Dude's 20 years old and producing numbers most veteran starters would love to have. I too am glad we "lucked" into him at the 4th pick.

Hey, could've been Mudiay and Cauley-Stein we'd be tearing into all season(career?) long. Truly a consensus future star pick.

I thought he looked more relaxed on the defensive end yesterday and he was picking his spots offensively.

This will be an interesting game tonight vs Miami in terms of where KP is condition-wise. He's inching up to the 30MPG level (27.6) and is well ahead of where I expected him to be prior to the season starting.

His production numbers are also ahead of where I thought they would be, although I thought he would be shooting better from the 3.

I thought they would be using KP as more of a sniper the first half of the season, and that role takes a lot less out of you physically. I actually think that being a complete player who seems to be involved in every aspect of the game has probably hindered his distance shooting because he is using his energy and his legs on so many other things.

He still makes some unnecessary efforts to get at the ball, usually after the other team gets a rebound, but that's just part of his nature, I suppose.

I'm hoping that he ends up at 15/9/2 by the end of the year and reaches that 30MPG level.

Got lucky with this pick, no doubt about it.

dk7th wrote:

Knixkik wrote:I noticed his last 5 games and his overall averages are identical. 13 pts, 8 Rebs, and about 2 blocks per game. Admirable rookie stats. I think this is what he is for this season. I expect tremendous growth from year to year. We absolutely have a star in the making. His rookie season is comparable to that of Anthony Davis. Towns is the best rookie, but he is in a class of his own as far as modern day rookies. Still, my hope for KP the remainder of the year is to improve his efficiency, which won't be easy given the length of the nba season. I love what we are seeing from him. We are a better team with him on the floor which is rare for a 20 year old. Looking forward to a great career in ny. We lucked into a gem.

according to the one measure i have respect for and trust in, he is currently ranked 16th in the league among power forwards, ie the real plus minus formula http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/sort/RPM. if you leave off the players who only play reserve minutes (less than 24 minutes a game), then he is ranked 11th in the league.

that's fantastic for a rookie. and since the knicks are around 18th best team in the league right now, it means he is elevating the knicks with his play, along with carmelo anthony, who is playing the best basketball as a knick, and perhaps of his entire career. (melo is ranked 8th among small forwards, so he too is elevating his team.)

It really is a nice change to have 2 players who are reliable in this sense. Melo is outplaying his rep as a player who doesn't impact his team in a positive way as well as his numbers indicate, and i think having a true sidekick that he respects is a big part of it. It is interesting that although he and Amare seemed to be friends off the court, Melo never really respected him on the court, at least once the injuries set in, which were the majority of their shared time in NY. Amazing how a rookie made all the difference.