2020-21 Game Thread: Knicks @ Milwaukee Bucks’ White Flag

We have seen earlier this season that some of the top NBA teams are basically just taking schedule losses where they find reasons to rest all of their top guys and luckily for the Knicks, that’s precisely what the Bucks are doing tonight, finding “injuries” for almost their entire rotation, including four of their five starters.

This was a huge break for the Knicks. The ‘Bockers hadn’t beaten a team that currently has a winning record since the middle of February and hadn’t beaten a team with a winning record at the time they played them since the first week of February, so this not only gives them an easy opportunity to fix that stat, it will also put them two games over .500 for the first time since they were 17-15 in 2017-18 (actually, as I write that, that really isn’t that far off from 24-22, but still).

What a great stroke of luck for the Knicks.

Let’s go accept the Bucks’ gift, Knicks!

158 replies on “2020-21 Game Thread: Knicks @ Milwaukee Bucks’ White Flag”

Reposting from last thread:

I’m sorry for them but keeping Payne and Bryant is a huge win,
this coaching staff is doing a great job and it’s really nice to keep’em together.

Bucks in Pop’s load management mode?

Let’s go Knicks!!!

Bucks in Pop’s load management mode?

Bud is taking Pop’s load management and bringing it to a whole other level.

@NY_KnicksPR
Injury Update: Reggie Bullock (sprained right ankle) and Julius Randle (contused right thigh) are out. Nerlens Noel, Elfrid Payton and Derrick Rose are available for tonight’s game at Milwaukee.

Randle is OUT. Given how many Bucks are sitting, this is probably still a very winnable game. I wonder if this’ll finally give Obi a chance to shine. A guy can dream, can’t he?

Please be careful with Randle, don’t force him back too soon. Let Obi get some run with the starters and that’s it.

Alan: Randle is OUT. Given how many Bucks are sitting, this is probably still a very winnable game. I wonder if this’ll finally give Obi a chance to shine. A guy can dream, can’t he?

This really looks like a chance for him to do “something” positive, albeit against the Bucks’ C-lineup, he’s scoreless in the last 6 games, it’s time to wake up… or maybe we’ll have a Knox’s bombing party?

Obi has a much better chance to shine with Rose playing because the pace will pick up a little and Rose looks to get the ball to Obi is better spots. This may be his chance to have a breakout game if Thibs plays him.

You guys are more optimistic than I am. My experience is good teams still play well even with their supposed key players out.

The buyout market and these schedule losses kinda turn the association into a joke.

E, all merc’d out:
The buyout market and these schedule losses kinda turn the association into a joke.

It’s kind of unconfortable, looks a little less “serious” right?
(OKC announced they put Horford on ice for the rest of the year, they’ll search for a trade in the summer).

I’m sure as soon as Thibs saw what the Bucks were doing, even he had to say, “Okay, this is the perfect game to give Randle off.”

It’ll be fascinating seeing the Knicks playing without Randle.

you do not want to be the knicks video guy right now when when thibs busts in with a face full of shaving cream, screaming for 90 minutes of mamadi diakite defending the spain pick and roll

This will forever be known as the Obi Toppin game (he says with no basis in reality)

d-mar:
This will forever be known as the

the Cronin jinx game!

Randle was probably feeling good until he wrote that intro.

I really hope RJ Barrett doesn’t break my heart tonight. He and Quickley have to make me a proud fan tonight.

Payton, Burks, RJ, Taj, Mitch

Merrill, Toupane, Thanassis Antetokounmpo, Nwora, Lopez

They’re basically playing their G-League team,
please when the game’s on remember it before praising Payton’s revenge game or Toppin’s explosions…

We are obliged to win this game, averything else will be a shame…

The Glass Half Rebuilt:
I really hope RJ Barrett doesn’t break my heart tonight. He and Quickley have to make me a proud fan tonight.

Congrats Glass, your new profile pic is awesome! 😉

why is this night unlike other nights…on this night a geriatric starts for knicks

Thanks Max and Glass. I guess it won’t be the Toppin game tonight

Merrill played with Queta at Utah State last year and the year before, he can light it up from 3P land, so better be careful (unless the invisible 6th man decides to show up again)

This (game) better be good
(Millhouse playing Waterworld Video Game)

cybersoze: Congrats Glass, your new profile pic is awesome! 😉

I’ve always been all in on the RJ Barrett train, but now I think it’s time he gets his own avatar on KnickerBlogger. Thanks for the kind words!

Payton, Burks, Barrett, Gibson, and Robinson. Otherwise known as the Woodson Five

the old man and no threes

Also, Woj says Drummond is close to signing and LAL is the frontrunner. Here’s a list of guys the Celtics almost signed/traded for in the last 5 years:

Kevin Durant
Kawhi Leonard
Paul George
Myles Turner
Anthony Davis
Nikola Vucevic
Aaron Gordon
Andre Drummond

I’m sure I missed a few guys, but I’m pretty content with this list.

Eye test says Noel is really having a terrific season for us. Even that last sequence. Short jumper -> block. You kind of expect it now.

Damn Mitch. Damn. Maybe the Knicks up the ante on Drummond now?

BigBlueAL: Guorgi Dieng c’mon down.

For the vet min, that’s an OK solution. Anything except throw money at Drummond, please.

If the Knicks can get Drummond using only this year’s cap space, they should sign him. Mitch is done for the season (my supposition, based on the usual 8 weeks for a weight-bearing fracture).

oh that does suck…would have liked to see mitch keep get better out on the floor…

Dieng started all 82 games at PF in Thibs’ first year in Minnie,
then become the backup C,
we know his feticism for former players, so be ready…

Oh, Nwora, didn’t read it. I had him for our 2nd RP this last draft (along with Tre Jones and Tyler Bey), and he seems to have a nice stroke

I made fun of Noel’s rebound just then and I guess because of Mitch’s injury the blog put it in moderation.

cybersoze:
Oh, Nwora, didn’t read it. I had him for our 2nd RP this last draft (along with Tre Jones and Tyler Bey), and he seems to have a nice stroke

No doubt.

I have a comment in moderation too,
maybe because I used a particular word to define Thibs’ affection for his former players…

Dieng started all 82 games (at PF!) in Thibs’ first year in Minnie, so be ready…

so 4 starters out for the bucks and 3 starters (now) out for the knicks…things may not go our way…should stay a close game…it’ll be interesting to how they finish tonight: rose, burks, RJ, taj and noel…

I have to think Drummond isn’t a horrible option at this point, but I’d rather Noel take the lions share of minutes. Doubt Drummond is going to be happy with that.

Guys, Drummond only comes here if we throw money at him. Anyone wants that? For the min until the end of the season, he’ll just go to the Lakers or Celtics to try win a ring.

I have no problem in theory throwing money at Drummond for the rest of this year, what else are we going to do with the cap space? Would rather sign a low-profile guy though.

The Knicks have $15m in salary cap that is unused. They cannot carry it over to next year. Three choices: 1. Use it on waived players (like Drummond or Dieng), 2. Use it at the draft to take on bad contracts that carry over to next year, 3. Let it go to waste.

I choose option 1.

Z-man: I have no problem in theory throwing money at Drummond for the rest of this year, what else are we going to do with the cap space? Would rather sign a low-profile guy though.

Does he get the money from this year, or it’s just the Cavs that save money?

cybersoze: Does he get the money from this year, or it’s just the Cavs that save money?

He stays on the Cavs cap for his full salary and he would be on our cap for anything we pay him.

Ok so forgetting about Mitch for the moment they better win this game, losing to these players would be embarrassing even without Randle.

Z-man: He stays on the Cavs cap for his full salary and he would be on our cap for anything we pay him.

Oh, ok. Then i’m in for the Drummond signing until the end of the season.

Throw money at Drummond.

Not the right time, but as much as I love Mitch, he is very fragile. It may be time to reconsider his long-term status.

Thanasis revenge game.

this really sucks.

i wonder if okc could now workout a buyout with horford without any set off rights. horford could give up the guarantee $$ from his final year in 22-23, which is only guaranteed at $14.5m. the knicks can make him good for part of that by using the pro-rated amount of their cap space for this year.

cybersoze: What’s happening? I thought Thanasis was a scrub! :O

Sorry, Knew Your Nicks, it wasn’t my intention to insult the glorious basketball players from Greece 😉

cybersoze: I thought he was playing well today

He scored.
He also had no idea where to be on the floor and looked lost at times.

Obi played well, but I think Knox is having a fine shift right here. Playing smart and looking solid on D.

I lost 2 of my favorite NY fantasy players today: Mitch and Voit.
Just whining. I should be allowed.

d-mar:
This game changed Quickley

Haha.

Tiny lineup for us. Lopez looks like twice Noel’s size.

DRed: So how did Mitch break his foot?

He jumped and stealed a pass to Lopez, and when he hit the floor his foot landed on Lopez foot.

Also how the FUCK did Thibs not call a timeout or order a foul when Mitch was down and then limping to close out on a three? What the actual fuck is wrong with his brain?

cybersoze: I wanted a good game, but this wasn’t what i was thinking about

I take it back, this was exactly what i was thinking about 😀

Looking at the box score I’m kinda glad I didn’t watch this one lol

Who the hell is Moses Brown? 19 points and 20 boards in one half for OKC against the Celtics.

The Honorable Cock Jowles:
Also how the FUCK did Thibs not call a timeout or order a foul when Mitch was down and then limping to close out on a three? What the actual fuck is wrong with his brain?

When that happened i had a feeling of deja vu, did Thibs had a similar moment this season?

We were lucky on the Lopez call + technical and barely survived what could have been the “real most devastating loss of the year”… 🙂

Mitch’s injury ruins the day and there aren’t many good things to say about the game,
we “got the job done” (as NYPR tweeted right now).

Very touching and human moment with Rose not knowing of Mitch’s injury until Breen told him…

Ha Max I was gonna write that when the Bucks tied it in the 4th! Whatever take the win and get the hell out of Milwaukee.

ess-dog:
Who the hell is Moses Brown? 19 points and 20 boards in one half for OKC against the Celtics.

He’s one of the reasons why OKC freezes Horford from now on, they want Brown (and Roby) to play more.

Max: We were lucky on the Lopez call + technical and barely survived what could have been the “real most devastating loss of the year”… 🙂

LOL! I think “The most devastating L of the year” is like those horror movies from the 80s – Friday 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street – it keeps getting sequel after sequel. 😛 But not tonight. 😉

The Bucks were, like, “Here you go, a gift” and the Knicks were like, “Hmmmm…no thank you.”

But at least they did get the win in the end.

#Sorry, Knew Your Nicks, it wasn’t my intention to insult the glorious basketball players from Greece ;)#

🙂
Once again that the Knicks latest pick overshadows the early one and shows flashes of grandeur! ;-P

Dieng is a pretty good underrated player, signing him would be a nice move.

The Mitch news suck, for sure.

Dieng is not a bad idea. He added the 3-point shot to his game and can reasonably stretch the floor a bit more. Not bad defensively and, when in Minny, he was a fierce rebounder. Plus he’s familiar to Thibs, Taj and D-Rose. If not Drummond, why not him?

Dewayne Dedmon is another option, but I don’t know his current situation. Many people were suprised he wasn’t signed during free agency.

So Mitch is probably out for the reminder of the regular season, no way he comes back before something like 2 months… if we do get to the playoffs there’s a chance he’ll be there at least. This sucks so much, I fear these injuries are stunting his growth so much, just as we have to make a decision on his extension next season.

Dieng makes a lot of sense here. He knows Thib’s system and adds some floor stretching to the position.

obviously not a pretty win, and a real downer about Mitch.

I have a hard time getting too upset about the aesthetics of the win though. Jordan Nwora is a good shooter, but some of those shots were heavily contested that he was hitting. Thanasis hitting 4/5 with people draped all over him, etc. Plus all these 2nd stringers on the Bucks playing this game like it’s game 7. (I do like that Diakite guy – he looks like he has some talent!)

Also, when we talk about playing “injury decimated” teams, we rarely take into account our own injuries. Playing without 2 starters (and having another go out in the first few minutes) is a big deal – it forces all kinds of lineup combinations that are unexpected and unpracticed. Then add in the zone for the whole game – it’s not that surprising.

btw put me down for Gorgui Dieng. Assuming Drummond goes to the Lakers, my assumption is the major competition is going to be the Celtics, who have just the BAE left to give (and are also in the luxury tax, so it’ll cost them 1.5x the salary in luxury cap $ too, although I’m not sure how much that actually is for a late season signing with the break teams are getting on the tax this pandemic year). We can certainly offer way more than the Celtics.

That said, are we looking for a 1st big, 2nd big, or 3rd big? Would be hard to sit Taj and Noel down, so I wonder whether we are looking for a break glass in case of emergency player or what. If it’s a 3rd big, you have to wonder whether Dieng would be up for that (I assume he’d be a second big on the Celts, with Tacko Fall and Luke Kornet being sent to purgatory).

Tell you what – it WOULD be very interesting to see RJ play with a floor spacing 5.

Wonder if we saw the “changing of the guard” from Obi to Knox last night.

No question Obi deserves to sit right now. He will get absolutely torched by the Heat tomorrow night – Spoelstra will go after him mercilessly. Not that Knox is any great shakes on defense, but he’s better than Obi.

Anyone hear anything about Randle? Back on Monday or out longer? And Bullock?

Was also going to write “who the hell is Moses Brown” but I see was-dog beat me to it.

There is a Diakite stan account on Twitter. He cut up the G League and apparently has vastly improved since college.

Other than being a downer last night showed once again that there are often some talented guys at the end of NBA benches.

Zion scored 38 last night against a depleted Mavs team on 20 field goals and 18 fts.

Also, Harrison Barnes hit a heck of a shot to win their game last night.

I am gutted about Mitch.

From a Chinese basketball discussion group “ If Shaq and D-Rose had a baby, it would be Zion”

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