Luke “American Porzingis” Kornet had played in seven games this season prior to tonight without making a single field goal. It’s not like he was playing major minutes, but still. That’s not how you want to start off a season, by firing blanks in your first seven appearances.
Clyde Frazier mentioned that the Knicks had to choose between waiving Ron Baker or Luke Kornet when they signed Allonzo Trier to a real contract. Not even taking into account what we saw tonight (more on that in a bit), how is that even a contest? You can find a Ron Baker equivalent or fifteen by driving down to your local div III rinky-dink bible college and snatching some from their basketball team. But how many Kornet equivalents can you find? Three-point shooting 7-footers who have shown the ability to hang at least a little bit in the NBA are a rare commodity. One could almost say that they are rare like unicorns.
The Knicks made the right choice. Baker is back picking corn in Kansas, and Kornet is dominating playoff teams in the fourth quarter/overtime with his pinpoint outside shooting and stifling defense. I don’t want to say that Kornet is the main reason that the Knicks won this game, since Emmanuel Mudiay had the game of his life, but he is definitely the secondary reason. It’s no coincidence that things turned for the better when Enes Kanter (insert gif of Billy Donovan saying “can’t play Kanter” here) sat and Kornet came in.