The Knicks didn’t have the most impressive preseason, losing three of four games and averaging 125 points allowed in dropping their final three to draw the ire of head coach Tom Thibodeau.
One positive development, however, has been the effectiveness of starting center Mitchell Robinson, who was named earlier in training camp as the No. 100 player in the NBA in ESPN’s yearly player rankings.
Robinson appeared in all four preseason contest and averaged 10.5 points and 8.0 rebounds in 22.3 minutes per game, while connecting on 20 of 25 field goal attempts (80 percent).
Thibodeau hasn’t been happy with the Knicks’ overall team defense, but Robinson also totaled four blocked shots, seven steals and 17 offensive rebounds during the preseason slate.
Jalen Brunson didn’t play much to start the preseason after a heavy workload for Team USA over the summer in the FIBA World Cup — totaling 20 minutes in the first two games before sitting out Game 3 Wednesday night in Boston.
Brunson’s playing time was upped to 25 minutes in Wednesday’s 131-106 loss to the Wizards, but he missed nine of 12 field-goal attempts and committed five of the Knicks’ 15 turnovers.
“That starts with me. I had five of them. Horrific,” Brunson said after the game. “I just got to be better. It’s a rhythm thing. Have to get back to playing with each other, playing off each other. And we’ll get back to that.”
Donte DiVincenzo wasn’t surprised by former Warriors teammate Jordan Poole’s 41-point performance, including six 3-pointers, for the Wizards.
“I just know playing with him last year, when he has a hot hand, the basket gets really big and it did early on. He was feeling himself,” DiVincenzo said. “I was telling everybody, he did that with Steph [Curry] and Klay [Thompson] on the court.
“He has the most confidence in himself, and the great thing about Jordan is he still carries himself as a young fella and he has a great chance over there to lead that team. I think he’s gonna take full advantage of it.”
The Knicks waived forward Nathan Knight and signed forward/center Mamadi Diakite and guard Brandon Goodwin to Exhibit 10 contracts.
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