I was kinda wondering what had happened to Kadeem Allen. He had a really nice stretch of games at the beginning of February culminating in some double-digit scores and ultra-culminating in a 25-burger. But then I wasn’t seeing him in the boxscores anymore, so I just assumed that despite his good play the Knicks coaching staff were done with him. That’s what happens with tanking teams sometimes. A player plays good, and then they just get permanently benched for no reason. Like with Henry Ellenson. Sometimes even non-tanking teams do this. Frickin’ DJ Wilson was good, you’re telling me that you’d rather play Pau Gasol’s crusty ass? Consider your presumable COY award revoked, Budenholzer.
Anyway, it turns out that Allen got sent back to the G-League, which is almost the same as getting benched, except you get to dominate sub-scrubs in semi-meaningless games instead of watching your team play without you. There must have been a reason for that, like his two-way eligibility was getting low and they wanted to save him for a playoff push or something. I don’t pretend to understand the nuances of these newfangled two-way contracts, I only care that they cycle through the NBA a good amount of primo scrubs that I can highlight.
Well, now Allen is back, and it’s like he never left. His streak of double-digit scoring games which was paused at 4 has now increased to 5, and he was one of the few Knicks who could do anything offensively against the Spurs. New theory: the Knicks sent him back to the G-League because he was causing them to win too many games and had the distinct threat of costing them Bol Bol in the draft.