The Spaniard is in his second season for the Knicks and seems to be getting reduced playing time. I am not aware of any injury worries so this is clearly a coaching decision.

Hernangomez didn’t have a great EuroBasket experience, which was surprising following his first NBA season in which he played in the Rookie game at All Star weekend and made the All Rookie Team.

I don’t know what was behind his EuroBasket performance (it could have been the difference in coaching, worry about the Knicks given the off season drama or any other reason) or even if that is behind his limited minutes so far this season.

What I do know is that he looks less confident when he does get minutes. He is more hesitant and then over compensates by playing too hard and racking up too many fouls for his playing time.

Hernangomez is a Knicks player with great potential, which can be seen when he plays with confidence. Sometimes sitting a player makes him hungry and he plays much better when he gets on the court, this has definitely worked with Kyle O’Quinn, but sometimes it knocks their confidence and you get a nervous player who can’t make the most of his opportunity.

While this is something that Hernangomez needs to work on but the coaching staff need to be careful to build his confidence and skill so that they don’t waste his potential.

The Knicks’ new Belgian rookie is showing early signs of great promise. He is still getting fairly limited minutes, not surprising as this is his first season, but he is using those minutes to demonstrate heart, hustle and skill.

The main thing he needs now is experience and the only way to get that is more minutes. As the season goes on he will gain experience and he will have some brilliant moments and make some mistakes but that is how we learn.

There is a risk of the crowd, the media and the coaching staff being hard of him for those mistakes but he will learn from them and the coaching staff need to be careful not to cut his playing time unless he is repeatedly making the same mistakes.

There is a lot of discussion about OKC’s Big Three.

The big three are used to playing iso-ball. They are used to being the go-to player on the team. They are used to being the main guy on the team.
When you put three guys like that on one team you cannot expect them to change overnight.

I have heard people say that they need to want to change. I don’t necessarily believe that they don’t want to change.
These guys are used to how they play and have been playing that way for years. Until now their coaches have been telling them that they are playing the way the coaches want them to.
Expecting them to forgot those habits, forget the way they are used to playing, within one or two games is not realistic. They need time to get used to playing with each other, used to the new style of play.

I admit that they aren’t demonstrating any hint of change but changing habits takes time and doing it under the spotlight of the media does not make it easier.

The coaching team at OKC need to work with the players and find small ways to start changing those habits, building that team spirit. When that starts to happen they way OKC play will start to change.

The Knicks have not had the start to the season that we may have expected. That’s not to say that they have had the best start but there have been more wins than expected and against some teams we would have predicted loses against.

The main reason for this performance is Kristaps Porzingis who is having the best season of his life. He is putting up some amazing numbers and absolutely showing how much potential he has. However, he cannot keep this up all season. When he missed the game against the Hornets, the Knicks lost. That may have happened even if he had played but without his big numbers the rest of the team had more to do.

Porzingis has a few niggling injuries and has already said that he may need elbow surgery at the end of the season. Playing as hard as he has been so far this season, is only going to aggravate that elbow and potentially mean more games that he has to sit out.

When Carmelo Anthony was at the Knicks the game plan seemed to be getting the ball to Melo and letting him take over the game. That plan did not result in a lot of playoff appearances.

My worry is that keeping to the plan, just swapping Melo for Porzingis, is going to have the same results.

The Knicks team does have potential to be a good team, maybe even a playoff team but they can’t rely on Porzingis to do it all.

I know there will be those who point to the Russel Westbrook last season. I am not trying to suggest that Porzingis is not capable of having an absolute stand out season. But that is not going to result in a playoff run for the Knicks unless the rest of the team improves.