Knicks Morning News (2024.05.08)

“BTW it’s where the world is heading, it’s been at least 8 years since your former (and next) president started shouting “rules don’t really matter, let me entertain myself””

BANNED!

The (re)injury is being called a “stress reaction.” Sounds like it had nothing to do with Embiid, just a continuation of the problem that led to his surgery in the first place.

That means one of the following things:
1) he came back too soon and re-aggravated the injury before it fully healed
2) the surgery was not sufficient to fix the original injury and this would have happened no matter what even if he waited until next season
3) he was good to go but re-injured the same area by spraining the same ankle

Any of these scenarios makes me feel like it’s a more chronic problem than a quick fix, and that more surgery is likely at some point. Hopefully I’m wrong! But at the very least, I would not be depending on a fully healthy Mitch for next season.

My link to the Harlem Globetrotters failed, but the point is that Donnie’s idea for basketball purely for entertainment is hardly original.

“One problem with all the Mitch injuries not mentioned is that he’s losing trade value.”

That may be true, but his contract is still awesome and no longer long term and when healthy he’s a force, so I doubt that it’s losing all that much value.

“The NBA has made its gambling bed, the last thing the NBA needs is more accusations of game fixing.”

Good point, strat. I hadn’t even considered that.

To me, it comes down to two things: human error and fairness.

The missed call on the kick ball violation was pure human error. So was the missed travel call on Maxey’s 4-pt play, Brunson’s jersey grab, etc. That stuff will always happen unless the replay rules change.

Fairness involves whether the illegal action on the court gave one team an obvious advantage on a particular play. By the book, the Turner screen was clearly, undoubtably, definitively an illegal screen. But if DiVincenzo got over the screen without being significantly impeded, then the argument that the ref should have let the call go would be more reasonable. Similar to a foul far away from the ball that has no bearing on the outcome of the play, or an incidental one-inch slide of the pivot foot by a C in the high post who’s just looking to hand off.

But in this case, DDV was taken out of the play, whereas if Turner did not step out, he likely would have squeezed around it. He might have sold it a bit, but I have no doubt that Turner took a step and shifted his weight in a way that took DDV out of the play for enough time to give Indiana an unfair advantage.

“Who’s the greatest goaltender ever: Richter, King Henrik or Igor?”

You left out a guy who’s jersey is hanging from the rafters…

There may have been better goalies than Eddie Giacomin, but none more beloved. It’s a shame that he didn’t win a Stanley Cup.

I doubt that Thibs goes beyond his core 7 tonight, the game is just too important. Beyond that, my hope is that Thibs will eventually run a player or two out there in the first half and see how it goes. Precious is obviously going to get a lot of minutes but I can see Sims getting a 5-minute look-see at some point. It wouldn’t surprise me if Burks or Shake gets some first half burn in Indiana.

The crazy thing is that the minutes really don’t seem to be impacting our starters all that much. Hart is made of rubber and springs, and DDV seems to make big shots in the end of games no matter how tired he is. OG and Brunson seem to get spot minutes of rest so not as big of a deal.

The key guy right now is Deuce. He gave us nothing in Game 1, that can’t continue to happen.

On another note, I wonder if Leon will try to use his two picks in this draft to trade up a couple of spots. Is there anyone worth trading up for?

“I think we’re collectively underestimating how good we are. While Boston should be the favorite, if we win one of the first two I think the series is wide open, especially if Brunson–and, to a lesser extent, Deuce and Hart–continue their torrid play.”

I respectfully disagree. I think folks are massively underestimating how good Tatum and Brown are. White is obviously an all-NBA level two-way player and has put up an 11.1 BPM so far these playoffs. He and Jrue Holiday form the best defensive guard tandem in the NBA. Al Horford is very crafty and can probably hold the fort as a starter. Al of their players off the bench can shoot except Tillman. They were the best team in the NBA by a seven game margin. All five of their wins have been pretty much blowouts.

We, on the other hand, are decimated by injuries and have no depth. We barely beat the Sixers with a shell of Embiid, and were fortunate to pull out Game 1 vs. Indiana.

Beating them in a 7-game series would be one of the most unlikely upsets in conference finals history. I’d be pleasantly surprised if we won more than one game and downright shocked if it went 7 or we won.

Here’s to me being downright shocked!!

swifty, whether it is inevitable or not, the fact is that Philly was compromised by his injury and were nowhere near the team that they were before Embiid had knee surgery.

And without a 90-100% Embiid, the Sixers are at most a 5-8 seed type of team, just like Orlando, Miami, Milwaukee w/o Giannis, and Indiana. None of these teams were legit contenders or anywhere near the level of the Celtics. I have no doubt that the Celtics would have crushed the Sixers.