For his entire career, Baron Davis has been more of a scorer and a bit of a selfish player. He is used to taking a good amount of shots per game and throwing up threes from different area codes. As a Knick, Davis has a new role, and so far since returning from injury, he has thrived at it. Davis is now looked at as the guy to come in and distribute the rock when Jeremy Lin gets rest. He knows that the Knicks have so many threats and he has been finding them all. Davis does not come in and play with an ordinary group of bench players. The Knicks have one of the best benches in the league.
Davis has guys like Steve Novak, J.R. Smith, and Iman Shumpert he can get the ball to off the bench who are all guys who can knock down shots. As seen last night, Novak was draining threes from all over the place. Novak made clutch three after clutch three in the fourth quarter helping put the game away in a 120-103 win against the Cavaliers. Shumpert and Smith are guys who can also finish big close to the hoop. They were the recipients of a couple of dazzling alley oops courtesy of Davis as well as Lin.
The key to the Knicks success off the bench all starts with number 85. Davis has changed his game up in a way that has made the Knicks extremely successful. He knows he does not need to put up many shots for them to be successful. He just needs to continue to be a catalyst and find the open guys because someone is going to knock down the shot or get a tremendous pass inside for an easy finish. Davis was even finding Jared Jeffries for easy finishes last night. Jeffries is more known for his defensive abilities. Davis found him a couple of times last night for easy finishes making it look easy. Lots of credit has got to go to Baron for the Knicks superb bench play over the month of February.
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