2021-22 Game Thread: Knicks @ A Team Playing Greg Monroe Big Minutes

The Knicks head to Minensota to take on the COVID-ravaged Timberwolves, who had to pick up Greg Monroe, who hadn’t played in three years, and plug him into their rotation after he showed up just a couple of hours before the game began…and they still beat the Celtics.

Still, the Knicks desperately need to take advantage of their opportunity here to win two games in a row for the first time in far too long.

Let’s go, Knicks!

172 replies on “2021-22 Game Thread: Knicks @ A Team Playing Greg Monroe Big Minutes”

I’m doing my best Walt Frazier impression with tonight’s get up. What do you all think? Sharp, right?

Monroe had a great quote about the guys he was playing with.

Greg Monroe when asked if he knows who all of his teammates are:

“Not gonna lie, Jaylen Nowell played awesome tonight, but I had no idea who that was.”

I was gonna say it would suck to have some no name go off on us, but that happens pretty much every game

Monroe isn’t anonymous enough to be tonight’s Knick killer. I’ve got my eyes on some guy named Nathan Knight.

Clyde on vacation at his St. Croix house, so we’re stuck with Wally again. I continue to dread the day Clyde retires and Wally gets the fulltime gig.

pepper:
someone tell Wally to put on a navy blazer and red tie…this is an affront to clyde

Poinsettia Pride, baby! And Bing Bong, too.

If the Knicks ever decide tonight to actually try on defense they should be able to win convincingly.

I’m on the away broadcast… man, so much words about Monroe… i’m getting the sense he’s a future HoF returning from injury or something!

Ball movement seems much snappier tonight. Just need to see the net snap a bit more now.

Wouldn’t it be pretty for Thibs to run this line-up out for extended time?

— John Steinbeck

I am not envious of the way Thibs has to grapple with the obvious fact that at least right now Grimes gives us a better chance to win than RJ

Grimes, IQ and Obi tells me that our front office knows what it’s doing in the draft. Grimes looks like a secret weapon that has just been unleashed.

I’ve gone asymptomatic! Very happy to get through this round of Covid. I hadn’t gotten a booster yet but I’m guessing my initial 2 Pfizer shots got me through this relatively unscathed.

I know I don’t add a whole lot here but I read you guys everyday. Very happy I’m not going to miss out in the future!

Bidiong, congrats! Glad you’re still with us.

On the other hand, this starting unit… I guess it’s good they’re doing their damnedest to keep it close so it’s an exciting game… We don’t really want to win by 25. What fun is that.

It’s very smart to challenge a play that is going to be a Knicks possession one way or the other.

EDIT: Oh man, i always forget this jump ball non sense, but Mitch saved me after all.

Thibs better do something about this starting lineup. They continue to squander leads. Taj and Obi are better than Mitch and Randle right now.

So we’re what, 33 games in? How is it that Thibs can’t see what’s wrong with this team? And what’s working? How is it possible? How?

What exactly does Randle do that’s above average for his position? He doesn’t cut off screens, he can’t jump, he’s a willing passer but not a good one, he can’t shoot anymore, he’s not fast, and he has no idea how to use his strength to his advantage. He tried backing down Okogie once and made Okogie look like Shaq. Randle has arms like trees but might as well weigh 150 lbs.

Obi comes in for him and the game changes immediately.

Someone complained about my absurdist use of single-game plus-minus recently (which for the record is mostly tongue-in-cheek), but look at this game. The starters ranger from minus 3 (RJ, only because he only played 8 minutes) to minus 10. The bench ranges from plus 7 (Grimes only that low because he played with the other starters a lot) to plus 13.

We’d be getting annihilated by the full strength T-Wolves, who are not that good

We kinda need this win so I might politely tell RJ there will be plenty of other games

I’m lost as to why they “need this win.” To what end, exactly? Straggling into the play-in? They’d be getting demolished by the actual Timberwolves.

Fournier is so brutal to watch on both sides of the floor. Cannot believe what he gets paid to do that.

Randle throws the ball away for no reason.

Wally: That’s what Minnesota does, they force you into turnovers

each and every one of you is currently receiving break up pity sex from the invisible sixth man

RJ is so unathletic that he gets blocked by Greg Monroe, one of the most groundbound centers in recent memory

ptmilo:
each and every one of you is currently receiving break up pity sex from the invisible sixth man

Truly hysterical. And like breakup pity sex, it feels terrible, and I’ll take it…

T wolves defensive rebounding suffering from their zone. Knicks free throw shooting unreal right now.

Up ten heading to the fourth with Randle looking like Westbrook out there. And that’s to say nothing of rj woof

Yeah I don’t agree with putting Randle back in yet. Obi has been good Randle has not

Obi has such a short leash … apply the same leash to Randle and he’s probably getting minutes in G League … bone head

He was mad about obis rotation and the double dribble … think about the Number of non rotations and turnovers randle provides …

Well the nice thing is we can put to rest that old canard about Thibs being a win-at-any-cost coach. No way he does these rotations if he’s win-now.

Mitch is looking at those shots like they’re passes because he’s playing with a bunch of bricklayers, Wally

DRed:
Mitch is looking at those shots like they’re passes because he’s playing with a bunch of bricklayers, Wally

Amen … his Air ball cleanups are the difference tonight … I’m not what you’d call a Mitch guy either …

Breen: “I don’t know if Randle got hurt or something, he just stopped moving”

Mike, have you been watching the games?

Randle doesn’t move and has zero awareness … Brern wondering if he’s hurt … no, Mike, he’s just being himself

Wow, Breen calls injury on Randle as he dies on a screen and ‘stops moving’, then Randle stands around on a drive and dunk. Obi could kill and eat one of his teammates and not do as badly.

Raven:
Wow, Breen calls injury on Randle as he dies on a screen and ‘stops moving’, then Randle stands around on a drive and dunk. Obi could kill and eat one of his teammates and not do as badly.

It’s disgusting … life isn’t fair

DRed:
beautiful pass from Randle but unfortunately it was to frenchie

Frenchie has one job… guy doesn’t even hit rim

Worst win of the season?

There was a stretch there where I was wondering, worst loss of the season…

Mitch single-handedly winning this game for us

Also it’s just nuts how little PT Obi gets

How weird is it that there’s an ad for Knicks tickets on the court in front of the Wolves bench? Or is that a hologram?

That’s like 3 times the Knicks have gotten the ball off a missed free throws. When you shoot them like this I guess that can happen

Oh boy. That’s about as ugly win as one can get. Wouldn’t be too proud about that one…

Missed free throws, terrible D at times, and an absolutely pathetic performance by Randle and Walker almost did us in. Mitch saved us with his incredible game and RJ came up clutch. But yikes was that a bad game. Healthy wolves probably blow us out if we played like that

Randle needs to go into health and safety … I wish nothing but the best but Obi needs some extended burn … we need to see what we’re working with … of course, the coaching staff must know already????

I once cut up a bunch of ghost peppers and accidently rubbed my eyes.

That hurt less than watching this game.

I’ll go as far as to say that Mitch is no longer one of the 5 worst starting C’s in the NBA.

Obi made some egregious blunders in a short stretch. Nowhere near as bad as Julius, but still…

I like how our team rallied and came together to beat this imposing group of g-leaguers and retirees. Always reassuring when your starting unit can out play a team with a star like Greg Monroe who has been out of the league for 2 years. Maybe next game they can show how they’d beat Earl Monroe who has been out of the league even longer.

Calling Grimes getting more minutes than E4 & RJ a win.

At least Thibs knew enough to swap Grimes for Fournier in the final minute. Fournier wouldn’t have made that clean strip on the fast break if you gave him 100 chances.

There are threads from 2015 with >140 mentions of Greg Monroe, many of which suggest that the Knicks should throw a max deal at him.

We need to trade Mitch, he really hurt the tank today. Must’ve missed the memo that nobody was supposed to shoot over 40% from the field tonight. I applaud the rest of our starters for their dedication to the craft of tanking, some truly impressive tank box scores.

Some real vet savvy by Fournier to know you can hit 3/7 from 3 but keep the tank on track by shitting the bed on defense and having a spectacular 2/7 shooting night from 2.

Randle showing why he’s the leader of this team, setting a great example for the kids by standing around and bitching even though you’re a major reason the team has been terrible.

Real props to those two for commanding the tank unit. Wish the kids could learn a thing or two and miss all their shots and play zero defense.

DRed:
so what exactly has Greg Monroe been doing the last two years?

Bayern Munich, Khimki (Russia), and the Capital City Go-Go of the G League.

All three of which could have beaten the Knicks tonight.

I was in favor of maxing Grimes in the first half, but 11 points on 11 shots? Maybe we should trade him before his value falls. 🙂

I’m with you, ess-dog. Last I wrote about this we had to go 41-8 to get to 56 wins. Now it’s only 40-8. Let’s go!

DudeInKnicksTown:
For all of his faults, RJ seems to have the clutch gene.

He does.

I’m not worried about this shooting slump. He was in Covid protocols for a long time. They haven’t been releasing any details about the severity of each case. For all we know he had a rough time of it, but either way we know he struggles with the consistency of his shot. So a layoff like he had is a pretty good excuse for a few rough games,

If we could figure out a way to get rid of Randle and Fournier and replace them with productive winning NBA players that play the game correctly we could probably make a good run. We’d still have to worry about eventually landing a starting PG and #1 option, but at least we’d be cleaning house of the losers,

good win tonight…the wolves played hard, particularly defensively…they just couldn’t hit their threes…

thank goodness monroe isn’t in better game shape and able to play more minutes…there were a bunch of guys playing for the wolves tonight i had no idea who they were…

mitch looks great right now…he can impact a game, that’s for sure…

Well, it was a good Mitching looks like.

I was a Monroe stan early on but I think had abandoned ship by that point. David Lee taught me a lot of lessons. About love. And lack of defense in box score stats.

Macri’s newsletter today acknowledges all the ugliness of the win, and also how frustrating it was to see Obi pulled after a few mistakes while Randle was allowed to play through so many gaffes of his own. Then he suggests this:

It’s all fair game, and speaks to the double standard many coaches get accused of having in favor of veteran players. Thibs is one of the more egregious violators.

He is also not stupid. He knows that this season, and in all likelihood his tenure as Knicks coach, is a lost cause if he can’t figure out how to get Randle going, not with the amount of money the franchise now has invested in him. Clearly, where Randle is concerned, Thibs skews in favor of trusting the track record, perhaps at the expense of accountability.

So the Atlanta win still wasn’t the turning point of the season, right? Bad Julius and Bricklayer Evan (my new nickname for him) came back the next game, serving as the proof here. And to make matters worse, Kemba lost the all star mojo and turned into a pumpkin again.
Like Thibs said about the time needed for the team to gel/click: “When You Get To 20, You Say 30. And You Get To 30, You Say 40. And Then Before You Know It, The Season’s Over. So It’s A Bunch Of Bulls**t.”
I guess the optimists here will say we need 40 for now… i wonder what will they say 6 games from now? 😛

There’s no “track record” to “trust.” The real track record would lead the sensible observer to distrust.

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