Been enjoying the Christmas break so I haven't gotten to sit down and really go in on recent performances but a few observations from last night...
- Randle's been playing well lately. He's still the flawed player that he always was but he's been a bit wiser, the jumper has fallen more (shots coming closer to the bucket) and has been putting up numbers. If nothing else, he's playing his value back up.
- The zone defense continues to be tough for the Knicks to address with so few shooters on the roster. Frank and Portis broke it at times with a two man game but Portis isn't consistent enough to pull that off every time, let alone against a better squad than the Wizards second and third stringers.
- Mitch with foul trouble again but his impact was obvious in the fourth quarter. The Knicks really need to either acquire someone that blocks shots to cover when Mitch isn't on the floor or they need to make space and call-up Wooten to get a shot at being that guy...haven't watched the G-League, anyone know how Rabb is looking?
- Knox is probably second only to Randle in showing the most signs of improvement since Miller took the reins. He didn't blow up the box score last night, but he drew a ton of fouls on dribble penetration that didn't show up as stats and his defense has show marked improvement. Don't get that last bit twisted, he's gone from terrible to giving solid effort but it's trending in the right direction.
- Frank also drew a lot of fouls off the dribble. He was really in attack mode and I thought it was interesting that Miller had him take the technical FT in the first half. It seemed like recognition and encouragement of Frank's aggression. He had some nice assists and made some really great passes that weren't converted as well (he made one pass from close to halfcourt that found Portis cutting in the paint which was just fantastic).
- It's dope that even on a bad night, Elfrid Payton added 8 assists. Some of the TO's he had were head scratchers and he has to score to keep defenses honest, but his table setting has been as advertised.
- RJ still struggling on efficiency but 3/5 from three with a big one in the clutch is great to see. He pressed a bit though, missed some open guys while driving into big men.
- Not too much to make of a game like this one. They did what they're supposed to. The young guys made real contributions which is nice, especially because a few vets came up short. The squad is rounding into the form I expected from them, good enough to beat bad teams but not there yet to do much more. I don't mind that though as long as RJ, Mitch, Frank and Knox are making contributions and showing good signs.
RJ fukkin Barrett.
Hate to admit it but I haven’t really liked a Knicks rookie like I liked Porzingis. 
I know he’s a fukkin fakkit but that was my nikka, man.
