Knicks Morning News (2025.03.12)

90 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.03.12)”

Keon Johnson scored exactly 1 point in two of his last three games. That’s kind of difficult to do, especially considering that he averaged 27.0 minutes across those two games.

I think that tonight will likely be a night that Mikal goes off against Shaedon Sharpe.

Uh huh. I think that.

Lordy. Had no idea that Cavs have won 15 straight.

All season long, I didn’t want to admit the Cavs are as good as they are. Mainly because we’ve always handled them pretty well. But man! This is their 2nd 15 game win streak of the season. I think it’s time for me to let my bias against them go lol. They are a very good team under Atkinson. Very good team.

Yeah. The Cavs at more than double the payout over Boston and even larger over OKC in Vegas odds right now looks like a nice bet.

Great story on the passing of Junior Bridgeman and his post NBA career. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/40625836/how-nba-sixth-man-built-600m-empire

Hunter was a fantastic get for the Cavs. I don’t think Boston will be able to stop them.

Hunter (14/4/1 in 25 minutes off the bench since joining the Cavs) didn’t even play last night. Don’t sleep on how much of a help Caris LeVert (17/4/3 in 29 minutes off the bench) has been for the Hawks, either.

Does Channing Frye read Knickerblogger?:

“I played for coaches where we have our game plan and it’s not working and the coach yells ‘just do it harder!’ … We go ‘coach, you’ve got to put somebody else in, something has to change,” Frye said. “Let’s say [the Knicks] play Boston … Jayson Tatum’s over here looking at OG Anunoby gassed, he’s chilling.”

“There’s no way you can go dumb hard for 40 minutes every single night in a game,” Frye continued. “That’s why it’s frustrating, because the Knicks have all the talent in the world. Every year, it’s a repeat thing of ‘oh, man, the Knicks are really good, oh hamstring, oh foot, oh hamstring, hamstring, hamstring, knees, knees. They must have a deal with a doctor! What is going on? Give them a chance to be great. You need a break. Just give [the starters] 35 minutes.”

I like the Cavs. A blueprint for the Knicks. Go all in with a young core that can develop. Resist the urge to blow it up/major rejig after playoff disappointment. Change coach off-season minimising disruption. Play lights out including a 15 game winning streak. Don’t think job done but make a semi significant trade. Go on another 15 game streak.

Only one question, BE. Who is the new coach?

I’d be interested in Jay Wright, but I don’t think he wants it and may not even be available. Atkinson obviously already taken. Jeff Van Gundy? Maybe, but probably not at this stage of his career/life.

The Cavs have been good for a while and are great now. The addition of Hunter was excellent and Ty Jerome has been the proverbial “like a new signing” guy. He has been giving them 20 minutes of elite production this year. Allen and Mobley are the best frontcourt in the NBA.

I wouldn’t be looking forward to facing them if I were the Celtics.

https://x.com/FrankBarrett119/status/1899515717197713442

Knicks trading in midrange shots for 3s without Brunson

Celtics/OKC tonight..

Danny Hurley?

Great post on threes instead of midrange, ETW—we probably should have tried that strategy starting a good bit earlier in the season. (It’s not really a new idea to say that we should be taking more threes, in general.) Thanks for sharing it.

Hurley would be interesting. Very fiery guy would play well in New York, especially after somber/quiet Thibs.

The one question mark I have about the Cavs is that Mitchell and Garland are a little less proven under extreme playoff pressure than Tatum and Brown and Mitchell has had a few clunker big games in the playoffs. This is kind of their test year to see if they can break through.

Celtics/OKC tonight..

Jalen Williams is out.

IMO, that’s a pretty big loss for them. He’s their clear cut 2nd option. I guess Wiggins could start. He gets on a roll from time to time.

Hurleys wife doesn’t want to leave New Jersey so NYC makes sense if he wants to jump to the NBA. He has some JVG in him.

With Brunson, the team has to figure out how to fix the shot profile and get more threes up.

Only one question, BE. Who is the new coach?

I am not saying they need a new coach. What I am positing is that the Cleveland FO seamlessly decided JB needed to be replaced, and found a bit of a dark-horse candidate (in that I don’t think he was interviewing for other spots) which probably meant they did their homework vis a vis the roster construction to be the new coach. I only hope that the same dispassionate analysis will exist with the Knicks, despite the Leon/Brunson connection, the Leon/Thibs connection, the Thibs/Brunson Sr connection, the Brunson Sr/Jalen connection, and all the Nova connections. Exactly who would be the new coach is secondary to deciding when and what he/(she?) would need to address.

I’ve lost patience with Thibs on a few issues, but he was just extended. Even though many of us see things we don’t like, the Knicks record is still excellent and the players seem to like him. I think it’s premature to think Leon would even think about replacing him at this stage. If the Knicks flame out in the first round and then get off to bad start next year I think that’s the earliest a conversation in management would start.

Vaunted college coaches tend to not fare well as NBA coaches. A much smarter route is to either promote or poach a top assistant.

https://x.com/FrankBarrett119/status/1899515717197713442

This is everything I was saying yesterday, but you have to get Brunson to buy into moving the ball instead of dribbling around trying to create for himself as often as he has been. And if he doesn’t, Thibs has to get after him.

Brunson sometimes gets into that same playoff mode from last year when Randle and OG were out, we didn’t have Bridges and the team was a mess. With those lineups there was almost no choice but for him to take over, create shots for himself, up his usage and try to carry a huge part of the load. But what was optimal for that lineup is not optimal when you have Towns, OG and Bridges on the court with you. We need less dribbling and way more strategic ball and player movement.

It’s on Thibs and Brunson.

The assistant coach on the Grizzlies who came over from Paris this year seems interesting, but he may also be a system coach. Of course, his system has been pretty good for the most part.

Otherwise… Bryant?

I’d be cool with Bryant, especially after this years’ experience in Cleveland. He probably learned a lot. I doubt if Thibs will be in any real danger for the next 2 years at least.

Hot take.

If we lose in the 1st or even 2nd round, Thibs will be replaced this summer.

3 years in a row a second round exit is clearly hitting a wall.

First year, you get a pass. First time to the 2nd round in a decade. Randle not 100 percent. Facing a Miami team that got hot and went to the finals.

Last year the team was decimated with injuries. Maybe that’s Thibs fault, maybe not, but he gets a pass.

This year, we SHOULD go into the playoffs close to full health (we’ll see with Jalen’s ankle) but even if we don’t, 2 years in a row going out because of injuries is not a fluke. And yes, Boston and Cleveland are both favorites over us in the playoffs but at this point, going all in with Mikal…not having a ton of picks to make another big move without seriously revamping the roster. A new coach will be the most obvious change to make before making some trade of one of our starters to really revamp the roster.

Only way I see Thibs staying is if we make it to the ECF OR we do lose in the 2nd round to Boston but it’s like a 7 game series where we really could have beaten them and then they end up going to the finals again.

The 2nd round is going to go through Boston. The reasonable expectation for any team can’t be to beat them, so it’s hard to go apoplectic and start firing people. (Losing to Detroit in the 1st round, though? Then I get it, off with their heads.)

Is that you Swifty? I don’t think Thibs deserves to be fired after one year with this roster. They are still figuring things out on both sides of the ball. They need this off season to fill out the bench. I think next year is probably going to be there best shot. After that, it will be time to reevaluate the coach.

I hope Knicks play Indiana in the 1st rd, if we’re gonna lose in the 2nd rd then at least let’s enjoy beating a rival in the 1st rd. Beating an upstart Detroit team would be kinda boring and meaningless.

Beating an upstart Detroit team would be kinda boring and meaningless.

I continue to believe that we beat the Cavs in the playoffs because Thibs out coached Bickerstaff, both in and out of the locker room. Assume will do it again so I agree. But as I have mentioned before, am astounded at how a team can fire a coach and get so much better, and the fired coach goes to a new team and that team gets even better!

I just don’t think it’ll be much fun playing Detroit plus if the series goes 6 or 7 games it wouldn’t be a good look for the Knicks. At least playing Indiana or Milwaukee would be pretty fun matchups plus I’d enjoy and take some pride in beating either team even though the Knicks are clearly better than both.

Is that you Swifty? I don’t think Thibs deserves to be fired after one year with this roster. They are still figuring things out on both sides of the ball. They need this off season to fill out the bench. I think next year is probably going to be there best shot. After that, it will be time to reevaluate the coach.

Lol, I know. And I hear you. But, IMO, our window is small and I don’t know if we can “waste” another year with just some marginal bench improvements and Thibs coaching again.

Yes, it’s teh first year with a pretty new roster, but we’re seeing the same bad tendencies that we’ve always seen and, IMO, Thibs is coaching like this is a traditional “Thibs” team when it isn’t. We need someone who can play to the strengths of this team, which is offense, not defense.

Brunson used to throw the ball to Randle and let him do his version of creating. Bridges was supposed to take over that Randle role but it hasn’t happened. Any concrete idea why?

Not really sure that’s accurate, darules. They’re really two very different players, and I don’t think Mikal was supposed to take up Randle’s role — a fair amount of his scoring maybe. But Randle was a pounder, both in terms of dribbling (endlessly) and pounding the hell out of his defender’s body to get to the basket. Mikal’s a skinny little whippet, and he needs to play off of ball movement. They probably have about the same level handle, but Mikal doesn’t think that dribbling until someone steals it is a good idea. So maybe good on him.

I would like to see Mikal do more SGA-type creation, but I don’t know how much of that he has in him, to be honest. He might just be a cutter and catch-and-shooter, which if we play the right way might be enough.

And to be clear, since misunderstanding is something we do here a lot, I am NOT comparing Mikal to the second-best basketball player in the world. Only that their styles are slightly reminiscent (certainly their body types), and that perhaps Mikal could learn something by studying and trying to copy what SGA does.

…if it is even possible to copy what SGA does. Since I don’t get it, even after reading articles about him (since most of the articles just marvel about how what he does is inexplicable…)

I’m changing my earlier prediction about Mikal going off on Shaedon Sharpe tonight. Instead I think that it will be much more of a Deuce/Hart night, with Deuce locking down the inconsistent Simons and Hart being all over the place confusing Toumani Camara.

I’d think we’d be better suited to replace thibs with a youngish nba assistant coach, preferably one who played in the league…

I hate to say it, but the lakers scored with reddick…

finally got around to watching the kings game, deuce looked very ready from the tip of the game…

looking forward to seeing deuce and mitch on the court at the same time…

mitch played 16 minutes against the kings…more mitch please…

Didn’t Mikal create for himself in NJ?

Nuh uh. He only played in Brooklyn. 🙂

NJ, Brooklyn, from the crazy Middle East it’s all the same.

From the crazy Middle East I commend you for even caring at all about Mikal Bridges.

A man has to run away to something.

Looks like Bridges just set off a firestorm on Twitter with comments to Bondy of the NY Post about Bridges telling Thibs the bench should play more minutes.

Surprised this place isn’t a firestorm yet.
Everyone just wants to win, so good for Bridges.

What’s Twitter?

BBA, curious if that was very recent or a while ago. The Kings game actually had fairly great minutes distribution — OG at 37, Mikal at 33, Josh and Deuce at 31, KAT at 27. He even dumped the back end of the bench in for the last 4:44. Shamet played 24, Payne 14, Mitch 15 but he’s clearly still on a minutes restriction that I’m totally fine with. Precious only got 5, but I think that’s going to happen as long as Mitch stays healthy.

Not sure when the quotes were made, Bonds just put out the article this afternoon. It’s actually a pretty tame article, not exactly controversial:

https://nypost.com/2025/03/12/sports/why-mikal-bridges-asked-tom-thibodeau-to-play-knicks-starters-less?utm_source=nypost&utm_campaign=android_nyp&utm_medium=social

Maybe the last game was after Bridges talked to him.

Knicks social media seems divided between “Thank GOD someone finally said it to Thibs!” and “This is bad that he would speak out of school like this!” And then a weird mix of people just calling him soft. I think the way he described to Bondy as 1)The bench guys are good and will play better when you play them a bit more, and 2)The defense will be better if we can do it in slightly shorter bursts, seems reasonable, and pretty much the way it should be framed, both in public and to Thibs. But this is such a paranoid, tight-lipped organization that I wonder if there will be any fallout from him saying it publicly.

I think it’s good that Bridges feels he can give input to the coach. Some coaches wouldn’t want any of their decisions questioned. And I suspect Thibs will listen to inputs from players.

I’m not going to make anything of this until there’s something worth making of it. A player talked to the coach, it happens.

Feels a little like Mikal falling on his sword here.

He talked to the coach and then told people about it.

Thing is, I respect Mikal but it would have been better if it came from Jalen or Hart, both of whom have played up to expectations and are the team leaders.

Toronto Raptors starting lineup tonight:
PG Jamal Shead
SG Jamison Battle
SF Jared Rhoden
PF Colin Castleton
C Jakob Poeltl

F O. Agbaji OUT
F S. Barnes OUT
F RJ Barrett OUT
F G. Dick OUT
F B. Ingram OUT
F J. Mogbo OUT
G I. Quickley OUT
G J. Walter OUT

Thunder up 9-0 on Celts. LOL

On the bright side: at least he’s not filming an infomercial for shitty flammable cars on the White House lawn or bilking his own fan base through cryptocurrency.

ess-dog, please no.

Celtics on pace to attempt 88 three pointers tonight (22 in the first quarter!)

The two weird things about it are 1) Mikal making his comments public, which seems not very strategic unless he’s playing higher-level chess than I am envisioning; and 2) people calling the actual NBA Ironman soft, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the world is filled with nitwits.

The NBA on Wednesday fined the Utah Jazz $100,000 for violating its player participation policy.

Markkanen is a “star player” under the policy because he was an All-Star in 2023. He has been out since Feb. 22, with the Jazz (15-50) saying it’s for injury management on his lower back.

teams are tanking hard for cooper flagg…

Bridges said Thibodeau was receptive but “sometimes I think he just gets in his ways.”

“I think he’s not arguing about it. Sometimes I think he just gets in his ways and he gets locked in. He just wants to keep the guy out there,” Bridges said. “Sometimes you’ve got to tell him, like Landry (Shamet), for example or somebody, keep him out there, they’re playing well.”

“I think it’s something you never really get used to,” Bridges said. “Your body is going to feel how it is every year. But I’ve been a part of it for a while, knowing how to take care of my body through those situations and just trying to do as much as I can.”

wow, mikal is a pretty sharp person, well spoken…anyone know where the full interview is?

thunder/celts not disappointing at all…

Geo: https://nypost.com/2025/03/12/sports/why-mikal-bridges-asked-tom-thibodeau-to-play-knicks-starters-less/

Looks like Thibs isn’t too happy with the minutes story.

Well, this does not make it seem like things are all hunky and dory:

@jledwardsiii.bsky.social‬
Thibs on Bridges’ comments to us about minutes earlier this morning: “We never had a conversation about it. The facts are the facts. Jalen is 20th or 21st in average minutes. KAT is below that. Your wings play more. They’re matched up against primary players.”

Yeah, yikes, that ain’t great.

Mikal plays all 48 tonight?

Leaving Mikal’s disappointingly inconsistent play aside, who could have imagined him being such a poor culture fit here? Villanova, the NBA’s reigning iron man… what is happening?!?!?

That’s weird and doesn’t make sense. If your wings have a primary matchup wouldn’t they play similar minutes to the opponent they are guarding? But our wings seem to play more than that.

thanks al, ah, so it was sefan bondy with the post that got mikal talking about the starters’ minutes load…

hahahahahaha, thibs’ response is too funny…

well, people on the team and in the building are most certainly discussing it now…

a bet landry loved the story…

The specifics of what Thibs is saying matters much less to me than that he’s denying what Mikal said earlier today. So one of them is lying. And even if Mikal is telling the truth, Thibs is clearly pissed.

It’s Not What You Want.

https://x.com/shwinnypooh/status/1899970260142268614 is Mikal implying Thibs system doesn’t fit his style of play…

Getting 1995 Knicks vibes…

I’m glad he rattled thibs’ cage…dude needs to get shaken up

Reached the drama stage

Obv I want the Celtics to fail but if this is the Finals I will be entertained

Really glad to see Chet doing his thing and healthy

That horford airball was like me in my jcc league game last night

In other news Dadiet has finally played three consecutive games in Westchester and his shooting/scoring is coming around, finally.

Not great. I don’t know how many nails it takes to close a coffin, but that’s definitely one.

Everybody the Celtics and Thunder put on the court can defend..

From a cousin of mine (who roots for the Nets), in response to this Mikal Mess:

Tonight’s motivational speaker is Luol Deng and his message is that the minutes will continue until morale improves.

Its easy to shit on him but Tatum is really fucking good.

Shitting on Tatum was never smart.

Derrick White might be a top 20 player in the league if folks didn’t get swayed by volume of scoring.

Some scattered thoughts:

1) Mikal Bridges is substantively correct, IMO

2) it’s admittedly irrational but I’m slightly annoyed to hear complaints from him, given that he’s by and large underwhelmed

3) I had already reached the point where I felt like Thibs had to over perform in the playoffs, i.e. beat the Cavs or Celtics, to keep his job, and that was solely due to red flags on the basketball side of things. To the extent we know have locker room issues, it reinforces that sentiment.

4) I still wish we used the last roster spot on someone who could play.

5) if we close the season out strongly this will be forgotten.

Its easy to shit on him but Tatum is really fucking good.

Jaylen Brown otoh is really fucking overrated. The second best player on the team is Derrick White.

Boston is going to take over 60 threes and people think this team can survive taking under 30

Brown is better than any wing on this team..

The way the Thunder defend the perimeter is elite

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