Knicks Notes: Reddish, Grimes, Payne, Brunson

The Knicks were willing to give up a first-round pick for Cam Reddish, but he hasn’t seen much playing time in his first two weeks with the team, writes Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News. Reddish got another DNP Friday night in Milwaukee and has appeared in just two games as coach Tom Thibodeau has followed through on his statement that Reddish will have to earn his minutes.

“We like who (Reddish) is. We like the talent. And right now — it’s a long season,” Thibodeau said. “We traded someone who wasn’t in the rotation, so you can’t keep adding to it without taking someone out. We can have injuries, so just have to be patient and work our way through it.”

Bondy states that although Thibodeau works closely with team president Leon Rose, the Reddish deal seems to be the latest instance where they have different views of a player’s value. Bondy adds that Reddish’s situation may not change for the rest of the season unless the team makes another trade by next week’s deadline.

There’s more from New York:

  • An easy way to shake up the Knicks is to move rookie guard Quentin Grimes into the starting lineup, suggests Steve Popper of Newsday. Popper notes that Grimes is the team’s best three-point shooter at 40.3%, he’s better defensively than starting guards Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier, and he plays with the toughness that Thibodeau likes. “If a rookie can play you’re going to see it right away,” Thibodeau said of Grimes. “Each time he goes through the league he’s going to pick up more and get to know the players better and the teams better. The anticipation factor and experience factor get into it more. There is trial and error. The second time around he’s been really really good.”
  • Knicks assistant Kenny Payne is considered the favorite to become the next head coach at Louisville, Popper adds in the same piece. Payne played for the Cardinals and spent 10 years as an assistant with Kentucky before coming to the NBA.
  • The Knicks have “touched base” with the Mavericks about guard Jalen Brunson, Ian Begley of SNY.tv said on a recent podcast (hat tip to Grant Afseth of SI.com). According to Begley, there’s a team that plans to offer Brunson more than $20MM a year in free agency this summer, which might make Dallas more willing to part with him.
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