Immanuel Quickley, New York Knicks. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
New York Knicks: Was Immanuel Quickley snubbed?
Ok, I’m gonna say something a little crazy here; we Knicks fans may have a tendency to overreact.
…
(I think I just dodged a brick)
Some of you might look at the guys on the all-rookie 1st team and wonder why Quickley wasn’t selected there. And while it is true that Jae’Sean Tate and Saddiq Bey spent their freshman years in the NBA mulling around on bottom-of-the-barrel teams, putting up empty stats, and missing the playoffs don’t count it against them.
Bey had a really good year playing for a miserable Pistons team. He put up 12 points a game shooting 38% from 3, and doubling as a strong wing defender. He deserves the 1st team selection. Tate is an older rookie at 25 years of age and has the savvy to match. While he looks like a valuable NBA role player, this all-rookie team may be the only award he gets. Let the Rockets have this one.
So was Quickley snubbed? No, he wasn’t.
He deserved to make the 2nd team and that’s just what he did. Yeah, he showed his mettle in the playoffs, but this team is a regular-season award. So before we get all high and mighty about how Quickley could mop Jae’Sean Tate off the floor any day of the week, take a look at IQ’s own regular-season numbers and swallow a slice of humble pie.
Quickley had a good rookie year, but not good enough to invoke outrage at his All-Rookie 2nd team selection.
New York Knicks</a> as far as awards go. Julius Randle winning MIP and making 2nd team All-NBA, Tom Thibodeau winning Coach of the Year, and now Immanuel Quickley making an All-Rookie team.</p>
<p>Maybe you’re not too impressed by one measly rookie 2nd team selection, but any time a front office can use the 25th pick in the draft to select one of the 10 best rookies that year it’s cause for optimism and celebration.</p>
<h2>New York Knicks: Immanuel Quickley’s All-Rookie honors are a sign of more success to come</h2>
<p>Quickley was one of the core guys off the bench this season for New York and ended up playing really important minutes in the five playoff games against the Hawks. The fact that many a Knicks fan were <a href=https://dailyknicks.com/2021/06/20/new-york-knicks-all-rookie-team-immanuel-quickley/2/"https://dailyknicks.com/2021/05/25/ny-knicks-immanuel-quickley-game-2-playoffs/">calling for him to start at point guard</a> after it became clear that Elfrid Payton was dead in the water says something about the valuable roll Quickley is likely to play on this team going forward.</p>
<p>At 22 he doesn’t have the same kind of star potential that RJ Barrett does, but with him and hopefully, Mitchell Robinson the New York Knicks front office sees a young core that should keep the team in the playoff mix for the next decade.</p>
<p>Quickley’s play as a shot creator, as well as a feisty perimeter defender (bolstered by his elastic 6’10 wingspan), means <a href=https://dailyknicks.com/2021/06/20/new-york-knicks-all-rookie-team-immanuel-quickley/2/"https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/q/quickim01.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" ref="nofollow">he’s got a defined place in this league for the long run</a>. If he never gets any better than he is right now, he’ll still have a ten-year NBA career. But if we know anything about rookie point guards is that the best is yet to come.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #007BC1" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://dailyknicks.com/2021/06/20/new-york-knicks-all-rookie-team-immanuel-quickley/2/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> Was Quickley snubbed of 1st team? </a>
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-119339 size-full" src=https://dailyknicks.com/2021/06/20/new-york-knicks-all-rookie-team-immanuel-quickley/2/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_2328,w_3200/https%3A%2F%2Fdailyknicks.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2018%2F08%2F1309347330.jpeg" alt="New York Knicks" width="3200" height="2328" srcset="https://dailyknicks.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2018/08/1309347330.jpeg 3200w, https://dailyknicks.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2018/08/1309347330-768x559.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 3200px) 100vw, 3200px"><p class="wp-caption-text">Immanuel Quickley, New York Knicks. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)</p>
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<h2>New York Knicks: Was Immanuel Quickley snubbed?</h2>
<p>Ok, I’m gonna say something a little crazy here; we Knicks fans may have a tendency to overreact.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>(I think I just dodged a brick)</p>
<p>Some of you might look at the guys on the all-rookie 1st team and wonder why Quickley wasn’t selected there. And while it is true that Jae’Sean Tate and Saddiq Bey spent their freshman years in the NBA mulling around on bottom-of-the-barrel teams, putting up empty stats, and missing the playoffs don’t count it against them.</p>
<p>Bey had a really good year playing for a miserable Pistons team. He put up 12 points a game shooting 38% from 3, and doubling as a strong wing defender. He deserves the 1st team selection. Tate is an older rookie at 25 years of age and has the savvy to match. While he looks like a valuable NBA role player, this all-rookie team may be the only award he gets. Let the Rockets have this one.</p>
<p>So was Quickley snubbed? No, he wasn’t.</p>
<p>He deserved to make the 2nd team and that’s just what he did. Yeah, he showed his mettle in the playoffs, but this team is a regular-season award. So before we get all high and mighty about how Quickley could mop Jae’Sean Tate off the floor any day of the week, take a look at IQ’s own regular-season numbers and swallow a slice of humble pie.</p>
<p>Quickley had a good rookie year, but not good enough to invoke outrage at his All-Rookie 2nd team selection.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #007BC1" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://dailyknicks.com/2021/06/20/new-york-knicks-all-rookie-team-immanuel-quickley/2/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> What is Quickley's future </a>
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-119340 size-full" src=https://dailyknicks.com/2021/06/20/new-york-knicks-all-rookie-team-immanuel-quickley/2/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_2133,w_3200/https%3A%2F%2Fdailyknicks.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2018%2F08%2F1303404317.jpeg" alt="New York Knicks" width="3200" height="2133" srcset="https://dailyknicks.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2018/08/1303404317.jpeg 3200w, https://dailyknicks.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2018/08/1303404317-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 3200px) 100vw, 3200px"><p class="wp-caption-text">Immanuel Quickley, New York Knicks. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)</p>
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<h2>New York Knicks: What does the all-rookie team say about Quickley’s future?</h2>
<p>The all-rookie teams can be deceptive at times. Just because you were one of the ten best rookies one year does not promise you’ll have one of the ten best careers of that rookie class, and vice versa.</p>
<p>For evidence, look no further than the Knick’s own two stars. Neither Barrett nor Randle made their year’s all-rookie roster and now look at them. After Zion and Ja Morant, Barrett is the clear best player out of that 2019 draft class. The same goes for Julius Randle, who after Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic is the best player out of the 2014 Draft (Zach LaVine fans can go boil a fish).</p>
<p>Still, an all-rookie selection is not meaningless. Yes, you’ll occasionally see a Terence Davis make the team and do nothing to follow it up, or a Josh Jackson, or a Yogi Ferrell, but more often than not the all-rookie teams turn out better players than not.</p>
<p>Over the past five years of All-Rookie selections (not counting this year’s), there have only been 9 players who now average less than 24 minutes a game in the NBA.</p>
<ol>
<li>Yogi Ferrell</li>
<li>Eric Paschall</li>
<li>Terence Davis</li>
<li>Dennis Smith</li>
<li>Willy Hernangomez</li>
<li>Marquese Chriss</li>
<li>Jahlil Okafor</li>
<li>Emmanuel Mudiay</li>
<li>Willie Cauley-Stein</li>
</ol>
<p>Contrast that to the 14 players off that list who have made all-star teams and you start to see that while the All-Rookie team doesn’t promise anything, it’s a good omen of things to come. The All-Stars are…</p>
<ol>
<li>Karl-Anthony Towns</li>
<li>Kristaps Porzingis</li>
<li>Devin Booker</li>
<li>Nikola Jokic</li>
<li>D’Angelo Russell</li>
<li>Joel Embiid</li>
<li>Jaylen Brown</li>
<li>Brandon Ingram</li>
<li>Ben Simmons</li>
<li>Donovan Mitchell</li>
<li>Jayson Tatum</li>
<li>Luka Doncic</li>
<li>Trae Young</li>
<li>Zion Williamson</li>
</ol>
<p>50 all-rookie players in the past five years, 9 of them are busts, 26 of them are valuable role players, 14 of them are all-stars, 1 of them is Ja Morant.</p>
<p>Now, it must be said that Quickley is most likely going to fall into that middle category. He doesn’t ooze all-star potential the way some of these guys do. Of those 14 all-stars only 3 of them were selected to the all-rookie 2nd team, but that doesn’t mean we can count Quickley out.</p>
<p>Personally, I see him being like a Malcolm Brogdon type. Never quite an all-star perhaps, but someone who can be the 3rd banana on a contending team, and the 4th banana on a title team.</p>
<p>If that’s what the Knicks got out of the 25th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft then that’s worth a tip of the hat, a shake of the hand, and the recognition of a job well done. Just another reason why the new front office looks like an upgrade over the last.</p>
<p>Congrats to Immanuel Quickley, you deserve it.</p>
<div class="fs-shortcode" data-type="StoryLink" data-theme="dark" data-text="Knicks Mock Draft 2.0: Trading up in the draft" data-url="https://dailyknicks.com/2021/06/06/2021-nba-draft-mock-draft-2-knicks/" data-call-to-action="Next"> <div class="story-link-next"> <a class="story-link-next-btn" style="background: #007BC1" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="story-link-next-shortcode" href=https://dailyknicks.com/2021/06/20/new-york-knicks-all-rookie-team-immanuel-quickley/2/"https://dailyknicks.com/2021/06/06/2021-nba-draft-mock-draft-2-knicks/"> <span class="call_to_action">Next:</span> Knicks Mock Draft 2.0: Trading up in the draft </a> </div>
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