Knicks Morning News (2025.01.29)

Raven, just making you aware that that link reveals personal info…hope you’re okay with that!

In looking back at the Grizzlies rout, I am settling more and more in the mindset that it revealed more about them than about us.

First, Ja did not look anything like the player that terrorized the league before all the gun shit and injuries started happening. Was he hung over, still recovering from his recent illness, hampered by that shoulder injury, or just diminished? Whatever, he pretty much sucked. Mikal was a big reason for that, but I don’t think the only reason.

Second, they looked young and inexperienced. Zach Edey is a long way from being a playoff-level C. It was hardly fair to expect him to defend KAT, or anything sophisticated that the Knicks threw at him. Guys like Wells, Aldama, and GG showed flashes but were clearly not ready for this level of competition.

Third, the Grizz lacked the toughness they had when Dillon Brooks was getting under everyone’s skin and Steve Adams was grabbing every offensive rebound. That was a soft performance that made Grindhouse seem like a distant memory.

So I am not going to take as much away from that rout as I would if we kick the Nuggets’ ass tonight. I have really liked our defensive connectivity and physicality during this win streak, so things are definitely looking up. But I’m waiting until the all-star break to form firmer conclusions.

Beyond the occasional NCAA bracket pool or super bowl box thing, I really don’t dabble in sports betting. I find all the FanDuel, etc. advertising to be a very unwelcome intrusion to the viewing experience. Whatever.

“Z-Man, the other thing to consider regarding the Grizzlies rout (and I agree with all your points) is that Hahn opened the pregame discussion pointing out that they’re just horrible at turning the ball over, one of the worst teams in the league, and that’d be a key for the game. And holy cow they were bad…”

Agreed…Ja has always been turnover-prone and young rotation players without a “captain” type to keep them accountable tend to be loose with the ball. I didn’t see any leadership at all out there. Maybe Marcus Smart was supposed to be that guy, but he’s sort of a mess at times himself.

“That said, the odds and the much deeper marketplace of motivated money they now reflect are a decent source of “consensus marketplace optimism” that that can then be contrasted and compared with Knickerblogger “optimism” — in all it’s guises, be they genuine, mandated, suggested, coerced, etc.”

This seems like a pretty jaded view of sports fandom, especially as it pertains to the intelligent community of posters we have here. You have at several points in time labeled the broader KB community as a bunch of fanbois who were intolerant of pessimistic takes. The above comment is sort of steeped in that shallow POV.

But whatever, at the end of the day, fuck whatever the Vegas odds are. Nobody here is saying we are favorites to win it all, or even in the top-3. The vast majority of “optimistic” posters are in puncher’s chance territory, we only vary as to the quality of the puncher.

“Sports fandom in the era of free, easily accessible data is inherently knowing and jaded. Touched on in an earlier post.”

I don’t see things that way. I feel better informed for sure, but it hardly affects my experience as a fan. There’s a joy in the uncertainty, and the greatest joy is in overcoming the odds, and the steeper the climb, the better. There is even joy in the commiseration after coming up short year after year.

And yes, there is a joy in debating all the stuff we debate here when it is done in earnest and with humility, even if with misplaced passion or logical inconsistencies tempered by one’s own personal biases or over-reliance on either the eye test or AIO’s with their inherent flaws.

There are two things that most consistently detract from the joy I get out of these debates, and the larger KB experience. One is needless and tiresome schtick engaged in by certain posters. The other is unnecessarily provocative and accusatory condescension. Generally the “room” is pretty good at calling out both…and most have the ability to read the room. Sadly, some either don’t, or don’t care.

Beyond that, there seems to be less divisiveness on the site these days regarding the Knicks themselves. Maybe it’s because it is now beyond dispute that Leon has assembled an excellent basketball team via a non-preferred method, one with legit HOF-level players, including a deserving captain that plays mostly high-IQ ball and doesn’t have albatross contracts, character/chemistry issues, or aging vets about to fall off of a cliff. Leon has surely made a host of questionable moves along the way, and Thibs surely has his warts.
But there’s a joy in rooting for this franchise right now that hasn’t really been felt since the 1990’s.

I get that that’s not good enough for everyone and don’t mind the less than rosy takes on our chances to win a championship. It would be nice if those takes could be exchanged with care not to usurp the joy in the room.

“I guess you didn’t really read what I wrote about joy and platonic ideals — that’s your prerogative.”

I did, and filtered it through your long history of posting, and the final product was more condescending holier-than-thou schtick that you have been known for since you started posting here. Just my opinion!

“But there was one — count it, one — poster who had any less rosy take on the chip chances than the consensus KB take.”

Whatever the odds are, they are based on inferences drawn from imperfect interpretations of imperfect information, and how those inferences play out in betting markets. They are reckonings of the peak of a current bell curve, and both the shape and the location of the bell curve is subject to shifting as the season progresses. Atlanta’s bell curve likely just shifted left and tightened.

In that one poster’s case, he chose to pick a probability that is currently well outside the +/- 1 standard deviation of the current bell curve. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, and I believe that poster does a fair job of articulating his pessimistic take. So as far as I’m concerned, it’s all good!

“I enjoyed that Portuguese call but the best announcing I have heard this week was definitely the call of Junior Caminero’s LIDOM homer in the Dominican league. The whole thing is awesome. Find the bat flip angle too.”

I can only imagine what Bob Gibson would have done if someone did that home run trot after taking him deep!

“We’ve seen Hart’s weakness be exploited countless times. To his credit, he’s hit some big shots. He’ll have to continue doing that bc I doubt anyone’s guarding him at the 3 pt line this spring. And when he had to guard up at the 4 last spring Siakim exploited him ruthlessly, so we have to avoid all big teams.”

Josh’s 3pt shooting is exploitable but he also makes teams pay at critical times. He’s like Jaylen Brown in that way, you can mess with leaving him open but it’s not a great strategy. As to his defense, Siakam got him a few times but he gets a lot of folks when he has it going. He’s very good! And in that series, the Pacers had a team TS% of .621 and Siakam was at .582. We had bigger problems than Hart’s defense, especially once OG got hurt.

“Mikal is doing better on screens but he’s still bad. Teams often don’t even bother hunting Jalen bc they get whatever they want simply by screening Bridges.”

I think this is overstated, Mikal is not “bad” at getting over screens, he’s actually good these days, just not elite…and he makes up for it in other ways. His length makes it easier for him to contest effectively without fouling even when trailing his man around a screen.

“Making OG dribble has worked very well this year. He is also a terrible rebounder, which is likely to cost us a couple possessions.”

This is true, and it does worry me a bit. Not so much the rebounding…he seems to rebound well situationally…but the dribble-driving is ugly. My hope is that the high-IQ guys around him will limit that tendency and only get him the ball when he has a clear advantage.