In the midst of his most trying season in Tucson, with rumors surrounding the program like incessant gnats and a precious recruiting class teetering on the brink, here’s hoping Arizona head coach Sean Miller flipped on the New York Knicks versus Philadelphia 76ers game on Wednesday night and kicked his feet back. With the Wildcats en route to Utah, hopefully he at least DVRed it.
A mid-third quarter stretch would have provided a measure of solace for Arizona’s coach, his team mired in a 14-11 season.
There, on the Madison Square Garden floor, were not one, not two, but three Miller protégés, each an unlikelier story than the last.
If T.J. McConnell were the only former Wildcat on the floor, on this night, it would be an achievement.
Just McConnell and Allonzo Trier, and it would be a feat.
But with McConnell, Trier and now Kadeem Allen — the newest Wildcat-turned-Knick — on the court at one time, 30 percent of action on the floor could be traced back to Tucson.
And that is something worth celebrating, even if there are no nets to cut down, and even if Arizona might not be dancing come March.
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New York Knicks guard Kadeem Allen (0) gos in for a basket as Atlanta Hawks center Alex Len (25) defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, Feb. 14, 2019, in Atlanta.
Allen is once again active and reliable, potent and full of potential for the Knicks. On Monday against the Cavaliers, Allen scored 25 points, a career high, albeit in what would be New York’s 17th straight loss.
On Wednesday against Philadelphia, he checks in at the same time as McConnell, subbing for fellow new Knick Dennis Smith Jr. — brought in when New York jettisoned Kristaps Porzingis to Dallas — at the 7-minute, 4-second mark in the first period.
McConnell strikes first with a short pull-up jumper near the rim, then assists on the Sixers’ next basket, finding Boban Marjanovic. If this were an Arizona practice, you can imagine Miller pumping his fist for his favorite point guard.
Another minute later, Trier checks in, and all three share the court.
Allen hits a jumper at the 3:50 mark, but then Trier takes over, hitting an 18-foot stepback jumper and then following with a 23-foot 3-pointer off an assist from Allen. Running back down the court, Allen flashes the 3-point sign.
In a twist, the Knicks public address announcer credits Trier’s 3 to Allen.
These days, Allen will take any credit he can get. He was the 53rd pick in the 2017 draft by Boston, which signed him to the franchise’s first two-way deal. Splitting time between the G League’s Maine Red Claws and the Celtics, Allen showed promise. He made 18 appearances for Boston as a rookie, but showed even more promise with the Red Claws, for whom he was named to the All-NBA G League East Team after averaging 18 points, six rebounds and five assists per game.
The high point of his year? A G League player of the week honor in late-January, after two games in which he scored 46 and 38 points.
The Celtics waived Allen on July 15 last year, and he was scooped up by New York’s G League affiliate, the Westchester Knicks. He averaged 15 points in 32 games for Westchester before he signed a two-way deal with the Knicks, who recently had a spot open.
The spot? Vacated by Trier, who became one of the league’s most surprising stories when he signed a two-year, $7 million contract with New York in December.
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Rookie Allonzo Trier’s two-year, $7 million contract with the Knicks made way for Allen to sign a two-year deal.
Flash forward to the third quarter of Wednesday’s game, and you get a sense of where these two teams are, and — perhaps — why the Trier and Allen combo is seeing so much action.
When Trier checks in with 8 minutes left in the third, the Knicks trail by 26.
Tim Hardaway and Courtney Lee and Trey Burke are gone, dealt to Dallas in the Porzingis trade, and New York coach David Fizdale is without the services of injured guards Emmanuel Mudiay (shoulder) and Frank Ntilikina (groin).
After McConnell hits a running floater over Trier with 6:34 left in the quarter, Trier responds with a 3 to cut Philadelphia’s lead to 20. The Knicks continue their surge, first with an Allen coast-to-coast drive and then with a Trier 3 with 2.2 seconds left in the third to trim the deficit to nine, the first time it’s been in single-digits since midway through the second quarter.
It is because of Allen and Trier that New York manages to make a game of it, eventually trailing by as little as six points.
After the game, Fizdale will credit the Desert Duo with spurring the aborted comeback.
“We got it back to six, and a lot of that was our bench,” he said after the game. “I guess it’s because they’re old teammates, right? They play well together. Tonight, I really thought they had it going. They just hit a point where they got tired down the stretch.”
And then the Knicks’ starters returned, and you begin to understand why these guys are out here in the first place.
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With 3:31 left in the game, here are the lineups on the floor.
For the Knicks, Smith, a promising young point guard and the preeminent chip in the Porzingis trade; Kevin Knox, the No. 9 pick in the 2018 draft and someone with a bright future ahead; Damyean Dotson, a guard; Luke Kornet; and Mitchell Robinson, New York’s defensive-oriented center who is getting his cues from new pickup DeAndre Jordan, also brought in from Dallas.
On the other side? Well, uh … Ben Simmons, Tobias Harris, Jimmy Butler, J.J. Redick and Joel Embiid.
If it were three on five — and really, any three of those five Sixers stars — the Knicks might have stood a chance.
So that explains it. The Knicks are bad. And with them being bad, Allen and Trier have a chance to be good — much like McConnell, who came of age with the Sixers during the early days of The Process.
“We took advantage of opportunities,” McConnell said.
“Nothing against out teams, but (the Knicks) haven’t been very good, and we’ve been given an opportunity to play more.If we went to really good teams, who knows how much we’d play? This league is all about opportunities and taking advantage of them and the two of them definitely are.”
Allen, for one, has already left an instant imprint on his teammates.
“He’s a warrior,” said Smith, who was raised less than 100 miles away from Allen in North Carolina. “He’s a warrior. He competes on both ends all game. Now everyone knows, he’s got a hard mentality like a lot of people from our area. I salute him.”
Fizdale, too, has been impressed by the pair from the Old Pueblo.
“I was happy to see ’Zo really get the ball going through the net some,” Fizdale said.
“And Kadeem has just been on a little tear, playing great basketball for us. I like that kid. Tough kid, he really works at it. To see his success is a good thing for us.”
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Philadelphia 76ers guard T.J. McConnell (12) in the first half during an NBA basketball game against the Phoenix Suns, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019, in Phoenix.
On Monday morning, at Philadelphia’s practice facility in Camden, New Jersey, McConnell found himself pitted against a practice player.
McConnell practiced his defense, and his man backed him down in the post, more and more aggressively. Eventually, McConnell fell to the ground, signaling for a charge and smiling.
Then McConnell did the darndest thing: He stood up, picked up a towel, and wiped the floor where he’d fallen.
Can you imagine Embiid, with an ego that matches his wide smile, doing the same thing? Or the stoic Simmons? Or firecracker Butler?
No, but you could imagine Allen or Trier, who, like McConnell, are doing their best to earn their spots, even if that sometimes means wiping them off.
Three former Wildcats, each of them young, each of them with an improbable path to the NBA, just trying to eke out a living.
“Coach always preached that with team success, individual accolades would follow,” McConnell said of Miller.
“I feel like us the three of us really bought into that.”
