Several players on the Knicks likely will have to sacrifice playing time to accommodate the addition of Josh Hart. That much is clear after the deadline pickup’s impressive debut in Saturday night’s win over the Jazz.
Miles McBride’s deletion from the nine-man rotation — and starting shooting guard Quentin Grimes not playing in the fourth quarter — were the obvious notable reductions in playing time.
Sixth man Immanuel Quickley also logged only 23 minutes off the bench — and 8:23 in the second half — down from an average of 34.2 per game over his previous 22 appearances.
Without McBride, however, Quickley was used as the primary backup to starting point guard Jalen Brunson and contributed 15 points and five rebounds. He also said Hart’s presence on the second unit “made my job 10 times easier.”
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“Josh gave us a little extra bit of boost, I feel like just his presence, his energy,” Quickley said after the game. “Everywhere he goes, he’s a winner, even from college [at Villanova], so it was good to be able to play with him. He fits right in.
“Playing aggressive, downhill, when I get rebounds, he’s running the floor, can throw it ahead and get easy buckets. Then we see the same, he got me a transition 3. It looks like it’s going to be easy.”
Hart, who was acquired Wednesday night from Portland, played more than 25 minutes (including the final 16:24) and finished with 11 points, seven rebounds (four offensive), four assists and four steals.
“He was all over the floor for us tonight. … It was a great pickup,” said RJ Barrett, who scored 17 of his 20 points after halftime.
“Basketball is not hard, I don’t feel like, if you know what you’re doing out there,” Quickley added. “If you’re a winner, you play defense and you can score. That’s basketball. Try to score and try to stop the other team from scoring, and he does that at a high level. You can fit on any [team] if you can do that. And he’s a great character person, as well.”
