Entering his third NBA season, it’s easy to forget that Kevin Knox is younger than the first round of Knicks 2020, Obi Toppin.
The 21-year-old forward is still striving for the consistency he missed during his first two years in New York, but Knox scored outliers in a second consecutive preseason game with 20 points off the bench in Friday’s 119. -83 beat the Cavaliers at the Garden.
Including the fourth quarter of the Knicks’ previous victory over Cleveland two nights earlier, Knox has buried nine of his last 10 three-point tries.
“Looking at his career, if he took good pictures, he always took them. Or at least had a good chance of making them, ”said Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau. “And when he takes out the tricky shots, he becomes a much better player. He plays defensively with a lot more energy.
‘But I want him to get himself going – first with his defense, run the floor, bounce back, then spread the floor apart. And then I thought our guys had done a great job penetrating and finding him. I thought the edge readings were great. Kevin has worked extremely hard to get himself ready for the season. “
Knox, the Knicks’ lottery pick in 2018 (ninth overall), had a promising rookie season, averaging 12.8 points and 28.8 minutes per game over 75 appearances. But the former Kentucky star’s playing time (17.9 minutes per game) and points count (6.4 points per game) dropped significantly in his second season.
Knox started strong last year, double-digiting points in seven of his first 11 games, but scoring 10 or more in just eight of his last 54 appearances.
After having had little impact on the first two preseason games against the Pistons, Knox was knocked 4-for-4 off the field in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s comeback win over the Cavaliers. He then hit seven of ten shots (including 6-for-7 from long range) in Friday night’s outburst against the Cavaliers in the team’s final tune-up for Wednesday’s regular season opener in Indiana.
“Just play with energy, move without basketball, and I’m doing a really good job of just finding the open spaces on the floor,” Knox said. “My teammates always come up to me and ask how I am always open.
“I just keep moving without the basketball, cut, space in the corners, find open holes, and like I said, I do a really good job for my teammates who find me open … and ready to shoot before the ball there is even, willing. I’ve been working on that all summer. “
With a new coaching staff – and mostly as a result of a rocky 2019-2020 campaign – Knox acknowledged that it was important for him to show a strong preseason, especially on a roster that clearly needs consistent outside threat.
“It’s good, it’s always good to see the ball go through the net,” said Knox. “But now that the preseason is over, we start the real games on Wednesday, so I want to get on with the work, watch a lot of movies, take a lot of pictures.
“It has been great to see the ball go through the net these last two games, and hopefully I can continue with that confidence and consistently play with it as I have played.”