2018 New York Knicks Trade Deadline Grade and Breakdown
2018
New York Knicks Trade Deadline Grade and Analysis
Written
By Kyle Crabbe
Follow
on Twitter: @KthetruestKnick
The
2018 NBA Trade Deadline came and went this last Thursday February 8th
and quite a few deals were completed that will change the near
future(this season) and long-term outlooks for many teams. One of
those teams that struck a deal was your New York Knicks. The Knicks
made two separate deals in the trading season with one deal on the
Deadline Day that brought back former 2015 Top Tier Draft Pick PG
Emmanuel Mudiay. In Emmanuel Mudiay, this Knicks get a 21-Year Old
good young player whose potential is still very high in the NBA. Here
at TrueFan, we will breakdown the Knicks respective 2018 Trade
Deadline Deal.
Emmanuel
Mudiay
Position: PG
Size: 6'5,
200Lbs
Age: 21
2017-18
Stats: 42 Games Played, 17.9 Minutes Per Game, 12.5 PER(Player
Efficiency Rating), 8.5 Points Per Game, 2.2 Rebounds Per Game, 2.9
Assists Per Game, 0.5 Steals Per Game, 0.1 Blocks Per Game, .401%
Field Goal Percentage, .373% 3-Point Percentage, .808% Free Throw
Percentage
TrueFan
NBA Comparison: PG Rod Strickland
New
York/Dallas/Denver
New
York Received:
PG Emmanuel Mudiay
2018 2nd
Round Pick(Denver via Portland)
Dallas
Received:
SF Doug McDermott
Denver
Received:
PG Devin Harris
2018 2nd
Round Pick(NYK via Los Angeles Clippers)
TrueFan Grade: A
TrueFan
Take:
In a interesting
Trade Deadline deal the Knicks were able to acquire former Top High
School Star Recuit in PG Emmanuel Mudiay, while trading with the
Denver Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks only giving up a Second Round
pick and SF Sharpshooter Doug McDermott. For the Denver Nuggets they
acquire in PG Devin Harris a veteran Point Guard that more fits the current needs of
their roster for their playoff push. As for the Dallas Mavericks they
acquire in Doug McDermott a sharpshooting wing player that is in the
final year of his contract. In Dallas, McDermott will get a chance
for the remainder of the season to see if he fits into their plans
for the future. However for Mudiay I believe that in Denver, Emmanuel Mudiay did not have the opportunity to show the NBA how great the young point guard could be. Once touted as the best point guard prospect since Derrick Rose
and the best prospect of the 2015 draft, the former 2015 7th
overall pick has seen his minutes and hence opportunities decrease
every year since Mudiay entered the league. The Nuggets franchise drafted point guards behind Mudiay in subsequent drafts after selecting the
young Texas Prep School Star in 2015. Mudiay once described as a
young John Wall and spoken of as the best young point guard prospect
he had ever saw by Legendary Head Coach Larry Brown, shows just the
level of talent and potential Mudiay possesses. Mudiay, a physical
6'5 Point Guard with great court vision and derrick rose like ability
to get to the basket, in my opinion still has the tools to be a
Franchise Point Guard in the NBA. Unfortunately, I believe that in
Denver he wasn't given the opportunity to reach anything close to his
full potential especially with recent young point guard Jamal Murray
playing promising and very well at that position right now for the
Nuggets. Mudiay has seen his minutes and playing time dip every year
in his first three seasons with the Denver Nuggets, from 30.4 minutes
a game in 2015, to 25.6 minutes per game in 2016, to this season only
logging 21.1 minutes per game. But I feel that with the New York
Knicks Mudiay can have a excellent opportunity to begin to chip away
at his enormous potential. I believe this was a great trade for the
Knicks for several reasons, here I will present 5 Reasons to love
this trade for the New York Knicks and their organization's future.
1)
Emmanuel Mudiay compliments the current Knicks' timeline and plans
for Future.
At age 21, turning
22 in March, Mudiay fits in very well with the Knicks young
cornerstone players. With Emmanuel Mudiay being part of the 2015
Draft that netted the Knicks Franchise Power Forward Kristaps
Porzingis he is also still under contractual control from his rookie
deal. Mudiay also fits the Knicks new front office mantra of young
athletic players with two-way potential. With Mudiay playing one year
out of High School internationally in China allows him to blend
well with the other Knicks young core players that have played overseas
and play more the international basketball game in Lativan Star PF Kristaps Porzingis played in Spain and French PG Frank Ntilikina
played professionally in the French Basketball League, with even
Knicks Starting Center Enes Kanter playing in Turkish Professional
league as a 16-year old basketball prospect. The International ties
make for an intriguing team playing style(think San Antonio Spurs).
2)
Mudiay fits Scott Perry's Player Profile and Head Coach Jeff
Hornacek's System to the teeth. This trade shows one vision from the
Knicks brass for the Knicks future.
In Scott Perry's
Introduction Press Conference he stated he wanted players that were
“Young, Athletic, and could go out and play with a team as a good
team player. These attributes PG Emmanuel Mudiay checks off on all.
Mudiay is only 21 years of age, he is one of the more physically and
athleticlly gifted players for Point Guard Position in recent memory,
and he is a great passing/team general type Point Guard. Mudiay's
career also points to a comparison to another high drafted Point
Guard that General Manager Scott Perry has an association with. That
player would be former Detriot Piston great PG Chauncey Billups.
Billups is a former 1997 3rd overall pick, drafted as more
of a combo-guard that struggled in his first 5 years in the NBA to
the averages of 27.2 Minutes per game, 11.1 Points Per Game, 3.9
Assists Per Game, 2.4 Rebounds Per Game, 14.2 Player Efficiency
Rating, on .388% Field Goal Percentage. Chauncey Billups career
changed for the better in the summer of 2002 when Detroit Pistons
General Manager Joe Dumars and then vice president Scott Perry signed Billups to
be their starting point guard. Billups would go on to have a
unheralded 6 and half seasons with the Pistons and accomplished winning
a championship and NBA Championship MVP in 2004 along with being
recognized as a 5X All-Star, 3X All-NBA, and a 2X All-Defensive Team
performed after taking on that role for Perry and Dumars. I feel that with
Billups we can use his early struggles and the fact his was viewed as a combo-guard and not
a true point guard lends his career as a excellent example of the
great potential Emmanuel Mudiay will have in his time with Scott
Perry and the New York Knicks.(Billups also in his first 5 seasons had 2 seasons he regressed in Denver, like Mudiay struggled in Denver).
Emmanuel Mudiay also
fits Head Coach Jeff Hornacek's system very, very well. The best
examples we have of what Jeff Hornacek's creative offense can be is
with the Phoenix Suns teams he coached from 2013 to 2016. In those
years Hornacek was praised for getting good results out of lineups
that featured multiple combo-guards. The two players that stand out
those most during Hornacek's tenure that benefited most from
Hornacek's system and style were PG Eric Bledsoe and PG Goran Dragic.
To that point PG Eric Bledsoe's skill set almost mirror that of young
PG Emmanuel Mudiay. Bledsoe drafted 18th overall in the
2010 NBA Draft, scouting report coming into the league had Bledsoe stated as a
“combo-guard” out of Kentucky University with great ability in the
open-court and in transition combined with rare athletic gifts. To whereas his
weaknesses entering the NBA was lacking a consistent jump shoot and
questioned his ability to be a true point guard for his struggle with
turnovers and decision making. Under Coach Jeff Hornacek Bledsoe had
his 3 best seasons in the NBA so far in his 9-year career. During
that 3-year run, Bledsoe averaged 18.4 Points Per Game, 5.9 Assists
Per game, with a Player Efficiency Rating of 19.3 versus his career
averages of 13.5 Points Per Game, 4.6 Assists Per Game, and a 17.6
Player Efficiency Rating. Bledsoe was able to achieve such success
while sharing the backcourt with another “combo-guard” in Goran
Dragic. We can look at this history and comparable as good reasons to
predict the potential success Emmanuel Mudiay can have playing under
coach Jeff Hornacek.
Mudiay also fits
with Head Coach Jeff Hornacek if we simply look at Jeff Hornacek's
playing career. During much of Jeff Hornacek's playing career he also
was a high-level “combo-guard”. In much of his sucessful seasons
early in his career he shared a backcourt with another great Point
Guard in Kevin Johnson whom we can compare slightly to Mudiay. Kevin
Johnson like Emmanuel Mudiay was a 7th Overall Draft Pick,
for Johnson in 1987 to the Cleveland Cavaliers but in his rookie
season he was traded to the Phoenix Suns. KJ
like Mudiay was known for his athleticism. Blessed with a
lightning-quick first step and tremendous leaping ability, he
sometimes made appearances on highlight reels after dunking over
seven-footers. Coach Jeff Hornacek shared the backcourt with Kevin
Johnson for 5 seasons from 1987 to 1993. But the link to the great
Kevin Johnson and the current Knicks brass doesn't end there; on
Basketball-Reference.com Kevin Johnson's Career Similarity score
matches up with a score of 85.2 to the aforementioned Scott Perry
Detroit significant signing, Point Guard Chauncey Billups.
3)
Despite reduced minutes every season, Mudiay has improved every year.
What
makes Emmanuel Mudiay a very promising NBA prospect is if you look at
his numbers, he has improved every year in the NBA despite losing
playing time every season. While many claim Mudiay weakness has been
shooting, shooting is the one thing he has improved on every season
since entering the NBA. His Field Goal Percentage has improved every
season at the tilt of .364%(2015-16) to .377%(2016-17) to .401% this
season with the Nuggets. His 3-Point Percentage went from
.319%(2015-16) to .315%(2016-17) to this year a career best .373%.
Mudiay's Free Throw Percentage have improved and even more telling of his shooting improvements is the showing of his Effective
Field Goal Percentages that have went up every season with his free throw
percentages taking leaps of .670%(2015-16) to .784(2016-17) to a
great .808 this season. Whereas his Effective Field Goal Percentage
improved from .404%(2015-16) to .428%(2016-17) to a solid .460% this
season. Mudiay's has regressed at least statistically defensively.
Mudiay does has great two-way potential and that was evident by a
great rookie year on the defensive end, posting a great 1.2 Defensive
Win Shares mark as a rookie while averaging career bests of 1.0
Steals per game and 0.5 Blocks per game in his rookie campaign. That
would be a area he might flourish playing alongside a more defensive
minded backcourt partner in Frank Ntilikina than PG Jamal Murray or
SG Will Barton. To finish the point of Mudiay's offensive improvement
every year in the NBA so far, we can look at two more statistics in
his points per 36 minutes and his offensive rating numbers. Muday's
has saw his points per 36 minutes tick up every year to the tune of
15.2(2015-16) to 15.4(2016-17) to this year's best 17.2 while his
offensive ratings has peaked upwards of 88(2015-16) to 98(2016-17) to
a current 100 posting so far this season. I say Mudiay's young career
has shown yearly improvement and he's trending as a solid to elite
offensive player with very good potential on the defensive side.
4)
Mudiay's strengths and skill set are a perfect match to the current
Knicks weaknesses. Mudiay's skills and play compliment Knicks 2017
Lottery Point Guard Frank Ntilikina.
The
Knicks this year have struggled offensively at times for the lack of
a playmaking perimeter player that can get into the paint at will and
create opportunities for themselves and the team. The Knicks haven't
had a Guard that could consistently break down a defensive and push
the pace since Coney Island's own Stephon Marbury suited up for New
York. Marbury is also the last real top tier athletic Point Guard the
Knicks have had manning their backcourt. That's where the acquisition
of Emmanuel Mudiay checks all the boxes as a New York need well over
a decade late. Former President Phil Jackson hinted and moved for
that style and caliber Point Guard in his acquisition of PG Derrick
Rose last season. Whereas Emmanuel Mudiay was compared to Derrick
Rose by former Knicks coach(and Head Coach of previously mentioned
Chauncey Billups and the Scott Perry/Joe Dumars lead front office
Detroit Pistons' teams) Larry Brown coming out of High School.
Mudiay's skill set compliment Knicks Rookie Point Guard Frank Ntilikina very
well. Both Mudiay and Ntilikina were born in Africa and speak fluent
French. As are both 6'5” big and tall unselfish Point Guards. Both
Ntilikina and Mudiay came into the league having advanced levels of
ability running the pick-n-roll. Both Ntilikina and Mudiay have
excellent court vision and are both excellent passers. Where they
compliment each other is 1) Emmanuel Mudiay can get his own shot and
get to the lane and to the basket well, whereas Ntilikina at this
stage in his young career struggles at getting to the basket.
Allowing for Mudiay to do what he does best; that is to get in the lane, will
open up clear perimeter shot opportunities for Ntilikina, who came
into the league sporting a great long range jump shot. 2) Both Mudiay
and Ntilikina can play on or off the ball and both have experience
playing Point Guard or the off-ball guard position. This allows them
to comfortably be on the court in the backcourt together and share minutes on the basketball court. 3) Mudiay has the making of a special
offensive player as to where we can already see Frank Ntilikina has
the making of a elite defensive player. The two in the backcourt
could make for a great one-two punch on either side of the court. I
believe Mudiay and Ntilikina could form their own version of the last
great Knicks backcourt from the 1970's of Walt “Cylde” Frazier
and Earl “The Pearl” Monroe(whom also were both ball-dominant
guards that worked very well together). I believe the potential for
this backcourt is unlimited.
5)
New York did not have to trade away any significant pieces.
In
this trade the Knicks virtually traded away nothing. In getting a
2018 2nd
Round Pick back in the deal the Knicks basically swap draft assets
here. In trading away SF Doug McDermott the Knicks lose a nice
complimentary player for a couple months and then have the
opportunity to re-sign McDermott back(if both parties see a future
together) in the year's off-season.
If
the notoriously impatience New York Knicks fanatics can wait on
Mudiay and Ntilikina to find their stride like Jeter and Bernie had
to and did for the Yankees in the 1990's I believe the Knicks, when
Porzingis returns can form a Championship caliber team around
Ntilikina, Mudiay and Porzingis.
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