Knicksfan1992 wrote:The Deuce conundrum is interesting. On one hand you can say it's worth it to go into the second apron to keep him. Good defensive guards who can shoot are always valuable in any team construct. He's at 38.8% from 3 on good volume the past 2 seasons.
He also seemingly can scale his production up to be a starter level player too. He's not some guy who thrives on being in for low minutes.
Deuce has started 28 games in his career. In those games he's averaged:
14.8ppg, 4.2apg, 2.9rpg on 41/37/81 splits
In theory, you might be selling a bit low on him because he might get more shine as a starter or at least with more than 25 mpg.
That being said, I don't think there is a pathway for Deuce to be more than a role guy. I know Knicks twitter was screaming for him to start last year but, realistically, a Brunson/Deuce backcourt can't survive against high level starting units. Deuce is a good defender but at a certain point he can't change that he's only 6'1".
Think about if we had to play the Thunder in the Finals for example... You'd have to stick Brunson on Lu Dort and you're left with Deuce either on SGA or J Dub. Both are pretty big size mismatches. Same thing happens with almost any team whose lead initiator isn't a true guard sized player.
If the Knicks can get someone that they think has a chance to start for them or has a little more versatility and doesn't provide an immediate extension headache, then it makes all the sense in the world to trade him IMO
Isn't this an issue with every team we play since we never want Brunson on ball navigating screens. I think last year even with Mikal on SGA Brunson was always on Dort. Since we basically have to cross matchup every guard since we don't want Brunson navigating a lot of on ball screens and picking up fouls because he isn't a good defender.
It doesn't matter what the size of the point guard is. The only guards Brunson typically guards aren't lead initiator type guards...otherwise we usually throw him on a C&S wing of off ball guard.
Another note....for any two man Knicks lineup over 50 minutes played together in the playoffs the best net rating was Brunson/McBride at +9.0 Net rating