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138 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2024.04.03)”
New York @ Miami L 99-109 Record 44-31
Random thoughts after another loss (this time predictable):
1. It’s hard, it’s gloom, it’s frustrating, but it is what it is.
This team has a big heart, an undisputed star, a good coach*, droves of excellent complementary players that make for a high-end supporting cast (I-Hart, Mitch’s healthy version, DDV, Deuce, J-Hart and yes, even Bojan).
They never quit and always fight till the end**, but with our entire starting frontcourt out*** we miss not only talent, reducing our margin of error basically to zero (see JB’s 61-points game), but physicality and strenght.
The long Thunder and the strong Heat took advantage, no matter how brave and how “bigger than their size” the Deuces and J-Harts of the world play.
And there’s no small team in the East playoffs bracket, so barring the cavalry coming in brace yourself for a valiant but probably painful losing effort, maybe even a sweep, no matter who we’ll play (it’s why I’m indifferent about the seeding, the only meaningful thing right now is HEALTH).
2. That said, I’m still optimistic about OG and Julius being back.
To me OG’s lone presence would change this team in a meaningful way, while I’m a bit more worried about Jules, because his play is so dependent on bullying opponents.
And I wonder if, with him in the fold, the offense will go back to be more iso-heavy or the “new” passing & cutting version ignited by I-Hart, DDV (and Deuce) will stay.
3. I hope I-Hart’s 18-minutes yesterday were a “load management” thing, because it doesn’t make sense at all having him out down the stretch.
I said it before, especially in the current state of our roster there’s a team with I-Hart and a team without him, they’re totally different and one’s much much much better than the other.
I’ll never question Precious’ effort, but his instincts and BB-IQ are below average, he’s a good energy backup with great athleticism but games like yesterday are out of his range (and no, his tip-in tying basket doesn’t change my opinion, it’s “just” an athletic play, while been unable to box-out over and over is one of his missing fundamentals… š )
4. We can’t win games when JB scores 61, how can we pretend to win games where he shoots like shit and J-Hart (that I love, as everybody know) give us 46 minutes of 4-versus-5 on offense?
Alas we wasted very good games from our new offensive star Deuce McBride, Streaky Donte and Bojan (who was even a bit unlucky, he had two shots, including a three, bouncing out of the basket).
5. If Tom Thibodeau thinks Alec Burks is cooked… then is REALLY cooked!
That part of the Detroit trade I’ll never forgive…
6. As an aside, we’ll never be able to win a game with the Heat with this kind of whistle.
We’re not the only team complaining about it****, but the refereeing level this year has been extremely low, in particular about “consistency” of calls during games. Fuck the refs.
* Albeit not free from flaws and quirks, some worse than others.
The pros, cons and my preference about the Knicks’ coaching job are not today’s argument… š
** And often spend a lot of energy climbing back from holes they put themselves into with some questionable first halves.
*** I’m all for starting I-Hart even with Mitch at his best, but you know what I mean. And his current version is, a shell of himself.
**** I’m still astonished about our rob of the Pistons…
To my fellow Knick’s fans:
“These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
Suck it up boys. Tape an aspirin to it. The Knicks are a very good team when heathy. Will they be healthy in time for the playoffs, no one knows? But it is all about the journey. Plenty of good teams have had their season aborted by the injury blight. We aren’t special.
No peeing in the foxhole today, please!
Iām not really in the foxhole, though. Iām kinda on a hilltop with binoculars eating popcorn.
And Iām not here to criticize the Knicks. Itās not anyoneās fault that things look bleak right now.
The cavalry never came, though, and itās beginning to look like weāre fucked.
When we win the championship and meet in the Canyon of Heroes, we will all look back at January 2024 as the time we first knew it was possible.
Here’s the thing about January 2024, though… The Tortoise and the Hare isn’t about how fast the hare was before he took a nap.
I have a very sour taste in my mouth after the last three games but I still love the team. Refs suck btw.
Wemby had a great sequence I saw a clip of on Twitter. Two buckets and two blocks of Jokic in succession. Had 8 assists and 9 blocks. Also went 9-29 and 2-11 from three. Jokic and Gordon conmbined to 27-44 and 8-9 from the line.
The thing is, the Knick’s hare didn’t take a nap… somebody came along and amputated his foot for a charm. š
January did show the team as presently constructed might not be a fav to win the title, but certainly a legit contender with lots of tools to improve.
I am thrilled to be a Knick fan today, even though I might not be getting the meth like instant gratification I crave from fandom.
Tom Thibodeau continues to play a wing over 40 minutes a night who has a .507 TS% on 13.3 USG.
I don’t know about that…. you are awfully participatory to be sitting on a hillside eating popcorn… š
iHart I guess didn’t play much because of his wrist?
The most participatory any of us can get is sitting in the stands and yelling “MVP!” when Brunson shoots FTs
We’re not in the foxhole, we’re viewing a live stream of the “war” on twitch while spamming pepes
“Weāre not in the foxhole, weāre viewing a live stream of the āwarā on twitch while spamming pepes”
What does “spamming pepes” mean? I looked it up before querying here, but didn’t find anything that seemed to clarify the context. Yes, I do know what Twitch is, but just barely, and kind of wish that I didn’t.
I hope and pray not to be pointed to another link to a Downtown Julie Brown video. š
Haha. Praying it grows back.
And wubba wubba wubba, always god bless š
You guys keep managing to remind me how much I disliked Downtown Julie. š
Could be a reference to Pepe the Frog, a meme appropriated by the alt-right.
Pepe says “wubba.” Oops. I guess I need to broaden my online reading š
It was deliberately inscrutable to 90% of the board, but …
Spam: Posting a large quantity of the same thing in a short interval
Pepe: a weird drawing of a frog that has been depicted showing various emotions. Twitch really loves it, or did, I don’t spend much time on twitch.
Not sure if Pepe is still an alt-right thing or not. Twitch itself isn’t so bad, Jowles, and maybe Strat, probably watch Hikaru Nakamura playing blitz chess against random people
Thanks, EBW. Reading the Wikipedia page for Pepe the Frog immediately made me happy to be ignorant about all of it. I don’t know how people have time for it. After spending most of my day working, handling various personal errands, dabbling in daily fantasy sports just a very small amount, and spending time with my girlfriend, I don’t have time for anything else other than getting some sleep. Then again, I’m not a particularly high-energy guy.
It just started out as a goofy image that was funny to share
Lordy. “Blitz chess.” Don’t know what that is, either. Not even going to look that one up.
re iHart: Is that “sprained wrist” a better problem than the achilles? I’m getting lost in triage.
The only Pepe I know is the skunk.
Same.
š
I’m focused on the Candidates Tournament.
I’m not sure why I enjoy following chess when I’m not any good at it and rarely play, but I do.
I’m not reacting much to these losses. I’m more or less resigned to the fact that we aren’t going to do much this year unless OG and Randle are back with a few games left in the season so they can shake off the rust.
If not, I’m looking forward to next year, curious about what we’ll do with our two picks, wondering if we’ll make a big deal or just try to fill out the bench etc…
I love J-Hart, but his unwillingness and inability to shoot this year causes me grief while I am watching all the rebounds, assists and key saves. I’m not sure why he’s been so inefficient this year, but it would not shock me if he’s been playing in pain all year with that knee and it’s impacting his results.
This is a weird equivalence you’re creating.
Just because I think we might have tipped to the wrong side of the knife’s edge doesn’t mean I’m miserable or mad.
I too am thrilled to be a Knicks fan today. My rational mind is just telling me this season might have run its course.
But they did push an unsustainable pace too early in the race and broke down shortly thereafter.
I imagine most of the top 10-12 NBA teams could put together one sterling month if they sold out the long race and treated every game like game 7. Most choose not to do that, though, because the risks are too high.
We ignored the risk and paid the expected price. Correlation or causation, none of us will ever know, but we should be smart enough not to try it again next year.
I wonder if 76ersblogger blames Nurse every day for all the games Embiid played while he was noticeably limping before he got shutdown.
It’s a weird sport to be a fan of. On the one hand, I’m not any good at basketball relative to NBA players. On the other hand, I can understand who is winning, how much they’re winning by, and why they’re winning.
For chess, you only understand who, why, and how much to the extent you’re good at chess. Perhaps it’s due to the commentators and computers doing a good job dumbing it down for all of us.
Yep… when your entire starting front court misses 30 plus games at the same time it is pretty hard to do well. Everyone’s rational mind understands this.
It is looking like the medical team has decided to hold Randle and OG out as long as possible doing PT and individual non-contact drills to get them as healthy as possible for the first round of the playoffs, thinking they can win a first round series with an 80% OG and a 50% Randle playing limited minutes. Sort of like using the playoff first round as a pre-season for them.
The thing that bothers me about OG tendinopathy diagnosis is the only way to get it better is to rest the hinge, but a 3 point shooter needs to snap that joint a couple of hundred times a day to keep his shooting eye sharp from 3 and the FT line.
It’s all so bloody sub optimal, but no whining allowed….
Yes.
I know the first 5-6 moves and variations of the PK4 opening but after that I am relying on a computer to tell me the best next move and commentators to explain what I can’t see or understand on the board. But that seems to be enough for me to enjoy it and look at the rankings and ratings.
I don’t get that as a point, as Nurse has 100% received criticism over that, plus people have been complaining about him playing people too many minutes for years. He’s just an odd example when “Playing people too many minutes” is, like, one of the main criticisms people have of Nick Nurse!
The “unsustainable pace” had nothing to do with Randle’s freak season threatening injury.
Mitch has sprained, broken feet and ankles scores of times in his career playing limited minutes. Everybody understands your argument that every time a player grimaces, he needs multiple scans to keep him playing. We’ve heard it about as many times as Mitch has limped on a BB court.
We can continue repeating what has transpired but I’d like my breakfast to stay down. What is seldom said is that those wins garnered in January are the only thing giving us a chance to avoid the play in today.
Maybe if Dr Christian Barnard and Florence Nightingale’s illegitimate son was coaching the Knicks this season, no one would have gotten a scratch, but somehow I doubt it.
Really? Nurse won a championship and is considered one of the best coaches, dunno where all this criticism has been.
And yet, the universally respected Morey hand selected Nurse to coach is team with the most fragile superstar in the Universe. Imagine that!
I guess Morey doesn’t buy into that criticism.
You saw last night how Josh Hart can kill your team against smart coaches/defenses. He took 3 shots in 46 minutes and wasn’t being defended at all.
Thibs has 1 year left on his contract and if the front office can’t trust him to manage the roster he is given he shouldn’t be a lock for a contract extension. Knicks should call up Jay Wright and check on his interest in the job.
Sure, people like Nurse overall, but they also complained a lot about how much he played Embiid when it was clear Embiid was hurt, and his minutes usage has been complained about for years.
We don’t know that.
Why do some dislocations tear muscles while others don’t? Both the intensity of impact and the condition of the muscle at the time of impact are contributing factors.
I have intentionally avoided blaming Randle’s injury on anyone because the details are incredibly cloudy. But likewise you absolutely cannot acquit the overuse just because there was impact involved.
They do.
What they don’t do is point at Tom Thibodeau to exonerate Nurse. “Another fool exists,” isn’t a very compelling defense.
am I allowed to use the “b” word or is Raven gonna get mad at me again
A sampling for your enjoyment, BBA (as you can see, the criticism of Nurse goes back to his Raptors time, as well):
I actually like the plan of play more and don’t get hurt dumbass!
One can’t know for sure, but I’m pretty sure it was Embiid who wanted to stay in that game against the Knicks when Philly was down almost 40 points, just so that he could continue his 30 point streak.
Which speaks to how most coaches will tend to go with their players’ wishes too.
Oh, that was definitely Embiid’s call, agreed. What Nurse could be criticized for was playing Embiid against Golden State after sitting him against Denver. Again, Embiid definitely wanted to play because people were giving him shit about missing the game against Denver, but the coach’s responsibility is to say, “Yeah, I know you’re afraid of people making fun of you for ‘dodging’ Denver, but you’re clearly not healthy, so you’re going to sit another game.”
Plus, to be fair, the NBA’s games requirement for MVP was also a driving force in Embiid playing more games than he probably should have. He wanted to be eligible for MVP, so it was hard to get him to sit.
Evaluating our play since the injuries hit is kind of a Rorschach Test.
We’re 15-14 since January 29, which was the first game both OG and Randle missed. That feels like something we all would’ve signed up for, though it’s only 12-14 if you go with a stricter “neither OG nor Randle in the lineup” filter since OG infamously came back for 3 wins.
During that time the only genuinely surprising development to me has been a positive one: Deuce looks not just like an NBA rotation player, but an NBA playoffs rotation player. I won’t keep spamming the numbers because you all can see them, but they’re very good and the sample size is only getting larger. I’m very, very happy we drafted and extended that guy.
And yet, I’m definitely feeling a kind of malaise. There’s just not much to talk about–we’ll either get our guys back healthy in which case I’m still a strong believer, or we won’t and winning a series will be an uphill battle.
Somewhat legitimate silver lining: this stretch has improved our draft pick significantly, and if we get our guys back that will be a kind of no-cost asset improvement.
Randle’s minutes in January before his injury
Minnesota 1/1 – 36
Chicago – 1/3 -39
Philly – 1/5 – 30
WAS – 1/6 – 38
POR – 1/9 – 32
DAL – 1/11 – 37 (L)
MEM – 1/13 – 36
ORL – 1/15 – 38 (L)
HOU – 1/17 – 34
WAS – 1/18 – 39
TOR – 1/20 – 32
NETS – 1/23 – 37
DEN – 1/25 – 30
MIA – 1/27 – 32 (injured in this one with 6ish minute left)
There’s not a single game in January where Randle played 40 minutes or more. Out of those 14 games, only 4 of them are 38 minutes or more.
The idea that Randle was overworked in January is ridiculous.
OG is a different story but can we please stop this?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sKf0MOtpuRc&pp=ygUUUmFuZGxlIGludXVyZWQgbWlhbWk%3D Randle was injured with 4:27 left in the game and the Knicks up 17.
Since I’m bored…here’s OG numbers in January:
Minnesota 1/1 ā 35
Chicago ā 1/3 -34
Philly ā 1/5 ā 37
WAS ā 1/6 ā 31
POR ā 1/9 ā 29
DAL ā 1/11 ā 39 (L)
MEM ā 1/13 ā 32
ORL ā 1/15 ā 44 (L)
HOU ā 1/17 ā 43
WAS ā 1/18 ā 43
TOR ā 1/20 ā 37
NETS ā 1/23 ā 33
DEN ā 1/25 ā 29
MIA ā 1/27 ā 34
Obviously the ORL, HOU, WAS stretch is bad with HOU and WAS being on back to backs. But other than that you have DAL 4 days prior at 39 minute and everything else is perfectly reasonable.
I’m just not seeing this idea that we were going a thousand percent in January and that’s what cause these injuries. Mitch wasn’t even playing. We blew out a good amount of teams during this stretch, too.
C’mon now Hubert, be reasonable. Randle’s injury was cause by a freak backward fall and the force of a 260lb man falling on his elbow translating the energy of deceleration through his humorous causing his Humeral Head to slide off its normal resting place on the Glenoid Fossa. We don’t know the precise damage other than that.
You are talking about a guy with just about the strongest collateral musculature around that joint of any human imaginable.
It wasn’t like he just did 30 reps with 225 pounds an the NFL combine on the bench and fatigued the surrounding musculature, and it popped out of joint when someone shook his hand. That injury was not cause by fatigue of his right shoulder. It was a freak accident. Shit happens and it is sometimes unavoidable. Freak accidents are called freak accidents for a reason.
I suppose we could blame Thibs for the Ozone hole, if we really wanted to….
Thibs’ Culpability in our Injuries IMO, Ranked:
Obviously Culpable: OG
-Maybe it was too late at this point, we’ll never know, but leaving him in a game after he yelped out in pain like a hit dog was psychotic.
Presumptively Culpable: Mitch
-Reinserted into a game after he was badly limping as a player with a history of lower body injuries. Throw the medical staff under the bus if it makes you feel better, a lot of other coaches wouldn’t have done it.
Fair to Question Culpability: iHart
-Started having achilles issues after a 17 game stretch (12/18 to 1/18) in which he averaged 35 MPG, having never reached even 20 MPG in the past.
Not Culpable: Randle
-It was a freak injury in a situation that was hardly ripe for yanking the starters. Seriously, zero NBA coaches are doing that up 17 with significant time to play in an important game against a good team. Minute totals leading up to the game were not remotely anomalous.
And frankly his arthritic elbow takes more abuse in daily practice where he is hoisting up 100’s of long range shots that it does in the game.
Hive mind: can we please stop arguing about the minutes?
Also hive mind: But before we stop I just want to drop 9 or 10 posts to definitively declare Thibs did absolutely nothing wrong and you’re all out of line for criticizing him.
Hive mind: ok now that we’ve repeated ourselves for the 100th time, please stop bc we’re sick and tired of you guys repeating yourselves.
This is also not what we did, you’ve just made that up to get mad about. Brunson played slightly fewer minutes in January than he did in Decenmber and November. OG averaged 35 mpg with the Knicks after averaging 34 mpg in December with Toronto. Donte played 27 mpg. I Hart averaged 32 mpg. Those are all normal NBA minute loads.
Perfectly reasonable. The only thing I’m curious about is the interaction between the coach and the player while this was going on, on the court. Had OG experienced similar twinges during practice, and they dissipated? I just find it hard to believe a guy looking down the barrel of a 150M payday wouldn’t have pulled himself immediately from the game if it wasn’t expected in some way. It is puzzling without complete information.
I’ll understand a coach’s refusal to pull his team’s best players as soon as teams cease firing recent-NBA-champion coaches for not winning more championships
Didn’t Mitch get hurt right before halftime, got pulled from the game then after being evaluated by the medical staff during halftime was cleared to play?
deleted my comment, I think I was looking at last year
It is what we did.
As I’ve said before, the larger minutes samples obscure the actual periods of minutes abuse, which tend to be shorter and more acute.
Like when we had 3 games in 4 nights and Thibs played OG in 135 of 144 possible minutes, plus Hartenstein complete halves in back to back games. Hartenstein’s injury woes started immediately after. It took a week for OG to be lost.
“Obviously Culpable: OG
-Maybe it was too late at this point, weāll never know, but leaving him in a game after he yelped out in pain like a hit dog was psychotic.”
…so psychotic that OG was cleared by medical to play in the very next game.
Really, this sort of characterization of a relatively common coaching practice is ridiculously hyperbolic and unnecessarily inflammatory (get the reference?). There are plenty of more appropriate adjectives to choose from.
“Presumptively Culpable: Mitch
-Reinserted into a game after he was badly limping as a player with a history of lower body injuries. Throw the medical staff under the bus if it makes you feel better, a lot of other coaches wouldnāt have done it.”
Many other coaches and medical staffs in many sports do it all the time. Many don’t. Thibs is clearly on one side of the median but he is not an outlier.
New York Basketball
@NBA_NewYork
Knicks 4 days:
āTuesday: Play in Miami
āWednesday: Arrive in New York
āThursday: Play Kings, Fly to Chicago
āFriday: Play in Chicago
Bulls 4 days:
āTuesday: (nothing)
āWednesday: (nothing)
āThursday: (nothing)
āFriday: Play Knicks
Hmm
do you ever miss working BPL?
what the heck do you do with your time all day?
are you busy doing stuff, or mostly just chilling?
as time goes by, it’s looking less and less likely I’ll re-enter the workforce…
According to Brian Windhorst, Donovan Mitchell is currently playing on an injured knee.
Guys the medical staff clearing someone is a necessary, not sufficient, condition. Without such clearance the coach does not even have the option to play a guy. Every time an NBA coach has made an actual decision to not play someone, that player was “cleared” by the medical staff. If you think that provides blanket cover for any coaching decision, then no coach in NBA history has ever played a player when he shouldn’t have.
That’s all it takes.
Load management 101 = take it easy on back-to-backs and in periods of high congestion.
When I say Thibs sold out the long game for the short, what I mean is he blatantly ignored this tenet and did the opposite of what you’re supposed to do.
https://twitter.com/sny_knicks/status/1775379003571949988
Kudos to Thibs for saying this. Brunson isn’t getting the respect from the referees that he should’ve been getting.
Except, Hubs, that those wins, um, do matter.
Right now January is keeping us out of the play-in.
Look, this has been an interesting debate and I don’t blame us for talking about it day after day right now cause that’s all there really is to talk about (which SUCKS).
And I think you bring up good points.
But I think it’s really hard to ask a coach during a close game to pull one of his best players because him playing a lot of minutes in one particular game MIGHT lead to an injury several weeks later. It was one stretch of 3 games with OG. Other than that his minutes were totally reasonable. And we went 2-1 in those games. A coach shouldn’t have to wave the white flag every time a player approaches 40 minutes or just because they played a lot of minutes the night before. I mean, OG had 3 days off before that stretch and then a few days off after it and afterwards had a couple of games where he played light minutes.
Is Thibs supposed to know “oh tomorrow night OG might play a lot of minutes, so I’m gonna yank him tonight.”
I think the bigger issue with Thibs is the lack of trust on bench guys. IT seems to be really hard to get inside his circle of trust. And we’ve seen players like McBride do really well once given more minutes. So the question is was that level of play there and Thibs just refused to give it a shot or did he become good enough for Thibs to trust him.
I said this before the season started. Cutting down to a 9 man rotation last season when we were under 500 was a wise move. It saved that season. But I had hoped we would have a 10 man rotation this year with a full off season of Hart, McBride, etc…getting acclimated with each other. But then the season started and it was 9 minutes with HART being the back up PF, McBride not in the rotation and IQ playing limited minutes some nights.
I miss the 90’s when nobody gave a shit about minutes and load management.
Steve Popper @StevePopper
Alec Burks has switched agencies — joining Klutch with Rich Paul and Anthony Fields. Burks, who is an unrestricted free agent after this season, was with Octagon.
Future Laker
Anthony Chiang @Anthony_Chiang
The Knicks have been the NBA’s top offensive rebounding team this season. But two of of the Knicks’ five lowest offensive rebounding % games this season have come against the Heat. That includes last night when the Heat and Knicks each grabbed seven offensive boards.
On an unrelated note, Bam Adebayo is the best player in the league at getting away with things like illegal screens and loose ball fouls.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
If we know it, how come the league doesn’t seem to?
And those January injuries are what have us near the play in!
Swifty, in those back-to-backs OG averaged 45 mpg while a healthy Deuce averaged 0.
Hartenstein played 48 of 48 2nd half minutes and Precious Achiuwa played 0.
You really think that was necessary to beat the Wizards at home?
We donāt automatically lose these games by using the bench.
Hubert, you don’t actually know OG is hurt because he played a lot of minutes in a few games 10 days before he started missing games.
Anyhow, speaking of injured guys Thibs played when he shouldn’t, how did Mitch look last night? Still hobbled?
Didn’t get a chance to address yesterday but:
Geo, thank you for the thoughtfulness of your posts and the care you show for others. While I sometimes don’t understand what you’re on about, you’ve got this lovely energy as kind of the heart of KB, and you do a lot to inject humanity into this place, so that at its best it does feel like a bunch of friends shooting the shit at a bar while the game is on.
I often think of the kind of thing you talked about, how our emotions and dispositions affect those around us. I do tend towards pessimism/cynicism and melancholy in many aspects of life, and I’ve learned that in most cases and most relationships, it’s best to keep that to myself. It’s easiest with my son, because he brings so much joy that helps me forget my worries. In other relationships like with partners, I’ve learned that stating my feelings honestly about certain things will just piss them off and frustrate them. People in general I feel are biased towards optimism, and when you express feelings in the other direction they will tend to want to gaslight you in response.
There’s been some level of catharsis for me with this team because whatever has happened, they have always validated my pessimism. We don’t often talk about the good side of Dolan’s Razor, but when you feel crappy stuff is going to happen and then it reliably does, it makes you feel anchored in a way. There is a sense of unreality for me in the way the world has gone in the past few years, and this team has kind of been my North Star of shittiness, reassuring me that there is at least one aspect of the world I do understand.
Looking closer at the schedule for the end of the year, I think it’s absolutely brutal. If we lose tomorrow I think we win one more game for the rest of the year, and I am mentally moving on to the iHart sweat that IMO will define our offseason. As always I hope I’m wrong, but I’ve mostly been right the last 20 or so years, and that’ll be fine too.
Counterpoint: Since giving up IQ we actually kinda do. Remember that stat ETW posted about how we’re 2nd on offense when Brunson plays and last by a whole lot when he sits?
They know. Everyone has seen this on live TV: https://www.instagram.com/bigknickenergy/reel/Cz8iuZzOjVy/
Never forget.
I didn’t see the game but I got messages from 4 different friends complaining about Bam
Don’t forget this too: https://twitter.com/HoopMixOnly/status/1656677395863072768
I hate that fucking guy.
“If you think that provides blanket cover for any coaching decision, then no coach in NBA history has ever played a player when he shouldnāt have.”
It is not a “requirement” of a coach to second-guess the medical staff. If a coach chooses to, due to gut feeling, situation, etc., kudos to him/her. A great many coaches will play or not play players based entirely on what the medical staff tells them.
This is separate and apart from the load management discussion. I happen to agree that Thibs (and other coaches) should not play players 40+ minutes in a short span unless a) it’s a special kind of player, e.g. young Jimmy Butler, young Michael Jordan, young LeBron, or b) the games are critical and the alternatives would be too detrimental to winning said games, and even then, very selectively and carefully monitored. It’s certainly fair to say that OG and iHart were overplayed prior to their injuries. It’s also fair to question whether he should have chosen to have kept OG and Mitch in. But it should be done within reason, and with the understanding that it is not all that uncommon of a practice, either in NBA basketball or in other sports.
There is absolutely no reason to believe at this point that OG was further injured by having him play after he experienced the pain that he did (and the fact that he was cleared by medical to play the next game suggests the opposite) or that Mitch was further injured by being kept in after tweaking his ankle (and the fact that he played last night without a limp suggests the opposite.)
At the very least, there’s really no cause for hyperbole, or for bashing fellow posters for having a different take. I’ve worked on disagreeing without being utterly dismissive or vitriolic, still far from perfect but I’m trying. I hope others can do the same.
All we know is that two injury riddled players played an insane amount of minutes in a short period of time for no justifiable reason and got injured shortly after.
Iām sick and tired hearing Bam āinadvertentlyā did this and āinadvertently did that. It was the same story last night. He is clumsy at best, dirty at worst, but either way a dangerous player. Coincidence that repeats itself is no more coincidence. Disgusting!
Worth remembering that we’ve won 2 out of 3 meetings against the Heat and made a game out of it with 2 of our best players missing. So I guess I don’t really care that we’re not dominating the glass unless there’s something unsustainable underlying our victories like hot shooting.
It is unintentional injury, but reckless play leads to injuries regardless of intent, and the frequency of injuries proves it’s reckless. These should be called flagrant fouls like other recklessly dangerous plays and he doesn’t even get whistled for it.
It’s just as much on the refs & NBA for making it allowable and beneficial under the rules.
Also worth remembering, we won the regular season series just the same last year. Then Spo turned the “Bam Getting Away With Dirty Plays” and the “Scrubs Make Every 3-Point Shot” sliders all the way up to max and the rest is history.
Bamās screens remind me a lot of a certain former player in green (think Honey Nut Cheerios)
That dude used to set one illegal screen after another and never got called for it.
Why are we avoiding writing his name? I like Honey Nut Cheerios, and would rather not besmirch their name by conflating them with some past dirty Celtic player.
Ainge? Just a wild-ass guess. I can’t figure out what he might have to do with the cereal, but then again I can’t think of what *any* player might have to do with the cereal!
I know, I know, I know…
kevin garnett once stated he thought melo’s wife (at the time) would probably taste like a delicious cereal…
I think it was garnett…
We ditched proven playoff bricklayers IQ, RJ and Grimes, maybe we’ll make some shots this year.
Yes, but it had nothing to do with our offensive rebounding which was close to our regular season offensive rebounding (28% vs 27%) last season. The 8.8 Orebs we averaged against them last regular season isn’t too different from this year.
The only of the 4 factors we lost in that series was TOV%. Partly because our best defender (and also our worst defender) never forced TOs and partly because Randle is a walking TO against the Heat.
Load management came about in an era when the CBA was becoming less owner-friendly and salaries were ballooning. It wasnāt implemented to protect players from injuries, but owners and managers from insurance companies.
Popovich started it, Donnie. And he didnāt do it for the premiums. He just listened to his players and came up with a plan based on what they told him.
Did Vassell and Sochan actually get hurt right after beating the knicks or are the Spurs mini-tanking here?
I agree with you on all your injury comments today.
I want to add one more thing.
I’m not a professional athlete and have never dealt with a medical staff, but I’m willing to bet there are borderline decisions where politics play a roll in whether the medical staff clears a player or not.
On the average team, if it’s a playoff or critical game, the player is going to get the green light more often than if it’s a meaningless game they can win anyway.
On a Thibs team, the medical staff knows Thibs wants them out there as long as they can tolerate the pain and the players know Thibs wants them out there. IMO, in marginal decisions for the Knicks, the default value is the player is cleared.
Sochan didn’t play after halftime. Could be injury, could be that their tanking efforts weren’t effective with them up 74-57
By some measurements horses are faster today than they used to be. They also seem to get hurt more frequently and need more rest between races to perform at their peak level.
It’s a controversial issue, but some people think as training got more sophisticated and drug use (both legal therapeutic and illegal PEDs) more widespread, the horses got faster. So now there is more strain on muscles, ligaments, tendons and bones. They break down faster and need more “load management”.
That may apply to many human sports also.
Pop just plays Sochan at PG when he wants to tank. This was just good old fashioned Dolan’s Razor, same as how SGA missed the games right before and right after their last game against us, but made sure to stop in to crush our collective souls with yet another buzzer beater loss at MSG.
Hey Jowles, I’m in Paris at the moment. Do what you will. I don’t even know how to ask for bleach here.
However, I’m pretty sure that only Metro Boomin make it boom.
For those going on about load management and injuries and the like, you may appreciate this piece from The Ringer on the problem with injuries to pitchers in baseball. I know, different sport, yadda yadda, but there are parallels that I think can be drawn here, at least at the 10,000 ft level. And it’s maybe a better comparison than to horses.
https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2024/4/2/24118963/pitcher-injuries-crisis-mlb-study-tommy-john-ucl
Stefan Bondy @SBondyNYDN
about 26 minutes ago
Josh Hart is now questionable with a right wrist sprain. It was something that was bothering him even before the game last night (he was icing it at the morning shootaround).
Regardless of the true motives and intentions of the practice, load management in the Popovich era hasnāt been terribly effective at keeping players healthy. It just seems like itās more for the peace of mind of the guys that are on the hook for paying injured players guaranteed money.
It could explain his “more extreme than ever” reluctance to shoot yesterday…
I guess his wrist affects his dribbling, it definitely doesn’t affect his shooting.
Let’s just roll with Bojan. Maybe he can string together 2 good games in a row
Well, at least we can look forward to Precious at 45 mpg possibly improving our shooting at this point.
how was the flight raven?
do you fly a bunch?
do you have a flight routine to keep yourself from going crazy during long flights?
gonna visit family in zurich later this year, I’m already trying to get my mind right about being stuck in a box in the sky for dang near half a day…
right now trying to decide if toughing it out in coach there and back is worth the 1,800 or so from business class…
I liked your words pags…it’s very cool you didn’t wait to get to be an old man like me before deciding to try and get your head right…
I kind of have the opposite challenge from pessimism and depression – I get the mania stuff…
what may sound like optimism at times is simply an irrational perspective based on bodily chemistry…
the best thing I learned about having strong emotions – both positive and negative – is to not let it lead to risky or impulsive behavior…that can be a challenge…being aware of my mental tendencies (which greatly impact emotions) helps me control my behavior a bit better…
what you said about holding your tongue around those close to you was pretty meaniful to me…
I’m getting much better these days at simply swallowing my words…I’m very critical towards myself, others, life in general…other people don’t wanna hear that shit all the time…
thankfully life feels like a pretty long journey, so there feels like there’s always time to improve…
If Hart canāt go Iād like to see Bojan start just to see if it makes a difference. Both Breen & Clyde were pitching the notion that moving him to the bench is a bigger disruption than you might think. Of course itās still on Bojan to hit open shots, but itās worth seeing if an adjustment helps him.
I’m a business traveler and fly a ton for work. Some suggestions.
Noise cancelling headphones and a white noise app are lifesavers. Crying babies, loud kids, nervous pets don’t matter if you can throw on your headphones and block them out. You don’t need anything crazy expensive, I have Soundcore Q20 that I got for like $30 that work great.
Aisle seats are great if you want/need to get up a lot to move around/stretch. Window seats are great to sleep in because you can lean against the plane. If you have to pay to to pick a seat and make sure you don’t end up in the middle you should.
On a long flight, even if you’re not on the aisle, you should get up every couple of hours while you’re awake to move around and stretch.
Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. I don’t know if there’s a scientific reason but flights dehydrate the fuck out of you. Most decent sized airports have water bottle stations so bring a big ass, empty water bottle and fill up for the flight.
You can’t bring liquids through security but you can bring solid food. Feel free to bring food with you so you’re not limited to the expensive ass food at the airport.
Do you have a direct flight or is there a layover? Most airports that deal with a lot of international flights have mini-hotels and/or private bathrooms with showers you can rent by the hour. If you’ve got a few hours on your layover, it’s really nice to get one of these, clean yourself up, and relax away from fucking everyone for a little while.
nice TC…I normally use ear buds, but will go with headphones, sweats and sandals…
nice reminder on the fluids…
.
will do the direct flight with swiss air…
I have a feeling some muscle relaxants and edibles will be on the flight menu š
Go Pels and Suns!
(and Nets)
Evil Donte with 26 points tonight, thus far (4 minutes left in the third quarter).
31 points at the end of the third quarter. Who knew he even had that in him?
Jeezus. Dude’s gonna get 40, more than likely.
A little Flynnsanity you say?
Fucker got 50/6/5. Wowsers. Meaningless, but still.
Good for Malachai, might keep himself in the league
That’s cool for Malachi. OAKAAK!
NETS
Ahem…….not to mention Jalen Johnson’s line tonight: 28 PTS, 11 AST, 14 REB, 4 STL, 1 BLK, 3 TO.
lol we had two of the best scorers in the league
Yay, Nets!
Not that I thought the Pacers were ever going to pass the Knicks.
Broooook-lyn!!
Sadly, Zion getting shown up by Paolo…
Knicks aren’t dropping below 5th.
Yay Nets but wtf Pelicans??
If we dont get at least OG back Orlando is going to be a nightmare
Pelicans without Ingram are a mediocre team and most likely headed to the play in.
If itās Orlando Randle might as well heal up for two more weeks since we donāt need him getting smothered by Isaac.
Isaac plays like 20 minutes a game Randle can cook the other 28
Giannis is *so* bad at important free throws at the end of games. I mean, I’d still like to have him, but it’s definitely a liability (probably his only one).
If the Knicks aren’t going to get home court in the 1st round they should aim for the 6th seed.
Dame or no Dame, losing back to games to the Wiz and Grizzlies is totally inexcusable
Bucks record without Doc – 32-14
Bucks record with Doc – 15-15
Steve Clifford announced he will retire as a coach at the end of the season and move to Charlotteās front office. Maybe they should hire Adrian Griffin as coach.
Disregarding tiebreakers, the Knicks’ “magic number” over the Heat is 10 and over the Pacers is 9 with about six games left to go. If we fall to the 6th spot (whether or not it is desirable to do so could obviously be a whole ‘nother thread), that would mean that something went very, very wrong.
The Cavs are getting smoked…
“Steve Clifford announced he will retire as a coach at the end of the season and move to Charlotteās front office. Maybe they should hire Adrian Griffin as coach.”
And trade Grant Williams for Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The Celtics must be licking their chops.
I remember when Willie Burton scored 50, to cement his name on future-Wikipedia before heading off to Europe. Flynnsanity for a day.