[ESPN] – Sat, 04 May 2024 12:00:00 GMT
- NBA playoff picks – Experts on Wolves-Nuggets, Pacers-Knicks conference semifinal matchups
- NBA playoffs 2024: Conference semifinals news, schedule, scores and highlights
- 2024 NBA playoffs: Predictions, expert picks for every second-round series with Nuggets facing tough test
- NBA playoffs: Predictions for each second-round series and Game 7 of Cavaliers-Magic
- Poll: Who Will Win Cavaliers/Magic Game 7?
[New York Post] – Sat, 04 May 2024 21:00:00 GMT
- Jimmy Butler blasts Josh Hart, claims Knicks ‘would be f–king at home’ if he were healthy
- Jimmy Butler’s Random Diss Led to Josh Hart Posting the Perfect Meme Reaction
- Jimmy Butler makes wild claim about Celtics series win over Heat
- Heat’s Jimmy Butler claims Celtics ‘would be at home’ if he had played in first-round series
- Jimmy Butler Utters Confident Statement About Heat’s Playoff Fate
[New York Post] – Sat, 04 May 2024 22:27:00 GMT
- Knicks’ Jalen Brunson gets chance to face Rick Carlisle after 2021 Mavericks drama
- Knicks Notes: Brunson, Hart, Randle, Toppin
- Pacers Coach Claims Jalen Brunson Is A Mixture Of These 3 NBA Superstars
- Rick Carlisle Shares Thoughts on Ex-Protege, Knicks Star Jalen Brunson
- Rick Carlisle discusses the Pacers’ playoff rivalry with the Knicks.
[Liberty Ballers] – Sat, 04 May 2024 15:43:32 GMT
- The contrast between Tobias Harris and Josh Hart was series-altering for the Sixers
- Former Coach Bashes Tobias Harris After Sixers’ Loss vs. Knicks
- Tobias Harris not expected to return to Philadelphia
- NBA Rumors: Tobias Harris Expected to Leave 76ers for New Contract in Free Agency
- ESPNs Kendrick Perkins Trashes Sixers Star Tobias Harris With Ridiculous Chick-fil-A Analogy
[New York Post] – Sat, 04 May 2024 07:09:00 GMT
- Injured Julius Randle back with Knicks: ‘great to see him’
- Josh Hart: Why Knicks Miss Julius Randle
- Knicks’ Julius Randle remains in touch with teammates during playoff run despite season-ending injury
- Knicks Notes: Julius Randle’s absence being felt in playoffs, Pistons considering New York’s former GM Scott Perry
- Dressed in a gray-hooded sweatsuit, Julius Randle took his seat at the end of the Knicks’ bench Th
[New York Post] – Sat, 04 May 2024 22:15:00 GMT
- Draymond Green doubles down on Knicks, ‘ball-dominant’ Jalen Brunson stance
- Warriors Star Issues Jalen Brunson Warning To Knicks Amid Title Dreams
- Have Knicks Won Over Hater Draymond Green?
- Warriors’ Draymond Green Says Half of 76ers ‘Quit’ vs. Knicks in NBA Playoff Game 5
- ClutchPoints: A ball-dominant Jalen Brunso
[Sixers Wire] – Sat, 04 May 2024 11:30:00 GMT
- Joel Embiid upset with Round 1 loss to Knicks, excited for Sixers’ future
- Joel Embiid and the Burden of Dominance
- NBA free agency 2024: Top 25 names to watch
- Inside Sixers: Nico Batum’s decision; Kelly Oubre Jr.’s unfinished business
- 76ers waste another season of Embiid’s prime. Will they ever make a run at an NBA championship?
[New York Post] – Sat, 04 May 2024 17:58:00 GMT
Kenny Albert opens up about Rangers, Knicks evoking 1994 memories
[New York Post] – Sun, 05 May 2024 08:48:00 GMT
Inside look at Pacers’ faster-than-expected rebuild
63 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2024.05.05)”
We’ll see how much this turns out to be a Jalen Brunson Revenge Series against Rick Carlisle(*), but note this tweet from a former Mavs exec on why Carlisle was so much harder on Brunson than on Luka:
(*) Other potential subplots: Battle of the Ex-Raptors, Obi Toppin Revenge Series, or Toppin vs. Toppin.
Watching that game last night after watching two weeks of Knicks-Sixers was pretty jarring. It feels like they are on another level.
On the superstar level, we’re there with Brunson. But these teams have Murray and KAT in support. That’s a pretty high bar for Julius Randle to meet. Whether or not he can ascend to that level is the biggest question we face this year. And unfortunately we’re probably just gonna have to guess since he’s in the last year of his contract and we got zero healthy postseasons from him in three seasons after he inked that extension.
KAT has really come into his own under Edwards’ wing. You can still see the immaturity at times but it’s like he’s got a big brother keeping him in line know. It’s so easy to go to him (and Murray) for stretches when you need a second creator.
We still don’t know if Julius can do that. It’s going to be an incredibly challenging decision Leon has to make. If you bet on Randle and are wrong, he’ll be like what Amar’e was to the Melo Knicks. Conversely, if you don’t trust him, it’ll cost almost everything we’ve got to upgrade.
I’m inclined to think the move is to take a risk on Randle bc the reward is so high. The money trades in the NBA right now aren’t the superstar trades cut from the Paul George Trade template. It’s stacking a bunch of OG, Siakim, Porzingis, and Holliday trades. If we can count on Randle, we can make 2 more OG kinda trades.
That’s pretty weak from Carlisle if that’s accurate, Alan. Although it wouldn’t surprise me to see that kind of behavior.
I find it interesting how this Pacers-Knicks series is a bit of a role reversal from the Melo-Hibbert series. The Pacers are now the finesse team – which I think is generally true for that Knicks team that was so groundbreaking in how much it shot from 3 and its overall style – and the Knicks are the bullies who play super physical. I hope they can control the tone of the series much like that Pacers team did. It’s generally easier for the more physical teams to do that in the playoffs given what the referees allow.
This Pacers defense is so weird. It allowed by far the fewest 3PAs of any team this season, which you’d think is a great basis for a good defense, but then they allow the most FTAs in the league and the 7th worst 2PT% (worst of any playoff team). So they it looks like they basically abandon the paint to stop teams from hitting 3s. That looks like not a great approach against the Knicks, even if we really on the 3 ball quite a bit (top 10 in 3PAs this year, and on a rate basis they shoot more 3s than Indiana).
The other thing to watch: the Pacers were 26th in DRB% – just behind Philly – and 20% in ORB%. Both teams are about the same in turnover rate. So I think the Knicks should really dominate the possession battle again, perhaps even more so than against Philly. That will also help control their fast break opportunities. If Hali is guarding Hart, which seems likely, he will have a good chance to crash the glass a bunch.
Funny to read sixers blogs and see them all complain Brunson is biggest foul grifter in league and that NBA wanted Knicks to win
Maybe Rick Carlisle will pull a Mike Woodson and completely abandon their season-long identity by benching Miles Turner for Isaiah Jackson in a futile attempt to negate our rebounding advantage like when we benched Pablo Prigioni for Kenyon Martin.
Of course if he wants to go Full Woodson he has to make Obi Toppin disappear like Chris Copeland.
#stillbitter
ABC giving Magic-Cavs the “let’s just get this over with” treatment today with a 1pm start time.
KAT has really come into his own under Edwards’ wing. You can still see the immaturity at times but it’s like he’s got a big brother keeping him in line know. It’s so easy to go to him (and Murray) for stretches when you need a second creator.
i concede this is consensus but i see way less evidence of it on the court. it’s great to have KAT as an offensive option, but as ever. he’s still the same efficiency at volume juggernaut he’s been and he’s still a below average decision maker for that sort of player. he’s always been capable of both great passing and horrendous missed-passes and he still is. in many ways it’s worse because his missed passes are now usually more lucrative.
he’s gotten more credit on defense, but i think it’s overstated. he has fouled less this year, but merely got back to his career average after last year’s peak. my eye test says that his foul rate is much more a result of far less help responsibility with a hof rim protector than “maturity,” and his blocks per 36 over the past 2 years is tied with tobias harris. in fact his foul rate with gobert off since the trade is horrendously bad (6.9 per 100).
i think you can totally credit him for locker room maturity or media leak maturity amid having his offense relatively stifled when he has to play with gobert and edwards (both usage and efficiency are notably worse) while also having to sometime chase weird defensive assignments — all without whining. but i don’t think this has made him into a different player and i think the perceived ant influence is being overstated because ant is such a press conference slash basketball superhero. there have been some good pieces with lots of clips arguing the other way but to me they reek of selection bias. you don’t have to scroll hard or long to find a lot of clips of kat being precisely kat (which is hardly a terrible thing).
small additional factoid
since the trade kat edwards and gobert are plus 5.6 per 100.
naz edwards and gobert are plus 10.1 per 100.
Two thoughts. First, Brunson shot more free throws over the last three games than Embiid (36-31). (Although over the series, Joel beat Jalen 76-63). I suspect if we were Sixers fans (spits after typing that to clear his mouth) we might have some opinions. Wrong, but still.
Second, for some reason I think a series alteration factor is whether Thibs puts Deuce in every moment that TJ McConnell plays. It always feels like he might only score 10 quick points, but they’re always game changers. Deuce should just get in his jockstrap whenever he gets in and negate those points.
One thing I got from those tweets is Bob hates Rick Carlisle
I wonder how you all feel about the officiating. It seems like guys are allowed to run through each other’s chest. Seems like it’s why Nikola can’t be stopped. Unless your feet are set and you fall down you won’t get the call. Drivers look like running backs out there.
KAT is Randle with a better jumper, he’s a very nice player but he’s got some signficant flaws too.
Didn’t McConnell completely abuse Deuce last time they played?
Deuce’s role this series is a bit more iffy as he’s probably not big enough to guard Hali effectively.
Two thoughts. First, Brunson shot more free throws over the last three games than Embiid (36-31). (Although over the series, Joel beat Jalen 76-63). I suspect if we were Sixers fans (spits after typing that to clear his mouth) we might have some opinions. Wrong, but still.
here at kb we are way too good for that argument. even mid-game-rage-bba would feel obligated to acknowledge that excluding end of game take fouls jalen took 32 free throws vs 95 fga compared to 33 and 63 for glass joe in those three games.
Rudy with the subtle diss on Spida:
“I’ve never been part of a group that understands each other, that cares about each other and wants to see each other shine. In this league, it’s not something that you find very often,” Gobert said.
A paragraph from The Athletic that some of us can lose sleep over:
“The Pacers were at their best against the Bucks in the first round when Myles Turner put their drop pick-and-roll coverage into a bind with his 3-point shooting. In Games 2-4 of the series, Turner hit 14 of 25 3-point attempts (56 percent) and even knocked down a career single-game high of seven 3s in the Pacers’ 126-113 Game 4 win in Indianapolis. It’s no coincidence that the Pacers won all three of those games.”
Much like I don’t expect Josh Hart to shoot 43% from 3 in this series, I don’t expect career .350 3pt shooter Myles Turner to hit more than half of his shots from deep.
I think we’ll be just fine against the Pacers. Probably another 6 game series.
Raven, if you peep Awful Coaching in YouTube and scroll through his recent vids on the Knicks D, you’ll see that our guys often play up on the screen and don’t rely alot on drop coverage.
I’ve actually learned alot on the subtleties of defense from that guy.
Found on Twitter:
“The only trios+ to win a NCAA Tournament together and a NBA playoff series together:
Jalen Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo & Josh Hart: 2016 Villanova & 2024 Knicks
Cliff Barker, Ralph Beard, Alex Groza, Joe Holland (Only 1948) & Wah Wah Jones: 1948/49 Kentucky & 1950 Olympians”
I’ve actually learned alot on the subtleties of defense from that guy.
why eat at sbarro’s when the internet is free. so many better people to learn from.
https://youtube.com/@EvinGualberto?si=d55rgNLZguHGZaQa
If you put it like that, it may seem that Myles with a .499 3P% on the series would be a good outcome.
This might be the worst game 7 in history.
a bit jarring watching a playoff game but with niang and ingles making it look like a fantasy camp
People were very angry at Cleveland throwing that last game to avoid the 2nd seed, but the Sixers should be the angriest… they would have obliterated this Cavs team.
Hopefully we finally get a Knicks Magic Conference Finals like we should’ve gotten in 1995.
Game 1 being tmrw falls on my wife’s birthday. 🎂
[looks around to see if she’s watching me]
She’s another Laker 🧌 casual that is oblivious to what’s going on but as soon as the word “Knicks” comes out of my mouth, here comes the hate and jokes. She started up again this morning, so I threatened to watch Game 1 during her birthday…
“Go ‘head, watch the game” she said while giving me the “I wish you would” look. 🤣
Does Bickerstaff get fired before the 4th quarter, before the press conference, or before dinner?
Ptmilo, Awful Coaching does near-instant breakdowns of recent games. He’s been in a tear so far in these playoffs. He focuses mostly on D but sometimes does vids reviewing offenses – or in the Lakers case, the offense of their offense not finding Davis for easy buckets off Lebron/AD PNRs.
Yeah he’s loud and sounds like he’s bursting an arterie most times. May not be for everyone, but i find it hilarious.
this is fun watching the cavs melt down…
uh oh though on watching Pablo play this well – he looks like he could be pretty unstoppable if he figures things out…
go magic…
I see a lot of Carmelo in Banchero, particularly the terrible shot selection.
To be “the same efficiency at volume juggernaut” in the playoffs is the evidence.
He’s never carried his regular season offensive dominance into the postseason before. Last year he shit the bed completely.
It’s like if Julius Randle were to be dominant regular season Julius Randle in the playoffs, it would be a major breakthrough.
How are the Cavs losing this game? They have so many more offensive weapons than the Magic. I bet they’ll have an active offseason.
Are we sure we don’t want Mitchell?
He’s rising to the occasion here in the 3d quarter.
Hard pass, strat. He’d be duplicative on offense and unhideable on defense in tandem with Brunson
The biggest shock to me about the T-Wolves is that the KAT/Gobert combo is working way better than I imagined. I knew it would be OK on offense because KAT can shoot the 3 so well. He can be a PF on offense. The worst case was that he’d have a little less space going to the basket and get fewer easy baskets inside. It was the defense I expected to be a problem because KAT is not very good defensively. I thought he’d have even more trouble guarding some of the quicker PFs on the perimeter. But their team defense is excellent. So whatever deficiencies he has, they are finding way to cover them up. AntMan is great. What a player.
That was my argument against it the first time. My comment today was kind of tongue in cheek because I don’t like the fit either, but he’s playing really well.
Mitchell is really Brunsoning today.
There’s potentially a world where they form a dynamic backcourt like Luka & Kyrie but more often than not these things end up like Young & Murray.
I think we need to rethink the idea of “player X is bad on defense.” Karl Anthony-Towns just played 2,000 minutes for the #1 defense in the NBA. He’s seven feet tall with a 7’4″ wingspan and is not particularly slow-footed or unathletic. A guy like that, if you can get him to buy in and play in a team concept, is not going to kill you on defense. He holds his own out there with his length alone.
Same thing with Donovan Mitchell– people talk about his defense being terrible but EPM actually had him ranked as a PLUS defender this year, and like Towns he played 2,000 minutes for one of the better defensive teams in the league. He gets 2 steals per 36 and he has good size for a PG at 6’3″ with a 6’10” wingspan. If we can survive DDV at 6’4″ with a 6’6″ wingspan I think we’d be able to survive the supposedly terrible defense of Donovan Mitchell, who incidentally ranked in the 89th percentile as a defender in EPM.
hopefully this all just means the cavs will be warmed up and ready to go at the celts on tuesday…
I like DDV. He surpassed my expectations this year, but I think he’s probably the player we should try to upgrade. We can try him as the 6th man scorer off the bench.
In the bright spotlight,
Knicks dance with hopes high and bright,
Playoff dreams take flight.
ai did this…
our synth overlords will be generous, i’m sure…
Apparently Cole Anthony is too good at scoring to play for the Magic. Gotta have Gary Harris in there for his… something.
Teams playing 10 guys each in a game 7, what happened to the game I love?
Can’t imagine Celtics lose more than 1 game vs Cavs.
Mitchell is awesome and if we added him we’d have two Brunsons. That would be incredibly cool at times but the law of diminishing returns is very real and it seems to be particularly harsh when applied to multiple ball-dominant guards. I just don’t think it’s the right archetype to pursue.
If Allen can get back maybe they can muck up a couple games but I don’t think they can score enough to make the Celtics work too hard unless Mitchell goes absolutely crazy
I watch his stuff all of the time and he’s terrific breaking down how bad of a coach Doc Rivers is and how poor the Bucks pick and roll defense is. Its like comically bad.
He’ll have the occasionally normal breakdown when he sees an NBA defense that doesn’t make him want to vomit and die, which seems to be only when the Knicks and Celtics play.
The KAT on defense argument is still difficult to understand for me because Gobert changes the dynamic so much on defense, he’s an absolutely incredible defender. There were moments in game 1 where he guarded the Jokic – Gordon plays by himself, tipping alley oops, making Jokic work for every inch of the court.
I think KAT is holding his own well enough on that end, but Gobert is so transformational on defense that I suspect he can make anyone who puts a bit of effort defensively look good at his side. Now that he finally has good defenders around him at the guard positions, we’re seeing how insane he can be.
Watching Minny/Denver was definitely disheartening as to our prospects this year, but I think the fully realized version of the Knicks is either close that level or close enough to getting there. It’s shitty there’s not going to be a way to test that theory for a long time though.
The fact that KAT has become a glorified afterthought in Minny’s offense sure makes it feel likely those murmurs resurface. My boring take is there’s a price at which it would make sense.
Bummer to see the Magic go down. They’re much more fun to watch than Cleveland and I think they would’ve given Boston a harder time, if only because they’re a more uniquely built team. Future seems extremely bright if they can spend their cap space wisely.
Mitchell is just way too good for categorical opposition to him to be a serious position. Of course you can argue he wouldn’t be worth the presumed price and the fit issues are obvious, but I personally am just not worried about the defensive liabilities as long as we have Skeleton Key OG.
It really is such a shame we won’t get any playoff data on the Knicks with Randle and someone useful in the Bogey salary slot (which could just be Bogey). That would be extremely useful to have as we’re deciding whether to make a move for Mitchell or KAT or anyone. FWIW, my guy says we still need another high level shot creator whether we keep Randle or not.
Insert hardest eye roll ever emoji.
Crazy the Rangers are 5-0 in the playoffs and my ass has hardly been clenched.
Also another one of those 4 playoff games in 4 nights at the Garden week
lets go rangers…i mean that last 90 seconds of this game was no walk in the park..
It’s strange but I kind of could deal with losing to the Pacers whereas losing to the Sixers would have had me calling a hotline. Doesn’t make sense but that is how it is. Maybe it will change after Obi drops 45 on us.
True, pepper, but that was legitimately the first stress I’ve felt in these nhl playoffs.
Ok — to keep me distracted ahead of tomorrow. Does any of this below make sense?
Next year – 1st year starting at, incremental:
Sign OG 27/yr, +7
Sign iHart 16/yr, +7
Sign Precious 6/yr, +2
Sign Bogey 7/yr, -12 (or drop/trade him -19)
Drop Burks -10.5
Net change in salary (assuming sign Bogey for 7) = -6.5 and cap gets another 5 = 11.5 left over
Trade Randle 30.3 and a pick/s for Mikal Bridges 20.5, picks up 10.2
= 21.7 left over to sign another good player for 15 and filler
Note: salary cap increases from 136 to 141 in 24/25 — no idea what that means for our situation
If Bridges were coming in I’d want Randle to stay.
If Mitchell were coming in I’d want Randle going out.
Knicks and Nets front offices don’t speak to each other and haven’t done a trade in 40 years!
Howard Beck is pretty plugged in to the Nets and went on record saying he thinks the Knicks and Nets could do a deal bc Leon & Marks DGAF and are pragmatic.
The Houston thing is a greater problem, IMO. New Orleans probably wants him, too. But now that Mikal’s two years away from free agency he has more say. If you’re Houston are you really gonna give up Green and picks for a guy who won’t sign an extension?
Who’s your guy? (Is it Strat?)
Who the fuck is Isaiah Jackson and why is he playing like prime Shaq?