Today is the first Monday of the month, which means we’re reminding folks that you can contribute to keep KnickerBlogger up & running! We are grateful for your support!
[ESPN] – Mon, 04 Mar 2024 00:52:00 GMT
- Knicks All-Star Jalen Brunson suffers bruised knee vs. Cavs
- Knicks breathe sigh of relief after scary Jalen Brunson injury moment
- Jalen Brunson sustains ‘knee contusion’ vs. Cavs, Thibodeau says
- Donovan Mitchell-less Cavs fall to Knicks under the bright lights once again, 107-98
- Knicks star Jalen Brunson helped off court with non-contact knee injury in win over Cavaliers
[New York Post] – Mon, 04 Mar 2024 05:12:00 GMT
- Julius Randle, OG Anunoby take ‘next step’ in recovery in first road trip with Knicks
- Knicks Injuries: OG Anunoby cleared for on-court activities
- Knicks injury updates, including OG Anunoby’s possible return date
- New York Notes: Anunoby, DiVincenzo, Simmons, Graham
- Knicks’ OG Anunoby cleared to shoot, ‘premature to say’ when he’ll be back at practice
[cleveland.com] – Sun, 03 Mar 2024 23:04:00 GMT
- Cavs to be without two key players in Sundays showdown with New York Knicks
- Donovan Mitchell’s Current Injury Status For Knicks-Cavs Game
- Donovan Mitchell playing status: Cavaliers guard remains questionable for key clash vs Knicks (March 3)
- Latest Caris LeVert update leaves Cavs with 8 players on injury report
- 2 vital players uncertain for crucial Cavs clash with Knicks
[New York Post] – Mon, 04 Mar 2024 05:14:00 GMT
- Miles McBride gave ‘absurd’ performance in Jalen Brunson’s absence
- Deuce McBride Breaks Evan Mobley’s Ankles & Plays Key Role in Knicks Win
- Basketball Pickups: Deuce McBride shines in emergency role
- The case for Miles McBride minutes in a fully healthy Knicks rotation
- Knicks’ Deuce McBride making most of his new opportunities
[Posting and Toasting] – Sun, 03 Mar 2024 23:30:00 GMT
- Game Thread: New York Knicks at Cleveland Cavaliers, March 3, 2024
- Best NBA Parlay Picks Today, Sunday 3/3: 3-Leg Parlay at mega +1230 odds Cavaliers take care of the Knicks
- Cavaliers vs. Knicks odds, line, spread: 2024 NBA picks, March 3 predictions from proven model
- Knicks vs. Cavaliers odds, line, score prediction: 2024 NBA picks, March 3 predictions from top model
- Knicks vs. Cavaliers prediction: NBA picks, odds, bets for Sunday
[New York Post] – Sun, 03 Mar 2024 07:22:00 GMT
- Jalen Brunson reveals why he snubbed Chris Paul in tense moment after collision
- Jalen Brunson speaks out on Chris Paul snub after Knicks star fumed at being clobbered to the ground by Warrio
- Paul Good, Man; Brunson Brushes Off Chris Paul Rejection
- Jalen Brunson explains why he rejected Chris Paul’s help in Knicks-Warriors game
- Charlotte Hornets PR: OFFICIAL: The @hornets
[Sports Illustrated] – Mon, 04 Mar 2024 03:21:20 GMT
- What Went Wrong For Cavaliers In Loss To Knicks?
- Josh Harts celebration with Donovan Mitchells chain reinforces a concerning message to the Cavs — Jimmy Wa
- Watch: Knicks Josh Hart Taunts Cavaliers Star Donovan Mitchell After Big Shot
- Final Score: Cleveland Cavaliers lose to New York Knicks 107-98
- Knicks 107, Cavaliers 98: Effort an issue as New York bullies Cleveland again
[Covers] – Sun, 03 Mar 2024 16:55:00 GMT
Best NBA Player Props Today – March 3
[SFGATE] – Mon, 04 Mar 2024 02:43:58 GMT
Knicks overcome losing All-Star Jalen Brunson with knee injury, regroup to beat Cavaliers 107-98
160 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2024.03.04)”
I’m flummoxed that the Cavs are the #3 seed.
And this is what Bickerstaff says after the game:
“We prepared for a matchup one way, and I think without him (Brunson) we thought that it was going to be a little bit easier and let our guard down.”
How do you even admit that? Incredible.
Josh Hart getting 19 rebounds against a team that plays two centers is crazy.
I have a major crush on Deuce. Not even my Ron Baker love compares!
Holding my breath for the full medical report after Brunson gets more advanced scans than an X-ray. Based on the timeline for more details on Randle’s issue, I fear I’m going to turn blue before we get real news.
Great gut bucket win. Deuce really taking advantage of this opportunity to play and his growing confidence is a huge boon to his effectiveness. Knicks really seem to be in Cavs heads.
really need the annoying twitter doctors to be right about this
I still keep my fingers tightly crossed about Jalen but this is a gutsy, heartwarming win.
Thibs ran circles around Bickerstaff again*, J-Hart alone out-hustled the whole Cavs team.
Every player did something to help (even the disappointing Burks’ only three was a timely one**) and while J-Hart and Deuce ironmen efforts stood out (more on them later) you can’t ignore DDV’s “odd quarters” (12 points in the 1st, 16 in the 3rd, zero in the others), Achiuwa’s 10 points 3rd, I-Hart physical presence (and his career high 8 assists!), Bojan’s 20 off the bench*** or Sims’ 2 blocks.
Speaking of J-Hart, his reluctancy to shoot is sometime maddening and playing always with the boost button pressed he’s prone to dumb mistakes, but the man is a fantastic baller, one you always want on your team.
And about Deuce, you can see why they signed him long term, his improvements on offense are impressive and he’s a gym rat, something that bode well for the future****.
Both play bigger than their physical tools (you can’t say the same for many Cavs’ players) and their energy is a pleasure to watch.
How not to love this team? Building this “culture”, making them play every game no matter the odds, it’s by far Thibs’ best achievement and a great medal to pin on his chest.
Now let’s burn some oil to the Basketball Gods and, while we wait for the wounded to heal, let’s take care of the Hawks…
* They’re to fire him, no matter how far they go, as a way to try keeping Mitchell, right?
** Thibs limited him to 11 minutes despite the emergency situation, a refreshing surprise when you consider past history.
*** When he missed his two wide open threes it felt like doom was coming, then thankfully J-Hart and Deuce restored order.
**** The kid has moxie 😉
There is joy in Mudville. I love this team!
If Jalen’s injury is indeed some kind of “sorenesss” can we all agree to rest him a little bit, regardless of our various justifiable beliefs about minutes and professional athletes.
If Brunson’s injury is, indeed, just a contusion, and he’s only missing a few games, then last night’s win might be the most important win of the regular season. The team was sinking and needed a W bad and we had some gutsy performances by several players.
Just gotta hope for the best but really proud of the team last night. If we can get guys back healthy, this hard period could in the long run be a good thing because dudes like Precious and McBride are getting invaluable PT and experience.
The nerve was clearly impacted in JB’s injury — thus the dropped foot/ankle — and that would likely be the primary worry.
I’ve banged knees in an organized high school game way back when. It hurts like shit, but quickly wears off and you can go fine.(*) If it was *just* the knee “contusion,” I’d venture JB could have come back into the game at some point.
(*) There can be some after-effects once the adrenaline and sweat wear off. Mine blimped up on the bus ride home and I needed crutches for a day or two, but those were the prehistoric days of injury treatment, about as far removed from the modern association as can be imagined. It might have also helped if I actually told somebody it happened.
I was hit by a pitch once right on my hip pointer… the most embarrassing part of this story is that it was probably the slowest pitch in the history of 13 year old baseball, but I was ultimately taken to the hospital… Reason being was that after 2 or 3 steps toward first base, I collapsed and couldn’t put any weight on my leg whatsoever. It had gone completely limp and numb. After about an hour or two, I was fine… This is my hope for Brunson. He has less reason to be embarrassed though.
I just really hope we can avoid a thread where we blame thibs for this. It happened at the very beginning of the game after Brunson took the last two games off. Fatigue had NOTHING to do with this injury.
I’ve seen alotta panicked tweets blaming Thibs for Brunson’s injury. Some of these so called fans need to get f’n serious. That’s ridiculous. If there’s ever a freak injury, it’s that. First minute he gets knocked on the knee right on the peroneal nerve, and that’s supposed to be Thibs’ fault LOL.
However, my heart is still in my stomach even though I think Brunson will be fine. That is a sign to start resting guys as much as you can afford to though.
Awesome fuckin win though. I was in full panic mode when Brunson went down. I seriously considered immediately turning the game off and playing some Hogwarts Legacy or PGA Tour instead lol. Glad I didn’t. Hart, Hartenstein, and Deuce deserve a “veteran day” today. Relax and get all the treatment today- they have earned it. Especially Hart.
Oh..and I’d be remiss to not mention DiVincenzo. He’s been incredible as well. Get him some treatment too
One of the best things to come from last night was that Bogey finally played more minutes than Precious. Ironically it happened in Precious’ best game in a month.
I held off blaming Thibs because I couldn’t tell if the contact with iHart caused the injury or not. If so (and it seems to be the case so far), that’s just a random bump.
But if it had been a noncontact injury where Brunson tore his knee shooting a jumper (which is what many assumed at the time), Thibs would be getting drawn and quartered, and it would be just.
It was two bumps, one with iHart, another with Okoro as he gathered and went up for the shot.
Having a semi-healthy iHart back is a huge boost. Can’t understate his effectiveness on offense and defense (I assume, only caught the 4Q), especially his passing while missing our PGs.
Even though I view iHart as better than Mitch, he should stick with the 2nd unit—Mitch health permitting—to run the offense. Hopefully moving Alderman Butkus to an off-ball role revitalizes him.
The Cavs might be unlucky to have Mobley & Allen, it’s the Sims/Achiuwa problem but an infinitely tougher decision to move one of them.
Totally agree. I’m more concerned that, whatever Jalen’s injury, our entire Knicks staff, including Thibs, does their conservative best to heal Brunson along with the other players. If that means fewer minutes until the guys are at full strength then, good. That seems to be the plan with iHart.
Wow Nurkic had 31 rebounds last night, but the Suns still managed to lose to the Thunder at home
And Harden was 0-10 and the Clippers still beat the T-Wolves
Wacky….
Why would it be just?
Brunson is 16th in minutes per game this year, averaging less than 36 minutes per game. The injury happened at the very beginning of the game. Brunson missed the previous 2 games, so he hadn’t played in a week.
How could it possibly be Thibs fault? I would really love to hear your justification.
I’m just going to keep comparing this minutes stuff to climate change. We know that playing these guys heavy minutes increases the chances of injury with the same scientific certainty we know carbon emissions increases the impact and frequency of natural catastrophes.
You guys are right: we cannot prove these specific injuries were directly caused by Thibs’ minutes any more than we can prove that Hurricane Harvey wouldn’t have been so bad if we’d curbed our emissions long ago.
All we know is:
1) science says if you do X, Y will happen.
2) we’re doing X, and Y is happening.
It could be a coincidence.
I don’t know about yal, but I am super anxious for Mitch’s return. Hartenstein playing more like himself as he did last night is not sustainable on a tender Achilles. He’s still a half step slow and I’m terrified that he’ll re-aggravate it in short order. Sims and Achiuwa have been good, but they don’t have that nasty paint demeanor that Mitch and Hartenstein has, and we desperately need someone to soak up some minutes at the 5. Also, moving forward, Burks might just be the odd man out once everyone is back- which sounds crazy given his track record
It’s almost all defense, but they need some offense and without Mitchell they are kind of screwed. If he’s injured or you can shut him down in the playoffs, they have issues.
I am not in the it’s-all-Thibs’-fault camp, but I do still worry about the minutes load. Brunson, in particular, spends a ton of energy every minute he plays – I would argue more than most players given that he is always getting in the paint – and he’s small. His minutes on the year are generally fine, but my concern is really the post-injury period.
In February, Brunson was #6 in mpg in the league at 37.8. It’s not a crime or anything (Luka is #13 at 37.2), but 4 out of the top 10 are Knicks (Hart is #2 at 39.9 – and that doesn’t include last night; Precious is #4 at 38.7; Donte is #8 at 37.5). So I think this is at least concerning. And actually my first concern is whether this has any implication for their effectiveness later in the season/playoffs. Whether it impacts their health is trickier to judge.
Just for the record, so far there’s very little evidence of that on the books of Super Catastrophe insurance companies that pay out the damages for major storms
The storms have been more costly because the impacted areas are more developed economically and inflation has increased the replacement costs, but the frequency and strength has not changed…at least not yet. There are still good and bad years or even good and bad short term periods, but it still looks random.
In fact, Warren Buffett got drawn and quartered a number of years back for saying that because it went against the mainstream narrative and push for a clean energy emergency. He has shut up on the topic ever since and just keeps writing the insurance. There’s probably no one that knows the reality better than Warren and Anjit. They run one of the biggest super cat insurance books on earth and set the pricing based on the frequency and strength of the storms and other super cat events.
We’ll see what develops over time.
All that said, I think when a player is already hurting, rushing him back and playing him big minutes can’t possible help and almost certainly hurts. Most of these guys are nursing minor injuries and should probably be getting rest days here or there.
Buffett would be raising his rates now to discount for any upcoming climate change damage, or for valuable beach and seaside properties going underwater because of rising sea levels.
As is almost always the case, you’ll learn a shitload more about reality from the actions of people with money on the line than you will a bunch of sideline blowhards. Money talks, you know what walks.
Shifting to more important things like basketball, Thibs is off the hook if this is just a “knee bump” injury, even if the damage goes beyond just a bruise.
I watched a replay of the 2nd half. At some point in the 4th when the Cavs closed to about 6 I thought, OK, good job Thibs letting the bench carry it, now it’s time to put in the A team.
Then I realized this is the A team.
Cleveland looked like garbage, but still, a great win.
The players are never gonna say, “we’re tired.” It may be paternalistic to sit players over their objections, but that’s what the coaches are for.
Not every injury is on Thibs, by any means. And, like Marechal, I’m most concerned about maximizing everyone’s season and preserving/restoring our team’s health for the playoffs, with, perhaps, an added benefit of lengthening careers in some cases.
Looking forward, unless the league expands again, I wouldn’t be surprised if the NBA’s “good player density” improves to the point where all players 1-12 are considered legit to play at any time on the court. More guys become situational, so to speak, and all minutes go down.
If so, the 40+ minutes games would reduce significantly, and maybe NBA guys who can “play the whole game” will go the way of NFL guys who used to play two ways; offense and defense, an idea that made sense at the time but is unnecessary now.
We’re obviously short handed and Thibs is either too stubborn to play his end of bench guys or they are so bad that he thinks it would be suicide to play them. What I wonder is if our 4 minutes heavy guys played 4 minutes less a game would that meaningfully change their chances of getting hurt?
But he’s not playing heavy minutes. He averages less than 36 a game and took the last 2 games off before last night.
Anyone still think Leon lost the Josh Hart trade in short term or long term?
Cam Reddish + Kris Murray < Josh Hart * 0.33
After last night, just send Portland a future 2nd rounder as a gratuity.
I wonder how much the Knicks coaching and medical staff buy into the latest trends in Performance Science.
My hobby is distance running and there has been a significant increase of studies and advice from coaches pushing “recovery over reps” so to speak. More sleep. More days off. And so on.
I’m not saying it’s all true, but when I hear anecdotes of how our guys are all gym rats, I wonder what the overall philosophy might be as a franchise.
Answer is NO using common sense “eye test” but YES using latest science of health analytics. All depends which camp one sits in.
Like everything else in life, the truth is likely somewhere in the middle.
Unless in a few years, science evolves or changes (like it usually does) and this whole thing turns out to be a big nothing burger.
AC Green didn’t need load management!
Josh Hart has a .518 TS% on 13.3 USG. He’s one of the worst offensive wings in the association, maybe even the worst.
I have no idea whether it affects their chances of getting hurt, but it seems likely that this would make them less tired, which I think would be good for performance in the long run. I think one thing we can all agree is that the Knicks play super hard, so they are already spending more energy than players who play similar minutes not as hard (cough cough Cavs).
I don’t kill Thibs over his decisions because I think often they make sense in the context of each game (“we are close, if we can just close that 9 point gap now we will be in this game soon, so I need to play my best players more”). But I also think there’s a middle ground here: you don’t need to play Toppin or Charlie Brown in non-blowouts, but maybe give Bojan more than 24 mpg, Deuce more than 23mpg or Burks (ugh) more than 18mpg.
Where I think Thibs has some blame is that he can be inflexible in lineup construction even when his team is half injured. So he will still avoid some things that would help manage the minutes (more Deuce and Brunson together; Brunson/Deuce/DDV lineups, Burks at the 3, more Precious at the 5) because that would make the team too small. And to be fair, these lineups have problems, but at least they could mitigate some of the usage. We are talking about 5-10 min/game.
Yeah, it’s funny that the Thibs ethos — play hard always! — makes his end of bench guys better than those of other teams, but he doesn’t play them enough, or at least it *feels that way to some of us 😉
Cam Reddish is playing with Lebron damn James and has a .521 TS% on 13% usage, so there’s one wing worse on offense than Josh
I still struggle with my thoughts on overall minutes per player, but one thing that Thibs could do but doesn’t is just sit his starters toward the end of games when it’s decided.
Sure you might win by 8 instead of 15 (or lose by 20 instead of by 15). But with three minutes to go, get them out if it’s not close. They’re tired, and that increases the odds of something bad happening (yeah I know, Brunson was hurt 47 seconds into the game…).
This implies we have a B team instead of a single 5-man, 48min unit
Did RJ get waived?
But in all seriousness Hart has played much better in the 2nd half of the year the last 2 seasons and seems well on his way to doing so again.
Guys, no one is killing Josh Hart. I’ve actually been praising the fuck out of him.
If you’re going to do trollish shit like this, you’re just setting yourself up for the misery that’s bound to come later when he has his next bad game.
“Anyone still think Leon lost the Josh Hart trade in short term or long term?”
Well at least one person does…
The misery that comes when Hart has a bad game is usually only from 2 people…
Immanuel Quickley was lost because of the Josh Hart trade.
Then I’ll be sure to bring it the next time a good team is doubling off him on every possession.
And yes, Director. The value of a first round pick is still higher than an $18MM player with a -0.5 BPM, both in the short and long term.
Josh Hart had a terrible game literally one game ago. His FG% over his last two games is .310.
But again, it’s not his fault. It’s Tom Thibodeau’s fault.
Since the ASB, Hart is putting up 13/10/5 on a per 36 basis, has a 3.6 ast/TO ratio, and sporting a higher 17.7% usage rate. Shooting isn’t all that matters.
Josh Hart in February had an eFG of 45%, played 40mpg, averaged 13 pts on 13 shots, had AST:TO ratio of roughly 5:2/36, and – most importantly – was rarely guarded by a defender.
No single player contributed more to us having our worst month of the season.
But he had a good game last night so that settles it!
“No single player contributed more to us having our worst month of the season.”
I just wanted to copy this over to see how it felt to post something this silly.
It doesn’t feel very good.
Anyway, Julius, OG, and Isaiah may want to have a word with you.
And furthermore, I didn’t say shit except for during the Lakers game when he got doubled off every single possession of the second half. I actually praised the guy for eating minutes.
I was pretty surprised when we extended Deuce. At the time he seemed like he was going to be nailed to the bench all year but if he keeps playing like this it’s going to wind up being one of Leons better moves.
IQ was lost bc Leon was playing chicken with Danny Ainge and decided to give RJ Barrett a massive contract he didn’t deserve and so he did not feel like doing the same next off season for IQ.
Guys who are 23 with TS%’s of .620 on 24.1 USG aren’t overpaid at RJ’s number, or anything close.
Leon rightfully assumed he had a coach that could get something in actuality at least something like a player’s potential, but that’s been Leon’s blind spot all along.
Instead, Thibs needs his boys. (And a number of his boys sure as shit need Thibs.)
Just keep telling yourself that, buddy.
Z-Man and I are on the Deuce Love Train now, but I have to say there were a few positively RJ-worthy drives to the basket yesterday. I don’t remember that he got blocked on them as would happen with RJ, but perhaps he should have as it would have looked better (as what he threw up didn’t stand a chance of going in). He’ll have to stop that.
And before anyone gives me shit about shitting on RJ, he had a spectacular (boxscore) game yesterday, 23-8-5, going 10-15 from the field and 3-6 from three. Five turnovers, but they won.
No idea how many of those missed shots were blocks…
So Thibs was holding RJ back even though RJ literally played the second most minutes of anyone on our team the last 3 years?
Also, is that TS his numbers when he signed his contract or his numbers now in Toronto?
From the day RJ was traded (Harper talking, me saying “Correct.”)
Thibs did a poor job with all of RJ, IQ, Grimes, and Toppin. The last two, certainly Grimes, not really a big deal. The first two, absolutely a big deal.
Thibs needs his boys. He’s got one in Josh Hart. Grimes was one of his boys last year. Together, the two boys pretty much lost us the Miami series.
You really didn’t understand the phrasing, Raven. It is a statistical fact that no one contributed more to our performance in February than Hart. Precious is a very close second. OG and Randle didn’t contribute to it at all.
I actually did, Hubert. I was partly purposefully pretending ignorance, but also trying to make a point.
Josh Hart isn’t in there for his scoring. His rebounding and defense keep him in there. This isn’t true for most twos and threes. All those extra rebound he gets compared to his peers that he gets turn into points at roughly one point a rebounds (approximate points per possession). At the moment, with our entire starting front line injured, we need that.
“Josh Hart is a winner” is the modern day “David Eckstein is good in the clubhouse.”
Not defensive rebounds, which are mostly cannibalized.
Josh Hart is averaging 1.6 ORB/36. For Toronto, RJ Barrett is averaging 1.1. (And I’m sure you can find wings who are averaging more than 1.6.) It’s a meaningless difference.
It’s tough, because he’s a really likable guy and easy to root for and it sounds like I’m ripping him when I really don’t want to. I wish he was better. But Josh just really isn’t very good, certainly not at starter’s wing minutes. He’s not the blameworthy one, though.
If they’d just drafted him and played him bench, high-energy minutes when necessary, I’d probably have no issue with him but unfortunately that’s not really where we are with Josh.
Thibs did a poor job with IQ? IQ got better every season he was with the Knicks. So IQ alone gets credit for his development? Without Thibs he would be prime Chris Paul by now?
More like terrible, especially when considering the personnel impact.
You’re wrong, but that’s nothing new.
IQ was a late first round pick that most people hated on draft day. He turned into a player that was so good that he expected a big contract that Leon was unable/unwilling to give him. He became a better scorer, playmaker and defender all while being coached by Thibs.
IQ is a failure by Leon, not Thibs.
I’m hoping climate change equals more rain in southern california…
my understanding is that within about 30 years instead of having 100 days with plus 100 degree temperatures we’ll have like 270 days of temps above a 100 degrees…
hmmmm, 30 years from now, I am probably not going to still be here…but, it will be hot, best for it to be a lot more wet too…
He’s starting because our starting SF, PF and Center are all injured.
Let’s take everything out of fucking context.
Because Thibs insisted on Josh.(*) They’re directly related. Josh got IQ’s money.
(*) Because Thibs thinks Josh is better, because Thibs is a loon. A savant in his way, but a loon nonetheless.
We’re devastated by injuries but don’t criticize the coach who is denying science with his minutes distribution.
We were 4-8 in February and couldn’t score in a brothel but don’t criticize the guy who played 40 mpg and shot horribly.
These are your arguments.
They don’t even play the same fucking position.
How many minutes does the science say guys should play?
Are you talking to me? I’m not in this Josh Hart argument at all.
But yes, criticizing Thibs for Brunson getting hurt in the first minute of a game after taking a week off from games is absolutely stupid.
Never more than 36 minutes a game or else their bones will disintegrate. And all starters should rest in all back to backs. And if we’re ever down by more than 10 in the 4th quarter, we should just give up because we can always win another game.
They kind of do, both are wings — but to the degree they don’t, that makes it even worse.
These are Josh Hart’s shot attempts in January when the Knicks were healthy and tearing up the league:
7, 5, 7, 8, 4, 4, 7, 7, 11, 5, 7, 5, 7, 5, 7, 7, 10
These are his shot attempts in February when half the team was injured:
6, 16, 7, 22, 6, 11, 8, 13, 10, 17. 15 ,17
See a pattern here? He’s forced to shoot more because there aren’t a lot of other options. Blaming him for the Knicks’ rough February is kind of unfair considering the circumstances dontcha think?
Association wings should be able to shoot.
This whole thread has been highjacked as per usual, and has become infected with radically stupid.
Thank god for upcoming stultifying zoom calls…
Have we actually signed Shake yet?
Hubert is as much of an expert on this as these medical experts are: Dr Pepper, Dr Hook, Dr J, the Spin Doctors, and Doc Holliday.
New nonsense, just dropped!
Yeah bc a few trolls decided to come on and say fuck everyone who blames Thibs and hates Josh Hart even though literally no one had blamed Thibs or said anything about Josh Hart. As per usual.
Didn’t blame him at all. Just asked why we’re struggling when the great Josh Hart is getting all the minutes and taking so many shots. If the answer is because he’s not that good, that he’s just a 7th man who shouldn’t be playing this much, you lose!
If there are clear empirics on the minutes-leading-to-injuries front, someone should post them. My understanding is it’s very much an unsettled science, unlike climate change, which is a settled science even if, gasp, insurance underwriters, those perfectly prescient beings, have yet to perfectly account for it (which is news to residents of Florida).
To me, the best argument for limiting minute loads to the extent possible has always been that players can get injured at any time, and it’s thus eminently sensible to not play them them when their deployment is unlikely to be consequential one way or the other.
Anyway, nothing that has happened since the Josh Hart trade has budged me from my position that Josh Hart is more beneficial to the New York Knicks at this time than a late 2023 first would’ve been/would currently be in player form.
He’s been scoring like shit this year, but 1) that’s partially because injuries have forced him into a sub-optimally large role this year and 2) his well-rounded, transition-happy game is still desperately needed by us.
Shake still needs to officially clear waivers so I don’t think he’ll be in uniform by tomorrow.
Minutes risk is probably greater than climate insurance risk, at least to the people with money on the line.
“He’s been scoring like shit this year.”
He’s averaging 12 points per 36 for his career.
Hart has been bad on offense for most of the season but has played much better recently even with a 12 Labor-esque minutes load. His shooting %s are down this year but we should expect them to pick back up at some point. That’s all that really needs to be said, we don’t need to make this a thing.
Lol, the insurance industry knows that they are too big to crash, and basically don’t have to adjust because they know the federal government will come to their rescue when South Beach is under water. And stupid folks like us arguing about Josh Hart on a message board will be the ones who pay for it. We are the underwriters.
Hart is shooting 41% from 3pt range since the All-Star break. SSS but still it’s been encouraging especially since he’s actually taking a bunch of 3s now.
This is why Josh Hart is a thing right now:
Hubert:
E:
D-Mar: Can the Hart haters maybe stfu for a while?
Director: Anyone still think Leon lost the Josh Hart trade in short term or long term?
Has it not been 48hrs? I’d think it would be prior to game time tomorrow, no?
Please guys, to come say stupid things about basketball, that’s ok by me, but not about climate change.
Are the insurance companies worried if we’ll leave a inhabitable planet to our grandchildren in 2100? Of course not, they’re worried about the near future. But the problem is that climate change is like the Titanic, unless we reverse course in time, we are doomed.
I sincerely hope no one here is a climate change denier!
He literally just asked if anyone still thinks that Leon lost the Josh Hart trade in the short or long term and that Cam Reddish + Kris Murray < Josh Hart. Oh, and he was particularly excited about his 19-rebound night and so stated that we should "send Portland a future 2nd rounder as a gratuity," clearly in jest.
I don't think that was a swipe at the Hart Haterz, as there don't seem to be any strong anti-Hart positions, but if you do feel strongly negative about the Hart trade, that's not a crazy take, just defend it. The guy was just happy about an outstanding performance that led to a big win, sheesh.
DRed, that’s a good question. He agreed to a buyout on March 1. Assuming he actually went on waivers at the end of that day, he had to wait 48 hours to see if anyone claimed him. That would be the evening of the third at the earliest. So today is basically the earliest he could be signed.
Note that he could theoretically be picked up on waivers by us or by some other team. But I consider that unlikely because the team that did that would have to take his full $10 M, two-year contract. We have a trade exception so we could do it but it would put us in the tax and we probably also don’t want to commit to the 24-25 season. I think other teams who might want him will be in the same boat since teams who want help for a stretch run rarely have cap space.
Edit: my reply crossed some others on this topic
Yeah, but that takes time and effort and makes it look like you’re hogging the thread’s bandwidth.
There aren’t any Hart Haterz here. I’m certainly not one.
But he’s one of Thibs’s boys and that carries a lot of ancillary … stuff … with it.
Doc Brown is employed by the Clippers. The only explanation I have for their 89-88 score from last night is time traveling back to the 90s.
I like Dr. Brown black cherry.
In regards to Brunson’s injury, which happened the first few minutes into the game, after he took the last 2 games off? Yes, fuck those agenda driven assholes.
Yeah, … and makes it look like you’re hogging the thread’s bandwidth.
Only 17 posts in a 98 post thread, so I wouldn’t be sensitive to that if I were you..
I counted 18 out of 99, which is dangerously close to E having 20% of all the posts. No kidnapping to be seen here!
Bojan v Bogdan next game
Bojan and Burkjan v Bogdan
precious versus jalen johnson, that’s gonna be a tough matchup…
hopefully bogey cuts loose some more…
I’m liking bogey so far…and yeah, if alec is only playing 10 minutes or so right now, that should be okay…
no ball handling duties for alec it seems…it’s going to take a few good games for him to get out of the circle of zero trust…
The average person doesn’t know anything about the super cat insurance underwriting business. It’s too complicated. They will just parrot the mainstream narrative. It’s a complex cyclical business that puts less competent players out of business fast.
I’ve been following Berkshire Hathaway since 1986. Over that time I learned a lot about insurance, but my understanding is infantile compared to Warren’s and Ajit’s.
However, it’s obvious if there was any evidence at all of more frequent and bigger storms coming, he’d either be raising prices or exiting the business. At most right now he’s capping his losses at an amount that his business can handle using re-insurance.
To my knowledge the greatest investor in history and the greatest super cat insurance writer in history (Ajit Jain) are still both putting their money where his mouth is.
The primary risks for them (which they can account for) are population growth, economic growth, inflation of replacement costs and things like that. The same exact storm will cost a lot more if there are more people, houses, cars, businesses, buildings etc… in the area than in the past. That doesn’t mean the storm was worse. It just means the cost was worse. So high growth places are sure to see higher costs from storms in the future.
When/if warming temperatures actually start changing things, the very best insurance writers like Ajit Jain will be among the first to know. It won’t be a reporter or even a scientist with nifty model.
Hollinger has a really good article in the Athletic today. His first part is on three point shooting versus two point shooting and then he talks about why the Celtics are so hard to beat. After that he discusses the Sloan conference and the state of Analytics. He makes the following point related to our recent discussion here.
For the full article see
https://theathletic.com/5315474/2024/03/04/celtics-nba-future-three-point-shooters-sloan-analytics-conference/
hi cyber, I find the subject of weather to be fascinating…particularly over long periods of time…
of particular interest is the time period prior to the last glacial maximum period – at around 25k bce to 30k bce in how it relates to human migrations…
have you seen “the line” that’s getting built in Saudi?
it’ll be interesting to see how folks adapt to this wild and erratic weather…it’s here, it is going to get more extreme…
humans have been dealing with severe weather changes since forever…
can you imagine half the world covered in snow and ice…
I think maybe it’s the pollution aspect of climate change that bugs me the most…
a lot of human progress has led to a blight on the ecosystem…
I’m not so optimistic on the weather becoming less extreme, but, I do think we can get our planet cleaned up…I’m hopeful of that…
GUYS GUYS GUYS
Ian Begley confirms that Brunson avoided a serious knee injury and will be questionable for tomorrow.
Relief.
Edit: Alan was faster.
I was feeling optimistic but it is great to see that confirmed.
I guess he basically hit the funny bone in his knee? Didn’t even know that was a thing.
Mitchell on the other hand seems more hurt than expected, and the Cavs have a pretty tough schedule ahead (Celtics, @Hawks, Wolves, Nets, Suns, @Pelicans). They’ve ruled him out for the next three games already.
Yes! Brunson news.
@KnickFan — Thx. Nice link. Won’t be surprised if there are soon (more?) Performance Science Consultants monitoring all manner of personal data from the players during the season: sleep cycle, heart rate variance, VO2Max variation, etc.
@Cyber — is pick incineration a byproduct of global warming 😉
Let him sit out the Atlanta game, see how he’s doing after that.
I’m sorry if I offended anyone about the Josh Hart trade…wasn’t my intent. Simply overjoyed that he dominated on the defensive end shutting down both Streuss and Liang and everyone else he guarded while helping close lanes for Garland, dominated Allen and Mobley on the boards, hit the game winning three and flirted with Donovan Mitchel telling him that he’s chain is nice.
You can say that he schooled some cats in Cleveland, messed around and got a triple double.
Lastly, I think its fair to say that measuring Hart value solely by TS% and usage, – is the equivalent judging a fish by its ability to climb a tree.
Hope this helps.
More importantly, we were told that OG had surgery on or before February 8th.
Do we know of any other basketball players who had same exact surgery and the exact time it took them to show up to work. Think Curry had a similar surgery…how long did he take?
Could we expect OG back later this sweek?
When it comes to the Knicks, I don’t know if this actually makes me feel better
Yeah but all those extra 3s his peers take and make contribute more to winning than Josh Hart’s rebounds.
A guy like Sam Merrill is a lot more valuable than Josh Hart this year. That’s why the Cavs didn’t miss a beat without two starters and we’re crumbling without OG & Randle.
It’s like having a QB who is a great runner but can’t throw. It’s cool you can kick ass in the wildcat but your position is for throwing the football.
A wing who can’t shoot is death. No amount of rebounds can compensate for not doing the most important aspect of your job.
And considering guys like Merrill (and even Sam Hauser of Boston, another Sam having a much better year than Hart) were available for next to nothing, yes, I maintain giving up a first round pick for a guy who is currently carrying a -0.5 bpm was a bad idea.
I don’t know anything about the micro practices of insurance companies, but I can tell you first hand that the changing weather patterns in California have led the major insurance companies to drop a lot of existing policy holders and make it very difficult to add new policies. This has been going on for 5 years, ever since “fire season” has become a dependable rite of fall. Whether Climate Change as a global phenomenon is responsible for California’s drought or not is, I suppose, open to discussion, but, regardless, the climate has changed here and insurance companies don’t know how to handle it. (And as they try to figure it out, it is changing again. Flood season! Woohoo!)
@wojespn
Toronto Raptors center Kelly Olynyk has agreed on a two-year, $26.25 million contract extension, Jeff Schwartz of
@excelbasketball tells ESPN. Deal is the max that Olynyk was able to extend on.
Wow…how much is iHart getting thsi summer?
Come on, maaaannnnnn
Olynyk can shoot, unlike Hart
Is he confirming it? Or is he just quoting Thibs’ post game comment? It seems like the latter, and I don’t think we have any official good news yet beyond the x ray, which puts him in the same category as Randle.
I don’t know what to make of blanket statements like these?
Josh Hart Career TS% .574 3pt% 34.7
Scotty Pippen Career TS% .536 3pt% 32.6
Yes, my head is indeed exploding at that one post. Ah, well.
It’s no contest, Director:
Sam Merrill 2.6 bpm
Josh Hart -0.5 bpm
There’s a reason we’re losing so much with Hart playing 40 mins a game (largely with Brunson, DDV, and iHart).
You’re entitled to love the effort (and I, too, loved the chain pull), but the wing who works half as hard and hits his shots is more valuable than the one who plays hard and rebounds.
The way he worded it is pretty definitive, and is new information rather than repeating last night’s press conference. Begley is always very careful with this stuff, so it is genuinely good news.
Director NYC says
I think he was just yanking his chain. That is why his name is Josh. (Said with a straight face)
Not every team is lucky enough to have a Sam Merrill… Of course, he’s playing behind noted non-shooters Okoro & LeVert
Honestly, maybe he shouldn’t be based on those numbers but that’s because those numbers are really really good
The reason the Cavs didn’t trade a first for a solid veteran wing is because they don’t have any picks to trade. That guy who quit posting after being wrong about the OG trade complained about this all summer. Yes, you absolutely can get cheap league averagish performance from some Sam guy the problem is nobody seems to know how to do that consistently.
DRed said
Yes. A blow to the common peroneal nerve as it passes over the head of the Fibula if it is hit at just the right angle. It causes drop foot.
Since we seem to be infatuated with small sample size theater tonight… for your viewing pleasure:
2015-16 Cole Aldrich TS% .620 BPM 2.4 800 minutes
Picking one stat over a 626 minute sample size is a pretty funny way to make a cogent point about relative value of players. Merrill is a wonderful pure shooter but are we sure he could stay on the floor without two 7 foot shot blockers on the floor backstopping him cleaning up his messes on the other side of the floor? Will he be the next Steve Kerr… time will tell. Rational guys just seem to get married to positions and then try some convoluted ways of justifying them.
When I saw the original injury there were two salient clues: first he didn’t grab his knee or his ankle, he grabbed just below the knee laterally around the head of the Fibula, and then when he tried to walk, his ankle supinated, yet he didn’t seem to be in pain from the ankle. I thought he must have sustained an avulsion fracture where the insertion of the Peroneus Longus tears away from the bone. But it seems as if a thump to the nerve supply in that area could cause the same symptoms.
Hart’s shooting this year is waaaaay off from his career norms. In a typical Josh Hart season he is not a brutal shooter. He seems to be regressing (progressing, I guess) back to that mean although still has some stinker games because he is shooting more than he should because of the injuries.
BrunsonPeroneusLongus might be the best username in Knickerblogger history.
Josh Hart’s career TS% is 57%.
Fair enough. Nit successfully picked 🙂 I typed it as they list it in BB reference website under the column TS%. And if we are going for the nit picking HOF Hart’s TS% is 57.4
I thought it apropos at the time….
I don’t get why there is a controversy about Josh Hart.
If you need scoring, Josh Hart is not the answer.
If you have your #1, #2 and #3 scoring options, Josh Hart will add more value with his defense, excess rebounding, assists and critical plays relative to the typical wing than adding another guy that’s a better scorer but average at other things.
There are only so many shots in a game. What good are a 4th and 5th option that are capable of scoring more if they don’t get more shots and can’t do anything else above average? It would help if Hart could also score, but what you generally want is for those 4th and 5th players to add excess value in other ways the way Hart does.
Of course, if there are a lot of injuries to your scorers (like now), Josh Hart is not going to be the guy you can count on to up his usage and remain efficient. Someone else is going to have to step up. But that other player may add less value over the course of the season than Hart.
As to his lower efficiency this year, I suspect some of that has been his knee issues. He’s not going to the rim as much and when he does he’s not finishing quite as well as in the past. He may be avoiding as much contact and settling for jumpers more.
Damn, no Giannis, I guess I’m not watching Bucks-Clippers tonight
If Josh Hart had been shooting at his career level no one would have been talking about how bad he’s been this year.
Notably, you haven’t heard a peep from me (or anyone, I think) the last few weeks bc he’s finally been playing pretty well.
It was a weird day pick a fight with “the haters”, considering most of us have been giving him plenty of praise.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Au contraire, dear Hubert. We’ve heard quite a lot from E regarding Josh Hart in the past few weeks, and in unflattering ways.
Just saying. 🙂
Everything the Celtics are doing this year would indicate otherwise.
Brown, Tatum, Holiday and KP all have salary cap figures this season over 31m. Josh Hart’s salary cap hit this season is slightly below 13m.
Strat wasn’t talking about the top 4 guys. Their bench is shooter, shooter, shooter, shooter, which flies in the face of his (and Thib’s) belief that you need hustlebunnies to support your top players.
Brunson is OK? OMG, now i know why Alan was always asking for GIF powers!
ThankYouDearSweetBabyJesus.GIF 😀
LOLOL
Yeah, i’ve seen it. Crazy project, no? Let’s say i want to go to the other side of “town”, it can be 100 miles away!? LOL
I think we’ll adapt, of that i’m sure, how many of us is the question. I agree humans, and earth itself, have been through a lot of changes and this is nothing new. But this is man made and we should try to undo our wrongdoing. We should work towards the goal of leaving a better world for our children not a worse one.
That is a good starting point, Geo, we need to drastically reduce the pollution we make every year.
I expect them to rest Brunson tomorrow even if he is good to go. It is not difficult to score on the Hawks who have the second worst defensive rating in the league. Their offense is very potent however and Deuce seems up to the task of disrupting DJM. He’ll probably log in another 40+ minutes. I am more concerned, and a bit anxious about Hart’s minutes but, given the Knicks situation as well as his impact, I cannot make a serious argument he should be playing less. Good thing he was at about 24 minutes per game before the injury bug struck. Let’s hope he still has something in the tank.
Knicks Fan, just getting around to the Hollinger piece. It’s good, thanks for the link.
Hubert, if you haven’t read it, you should, given your posting. Talks about the Celtics make-up, and also the possibility we’re maxing out on three-point shooting. Among other things. Interesting stuff.
Really enjoyed this KFS thread about the tactical stuff they are doing without their stars:
https://x.com/knickfilmskool/status/1764709467785171422
Is it possible there’s more than one way to build a good basketball team?
Sounds like Hollinger is saying the same thing…
We won’t try it bc coach only wants defenders and rebounders to round out the roster. The league is leaving Josh Hart-Precious Achiuwa-Jericho Sims frontlines in the dust while our coach is leaning into them.
If the Celtics lost Horford and Porzingis they would be leaning heavily into Luke Kornet and someone named Neemias Queta
Didn’t Hollinger also say that most teams have gotten to the point where they are taking too many 3s and aren’t making a high enough % of them to justify it?
‘We won’t try it bc coach only wants defenders and rebounders to round out the roster. The league is leaving Josh Hart-Precious Achiuwa-Jericho Sims frontlines in the dust while our coach is leaning into them.’
Hubert, I like you (on the interweb) and periodically agree with you, but this really seems like beating a dead horse. You want Thibs to start iHart, Bogey, and Burks as the frontline? Really? Cuz they’re all shooters… I’m pretty sure that’d work…
We do not have a roster of shooters from 1-10. I give you that. As Hollinger intimates, maybe that’s also not quite the way to go (unless you have a suite of all-stars as your starting cohort, like the Celtics).
We’re also not the Warriors of the mid-teens. Yeah, I’ll give you that one too, I wish we had Steph instead of Hart.
I’m not convinced that a team of “beat the other team into submission” is a losing proposition in 2024. We may not know as we’ve lost most of our beaters, but January certainly suggested it was a potential winner.
But they wouldn’t be benching Bojan for Precious.
who the fuck is benching bojan dude? He’s 34, he can’t defend and he’s been on the team for 8 games. We had a really nice win yesterday and our best player-who I thought was done for the season when he couldn’t move his foot-is probably fine. Why have you spent the whole day bitching about Josh Hart and Thibs? Can we not fucking enjoy a Knicks win for a day?
All bow to the GM.
Thibs quote: “ask the medical” 😂😂😂
anybody going to the warriors game 3/18? i live in sf and don’t know any knick fans.