New York Knicks: 3 Discoveries from first 3 games of season

The New York Knicks Duo of Julius Randle and Evan Fournier

Last season, Reggie Bullock proved to be a huge piece of the Knicks winning machine. Not only did he often defend the opponent’s best offensive player but he also had a big role on offense.

Bullock was the New York Knicks’ go-to sniper. The team shot a great percentage, but they were not a high volume three-point shooting team. Despite this, they looked to Bullock to be their primary source of the long ball, constantly setting him up for open looks.

One way in which the Knicks did this was by using him in dribble hand-offs (DHO’s) with Julius Randle. Randle and Bullock were seemingly unstoppable in this fashion. The triple-threat Randle posed as a shooter, driver, and playmaker in DHO’s made teams pick their poison, leading to a ton of good looks for Bullock. Even when they weren’t working directly off of each other, Randle consistently found Bullock on passes out of isolation, the pick and roll, the post, really anywhere on the court.

With Bullock leaving in free agency, Fournier has not just taken over Bullock’s role on the roster, but he has perfectly fit in as Randle’s new favorite weapon.

It has been a pleasure to see Fournier fit in so well not just as a great offensive player but especially as a dynamic partner for the team’s All-Star forward. The fact that Fournier can play so well in the role Bullock left is important because it allows the Knicks offense to have continuity by featuring something that they had great success with last season.

Fournier is a big offensive upgrade over Bullock though, meaning that the sky is the limit not just for this duo but for New York as a whole when it comes to building a more potent scoring attack.