For the better part of the last decade or decade and a half, you probably could have brought a Knicks fan to tears—if not outright rage—by broaching the subject of starting point guards.
The topic has been a longtime sore spot for those who bleed orange and blue, and rightfully so. The past five merry-go-round seasons have seen Jarrett Jack; Emmanuel Mudiay; Frank Ntilikina; Elfrid Payton; an oft-injured, turnstile version of Bronx native Kemba Walker; and Alec Burks—who isn’t even a point guard—hold down the starting role for the franchise. It’s a reality that left the club at a nightly disadvantage at arguably the game’s most important position.
It’s been quite a while—perhaps the fleeting Jeremy Lin run, or perhaps the 54-win campaign in 2012–13 when Raymond Felton and Jason Kidd operated as a starting tandem—since fans would have trusted the team’s starting floor general to take a jumper with the game hanging in the balance. And perhaps that’s what was so different about the team’s deflating 123–121 loss to the Raptors on Monday: Even though Jalen Brunson’s three at the buzzer ultimately misfired, the fact that he was entrusted to take it speaks to the paradigm shift that’s taken root in Manhattan.
