Mike Miller, when asked why Taj was still starting over Mitch, replied, “How well Mitchell’s playing. It’s that simple”
Oooooooooph. That’s rough. That’s….that’s rough. That hurts, Mike Miller, that hurts.
Anyhow, let’s go? Knicks!
Mike Miller, when asked why Taj was still starting over Mitch, replied, “How well Mitchell’s playing. It’s that simple”
Oooooooooph. That’s rough. That’s….that’s rough. That hurts, Mike Miller, that hurts.
Anyhow, let’s go? Knicks!
130 replies on “2019-20 Game Thread: Knicks vs. Bulls”
not a good look for coach
Has he seen how Taj is playing?
I fully authorize and bless this win today…
not so much for the team, city, any other human in this world or any others…
I would like to see the knicks win to make me feel good, right now…
mmmmmmm…marshmellows…
one thing i’ve come to learn from this league pass stuff:
– we have the best in the biz: clyde
– the hornets have the best looking cheerleaders…props to micheal for that
– I’m beginning to really not appreciate the star spangled banner as much as I once did…truly – too much of a good thing
Taj Gibson teaching Mitch how to play C.
frank’s back…hopefully mitch is beasting and RJ is efficient, we get some more trier (bullocks out), and knox gets a dnp…I’m beginning to become increasingly anxious at the thought of watching kevin knox play basketball…
nice form on that 3 from RJ he should repeat that
When I watch Zach Levine play I have a tough time figuring how a guy with than much talent and those skills can have such a small positive impact.
I’m gonna make it a game: for every missed shot or turnover by kevin – I’m gonna drink…i’m gonna drink anyway, but, at least now there’s purpose and direction to it…
is 8 points in 4 minutes good?
One of the things that keeps Frank’s assists lower than they should be is that he doesn’t deliver a lot of his passes into the sweet spot. The receiving player has to gather it up, adjust, and then proceed. That slows the play down and give the defense a chance to adjust before player can get off an easy shot. He has to work on more than just getting to the right spot on the court and making the pass. He has to deliver the passes more accurately.
Geo you’re making me wish I had gone to the store before lying down to watch this game.
in a pinch, some cooking wine might just make do…
RJ Barrett and Mitchell Robinson would be so much more productive if they weren’t let down by infrastructure.
Go Knicks youth! Play good games and let Bobby Portis lose it for us!
I’m not interrupting my nap/game time for cooking wine.
Isn’t that true of literally any player though?
Also, am I reading the box score wrong or does Elfrid have 8 assists and 0 points, rebounds, blocks or steals?
My only request is that everybody give RJ Barrett some patience. The two-way wing is the most valuable player in playoff basketball and he has a shot of being just that. He’s having himself a game so far.
I love when we play the cavs and bulls…you can dream that we’re good…
I’m fine with Barrett. Especially if he ever gets to play the 3. But just curious, on a scale from 1-10, how disappointed are you in Barrett’s season so far? Because you have been really into him for over a year, right?
>Isn’t that true of literally any player though?.<
Absolutely, but just in watching him game to game I'm constantly seeing him get the ball to the right player, but the pass is often a little too high/low/ahead of the player/behind the player and he can't finish, I'm not sure if something like that can be tracked well, but I notice with him way more than seems reasonable. So I suspect it's an issue.
After RJ fucks up an easy lob to Mitch he tries to shoot the next play and it leads to an easy dunk for Mitch
If RJ and Mitch could end the season on a roll playing together, I would not mind that.
I’ve been on the RJ Barrett bandwagon since he was maybe 17 years old. Being honest, I am not really disappointed in RJ Barrett’s season at all. His flaws are being exposed a lot in New York because he’s been expected to spot up and shoot way too often, and to a lesser extent he’s been frozen out of the offense by Julius Randle and Bobby Portis. I think he’s been useful in the secondary stats, he gets to the foul line, and he’s not useless on defense. This isn’t “if he just learns how to play basketball he’ll be fine” like it is with Kevin Knox and Frank Ntilikina. The shooting is a problem but he shows you once every couple games that he’s not hopeless. Am I confident that the Knicks will develop him into Jayson Tatum’s arch nemesis the way he should be? Absolutely not, but that’s more about the Knicks than it is about RJ Barrett.
My stance on RJ Barrett is he is worth the wait. It’s not all there just yet but he has been showing an ability to score on all three levels, fill the secondary stat sheet, and play defense. We can sometimes get too caught up in the stats and forget that he hasn’t even turned 20 yet. He is a hard worker, a competitor, and a smart kid on and off the court. The biggest problem with RJ Barrett is he was drafted to a team that had no actual plan for his development, but all of the tools are there.
We can make any scrub look good…now Valentine is resurrecting his career tonight…
Knox!
the bulls really stink how do they have more wins than us?
Let me tell you how much of a joke this franchise is.
I’ve been watching iZombie on Netflix and I finished it today. The one actor must be a Knicks fan because there’s multiple times in the show where he’s wearing a NYK shirt. Today I watched the final episode and they were doing the flash forward ten years thing. In the Flash forward his daughter was playing basketball and had a NY jersey on… It was Patrick Ewing’s. In over 20 years this team has been unable to produce a player that people would wear over Ewing’s. Pretty sad commentary.
that was a fortuitous fucking bounce
Knox redux…
Can’t believe we are winning this thing.
How hard has Clyde been trying to avoid saying Arcidiacono?
Go Knicks!
Any game where Mitch, RJ and Knox play well is a good game, whether we win or lose.
Don’t see Mitch in the game. Hitting my tv to see if I can fix the situation.
can’t have mitch out there he has 3 fouls
Clyde reminiscing is more interesting than the game
Both of these coaches will be jobless next year
That was a sick alley oop by Mitch.
Well, that was pretty awesome.
Love the MVP chants for Mitch. Love the Garden crowd.
Mitch…career high…nice
m-v-p! m-v-p!
If we win 10 more games this season I hope we’re led by Mitch and RJ every time.
Mitch should have another career high on Monday against the lollipop guild
Wins where the kids play well are fine by me. Even if the bulls are utter trash.
more wins than last season. we’re trending upwards boys!
probably would have lost if Dennis didn’t have a concussion but whatever
I’m sure glad that Coach Miller was able to squeeze an immortal 2-5 performance (with a scintillating 1 rebound, 1 turnover and 4 personal fouls) out of the great Wayne Ellington in just 15 minutes of play. It’s far better those minutes go to such a fundamental piece of our team going forward than, say, to Trier.
Mitch looks like a real pro now according to Wally. “You can see it on his face. He is absorbing everything the coaches are teaching him.”
Hahn thinks he is sending a message to the league for not putting him in the rising stars game.
What a load of horseshit. This is what Mitch has done his entire career, minus the foul problems.
But whatever.
Also, Daniel Gafford looked like their Mitch.
Via Vorkunov:
I can’t believe I only learned about Clyde So Fly today. That account is doing God’s work.
https://twitter.com/KnicksMSGN/status/1233876571041210374
I’d like to take the time to point out that zero people are upset with this win because it came on the back on strong performances by RJ and Mitch. It probably helps that there is no Cade Cunningham or Emoni Bates in this draft class and so draft positioning isn’t too crucial this year, but generally nobody is mad when the young guys win a game.
glad I went back through the game thread, that is some funny shit right there…
who know’s, maybe mitch’s development the last couple of years is the only thing we have gotten right…
If only we could play the Bulls every night…
I guess Jayson Tatum sucks?
Tatum 9-27 with 5 turnovers in primetime? Hm
I’ve been enjoying him for years.
I occasionally debate his rating with him, 🙂
I’m not a huge Westbrook fan, but he’s playing some great basketball since Houston went small. I think the league is on notice. If you have a great ball handler that can finish and pull up especially well, spread the court and get out of his way. That’s what Dallas is doing with Doncic and that’s what Houston is doing via small ball with Westbrook.
The era of the C that can’t shoot may be coming to an end.
Unless you are a Westbrook/Doncic caliber finisher, if you can’t shoot 3s you may not have a job in a couple of years. The game is all about space. The greater your range, the better. If you can shoot competently from the logo, you are adding even more value. lmao
They actually don’t have such a bad young core when they are all healthy and not arguing with the coaching staff. They need a few changes, but they are not far from a breakout season if they could stay healthy.
I’m so dispirited by the top of the draft, so yeah, I agree that draft positioning doesn’t seem quite as critical as it was last year, where the Knicks were lucky to get Barrett at the #3 as #4-10 were pretty sketchy options (outside of trading down, of course).
We have assists, hockey assists, Kobe assists, and screen assists. We need a reasonably precise way of measuring “space assists”.
What’s the difference?
This will be the 5th year out of 6 we’ll have a top 10 pick and probably 3rd out of 6 we’ll have a top 5 pick and we are still 2-3 years away from being a basketball team we can feel good about, let alone actually be good.
I’m way more concerned about the competency of our new management than our draft position or the strength of the draft. If we weren’t wildly incompetent, right now we’d have KP, Mitch, RJ, Frank, MIkal Bridges, and Hardaway (who is proving he can play a good role with a competent team as a 3rd option even if overpaid). That’s a pretty good young team on both sides with a lot of upside and none of it would have taken any brilliance.
It’s adorable that you include Frank on the roster as part of the “if we did things right” scenario, when there was literally an All-Star picked five and six spots after him.
Tatum: 45 minutes, 32 pts on 27 shots, 13 rebs, 5 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 5 turnovers; Age 21
Harden: 41 minutes, 21 pts on 24 shots, 4 rebs, 8 assists, 3 steals, 0 blocks, 5 turnovers. Age 30
Yeah, these guys suck
That was one outstanding game. Lot of great basketball in the NBA this year, even with load management and all the injured stars.
It’s Leon Rose Day! On the one hand, Begley reports that Rose isn’t going to make any front office changes right away, so we’ll have to live with some uncertainty about who/what he wants for GM. On the other, I’ve seen a couple of beat writers wonder if his decision to take the job today, as opposed to waiting for a weekday, is because he wants to buy out a veteran or two before the deadline to give more playing time to the kids.
Buckle up?
If I was making the leap to true superstar I would simply make more than 9-27 shots. But I guess that’s just me.
Tatum shot .484 TS% on 27 FGA and 14 FTA. That ain’t it, chief.
The rumors of Russell Westbrook’s death were greatly exaggerated. I’ll still harp on his inefficiency and his boneheaded plays, but I can’t help but love watching when he takes over the court like this. I thought this experiment could work and if Russ keeps playing like this, there’s a chance it will.
whoops-double post
Russ’s actually been efficient since he stopped taking 3s and he’s making the highest % of 2 point shots in his career. The Rockets have certainly made it really interesting-winning in Boston on a night that Harden was pretty bad (wtf was that turnover at the end of regulation) is impressive.
Now we get to see how they handle M(vp)itchell Robinson
Yeah, he’s had a .570 ts% in January and .590 in February. A Russell Westbrook that shoots a .594 ts% is an all-nba level player, he’s averaged 33.4/7.3/6 in the month of February. I’m just glad because there’s very few players I enjoy watching more than Russ when he’s at his best and 200% engaged.
I have to say, Westbrook can be really fun to watch.
Hey, looked like a very good night for the kids! If only that happened more often.
Yeah, if Rose quickly buys out a couple of the older guys, that would be a decent start.
seems like they tried to buy out Harkless but couldn’t reach a resolution…
It’s going to be interesting to see what lineup we run out against the Rockets to start because if it’s Taj/Randle in the frontcourt I don’t think that’s going to work
Ehhhh, sonny? He had the typical off-shooting game that high-usage superstars have and filled up the boxscore in other ways (and still averaged 1.19 points per shot.)
This game-to-game judging of Tatum is really stupid. The kid is still wet behind the years and outplayd a top-3 player in the NBA last night.
Maybe the Celts better trade him and a #1 for Brandon Clarke while they can before he devolves into an overpaid inefficient chucker like Kobe Bryant.
What do you folks think about the Trae Young nutmeg stuff? Is it stupid of him or is over sensitive to get pissed about it?
There was no reason for Trae to do that other than to showboat and embarrass Ariza, and at his size, I’d advise against it. It wasn’t like a pass to a cutter or anything. I like when veteran players put the kids in their place. Can you imagine what Oak would have done to him?
So when Rose signs Melo is he going to play PF or SF? lmao
>Maybe the Celts better trade him and a #1 for Brandon Clarke while they can before he devolves into an overpaid inefficient chucker like Kobe Bryant.<
lmao
I would love to have Tatum on this roster but that doesn’t mean he’s earning the max contract that the pundits think he’s worth.
I have no problem with Trae pulling that on Ariza. This isn’t baseball with the bullshit unwritten rules. It’s not like he teabagged the guy.
duh ok boomer porzingis n tatum suck pointzz not wurf max look out fr wikid reversion lamf clarke n mitch 4eva yo
Yeah, zero issues for me too. Trae did a basketball move, it’s not like the game was over or anything, he was playing basketball, if Ariza can’t handle being embarrassed on the court by a young star he shouldn’t be playing. Spectators want to watch moves like the one Trae pulled, it makes the game more entertaining, and well, he got a flagrant for his team with it so it really worked.
Ariza has the right to feel disrespected, but to flagrant him like that for me is not showing toughness, it’s being a sore loser. Stop him on the court next time so your team isn’t down by 15 in the 3rd and then you can talk shit. I won’t go against a creative young star showing off because a random vet is offended, basketball as entertainment is made better because of confident / borderline cocky stars like Young.
The old Knicks team would have hammered him but they wouldn’t be losing to a bottom 3 team in the league by 15 in the first place.
Porzingis this afternoon
38 points on 25 shots
6 for 14 from 3
13 rebounds
4 assists
5 blocks
Brunson and Doncic both out.
This is getting painful.
And to think Phil Jackson wanted to trade the guy! What an idiot.
I have bad news for you regarding future content from this poster
To Adam Silver>
After the All star game change i came up with one more idea for a more competitive NBA:
The only player who deserves to get the max is the MVP.
All the others should get less and they should get paid according to their stats.
And they should get paid after the played games and not by contracts prior to the season.
And the worst ones statistically should be humiliated publicly and sent to Europe and China by ship.
The most ridiculous one should be sent to Siberia by train.
More competitive & more appropriate to the world economic crisis i think.
Translation: I have a massive boner
KP…
Well Shake Milton scored 39 on the Clippers, so Shake > Kristaps is the lesson I’ve learned today.
Lakers/Pellicans is a lot of fun but kind of sloppy
zion really stinks on defense
The love of the statfreaks for per36/per82/perwholecareer wonders like Kent Bazemore or Alen Crabbe and their derogation of allstar caliber players is perplexing, entertaining, bizarro and grotesque.
I LOVE IT ! (Ala Frank Drebin)
Zion just went through Kuzma like he wasn’t there on the offensive end though.
And then Lebron and his neon shoes hit a 30 footer.
I am entertained.
That was not really a “basketball move” that Trae pulled. Any decent NBA guard can do that same shit a dozen times a game, but they don’t except in rare instances when it makes sense. He gained no advantage with the move and only did it to showboat and embarrass. I’m definitely old-school when it comes to that shit, even in pick-up games at age 61. Trae will have his comeuppance if he keeps pulling that nonsense.
Can anyone translate?
Zion is a lot different than I expected him to be. Long road yet and he is clearly a star. But not really loving NBA Zion like I thought I would.
And then he smashes home a ridiculous alley oop. Totally sick.
I did love that.
The rebounding has been a bit weird with Zion, he’s not been the rebounder he was in college in that regard, but the efficient scoring is just so amazing. He’s got 23 on 11 shots and 6 free throws right now against the Lakers, who are without AD but are still the Lakers. It’s obvious that he’s still a rookie in some aspects of the game, defense, the turnovers, etc, but the scoring being so high level already is incredibly impressive.
In which dialect ?
He’s a weird player and we can have a legitimate debate about how good he is, but man I love watching Lonzo
Dude, this is a stats-based blog. Go to one of the other shittier Knicks blogs if you want to talk about how important team spirit and the eye test are. We don’t really do that here. The Knicks reddit board might be a better fit for you.
Zion gets a whistle that would make any veteran jealous. Not going for a heel turn here but he gets calls most rookies never get.
I wish he was a dominant center so we could call him Shake Shaq.
Chill out man. I know.
I’m mostly here for the humour.
No need to feel threatened or embarrassed.
Turns out Josh Hart can’t guard Lebron James?
I’m not threatened or embarrassed, you’re just kind of on the verge of trolling here.
What can i say ?
I’m a knicks fan man!
You know the feeling too.
But maybe also you don’t have to be so damn serious about your pride ego or your stat predictions that went wrong….shit happens from time to time….
Have fun with it
Stat predictions about Allan Crabbe and Kent Bazemore?
Iremise!
If my memory ain’t fukin with me i remember many propositions in here for Crabbe and Bazemore as hidden gems signings.
If Im wrong mea culpa….
lol
Iremos eimai !
35/7 for Zion on 12/16 shooting, 11/13 FTs… we would be freaking out if it was any other rookie doing that, but for Zion it already feels… kinda expected.
NBA is really incredible right now – weird that the ratings are down. Lebron is in LA doing Lebron things, Luka is the next supernova star, Zion is just a machine, Giannis is averaging like 100 points per 36 min on a team that’s so good that he only needs to play like 28 minutes for them to win by 15. And yet the best highlights on any given night might be a guy with the physique of a truck driver — Jokic is really such an amazing passer. That laser he threw last night off the defensive rebound might be the most amazing play I’ve seen in a really long time.
With KP’s recent play he’s really *checks notes* slightly above his career averages.
I really think it’s a format issue. As much as I agree with you that the quality of the product is as good as it has ever been, the games just feel sort of…inessential in a big picture way. The playoff picture has been largely sorted out for a couple months now (with only the race for the 8th seed in the west and some jockeying for seeding remaining), the MVP race is basically settled; what are the biggest current NBA stories that feel really fresh? Rockets small-ball experiment? Zion’s amazing debut? There’s still like 25% of the season remaining and it seems like we’re already basically in “waiting for the playoffs to start” mode. In this media environment where everyone (at least if you’re anything like me) has 25 different things they’ve been meaning to watch if they can just find the time, that lack of a real hook to draw viewers in strikes me as a big, big problem. I don’t know if a midseason tournament is the answer but I do think they need to find some way to make it so that the season doesn’t feel 35 games too long.
Unless I’m missing something, ratings are down only because China boycott
Woj:
So, the last time a Knicks executive spoke to the press will, for the moment, remain that hostage video that Dolan forced Mills and Perry to make early in the season, pre-Fiz firing. This team…
I’ve been feeling better about Leon Rose recently or maybe its just the team optimist in me always trying to be hopeful.
Here’s the letter Rose sent to season ticket holders in lieu of a presser:
https://twitter.com/NBADraftWass/status/1234495370996088833
It’s an empty platitude, but this one part has me feeling ever so vaguely optimistic:
How worried should we be on a scale of 1-Isiah?
Would have been nice for him to give a presser if only so he can be asked about philosophy. He’s had nearly a month to think about stuff, so even if he doesn’t have specifics he can give us the overall plan.
but overall I like the idea that he’s going to try and do things quietly and not try to come in like a white knight
I’ve read that in recent presidential election years, ratings go down. That makes sense to me… People only have so much time, and sports and politics do have a lot in common especially nowadays… everyone’s got a team that they root for and argue in support of no matter the facts. TV puts shouting talking heads up on the screen together to debate the merits of each candidate. There’s even analytics for both.
Seriously? Wow. This isn’t really even entirely a “stats-based blog,” whatever that means — it routinely rejects or ignores plus-minus and lineup data.
And even a stats-based blog would be entirely open to ensuring that stats were used properly, including in context.
meanwhile, that RJ stepback 3 to close out the first half against the bulls was so money. If he can somehow make that even at 35%…. everything changes for him.
Is it just me or does RJ look a little peppier/bouncier lately? He may not be fast in a Westbrook way, but he really does have great change of direction skills in terms of his stepback and spins.
I just want an executive who holds press conferences occasionally is that so wrong
I think the ratings being down are also in part because the NBA loaded up the early schedule with Warriors and Pelicans games
He needs to do like 500 of those a day in the summer.
Can I say that he obviously has the athletic capability to make that move a very useful part of his repertoire … or is that an outlaw example of … gasp! … the “eye test”?
I’m all for that. I’m not really so down with “hurr durr yoo stat guys are so dum, yoo wanted Bazemore hurr durr hahaha I’m sooo funny” because it just sort of dumbs the whole place down.
Take it easy boy.
Noone called you dum.
Teasing is part of the game.
You don’t have to take everything seriously or be correct every fkn time !