The New York Knicks took the floor for the first time with their new-look starting lineup on Tuesday night, opening the preseason with a bang and defeating the Indiana Pacers, 125-104. Preseason always brings with it a load of optimism, but sometimes also a flood of overreactions based on small sample sizes and flashes in the pan after months without basketball consumption. Still, it was hard not to get excited about what happened on the floor for the Knicks in their first action since an eventful offseason. Here are five big Knicks takeaways from the preseason opener.

5 Knicks takeaways

1. Kemba Walker looks like his vintage self

Kemba Walker made his debut in orange and blue on Tuesday, and he provided everything one might have hoped for with 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting and four assists in 21 minutes. Finishing around the rim, step-back 3s, gorgeous dimes — it was all there for Walker, and he looked much more like the Kemba of old than the hobbled version on the Celtics last season who was forced to come back early from a knee procedure thanks to the NBA's sudden restart.

One of the biggest worries for Walker at this stage is that bad left knee, but if he's able to give the Knicks the level of production that he did on Tuesday for even 25-30 minutes per night over the course of the entire season, that will be more than enough with Derrick Rose and Immanuel Quickley waiting in the wings to take backup point guard minutes.

Perhaps more important is that Tom Thibodeau realizes what the situation is with Walker's lower body — based off this first preseason game, it seems like maybe he does. Walker was the only one of the Knicks' starters to get a somewhat preseason-like workload in the first game, logging just 21 minutes compared to 30, 27, and 25 for his projected starter contemporaries (Julius Randle, Evan Fournier, and RJ Barrett, respectively).

2. Evan Fournier was money well spent

Despite Walker being the biggest name the Knicks added this offseason, Evan Fournier was the biggest monetary commitment the Knicks made during free agency. After just one preseason game, his $18 million contract already feels well worth it.

One of the biggest issues with the Knicks' offense in the playoffs was that if Reggie Bullock received the ball on the perimeter with any amount of coverage on him, he didn't have the ability to dribble out of it and punish the defense. That would often result in Randle getting the ball right back and having to figure something out with a limited shot clock at his disposal.

That problem is a thing of the past with Fournier. It's clear that he and Randle still need to work a few kinks out (who doesn't at this stage of the preseason?), but on multiple occasions in this game Fournier attacked the defense in ways that Bullock never could, on extremely similar plays to what Randle and Bullock ran together last year.

Randle-to-Bullock was an extremely potent combination last year and one of the most recognizable trends of the Knicks' offense night in and night out. Early returns on the Randle-to-Fournier experiment seem to suggest that they could surpass that impact and then some.

3. Life has gotten a lot easier for Julius Randle

Speaking of Randle, he probably didn't have a clue what to do with himself with all of the newfound space on offense.

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Having four of the five players on the floor as credible threats from 3 — as well as able to put the ball on the floor — had huge implications for Randle in this game, who got to operate some off-ball and had infinitely more space on offense when he had the ball in his hands. Randle did badly air-ball his first attempt from 3 for the year, a wide-open attempt from the corner. In this rare instance, that's more than forgivable, because Randle was probably thrown off by the sheer audacity of not having to scratch and claw to create his own looks from behind the arc.

Once he settled in, though, he got right back to doing what he does best: dominating the scoreboard for the Knicks. He finished with a team-high 20 points and nine rebounds on 50% shooting to go with two assists in just 30 minutes. With all of this help, Randle might be able to repeat as All-NBA, while hopefully not having to play as many minutes to get there.

4. The sophs have been working hard

They showed it in Summer League, but it was still nice to see all of the hard work that Immanuel Quickley and Obi Toppin put in over the summer paying off on an NBA floor.

Quickley had his struggles shooting the ball (4-10 from the field, 0-4 from ), but he was entrusted with a lot of playmaking duties even when sharing the floor with Derrick Rose, which led to him posting a team-high seven assists.

Toppin showed off an advanced handle and a varied skill set, further proving that he'll be, at minimum, a fantastic backup option behind Randle this year and for years to come.

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Both Quickley and Toppin will likely struggle find minutes this season thanks to the big offseason moves the Knicks made. Walker, Rose, and Fournier figure to take up around 80 or so of the 96 available minutes at point and shooting guard any given night, and Randle led the NBA in minutes per game last year at the power forward spot and just inked a long-term extension. Still, if the young guys continue to prove they're getting better, it's going to be hard to justify not playing them. Hopefully Thibodeau is feeling creative.

5. RJ Barrett as a third or fourth option is incredibly dangerous

Somehow getting this far into a column about the Knicks without mentioning that their young cornerstone had 17 points in 25 minutes on 50% shooting feels a bit sacrilegious, but here we are.

Barrett, much like Randle, is going to love playing with his new teammates. He had a ton of room to operate and was able to cash in myriad open looks with Kemba and Fournier keeping the defense honest on the perimeter.

For as much talk as there was about Barrett adding a pull-up game to his arsenal this summer, it seems like spot-ups are going to come in abundance for him. That shouldn't be an issue at all, considering he shot over 40% from 3-land last season.

And with that, the first preseason game is in the books, with plenty more excitement to come. There was even more to talk about just from this game alone, but there will be more time and more games to go over some of the other players and performances.

For now, it seems, the Knicks are back.