On Saturday evening, the [Knicks](https://www.postingandtoasting.com) defeated the 15-54 Wizards at home 122-103, in what was, outside of a scary stretch in the second half, a one-sided blowout. Karl-Anthony Towns went off for 31 points, and 11 rebounds on 10-20 shooting, Mikal Bridges scored 27 or more points for the second time in a week, and OG Anunoby scored an efficient 23 points on 8-12 shooting. But none of them were talked about as much as Tyler Kolek.
The rookie point guard, who fans have begged to see more of, got more playing time than he has in a very long time due to Deuce McBride’s injury, and he had himself a ball game. He scored just four points while shooting 1-4 from the field, but he dished out eight assists, while having no turnovers, recorded three steals, had the second-highest plus-minus of all bench players on the Knicks, and showed some really nice things. Below, we take a look at what he did well, what he didn’t do so well, and what he can do to earn Tom Thibodeau’s trust and get some more playing time.
Let’s start with the obvious. Kolek is, has been, and always will be, known for his playmaking, and it shined through this past weekend. One thing that really stood out, and caught the eyes of a lot of fans’ attention was his ability to both look for shooters, and deliver an on-time, and accurate pass to their shooting pocket. Now, that doesn’t sound like a difficult thing to do. But if you watch any basketball game at any level, and you really pay close attention to the passes that are being delivered to shooters, you’ll likely notice that more often than not, passes are being thrown either inaccurately, or not in a timely matter.
That’s one major common denominator that all the great point guards have, and it helps them rack up assists because one, shooters are looking for, and expecting the pass, and two, it sets up their shot much better when passes are delivered when and where it needs to be. And you saw that time and time again in the second quarter against the Wizards.
In the clip above, Kolek does a great job of keeping his dribble, and Anunoby, likely because he knows the ball is coming, gets set, and doesn’t hesitate one bit to pull out a nice pump fake and get into his shot.
And in the clip above, Bridges, who has been inconsistent on above-the-break threes this season, steps into his shot off of a dribble handoff, again with no hesitation, and gets the three to go to give the Knicks a 16-point lead, and Kolek his third assist of the quarter.
For his fourth assist of the game, Kolek does a nice job of buying a split second for Bridges to relocate to the corner by slowing down a bit, but also delivers a nice bounce pass instead of a chest pass to help Bridges get into his shot. This seems like such a small, and unimportant factor, but we’ve seen guys like Josh Hart, Bridges, and Precious Achiuwa run fastbreaks much to the dismay of fans, and it’s, at times, resulted in forced shots, or passes to teammates when they aren’t ready or in a position to do anything. Kolek’s simple, and often unnoticed movements like this is precisely what should make him a very good playmaker.
Assist number five for Kolek comes off of just a simple swing off of an offensive rebound, and there’s nothing special or difficult about this pass or read. Anyone can make it. But there is no playing around with his food, or doing unnecessary. When, and if Kolek sees an open man who is in a position to do something, he’ll get them the ball.
We’ll finish off his passing highlights with my favorite pass of his from the night. One, this is an incredibly difficult pass to make physically, and two, it takes some guts to make this pass. A second later, Kyshawn George has a chance to rotate to Bridges. And a couple of inches lower, and Alex Sarr has a chance to get a finger on it. Kolek delivers a timely, and crisp pass with just enough speed and height to get the ball to Bridges on time, and Bridges, who is already on fire thanks in part to Kolek’s passing, does the rest.
As you can see, it’s clear that Kolek, even if his passing or playmaking isn’t particularly flashy, does a great job of finding guys where they want the ball and delivering them the perfect pass. And it leads often leads to the shooters getting a good look, and shooting confidently, and in rhythm. As his career goes on, it wouldn’t surprise me if his teammates shot a better percentage from three with him than without him due to this.
But it wasn’t all perfect from Kolek, and there were a few things the rookie needed to clean up. While the rookie did have three steals, his defense, which is likely, and unfortunately, the thing Thibodeau will watch the most, was subpar at times.
In the play above, it initially looks like Kolek is playing some solid, and physical defense. But he needs to do a better job at the point of attack. When Richaun Holmes sets the high screen, assuming Towns calls it out, Kolek needs to step up a bit, get skinnier, and lower, and give himself a better angle at getting over the screen. Kolek, with the help of Towns, does do a nice job of recovering and fighting back, but against better teams, and players, he could be picked on in the pick-and-roll game frequently if he doesn’t get better at this.
This play is similar to the one before it in that, the overall defense isn’t bad _per se_, but if we were to nitpick, like Thibodeau likely does, his closeout could use some work. The effort he shows by going out to contest is great but fundamentally unsound. Ideally, he shortens his steps and closes out with what is often referred to as choppy feet, so that if Bub Carrington does decide to put the ball on the floor like he does here, Kolek can still recover and put up some resistance, instead of giving him an open lane to the basket.
This play isn’t only on Kolek, as Mitchell Robinson, whose primary role on this team is to be a rim protector, doesn’t do much here. But Kolek not sliding over earlier, and either taking a charge or at least offering some resistance to force a more difficult shot or a kick out isn’t a great look here.
Lastly, there’s this play where Kolek, does a nice job of being competitive, and physical, but he fouls Poole almost 30 feet away from the basket when the Wizards are already in the bonus. Sure, the Knicks are up by 25 already, but you know that Thibodeau, being who he is, puts stock into minutes, and mistakes, like this.
Overall, Kolek’s performance was much more good than bad. He was an amazing creator, who found his teammates, early and often, which helped them find their rhythm and confidence. He, as mentioned above, did have some defensive miscues, and while some of what I pointed out was nitpicky, Kolek will have to clean up some things on that end of the floor if he wants to win over Thibodeau and get some more playing time when the team gets healthier. If he can do that though, and make some of the very makeable threes, and floaters he missed, then Kolek, as all of us fans believed, can, and should be a real difference-maker going forward.