For NBA veterans, preseason is mostly a warmup. A time to loosen up and get the joints moving again. But for rookies, it’s a bit more serious. First-year players need to prove themselves worthy of regular season minutes, and until they do that most of them will be sitting watching the vets do their thing.
Here’s the New York Post with preseason debut notes on the Knicks rookies:
The Knicks went 3-for-3 in Washington D.C. during their preseason opener. Not from the field — but with their rookie showings, and that is what general manager Scott Perry’s 2018-19 vision is mostly about after running his first draft as chief operator.
Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson and Allonzo Trier all excelled in different ways.
Knox, their lottery pick who could make a bid for Rookie of the Year, hit the defensive glass with panache, after which he pushed the pace in point-forward fashion and wound up with a double-double (13 points, 10 rebounds).
Robinson, in the center of the storm, didn’t back down from Wizards’ feisty veteran Markieff Morris. That led to Morris’ ejection and crybaby act in the locker room after the Knicks’ 124-118 overtime victory. A Knicks security man was seen entering the Wizards locker room with a Washington staffer, ostensibly to ensure Morris didn’t escalate matters.
And a usual yearly reminder is, don’t judge any rookies based on just a couple of games, let alone one game, let alone one preseason game. It’s all a process.
