The cast of the Kristaps Porzingis-less Knicks on Wednesday at Madison Square Garden read like understudy night on Broadway, littered with young unknowns and castoffs from more functional franchises. Sure, Enes Kanter and Tim Hardaway have been mainstays in the league for much of the decade, but the crew alongside them wasn’t pretty. The Knicks will be Trey Burke’s third team in five seasons, and Lance Thomas’ career-high in points per game is 8.3. To paraphrase Rick Pitino, Ewing and Starks aren’t walking through that door.
Though despite the opening-night no-names, the Knicks’ attack against Atlanta looked nothing like the muddled mess it was without Porzingis in 2017-18.