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61 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.03.05)”
They had 67 points in the second half, not 62. And their bench only played 79 minutes to our 77 bench minutes, but got 31 points from theirs while we only got 24 points from ours. We can’t let Buddy effing Hield get 15 points and 6 rebounds on us. They played like a 64-win team while we played more like a 51-win team. In other words, they played outstanding basketball, while we played merely good basketball.
And now we’ve got to go on our longest road trip of the season for six games, with KAT missing at least the beginning of it.
Prayers are with KAT and his loved ones. He doesn’t deserve this. Take as long as you need.
With Butler in tow, that team could make some noise. Still, a poor defensive showing. Did not love OGs defense getting caught on screens, but other players need to recognize and do a better job switching.
Looked like there was a number of blown transition assignments.
Mikal did a good job on Curry, as far as I can tell, but really needs to do more on offense.
Mitch looks a little lost out there. Maybe he’s a step slow reacting or maybe he’s out of position, either way he needs to get sorted out by the playoffs.
Whatever. Make the playoffs. Show up in the playoffs. Everything else is theater at this point.
Nah. Something ain’t right with this team. The schemes on both ends are trite.
They aren’t gelling.
On defense we look soft as charmin’, that’s the thing.
As soon as shots don’t fall, we’re lost.
“Obviously, the way the game is being played, you have to put 3s up,” New York guard Miles McBride said. “For us, I think it’s our pace. I feel like our pace can be a lot quicker getting up the floor and then moving with action, getting the ball flowing. It’s hard to not get action and then flow into a shot. For us, we have to get into more actions and faster pace.
“In guarding the 3, communication is big. If we’re switching, talk early so they can’t get downhill and kick out 3s.”
As much as I complained during the game thread last night that loss is pretty simple to explain, KAT didn’t play.
Defense has actually been better past few games, sad to say Knicks defensive rating has improved from 22nd to 19th. Although 19th was their defensive rating 2 seasons ago and also during the 54 win Melo season. Still tough getting used to the fact Knicks win with offense not defense, the 90s fan in me still has a hard time coming to grips with that fact.
Yeah it sure makes it easy to guard the Knicks when you have Mitch or Precious with the ball at the top of the key and no one defending them
Have we gotten any confirmation on what KAT’s personal issue is? I saw some vague reference about his girlfriend maybe having cancer or something?
This is obviously an issue with Thibs, his teams never play with a fast pace. But Brunson bears some responsibility as well; he loves slow walking the ball up the court.
KATs girlfriend tweeted Fuck Cancer yesterday.
I saw that his GF tweeted out “Fuck cancer” but I haven’t seen any reports about who could have it.
Knicks want to shoot more 3s maybe they should stop constantly pump faking on open catch and shoot opportunities. Been driving me nuts lately.
Our defense was fine for most of the first half. Most of Golden State shots were with a hand in their face.There’s a reason they went 5-23 from three, shot 39.6% overall, and were down 2 on the boards.
The second half was a different story, particularly with the starting unit on the floor. They allowed lots of open shots and back doors.
Brunson is just not very fast, so we shouldn’t be asking him to push the pace for others. Neither is KAT, but they are both 2nd or 3rd team all nba, so I guess we’ll just have to suffer. I’m actually enjoying this season immensely and expect next year to be even better, once we have a full season together and have a chance to fill out the bench.
He’s certainly fast enough to push the pace and he’s definitely purposely going slowly at various points during the game. He did that a lot in the playoffs last year too and it drove us all crazy.
Tip your cap to Steph, the dude is astonishing even at age 36 (he turns 37 next week). Even though he came into the league with a little bit of hype, no one expected that he would become the undisputed greatest shooter who ever lived and arguably a top-10 player in NBA history with 4 chips under his belt.
Brunson deservedly gets lots of all-NBA and even some MVP attention, and I love having him as our alpha (especially on his contract) but last night you saw the difference between a star and an all-time great. He’s third in OBPM behind only Jokic and SGA.
With Draymond looking spry and Jimmy just fitting in, the Dubs look strong. If I were a Thunder fan, I’d be very nervous about facing them in round 2. Lakers too.
We brought in Hart to push the pace. Every other starter is molasses.
Young Toppin signs a two-way with Atlanta.
The problem with Brunson is that he continues to be ball dominant even in the face of double and triple-teams, yet when he gives the ball up, none of the players on the floor can do what he does. He has amazing stamina but that would wear anyone out. The problem is especially pronounced without KAT, but he’s not a great answer either vs. smart, tough defenses.
A small part of me was looking at the game evaluating which team we would prefer to play assuming we get to the Finals. It ain’t GS–in fact I would prefer OKC to them. Too many smart heads that adjust so well.
Did not enjoy the losing of that game but Steph is good and Draymond are good and yesterday we did not have a starting center let alone one that can warp one side of the court. Mitch is going to get there, but not for a few more games. The corner three thing is brutal especially when you’re surround by 20 golden state fans anywhere from 17 to 25 who are disciples of the curry and really know how to tell you your team is failing in the most hole in a bucket kind of way. Especially when you’re on a date with one of your favorite old heads who when vibes are right can read for filth. Meh.
The Warriors offense reminds me a little of the old Pete Carrill Princeton offense – everyone in constant motion, players cutting to the basket and a nightmare to defend.
And Curry is definitely the greatest shooter who ever lived, but his passing is sublime as well, as good or better than any PG in the NBA.
I actually appreciate it when Hart or Mikal or Deuce or, god forbid, even Precious, bring the ball up, as it’s a lot faster than when Brunson does it, and is an especially obvious play when they’re full-courting him.
But that’s only one tiny part of the solution for when our offense gums up. Which happens at various times throughout bad possessions, not just at the start (e.g., Brunson over-dribbling, everyone standing around and nobody moving to create a bit of separation, etc.).
Buddy Hield is a great shooter who hasn’t really gotten into a rhythm yet this year. If he is getting the same boost from playing with Draymond and Steph that Wiggins got, he’s a nice weapon for them off the bench.
I actually cringe when Hart, Deuce and especially Precious dribble the ball upcourt because they often look out of control which usually leads to a stupid turnover.
Golden St is only 15th in offensive rating although they’ve been alot better with Butler.
Agree 100%
We don’t have a lot of guys that can put the ball on the floor and create.
We don’t want OG even trying too often.
Hart can get to the basket and finish, but he’s gun shy and not a great shooter anyway.
Towns can drive, but we don’t want him creating much.
Mikal is the one guy that’s capable, but he seems to be in and out both shooting wise and his willingness to get aggressive.
Still, I think Brunson dominates the ball too often. When you don’t have a lot of players that can ISO and create you need a lot of ball and player movement, picks etc.. to get people open. That’s not going to happen if Brunson walks the ball up the court and dribbles more than half the clock away.
Agree.
Hart is often out of control. You can see something stupid about to happen long before it actually does. I’m not sure what the solution is because sometimes he goes to coast to coast, but he has to do a better job of seeing what’s in front of him and whether he can get to the rim or he just slow it down and get the possession under control
GS has a 120.4 Ortg since the trade and a 107.3 Drtg, which would give them the 2nd best offense and 2nd best defense in the league.
Not necessarily the highest level of competition, they’ve been excellent since the trade. This just in, Jimmy Butler is good.
“Jimmy Butler is (still) good. (His demise / “washed-ness” was reported prematurely, including by me.)
The west has gotten so much harder for the Thunder. I had them at like 45% in my title pie a couple months ago with just Denver as a threat but with the emergence of LA & Golden State that’s got to be way done now.
good job everyone – only true fans would dig in on jalen the way we all do
😊
count me in with the group who prefers when someone other than jalen brings the ball up the court…
I like when josh does it, cam seems to be getting better at bringing the ball up and just not shooting it himself…
deuces instincts against pressure still don’t seem that great…
not sure about mikal or landry bringing the ball up under pressure…
if not jalen, whom else can control the ball effectively against aggressive pressure?
Tyler Kolek?
hello doogie, if it’s cool, let’s start anew…
patience has never been a strong suit for me, anger is never that far away…
i do watch, i do listen though…words matter and you’ve put a good bit of intentional effort in to yours…it’s not always too easy to modulate our personalities…challenging to be anything but ourselves…
I rely heavily on the possibility for growth…a necessity for survival for sure…
so many actions (or inactions) to second-guess…doesn’t slow time racing at you, always…
I hope your day goes as smoothly and enjoyably as possible…
https://x.com/IQfor3/status/1897003550213071356 played 37 minutes yesterday and looked good. Highest plus minus on the team with (+) 13
One random thought: when I was looking at Utah’s roster for potential Bridges trades I noticed Kyle Filipowski (the BPA when we were on the clock three times) is quietly having a decent rookie season. In his last 8 games he’s averaging 22 & 11 per 36 on 69% eFG. He wouldn’t have solved any of our defensive issues but having him as a backup for KAT at $2M is about as good a result as you could have gotten with a pick in the late 20s.
The draft misses of this FO never seem to stop.
Also it is way too early to judge but so far Isiah Collier (the other lottery talent who fell to us) looks more likely to be an NBA player than Tyler Kolek.
I would take the field over OKC in the West.
Collier has a TS of 47 , Kolek plays on a good team and the coach hasn’t been able to find him minutes.
I bet in a redraft Kolek still goes before Collier, with both going much earlier.
Kolek & Collier is probably still a coin toss but I think Collier’s unplayable shooting has more potential to improve than Kolek’s unplayable defense. No shame in that one, though.
The Filipowski one, though, jeez. The next time a forward from Duke who is projected to go in the lottery falls to us for some stupid non-basketball reason, how about we just draft him? I don’t expect this to be Jalen Johnson pt 2 but we did probably miss out on 4 years of a cheap stretch big who could have been a much better backup than Precious.
The center with the ball at the top of the key dho is such a bad play. Our scheme sucks right now. What happened to all the cutting? What happened to Hart pushing the ball and finishing? What happened to our being on pace to break the assists record?
The league caught up to us and knows how to defend us so it’s Brunson ISO.
The coach has a vanilla playbook and can’t adjust.
Buddy Heild getting 15 points on 13 shots is perfectly fine. The Knicks just didn’t make any shots.
cgreene, one of many insightful posters but with no discernible biases other than iHart, becoming a convert to questioning our preparation has me a bit worried.
Edit: Not about him, but our team!
Thibs really needs to be flexible in trying other lineups
I was sort of lukewarm on Kolek and liked Filipowski, but the real argument is whether Dadiet was the guy vs. Filipowski. My understanding is that the cap calculus was so tight that having two guaranteed first rounders on the books would have muddled things up.
That said, I like Kolek and think he will figure out how to improve on the defensive end to the point where he is playable. He’s got to be far more scrappy, like TJ McConnell or Jose Alvarado, and I think he will eventually get there. Even Cam Payne-level is acceptable if he can do the things on offense he needs to do.
“Buddy Heild getting 15 points on 13 shots is perfectly fine. The Knicks just didn’t make any shots.”
Timing is everything. In that sense, it was pretty far from perfectly fine.
The common thread with any Knicks lineup is despite the poor defense KAT makes any combination a positive one.
I read earlier that the usual starting lineup has a slightly positive net rating but replace KAT with any other big and it’s a huge negative. Hart’s net rating is also hugely impacted by KAT, I believe they have the best 2 man net rating of any Knick teammates.
That’s because all of our other bigs are huge negatives.
KAT is really, really good on offense and really, really good rebounding for a team with a lot of bad rebounders. Take him away and we have a bunch of average (at best) defenders who are above average rebounders but atrocious offensive players.
I think this again speaks to Deuce being our best PoA defender and providing an excellent bail out option for Brunson thanks to his handle and step back.
Deuce brings what Mikal was supposed to bring.
I’d love to break Deuce’s POA defense down by the height of the lead guard. It seems like if the opponent isn’t short (like Davion Mitchell the other day), Mikal is a much better option.
I don’t think Thibs even tries him against the big lead guards, which means there is some serious selection bias in that data.
I know it’s early, Thibs didnt play them much and there were injuiries but I’m not super excited about our 3 draft picks this year.
We really need them to take the next step and become solid bench players over the next two years.
The 2024 draft is one of the worst in recent memory, not many players in the draft helping winning teams
Wonder how some would feel if we used the number 1 pick on a 7 Foot Center with a 48 TS.
I don’t have either in my “championship” bets. In fact, I hated both at their odds. It just goes to show you how risky those pre season bets are. They are a lot like Kentucky Derby futures (which I never touch). Injuries eliminate a couple of better teams every year and with trades like we’ve been seeing a team can go from middle of the pack to near the top in a hurry.
The Athletic had an article recently talking about how this upcoming draft class is nowhere near as deep as once projected.
The KAT-at-PF experiment keeps getting pushed back on the timeline, and it’s making me nervous. At this point, I feel like we’ll just have to wait til next year before whoever is coach will implement it.
Mitch played 15min, he wasn’t going to have much crossover with KAT anyway
There are still plenty of games left to look at (and then the playoffs). At this stage Mitch is not at 100% yet anyway. Hopefully Towns’s personal issues are not as bad as has been implied. I was hoping it was something small. If his girfriend or someone very close to her/him has cancer, that could be a much bigger deal.
I accomplished one goal yesterday by making it onto the big screen at msg. Albeit it was behind a kid who captured the cameras eye in front of me. I had a “DRed for GM” sign in my pocket but by the time I realized my chance had come it had gone. Chances are so chancey.
I think we’ve moved on to DRed for Coach
I think we’ve moved on to not having anyone post for over two hours after that one.
Been spending all day trying to visualize how we might beat LA for Cdiggy’s sake (okay, I did some other things, too). Mikal on Luka and OG on Lebron seems like the most obvious, but I’m having trouble seeing the W coming from that. Especially with KAT out.
I hope whoever in his sphere that has cancer is getting the best damn treatment.
OG is questionable with a sprained thumb, dunno if I’m willing to stay up late watching the Knicks trying to defend Luka and LeBron without OG.
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