Knicks Morning News (2017.12.30)

  • [NYDN] Triangle gone but Knicks offense remains bafflingly inefficient
    (Friday, December 29, 2017 12:22:18 PM)

    The triangle is gone but Jeff Hornacek’s offense remains stuck in another era.

  • [NYDN] NY Sports Odds for 2018: The Yankees & a bunch of long shots
    (Friday, December 29, 2017 7:44:16 AM)

    The Big Apple fan base went without a title again in 2017. What are the odds that will change in the new year?

  • [NYDN] Knicks star Kristaps Porzingis makes plea for more foul calls
    (Friday, December 29, 2017 7:05:33 AM)

    Mired in an ugly shooting slump, Kristaps Porzingis made a public plea to the referees for help.

  • [NYPost] The Knicks are missing their ‘Angry Grandpa’
    (Friday, December 29, 2017 7:51:52 PM)

    NEW ORLEANS — It took a while, but the sliding Knicks now feel Tim Hardaway Jr.’s extended absence full bore. Michael Beasley calls Hardaway “Angry Grandpa,” and the Knicks miss his spirited oncourt fight — as well as his scoring. It has been almost four weeks since he was diagnosed with a stress reaction (at…

  • [NYPost] What Porzingis is really focused on during shooting slump
    (Friday, December 29, 2017 7:04:51 AM)

    NEW ORLEANS — The consistent 30-point games are history and the shooting percentage has dipped to 44.4 percent. After a 119-107 loss Thursday to the Spurs in San Antonio, slumping Kristaps Porzingis even lobbied referees for the second time this season after he felt they missed contact opponents made on his arms when he rises…

  • [SNY Knicks] Hornacek wants more threes from Knicks, who are NBA’s worst from deep
    (Friday, December 29, 2017 8:20:42 PM)

    The Knicks are dead last in three’s attempted and made. Jeff Hornacek hopes that changes.

  • [SNY Knicks] Kristaps Porzingis frustrated at lack of foul calls
    (Friday, December 29, 2017 3:15:44 PM)

    Kristaps Porzingis has grown frustrated at his lack of shooting fouls and took to the media to air his grievences.

  • [SNY Knicks] It’s time for the Knicks to make changes
    (Friday, December 29, 2017 12:30:08 PM)

    You may not be sure anymore if you’re watching basketball or you’re on the Superman roller coaster at Disney World.

  • [NYTimes] Keeping Score: Is LeBron James, at 33, Better Than He Was 5 Years Ago?
    (Friday, December 29, 2017 7:21:51 PM)

    You can say he’s ageless and even sublime. But can you truthfully say, as Steve Kerr did, that James is better in his 15th N.B.A. season than he was in his 10th?

  • [NYTimes] These N.B.A. Dancers Bring Their High Kicks Courtside
    (Friday, December 29, 2017 3:00:25 PM)

    With packed routines, the hard-working Brooklynettes and Knicks City Dancers are “there to create just as much of a show as the basketball players.”

  • [NY Newsday] Knicks’ Kristaps Porzingis wants refs to call touches that foul up shot
    (Friday, December 29, 2017 7:46:00 PM)

    The game isn’t coming as easy for Kristaps Porzingis these days as it was at the start of the season.

  • 13 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2017.12.30)”

    Bulls, Mavs, Suns and Nets all won. The stealth tank is more of a thing every day.

    The Bulls are just fascinating, aren’t they? They just seem to be doing it with smoke and mirrors. Well, Mirotic, smoke and mirrors, at least.

    Tonight, though, Markkanen and Grant also had it going on. A double-double for Jerian Grant!

    Kris Dunn didn’t even play!

    Yeah, it’s hard to tell whether they’re for real or just the ultimate trap game team. Mirotic only plays 26mpg, no one is playing big minutes (only Justin Holiday is averaging over 30 mph and his composit stats are not great!) It seems that Mirotic and Portis are the most consistent guys, and then the rest of the team is inconsistent and they just patch good performances from different guys in as needed.

    It seems highly likely that we will lose our next 2 games and very possible that without TH2 we will lose our next 4. I wonder whether that will be enough to trigger some lineup changes.

    The Bulls are very weird because every night someone different seems to do a bit more than usual… either it’s Markkanen, Dunn, Mirotic, Grant, even Portis.

    They’re rebounding well as a team, playing tough defense and are 7th in the league in assists, so there’s real improvement there. Opponents went from shooting 38% in October and November to 31% against them, which might be sustainable or not. Hoiberg has to be credited.

    Let’s say we reach the halfway point at 19-22, how likely is is that we go something like 13-28 the rest of the way?

    It seems like getting below 32 wins is going to take some work. The most likely scenario is that we will win like 33-36 games and be drafting 10-12. On the bright side, most of the top picks will be bigs, so there’s a reasonable chance that a promising wing or PG will be available that low.

    The interesting thing about the Bulls is that no one on the team has a particularly high usage. We have the KP-Beasley black hole thing going on. It makes us easy to beat…just key on those two guys and we can’t score enough to win on most nights.

    if we pick late between 10-14 then i think we have a decent chance of coming away with an ok wing… pg’s maybe not so much…. but i’m ok with the quality of prospects in that range to say that we don’t really need to jump up a few spots….

    if we wind up trading lee, koq and especially kanter i think we have a very decent shot at 32 wins or below….

    Surprised no one has mentioned Dennis Smith Jr’s triple double last night.

    I’ll still take Frank over Smith or Mitchell, the highlight for me this year was his lockdown D on Kyrie at MSG, that was a beautiful thing to behold after years of turnstile defense at the PG position.

    Troy Brown is not projected to come out this year, and only rated #19 in the 2019 mock draft. Doesn’t sound like a steal to me.

    Theres a whole bunch of guys in that category…. wings who may or may not leave… and theres no telling whos going to leave and who isnt….

    Troy brown is in that category… kris wilkes also… you also have brian bowen…jarred vanderbilt… and rui hachimura… i think all of them save for hachimura will wind up leaving and theyre all mid to late first rd material…

    I read that article. The thing that stood out to me is the Knicks woeful D on corner threes. I know that I and some others here have commented on that in the past. That’s a huge problem for the D, for some reason. Lots of unbelievably wide open looks for the opponents.

    Scheme? Poor BB IQ by the players (threes and fours probably) who are supposed to cover those two spots? A little of both?

    RE the draft. I’m desperately hoping that the Knicks can pick up an additional first round pick this year (someone, please offer one for Lee or Lee and OQ). The Chicago second rounder is getting worse every day. With all the big men slated to go early, if the Knicks could sneak into the top 10 and add a mid first rounder, they could get both a three and PG to add for next year.

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