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https://theathletic.com/4397150/2023/04/10/quentin-grimes-immanuel-quickley-knicks-thoughts/

Scoring technically

Quickley is committed to the bit.

After each technical foul free throw he shoots, he leans into the lane, peers at the friendly ghosts to his right and left, and high-fives them as if they were his teammates. He’s done it since high school, and he won’t stop now — unless, of course, he’s not shooting the technical free throws at all.

The race begins once a Knicks opponent gets a technical. A free point is up for grabs, and anyone eligible can grab it. When Randle and Jalen Brunson are on the court, the technical free throw is often between the two of them. Sometimes, whoever arrives at the line first is the one who gets the shot. Other times, they signal to each other who’s taking it.

Either way, in an age of advanced analytics, this is one process the computers aren’t deciding.

“We talk,” Randle said. “Rock, paper, scissors.”

It goes against win-at-all-costs intuition. If your team has a chance to tally an extra point, you would conceivably want the best free-throw shooter taking that shot.

Brunson made 83 percent of his free-throw attempts this season. Quickley shot 82 percent. Randle shot 76 percent, a hair below league average. But NBA locker rooms are not free of politics.

Randle is the Knicks’ All-Star, and it’s not like he’s Ben Simmons, which makes him one of the main technical free-throw takers.

“Sometimes it’s to get a guy in rhythm too,” Thibodeau said.

When Quickley is out there, he’s in the mix, too, and with good reason.

Quickley is one of only two players in the NBA who attempted at least 10 technical free throws during the regular season and made every one of them. He went 12 of 12. The Brooklyn Nets’ Mikal Bridges is the other. He went 11 of 11.

Brunson has taken 15 tech free throws and made 11. And then there’s Randle, who went 11 of 17.

The playoffs are about searching for every advantage you can get. One easy way for the Knicks to improve their chances against Cleveland in the smallest of ways? Ignore the hierarchy and let the guy with the best free-throw percentage shoot them.

“It’s kinda funny because when I’m with Jalen and Julius, I know they’re gonna argue over it. Well, not argue, but they’re gonna take the shot, probably,” Quickley said. “But when I’m with the second unit, I always go. But when I’m with Jalen, I usually let him shoot it. The better question would be, who takes it when Jalen and Julius are in? Because it’s random sometimes.”

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