No one thought it then, but the New York Knicks got a steal when they drafted reigning SEC Player of the Year Immanuel Quickley with their first-round pick. The Knicks took Quickley, who was mostly projected as a second-round pick, at No. 25.
The Knicks haven’t looked back, as Quickley has quickly become one of the best rookies in the NBA. New York, with a surging Julius Randle, is quietly going to be the playoff-caliber team for the first time in almost a decade.
That said, a sharpshooter, Quickley has stayed motivated during his rookie season by a screenshotted photo that he keeps from when CBS Sports gave the Knicks a D+ grade for drafting the former Wildcat.