Recap: SummerKnicks 117, SummerLakers 96: If we can’t beat Travis Wear we should just give up on the season

The SummerKnicks finally got on the board, winning a laugher over the SummerLakers. It got a little feisty, but never got out of hand. The Lakers finish the Las Vegas portion of summer with no wins. It remains to be seen if they can beat a team with Travis Wear on it, but beating up on his evil twin was not a problem. New York was on cruise control the whole game and I needed that in my system.

Don’t help them up, Mitch. I love it. To the FIBA World Cup! notes!

• Does Kevin Knox just prefer to finish with the inside hand? I feel like I always cringe when he drives left to finish right. Here I see him driving right to finish left. What is happening?
• We’ve seen Knox get post up opportunities out of set plays several times this summer and I wouldn’t be totally shocked to see that incorporated in the upcoming season.
• Iggy Brazdeikis is a modern-day Anthony Mason.
• The Lakers made Mitchell Robinson bleed his own blood. That’s why the Lakers got smushed. Mitchell has gotten a little more brash as he’s moved along. I am completely in love with it but the rest of the league is gonna hate him real soon.
• Nick Perkins is my enemy.

• Dan Dakich was really thrilled by RJ Barrett’s ability to miss a bunch of shots and still get to the line a bunch of times (and miss a bunch of free throws). All told, RJ had a good game against smaller players. His handle is RJ Barren and doesn’t create big space; it relies on attacking a bad lead foot and getting his shoulder around and underneath the defender. It’s gonna be a rough go (for me) these next few years waiting for RJ to pack on enough muscle to actually play this brand of bully ball while his jump shooting warbles through space. Dakich didn’t care that RJ misses shots if he gets to the line. In a certain way, that’s reasonable. It sort of neglects that he takes a lot of shots. I would like him to be a good free throw shooter if he’s gonna spend a ton of time there.
• More Dakich I didn’t care to know: his wife calls him “jelly.” His wife was working security at a Heavy D concert and Heav tried to get her to come backstage and party.
• The positively dumbest Knick sequence of the game was a three-on-one fast break with bad spacing. It felt like everyone wanted to lead the break from the middle, but there’s only one ball. Kevin Knox sped out in front of Barrett and then threw a lazy over-the-shoulder lob to Barrett, which was picked off and fired down the other end for a layup. Then on a hit ahead with tons of floor space, Barrett took a contested three. which he bricked. The Knicks were up 20 but that’s how you give the other team hope and momentum.
• VJ King is the Lance Thomas of Summer League. Looks like he has a place on the roster.

• Knox was the guy New York wants to isolate to close quarters. He did a good job. It would be a huge development if he could be a go-to player in late clock situations.
• Another thing I’ve liked from Knox is making some sleight-of-hand dump-off passes.
• Rob Pelinka looks like he should be on a subway poster for a colonic clinic.
• Summer Mitchell shot 84 percent from the field. Summer Jarrett Allen shot 56 percent. Hate to see such a discrepancy.

I think that’s enough, don’t you? Another Summer League in the books. I’d say a successful free agency window where the Knicks didn’t nab any flawed superstar. Nevertheless they clearly leveled up while maintaining future flexibility. That’s what rebuilding teams must do, cry your own tears if you think they made a mis-step.