I’ve been a vocal supporter of Toney Douglas for a long time. Not just since the Knicks picked him through a draft night trade with the Lakers, but since college. Out of all of the visiting players that I ever deemed to “suck” at Maryland in the pre-game warm-ups, he and Al Thornton made me eat my words the most. He’s always been a mortal lock to play suffocating defense until the final buzzer, which I think is invaluable to any team, especially the New York Knicks considering their nightly Jekyll and Hyde act on that end. He’s waterbug quick, with pitbull intensity, and the confidence to let it fly from three, which is usually beneficial because of his good to lethal accuracy from there. The point guard instincts are still in the formative stages, retarded by Florida State’s otherwise impotent offense relying almost completely on his production. But I think he can be an effective starting point guard in the NBA, and there’s no better stress test for that hypothesis than this game.
After being limited by D’Antoni during Felton’s stay with the team, and briefly captaining the ship during Billups’ previous thigh injury, tonight is finally Toney’s night to sink or swim test. This game WILL SHOW whether he can handle the duties of a starting point guard in this league, or if he’ll be relegated to back up status for the remainder of his tenure in New York, and probably afterwards. Although it may not be the ideal situation for this to be taking place during a vitally important Game 2 against the defending Eastern Conference champs, it’s exactly what I want to see.
There’s only two ways this can go. The consensus opinion is that without Billups’ steady hand to guide the offense, it will sputter against the best defense in the league. Toney won’t be able to balance the high wire act between keeping his two superstars happy while also remembering that he’s a more than viable offensive option. He can occasionally be tentative with his passes, and the Celtics defense feasts on indecision. His “two sizes too small” tight defense is not suited to Rondo, who has the speed to blow by overanxious defenders who don’t give him room to play stone mason with his jump shots. If the night ends with a round number in the win column and only two on the scoreboard, a lot of blame will be placed on the play caller of this usually high powered offense.
Or tonight could be the Knicks find their point guard of the future, however near that may be. All of the clamoring for a young dynamic point guard could be reduced to whispers in 48 solid minutes. He’s done it a few times this season against playoff teams. The 30 point game on the road at the eventual leader in the clubhouse Chicago Bulls in November. Helping to force rookie phenom John Wall into 9 turnovers the very next night while hanging crooked numbers all over his own row in the box score. And most convincing, his complete and utter deconstruction of all things Chris Paul on a night that was supposed to be a premature welcome party to the man who plenty believe is the best point guard in the league. The next day, the switchboards of New York sports radio stations lit up like Lite Brite’s with calls about how Paul might not even be worth the investment, and that maybe the Knicks should look elsewhere for their forthcoming third piece.
Nobody mentioned the other side of that argument, that maybe Toney Douglas is just that good. Maybe he’s close to figuring it out, he’s definitely not the distributor that Paul is, but he’s a better deep ball shooter with unparalleled defense among point guards. He might not be a superstar, but if Billups can teach him up on how to run an offense (something he’s really never had outside of the aforementioned brief tenure with Felton) he can be an important piece of a championship contending team. It’s apparent to everyone who’s watched the Knicks that they look and play “very different” with Toney running the point. Tonight is the night that he gets to determine which two words replace those.
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