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Jalen Brunson Takes Responsibility For Knicks ‘Unacceptable’ Loss Sports IllustratedKnicks know they have to play with more urgency NewsdayJalen Brunson accepts blame for Knicks’ slow start in loss: ‘A lot of that’s on me’ New York Post Sport’s Illustrated’s take on Jalen Brunson proves Knicks mindset is shifting Daily KnicksNew York Knicks: Jalen Brunson is a homegrown hero Sir Charles in ChargeView Full Coverage on Google News
[news.google.com] — Thursday, November 3, 2022 5:34:51 PM
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Knicks’ RJ Barrett starting to hit his threes Empire Sports Media
87 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2022.11.04)”
Here’s hoping for a win tonight, to calm things down around our team. And if Thibs keeps on playing the young guys, as KBA noted, we’re having the season we asked for. We just need the guys to perform, being RJ the one we need the most to do well. I still believe he can reach his potential.
Since I rather not think about the Knicks today, and yesterday I was surprised at home and away splits, it made me wonder. For example:
In the 2021-22 season, only 1 out of 30 teams had at least 30 home
wins
30 years previously (1991-92 season) 9 out of 27 teams had at least 30 home wins.
Not sure exactly what it signals other than the changes to the game from 30 years ago have affected the value of home court. Or maybe it’s just that players partied harder on the road back then.
This is an important game for Thibs, who must be starting to feel his chair getting warmer.
I would guess that there are more contending teams and fewer doormats than there used to be, but just a guess…
If he was feeling his seat getting warm, he would try plugging IQ or Grimes into the starting lineup. But based on his comments yesterday, it’s not happening yet.
My favorite part of Pickleball is that not only is it boring to watch, annoying to listen to, and actively trying to sabotage public tennis (i.e. an actual sport) courts across the country, but that somehow they’ve marketed it as a sport that wasn’t designed specifically for septuagenarians in crowded Floridian retirement facilities
Fuck pickleball to death. As I prepare for two of the three of my nearest public courts to be converted to that trash sport that already overcrowds actual tennis courts with beer-gut unathletic fuckheads who play for five minutes and then sit on the bench for ten minutes to recover, I must say: pickleball fucking sucks, full stop — fuck that stupid sport
Fuck pickleball and fuck the celebrities getting paid to shill that it’s worthy of anyone under the age of 70’s time
Fred Katz in his article this morning indicated that there could be impending changes in the starting line-up-most likely a swap of Grimes for Fournier. This would somewhat mitigate the defense problems that the starters have suffered and take RJB of really quick slithery guards and wings. Interestingly, Katz did not mention IQ as a possible replacement for E4. Otoh, Thibs per the Post said that for the time being Grimes’s role will be fluid. A bad loss tonight to the Embid and Hardenless Sixers might accelerate these changes.
Jowles, tell us what you really think about pickleball (-:
(and honestly I kind of agree with you, it’s just a dumb “sport”)
Stick to shuffleboard, pickleballers.
Yeah, Fournier is an awful defender, but this idea within too-large segments of the fanbase that Quentin Grimes is some kind of secret weapon elite defender that’s going to routinely shut down starting association wings is another one of those things that is going to crash and burn and disappoint. Best thing to do is right-size expectations, sooner rather than later.
This can’t really be a meaningful game.
The Sixers are 4-5 (1-3 at Home) and will be without Embiid, Harden and Melton, so our guys can play without a coaching staff, or taking one of us from the blog to coach and they MUST still win (to be fair if they don’t win by 10-plus this must count as a L in the standings).
I don’t even want to think about a possible defeat.
It is a hypothesis that must not even be considered.
A not-so-great shoutout in Lowe’s 10 things this morning: https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/insider/story/_/id/34942612/lowe-10-things-sizzling-start-paolo-banchero-get-early-trouble-knicks
“This lineup will jell to some degree. Randle and Barrett will hit more 3s. Randle can slip lobs to Robinson, and Robinson is feasting on put-backs. This group has combined to shoot just 27% on long 2s. Brunson and the holdover players are learning each other. Everyone seems committed to cutting hard and passing more. We’ll see how the rotation changes when Quentin Grimes returns.
But everything needs to be really precise, and I’m not sure the current lineup has a ceiling on offense much higher than average.”
Liked his framing here. For our starting lineup to make any sense at all, we need Randle and RJ to shoot well, Brunson and Fournier to hold their own on defense, and Mitch to balance block chasing and defensive rebounding perfectly. When you add it all up, sure seems like the better solution is just changing the starting lineup.
However while I think Thibs never should’ve been hired and has earned a firing on the merits, I have no illusions that even the world’s best coach could squeeze more than a few extra wins out of this group. Especially considering it’s hard to imagine anyone having the cachet to truly glue RJ and Randle to the bench when they objectively deserve it.
The main problem with the starting lineup is it contains two players who take a lot of shots and miss a lot of shots. Cutesy changes like Grimes for Fournier and Hart for Mitch might make a positive difference at the margins, but the big picture will be the same unless that changes.
Knicks lose tonight on Tyrsese Maxey career night.
Also totally agree with E. Not sure how we got to Quentin Grimes Savior mode but that ain’t it. He’s a fine player… maybe. But a true difference maker? Cmon.
Wow, of all the things to be really pissed off about, pickleball?
Would like to chat more but I’m off to a 200 acre golf course where there are neither pickleball nor tennis courts.
Grimes doesn’t need to be a lockdown defender to help the defense over Fournier. He just has to be better than Fournier which he will be. The big thing is can he hit open threes and basically be Reggie bullock for us two seasons ago. With Brunson, RJ and Randle soaking up most of the starting line up usage, Fournier is kind of wasted with them anyways and grimes will be better on defense.
Also Fournier I think can thrive with that second unit which plays faster.
But ultimately if things keep going this way, we’re going to have to officially move on from Fournier and Randle and fully pivot to the youth thing.
“(to be fair if they don’t win by 10-plus this must count as a L in the standings).”
Last I checked the Knicks were a 2 1/2 – 3 point “underdog” playing on the road.
Hey, Z Man, I’m playing Hudson Hills tomorrow. Wanna join?
That says a lot about their reputations but I’ll wait after the official availability report just before the game.
On the subject, weren’t they favorite by the same line against Atlanta (the Hawks were underdog)? I didn’t check before that.
Re the “Grimes Will Save Us” crowd, besides probably no, he’s also coming off an injury and will be rusty and not in game shape (assuming he’s perfectly healed, which is not entirely a given). So let’s temper them expectations a bit, yes?
In Austin where I live, Pickleball is the “new” new (new!) growth idea for the hospitality industry. Restaurants are adding courts to their patios (!), so we can sip libations and munch our deep-fried-boysenberry-and-brisket-pancakes while watching Jowles’s aforementioned “unathletic fuckheads” swat at that loud and annoying whiffle ball. Meantime, at the bar, former-crypto-bros are now pickle-bros waxing on to UT coeds about the “high yield growth sector” they have just discovered, bragging how they are turning parking lots into 21st Century recreation centers. It’s all End of Days Late Capitalism and a good example of that specific kind of bus-accident-American-Insane from which one cannot look away, but, like all things in ATX, it will pass. Luckily, my public tennis court has a large sign on the front clubhouse door in bold beautiful Helvetica: NO PICKLEBALL. But I digress ….
Go Knicks! Is it sure Embiid is out? I see “day to day” on my google searches. I actually hope he plays b/c I want our guys to get reps against the big boys before our games truly matter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LQpTEAPPjE
hahaha. Yeah, I suppose pickle ball is just another step towards everyone living full time in Wall-E style barcaloungers with sippy cups and TV trays.
“The big thing is can he hit open threes and basically be Reggie bullock for us two seasons ago. “
Exactly
I think it’s unlikely right away after missing camp etc… but that’s the role we need him to grow into. If he can create off the dribble also, that’s a plus.
“Fuck pickleball to death.”
Does anyone know how to change their avatar here?
George Carlin’s thoughts on golf mirror my own: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4w7H48tBS8
I wonder if Thibs might again zag when we expect a zig, and do something like starting iHart while leaving everything else the same. Grimes probably isn’t ready physically yet to start, and Thibs seems dead-set against starting Quickley, so maybe that’s the move?
Reggie Bullock, Destroyer Of Worlds
In the upper right corner of the screen click on your profile and scroll down to Profile Picture.
I turned on the tv the other day and they were were televising a pickleball match. Real Huck the Feck? moment.
Losing to the Sixers without Harden and Embiid would make things interesting in Dolanland.
I actually like golf, but the humor about it can be great. Here’s Robin Williams on golf to go along with George Carlin
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_S11eKcyOYY
You know, I just noticed I have an avatar and I have no idea where it came from
I think that’s just the standard ancient alien avatar format you start with.
This would be very interesting indeed to improve spacing on the 1st unit. I hope Mitch would see this as an opportunity rather than a demotion. BTW, to my eye-test, Mitch has been running much faster on the court of late, so he may enjoy playing with IQ, Obi, Cam, Rose.
As important: someone else mentioned yesterday, our guys need to BOX OUT. I hope they are watching Bill Russell tape daily to go along with the number six on their jerseys.
This is such a big part of what we do here that it needs a name.
situtational savior…
https://nypost.com/2022/11/04/knicks-viewing-quentin-grimes-as-situational-player-right-now/
The opposition seems to be getting lots of Kobe assists. Guards fail to contain dribble penetration, Mitch rolls over to play help defense, shot is altered, shot misses, Mitch is out of position for rebound. This seems to happen an awful lot.
The fast break/d-board trade off is an interesting one. Certainly. how hard you contest on the offensive boards does affect fast break defense but I never really thought about the inverse as being important.
The defensive boards have been rough so far no question though. We are currently 28th in the league.
Spread line is moving, now at plus 3.5 Philly.
There must be something brewing with Embiid…
either Embiid is out or we just traded Julius for him
When I see Fournier on the court, it just always triggers to me that we’re a shitty team… I like the guy, he says the right things. I think he knows the game well, too. It’s just that he’s mostly not a good player, and watching guys fly by him like he’s in slow motion just gets on my nerves… The fact that he misses ANY shots makes him near worthless (as a bball player), since I think he’s not up to snuff in most other facets of the game… I can’t be alone… We have so many other options (in theory), that when he gets the call, its like he needs to be automatic, and he’s so often NOT automatic…
And we need more from Mitch… Whether that’s minutes, or production or one goes with the other… Just need more
I was all but going to the game tonight, but even dad didn’t want to make the trek down to Philly (I am in philly northern suburb)… Something is amiss with likeability of organization at the moment.
My bad, is Philly -3.5 (it was -1.5 earlier).
I’m with you Jowles. I returned to tennis in June, only to see that some of the local public tennis courts here in west Knoxville now host pickleball, resulting in overcrowding for those coming out for tennis.
Just don’t take away tennis courts to accommodate it. Hopefully this is just a short term trend, sort of like the racquetball boom the 80’s, as I recall….though racquetball needs three walls so it never took away any tennis courts.
Thank you, i thought i was the only one.
The reason is probably the same… something brewing with Embiid… he’s going to play, of course. Since when does a player misses 2 games, with a day in between, with the flu?
Re: Fournier… My fave is when he is closing out… That process initiates the slow motion, and by the time the guy gets past him, he’s so slow that he’s essentially STILL closing out… It’s a deadly combination of reaction time and speed, or lack thereof both
We need to move on from Randle (along with Fournier and DRose), and focus on Brunson, RJ and the kids.
Please pay attention to the reactions of the other players on this Randle turnover. Even RJ is “telling” him to pass to Brunson.
https://twitter.com/Tom_Piccolo/status/1587972820855840770
It looks like you can see both Brunson and RJ slump in disgust. Another example of Randle’s “shake and bake” gone wrong.
Hahahaha, that was exactly the play I came back into after halftime. Just execrable.
And he got stripped later on the foul line in truly awful fashion.
It’s hard to find examples of NBA players turning over a new leaf. It happens. I was actually thinking about Kurt Thomas randomly the other day and how he emerged. I was wondering whether he was a guy who figured it out late. But he put up exactly the same numbers his rookie year as he did for his whole career.
Randle is Randle. Not going to change.
Posted this yesterday, but seems relevant to this discussion. Can’t remember where I snagged it from.
“Almost two-thirds of Randle’s baskets were coming off assists through the Knicks’ first three games. That share has essentially flipped in the opposite direction over the past four contests, and his total time of possession aligns with the increasing number of touches to nowhere you’re watching. In this span, meanwhile, he is shooting 13.6 percent on jumpers (3-of-22), including 0-of-11 from downtown.”
Kuzma the latest anti-semite to emerge from the shadows
I would hold on to d rose but definitely time to move on from Randle and Fournier and possibly thibs.
It may sound like I’ve flipped into team pessimist. I haven’t. I still think we have a lot of positives going for us future wise. But I think the next step in that is moving on from Randle and Fournier. I’d do that before firing thibs but then look to fire thibs if things don’t improve after that and I don’t just mean wins.
Caution. We can’t assassinate someone’s character based on what we think a vague tweet means.
“Moving on from Randle” is not a decision we get to make on our own. If it were, I’d feel a lot better about our future.
There’s no team that would so much as take him on for expirings right now. With four years remaining, I don’t even think attaching a protected first gets it done. If you don’t want to pay Julius Randle $27M AAV for four seasons, is a single protected first changing that?
The only thing I can think of is some kind of bad contract swap, but no one really comes to mind.
Dallas seemed like a possibility for a while and they have the bad contacts for it, but now they have Wood who’s clearly a much better fit.
Maybe if Simmons doesn’t get it together, that swap could make sense for both sides. Still, doubt Brooklyn goes for it and I doubt Dolan is even okay with us doing business with them.
I can think of one, unfortunately:
http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=266xjsoj
#dolansrazor
Say it ain’t so, Swift 😉
RE: Sixers. More than anything I’m curious to see our minutes allocation. If Thibs spreads them out, I think he’s doing the right thing. Again, win or lose. I also want Embiid to play b/c I want data on Mitch v. top tier talent. Likewise Hart v. big guys. At some point we need our guy to match up, if not dominate. Sims should not be forgotten, either.
Raven’s post on Julius (yesterday and today) matches our painful eye-test-complaints and someone else’s link to a similar tweet earlier. Yes, Julius is at risk of regressing. Let’s see if Thibs and Brunson can fix that. From such challenges, character is revealed. Statistics are not destiny (ha). Anyway, I read Brunson claimed responsibility for the Hawks loss. IMO his stable leadership was def. missing from both our last two losses. Let’s hope Jalen bounces back.
And as the last man on Fournier Island, I get the hate. I do I do I do. And his D is (yes!) painful to watch, but I still wish he was swishing all those threes that Julius and RJ are bricking. Not sure how to make that happen from my couch, though.
Mostly, I hope Obi bounces back tonight in a big way and IQ makes another incremental positive step forward. Maybe either guy scores 20 without it feeling like a big deal, or maybe both guys do. Give RJ the night off from chasing that 20 point dragon 😉
Friday night!
few thoughts for this friday morning:
– KBA – so enjoying your words this morning…more more more 🙂
– good to see you posting knicker blogger power tankings…you need to have a gravatar/wordpress account, from there you can upload an image, once that image is uploaded and saved on gravatar it’ll migrate here to KB land…
– reference pickleball – you will be assimilated, or left in the past…been meaning to pick up a set of rackets and balls for myself and the kids…
i got a basketball, football, soccer ball, bocce ball set, and frisbee in the back of the car at all times, sure, why not add some pickleball gear…
Back at you, Geo. Always read/love your words, and seeing Jeffrey Wright always makes me want to be a better person. Let’s go!
I just read this thread and I have two lingering questions:
1) What is pickleball?
2) Why do people tweet?
The funny thing about Fournier is that he can periodically play excellent on-ball defense, totally shutting down his man. But those ships-passing-in-the-night closeouts are horrific, as are the times when he plants his feet and swivels his head as if trying to figure out what’s what, while all around him things are happening.
Sort of like he’s the only one on Fournier Island…
I think people tweet because they’re seeking validation. It just never seems to work out that way.
A buddy of IQ was doing some low level subtweeting of Thibs the last couple of days. Seems like Quick doesn’t quite get why his role hasn’t expanded on the team.
See now subtweeting I get. Gonna go do it now in fact.
A lot of problems would be solved if anyone in the starting lineup could shoot… or play defense… or rebound…
Would welcome IHart as a starter. Should help ever so slightly with spacing.
Maybe the 1st unit might be better at cutting? The 2nd unit rarely uses his passing.
Or at least Hart can play the high-post passer against zone.
Mitch also looks better on the roll. Might fit better next to IQ.
(We should seriously consider the triangle for this Hart 1st unit [but not really])
Thibs needs to rest Fournier tonight so he can put up his usual 30 against Boston tomorrow.
https://twitter.com/kirkgoldsberry/status/1588521059304644609?s=46&t=c4nf8HE8NEAiK09RcPHFHg
Oof. A literal illustration of NBA purgatory.
A literal illustration of NBA purgatory.
***************************
Colorless, odorless, superficially not uninviting, lethal if you get too close — the Knicks are the carbon monoxide of basketball teams.
Me when it’s the same starters he always uses: 🥱
Since we’re talkin’ Twitter, this from the NYT — pretty amazing story:
“Sandra Sucher, a professor of management at Harvard University who has studied layoffs for more than a decade, said Twitter’s cuts were among the most poorly handled that she had seen.”
Swapping Hart for Mitch sounds like the sort of half-measure nonsense Thibs loves, so I bet that’s what he’ll do.
I have a few buddies in the tech industry and they are literally agog at what a tire fire it’s been.
For a genius Elon is pretty dumb. Might find a way to lose 50 billion on this deal.
Nick Young, anti-semite
Here is a VW clip
https://twitter.com/thehoopcentral/status/1588637827365228545?s=21&t=f25C0HgsbnjsLIunQRVguA
Huh. He did the actual smart thing.
Grimes is starting.
I like the move in itself but the sudden change from garbage time “situational” player to starter let me a bit confused.
Anyway, better late than never…
Thibs is a smart guy, he knows he’s coaching for his job,
I’m expecting a bounce back game from the players… most of them
If El*n M*sk had bought Twitter with the deliberate intent to destroy it, I’m not sure he could be doing a better job than what is currently happening.
Which sucks for me, because it’s my best promotional platform and also an easy place to chat with a lot my friends at once. But what can you do?
It’s kind of startling how dumb Elon sounds when he tweets.
Also, I start rubbing up against stuff like a cat when Libertarians complain about the free market. Just hook that directly into my veins.
“He’s situationally available…oh, and he’s also starting.”
So weird.
Grimes is situational.
The situation is… if the game starts?
Elon setting new standards in hubris
Do we know yet if Embiid is playing?
He is not.
Embiid is out and so is Danuel House. Harrell starts at center.