New York City embraces its grittiness. It doesn't look like Los Angeles, and no New Yorker wants it to. That steely attitude translates to the city's basketball team too, so when the Knicks acquired Jose Alvarado — a player known primarily for the energy he brings to every play — it seemed like a match made in heaven.
It has been. Alvarado has learned quickly that, in order to become a fan favorite in Madison Square Garden, you really only have to do one thing: try. Making shots is great, I guess, but if a player's effort meter is on full tilt every night, they will endear themselves to New Yorkers in an instant. And Alvarado only knows full tilt.
Actually, he probably knew that already. The Christ The King alumni is not new to NYC's basketball culture, and you can almost see in his play how much it means to be back in the city he grew up in.
Jose Alvarado's hustle is more important than his shooting percentage
He's 8/25 from the field in his past three games — and has still made a positive impact in each of those games, in large part because he also has 11 assists and 6 steals in those three games, fully taking over the fourth quarter of the game against the Rockets despite shooting just 3-9 in the contest.
Alvarado's defensive intensity has already won the Knicks a game against a very good opponent, and it won't be the last time that happens.
Every once in a while, a hot shooting game is nice too, though, and Alvarado already had one of those when he hit 8 3-pointers against the Sixers. If he can strike this exact balance of hustle every game and a barrage of 3s like, every two weeks, he might end up being the best trade deadline addition in team history.
Alvarado is so electrifying in his minutes that it doesn't seem crazy to suggest he'll get 25-ish minutes per game the rest of the season. He's not cutting into anyone else's playing time and Mike Brown knows what he's going to get from GTA every night.
A bunch of trade deadline moves were hyped up, only to fall flat when the player actually started playing. That's not the case with Alvarado. He's been exactly what the people of New York already knew he would be, and the vibes in MSG have skyrocketed since he arrived on the scene.