In what was another loss at the hands of the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons on Thursday night to kick off the second half of the season, the Knicks at least got to see their newest player, Jeremy Sochan, make his team debut.

Sochan played 10 minutes in the loss and although it wasn’t a ton to go off from, head coach Mike Brown liked what he saw out of the newcomer, especially considering his limited time with the team and lack of playing time overall this season.

“I thought his minutes were pretty good,” Brown said. “It gives us the ability to give a guy like Cade [Cunningham] a different look. You know with his length and his strength and his athleticism, and we want to be physical.”

Sochan finished the night with two points, making his only shot attempt, and added an assist, a steal and a block. He was a minus-2 on the court, behind OG Anunoby (plus-1) and Karl-Anthony Towns (0) on the team.

The 22-year-old first entered the game with 26.4 seconds left in the first quarter to a nice hand by the MSG crowd, but was subbed out by Mohamed Diawara to start the second quarter. His next opportunity came with 6.9 seconds left in the third quarter when he went in for Towns and Sochan made sure to make it count by blocking Cunningham’s shot on a driving layup with 1.2 seconds left.

Impressive if only because Cunningham scored at will against New York on Thursday while having his hand everywhere with 42 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds. The blocked shot certainly didn't go unnoticed.

“He hadn't played in a while, but most of the time that he was on the floor and guarding Cade, there was a physicality to it, and we liked that,” Brown said. “We need it.”

Known as a defensive-minded player who described himself as somebody who brings tenacity to the court, Sochan added a steal with 8:40 left in the fourth quarter despite the game being a blowout. The steal led to Sochan’s first bucket as a Knick, a fast-break dunk.

Following his modest debut, Sochan is hoping he showed enough to continue getting more and more minutes down the stretch for New York.

“I thought for him, not having played in a while and him only being here for a couple of days, I thought he did a pretty good job,” Brown said.

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