to finding reasons why he’s not a top-5 shooter on the team.

That’s how far we’ve come in the RJ Barrett shooting discourse.