2017-18 Game Thread: Knicks @ Grizzlies

The Knicks head to Memphis on the second game of their seven-game/two-week long road trip.

Luckily for the Knicks, both Memphis centers, Marc Gasol and Brandon Wright, are out tonight due to illness (I hope it is not Consumption. La bohème let me know that that stuff is dangerous as heck).

So this really should be both the first Knick winning streak in quite a while but their first road winning streak period this season. How pathetic is that?

This is the Knicks, so you know they’re going to make a run at the #9 seed, so this is likely going to be a win.

Let’s go? Knicks?

69 replies on “2017-18 Game Thread: Knicks @ Grizzlies”

Anyone familiar with Deyonta Davis? I never heard of him, but rotoworld is talking him up for tonight with Marc Gasol being out.

High energy, above the rim guy. But I haven’t seen him play that much. He had a great game against the Lakers on MLK Day.

not sure if it covers all cable providers, but, at least on fios – nba league pass is free through sunday…

the buffering on the nba league pass app can be a little/lot frustrating…

Good for tanking or not a loss tonight vs this depleted, awful team would be the most embarrassing of the season.

Good for tanking or not a loss tonight vs this depleted, awful team would be the most embarrassing of the season.

it feels like this could be said almost every game – and, we keep losing them…man, there are a lot of bad teams out there this season…

it’s amazing how often thomas, lee, mcdermott, jack are just no-shows in the box score…

Well we got crushed by the Hawks, so this will have to be a really terrible loss to top that.

deyonta davis was pretty good in college… and slid in the draft and the grizzlies wound up trading a future 1st to nab him in the 2nd rd…. not sure about that trade but he’s a decent prospect…

i forget that any possible lee deal is probably blocked by the fact that tyreke evans is probably getting dealt also….

This is an example of what I don’t understand with Hornacek. Grizzlies have the ball out of bounds with 7 secs left in the half, how the hell do you not sub out Jack with Frank for defensive purposes?? He constantly does this, leaves Jack in for defense when he has a chance to sub in Frank at end of quarter/game situations. It’s mind-boggling to me.

Tanking or not tanking,
you can’t lose with a team missing its two best players,
you can’t lose because they play with more hustle and will,
that’s really a bad sign for the future of our “youngster”…
Where’s out star? KP must score 40 in this game…
Time to unleash the fury of Trey!

Porting has become amazing at directing blocks to himself or his teammates rather than just swatting them.

Its very fitting that MSG is calling this “viewer appreciation day”. The few of us actually watching this bullshit really need to be appreciated.

I hate watching Jarrett Jack so fucking much but he’s great for the tank

@28

Right? Let’s trade Kanter and get this KP at the 5 thing going already (not that Kanter will be traded but it’s nice to dream)

Aside from the occasional match up up issue, the problem with KP at the 5 is rebounding. To play KP at the 5, you really need a player like Shawn Marion at PF where you get defense, spacing, and rebounding.

edit: I see everyone beat me to the rebounding issue. lol

This would be a big win for the tank. Atlanta and Memphis each coming out of the evening with a win is excellent.

It looked like the Knicks came into this without any sense of urgency, most likely because Gasol was out and they expected to win. By the time they realized they were actually in a game, Memphis got some good rolls and they were too far behind to come back. This is the kind of thing that should not happen to a team playing for a playoff spot. It’s a mental issue and the difference between being a winning team and a losing one. It wasn’t until Porzingis took it upon himself to go crazy blocking shots did they actually get into the game mentally.

Our PGs were 1-11. 1-14 if you include Baker

V E T E R A N
L E A D E R S H I P

KP deserved to win this one for how amazing he was on D.

@45 TBF KP and Frank(not tonight) playing well while the team loses is pretty ideal.

The vets couldn’t close out another close game. Loss. Good for the tank.

I wonder what Lee said to get the T?

How the hell after his decent debut the other day does Burke get a DNP tonight in a game where Jack shoots 1 for 5 and Frank shoots 0 for 6??? Hornacek can’t possibly be the head coach next season.

Can we please trade every player over 25 on this roster already? For fuck’s sake.

How the hell after his decent debut the other day does Burke get a DNP tonight in a game where Jack shoots 1 for 5 and Frank shoots 0 for 6??? Hornacek can’t possibly be the head coach next season.

And Baker 0-3.

The only thing I can think is that they were getting killed by Tyreke Evans and Hornacek night have thought that Burke being so small would be an even worse match up. I’m not saying that’s correct, but it’s a guess.

I’ve had a number of debates about Lance Thomas elsewhere recently. I don’t care if he’s a decent defender, the Knicks are trying to stress defense, and they are playing him over some players that don’t give as much effort on that end to make a point. He’s so utterly useless in every other way he should never be on an NBA court unless it’s garbage time. There was time before the injuries he would have some decent games. Now he’s a walking zero.

pgs and sfs(jack, frank, lance, mcd) a combined 1 for 14 with zero fta…. it’s a dead horse but you can’t beat even college teams playing 5 on 3….

I’ve got no problem with Baker’s minutes. Memphis was draining threes all over, and he and Frank are the only two Knicks who consistently fight hard to contest on the perimeter.

Also, Frank’s shooting should have nothing to do with Burke’s minutes.

Jack, however…
🙂

Playing Jack and Lance is literally 100% pointless in every way. Burke, Frank, Baker, McDermott can all suck completely but they’re young and should be getting minutes no matter the result.

Even if you want to stealth tank or whatever it still makes zero sense to play these bums over young players who will also suck but might have a future with the franchise.

@58 Yeah, at this point I have to agree with you. Management is probably not quite ready to throw in the towel, but it’s becoming apparent that unless the Knicks are getting elite play from KP (and don’t get me wrong he was very good tonight) they are not a playoff team.

Thomas is terrible.
Jack is bad.
Kanter is a huge liability on defense.

That’s not a playoff team even if you consider that they probably would have won a few extra games with Hardaway healthy all the way.

Frank is going to have some bad shooting nights and commit some aggravating TOs, but he’s ready to be throw to the wolves. Burke should also get some consistent run just to see what he can do.

It’s not all bad though. KP seems to be starting to understand the shot selection issue better both in recent comments and on the court. Frank is becoming a walking assist. 🙂

Why is something that was obvious in October now the preferred plan? It’s very frustrating to read the “wait til February ” crowd come to grips with reality.

I’m surprised the Knicks are so bad at shooting 3s. Then again, when LT, Beasley, Jack, and Kanter make up half your rotation, you’re not going to be good at shooting 3s.

I truly can’t recall anyone who put up fewer stats than Lance is this year. It defies all logic.

Why is something that was obvious in October now the preferred plan? It’s very frustrating to read the “wait til February ” crowd come to grips with reality.

It was far from obvious early in the season when Porzingis was putting up 30 a night, we didn’t know Hardaway would go down for month, we had no idea what Frank could do because he missed summer league and pre season, and we thought Willy was going to be a significant contributor. If KP only regressed a little and Hardaway was healthy, we’d probably be a 6th seed.

It’s also not smart to throw a 19 year old rookie to the wolves after missing all that preparation and allow him to get embarrassed and discouraged because he’s not ready.

Most of us (including myself) predicted we would probably win a little over 30 games. Just because most of us thought that does not mean we were definitely right. You play, see how the players are doing, see what our record is, process new information, and then adjust.

I keep saying this, but this is not fantasy basketball where everyone is just a name on a spreadsheet.

There are benefits to winning and competing that include experience for players like KP, attracting players in trades, attracting players in FA, keeping agents and players happy, and the locker room calm. Players are in option years, players are competing for playing time, agents get pissed off, the ownership wants to maximize earnings, management and coaches are trying to keep their jobs etc.. These are real people and you have to manage them just like you do in any other business or all hell breaks loose. A guy like Noah is pretty much a saint. He’s probably still the best C on the team and can’t even get dressed. Anyone else would be screaming and causing chaos in the locker room.

Thank god we established the winning culture early in the season with all those vets. I’ll be bouncing my grandkids on my knee someday talking about how Frank’s career really took off when he watched Jarret Jack lead us to 33 wins instead of 28.

Most of us (including myself) predicted we would probably win a little over 30 games.

I’m sorry, but this is revisionist history. The average Knickerblogger prediction was 28 wins and almost no one predicted over 30.

@63 Amen to that

This is real life not fantasy basketball, you play the game on the on the floor not on paper, and manage real people’s emotions, money and lives, not names on a spreadsheet.
Losing culture and winning culture are real things, ask San Antonio, Boston, Miami, Orlando, Sacramento and others.
It shows every day, the Heat just kicked the ass of the media darling Bucks and their young “MVP candidate”, the Spurs with Aldridge, a bunch of no names and three 35-or-more veterans, missing Leonard for basically all season, are 30-16.

The Knicks lost a bunch of incredible games (Today, Det +21, Cle +23, NO +19, 3 games vs CHI all at the last shot or OT, Atlanta, the OT in Miami and I’m missing some), reverse that and they’re in playoff contention, give this team to Spoelstra and Riley, Stevens and Ainge or Popovich and Buford and they’re in play for the 5th or 6th place at least.

After today I’m pissed off at Hornacek for his rotation choices but the players must be ashamed to lose a game like that.
Maybe the “veterans” must play until the trade deadline, after that I hope management will raise the white flag and start playing the “young core”… And looking around for a new coach (please not Jackson).

Last one: KP played great? Alas he can’t get a fucking rebound when the game was on the line and Memphis scored the two key baskets of the game on offensive boards.

One thing several of us said at the start of the season was that we were fine either making a low playoff seed OR a high lottery one or anywhere in between AS LONG AS we got there on the coat-tails of sticking to our youth movement.

In practice, we haven’t done that. Lee and Jack are top 5 on the team in minutes per game and Beas, LT and KOQ are also top ten. WHG is nailed to the bench, Dotson has barely played and Doug McD could also use a load of extra playing time. Now we’ve caked up a 25yo point guard and nailed him straight to the be bench too.

I’m now at the point where I genuinely hope we go 0-5 on the rest of this trip to force us to shift gears and see what we’ve got under age 25 for next year.

By the way, Strat, I agree with the rest of what you said. But I wanted to point out that we remember our forecasts badly because I think it colors our judgement of the team’s performance. Even with our horrible road record, we are probably doing better than expected. Porzingis did fade, like he did last year, but he faded from a higher initial level of play. Now he’s probably playing as well as he did at the beginning of last season (although his role has changed too, which complicates things). Last year we got blown our a lot, this year we have a lot of close losses. Since I suspect getting to close losses from blow outs is a sign of improvement, I tell myself to just grin and bear it.

If management doesn’t make stupid trades or free agent signings, we’ll get a couple more picks, and probably be better next year. I don’t get too mad about Hornacek not playing the kids more. You can’t run a professional sports team well without making players compete for minutes. Compared to D’Antoni or Thibadeau, he plays the young players a lot and has a deep rotation. That’s good enough for me.

I’m sorry, but this is revisionist history. The average Knickerblogger prediction was 28 wins and almost no one predicted over 30.

I didn’t bother calculating the average, but since Vegas was just over 30, I predicted around that amount, and I recall others predicting in that area that’s what I thought was the range here.

Everyone thought they would be mediocre but despite Hardaway missing a month, KP missing games, and Kanter coming into games on crutches for awhile, we are still on schedule to beat that. You never know until you play.

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