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[New York Post] – Sat, 06 Jan 2024 07:06:00 GMT
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[New York Post] – Sat, 06 Jan 2024 07:31:00 GMT
Miles McBride puts on 3-point shooting show in Knicks’ victory
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[New York Post] – Fri, 05 Jan 2024 21:28:00 GMT
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McBride Scores Season-High Against the 76ers
98 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2024.01.06)”
New York @ Philadelphia W 128-92 Record 20-15
My first standard recap after the trade and what a way for a first!
Our guys had their two best games of the year in a span of 5 days, crushed the 76ers in their building and looked impressive doing it.
All of this on national TV, leaving droves of pundits speechless.
Next: A B2B in Washington against the Wizards, who are on a B2B too.
THOUGHTS
– 2020-21 D-Rose; 2022-23 J-Hart; 2023-24 OG.
It looks like every time we made a trade we start playing like gangbusters.
– Winning like this, with one of our star playing so bad and our new shiny toy having a mediocre offensive night, is really impressive.
While we wait for the fabled big fish we still need one (a better backup-C) or two (depending on Q-Dot and Deuce ability to be reliable) little touches, then our playoffs rotation will be set… and no one would like to play us.
– The Hart Foundation had an incredible game. They are a joy to watch, for their energy, teamwork and selflessness. They really “play the right way”.
– OG is the defender Thibs always dreamed off.
And that’s the difference with RJ. Even in a shitty offensive game like today (3-11) you can always count on his defense to make him useful. Big difference in my eyes.
– To quote Hubert: Let’s the cake bake!
STATS OF THE DAY
24-25 (96%). Knicks’ FT. I’m moved to tears.
49-38. Knicks’ rebounding edge. Great team effort.
33-16. NY’s lead in FBP. We’re a running team now! (the Running Hustlebunnies?)
GRADES
Brunson A-
Low assists number (2:0 AST:TO) after his career best 27 in the last 2 games, he was instrumental in the 2nd quarter when the Knicks build their big lead, then manage the situation well.
Randle D
He gets a pass to honor his great run, but we must really hope this is a blip on the radar because on offense, was close to Bad-Julius’ peak (even one of his assists was a turnover that DDV saved and transformed in a corner three) and he looked on the brink of a breakdown.
To his credit he was solid and present on defense and he could’ve forced things even more, but he didn’t, maybe he’s learning something or simply Brunson knows how to keep him in check.
Go get a 40-burger tonight in Washington Ju!
Anunoby C
To keep us confortable he did his best to copycat RJ’s offensive arsenal: missed open threes, shots blocked after clunky moves, botched point blank layups.
But his impact on defense is huge and he’s still learning the system.
I really like the way he attacked closeouts, even in a bad night.
Di Vincenzo B
The bar is getting higher for DDV, now we’re expecting a basket every time he raises his arm to shoot 🙂
He wears his role as a flamethrower-when-needed like a glove.
Hartenstein A
Yes Embiid was hobbled and got his 30 (but on 10-23 shooting)
but I-Hart has been fantastic.
His only missed FG (8-9) was a tap-in on one of OG’s missed shots, his high post passing is a beauty as usual (5 assists) and his defense and rim protection are well above average (he made another unbelievable block). I’ll be broken if we lose him in FA, pay the guy!
Hart A
plus/minus is stoopid, but +46 is the best of the year… in the whole league!
What can you say when a 6’4″ hustlebunny gets 15 rebounds with 6 assists, a block and good defense? Thanks for the 10 points?
Grimes A-
He looked a bit sleepy, then he woke up and stoned Philly’s hopes in for a comeback in the 4th (all his 19 points came in the quarter). And before I forget, 8 rebounds?!!?
There’s still potential in the kid (even as a ballhandler and creator for the bench unit), let’s see if increased playing time can unlock it.
McBride A-
15 and 4 assists in 15 good minutes, hit his first 4 threes in a molten hot 2nd quarter then tried a couple of heat checks (remember guys, heath checks almost never work).
Achiuwa C-
He did “something”, including a three, the question now is: “is it enough for the backup-C role”? My answer so far, considering his whole career, is “no”, but maybe…
Thibs A-
I think with Thibs on the bench we would never let a game shipwreck like the 76ers did today and to me it’s a big medal to pin on his chest.
He finally benched an unplayable Randle for all the 4th quarter (good) but kept I-Hart and OG in the game until the last 3:30 (we were up by 34).
On Precious, i am intrigued, I think there is a player there. He has some shooting ability, he hustles, he just doesn’t seem to have the awareness on what to do on the court to affect the game. Get Taj close to him, let him mentor him, and I think he could be a real player.
You gotta think Darvin Ham is dead man walking
Thank you, Max. I believe you nailed it as usual. Having OG is like having a shutdown corner in football. He takes away so much from the other team’s offense, it makes life easier for the rest of the team on that side of the ball. This could be a modern version of the DeBusschere trade… I was in favor of another trade for Murray or Brogdon, but the roster balance and minutes allocation seem perfect now. I will be just as happy if they ride out the rest of this roster to really see what we have. For all the talk about needing more shot creation, Deuce and Grimes really add a lot on the defensive end. That can be just as valuable.
It’s perfect if Deuce and Grimes can shoot like this every game. I’d still feel more comfortable having another bench guard who can score when all else is failing.
Incredible win, though. The lineup makes so much more sense now with OG in place of RJ.
What I love about this trade vs the others you mention is that there’s nothing unsustainable here.
The other two ignited us bc Derrick Rose found the fountain of youth and Josh Hart hit 52% of his threes. They were catch-lightning-in-a-bottle moves.
This is just OG being OG. He’s not doing anything we shouldn’t always expect from him.
“OG is the defender Thibs always dreamed off. And that’s the difference with RJ. Even in a shitty offensive game like today (3-11) you can always count on his defense to make him useful. Big difference in my eyes.”
The difference between those two on D is pretty stark. OG is a Draymond-level defender. Maybe SAS Kawhi-level. For a guy his size to be checking a rocket ship like Maxey like he did…wow! Might be our most versatile defensive player since, I dunno, Mase?
I don’t think we should overreact to one good game from Deuce and Grimes.
I’m more convinced Grimes can be a solid 3&D player that can add a little more because we’ve already seen it. I am less convinced Deuce is going to be a consistent 3 point shooter or give us enough as the backup PG to solidify the 2nd unit.
Let’s see over the next few weeks.
What I’m happy about is that we made this OG trade early enough to take a close look at where we are now and find out what we might still need. So there’s plenty of time to make more deals if need be.
Great recap Max, thanks. And what a great win. I’m feeling more optimistic about this season after the trade.
I wonder if Leon could get away with paying iHart the same money as Mitch, except packaged differently. Mitch is getting $26.2M over the next 2 years…so something in that range. They seem to be great friends and earning around the same might sit well with both.
Probably not, but it would be a cool story!
Grimes is pulling up a bit more…maybe that work with JJ Redick is starting to kick in.
So this is how it looks when the front-office does what KB is asking for (we were clamoring for OG or Mikal). Nice! Kudos to Leon for pulling it off, i admit i didn’t thought it was possible because of the law suit, and he did it. Now Leon, please keep reading KB, no more Obi over Hali, or Cam over… whoever we were talking about at the time!
Listen…I watched and I’m still confused about how in the hell did we dominate Philly during an off night for Randle & OG on offense, and when Brunson wasn’t getting any shots for other guys. Yes..I know guys like Randle, Hart, Hartenstein, and DDV moved the ball last night. But..Embiid and Maxey got around 30 and it didn’t matter. I don’t know how it happened, I just know it was frickin awesome. DO IT AGAIN TONIGHT VERSUS THE WASHINGTON POOLES
I’m 100% with you on this Hubie, this looks like a sustainable thing, not a “wait-until-it-regresses-to-the-mean” one.
This will last, offense contribution may vary but he’s not losing his defensive chops sooner.
This Washington game is a massive trap game, I feel. 3 good wins in a row, team is flying high after the best win of the season, second night of a back to back on the road… let’s hope the boys pull through.
It’s hard not to get very hyped about this sequence, we really look like one of the best defensive teams in the league, outside of Brunson and sometimes Randle there’s not a single below average defender on the rotation and a bunch of well above average guys in all positions. We’re going to frequently outrebound and outhustle most opponents and we have a pretty damn good group of players who can play in transition to take advantage of the defense. I’m really excited.
I was about suggest we move them to the starting lineup but OK I’ll wait and see what happens tonight.
These two were blocked by RJ and IQ. Both are tough, tenacious defenders and both can hit the 3 point shot. That sets a high floor for them. Call this addition by subtraction.
Achiuwa is my backup PF – not a center. All the trade talk seems to revolve around another scorer. What this team needs is a good backup center. If something happens to Hartenstein, we’re screwed.
There’s no replacing Brunson. Clearly should be an all-star.
It was a great win but Embiid looked like crap (if someone can look like crap while dropping 30).
The Knicks have had a brutal schedule. They’ve played 35 games. 22 were against teams over .500 (65%) and 21 games were away (60%). They play another away game tonight. That’s the 7th back-to-back for the Knicks. A brutal schedule to start the season means a soft schedule is coming up. I look for the Knicks to be top-4 by February.
There are now 5 teams in the East at 20 wins…NYK, MIA, IND, ORL and CLE. Seems like the rest of the year will be jockeying for position with these teams for the 4-thru-8 spots in the standings. We have a great opportunity to move towards the top of this group in the next few weeks.
This was a Thibs win. When you bring it every single night you will have days where you come against a team that doesn’t want anything to do with a hard day’s work.
From the minute Josh Hart came in and brought his lunch pail, the Sixers were not having it.
I know I struggled to articulate my anti-Embiidness over the summer, but this is it. That team has his character, and it’s not what you want.
I can’t quantify it or support it with evidence. And it’s not the eye test, either, cuz the guy looks perfect. It’s the smell test. Arguably the least scientific test of them all, yet ironically the most undeniable. Something stinks about the guy.
Watching him out there chase individual glory while his team was getting smacked down… something is wrong there.
If the rest of the season is a tough game to game grime, I definitely like our team and our coach to be up for it.
Great cap! Great win. That thread was a journey.
Couldn’t watch but you can feel what a lift it is to have RJ gone and to replace him with a premier defender.
The Knicks are now back in the top 10 in Net Rating (#9), having played the 8th hardest schedule in the league according to tankathon (which doesn’t take into account home-away games so it’s probably underrating the difficulty of their schedule so far).
You could really see the frustration in Nick Nurse when he was interviewed on ESPN at the end of the third quarter. He commented that they held the Knicks to very few points for the quarter (18) but were only able to get three points closer to the Knicks in the score (Philly only scored 21 in the third quarter).
As great as McBride was last night I do feel like we need one more really PG just in case Brunson goes down. The question now is do we want to go for a bigish move like Brogdon or do we do a cheap waiver wire option.
And back up C too.
But after last night I just don’t know about some big all in move like Dejonte. The team chemistry is sooo good right now.
You don’t need three stars. Two and a great supporting cast can be more than enough to get the job done. So for me tinkering with the supporting cast might be the way to go.
I’m interested to see how the two consecutive BOS @ IND games go. I want to not believe in the Pacers but they are very tough to beat when Mr. Cheat Code gets it going.
@Swifty I don’t really think it’s a big issue. If Brunson goes down the season is basically over no matter what. If Deuce falters, we have Flynn and Washington to try at backup pg for now.
I side with Hubert on this Embiid thing, the last 2 years and the whole discourse around MVP has really soured me on him. Clyde immediately mentioned he was hobbling and looked injured in the first quarter, and he played 35 minutes in a blowout chasing a completely meaningless streak that no one will ever remember unprompted in the future, because of what? Because it helps his MVP “narrative”, that’s it. And the worst part is that the Sixers also play on a back to back today.
It was just pathetic to watch and in absolute stark contrast to how Jokic plays caring very little about his own scoring numbers and playing for his team. Embiid is an unbelievable talent but it’s very clear at this point that he’s content getting his numbers, his personal accolades, then shifting the blame to everything else when he ultimately fails, it was Simmons once, then Doc Rivers and Harden, now it will probably be Tobias Harris, and it will keep going on.
Lovely to wake up to a Max review, thanks for that.
Not quite sure Donte deserved a B; 4-6 from three feels like an A to me, but that’s my only minor quibble.
As with Poindexter I was/am confused by how Randle’s piss-poor play didn’t hijack the game, as it sometimes (often) does. I pretty much stopped noticing him by halftime, which was a good thing. I presume he was still playing defense?
Love Hubie’s smell test. Explains my previously indescribable feelings perfectly.
Just so happy for the kids. If we’d lost but they played that well I’d still be happy today. But a beat-down on top of that? Won’t over-react, because we don’t do that here on KB, but fingers crossed we’re seeing at least a small jump for both of them. It would be huge for the team, because having them on the floor when they’re not stinking up the O has such a powerful effect on the D.
“But after last night I just don’t know about some big all in move like Dejonte.”
I do. It’s a terrible idea.
If they do it, I’ll roll with it, but there’s a reason it isn’t working in ATL. When that trade was made, folks around the NBA were anointing ATL as a contender, arguing that it was a perfect acquisition for what they needed. Yet it hasn’t panned out at all. They are 14-19. They were 41-41 last year. They were actually better without him than with him.
As a two, he’s sort of a toxic asset. Let him go to a team that needs a starting 1.
Scaling up Hartenstein’s role is working to perfection. It felt like he was making a great pass on every other play last night. That god we have that dude. Leon has his trail of mistakes, but between Brunson and iHart “we pursue guys that statistics suggest deserve a larger role” is becoming an MO of sorts, and my god how nice is that compared to, well, *gestures at everything else in the past 20 years.*
We should wait, collect more data, etc etc etc. but it’s getting a little hard not to wonder what this team could do with a substantial-but-not-star addition(s). We’re still at a talent deficit against the real contenders, but we’ve got the defensive personnel to make life hard against anyone.
Ultimately I think we won’t have enough offensive fire power to make a deep run…but maybe we can change that.
I hear you Raven (and thanks), this was my pseudo-rational:
as much as I think +/- is stupid, he was the only rotation (not garbage) player with a negative one at -7 (the closest was Achiuwa at +10) in a game we won by 36.
Maybe it’s only unluckiness, and to me “B” is a good grade, it’s “above average”. I think he was good, very very useful in the first part of the 1qrt to keep us in striking distance and always pesky on defense, but others were “the heroes” yesterday.
And you know, I’m a demanding grader 😉
P.S. and I have a soft spot for the paisà, I had to keep my emotions in check…
Every time I try to picture Murray on this team it feels like we’d be addressing needs that don’t really exist. I guess he’d add some shot creation and playmaking to second units, but his shot creation is middling and we’d be paying a premium for his ~14 on-ball minutes. Think we could replicate 70% or so of his impact for much cheaper than he’ll cost.
If you’re basing opinions only on last night, that’s fine, as long as you know that Murray shot 13-19 last night.
I can’t understand why, when we have Hart, Dante and Grimes do we need Murray. It is NOT a weakness.
What we need is a true rim-protector backup. Is Achiuwa that? Taj? Sims?
And I have to agree with Z-man that Dejounte as a shooting guard is a bad idea.
“…but between Brunson and iHart “we pursue guys that statistics suggest deserve a larger role” is becoming an MO of sorts, and my god how nice is that compared to, well, *gestures at everything else in the past 20 years.*”
Just curious, was the gesture two raised middle fingers?
“Every time I try to picture Murray on this team it feels like we’d be addressing needs that don’t really exist.”
And baked into that non-existent need scenario is the question of how strongly one believes in DDV as a starting two-guard. The guy has been utterly phenomenal in that role thus far, and on both sides of the ball. I mean, look at his per-36 numbers. What else could you possibly want out of a starting 2 making $11M-ish AAV?
But is it for real? I think that’s a fair question. The 44% 3pt% on 10 attempts per 36 seems too good to be true, but he did shoot 40% last year, so might it be an actual thing? He’s pretty close to his GSW numbers last year in most statistical categories.
He certainly belongs in the discussion of Leon’s “pursuing guys who statistics suggest deserves a larger role.”
Until we get that injured player exception, I’m going to believe that Mitch being out for the season is more conjecture than fact.
I am delighted to discover that the front office is literally playing Moneyball. And it’s not an insult — it’s working.
I am also a no on Murray. I think they need a 10-15 min/game backup PG in case Deuce doesn’t work. Basically someone who can prevent Julius from having the ball in the backup units. OG showed he can guard the quickest of players against Maxey yesterday, and between him, Hart, Grimes and Deuce they have enough defense next to Brunson (not to say that Murray’s defense has been suspect).
I’d save the assets for something else. Brogdon would be ok if he comes cheap, but it would create a crunch in minutes again (even now DDV and Grimes are arguably not getting enough time regularly).
Are the Knicks the Rays of the NBA now? Adept at getting undervalued players from
other teams and making them excel?
I am sooooo so sorry I missed this great performance. JK47 hit me up like “are you watching this???”.
Me, the wife, our lil man and his nina (godmother) were out at Belmont Park (the Coney Island of San Diego) last night as we’re celebrating my birthday 🎂 wknd (it was Thursday). The lil guy likes the carousel, but we found he isn’t ready yet for anything that goes up and down 😂.
Fun factoid — Deuce has a 13 asst/to ratio. Smokes that punk Haliburton’s measly 5.1.
Guys, I just had a great idea. I know who the perfect person for our second unit is.
We’ve been thinking about this all wrong because we’ve been trying to replace IQ. What if we forget IQ and go the other way, i.e. build a second unit that is hellacious on defense?
The perfect addition to our second unit is… [drum roll] … Mitchell Robinson! Think about it. The other team’s bench comes in and they have to score against McBride, Grimes, Hart, Precious, and Mitch*. That’s a fucking vice grip.
Not only that, starting lineups have a hard enough time keeping Mitch off the offensive boards. Who the hell has backup bigs good enough to do it? Instead of having a facilitator or a scorer, we just take the low-risk/OReb strategy that worked for us last year and we transfer it to the second unit.
* Obviously we won’t do wholesale changes and we probably won’t use 10 men, but you get the idea.
Happy belated birthday CDiggy! 🙂
Useless Post of the Day:
Rokas missed the last game with an injury, for what is worth there are rumors about Ricky Rubio (fresh from his Cleveland buyout) in talk with Barcelona as insurance to cover for Rokas’ summer departure to the NBA.
Meanwhile, still giggling after yesterday’s win, after an unusual saturday’s family lunch (it’s a holiday here) I spent the last 2 hours sweating booze and watching this thrilling game from yesterday Euroleague Round.
OAKAAKs Mario Hezonja (31) and Shane Larkin (32) went mano a mano for a long time, aided by former Nets Musa (40), Jokic’s ex-teammate Facundo Campazzo (25) and a bunch of others NBA’s alumni.
Hard to believe, Mario Hezonja will be only 29 in a couple of months, his Knicks’ days feels centuries in the past (many thanks to Leon and Thibs)…
https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague/videos/real-madrid-anadolu-efes-istanbul-round-19-highlights-2023-24-turkish-airlines-euroleague/?feedId=60dee8825eb4fd8da365da78&title=Latest%20Videos
The lineups with both OG and Hart in them are really effective. Brunson-Hart-OG-Randle-Hartenstein might be the death lineup for this team, and is definitely a very strong lineup when the Knicks have a lead. That lineup will crush you on the boards, has three strong defenders in it, plenty of playmaking… If you’re behind you could go with DDV instead of Hart and try to shoot your way out of a hole by bombing 3’s.
OG’s two-way game just makes it so much easier to put viable lineups on the floor. He’s not even playing well on offense yet and he’s still making a huge impact.
Have your thoughts on Rokas changed at all, Max?
Max, that was a really cool video….and btw great recp!
Hubs I do think maybe Mitch should now be the back up. I said last thread but think it’s worth repeating.
When we had RJ it made sense to start Mitch. He’s a better defender but also he is an absolute elite offensive rebounder. So when you had RJ missing so many shots it was nice to have Mitch there to grab the board and extend possessions.
But now RJ is gone. The ball moves better, OG is a great three point shooter and also a great defender. Whatever we lose on defense going from Mitch to IHart (which I don’t think is THAT much) we more than make up for it with OG’s defense. And we don’t need to grab as many offensive rebounds now bc OG is way more efficients
So yeah, moving Mitch to the bench where we won’t always have nights like last night and that unit might struggle on offense sometimes makes sense.
I don’t see it, Marechal, for a couple reasons:
1. OG wasn’t undervalued. And I don’t think we’re doing anything different with him than anyone else would. He’s just a great fit.
2. I don’t think we have any organizational structure/philosophy that “made” Josh Hart hit 52% of his threes or Derrick Rose have a dead cat bounce. I think these things just happened.
It’s not just that Mitch should be the backup, Swifty. It’s that as the backup, Mitch would acquiring a replacement for IQ unnecessary.
A defensive center will never win 6MOY, but I think Mitch off the bench could have as much impact as IQ.
i like the “smell test” reference joel, what you said does in fact seem pretty close to true…
great player, but often seems to play for himself…
mitch in the second unit would be great, isaiah needs to start from now on…
he may not be as good a defender or rebounder, but his offensive skills seem to balance out things between he and mitch…and yeah, he would totally make it hell on another teams second unit’s attempt at making buckets and getting rebounds…
Swift, the other aspect is that without RJ, who only cut WITH the ball, we have a bunch of guys who cut without it, making iHart’s passing so much more valuable.
happy birthday cdiggy, makes me smile to hear about your outing with the family…very cool indeed sir 😊
The Trail Blazers just waived guard Skylar Mays and forward Ish Wainright opening roster spots. Is a big Portland deal coming?
Not really Alan,
in his third year at Barca he still can’t break the 17 MPG limit in Euroleague competition (16.7, 14.7, 16.3) and he’s still the backup-PG/SG (or not-shooting-SG, like Q-Dot when he started 🙂 ).
I’m not saying he’s a bad player, but outside above average passing skills and court vision (2 good traits to have) I don’t see over-the-top factors in his game and he’s still too gun-shy.
There are a bunch of better PG/SG, both former NBA and european on the EL’s rosters.
For instance, former 2020 Knicks draftee Leandro Bolmaro, same age as Rokas, is showing stronger progress at Bayern Munich.
I saw him in person yesterday against Olimpia and he surprised me as a mainly secondary ballhandler and often dogged defender who’s not afraid to shoot.
But I’m not a professional scout, NY’s will know better.
One good thing about the OG acquisition is that it likely puts and end to the speculation about Zion. I wouldn’t touch that guy with a 10-foot pole.
“So yeah, moving Mitch to the bench where we won’t always have nights like last night and that unit might struggle on offense sometimes makes sense.”
I doubt that Mitch would be moved out of the starting lineup, although he might be used more with the bench and have a reduction in minutes when he returns.
Beyond that, I’ll continue to lean towards the idea of paying iHart and moving on from Mitch. I believe that the league is moving in a direction that will further water down Mitch’s impact in the latter rounds of the playoffs unless we build a specific kind of team around him. And I think iHart still has room for further development.
KP, Embiid, Mobley, Bam, Carter, Turner, Lopez, Chet, Jokic, Sabonis, Lively, Wemby…and more are coming.
Gobert, Capela, Looney, Allen, Mitch…imo these guys are an endangered species.
I’m still trying to get my head around the concept that removing a player with a 27+ USG% and a TS+ of 92 was going to have some devastating effect on the offense. Au contraire.
RJ is a likeable young man and has a lot of loyal fans in New York, but he is not very good at basketball. He was the one who needed to adapt his game to fit in with Randle and Brunson, not them to him. He never figured that out.
Murray is a good player.
He could automatically take over the starting PG position if Brunson gets hurt or needs some time off.
He could be staggered a bit and run the 2nd unit some of the time while also adding scoring.
He would add another scorer/playmaker to the starting unit.
He would add more plus rebounding to the starting lineup from the SG position.
On the downside he’s not a particularly efficient scorer or 3 point shooter and he did his best work as a PG. That’s kind of the problem in Atlanta. Trae is the PG. Murray is not going to do as much play making when Trae or Brunson is the PG. But the bigger problem is that imo his reputation exceeds his contribution to winning.
IMO Brogdan is just as good a fit or better and will come cheaper.
I agree that Mitch’s offensive rebounding might be more valuable in the 2nd unit, now that we have better shooters as starters and iHart’s passing is a bonus with them. I still would play them split time and probably finish games with Mitch. I really hope we can get him back for the playoffs. 48 minutes of great C play is suffocating for many teams, and now that we have addressed our biggest weakness we can compete against any team.
One of the things I like about the iHart and Precious tandem is that it enables you to have 5 non-zero offensive options for all 24 seconds of the shot clock. You don’t want either guy regularly jacking up 3’s, jumpers, or floaters or driving to the basket but the fact that they actually can do that on an emergency basis with a modest chance of success is a plus. I’m skeptical about Precious as the answer to the backup C conundrum but his ability to play some 4 in a pinch is a definite plus.
Brogdon is really the only significant move I’d be comfortable making, and my preference is still probably a smaller one where we only have to give up a 2nd or two to get a guard who can facilitate and/or score, and who can do a better job than Deuce filling in for Brunson in event of an injury. Murray only makes sense if Brunson is seriously hurt before the deadline and we need a starting PG for an extended period of time. And even then, Brogdon could do that, too.
Yesterday, something was brought up about Brogdon by the Philly blogger guest on the KFS pre-game podcast that has given me some pause about him. He mentioned that his connections around the league have told him that his previous teams couldn’t wait to be rid of him…i.e. there’s some kind of a personality issue. I’m not sure how valid that is, or whether it should be a concern in general, but it does seem that the Leon/Thibs regime place an outsized value on individual character and team chemistry. Combined with his age and injury history, maybe he’s best avoided.
I’ll have to trust Leon on this one…but in any case, would vastly prefer him over DJM.
it wasn’t JUST rj…. it was both IQ and RJ and you can see the effects of what we’ve been missing in spurts… it’s mostly been papered over since we are just hitting almost every catch and shoot 3 and our defense has been the league’s best in the last 3 games…
and if that continues then yea you don’t need even a third star.. we’re already there… but reasonable assumptions should point to that yes you need a third and 4th usage guy … and if folks are saying let’s go with clarkson and burks… then what was wrong with RJ to begin with?
i don’t know how folks square those two ideas…. that RJ was a huge detriment to the offense and then say we need some guys who are actually worse than him… but hey i’m just some witch that needs to have an axe to grind to point this stuff out…
saying hi to the critters around the park…
sadly you can still hear human sound within the park, still and all, a very nice place…
was able to help one of the goats get to some new shoots they couldn’t reach…feeling one with nature…
was gonna smoke a bit, but, some landscaping going on that’s messing with the mood…
any of you poor city there in new york have some favorite park/nature spots you can get away too…
this spot is/was an early well in the area, a water hub for when folks started congregating in 1700’s in the area…
there’s another park spot not far away that’s has a bunch of orange trees in it…got a nice little outdoor playhouse there too…
Not picking on you, dj, merely disagreeing on a basketball point.
We’re moving the ball better, cutting more, getting lots of assists. These all seem like better looks than RJ’s low-percentage forays into the paint. The second unit looked unplayable until yesterday, and I still think we do need a Brogdon type player to give us some of what we had with Quickley, but losing RJ is addition by subtraction. RJ’s high usage/low efficiency/low-IQ play is simply not missed. It’s not difficult to replace poor efficiency and not all that difficult to improve on it. RJ was a negative for us. More power to him if he puts it together in Toronto… he seems like a nice kid and I have nothing against him other than the fact that he was not very good.
I’m with you dj (nice to agree!). Not entirely sure Alexa Burgs or Murray are actually worse than RJ, but they have similar warts. I don’t see either of them actually improving the team in any demonstrable way, and each of them could muck things up in terms of minutes and chemistry. Hard no at the moment.
I don’t know what to make of the Kat Williams thing. On the one hand, I think he’s 100% truthful and many of the things he’s said have been confirmed as true. On the other hand, the content of what he says is so out there I wonder if the rumors of him being on drugs is true.
Alecks Burx from a couple years ago might have helped us but the current version of Burges looks kind of cooked. Clarkson just flat out sucks and that’s a bad idea. I wouldn’t advocate for either of those moves.
This team plus Brogdon would cause some headaches for opponents in the playoffs.
You know what disgusts me about how the NBA is covered?
Take a look at Tyrese Maxey’s stats, then take a look at Jalen Brunson’s stats. THEN listen to the narrative.
I’m just sayin..you can’t prop Maxey up and not do the same for Brunson. You can actually argue that Brunson’s stats are better and more impactful because of the raw shooting numbers. Right now- Brunson, Maxey, and Haliburton are CLEARLY the best PG’s in the league. No shade to Fox, Dame, and Steph- who have all been great this season. But they haven’t had quite the impact on their teams that Brunson, Maxey, and Haliburton have had.
Also, Fournier/Flynn for Burks/Morris- who says no?
If Brogdan is a locker room problem I would be against trading for him. The chemistry is mostly good for the Knicks. There’s no reason to screw that up. I think we can count on someone like Rose to already know if there’s an issue and do the right thing.
On 20th St and the FDR there’s an opening up to the East River Park. It’s been under construction for a while (they’re building floodgates) but it came back recently.
This right about the part where the East River starts to curve so it forms a nice little cove. The view is spectacular and it’s one of the quietest places in NYC. No one ever goes there except runners and the odd fisherman.
There’s tables there. In the nice weather I bring my dinner over there and dine al fresco on the water. It’s particularly enjoyable on a Sunday when the seaplanes are coming on going on the river. I feel like Otis Redding watching the Blades roll in.
You can catch the sun rising over brooklyn, which is something I try to do every day to get sunlight on my eyes in the morning. And man is it a great place to chill and stare at a full moon. My annual Thanksgiving feast always concludes with a walk here to smoke cigars.
Now they even added a ferry terminal (the stop is called Stuyvesant Cove), so if you feel like going for a boat ride you can plop down $6 and head all the way up to the Whitestone Bridge & back, passing LaGuardia airport & CitiField along the way.
Hi, it’s geo…i’ve missed you ras 🙂
daughter told me this was must see tv…asked me first if i knew who shannon sharpe was…seeing on how sports news is the news in my home…mostly…i know a good bit about mister sharpe, i don’t listen to many podcasts, maybe like snippets from them…
i think i just saw the part about him clarifying between hating on wanda sykes and wanda smith…i didn’t really care – it’s just, a lot of what he says is done with pitch perfect delivery, so it’s funny to me often…
at some point i’ll catch some more of it…
eddie griffin has a show close to me soon…hard for me to imagine paying and sitting through a comedy routine…i think i could get bored and feel a bit trapped…
i hope you’ve been well ras…
edit: ha, i remember watching my sister’s fave artist at a show in monterey – and hating it – and feeling trapped…also, having to watch neil young play, while standing, i just wished so hard for a seat during that show…
i’m looking at it now, well actually i’m typing right now but i have it up on another tab…wow, it looks beautiful, i know i have never even been to the east river park…
i’m sure there’s a lot of spots i’m unaware of – that seems like a pretty magnificent place to get away to…
wow, that whole Stuytown area is saturated with trees…man, that looks like a great place to stay in the city…i love all those trees…
that’s a wonderful story hubie, thank you 🙂
To be clear, all of my Burckes advocacy comes with the assumption that the cost would basically be negligible. He’s expiring and the Pistons obviously want to get something for him, but it’s hard to imagine any kind of bidding war developing. There’s also the possibility of getting him thrown in with Bojan.
If Bursks can play around the level he was at for the last few years before this one (and I don’t know that he can), I think that semi-decent shot creation and shooting would be more valuable to the second unit than Frank Ntilikina Part Deuce.
I think DJ’s question answers itself. If we could have a version of RJ that was 1) a lot cheaper 2) totally okay with playing 10-15 minutes many nights and 3) a little more efficient, I mean yeah, that’d be all good and well!
Geo I recently moved to Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill and think Brooklyn Bridge Park is one of the city’s most underrated offerings. It’s right along the East River and the sunsets are incredible. It’s pretty much entirely manmade, which I guess some people view as a drawback but also means there are tons of places to sit, use the bathroom, etc.
who says no?
Me. I don’t see this as a marginal move that makes us any better at the moment. I think we need to see how things go over the next suite of games. Do we need a better backup 4? Do we need more shooting? Tiny sample size says no, let’s see if that’s sustainable. Plus dumping Fournier loses us a useful chip for a bigger move later if need be.
Late last night I posted that some of the usage loss from the trade looks like it’ll be made up by running more offense through iHart at the high post and iserp pointed out that Thibs used Noah in the same role and mentioned the similarities between Rose/JB and OG/Deng. I’ll add that the Grimes/DDV combo ain’t much different than Brewer/Korver, Deuce=CJ Watson, Randle=Boozer, etc… In short, this team is really starting to look like Thibs’ old Bulls teams.
At best, relying on Grimes and Deuce to hit 3s will be inconsistent. You want some method of consistent scoring on the 2nd unit. Theoretically that’s Randle but he’s been atrocious in those minutes. A second scorer with a bit of a drive game would go a long way towards providing consistency on the 2nd unit.
Last night was great but we’re only 1 of 3 with that 2nd unit so far. The other 2 were abominable.
He was struggling earlier this year after coming back from injury, but supposedly he’s playing better recently.
Part of me thinks Detroit values vet presence more than a 2nd. The vets buoy them to at least a homunculus of an NBA offense allowing Cade et al some opportunity for development.
‘At best, relying on Grimes and Deuce to hit 3s will be inconsistent.’
Miles is currently shooting 46.4%. You saying he can’t keep that up?
Meanwhile, Grimes is up to 37.9%, and career he’s 38.3%, with an increase each year, so it’s very possible that’ll keep ticking up.
Hopefully iHart gets run with that 2nd unit, he could turn out to be the safety valve we need. However, the reason he was out there last night was that Embiid was still out there. I’m not sure Thibs will go back to it.
Also, I want to point out that Thibs tried a 2nd unit with no Randle in the 3rd or 4th. Most of Deuce & Grimes success came in transition or off Oreb scramble situations. It’s possible that unit runs better without Randle bogging down the offense in the post.
Even though I don’t want Alexis Burkett, I checked and over the last five games she’s averaged 18.2 points on 47.2% from three.
And don’t get me wrong — I LIKE her. I just want to see what the current roster can do before we start moving more deck chairs around.
Leon and Thibs seem to communicate well and have a mutual understanding of what the team needs to be its best immediate self. There is reasonable debate to be had as to whether immediate success is more important than long-range planning, and it’s also basically just what a competent professional relationship looks like, so it’s not much to get too excited over. However, the Knicks haven’t had competent professionals involved in running the team in such a long time that it feels as if they’re really onto something here.
Also, what Blades did Otis Redding watch roll in off the East River? I’m trying to digest the analogy, but I’m having trouble here. Are you merely sharing in his ennui, or is there a more literal association that I’m whiffing on?
I think both can shoot, there’s just going to be games where they both go 0-10. It’s not a them problem, it’s inherent to anyone relying on high-variance shooting.
This blog is surprisingly cordial and non-confrontational today, and I can’t figure out why?
Any ideas?
It’s because Alec Berg brings out the best in us.
Blade is a local private air brand, Donnie, that posh NYers use to get away for the weekend. They run a lot of seaplanes that take off from and land in the East River Cove, and it’s particularly busy on a summer Sunday. So instead of watching ships roll in and out of the bay, you watch planes land and take off.
https://www.blade.com/
Dylan Windler signed a two way deal with the Lakers, who were no doubt impressed by last nights stats.
Yeah last night’s win seems to have calmed the warring factions for now. A three game win streak beating two of the best teams in the league and absolutely destroying one of them will do that!
Thank goodness, Hubert. I thought you’d had some kind of mini-stroke while trying to type “tide.”
I’ll put an end to that. 🙂
Man, we have 16 games this month. Gonna be a lot to talk about.
Hartenstein in the starting lineup honestly feels like as big an addition as OG. I couldn’t be more excited to see how that unit develops with him in it.
DDV’s minutes feel like the new IQ’s minutes. I’m slightly perturbed he is not playing more but it’s hard to argue with the results.
I’m devastated
“Dylan Windler signed a two way deal with the Lakers, who were no doubt impressed by last nights stats.”
I was about to suggest that he should really be on the roster.
I’ve been gone too long. Back in my day Otis had to watch the Hampton Jitney roll in. (Though Otis did die in a private plane crash at the age of 25, so, I don’t know, maybe he would have been better off with the Jitney than the Blade afterall).
The Lakers seem to be a landing spot for players who didn’t make it on other teams like Windler and Reddish. These players then get minutes and do stuff and people think the Lakers discovered and/or improved them. But I wonder if it’s not just that the Laker supporting cast around James and Davis is very weak and so these acquisitions can do better there than elsewhere.
Cam Reddish is profoundly stinking out the joint on a nightly basis for the Lakers.
Game thread?