Looking at the Knicks’ opening day lineup, it was hard to see who would become the Knicks’ secondary scorer behind Carmelo Anthony. Certainly at that time, I would not have picked Langston Galloway. I expected Gallo to serve as a defensive specialist; coming in once opposing guards had picked apart Jose Calderon’s rotting zombie corpse. The pair seemed to be complementary, as Calderon’s shooting has always been his most valuable skill, with defense being an afterthought.

However three games in, and Jose’s scoring is as bad as his defense. Jose’s true shooting percentage sits at 36.9%. Speaking of sitting, Derek Fisher was testy the other day when confronted with calls to replace Calderon in the starting lineup. Nonetheless Galloway is already getting starter time. He’s third on the team in minutes. He’s only behind Anthony, who is 31 and coming off a knee surgery, and Sasha Vujacic, who is coming off five straight years of being bad at basketball.

Galloway has the 8th highest TS% in the Association (73.2%), per basketball-reference.com and the highest offensive rating in the association (160.3!!!). Insert caveat here about how it’s only three games and how these numbers are utterly unsustainable, but it’s not unreasonable to expect an uptick in shooting from a 24-year-old. Unsustainable or not, Galloway and company have pushed the Knicks to the third-highest offensive rating in the league.

Meanwhile, on defense, the Knicks have been below average thus far, though many of their additions (O’Quinn, Afflalo, Lopez) were made with an eye toward becoming more dependable on that end. In what seems like a Knicks tradition, the ‘Bockers have been burned by speedy guards like Jeff Teague (23 points), Bradley Beal (26) and John Wall (25). While Galloway’s improvements as a marksman are commendable, he has to bear some of responsibility for those outbursts. Given his heavy minutes, if not Gallo then who?

Last year, opponents shot 3.7 percent worse when Galloway was guarding them according to NBA.com; so far this year, they’re 2.8 percent better. Just as I don’t think Galloway is suddenly the best offensive player in the league, I also don’t think he’s horribly regressed on defense. He made a strong effort to stick with Washington’s guards, but my notes on him from the game start to look repetitive after a while: Stuck on Gortat screen, Beal miss; Stuck on Gortat screen, Beal make; stuck on Nene screen, Neal make etc.

It’s possible this won’t be a big deal since eventually Afflalo will guard the other team’s best guards, not Galloway. But Afflalo’s defensive numbers haven’t looked good in a few years, either. The role of wing stopper is Galloway’s for the taking, and he has the physical tools for the job. So while I love, love, love the hot shooting, I hope Galloway remembers how he earned his spot in this league, and works with his coaches on getting around those big men.