Alan: The good news, I guess, is that as of now, the Charlotte pick would convey to us. Albeit in a draft that so far seems to be less impressive than the last one.

Or maybe that’s a chance to incinerate yet another pick and set lots of KB’s threads on fire. 😛

Good morning! Well that was quite a weekend. We saw some good, some bad, and some ugly. It resulted in one win, one loss and one recent MVP candidate who might just be back on track.

On the whole, the Knicks came out of the weekend feeling slightly better about themselves than when they went in.
The roller coaster ride that has been the search for chemistry with the starting five reached its nadir on Saturday against the glorified G-League Rockets, but may have reached a crescendo in the second half against Chicago, when Julius Randle had a throw back to last season’s role as the offensive be all, end all.
Another bright spot is the defense, which has been the 12th ranked unit in basketball over their last nine games. There are still issues (some open corner threes in the early fourth were their downfall last night), but on the whole, that side of the floor has gotten better as well.
But for a team that had lofty expectations coming into the season and especially after a 5-1 start, the reality continues to set in that this season is going to feature some tough sledding.

To read the whole thing: https://knicksfilmschool.substack.com/p/lost-and-found

Donnie Walsh: What’s the worst case scenario? Finish with the 7th best record in the east but lose the two play in games, one of them to Charlotte? (Just wondering because, given what I read here, whatever it is it’s probably going to happen:)

That’s close, but i think i’d be even more disappointed if we missed the play-in altogether.

geo: set us back from what?
getting bounced in the first round, having a “hot” streak to end the year…we’re a mediocre team at the moment, .500 may be generous for our play to date…

Exactly this. For the people that think that if Leon didn’t bet on offense, we’d be much better, go check how Reggie and Elfrid are doing in their play time. Which in Elfrid’s case is a tiny tiny sample, only 83 mins across 6 games. He somehow has managed to lower his 3PAr from .158 to .033, taken from only ONE 3PA in the season. :O And a missed one.

When this many guys are struggling to be as efficient as they have been in the past, the problem is the personnel fit and offensive system. And we clearly took a step back on defense. The off season moves set us back.

set us back from what?

getting bounced in the first round, having a “hot” streak to end the year…we’re a mediocre team at the moment, .500 may be generous for our play to date…

got to bet that they’ll get things worked out at some point and rack up a bunch of wins over a three to four week period…we did improve our roster this off-season (kemba, evian), it’s not crazy to think RJ, obi, and quik would improve this year…burks, rose, taj, nerlens are solid vets…thibs has won a couple of awards now for his job…

kemba absolutely should have got more run at the end…

honestly, anything less than a first round victory – would seem like a disappointment considering the expectations built over the summer…

i can be both patient and prudent when it comes to knicks’ basketball…record and fast forward when necessary is the way to go…julius and kemba looked much better together tonight…it seems like a month ago since RJ flexed after finishing at the rim, he had 15 rebounds against the bulls, that’s something…

it’s gonna be really hard to win without either RJ, kemba, or rose getting 20 points that game…quik, burks, evian seem to be that third scoring threat…obi, nerlens, mitch, taj are like found money if they get buckets or shoot free throws…

You’d think so, yet Steph and Draymond combined to go 3-13 with 5 turnovers tonight and the Warriors still led by 20 points from the 1st quarter basically to the end. (How? They still played their customary great team defense and had their customary 31 assists.)