Wizards 104, Knicks 100: We're actually running a modern NBA offense

Well the Knicks seem to be packing a little punch so far in preseason. Of course there are kinks to work out. Rotation questions. Sad Willy Hernangomez needs a pick me up and the stars of the show, Kristaps Porzingis and Frank Ntilikina aren’t in action enough for my liking. But these Knicks are on the precipice of an enjoyable brand of basketball. With a lot of hard work and a little bit of love, luck and lucifer it may only be a couple years before they can compete with the upper echelon of teams in the league. Having said that, the Wizards were able to put a spell on these young Knickerbockers and roll over them tonight. Let’s put the body in the box.

• Marcin Gortat looks like a Peanuts character with that road kill of a mohawk. We need to have a more in depth conversation about his putrid hair than we do Jeremy Lin’s nonstop parade of hairstyle hijinks.
• Michael Beasley is kinda just Brandon Jennings Tall.
• Enes Kanter in open water is death whether it’s on offense or defense. He gets cooked on any switch and when he has the ball from about 16 feet or further he stops looking to attack and often makes inexplicable decisions waiting for someone to come take the ball from him.
• It’s a brand new season with a new stable of guards but John Wall can still just put it on cruise control when he sees the Knicks. Nothing but easy stuff. His mistakes are the ones where the Knicks make a mistake, Wall wonders to himself why they did something so poorly and then he makes a mistake because he is used to reading three plays ahead not two plays behind. Knicks have never been able to make this guy feel pressure. And to think, he has a playoff gear that could singlehandedly decimate the Knicks.

• Beasley and Tim Hardaway Jr. on one wing defensively is so careless and disappointing that I don’t think I should have brought this up. And Kanter is the backline of that dam.
• I’m not a proponent of moving Courtney Lee just for the sake of trading but necessity is the mother of invention. So maybe Charlotte is really missing Batum. Or New Orleans needs to make the dots connect right here, right now and there is some other place I want him to be. Nevertheless Lee has been perfectly solid out there. He really fits in seamlessly with basically all of the smaller lineups we’ve been seeing. I want him to be here and get the youngsters up and running.
• How long before the Run DMC logo becomes some part of the Doug McDermott industry? Soft core, threes galore, givin ya more and like I said before...
• Jarret Jack? More like Share it, Jack. Good job spinning plates in P&R. Got to the line a bunch of times. He’s more of a rumbler getting into the lane. Cutting and jigging, digging deeper and baking hot pies for wing shooters. But I like what I’m seeing. Which is to say I’ve been starving for halfway decent point guard play since Stephon Marbury was here.
• Damyean Dotson looks short to me. But then he looks tall! Is it because of his long arms? Is he just short? He definitely doesn’t look big or rangy enough to guard up to the three, but he can switch on either guard. He’s also nice and springy inhaling rebounds and making snappy outlet passes. Water over a rock. Still digging down too hard off of his man and it creates easy passes over the top for open shooters. Then you’ll see someone call a time out or there’s a break in the action and Kurt Rambis is giving this kid teaching points. Disheartening to say the least. Kid’s got a spot though and might even figure out how to sneak away with some of Ron Baker’s minutes to open the season.
• THJ quietly sporting an immaculate beard. Also sporting an obviously quicker and more compact release on that jumper. If it’s in his pocket it can squirt out. That’s hard to guard. Timmy has a quick trigger obviously, but hasn’t been overshooting. He is also aggressively looking to push with the pass, that doesn’t strike me as a short term trend. Looks like the kid is ready to be a pro.
• Plenty of small line ups and plenty of healthy modern basketball. This team is probably going to lose a lot of games but at least they’ll throw some punches this year.
• Ramon Sessions is not the ideal point guard but he makes the simple play. Time and again Sessions gets going to the rim and can just make the smart play whether its dishing behind the defense, kicking out to reignite the pill popping or getting the ball up on the rim so his bigs can clean the glass with a 2-on-1 advantage. Pair that with his ability to get to the line and convert and the Knicks might figure out a way to chip away at some of those tough third quarters instead of collapsing.
• Joakim Noah made his first appearance in game action since a million storylines ago and he didn’t look bad. Had a nice little crossover to lefty hook. He just doesn’t have that boost that made him so dangerous in help and recover situations. He still calls out defensive action to keep the team working together better than anyone in recent memory. It’s just not enough. Anyone that runs with their fingers spread out like that is pretending to be fast. And Noah seems to be pretending. A few dribble hand offs, grab and go rebounds and moving screens made him seem effective. But the guy is unplayable in most crunch time situations until he can prove that made layups are a possibility.
• It’s preseason and I couldn’t have been happier to see Xavier Rathan-Mayes leave this ball game. The kid, bless him, is not ready for this shit here.
• If you’re keeping track, it’s Sheldon Mac. Formerly Sheldon Maclellan. Maclellan World Peace. The Sheldon’s Friend. Not Shelvin Mack. Got it?
• I found video of Lance Thomas’ latest work out with Chris Brickley and it’s astounding!
• I don’t think you heard me. Kurt Rambis instructing Damyean Dotson on… really anything… seems bad for business.

Next game is Sunday. Sounds like Ntilikina will be inactive. So basically there is no reason to hold this game. Maybe he'll be good to go on Monday. No matter, we’ll be watching and hope you’ll be commenting along with us. Until then, crimestoppers!