New York Knicks: Don’t sleep on a year-2 Immanuel Quickley “breakout”

New York Knicks: Immanuel Quickley’s development

We know that Immanuel Quickley will step into his familiar sparkplug-scorer role. He could be in store for more.

Where do we begin with young Immanuel Quickley, who already jumps off the page with his advanced metrics where he led all 2020-21 rookies in some categories. I think the most natural initial developments people will want to see are added moves to his scoring arsenal.

Quickley knows how to find his spots. Pull-up 3s are what jump out, but the ability to get defenders to bite on pump fakes as well as his floater game were both major parts of his bag.

For Quickley, finding new ways to score and getting stronger finishing towards the rim are going to key in his scoring development.

There are other components to his game that go beyond scoring. The one we’ve seen most recently is his ability to play point guard and run an offense.

Quickley lit up the summer league as the New York Knicks point guard and there is clearly talent there as a playmaker. Don’t forget Quickley played point guard in high school and in AAU alongside other future NBA talent.

There were times last year when injuries happened and Thibodeau would use Alec Burks as the sort of the “emergency point guard” in lineups. I actually think Quickley can take that duty from Burks this season.

Alec Burks is a very underrated ball-handler, which is why Thibodeau leaned on him over his rookie. We’ve now seen a sizeable sample from Quickley as a point guard where I do think he can take on those duties. Thibodeau believes in him.

Even Immanuel Quickley’s defense flies under the radar. No, he’s not a “shutdown defender”. Yes, he was inconsistent as a defender in his rookie season.

Still, it feels like because he has a skinny build and is known as a scorer, there’s a lazy assumption that he’s just some sort of negative defender. With Immanuel Quickley on the court last season, the Knicks defense gave up 3.9 fewer points per 100 possessions.

Who are the elite defenders in the New York Knicks’ backcourt? Right now, I’m not sure that anyone outside of rookie Miles McBride has the footspeed and wingspan to be a disruptive defender against opposing point guards.

Immanuel Quickley’s playing time may seem murky right now. It’s something that isn’t exactly at the top of the team’s priority list.

This is a group that is trying to win now, they’re not in the business of developing young players over being competitive. When the Knicks take on the Boston Celtics to open the season, I’d expect Quickley to take on an identical role to what he had last season.

However, once the wear and tear of the season begins to take its toll, the spry young sophomore might find himself taking the court as one of the team’s key players.

Forget per game stats when it comes to rookies. We saw Immanuel Quickley’s unique talent every time he was on the floor last season. Don’t be shocked if that talent blossoms this season and never looks back.