2021-22 Game Thread: The Battle for the 10th Pick

Can the Knicks pull off the upset loss?

Seems unlikely.

59 replies on “2021-22 Game Thread: The Battle for the 10th Pick”

I am becoming increasingly confident that Obi Toppin will be a great and unique piece to have going forward.

We really need to get Julius Randle off this team.

There has never been a player in the history of Knicks basketball that was a more obvious trade candidate other than maybe JR Smith. 🙂

Obi picked a lousy game to become a good three point shooter. Couldn’t he gave waited until next season?

I will gladly eat crow on Obi, if this is for real it’s so huge for the Knicks going forward

I think we need an IQ/Obi buddy cop series. I know a guy who could write the reviews.

Knicks lead cut to 20. Thibs: “Timeooooout”. He really can’t drop the game 7 approach.

I would’ve bet good money that Billups was one of the answers to the trivia. It’s good that i’m not a gambling man. LOL

thenoblefacehumper:
I think we need an IQ/Obi buddy cop series. I know a guy who could write the reviews.

Immanuel and Obidiah. Feels a bit like “Witness 2.”

Is “Grimes and McBride” the spin-off?

Let’s check if Arcidiacono’s nose can handle another stint in the game. 😀

How can we score without RJ and Randle? This is incredible.

Sorry about RJ but at least OBi and IQ will cost us the higher pick.

I won’t lie, picking 11th is better than I ever imagined from them, so I’m relatively okay with all of this.

Kyrie admitting the obvious fact that he and Durant were coming here before the Durant injury.

Brian Cronin:
I won’t lie, picking 11th is better than I ever imagined from them, so I’m relatively okay with all of this.

Don’t eliminate the possibility we move up.

Brian Cronin: I won’t lie, picking 11th is better than I ever imagined from them, so I’m relatively okay with all of this.

And worse would be to get 8th without owning the pick, like the Lakers. 😉

Why wasn’t Iron Man Porzingis in this game? He step on a Lego or something?

Frustrating to pick up the win due to tanking “injuries”, but damn if it wasn’t fun to watch IQ & Obi.

Leaving us with those two thesis statements to ponder:

Obi Toppin is a starting power forward.

Immanuel Quickley is a starting point guard.

We may have a better point differential than the Bulls as soon as their game ends

Raven: Obi Toppin is a starting power forward.

Easily.

Raven: Immanuel Quickley is a starting point guard.

I still think unless he’s on a team with multiple other skilled playmakers he’s best utilized as a combo guard, and I don’t think it matters much whether that’s in the starting lineup or off the bench. Scoring is his best skill and I want him to be able to focus on it. Having said that he’s come much further as a playmaker than I ever thought he would and at least for next year I’d be fine trotting him out there on opening night.

If Obi’s game helps convince the Knick’s brass to move on from Randle then it’d probably be worth losing a spot in the draft though with the Knicks luck Washington will wind up moving up to one.

Thibs Press Conference:

Q: “Coach, did you put Obi in the corner for the last year and a half because you knew he was a 67% three-point shooter?”

Thibs: “Yeah, yeah, exactly.”

Q: “Then coach, why did you play him only 12 minutes a night for the last two years?”

Thibs: “Errr, it’s about earning your minutes…”

Alec Burks with a positively Frank-enstein 1-9 from the field yet a plus 25…

If I have to watch Obi back up Randle next season and play 12 minutes a night I may have to quit this team

Early Bird:
We may have a better point differential than the Bulls as soon as their game ends

Assuming Toronto rests all their best players on Sunday because they are locked into the 5th seed if the Knicks win by 22 pts again they’ll finish the season with a positive point differential.

Both Obi and Quickly are playing much better now than they were last season and earlier this season. In fact, our 3-17 stretch came in part because Quickly was playing like Brickly and struggling badly as the PG. The key is whether they carry this over to next year and keep moving forward. We have all this young talent, but we need a few of them to break out over the next couple of years.

JK47:
Alonso yesterday and now Lindor both hit in the face by fastballs

McCann also got hit up and in yesterday….and there was a 4th up and in near miss yesterday, as well. Buck Showalter is not happy about the Nationals’ possible headhunting.

So far I love Buck Showalter. He came running out of the dugout dropping f-bombs. This Mets team had a severe lack of leadership last year and Buck has gravitas and chops.

Assuming Toronto rests all their best players on Sunday because they are locked into the 5th seed if the Knicks win by 22 pts again they’ll finish the season with a positive point differential.

we played like a .500 club most of the year…up and down, good quarters of basketball, bad quarters of basketball…

julius going off the rails because over the summer someone influencing the team’s game strategy rightly suggested we take the ball out of julius’ hands – it took nearly ’til the flipping all-star break to make that happen…

ju had like a death grip on the ball and his previous role, then he had god knows what going on off the court…

total thibs’ failure to not mange the change in team play philosophy with the team’s personnel…

obviously easy to look back and criticize…

but someone in charge should have sat julius down on the bench, earlier in the season, definitely after the finger thing…

if thibs wouldn’t have been so blinded by the notion that julius was key to winning, (which turned out to be the exact opposite of reality) we’d be the sixth seed or so right now…

You know what’s sweet? Reading this:

Leaders New York
Points O. Toppin 35
Rebounds J. Sims 9
Assists I. Quickley 10

wow, we really are about to enter the draft with the worst lottery odds…

yeah, that sounds about right for us…

gotta be honest, i am feeling a little swifty though…

if leon wanted to – there might be something to be had from RJ, julius and anyone not named: quik, obi, grimes (need to keep some kind of internal team draft hope alive) – and our own first round picks…everyone else/pick is for sale…doesn’t mean they have to go, but…

despite knick fortunes, i kind of hope utah gets bounced in the first round and mitchell goes on the market…

thibs is much better than what we’ve recently had, but – we need a coach who can help put points on the board…gotta force an “offensive” coach on thibs…don’t give him an option…

So far I love Buck Showalter. He came running out of the dugout dropping f-bombs. This Mets team had a severe lack of leadership last year and Buck has gravitas and chops.

buck showalter is one of those few individuals that can do it in the booth and the dugout…

holy cow, you know it’s 2022, right, you don’t actually watch a whole ballgame through do you 🙂

i’m looking forward to tomorrow’s televised yanks/sox game, turn the game on some tv’s, just leave it on as background to life…maybe do some gardening…

man, i miss watching hiro pitch, very calming experience…

John Hollinger has some nice words about Obi Toppin in his latest article in the athletic. The most notable comment was “Offensively, the Knicks have tried something called “actually involving him” that seems to be working. ”, Besides this, overall he feels Toppin had improved a lot over the season. You can thread the rest here:

https://theathletic.com/3237373/2022/04/08/hollinger-from-jalen-green-to-kristaps-porzingis-identifying-the-heroes-of-the-2021-22-nba-tanking-season/

Say what you will about the front office and the coach but last year’s two 1sts improved a lot and became two rotation players and maybe more. That’s good, professional work and they deserve praise for it.

IQ has become so much more crafty on offense. Given that he seems like a smart player with good work ethic he should continue improving, and be a pleasure to watch over the next few years.

Obi is obviously a very talented scorer. I loved that about him before the draft and got comments that he’s older, and not good on defense. The older part seems not important atm but his defense is still lacking and he keeps loosing his man. His bad defense is partially responsible for Hachimura’s big game yesterday.

BigBlueAL: Assuming Toronto rests all their best players on Sunday because they are locked into the 5th seed if the Knicks win by 22 pts again they’ll finish the season with a positive point differential.

This is why I say that the loss of Derrick Rose made a vast difference to our won/lost record. We’d be a playoff team otherwise without question.

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