The New York Knicks fell to 0-4 in the preseason after a 148-98 loss in Toronto. Luckily the result doesn't mean anything, as their top-seven players were all unavailable. However, for those active for the Knicks, this game meant plenty.
Here are a few whose stock rose or fell Tuesday night.
Stock up: Tyler Nickel
Remember: the results from this one don't matter. That's good news for Nickel, because taking nine threes and missing eight in 21 minutes are not the results anybody wants from him. There was plenty he didn't do, plenty he needs to do more of. But the things he did intrigued.
From his first miss to his last, Nickel's form flowed freely. This wasn't someone hoping to make shots, nor someone afraid to miss. If you ever saw Frank Ntilikina play, you know what that looks like; how it damns possessions to play them 4-on-5. Nickel looked just as confident missing his first shot as he did his last. If he'd been afraid to let fly, that would have been worse for his team.
The pull-up 18-footer and elbow three in the second half were clean, crisp makes; you can tell a shooter from their makes, and Nickel's makes are those of a shooter.
But it's the little things he did that point to the total type of player the Knicks hope he turns into, whether drawing a shooting foul on a drive or getting some ugly points thanks to some lovely hustle. When a Kevin McCullar pass ahead to a streaking Ochai Agbaji was deflected, Nickel was the only Knick up the floor to keep the loose ball alive, ending the possession with a bucket.
None of that mattered in a game that didn't, plus Nickel's on a two-way contract, so it's not like his future with the team was on the line Tuesday. Yet, it was good to see him letting it all hang out as if he did have something at stake. That's something you can't teach or quantify, but every team wishes every player had.
Stock down: Drew Eubanks
Maybe the odds were against him already, but Eubanks' play wasn't poor so much as it was Eubanks-y. He comes by it honestly, but nothing we saw Tuesday revealed anything new about Eubanks. Nothing he did seemed likely to change New York's thinking about him.
Eubanks is known for being physical, like when he set a hard (but legal) screen to free up Jose Alvarado for two. Although, while his physicality is a strength, his physical reality is a weakness. He's nowhere near as long as James Wiseman and Tony Bradley. Compounding that, Eubanks sometimes makes himself smaller by bringing the ball down when he's near the hoop, as he did in one sequence Tuesday.
Eubanks jumped to catch a pass a couple of feet from the rim, with Raptors on three sides but all behind him, all shorter than he. He brought the ball down, got it tangled up in a scrum, and though the Knicks kept possession, it possession ended with Eubanks taking a tougher shot and getting it blocked.
Contrast that with Wiseman and Alvarado connecting for an alley-oop, or the three-point play Wiseman finished off a lob from Miles McBride. In each instance, Wiseman caught the ball high and kept it there.
It's a little thing, a fundamental that's often overlooked. But a roster spot is worth millions of dollars, and Eubanks is already the smallest of the big man hopefuls. Playing smaller than he is doesn't help him or the Knicks any.
Stock up and down: James Wiseman
Wiseman's 24 minutes tonight were the third-most by a Knick this preseason. The numbers suggest he and the team don't just like each other, they like-like each other: eight shots taken, seven made, 18 points, 10 rebounds.
Five other Knicks took at least that many shots, with Mohamed Diawara the only one besides Wiseman to make at least half. The Knicks wanted to see more of Wiseman, and more they saw. But, more isn't always better.
While Wiseman is light years ahead of Eubanks and Tony Bradley offensively, there is an entire other part of the game known as defense, and if Wiseman doesn't make the Knicks that will probably be why. The seven-footer lost significant time in the past to a torn right knee meniscus and a torn left Achilles. He isn't a center you want 25 feet from the hoop defending one-on-one.
Wiseman was beaten more than once against Toronto because his drop coverage defending pick-and-rolls was too deep. Obviously his primary responsibility defending is protecting the paint, but there's a canyon of difference between what Wiseman has showed defending the perimeter and what the Knicks can live with.
Enes Kanter used to get 15 and 10 in 24 minutes every night, and every night his plus/minus was in the red. The Knicks don't need Wiseman to be Mitchell Robinson. They don't even need him to be Andre Drummond. They do need him to not be Enes Kanter—defensively, anyway.
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