True Value: Data Study Names 2 Knicks Among NBA's Most Underrated
A data study from New York-based gaming site Empire Stakes had big praise for the efforts Immanuel Quickley and Quentin Grimes put forth this past New York Knicks season, including the pair in their formulated ranking of the NBA's top 25 most underrated players of 2022-23.
Quickley, the runner-up for the Sixth Man of the Year Award, placed fourth while the newly-minted starter Grimes was 16th. The data considered included the player's salary, which was divided by the advanced metric of point shares. To that end, the Knicks were one of five teams to have multiple names on the list, joining Memphis (who had three), Minnesota, New Orleans, and Utah.
Last season served as a strong junior-year outbreak for Quickley ($345,707 per point share), who set career-best averages for scoring (14.9) and rebounding (4.2). Often the first man off the Knicks' bench, Quickley came up particularly big toward the end of the regular season when the Knicks wrapped up the fifth seed on the Eastern Conference playoff bracket: over the final 19 games, Quickley averaged 21.6 points and set a new personal-best for points in a single game with 40 in a March win over Houston.
Quickley's 2022-23 cap hit was just over $2.1 million as he played the penultimate season of his four-year rookie bestowed to him when he became the 25th pick of the 2020 draft out of Kentucky.
As for Grimes, a first-round arrival from 2021, he took a major step forward in his development after struggling to swipe minutes from Evan Fournier and Alec Burks in his freshman year. Though he missed a good part of training camp with a foot injury and was stuck behind Fournier in the early going, but he earned a starting lineup spot by late November and never looked back.
Grimes was one of the more expensive entrants on the list (a $2.27 million cap hit last season) but proved his worth through solid defense and outside shooting after he was kept out of the Knicks' negotiations for former Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell last summer. His spot in 16th was produced by producing $474,375 per point share last season.
Anthony Lamb of the Golden State Warriors topped the list thanks in part to a small cap hit of $649,878. Austin Reaves (LA Lakers) was the runner-up while Daniel Gafford (Washington) rounded out the top three.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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