2021-22 Game Thread: Knicks vs. Heat – The Pointless Drive for the #10 Seed Begins Tonight!

I’m totally expecting the Knicks to win this one with Burks playing 43 minutes.

Let’s go go gadget arms!

126 replies on “2021-22 Game Thread: Knicks vs. Heat – The Pointless Drive for the #10 Seed Begins Tonight!”

I love that Fournier didn’t cross the 3-pt line during RJ’s drive. It’s like, why even bother.

@wojespn
Knicks guard Derrick Rose’s minor procedure on his right ankle today addressed a skin infection in the area of his December surgery and there’s optimism that Rose can return to the lineup in one-to-two weeks, sources tell ESPN.

So he isnt done for the season

If Grimes is seriously hurt how many reasons are there left to watch these damn games?

Oh no, there goes our bright spot of the season. Now we’ll need Deuce more than ever, to have something to hope for.

cybersoze:
Oh no, there goes our bright spot of the season. Now we’ll need Deuce more than ever, to have something to hope for.

No, we’ll just see lots and lots of Cam.

KevinR:
Nice young lineup out there

Yeah I agree. I want to see how all our young players do, but it’s hard to know who to focus on when there are so many on the floor.

I want “Yurtseven” to be a science fiction movie title, but I can’t think of what the plot would be…

Reddish has a mixed performance so far, but not so bad that he can’t improve. For those who consider him the epitome of incineration, who are the rookies drafted at nineteen or later this year that I should keep an eye on as what could have been?

Jesus that was five minutes of godawful basketball.

Fournier 2-9 with many missed bunnies. Let’s leave him in, though.

Knick fan not in NJ: Reddish has a mixed performance so far, but not so bad that he can’t improve. For those who consider him the epitome of incineration, who are the rookies drafted at nineteen or later this year that I should keep an eye on as what could have been?

This is a very long list but off the top of my head:

Ayo Dosunmu
Cam Thomas
Herb Jones
Bones Hyland
Jared Butler
Sharife Cooper
Jalen Johnson
Jaden Springer

Whats even a good landing spot for lillard that would get Blazers the assets they want.

I think Lillard is so good that even bad franchises would be willing to give picks and young players for him. Like the Knicks.

I thought Fournier had some redeeming qualities…but he is garbage…hope they jettison his sorry ass in the off-season…

Lmao hilarious move for Randle to look off an open, scorching hot RJ to do whatever that was

Randle felt that RJ was making the game too close. Last few plays he’s made sure to give the Heat every chance to increase their lead.

Fun half-time statistics.

Randle 1-9, somehow with only one turnover despite repeated brainfarts that should qualify.

RJ goes for 30 on 13 shots.

RJ is 6 for 9 from three, but even with that the team is shooting 32%. Thank you Evan.

Miles McBride is plus 4 in two minutes. The new Frank?

JK47:
Randle is so bad it’s kind of hilarious

Miami is keying in on him and they are a good defensive team.

grimes news sucks but could be worse. probably out for the year but unless it’s a terrible dislocation it’s usually only a month or two and often doesn’t need surgery.

legit amazing half by rj.

http://instreetclothes.com/2020/08/06/understanding-ben-simmons-patella-subluxation/

Some info on Grimes’ injury from when it happened to Ben Simmons.

“Several NBA players have suffered patella subluxations and dislocations in recent seasons, including Allen Crabbe earlier this year. Crabbe was back in action in 11 days, missing three games, following his injury. Former big man Chris Wilcox missed just five games following his patellar subluxation during the 2008-09 season. The other notable examples, including Andrew Bynum and Sergey Karasev, missed substantially more time, but those cases involved serious secondary damage to bone, ligament, and cartilage. Treatments options, including surgery, also influence the recovery timeline.”

Raven: Miles McBride is plus 4 in two minutes. The new Frank?

With Deuce coming off a 40 point G-League game, this got me wondering: when was the last time Frank Ntilikina scored 40 points in an organized basketball game? Do we think this has ever occurred?

I’m watching ESPN. They just commented that sources around the Knicks say both Kemba and Knicks management expect he has played his last game for the Knicks. They also said that Kemba is sitting out the rest of the season at his request, not at the request of the Knicks.

RJ might take some money from me (Miami -4.5 was too good to pass up after watching this team all year) but I’ll forgive him if he gets 50

rj has been so good that we’re neck and neck with the heat despite randle, fournier and mitch being absolutely terrible

Our tank commanders are too strong for RJ to win this game, they’ve already made sure the good run is done with stupid unforced turnovers.

ptmilo:
rj has been so good that we’re neck and neck with the heat despite randle, fournier and mitch being absolutely terrible

5 for 25 is terrible?

Randle tells Thibs he wants to stay in the game — Thibs says sure. Meritocracy!!

How many times does Randle have to drive into traffic and lose the ball before he realizes that he shouldn’t be handling the ball?

Just tuned in what happened to RJ that he was so pissed off about?

I thiiiiink he was just mad he was taken out, which is odd.

One thing I like about Jericho Sims is that you can just glance at the screen and be able to tell which guy is him

Someone should do a highlight reel of absurd Knicks turnovers with that Benny Hill music behind it

Very nice result at the end, RJ was amazing overall, even with those terrible turnovers in the 4th, and the tank notches another win.

One thing I like about Jericho Sims is that you can just glance at the screen and be able to tell which guy is him

It seriously is kind of nice.

Deuce being on a 3 year contract makes the refusal to play him rather substantially worse than a mere annoyance. We…incinerated 33% of his rookie-deal.

I mean look, RJ getting 46 in a comfortable loss is one of the best outcomes of any Knicks game in my life

Oof that layup from RJ. Should have made that. Looks tired.

The Heat are good. Sucks about Grimes

Good game for the lottery, and the Hornets finally won a game…

Damn FTs…

He’s 21 years old, is there any doubt about who must be the focus on offense for this team?
This must be RJ team, whoever stands in the way must be fired or traded.

Many thanks to our veterans for helping the tank.

Brian Cronin: It seriously is kind of nice.

Cam is juuust tall enough that with his headband if I’m not paying attention sometimes I think he’s Mitch and it’s been annoying me since we got him

How long does a patellar subluxation take to heal?
It will take about 4 to 6 weeks or more for these tissues to heal. During this time, the knee must be protected to prevent another injury. Once a patella dislocation or subluxation has occurred, it’s more likely to happen again. This is because the tissues around the kneecap have been weakened.

pepper:
when was obi’s last good game…in early January?

So who is playing better since then, Cam or Obi?

“So who is playing better since then, Cam or Obi?”

Neither has distinguished themselves..but Obi once again seems to have veered off into a big fat zero…not good…after the slam dunk championship…he seems destined to be the next kenny sky walker..

Ben Simmons had the same injury as Grimes a few years ago.

RJ really looks like hes figured it out somewhat since the start of the new year. Strat was on point about the early season flu and Covid affecting his play a lot.

Owen:
Randle was 2-15 and a plus six. Basketball is funny.

He and RJ shared a lot of court time…but Randle was the only starter with a , so, yeah…

Berman: “There’s some optimism with Quentin Grimes knee dislocation not being severe but thinking about how much Knicks rookie was looking forward to Sunday’s brother Garden doubleheader. Quentin vs. Sixers at 1 p.m. His brother Tyler plays for Vancouver facing Rangers at 7:30 pm.”

So RJ basically had his way with one of the association’s best wing defenders, who was completely engaged. He’s a total keeper. Still needs consistency to move from a 1A/2 to a 1, but there’s no question he’s a guy you want in a lead position in playoff games and other big games once you get good. In addition to the ever-improving physical tools, his basketball “emotional intelligence” is extremely high.

So I’m now comfortable in saying they do have one front-end piece in place. Which makes the season not an entire waste. The knock-off problem is that Randle doesn’t work at all as a secondary piece to RJ, so that’s going to have to be taken care of before the true and real future state gets into place.

RJ got off to a great start, had a rough patch with gastro/flu issues and then Covid, but it’s starting to become more apparent the poor play was more of the aberration than the good play. IMO he has clearly taken another step up from last year. I’ve been screaming for patience with this kid. There are going to be more ups and downs, but the best is yet to come.

The next player that has to take a step up is Mitch. When he gets a very favorable matchup he does some damage, but he gives you almost nothing on other nights. He has to add something besides put backs and lobs or he’s not a starting C. it’s not like he’s a Gobert caliber defender.

Grimes will be fine, but it’s a shame he’ll miss some development time. At least this will give us a chance to see more of Cam.

The player I’m worried about is Quick. I wanted Rose to come back so we could see Quick off the ball again and find out how much of his lackluster shooting is just role and how much is an overestimation of him based on last year.

The defense blows.

As to the future state and the cap sheet, RJ is a max player and I’d expect him to get a max extension — probably this summer. Barring some kind of injury or calamity, of course. He’s the piece you build around. He’s still not quite to “1” status, but he’s clearly at “1A/2.” That’s a max rookie extension player.

Yeah, maybe the biggest disappointment of all this season is how not a single young player on the roster last year improved or even stayed the same this year. Obi has stayed the same statistically but that’s not a good thing and he’s trending in the wrong direction. IQ has gotten worse, and I can’t pin it all on playing mostly PG. Mitch really hasn’t broken out as hoped, at least statistically. Despite yesterday’s masterpiece, RJ’s stats are pretty much the same as last year, maybe a bit worse.

I suppose you can attribute a lot of this to Rose and Noel being out most of the year, ther Kemba fail and Randle gumming up the works, but it still is kind of worrisome. Hopefully they will finish the season on a high note.

The point I make a lot of the time is that if you want to understand a player better, you have to set the annual stats aside and watch the ebb and flow of his play during the season and look at his skills too. You can only do that if you follow the team and player very carefully and know how his injuries, role on the team, the system being used, the coaching etc.. impacted his play. Granted you can never be precise with that kind of analysis, but I’d rather be approximately right than precisely wrong. I’ve remained very optimistic about RJ all season, even when he was in his worst slump. I was still screaming we have to extend him. That was because I wasn’t looking just at his stats. I could see that his skills on both sides had improved and the lackluster efficiency was a byproduct of a periods of injuries, Covid, no PG etc…. There will unquestionably be more down periods, but IMO he’s heading in the right direction to be something like a Paul Pierce or Paul George caliber player in a few YEARS.

Macri made a good point on the postgame show that Mitch often gets completely neutralized by teams with good centers. Hopefully the team has a plan to not lose him for nothing that would be the worst case scenario.

Tbf tho he was dealing with the incident with his father so that could’ve impacted his play a lot.

Maxing RJ is inevitable but I’m still not convinced he’s on his way to being a true max player any time soon, I.e. giving surplus value on that contract. But last night’s game gives hope.

Fell asleep and didn’t watch the 2nd half, but it’s very good to know that RJ had a career game. He’s our main priority, the only building block we have. I don’t think he’ll be a number 1, but a number 2 seems perfectly reasonable.
Besides that, we have Grimes and Mitch that might be good starters on a good team. So those two also matter for our future, although not much as RJ.
IQ and Obi for me look like guys from the bench, we should try to develop them but if needed to facilitate a trade, do it.
Cam is a mistery, but there’s a high chance he’s just not good and will never be. So again, develop him while he’s here, but use him in trades because that’s where he has the most value.
Deuce and Sims we’ll need to see them play a lot more to know what we have there. Deuce has to play more.

geo:
was watching the espn broadcast, just saw breen’s comments to clyde reference the curt gowdy award…
we truly do have a hall of fame broadcast crew…
here’s the quick vid link: https://twitter.com/KnicksMSGN/status/1497370316460412932

They truly are, and it’s completely deserved. At least on this part of the game we’re clearly the best of the league. Now let’s try to be the best on the court too. 😉

Clyde: “What are the odds of a lightning striking twice in the same place?”
Man, he’s beyond amazing! 🙂

E, all merc’d out:
So RJ basically had his way with one of the association’s best wing defenders, who was completely engaged. He’s a total keeper. (…) So I’m now comfortable in saying they do have one front-end piece in place. (…)

What’s happening, man? This is the 2nd time in the year that you’re being optimistic. Life must be treating you far better than usual. LOL

Great job by Thibs last night dragging RJ to 46 points. But I still think a max extension would be a foolish mistake

I e defended the vets and youth mixed soft rebuild approach but after last night I think we really should fully pivot to a full rebuild centered around RJ. In the off-season trade (as much as we can) all the vets including Randle. Extend Mitch if we can. And even if Maxing RJ might be a “mistake” I think it’s a potential mistake that this franchise should be willing to make. He isn’t the best shooter yet but if he can become more consistent ther, especially at the FT line we definitely have a perrennial two way all star on our team and even if he’s not the ultimate number one option on a contending team we should try to find out and have him as our foundation to attract that other star. He has shown enough to earn that chance with us.

Said it during the game, but really impressed with Sims’ defense out on the perimeter. He still gets faked out with step-backs, but who doesn’t. He was moving like a guard though, while guarding guards on switches, and stayed in front of them. There’s an interesting player in there.

However, 48 minutes of Mitch and Sims and going 0-1 combined is a really embarrassing stat. Bam’s a great defender, but he’s not that great.

For the Department of Useless Informations:

Luca Vildoza’s finally back on the floor.

He did play 26 minutes in Argentina stunning loss at home against Venezuela in World Cup Qualification.

His stats line: 6 points, 2-6 FG (2-3 2FG, 0-3 3FG, 2-5 FT) 8 REB, 2 AST, 5 TO.

***What’s happening, man? This is the 2nd time in the year that you’re being optimistic. Life must be treating you far better than usual.***

Nothing has changed for him. His whole thing is that RJ Barrett is the future of the team and everybody else needs to get out of the way. So he’s just taking a victory lap because Barrett scored a lot of points, even though Andrew Wiggins, in his third year, had games where he scored 47 points, 41 points, 41 points, and 40 points, and everybody here still laughed at the max extension he got at the end of that season.

I like the “RJ is actually good” timeline as much as anybody, and he’s still very young. I’d like to see him have a season where he doesn’t stink out the joint for months at a time before I’d be super psyched about giving him an extension. If he can play some quality ball from now to the end of the season I’d feel a lot better about the extension.

Raven:
Said it during the game, but really impressed with Sims’ defense out on the perimeter. He still gets faked out with step-backs, but who doesn’t. He was moving like a guard though, while guarding guards on switches, and stayed in front of them. There’s an interesting player in there.

However, 48 minutes of Mitch and Sims and going 0-1 combined is a really embarrassing stat. Bam’s a great defender, but he’s not that great.

It’s uncanny how well Sims can move on the perimeter for guy his size.

I don’t know how quantifiable this is but it feels like I’ve never rooted for a player as boom-or-bust as RJ in literally any sport. He really seems to have two modes: barely playable scrub or future all-star.

Like JK said, it sure would be nice if he could ease up on the former a bit. Still, I like him and enjoy rooting for him. Wouldn’t mind him breaking the Charlie Ward curse at all.

The issue is just that we’ve seen this game play out over and over again for various NBA teams. There are too many dudes who are like Big Dog Robinson. They’re not bad players, they typically make multiple All-Star teams, but you are forced by the system to pay them like a star no matter what and it makes things more difficult to build around them if they are “just” very good players. Not impossible, of course, but just more difficult. If RJ become a star star, then fine, but he sure seems like he’s more likely to be Big Dog Robinson 2.0 than he is to become, like, Paul Pierce 2.0 or whatever.

That’s obviously why the correct move over the last few seasons was to try to add high draft picks to pair with RJ, to add multiple shots at a star, instead of being, like, “Okay, RJ, time to carry the team whether you can or not!”

But now that they’re here, that is their best bet, pay RJ and just hope that he turns into a star.

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