New York Knicks

The New York Knicks were beating the Atlanta Hawks 51-28 midway through the second quarter. Their defense was ferocious, and a balanced offense had the Hawks on their heels.

Everything after that point was an abject failure for a Knicks team that has now lost three straight.

Atlanta scored 29 points in the final 6:21 of the first half to cut the Knicks' lead to 65-57 at halftime. The Hawks then took complete control in the third quarter, where they outscored the Knicks 32-10 en route to a 112-99 victory. The Knicks had as many turnovers as points in the third quarter alone.

At one point, the Hawks had outscored the Knicks 79-37 over a 25-minute stretch.

The Knicks simply had no answer for Dejounte Murray, who dropped 36 points on 14-of-27 shooting and nine assists while amassing six of the Hawks' 12 steals. His performance helped the Hawks overcome a cold night from Knicks arch-nemesis Trae Young, who shot 7-of-22 en route to 17 points.

The Hawks notably put up 16 more shots than the Knicks in part because they grabbed 17 offensive rebounds and committed just seven turnovers to New York's 16.

The Knicks' best effort came off the bench thanks to Immanuel Quickley, who posted 11 points and a game-high 16 rebounds. Evan Fournier (three points on 1-of-6 shooting) and Julius Randle (14 points on 4-of-12 shooting) notably struggled for the starting five.

This was a deeply concerning loss for the Knicks, who were coming off a 121-108 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers after being outscored 37-15 in the final quarter. They've lost each of their last three games by double digits to the Milwaukee Bucks, Cavs and Hawks, all of whom have playoff aspirations.

It's a far cry from the Knicks' three-game win streak earlier this season against a trio of losing teams in the Orlando Magic, Detroit Pistons and Charlotte Hornets.

Twitter took the Knicks to task for their collapse.

The Knicks will look to bounce back Friday when they visit the Philadelphia 76ers at 7 p.m. ET in Wells Fargo Center.

The NBA punished the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday for tampering this past offseason, and the New York Knicks might be next.

The NBA announced that it stripped the 76ers of their second-round picks in the 2023 and 2024 drafts for tampering with free agents P.J. Tucker and Danuel House Jr.

With that context as the backdrop, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported the NBA is still investigating whether the Knicks tampered with Jalen Brunson when he was a free agent.

It seems as if the league may be taking a harder stance on tampering moving forward considering Wojnarowski reported "the NBA and NBPA are expected to revisit the rules that punish teams discovered to have had discussions with player agents on pending free agents ahead of free agency's official start."

While the report pointed out ending tampering is "hard to police and largely impossible to eliminate," the 76ers were punished for the practice Monday.

The NBA also announced in December that it was stripping the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat of second-round picks for tampering with Lonzo Ball and Kyle Lowry, respectively.

Brunson was New York's biggest addition of the offseason. He signed a four-year deal worth $104 million. In August, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports reported that the league had already started a tampering investigation, which is still ongoing.

On June 28—before free agency officially opened—Tim MacMahon of ESPN reported that it was "widely anticipated" the Knicks were going to offer Brunson a deal of four years worth more than $100 million.

The Villanova product is off to a solid start this season. He's averaging 18.2 points, 7.2 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game through his first six contests. The Knicks are off to a 3-3 start, which is tied for fifth in the Eastern Conference in the early going.

Brunson, Julius Randle and RJ Barrett are a solid trio that should help the Knicks remain competitive this season, but their pursuit of the point guard may cost them draft capital in the future.

New York Knicks star RJ Barrett appears to have taken on a heavier workload defensively this season, but head coach Tom Thibodeau doesn't see it that way.

"No. That's comical," Thibodeau told reporters Friday when asked if Barrett was taking on a bigger defensive workload this year to make up for a lack of defense brought on by the duo of Jalen Brunson and Evan Fournier.

Barrett has had to cover a number of perimeter scorers, mainly the opposing team's top perimeter threat, early on this season because he's a far better defender than Brunson and Fournier.

The 22-year-old ranked fifth in the NBA in distance covered on defense entering Friday's game against the Milwaukee Bucks, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. However, this is nothing new for him.

Barrett led the Knicks in distance traveled in each of his first three seasons with the franchise, which selected him third overall in the 2019 NBA draft out of Duke.

It's been just four games, but it appears Barrett's focus on defense has led to an impact in his scoring efficiency. He's averaging 17.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists while shooting 37.0 percent from the floor and 14.3 percent from deep.

During the 2021-22 campaign, Barrett averaged a career-high 20.0 points, in addition to 5.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 70 games while shooting 40.8 percent from the floor and 34.2 percent from beyond the arc.

For what it's worth, Barrett shot at least 40 percent from the floor in each of his first three seasons.

The Ontario native told reporters (h/t Bondy) that he doesn't believe the amount of ground he has had to cover defensively has led to his scoring issues.

"I don’t know. I feel like I was guarding people last year, ended up doing pretty well," Barrett said. "I definitely could be playing better offensively, and I feel my rhythm coming back after not playing for a while."

Quentin Grimes could take some of the defensive workload off Barrett in the future, though it's unclear when he will return from his foot injury.

The Knicks enter Friday's game with a 3-1 record. If they don't get some help defensively, they'll likely be a step behind the East's top-tier teams.

The New York Knicks have picked up the $6.8 million team option in the rookie contract of power forward Obi Toppin for the 2023-24 NBA season.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported the news ahead of Wednesday night's game between the Knicks and Charlotte Hornets at Madison Square Garden.

Toppin has averaged 6.8 points and 3.0 rebounds while shooting 52.2 percent from the field across 137 career games. He has per-game averages of 9.3 points and 3.7 boards during the early stages this season.

The New York City native enjoyed a monster 2019-20 season at Dayton, winning the Wooden and Naismith Awards as the national player of the year and earning consensus First Team All-American honors.

That success led the Knicks to select him with the eighth overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, but he's yet to reach expectations in the NBA. He's finished with a negative Raptor in each of his first two seasons, a FiveThirtyEight metric that measures a player's overall impact.

It's prevented him from earning a consistent role in the team's rotation, a trend that's continued in the early stages this season as he's playing just 16 minutes per game.

That hasn't come as a surprise, as Toppin discussed the expected lack of playing time back in September when training camp opened.

"Not a lot of people in this position, so that's all we can do is have fun," Toppin told reporters. "Coach [Tom Thibodeau] controls all that, and we're here. I'm ready whenever my name is called, just like every other player. So, whenever my name is called, I'm gonna try to give it 110 [percent] every day."

Despite the limited role, the Knicks' decision to pick up the fourth-year option isn't shocking given the team-friendly salary.

The tougher call will come when New York has to choose whether to make a $9.2 million qualifying offer that would come with a $20.4 million salary-cap hold for 2024-25, per Spotrac.

Thibodeau is under pressure to coach the Knicks to a bounce-back season, so he's going to stick with the players he trusts, and recent history suggests that doesn't bode well for Toppin trying to earn a more high-volume role.

If New York struggles and a coaching change takes place, that would likely be the 24-year-old forward's chance to break through. Otherwise, he may have to wait until he changes teams for that shot at putting together a breakout year.

New York Knicks forward Cam Reddish didn't receive much playing time after he was acquired in a midseason trade with the Atlanta Hawks last year. But in the 2022-23 season-opener against the Memphis Grizzlies, Reddish proved that all he needed was a chance.

The 23-year-old came off the bench to score 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting while adding five rebounds and three steals, but the Knicks went on to lose 115-112 in overtime at FedEx Forum on Wednesday night. It was Reddish who forced the extra period with a three-pointer with three seconds left in regulation.

Reddish's 22 points and 28 minutes of action were both his highest totals in a Knicks uniform. He appeared in 15 games for New York last season and averaged 6.1 points in 14.4 minutes before his season came to an end prematurely because of a shoulder injury.

Fans on social media liked what they saw from Reddish with many pushing for him to become a bigger part of the rotation going forward.

Knicks fans who have been clamoring for more playing time for Reddish got exactly what they were hoping for on Wednesday. The Duke product proved that he can be a reliable player on both ends of the floor, something that is crucial for a Tom Thibodeau-coached team.

It appears that Reddish has proved himself worthy of more opportunities going forward, and he will have another chance to showcase his skills when the Knicks host the Detroit Pistons at Madison Square Garden on Friday.

The New York Knicks were seemingly the favorite to land Donovan Mitchell this offseason, but Utah Jazz CEO Danny Ainge reportedly had no interest in making a deal, as ESPN's Stephen A. Smith explained:

Knicks executive vice president William Wesley, forward Julius Randle and assistant general manager Allan Houston were all in attendance for Game 1 of the first-round playoff series between the Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz in April. The Knicks signed former Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson in free agency this offseason and were clearly targeting former Jazz guard Mitchell.

Utah instead sent Mitchell to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for three players, three first-round picks and two pick swaps.

The Knicks sent the Jazz serious offers early in the offseason, with ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reporting there was a package that included RJ Barrett, Mitchell Robinson, Obi Toppin and three unrestricted first-round picks. Utah turned that offer down.

Immanuel Quickley and Quentin Grimes were also discussed in trade talks, although the Knicks didn't want to deal Grimes.

Even Mitchell thought he was "going back home" to New York:

Regardless of the reasoning, Ainge decided to make the deal with the Cavaliers instead of the Knicks.

Utah now has a long road to rebuild after also trading away Rudy Gobert this offseason.

The Knicks will hope the addition of Brunson is enough to improve upon last year's 37-45 record.