Was 2022 NBA Summer League the start of a turning point for the Knicks?
By Kramer Smith
The New York Knicks fell short to the Portland Trailblazers Sunday, losing 85-77 in the NBA Summer League Championship. Although a disappointing end to an otherwise strong tournament showing for New York, the franchise gained some significant insight into the potential of their young players.
Quentin Grimes was a standout throughout the summer classic, finishing with 19 points in the championship, and scoring over 20 points in almost every contest he played in. Grimes looked arguably too good to be on the floor in these games, as he got to showcase his scoring, passing, and overall playmaking abilities following a knee injury that cut his regular season short.
NBA hopefuls Jericho Sims and Miles McBride surprised many with their dominant play this summer. Sims was an athletic force against the competition and McBride was an offensive spark at the point guard position.
Feron Hunt, who spent the end of last season as the Knicks’ two-way player, showed some strong ability in the transition game, making him a possible and useful call-up option from the Westchester Knicks this upcoming season.
Jean Montero and Trevor Keels looked raw in the tournament, but also had moments of praise for their play, and will surely be candidates for the Westchester affiliate team this fall.
The Summer League was successful for the Knicks
Overall, New York’s brass should be extremely happy and optimistic with the play of their young players this summer. Grimes, Sims, and McBride earned a lot of looks for rotation minutes this season and New York got an idea of what players will be useful development pieces, such as Keels and Hunt.
Amidst the Knicks’ Summer League stint, the team has been at the center of the Donovan Mitchell trade talks. Competing with the Miami Heat to express the greater packages of assets, if the plan was to use the Summer League to do this, consider it mission accomplished.
Grimes seems to be the main piece in consideration for the Utah Jazz, and if they planned to evaluate his post-injury play based on the Summer League, he proved he is more than ready to contribute.
McBride will struggle to find time behind new addition Jalen Brunson this year, and if Utah is committing to an overhaul and rebuild, he would get a much greater opportunity there as a premier option.
The Knicks need to trust the process or go all in for an immediate star
The most important thing that New York has learned this summer is that it has a lot of options and a plethora of talent at its disposal going forward. This is a bode to the patience and consistency of the front office and they are finally in the driver’s seat of their own destiny following years of painful rebuilding.
The Knicks have the infrastructure to be a solid team next season as they stand with considerable depth and talent at every single position. If they trust the core they’ve built, they may be able to compete for play-in contention as early as this year and develop into a true contender in a couple of years.
The idea of expediting this process is unbelievably tempting, though, as landing a star like Mitchell would propel New York to the level it has always hoped to achieve and would make the team an instant regular season threat.
The major question the franchise will need to answer is whether or not they believe Mitchell tips the scale. He proved to make the Jazz a regular-season super team, but that play never translated into the postseason.
Staying patient and developing their own talent could lead the Knicks to success like the Golden State Warriors earned, which also left them with room to acquire a megastar like Kevin Durant when he became available.
Only time will tell if Donovan Mitchell is the star New York covets, but regardless of anything, this summer was an important step forward in Knicks history.
Even though they fell short of their end goal, they proved to finally maintain a roster of exciting young players and an untapped ceiling of potential.
