New York Knicks: 2018-19 End of Season Awards
By Joey Holeman
Most Valuable Player – Emmanuel Mudiay
Seven months ago, if I told you that Emmanuel Mudiay would be the New York Knicks 2018-19 MVP, you might think that their 17 wins were actually an overachievement. Just by looking at the roster, you can see that the Knicks front office was not judging this season on wins and losses, but rather on the player development as they had one of the league’s youngest rosters. This opened an opportunity for the 23-year old Mudiay to play more minutes with the ball in his hands.
In 59 games this season Mudiay averaged 14.8 points, 3.9 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game. His more interesting stats come from when the Knicks won. Mudiay played in 13 out of the 17 Knicks victories and averaged 17.4 points and 4.0 assists per contest. The numbers are not jaw-dropping, but Mudiay played well enough during stretches of the season to see his trade value increase.
During the month of December, Mudiay started all 14 games and averaged 18.6 points and 5.5 assists per game. In a three-game stretch, Mudiay put up a career-high 34 points against the Charlotte Hornets and followed that performance with back to back 32-point games. The native of the Congo showed potential, but injuries and the addition of Dennis Smith Jr. limited his production toward the end of the season.
Like I said earlier, it is hard to see any good out of this season, but Mudiay played better than most of the young Knicks. At 23-years-old Mudiay will be heading into his fifth NBA season. Under ideal circumstances, he is a solid backup point guard, not your team’s MVP.