Cam Payne is playing the least amount of basketball since his second season in the NBA nine years ago, averaging fewer than 15 minutes per game off the bench in his first season with the New York Knicks. Yet the veteran point guard continues to churn out positive offensive production.
The 30-year-old Murray State product once again provided a lift in Tom Thibodeau’s incrementally expanded rotation that went from eight to nine in Monday’s physical 119-110 win over the Atlanta Hawks at Madison Square Garden.
In just 12 minutes, he scored 10 points behind a 3-of-6 showing from three-point range. It was his four-point play with 8:39 to go in the fourth quarter which gave the Knicks some breathing room down the stretch.
Payne has appeared to find his groove over the previous six games heading into Tuesday night’s matchup with the Brooklyn Nets. Despite averaging roughly 12.5 minutes during this stretch, he has posted double-digit scoring outputs five times.
During a 34-point win on Jan. 12 over the Milwaukee Bucks, he posted 18 points in just 14:22 while going 4-of-7 from three in the process. He scored 13 of those points in the second quarter, which allowed star guard Jalen Brunson to get some rest after dropping a career-high 23 in the first.
On Friday night, he put up 18 again against the Minnesota Timberwolves, but this time in just six minutes (he played 12:30 in total) — going 4-of-5 from three-point range. In his last six games, Payne is shooting exactly 50% from beyond the arc.
No one in the NBA has more games with at least 10 points while playing fewer than 15 minutes than Payne does.
His play has prompted at least a discussion of him getting more minutes. He’s averaging 18.1 points per 36 minutes this season with 6.1 assists while shooting roughly 43% from three.
Should he continue producing at this rate, Thibodeau will have no choice but to find more minutes for him — perhaps in the second half of games, even.
