Knicks Morning News (2023.01.25)

Best win of the year (the first, in my memory, against a good team at full strenght, but I can be wrong) and a total team win, where everyone brought his little brick.

It was a hard fight and was far from perfect, with nice stretches followed by ugly sequences, but the effort was always there and the bench unit finally came alive.

Plays Of The Game:
Both in the last minute and both by I-Hart (with help from RJ and Randle):

– First, with a 3-points lead after a Randle’s turnover he blocked a Spida’s shot (pulled up over RJ’s strong defense).

– Then, after an ugly Knicks’ last possession culminating in RJ’s airball after Randle was blocked by Mobley, he “vertically defended” Mitchell’s tying drive (kudos to Randle for denying him the three). The refs didn’t whistle a “star call”* and the game was over.

Stats Of The Day:

17-33. Knicks’ 3FG, on the back of Randle’s blistering night (8-12).

14-21. Knicks’ insufficient percentage on FTs. Luckily the Cavs missed some too, but in a close game you can’t afford to throw so many points in the sewer, we need to get better.

0. RJ Barrett plus/minus, the only starter without a negative one (he did play a lot with the bench unit).

+11. Hartenstein’s plus/minus, lowest of the bench unit (he did play all the last quarter).

Grades:

Randle A
Sure, the 5 TOs and the last minute were ugly but the rest of the game was huge (36-13-4) and it wasn’t easy against Mobley and Allen. Sometimes he looks like the strongest man in the league and we really need him to be a beast in Boston.

Brunson C
An off night for the little general, making our win much more important. Judging from the number of times he’s banged or run over maybe he needs some rest.

Barrett C+
One of the most “erratic in the same game” player I’ve ever seen he can look like a star one moment and like a total scrub the next one.
Yesterday 80% of his defense was putrid then he had a couple of nice plays at the end, while he was decent on offense until he started banging his head on walls (at the end of the 2nd qrt Allen swatted away RJ’s shot like he was a 8-year kid playing against his older brother). Thibs kept him out for half of the 4th and he was right.
Someone wrote that he must lose weight and I agree 100%.
Double chin at 22? Come on kid!

Grimes B-
Glue Grimes sometimes become Invisible Grimes. As usual one of the few Knicks that move without the ball and watch for cutters, he must become more vocal when his teammates ignore him too much. And he must stop doing dumb fouls on three pointers (he got whistled for another flagrant that we somehow survived allowing only 1 point, but the same thing against the Hawks did cost us 5 points and changed the game for good).

Sims C
Trapped all game long beetween a rock (help on penetrators) and a hard place (let Allen free to roam), he get a pass becuase Cavs’ big men are a bad nut to crack.

Quickley A-
He wasn’t 100% and broke a streak of 17 double digit games but I liked him a lot and maybe I’m biased. He’s growing into the 6th man role day by day.

Toppin A-
Keep your voice down but, after shaking off the rust, it looks like he’s back doing Obi Things, including some questionable defense.
25 points in the last 21 minutes, shooting 9-13 (6-8 3FG). Yes, 21 minutes. In 2 games. Scoring 25 points. Sigh.

Hartenstein A-
Most minutes in a month (23) and maybe Thibs’ best decision of the night. 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 put-back dunks, 2 huge defensive plays and a missed touchdown pass. Let’s hope he’s feeling better and this is the start of something (in the few games remaining before his trade 😉 )

McBride B
Come on Deuce, eat your cereal and hit your free throws! After two years my mood when he hit a shot has changed from “he just needs confidence” to “ehi, Halley’s comet is passing”. Still I love the kid and his unwavering energy plus I really like his cuts when I-Hart’s in the high post…

Thibs A-
We won, so he’s right (did you notice that I was so kind to avoid grades during the 4-games losing streak? I know, I have a golden heart) but… there are some “buts” starting with Obi’s minutes (hot-hands management isn’t Thibs’ strong point) and ending with the last minute of hell on offense, but we won so…
Anyhow I like the way he managed Hartenstein’s and RJ’s minutes.

* On the Cavs’ previous possession they called a questionable and-1 on a Garland’s layup where the alleged foul was made at the FT line…

Thanks guys, really appreciated.

Re: Boston
They’re literally the best team in the league and pissed for the last two losses.
At the end it could depend on how many of them will be missing, yesterday they were without Brown, Smart, Brogdon and Horford.

He was repeatedly destroyed by Garland last night. Admittedly Garland is a borderline star starter in a professional basketball league so has skills, but Barrett just couldn’t stay with him.

True about Garland, even if we’re gonna have different opinion on his role forever, maybe in the end he simply isn’t good enough to be anything as a starter (honestly I still have some faith he can be very useful).

My take is that Garland is a 6’1 All-Star and “officially” the PG of the Cavs (Mitchell is labeled as their starting SG, also at 6’1, there aren’t many teams with two short players in the backcourt).

Both of them aren’t the “ideal” assignement for Barrett, they’re way too quick (but he did a better job on Mitchell at the end).

The bad news is that our starting PG is even worse at guarding them, the good news is that for some strange reason we match up well, as a team, against the Cavs.

Anyway RJ’s season on defense has been disappointing so far, no matter his nominal role.

@Danvt

I can’t see a realistic move that can put us ahead of BOS, MIL, PHI, BRK over 7 games if these team are at full strenght, so I doubt we can pass a playoff round this year (obv I hope to be wrong) and I’d rather keep this band together and wait for the offseason to tinker the roster.

Last week Bobby Marks at ESPN put RJ in the “difficult to move before the off-season” category, for some kind of “poison pill” restriction (he has a different value in dollars for us and for the potential buyer).

Can someone with more knowledge about the cap wrinkles than me explain? 🙂

Quick poll:

Chances of a trade between Leon and Masai where we don’t end up brutally fucked?

A. 0%
B. 10%
C. 20%
D. 30%
E. 40%
F. Above 40%