In a season that may have been revelatory for all the wrong reasons, Willy Hernangomez was an undoubtedly positive revelation for the Knicks, perhaps even the most purely positive development of 2016-17.
As the season wore on, the rookie looked like one of the league’s best young centers. He showed an advanced post game, and a willingness (but not necessarily the ability...that’ll come later) to shoot from distance. He also proved to be a capable rebounder and a good defender.
The same year the Knicks thought they found their center of the foreseeable future in Joakim Noah, they may have found their center of the present, foreseeable and distant future in the 6’11, 23-year old from Spain, instead.