From Marc Berman:
It was a hot and humid May afternoon in Memphis.
But at night, nothing is hotter than the Knicks.
The Knicks didn’t have their starting center Nerlens Noel, and Alec Burks was making a return from a long COVID-19 absence, but the Knicks’ freight train rolled a season-high 44-point second quarter en route to a 118-104 blowout of the Grizzlies on Monday at FedExForum.
The hero was backup point guard Derrick Rose, who didn’t just display his MVP form of 10 years ago but looked like he was back at the University of Memphis leading the Tigers to the national championship game.
With some fans wearing his old “23’’ blue college jersey, Rose’s jump shot never looked truer and he hit three driving baskets down the stretch to finish off Memphis and finish with a season-high 25 points.
“Memphis always has a special place in my heart,’’ Rose said.
In a stretch of excellent wins, this was possibly their best win. Well…hmm…this one or the Mavericks one. Anyways, the key thing is that this was an excellent win. Stupid Hawks had to beat the Trailblazers, though, which was a pain in the ass, but still, this win was huge.
166 replies on “NY Post: Red-hot Knicks roll with blowout win over Grizzlies”
The Lakers game suddenly looks less tough than it did a few weeks ago. So I feel confident we can win at least one game in the rest of this trip. But we took care of business when we had to so far. Love this team so much.
I’ll let for you guys the task to get at least 1 win in the next 4. The games out west are very late for me (this one started at 2AM and the next 4 will probably start 3AM), so i only watched the 1st half and sleepwalked in it, but catched the end of the 2nd quarter when Julius took over. Pelle looked better this time, maybe he just needs some games to get into a rythm. DRose is upping his game just in time for the playoffs. Looks like we didn’t peak early in the season as was predicted (based on the game7-all-year strategy) and we’re still an up and coming team. We’re saying there’ll be no easy matchups for us in the playoffs, but i don’t think there’s a single team (well maybe the Nets are the exception) in the East that’ll be glad to get the “privilege” to outduel the Knicks in a playoff series. We’re good, finally.
Started the day laughing. 😀 You go at them, man, they deserve it. 😉
yeah, gets my vote too. super funny 😀
And they’re right 🙂
Props to BigBlueAl here, he jumped aboard the Thibs train even before he was hired, scoffing at any poster who dared question his coaching ability. (you were right on the Raps too!)
Just watched the game, very good win, even more because we were on a b-t-b.
This team is brimming with confidence, everyone is contributing, team chemistry is improving with every game, the coaching staff is doing a wonderful job and the players are all-in.
I’m amazed by the progression in outside shooting’s quality, really outstanding.
Love the team, what a season, what a pleasant surprise…
Our competitors for play-offs/4th place are not backing down, next stop Denver.
Desmond Bane looked awfully good last night. This definitely seems like it was a deep draft for good role player types.
So who’s the bigger surprise this season – Julius Randle or Derrick Rose?
I’m saying this now, before it happens.
Don’t change team expectations. The Knicks have exceeded every goal any sane person might have set for them. The season is a complete, 100%, unadulterated, no caveat success. If they lose every game from here on in, regular season and playoffs, the season was a glorious success. Period.
By next week I am prepared to hear every drive-time talking head saying that “they must win a series”. Fuck them all in advance! There is nothing this team can do to fail. Nothing. We’re enjoying bonus ball. All of us, every single one of us, were sure that we would be scratching for the most ping-pong balls right about now. Who gives a shit about ping-pong balls right now? Any of us?
Congratulations to the Knicks for the winning record and for giving us a season to remember!
Julius Randle. He never came close to what he is doing now before.
Rose is a 32 year old former MVP. I thought he had this in him. BTW, I think he still has 5 good years in him.
Agree 100%, an unmitigated success.
Fuck the media pundits, fuck Vegas’ Odds.
Let’s Go Knicks!
Hey, remember our glorious day as SitcomBlogger? Well, our 100 Best Sitcoms Ever list just went online.
Don’t say I never did anything for you.
Managed to watch the first half before passing out last night.
Was a pretty interesting Randle half – clearly didn’t have his legs in the first part of the game and threw up a bunch of crap from midrange — someone really needs to tell him to keep working for a better shot for either himself or someone else before he goes into these crazy contested 17 footers. He’s falling in love with all these stepbacks etc. But his 3-ball really is the equalizer now – can still create efficient offense if he’s shooting 40% on high volume 3PA. He definitely was having trouble against JJJ (that boy good!) but was able to hit some 3s to keep the offense chugging.
Derrick Rose, man.
His jumper looks extremely comfortable right now. Derrick Rose as a high 30s% 3 point shooter and adding on his ever-present burst and crazy floater game — that dude is good. I think Thibs has his minutes just right also. I would love to see him and Randle in PNR more often with Randle as the roller. would unlock some easier buckets for Randle or enable his passing in the short roll situation a la Draymond.
by the way – does anyone at all want to play the Wizards in the first round? Not me. Last 15 games they are tied with us for best record in the league (12-3) and have the #4 net rating (+6.6). I didn’t see any of the game last night, but just looking at the box score, you have to imagine this is the best Westbrook — 8 FGA, zero 3PA, 6 of the 8 shots right around the basket. 24 assists and 21 rebounds seems good? He has been really really good. They have an outside shot at the 8 spot I think, and could really help us out in their b2b against the Hawks.
Thanks Alan… now the debate could really start! 🙂
Completely agree.
Did I think we would get a rootable team in what’s left of my lifetime? Maybe. Did I think we would get a winning team? Maybe. I never thought we would get both. I’m so grateful to the bball gods.
Your question makes sense as DRose is also a big surprise, but without a single doubt i say it’s Julius. What a terrific season. I just hope this is the new Julius for the next 6 to 8 years and not some outlier season a la Victor Oladipo.
I’m with you, no matter what happens this season is a resounding success. But having reached so high in the standings, to get back to the play-in would leave a bittersweet taste.
That WSJ piece on Randle nicely puts his season into perspective, I think:
So if no one has ever gotten so much better so quickly, then what, if anything, can we look at as precedence for whether we should expect regression next year? The work Randle put into his shot over the long long offseason has been well documented. So I’d like to believe he can remain in this vicinity. Him becoming such a threat from 3 is huge for the rest of his game, and for our offense.
He also went from 73% to 81% on FT with slightly higher volume (from 5.5 to 6 per game).
If regression will come next year I still expect him to be closer to a league average 3PT shooter than at his 2019-2020 form.
Well, ‘no precedence’ means just that. There’s no measuring stick. He’ll either get better, stay the same, or get worse. My deep cynicism in general, coupled with huge respect for his work ethic, and with a dash of other teams better preparing for him next year, makes me suspect he might regress a bit, but not a lot. But what do I know…
Guys, people out there are only focusing on Randle’s shooting numbers, but he has become a good defender (i also didn’t saw this coming) and even more important he has become a very good facilitator. To illustrate more this last part, there’s 45 games this season where Julius was shooting well (20+) and 19 where he was shooting poorly (19-), in the former set of games he averaged 5.3 assists and in the latter he averaged 7.4 (that’s 2.1 more assists per game). I think the great achievement is that he’s improved at a lot of skills, not just shooting. If he had only improved at shooting he’d be at Vucevic level, and he’s way up than that (there’s people considering him to MVP, which is insane, but being talked about says a lot).
That’s pretty interesting about Randle. I asked that question a few weeks ago with the comment that I couldn’t think of a player who had made a similar leap. Appears no one has which is kind of amazing.
It’s like a slap hitting shortstop jacking 35 home runs all of a sudden.
Got no idea if he can hold it next year, something to argue about all offseason.
And yes, he has improved on a number of fronts. But it’s the threes that have really unlocked his offensive game.
Boy, I hope this isn’t his Brady Anderson season.
The closest comparison they have to Randle is Joe Johnson’s 3pt% jump between 03-04 and 04-05 (a contract year, go figure) when he went from .303 to .478 3pt shooting.
Yes, he regressed from that at points and saw variability across the following years, but Johnson did enter a different tier after that year (.292, .273, .366. 303 to rates like .381, .388, .401, .371 with a few worse years mixed in there.)
So I guess we can expect Randle to have years worse than .427, but it is unlikely he will regress to his previous percentages. He might even dip down as low as the .360s in the future, but overall, his shooting change seems to be for real.
Rose was pretty good last year. So while it’s a bit surprising he is playing better at 32 than he was at 31 it’s not shocking. Randle’s been a good NBA player before, but what’s shocking is the way he’s playing so well. He’s scored well (even more efficiently) at high usage before, playing fewer minutes and scoring mostly inside. Randle has significantly improved his playmaking, while playing a new role, while going from being a bad 3 point shooter to a terrific one.
I think two things point towards it being likely Randle is now a good 3 point shooter. His shooting has also improved from everywhere else, and up until this point in his career he’s been a pretty good shooter from everywhere but 3 point territory. I’m not sure he’ll shoot this well ever again, but that’s alright. He could become a more efficient scorer inside the arc if we found someone else to share some of team offensive creation burden.
“So who’s the bigger surprise this season – Julius Randle or Derrick Rose?”
I kind of asked this as a rhetorical question, as we all know Julius’ leap has been mind boggling.
But the thing I find the most surprising is Rose’s 3 point shooting. He’s got kind of an ugly flat jump shot, and up until recently we would all cringe any time he attempted a shot over 5 feet. But somehow they’re all going in now.
I think Randle’s 3pt shooting is real. He worked his ass off during the extended break. Maybe he won’t shoot quite this high again but I don’t think he’s going to drop back to bad 3 pt shooting ever again. And the thing is, Randle can still get better. I mean, at this point its tweaking around the edges. He’s not going to have another massive jump again. But he could still get his assists up a bit more, make better reads, etc.
Biggest surprises for this season in order.
1. RANDLE. No one saw this coming. Not even team optimists like me who thought he could be better than he was last year.
2. RJ Battett’s shooting improvement. Like Randle, I definitely thought he would be better and thought people were way to quick to write him off. But I did not see him becoming such a good 3 point shooter and vastly improving his FT percentage so quickly in one off season. His theoretical ceiling is now perrenial all-star, not good rotation player and that is huge for us.
3. IQ being one of the top rookies in the league. Seriously, in a redraft he probably goes top 5, right? He’s had his ups and downs like all rookies but that extra firepower off the bench and 3 point shooting was a godsend especially early in the season before the rest of the team started shooting 3’s so well.
4. ROSE. I mean, he’s not 10 years ago MVP uber athletic Rose anymore but he’s old man, savvy vet who is sneaky good, still has some moves and is way smarter. Some of his passes have been so slick. Dude is playing like an all-star right now. To think we got him for DSJ and a second rounder.
5. Just the overall positive vibes from the whole team top to bottom. Even all of the above good things would not add up to how well this team has played as the season has progressed if the rest of the role players weren’t all buying in. There is just such a TEAM mentality with this squad and its so nice to see.
3. RJ Barrett’s improvement.
I “suspect” part of the reason Rose is playing so well is that he’s happy to be with Thibs again, Thibs trusts him and allows him to do his thing, and he seems just generally happier and in a better place mentally/emotionally than when he was in NY the first time. In interviews he seems like a happy and positive person.
I wouldn’t assume that randle’s shooting won’t regress…. his shooting ability could stay the same but he could take a lot more pullup 3s to tank his 3pt shooting… this is sort of how lillard who is a stupendous shooter only cracked 40% on 3s once in his career because of his insane volume…
and once the fans come back we should see shooting come down across the league… i think our team has benefited a lot from that also… but it seems that 3pt shooting is up from the bubble going into this year and one theory is that it’s easy to shoot in empty arenas….
in any case… i think we can expect randle’s 3pt shooting to go down based on a lot of factors to the point that it’s unrealistic to expect that he shoots 42% next year… it’s just a matter of how much it goes down and whether or not his 2pt shooting can come up enough to compensate….
There’s more, even if they’re less surprising, but still noteworthy.
Noel being as good as he’s been (butter stumps notwithstanding).
Burks shooting the lights out (not that surprising, but even better than I’d expected) and being an almost-adequate backup point guard (never in a million years…).
Bullock being the best possible version of himself.
MONTHLY DISCLAIMER: I do not hate the Lakers or even really dislike them. But their fans… well, you guys already know.
Speaking of which: LakerLand has not been quite as braggadocious lately. It’s nice to be able to land a few jabs on them for the time being – like posting to my work chat that the Knicks & Lakers have the same record.
My AD calls me to talk biz, but first:
AD “you can’t be posting that stuff [lol]”
ME [snickering childishly] “hey yanno 🙂 ”
AD [tries to clap back] “we’ll see about that play-in game(s)”
ME: “for who? the Lakers?”
We’re up 3 games from the #7 spot in the East. Lakers only up 1 game from #7 in the West. Sweet times!
They better PRAY we don’t beat them at Staples. I don’t care what condition LeBron or his cohorts are in.
And I’ll just throw in the last big surprise left off the list, perhaps because we’ve had it all season long:
The fact that somehow a team of largely cast-off ne’er-do-wells instantaneously and miraculously transformed themselves into a whirling dervish of (mostly) perfectly executed and impenetrable defense.
How about our 3rd string center holding one of the toughest low post centers in the league to 11 points and adding 5 blocks to the mix?
How about our 4th string center getting 3 blocks in 15 minutes?
How about Alec Burks coming back from a long COVID layoff going 4-7 and hitting important shots?
Thanks for the list Alan (I’d been searching it and unable to find it). A few reactions to it:
1) I’m not familiar with a lot of these, so thanks. It comes at a good time, as we just finished the last season of the Mindy Project and need to mine the list for a new 1/2 hr funfest.
2) is Brooklyn Nine Nine really that good.
3) is Atlanta really a sitcom? (It doesn’t have jokes in it. And it has a linear progression from episode to episode).
4) per it’s appearance on a separate list, my wife and I started Community. It is joining a long list of one-and-dones for us. If you say it gets better (much, much better) I will believe you, but I won’t find out for myself.
5) No mIndy Project? (sad face emoji)
6) No Klown?????????
Yeah I mean that is the thing. One or two surprises or even three and its maybe just luck or the personal work the player put in. Randle maybe happens, to some degree, without Thibs and obviously Randle blowing up helps a lot. Although if Fiz was still coaching (I just threw up in my mouth) a lot of Randle’s improvement would be wasted because there’d be no real system in place and players would just be standing around. Randle is able to make those reads and passes partly because the system is there.
Same with RJ and also IQ being a big surprise. All 3 of those things probably could have still happened without Thibs but would another coaching staff be able to capitalize on those surprises and squeeze the most out of them.
But all the other ones. Bullock playing so well. Burks too. The Rose Renaissance, Noel and Taj stepping up when Mitch went down, etc. After awhile, when its one positive surprise after another, you gotta think Thibs and the work ethic he instills, the culture, the system and game planning, etc…is a big reason why.
Biggest no surprise? Elf still being Elf. Frank and Knox still not taking the next step.
Noel being this good isn’t a surprise. He’s pretty much always been good, he just doesn’t score so no one cares.
Eh, I think it still counts. He was good last year as a back up. Stepping into the starter role and still being so good I think counts as a surprise. But maybe a much smaller one than some of the others.
I will be so curious to see what we do with Mitch this off season. I honestly don’t know what the answer is. Do we just keep him for the final year and resign Noel? Do we offer Mitch the contact and let Noel walk? Do we try and keep both long term? There really isn’t a clear right choice there.
Yeah, I left that one out. Taj was always a ground-bound back-up power forward to me, adequate boxer-outer and able to score on offensive rebounds. Consummate professional, good guy to have around in a pinch. Seeing him flying around blocking shots like Mitch is a bit like watching my cat walk up to my laptop and typing out coherent sentences (they’d all be about how she wants me dead, of course…).
hopefully julius takes the extension this summer…helps him with any injury or regression, helps us if his current play remains steady…
For one, I very much would like to continue having 48 minutes of elite rim protection. In theory, it’ll allow even better defense on the perimeter b/c wings can either funnel guys into the middle or not fret much about being beat on penetration into the paint.
Also, the offense – as good as its been – needs to continue to develop new wrinkles and dimensions to it. One such wrinkle is Mitch’s hands allowing for lob threats that defenses have to account for.
Saw this tweet. Is this true?
https://twitter.com/zachkram/status/1389203087131242496
The top 5 most efficient offenses in NBA history, and 7 of the top 8, are all playing this season. Offense is out of control!
1. 2021 Nets
2. 2021 Clippers
3. 2021 Nuggets
4. 2021 Jazz
5. 2021 Blazers
6. 2020 Mavericks
7. 2021 Bucks
8. 2021 Suns
a good Knicks team is so powerful that I actually clicked on a stephen a. smith link. and you know what else? i enjoyed it, too!!
http://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/31388457
Mitch vs Noel — and I do believe it is an either/or, because I doubt Noel wants to return as a backup — comes down to two main factors: 1)How robust the free agent market is for Noel, and thus how much it would cost us to match/beat offers he gets elsewhere, and 2)What Mitch’s trade value is as part of a package to acquire a star-level player. If Noel’s price is reasonable, and if we can then use Mitch to bring in someone to share the load with Randle, then I’d probably do that. If Noel is in huge demand, and/or if the league is skeptical about Mitch coming off the injury, then let Noel go, see about a reasonable Mitch extension, and bring back Taj and Pelle as the backups.
He won’t. It would be malpractice by his agent to let him do it at this point. The way the CBA works, the most the Knicks can offer him as an extension this summer is, I believe, 4 years for $106 million total. If he plays out the current deal, he can do so much better than that the following year. He has definitely played his way into a max deal this season.
I think people are sleeping on how good Rose has been the last two years. He put up 3.2 in Minnesota and then a 3.9 OBPM in Detroit- he’d have had a case for 6th man of the year if the Detroit had been any good. He’s figured out how to play without elite athleticism and just as importantly, realized that he’s more of a role player now than the main man- not everybody (especially former MVP’s) can make that switch.
On Randle: When he slumped after the all-star break (.516 TS and a drop from 4.2 to 3.7 BPM between the break and the winning streak ) it looked like a regression to the mean but he’s bounced right back. I don’t think he’s got a ton of room for improvement- cutting his turnovers seems the most likely way for him to improve- he’s been at 11.2 TO% during the streak- if he could keep his numbers there without losing too much in the way of assists that would make for a nice jump in BPM (and would make up for a modest drop in 3 pt. %). Still not enough to be absolutely top tier but definitely a guy to build around.
Yes. Makes me incredibly happy each week.
It has plenty of jokes, just not the setup/punchline style of a Friends or Big Bang Theory. The barbershop episode is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
I found Mindy funny parts of the time, frustrating at others. In general, I think Mindy Kaling has a tendency to sell out her characters in service of jokes, and that wears on me after a while.
I don’t know what that is.
I think Mitch vs Noel is a secondary decision.
The primary goal this offseason is going to be acquiring elite talent via the trade market and/or free agency.
Having Mitch, Noel, and Taj is a luxury. If we can afford it, great. But if we do add some elite talent and have to save money elsewhere, Noel’s gonna be cut bc we can get by with Mitch & Taj.
Side note, if you’re into gambling:
this is a great team to bet on right now. I didn’t realize how good we actually were until the Dallas game. I was still hesitant until after the Hawks game. I’ve bet every game since.
Oddsmakers still don’t seem to know how good we are. We got 3.5 points last night against Memphis, which I thought was crazy. We’re getting 6 points in Denver, which I will happily take.
Stop waiting for the other shoe to drop. This team keeps getting better, not worse. It has the statistical profile of a team that will maintain the 4 seed, win a round, and could realistically knock off a top seed and make the conf final.
Side note, if you’re into gambling:
Alan, I’m very curious to hear your thoughts on Succession. My wife and I are 4 episodes in and are seriously thinking of bagging it. It’s a constant parade of incredibly unlikable and soulless people, each one more despicable than the next. My wife said it almost makes her nauseous watching it.
Is it worth staying with it?
D-Mar, I am the one critic who is not head over heels for Succession. At some point, I will give the second season a try, but I do not blame you for bailing.
Rose, IQ, & Burks off the bench can put up a lot of points in a hurry. Gotta feel good about that trio. Benches matter less in the postseason, but that trio is better than a lot of our starting lineups of the last 20 years.
Even a broken clock is correct twice a day!
***6) No Klown?????????
I don’t know what that is.***
I feel like I just stumped the guy at the carnival who can guess anyone’s age, woohoo!
(Klown is a Danish language Curb Your Enthusiasm style (i.e. rip off) that is pure gold. They nail the tone and the humor, but because it’s a foreign culture with a different set of manners and mores, it is both hilarious and fascinating).
As for the other stuff, I get what you’re saying about Mindy, but it totally works for me because I, in my real life, totally sacrifice my own character whenever a good joke arises (much to the chagrin of my wife and kids). I think Mindy might do for me what Brooklyn Nine Nine does for you:)
I did not like Succession until about episode 5, but once it clicked in my mind, it joined the pantheon of great TV for me. And I don’t mean to say “it gets better!” but more like the world sort of begins to make more sense and the relationships feel less one-dimensional due to spending more time with each character.
One thing is very clear to me: Jeremy Strong (Kendall) gives one of the best performances I’ve seen committed to film. I will give no spoilers but there are some moments where his physical acting nearly brought me to tears. An incredible character, one of those roles like Walter White or Tony Soprano or Don Draper that must feel like manna from heaven to a talented actor. There are some moments between Shiv and Tom that are similarly sublime.
The characters are largely detestable but become more well-rounded over time — I found it somehow less soul-crushing than the last season of Veep, which was almost unbearable in its savageness (which was the point, and I appreciated it for not lobbing a shitty redemption arc for Selina, but it was still tough to slog through for me). The depth of writing in Succession is simply superb. I strongly recommend watching the rest of Season 1.
Randle and Curry were just named East and West players of the month for April.
Yeah, I hate every character in Succession and every episode is just the same group of horrible people having the exact same boring conflicts re-set in different venues each episode. It is a recipe for disaster normally, the kind of show I hate, and I totally tuned out the entire first season while it was on in my room. But then during the last episode of season one I got kind of drawn in and it was 100% because of Jeremy Strong. It is a tour-de-force performance and the fact that he was able to draw me in means he can probably draw anybody in. Not sure what he won for that, but I can’t imagine anybody did more with less. (I guess in that regard he’s the Tom Thibodeau of actors, haha).
One could love or hate Succession, but Jeremy Strong rapping “L to the OG” was a piece of art.
This reminds me of undergrad, namely, “Well, I didn’t finish the book, but I think…”
As Joe Girardi would say, it’s not what you want.
Franz Wagner is super funny, here is his declaration for the draft:
“From a basketball perspective, this is the move for me to make right now. Plus, I mean, if Moe* can play in the league — obviously they’ll take anyone.”
* – he’s refering to older brother Moritz Wagner (now with ORL and formerly with WAS and LAL). 😀
Obi time?
Honestly, Jokic is gonna abuse pretty much any center in the NBA, so which Knick guards him isn’t all that important.
Containing all the other guys is the key.
i oft wonder, among the top ten human vices – where exactly does gambling fit in?
warren buffett stating that robinhood promotes “gambling” in the stock market, is absolutely hilarious…yeah man, go get that: draft kings/bovada/fan duel/poker stars account now instead – stay away from “real” investors…ha, fuck you warren…
for me personally, losing sticks with me much harder and longer than winning ever has…
but i like understanding the allure of vices which i myself may not be personally in to…to be very honest – i generally do not trust others until i’ve sourced some of their flaws (i almost immediately give a trust base bonus to cigarette smokers)…it just makes life more comfortable to believe we all have something…
So who do we root for tonite in the DAL-MIA game? The Mavs, right? Shit, that sucks.
ha, i’ve been wondering that for that last couple of days 🙂
i settled on miami…i’m still holding out hope the mavs end up 7th or worse and then lose a couple of games…
Updated magic numbers for finishing ahead in the standings:
Hawks: 5
Heat: 6
Celts: 5
Remaining games between these 4 teams
Heat vs. Celts (x2)
Celts vs. Knicks
Only MIA plays tonight (DAL). Tomorrow night has BOS-ORL, PHX-ATL, and NYK-DEN
This is lit, y’all!
Maybe 8th because it’s not on the Seven Deadly Sins! 😀
Hey Max, congrats on Olimpia Milano’s qualification to Euroleague Final Four. 🙂 This year is going superbly for you, basketball-wise. 😉
i think some of the early christian devout and dante nailed it pretty good with their seven (disordered love: lust, gluttony, greed; perverted love: wrath, envy, pride; and deficient love: sloth)…interesting that somewhere along the line melancholy and/or sadness got dropped from the list…actually encouraging that at some point people realized it’s okay to be sad sometimes…
actual behaviors themselves: eating, sex, gambling, violence, alcohol, drugs fall somewhere within those seven…if i had to guess, i’d put gambling somewhere under greed and pride…then again, a lot of vices can probably be attributed to pride…
oh yeah, for those of you in the know – The Bad Batch drops today…
speaking of which, great read al…really enjoyed the list, that must have took a good bit of time and internal (and maybe a little external) wrangling…
interesting the top 10 only has 2 shows from this century in it…i am very sure you’re hearing all kinds of feedback from all over the place reference the list (everyone’s a critic, right) – my only objection would be in not having spongebob in the top 10 to 20 somewhere…
hard to say though, cuz, there’s a few shows in the top 20 i’m not familiar with…still a lot of fun to go through…
Heat missing Jimmy, Mavs missing KP, that’s about even…
I also found Succession heavy-handed and a little difficult to believe for the first few episodes, but like everyone else here I came around and am excited for the third season. There’s a self-awareness to its kind of campiness that won me over, and fully agree with everyone saying Jeremy Strong alone makes it worthwhile.
Beating out Miami for the 4th spot is probably more realistic than Dallas giving us a lottery pick, so this result holding would be for the best.
Looks like all 3 teams will be at 5 after the Heat lose tonight. What’s up with them? Herro and Butler out in a big game like this one?
I think at this point we have so much emotion invested in our Linsanity 2.0 moment that it’s hard to root for anything that might compromise our playoff position. Besides, fuck the Heat.
When you put your money on the wrong Nate…
This remix represents exactly how I feel as a Knick fan this wonderful Spring.
Its funny cause I think it would be awesome to finish 4th or 5th but if they wind up playing Atlanta it would kinda suck because if they lose that series I’d be pretty disappointed and it would be a somewhat bitter ending to an incredible season. I can accept losing to Miami or even Boston because they were clearly supposed to be better than the Knicks this season but even though so was Atlanta I’d look at it as a pretty huge missed opportunity to lose a playoff series to the freaking Atlanta Hawks.
Dunno if what I just said made any sense….
Lonzo Ball went off tonight for 33 points on 7 of 13 shooting from 3. I am telling you all at the risk of being killed for a hot take, this guy feels like he’s on the verge of major leap forward. He had a bad game vs. the Warriors last night, promised he’d show up and blazed Golden State. Some people speculate 3 point percentages will reduce once arenas fill up and that is a concern with such a 3 point reliant scorer, but this current version of him would fit real nice with what we’re doing here.
That’s the concern with a guy as slight as Hali. I foresee a potential career marred by many injuries in his future. Would still have him over Obi, of course, though.
despite nba marketing irony – lonzo hasn’t exactly been an iron man so far in his career…
that sucks about hali though, i really enjoy watching him play…him and fox together is a pretty potent offensive backcourt…
i get what you’re saying big blue, i don’t know though, despite injury issues this season – i think atlanta had a pretty decent roster at the beginning of the season, and got a little better adding lou williams…freaking nate mcmillan though has unfortunately somehow convinced them that they should be good…
Exactly. This is like when the Pelicans fired Monty Williams and got worse. The front office Hubris is to think they got the right players, but the coaching could be improved. Turns out the old coach did a good job with the roster he had.
I would rather lose to any team but Boston, and then the Nets. Losing to the Heat would be tolerable, and the Hawks a bit less so but they are very good when healthy. Philly and Bucks are on another level, so again, tolerable.
Of course, beating Boston in the first round would be as thrilling and sweet as it was in 1990. That game 5 is still one of my very favorite non-championship sporting events since that time.
Atlanta still Atlanta. That team’s never won shit and they’re not about to start now.
The Celtics are a tough matchup for us.
I won’t mind losing to the Nets as long it’s after we’ve beaten the Hawks and Sixers 🙂
Mavs won the Hardaway trade. Doh!
Knicks did beat the Celtics in the first round in 2013 which ended the Celtic careers of Pierce, KG and Doc Rivers. That was pretty sweet, granted would’ve been sweeter if it had been a sweep like it should’ve been instead of an unnecessarily drawn out 6 game series.
Nate McMillan has been a good coach for a long time. He has a 681-597 record over a giant sample, all in competitively limited markets. I didn’t understand why Indy fired him, and I’m not surprised they’re regretting it.
@alsep thanks for writing and posting that list, it was a great read. Was great to see NewsRadio and King of the Hill on there, I haven’t thought about those for some time.
If you’re in the market for shows that could make the cut, I think there were some recent ones that would make my top 100. I was surprised Silicon Valley didn’t make the cut, especially with Big Bang theory on the list. Though your write up for that show made a more compelling case for it than anything I’d seen before.
Ramy is great, but maybe it was too much on the drama side? I also loved High Maintenance but maybe it’s not a sitcom? I feel like Atlanta and Review are also borderline not sitcoms, though they are patently genius.
I would have loved to see Please Like Me, an Australian comedy now on Hulu on the list, but I’m telling myself it was too much mental health dramatic stuff for this list. But it’s definitely in my top 10.
The list also made me realize that some of the funniest tv of recent years hasn’t been sitcoms. Nathan For You, as well as Joe Perra Talks To You and How To with John Wilson have caused some of my most uncontrollable laughter.
I totally get why they belong there but it kind of sucks to see Louie and the Cosby show. Might have been fun to include a couple bonus picks if people choose to boycott those going forward… I also was surprised there was no mention of the Jeffrey Tambor issue with arrested development and Larry Sanders show… was that resolved? Those shows are so great though and I know so many other people’s work went into making them what they are, I respect the way you approached it.
Klovn has been mentioned is a great Danish comedy but it is foreign language making it ineligible by your rules. The French Call My Agent is also a great watch if you are cool with subtitles.
Anyway great work, it was a real pleasure to read.
@alsep I was also surprised that everybody hates Chris wasn’t on the list. I’m not sure if it is still good, but I remember liking it and I feel like it I’ve seen it on lists like this. Did it not hold up, get pushed out, or was it never top 100 level to begin with?
On a similar note, Barry, Martin, and Eastbound & Down. But I get that you have to cut somewhere to get to 100.
holy cow BJ, and I thought I spent a lot of time in front of a screen…
i guess the only real question left is – is Spartacus: Blood and Sand, season 1 the greatest single season of any show ever???
ugh, I’m unaware of the jeffrey tambor situation, I really liked The Larry Sanders Show too…
just read a really good article on tambor: The Cultural Vandalism of Jeffrey Tambor by Matt Zoller Seitz from 2018…
I still get conflicted when: Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough starts playing through some speakers…
Yeah, that team wasn’t as lovable as the 1990 team and we had different expectations…that series felt like a big disappointment even though we won. Fucking JR Smith.
Speaking of which, I think Marcus Smart is going to cost the C’s at some critical moment. He really can’t control his emotions.
Thanks Cyber! 🙂
To be honest, while I have strong, long standing ties with Olimpia (they play at a 20 minutes drive from my home and pre-Covid I used to go to their Euroleague games) my basketball loyalty goes to one of their historical arch rivals, the former Pelle’s team in Varese, a small-market squad with a storied history that now in most years plays only to avoid relegation.
But I’m very happy for them (especially Mr. Armani and coach Messina) and happy to have an italian team in the Final Four, albeit an underdog one, after many years.
I just looked it up. While the Knicks have beaten the Nuggets from time to time at MSG in recent years, the last time we beat them in Denver was November of 2006, behind 35 points from Jamal Crawford, who started alongside Marbury, Channing Frye, Quentin Richardson, and Eddie Curry. Kelvin Cato played three minutes for us in that game, and I have zero memory of Kelvin Cato ever having been a Knick.
Even with their many injuries, this is gonna be a tough one. If Taj and company can somehow slow down Jokic — and/or if the rest of our defense can turn the Nuggets into enough of a one-man show for us to win — that would be really something.
btw, that was the Denver game before the infamous Melo brawl game. I had forgotten JR Smith went nuts in that game too.
Was that the game that we won with Crawford’s crazy buzzer shot?
Kelvin Cato used to date a close friend of mine when they both lived in Houston and he actually visited my class in the Bronx where he gave away a basketball autographed by the very team you refer to in your post. (Their tempestuous relationship ended, when she told Kelvin she thought Dwight Howard was hot and wanted an intro)
Not that Thibs would concede a game, but if Pelle and Noel are both out tonight, let Obi and Knox guard Jokic.
Brutal. Just brutal.
I think so. One of the most stunning sequence of plays I’ve ever seen from a Knick.
For those who haven’t seen the rookie review on Ringer, I found this interesting (and hopeful):
Toppin’s averaging about 15 points and nine rebounds per 36 minutes since the trade deadline when he shares the floor with Rose, and lineups featuring the no. 8 pick and the former MVP have outscored opponents by 86 points in 176 minutes in that span.
As it turns out, when you give him the chance to run with a point guard who likes to hunt early offense, play pick-and-roll, and reward his bigs for cutting and moving, Obi Toppin looks a hell of a lot more like a lottery pick … and maybe what looked like a gray cloud is actually just more silver lining on the most successful Knicks season in nearly a decade.
A day that we’re only 3 1/2 point underdogs to the Nuggets in Denver is a good day
I got the Knicks plus 6 yesterday!! lol did you guys bet it down?
I think Vegas might have literally adjusted yesterday. We went from 6 to 3.5. Also, 3.5 is what we got in Memphis. Now we’re getting that in Denver. That signifies an adjustment, too.
The 11-23 Lonzo is the real Lonzo, not the 3-18 Lonzo. And then Lonzo had that 10-21 game, which was the real Lonzo, but the 3-12 game before that was not the real Lonzo. And then before that the 9-16 Lonzo was the real Lonzo, but not the 2-8, 2-9 or 2-10 Lonzo, which were not the real Lonzo.
It’s at least a little bit encouraging to me that Thibs finds Obi more playable than our other recent draft scrubs Ntilikina and Knox. If Thibs is giving you regular minutes, there’s at least SOMETHING to your game.
Obi is probably not a future star in this league but maybe he’ll stick as a useful rotation piece.
Obi’s performances have been encouraging but he still seems better off as trade bait since Randle is here. Obi, two firsts, and a flier on Knox is a very nice package to offer for an elite
player.
We should also sign the Tim Hardaway Jr that hit 10 threes the other night. But only that TH Jr. Not the one who puts up league average minutes over the course of the season.
He’s looked like a real NBA player lately, but it seems like the best possible thing for both Obi and the Knicks would be a change of scenery. Unless Thibs feels comfortable playing him and Randle together, there just won’t be enough minutes for him, on top of this system not seeming well suited for Obi’s game. I suppose there’s a world in which he’s used as the second unit’s version of Randle — playmaking was one of his strengths at Dayton — but so long as Randle remains an iron man, Obi’s maybe getting 15 minutes a night.
@ THCJ lol No true Lonzo would miss that many shots you need to focus on the true Lonzo nights.
@ geo Spartacus is great but I don’t think best ever
I’m totally not giving up on Obi. On the one hand he came in to perhaps the worst possible situation for his rookie year in terms of making an early impact — first being behind a break-out star and playing for a coach who a) plays his stars huge minutes, and b) won’t play anyone who screws up on D; and then playing with no real point guard capable of getting the ball to him in useful locations (until Rose).
On the other hand, one can argue he’s come into the best possible situation long term. The guy was a disaster on D, and rather than play and develop bad habits (see Knox, Kevin) he’s had to practice under the King of D, Thibs, and start to actually learn professional NBA defensive skills. So it’s very possible that even as early as next year he won’t be a complete defensive liability, which would be a huge jump.
He’s also gone from hopeless on threes to just bad at them — I like to consider that improvement anyway. His rebounding is coming around a bit, and he’s shown some nifty moves around the basket. A star is perhaps a reach, but a legitimate starter someday is not all that hard to envision if he keeps the improvement curves moving upward.
i would have thought that esp after all that’s happened this season folks wouldn’t draw too many conclusions off of one season’s worth of work….
obi has some work to do and he’s shown more lately… but he’s still a way’s away from being a solid contributor.. at the same time he’s also been good enough to say that it’s possible that he could still develop into a significant player in this league..
that kind of sounds silly… but let me tell you how silly all-nba julius randle kind of sounded before this year….
any chance that obi could play at the 3?
Drafting a player with Obi’s skillset in the lottery is the NFL equivalent of a team drafting a box safety with a top-10 pick. Positional scarcity is real and it didn’t make much sense to draft a tweener big who can’t defend or shoot well, let alone be a plus rebounder for a PF. I don’t think Thib’s tutelage will ever get Obi defending 5’s adequately, which he absolutely needs to do since he’s so bad at defending in space. I hope he continues to get better and I also hope Leon Rose doesn’t think twice about including him in a trade to upgrade the team. It’s been his only bad move so far so let’s hope he can recognize that and fix it.
What would a fully realized Obi even look like? A less athletic Amare w/o the midrange game/shooting but a little more passing? I’m trying to figure out what Leon saw in him.
Vorkunov:
Maybe Thibs will have no choice but to play some of Obi at the 5…
Woj:
I assume these latter years are not guaranteed, but they must like him.
Edit: The actual story confirms that the three final years are non-guaranteed.
Great contract. Obviously the money, even if fully guaranteed, isn’t much, but with how careful this group has been to maintain flexibility you have to take this as a sign they really believe in the guy.
Lucasanity!
Even if Lucasanity doesn’t amount to much, it’s like the Austin Rivers contract: incredibly valuable if he’s of any use at all, and not a problem at all if he’s a waste of a roster spot.
Brock Aller!
I’m still not used to the Knicks consistently negotiating team-friendly contracts.
it’s time to let go of the error and just make the most of the player we have.
I want to trade him, but I haven’t given up on him. Even if Obi fully realizes himself, like Alan said, he’s still a 15 minute player with Randle here. I think he has more value on the trade market, and he’s salvaged his trade value with some decent play.
This part of Woj’s story is interesting:
So I wonder if those other three years are fake money, and we have a wink-wink agreement to convert them to a guarantee if he looks good in practice?
If he gets cut Luca makes $3.4M he wouldn’t otherwise have made. If Luca’s deal gets picked up it’s like he made an extra $1.1M per year (based on his income this year) that doesn’t count against our cap. Pretty big advantage having open cap space this late in the year.
If you haven’t seen it before, here’s that Luca highlight video Spencer Pearlman cut together. Some fun skills on display there, though hard to tell how he’ll do against NBA level athleticism.
Also, someone on Twitter suggested that non-guaranteed years go one at a time. So Luca gets paid his money for this year. Then he’s with the team through summer league and training camp, and if we like him, his deal for next season gets guaranteed, and we go through the decision-making process again the following fall.
Honestly, almost unbelievable how good the deal with Luca is.
This is normally what happens, I don’t know of all 3 yrs becoming guaranteed all at once.
His numbers compare pretty favorably to Campazzo’s, and Facu has been pretty solid for Denver. The ACB is truly no joke, most of the former NBA guys who play there aren’t full washouts–they can just get more money in the ACB.
In other words, our 2017 and 2018 NBA lottery picks probably couldn’t cut it in the ACB.
Obi hasn’t been that bad for a rookie playing on a team whose playstyle does him absolutely no favors. It’s still odd we drafted him, but I think he’s got a better chance to be a good NBA player than Kevin Knox.
Semi-related to Luca: discussing him on Twitter led to someone bringing up our beloved Pablo Prigioni, which led to this video I’d never seen before, a compilation of Pablo’s many thefts of the basketball set to “Been Caught Stealin.'” Watching it made me very happy.
I say we try to make Obi the best 15 minute backup PF in the league… if we need to fill the minutes anyway, and we gottem, lets get him to be the best…!!!
Meanwhile, so much for James Dolan not interfering with the Rangers…
Alan, if Pablo were to star in a sitcom it would have made the top 20 of your list, site unseen
Break up the Knicks FO. This is a stupe signing. As in stupendous. Meaning not stupid. Can you freakin’ believe it? We’re not stupid?! WTF?
We’re coming for y’all, Masai. Riley. Presti. Buford. Morey. All of y’all. This ain’t your father’s Knicks FO.
LEON ROSE Y’ALL!!!
Maybe he should put Leon in charge of them too…
More Luca highlights. Getting irrationally excited about a guy who will almost certainly not be playing on the team this season.
And still more highlights.
(no i’m not drinking yet, but just got done with my performance evaluation so line ’em up!)
well he’s no Elfrid
Makes you wonder if the Knicks will make a big play for Lonzo. Rose is playing 26 minutes a night and you figure the Knicks will probably try bring him back. Add in Luca and maybe more pg minutes for IQ and using a ton of cap space on Lonzo might seem redundant. Rose’s health is always a concern (and Luca totally untested) so I’m sure the Knicks will look for another point but I’m not sure they’ll spend big unless it’s a surer thing than Lonzo.
Exciting Luca news! If needed he qualifies for the postseason roster, right? Or would that not work with Covid rules?
On the Obi front, I get the idea of selling high, especially if he will not be able to advance his stock due to a minutes cap. But my issue is what would he bring back if you traded him… What is his value and what could we reasonably expect in the current market?
Prigs is definitely very near the top of the list of Knicks things that didn’t suck in the last 20 years.
What everyone said about Obi. It does feel like Leon had no idea how Thibs coaches before making that pick. But at least he is trending in the right direction.
I loved that Rangers statement yesterday. George Parros is not the guy who should be making calls on discipline. Guy was a thug on the ice.
The Luca signing is more competence than I can remember the FO showing from 2000 to 2019. It might be a total bust but the process is perfect (as everyone has noted.) Feels like an episode of the Twilight Zone every time the Knicks do something smart but whatever.
Also, Geo, The Last Kingdom fills that Spartacus niche for me. Maybe the best show ever 🙂
wait, did Dolan fire the rangers guys for making that statement?
the organization stood up for the players, and Dolan fired the organization. that is one hell of a bad move.
i don’t know, it’s becoming increasingly harder to say what quik can’t do out on the court…it looks like his defense has picked up a bunch, also looks like he’s penetrating more with the intention to dish (okay, the quantity of more added to zero still might not be so great, but)…
he’s a really confident young guy with some amazing shooting skills who’s lucked in to a very favorable developmental system (who’d have ever thought anyone would say that about the new york knicks)…
that seems to be how the story reads…who knows, maybe george parros jams with jimmy…
I guess it depends on A)How much the organization believes in IQ’s ability to play PG, and also B)What kinds of trades they might explore for stars in the offseason. I imagine Quickley would absolutely have to be included in any kind of package for Dame Lillard, for instance. And then there’s the assumption that Rose will stick around. It seems a reasonable one to make, given his relationship with Thibs and how effusive the two have been about each other over this last stretch, but it’s not a guarantee just yet.
UPDATE: per TSN, the epic team statement did not come from the fired executives:
seems like Dolan did it himself. If so, um… great move!?
Guys, I know this is crazy, but this could be the beginning of the Dolanaissance.
I’ve always said if George Steinbrenner could do it, James Dolan could do it.
hi owen, too funny, but – we do all have our preferences for entertainment…one person’s trash can truly be another’s treasure 🙂
i kind of remember yourself, or maybe it was someone else, recommending The Last Kingdom…i watched a few episodes, but for some reason it just wasn’t working for me…can’t quite remember why though…i just may have really been hooked in to Vikings, and it wasn’t Vikings…
i like that particular type genre though: semi-historical medieval violent tv shows…tried checking out: The Bastard Executioner not too long ago…somewhere along in the first episode there was a scene wherein some casual flaying was occurring the background – it caused me to do a little internal evaluation on tastes…
i quickly decided i could probably do with less images of human flaying rolling around in my psyche…GOT and Dexter have given me more than enough of that already…
Pulisic just did something great for Chelsea after scoring their goal in the first leg. Amazing stuff.
The Last Kingdom definitely picks up. Good shield wall scenes obviously. It’s not a great show but I definitely enjoyed it a ton. It has just a tiny bit of quality that other similar shows lack.
Oof. The Bulls have the same record as the Magic since the Vucevic trade. (Buyer’s remorse?)
It’s clear that the #4/#5 seed is where the Knicks want to land in the east. But for the teams battling in the lower half of the playoff bracket out west, where would you want to end up? As things stand now #5 plays Denver, #6 plays LaClips, #7 plays Utah, and #8 plays Phoenix. Phoenix and Utah have little playoff experience/success between them, so #7 and #8 are probably good spots for experienced teams like GS and LAL (and Portland and Dallas too) to land. But then there’s having to fend off a San Antonio or Memphis in the play-in.
Man, the west is such a bad conference to have to play in for everybody involved.
https://sports.yahoo.com/knicks-sign-euroleague-pg-luca-182851457.html
What a cool video. 🙂 And Prigs must hold some record of inbound steals.
He’ll play, and will do it so well that we won’t get to watch Payton anymore. 😉
Available for the postseason? Definitely. Available for the regular season? Can’t confirm because “he needs to pass a physical, get the necessary immigration approval and follow the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols“, but if that’s 10 days (which would make Harper’s 2nd 10-day contract totally logical) then he’ll be available for the last 2 games (CHA and BOS, both at MSG).
And if it’s not asking much, he’ll have a game like those of Prigs against the Celtics, to send them to the play-in… let Lucasanity begin! 🙂
the ny ranger boards are blowing up…a lot of fear that jimmy is going to start meddling in the team like he did the knicks and really fuck things up…
What’s this? There’s people believing the Hawks can be NBA Champions!? :O
https://www.espn.com/chalk/story/_/id/31395228/long-shot-atlanta-hawks-garnering-big-bets-win-nba-title
Now you’re talking…
Good news, looks like Noel will be available tonight.
I wouldn’t put too much thought into Obi now. His market value is already way down. It’s not like there’s some rush to trade him. He’s just starting to get to the point where he’s a competent backup PF. My guess it he’ll be solid in that role next year. If he keeps developing to the point where he wants and deserves more minutes but Randle is blocking him, then we can worry about what to do about that situation. Until then, we used that pick on a backup PF.
I guess the Luca news is good. I see Rose being back next year with a significant backup role. That means either Luca has to be good enough to start (unlikely) or he’ll be our 3rd string PG. I guess that’s fine. That leaves IQ in his current as a scorer off the bench unless he can win the starting PG or SG role.
I don’t think it is.
Let’s put aside our disappointment that he isn’t Tyrese Halliburton. That has no impact on his trade value.
He’s a top ten pick who just completed a totally fine rookie year backing up an All NBA player. He’s shown flashes playing with Rose. His numbers aren’t bad. He’s got a year with Thibodeu drilling him under his belt.
I think he’s an attractive piece.
Maybe I’m wrong, but he was one of the favorites to win rookie of the year because he’s 23 and was considered more NBA ready. I think the fact that he wasn’t really NBA ready has probably hurt his stock because has to be considered as having less upside than some of the others. In a re-draft, I doubt he’d be a top 10 pick.
I’m sorry Hubert, but I don’t agree with all of this. He is actually having on OK rookie season in that he’s slowly getting better and looking more like an NBA player as the season goes on, but many rookies do that and it just means we haven’t totally struck out on him yet. He has some value, but that doesn’t mean we could trade him for a lottery pick. Teams are looking for big wins in the lottery and he isn’t that. It’s more reasonable to take a flyer on him than it was for the Pistons to take a flyer on Dennis Smith, but I don’t think that much more valuable.
It’s more reasonable to take a flyer on him than it was for the Pistons to take a flyer on Dennis Smith, but I don’t think that much more valuable.
LOL
all the knick media love is a pretty weird feeling…mostly it’s been deservedly showered on thibs, julius and d-rose, little bit of shine is also on RJ and nerlens…i imagine after a time, like hubie noticed on the betting line, the love will spread to more of the team…
was funny, after the grizz game when wes started hugging tight on thibs i started worrying he might hurt the guys ribs – thibs needs them for bellowing from the sideline…
ha, before he showed – thibs bellowing along the sideline all game was a big negative for me…not so much anymore…