“Jerami Grant (left quadriceps contusion) won’t play on Thursday against the Knicks.”

Wow, what a freakin’ break! If they don’t get to the All-Star break with a winning record now, it would be a huge shock.

First, “almost completely broken my ability to talk about sports with non-data oriented fans.”

Second, “something is lost when … I can take one look at the Knicks’ basketball reference page and know for a fact they’re not making a deep playoff run this year.”

These two points have left me feeling very isolated in my fandom. It’s probably why I keep coming back to this website.

LaMelo averaging an efficient 21-6-7 in 35 minutes per game since taking over the starter job…

And in closely related (sic) news, a warning for those wanting Lonzo as a point guard solution:

“…the arrival of Point Zion has pushed him back into his proper off-ball role, and he’s thriving, averaging just under 17-5-6 while shooting 46 percent from 3-point range on eight attempts a night.”

Of course if Randle stays, and stays in his current point forward role, maybe it is a perfect fit…

If there are any 25-or-younger Knickerbloggers, curious to hear your views…

I’m 27, but I started following the Knicks as a teenager in 2010-2011 (STAT’s first year, if I remember correctly) and started lurking here around the same time. I do find that I’m way more pessimistic about my teams (the Knicks and the Vikings, solid choices by me as a teenager) than other sports fans I know in person, who as a rule tend towards being uncritical homers. I don’t think I’m an expert by any stretch, but I have gleaned enough from here and other data-driven sites that I often find myself mentally poking holes in the usual arguments or claims of the other sports fans I know, so I don’t find those conversations particularly rewarding.

If anything, I think being more data aware has pushed me towards lowering my expectations. I’d love to have either of my teams win a championship, but I also accept that that’s a pretty unlikely outcome and I’m content when they’re competitive. The 2012-2013 season was probably the highwater mark for my sports fandom (with the 2010-2011 season a close second), and while that’s kind of pathetic abstractly I’d also be pretty happy if our current Knickerbockers made it to those modest heights.

Deeefense:
Randle penned a Players Tribune article.

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/reputation-julius-randle-new-york-knicks-basketball-nba

Nice read, thanks for the tip,
the guy just penned himself an extension 🙂

cybersoze: million

Sorry, bad day, late for the discussion…

While not been the scandal that NCAA is, pro sport is still labor exploitment.
LeBron on an open market without salary cap would get much more than his actual contract.

Players are the game, every other thing is structures and ways to make money on the back of other people’s talent…
Or maybe you’d rather watch a Cuban vs. Dolan one on one playoff series?
If owners played to decide championships Charlotte it would be around his tenth consecutive title…

If there are any 25-or-younger Knickerbloggers, curious to hear your views…

I’m newly 26 but will still answer. It’s definitely a good question and I have a lot of thoughts on the matter.

First of all, I think posting here, reading The Athletic and other publications with smart authors, etc. gives you a warped idea of the data-orientation of the average fan. To be sure, all fans hear about analytics more than the fans of yesteryear, but in my anecdotal experience most still don’t particularly care to go beyond the surface level (which I’m not begrudging them for, it’s just an observation).

That leads me to my first observation about the way analytics have altered my sports fandom: I find they’ve almost completely broken my ability to talk about sports with non-data oriented fans. The information asymmetry is just too much to overcome unless I want to feign ignorance about a wide variety of topics. I find myself doing this often in these situations, because who the hell wants to be lectured about what true shooting percentage is at a bar or whatever?

As for my watching experience, perhaps something is lost when you know too much to be able to talk yourself into wildly implausible scenarios involving your favorite team. I can take one look at the Knicks’ basketball reference page and know for a fact they’re not making a deep playoff run this year. At the same time, I do enjoy thinking through the more weedsy aspects of team building and asset management, which are things I wouldn’t really be able to think through without the glut of information available.

I definitely share the concern about how analytics have interacted with labor issues. I find myself talking about the need to “stuff as much value under the cap as possible,” which is a concept that would disgust me in any other context. There’s no great way to resolve this tension other than advocating for abolishing any and all salary restraints in…

Ntilakilla:
The greatest trick CyberSoze ever pulled was convincing the world his Knicks jersey ever existed.

LOLOL

Deeefense:
Randle penned a Players Tribune article.
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/reputation-julius-randle-new-york-knicks-basketball-nba

What a cool article, thanks Strat. He’s really a great guy, i’m rooting for the Knicks to get to the next level with Randle.