When Karl-Anthony Towns got into early foul trouble Tuesday, Mike Brown showed no hesitance turning to backup big Andre Drummond. Drummond rewarded Brown’s faith, putting up a double-double in the first half; more impressively, perhaps, the 33-year-old put up those numbers in a single, uninterrupted 14-minute stretch of play.
However, leaning on Drummond too heavily also might have cost the Knicks the game. That could lead to at least some experimentation at center in the second contest, with James Wiseman benefiting most.
Andre Drummond showed Knicks in opener that he isn't perfect, opening door for James Wiseman
There’s a lot to Drummond’s game that Knicks fans will enjoy watching after years of Mitchell Robinson. He can dribble a little. He can score without dunking. He’s become a not-totally-ignorable three-point threat. At the foul line he might as well be Rick Barry compared to Robinson.
Drummond came out of that stretch with a double-double and a few weeks’ worth of goodwill from the fans, but when Towns was again in foul trouble in the fourth and Drummond returned, he lacked the vim and vigor of the first half. Embiid blocked his shot repeatedly, and at times Drummond just didn’t have the lift or explosiveness to power over or through his man.
Wiseman is three years younger than Robinson, with 7,500 fewer minutes on his career odometer. The Knicks didn’t sign him to play 20 minutes a night. But if he can spell Drummond and KAT for, say, three minutes each half, that could payoff come crunch time when he's out. Wiseman doesn’t need to play in the biggest minutes to help the team in those minutes.
KAT's foul issues also create a James Wiseman opportunity with Knicks
Another reason Wiseman could play against Boston, who are deeper at the center spot than Philadelphia, has nothing to do with he, Mitchell Robinson or Drummond, and everything to do with Towns.
KAT was in foul trouble throughout the opener, finishing with four. Tuesday was five months to the day the last time he committed fewer than four fouls in a game, covering New York’s final 11 playoff games plus the Sixer game Tuesday.
The Celtics don’t have a center who attacks a defense the way Embiid can, but as long as Towns continues to specialize in absolutely absurd fouls in non-threatening situations, he’ll keep getting whistled for them. Drummond is both too valuable and too old to singularly carry the burden of filling in for KAT’s foibles.
And since the Celtics don’t have an Embiid-level center, it’s a better matchup for Wiseman, who is not in the league for his defense. All Wiseman has to do in spot duty is grab some boards and make the occasional rim-run. That would give the Knicks all that they really need from him to offset KAT’s weirds and Drummond’s years.
Knicks have good reasont to go center-heavy vs. Celtics
In the Celtics’ loss at Detroit, the home team’s centers, Jalen Duren and Paul Reed, combined to take 16 shots—nearly double what Towns took against Philly. The Pistons pair scored 28 points and shot 63% from the floor.
The Knicks’ bigs can do more. But doing more may require, well, doing more with more. Meaning playing Wiseman.
In Robinson and Queta, the Celtics play two centers whose primary jobs are protecting the paint, rebounding and providing rare but efficient scoring, usually off teammates’ misses.
They may experiment giving Paul George time guarding KAT; that strategy was one of the few playoff looks that gave the Knicks any trouble. That could be a good time for the Knicks to test a new version of the double-big look that worked for them in the past.
Towns and Robinson were an effective offensive duo because they did different jobs that didn’t interfere with one another’s; KAT launching from the logo or driving to the rim are more than welcome when there’s another 7-footer nearby who can clean up his misses and/or create a mismatch on the offensive glass.
Unless the Celtics pair Mitch and Queta, they’d be smaller than the Knicks. Drummond is not particularly fast, vertically or horizontally. Wiseman, however, can get up in a hurry. Even in limited minutes, that can make a difference.
Run a pick-and-roll with Wiseman while Towns is spaced out beyond the arc and it puts the Celtics in a pickle. If they guard Wiseman with a non-big, it’s easier for him to catch and cram lobs.
If they guard Wiseman with a big, and don’t have another big on Towns, he’s got the height to shoot with ease over everyone else. If they guard Wiseman with one big and KAT with another, that’d saddle the Boston offense with two absolute non-spacers.
They’ve come pretty far from the team that once had Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford as 3-and-D centers, but they probably don’t want to go too long with a lineup where 40% of its members can’t shoot.
Last October, it’s unlikely anyone thought Ariel Hukporti would have a big moment in the clinching game of the NBA Finals, but his hustle and defense helped the Knicks make that one last comeback that led to the title. Wiseman getting some minutes in the second game of the season won’t have that same impact, but given how desperately both teams want to avoid an 0-2 start, don’t be surprised if Wiseman gets some run—and if it helps New York to the win.
Get Knicks On SI straight to your inbox: sign up for our free newsletter here.
Add us as a preferred source on Google