Knicks Morning News (2025.04.08)

77 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.04.08)”

C’s favored with Tatum and Porzingis likely out.

How’s everyone’s 401K today?

We’re not supposed to talk about politics ess-dog! Even if the world is literally on fire!

Finance, however, IS ON THE TABLE.

I’ve made it a point to NOT check my 401K. I’m 47, so still have many years of work ahead of me and I’m trying to just take the big picture that eventually this will get sorted out in some way. But it is disheartening. I don’t know how it’s doing but I do know that the last 5 years I have for the first time in my life put a significant bi-weekly contribution to my 401K. Earlier in my career I did smaller amounts and fits and starts but have come into my career in my 40’s and I’ve watched it grow quite nicely as I contributed to it every 2 weeks and got a nice company match. I was about to hit a big milestone with it and I know that has now been obliterated. But I’ll keep plowing into it and hope for the best.

Or we can talk about the first Jimmy D’s years, where surrounded by lackeys and counseled by charlatans he managed to tear down one of the most prestigious franchises making dumb move after dumb move.

I came here to reassure you that i’ve been silent because i’m busy… and not because i was banned! 🤭

KB wouldn’t survive losing its best portuguese contributor! 😂

cyber, we’ve collectively sprayed you with ban-repellent, so no worries!

swifty, look at it this way: on the dips your contributions buy shares more cheaply.

I didn’t watch the last 2 games, and it’s always great to “follow” the game on the game thread, even if it’s not in real time. We seem to be getting what we hoped for, everybody healthy and peaking when it matters more.

Now let’s roast some Celtics just for the fun of it, although win or lose it won’t make much difference. Well, unless it’s a blowout again, as that could bring the good vibes down. We just need to make it a competitive game.

cyber, we’ve collectively sprayed you with ban-repellent, so no worries!

🧡💙

Brunson has been training

https://x.com/nba_newyork/status/1909477462800552108?s=46

Brunson has been training

LOL

I think it’s possible Tatum, Porzingis and Brown might sit tonight, so a win would be kind of meaningless and a loss would really suck

So kind of a no win situation really

What’s the consensus here on which team would we rather face in the 1st rounder? I’m leaning Milwaukee…

Voting Bucks here. Giannis is an unholy terror, but he’s got nobody else. When Kyle Kuzma is your second option…

They won their last game, but that was against the Elfrid Payton-led Pelicans.

There are pros and cons to either draw but after a couple of recent tough losses it seems almost like a foregone conclusion that ti will be detroit.

Tim Hardaway Jr. is gonna be motivated. But I’d rather the kids. Bright lights big city gotta come in handy sometime. Giannis is hurty and scary.

The Bucks are not very good and I’d be reasonably confident about that series, but empirics aside I do more or less subscribe to the old fashioned view that you never want to be staring down the best player in the series. The non-Giannis Bucks are mostly a sorry bunch, especially with Dame out, but the burden on them goes down significantly if he averages 40-10-8 in the series, something he’s 100% capable of doing.

Detroit has definitely been impressive in many ways, but I’m not sure how their style will translate to the playoffs. They don’t do anything exceptionally well on either end. There’s also their relative lack of playoff experience, which I don’t know how to quantify but anecdotally seems to make some kind of difference.

So I’d prefer Detroit, but also wouldn’t support engaging in any machinations to try to game our first round opponent (which are off the table for us anyway). We should beat anyone in the first round, and if we don’t we have way bigger problems than an unlucky draw.

TNFH’s post basically mirrors what I posted yesterday.

White’s defense of his opus …

“Part of me is just like, ‘Bro, this is the vibe. I’m world-building. If you don’t want to go to bed with me, then get out of my bed. I’m edging you!”

I knew I didn’t like that show. Nobody edges me without my consent.

Looking at their numbers I thought Detroit was much better on offense than they actually are. Only 16th in offensive rating and despite the additions of Hardaway Jr and especially Beasley they’re still not a good 3pt shooting team.

Bucks are only slightly better offensively but they currently lead the NBA in 3pt%, I’d prefer not having to play a 7 game series vs a team that is capable of shooting lights out from 3 plus having to deal with Giannis and potentially Lillard if he returns.

Either way Knicks should win in 5 games regardless of the opponent although a fully healthy Bucks team should be a much tougher series.

Duren is gonna be a handful for KAT.

I’ve made it a point to NOT check my 401K. I’m 47, so still have many years of work ahead of me and I’m trying to just take the big picture that eventually this will get sorted out in some way. But it is disheartening. I don’t know how it’s doing but I do know that the last 5 years I have for the first time in my life put a significant bi-weekly contribution to my 401K. Earlier in my career I did smaller amounts and fits and starts but have come into my career in my 40’s and I’ve watched it grow quite nicely as I contributed to it every 2 weeks and got a nice company match. I was about to hit a big milestone with it and I know that has now been obliterated. But I’ll keep plowing into it and hope for the best.

An apolitical view from someone 73… I understand the unease of many. You mentioned the word “disheartening” (which it certainly is) in the short term.

You mentioned you are 47 so you have been working for about 25 years. During that time you have seen the DOW increase by about 400%. However, within that time you have seen a 50% crash in 2008 and a 30% crash during COVID.

You aren’t old enough to remember between 1965 and 1980 where the DOW was flat….. 15 years! 15% mortgage rates in the late 70’s. Try to finance a home at that interest rate.

During the first Trump administration the DOW increased 54% even with the crash during the first 3 months of COVID. During the Biden administration the DOW went up 41% even though it lost 6,000 points in 2022.

Bottom line, keep funding you retirement funds with broadly based equities and real estate. 20 year from now you will be happy. Watch the markets on a daily basis if you want to develop ulcers….

I’m fine with Detroit. Even if they have enough talent to be great in a couple of years, which is doubtful, they’re inexperienced and it shows in the playoffs.

Just get the win tonight, wrap up 3rd, which I’m sure Thibs and the players care about, and don’t worry about the last three games. That’s my only priority.

And keep funding and participating in the arts(preferably independent). The moment our robot overlords think we’re not fun or interesting or weird we’re done for, regardless of the fat fat piggy bank.

I think I prefer the Bucks marginally. Although it may cause some friction in my half greek household.

yep, the math on pulling it all out of your 401k (taking the 20% hit without the roth) and sit it somewhere for about 6 months, re-invest, then eventually pay another fee up front or when you take the money back out of the market – is tough…

think I’m down about 10% now…think the worst loss over the last 20 years or so over about a 12 month period was about 30% of what was invested…past losses have made me more diversified these days thankfully…

truth though is i haven’t been really “active” in the market in about 25 years…I remember how much work it was then, and have avoided getting very involved back in it…sort of wish I was more financially motivated, for whatever reasons, I’m just not now…

the whole notion of less public services and more public taxes is not ideal…my hope is that the current 10% loss doesn’t grow to around a 30% loss…

that would really suck…but yeah man, treasury (i imagine state also) bonds/bills and buy a house as soon as possible…just having cash stashed making a measly 4 to 5% is kind of nice too…

the one trick I never really tried was “shorting” the market or individual stocks…you definitely should be committed to the work of investing if you go in that direction…

although they intersect of course, money and politics are very very different subjects…

Edit: one of my regrets when I was in to the market stuff was not learning more about commodities…

howdy clarence – hope all is well in your world 😊

I remember a while back having a conversation with bo nateman (poster and educator for life) who casually mentioned how writing was becoming a legacy skill…freaked me out a bit…

having relatively young kids and all, sadly after thinking about it, I realized he was right…

Bo knows, and I guess teaching puts you in tune with young folks in a different way…

I wonder how much of the “arts” will become legacy skills, particularly when it comes to educating young folks…

one last money thought, ma never realky taught sis or myself about how money works…education, work and faith were prioritized…

trying to make it a point to work with the kids on all the different money things now…

didn’t there used to be a class in high school called home economics, I think i may slept through that one…I still remember getting my first checkbook, what a mess that was…

I got more checks, I must have more money, right…

Hey hey Geo! As a hack of a wordist I wish the writers well. They’re still out there. The misery of science has left so little to the imagination. When I was a kid I wrote a short story about the Big Bang that was well researched and ridiculously me. I sent it to Michio Kaku. He was like cool fiction but it’s not instructive to the field because you’re making shit up. And I was like nah. I’m interpreting. We stopped corresponding.

We’re on a pretty accelerated pace to being the lapdogs of a greater intellect. Better at basketball. Better at making money. Better at existing on a planet with massive global climate change. Better at writing screenplay.

What’re ya gonna do? Complain about it?

Given that we should be favourites against either team, I tend to go with who is the worst coach. Prior to this season I would have ranked JBB first and Doc second in the list of worst coaches of playoff teams. But JBB has done a fantastic job with Detroit. So give me Doc with Dame in street clothes.

Achilles fell at Troy. But so did Troy. If Giannis can break unicorns, he can break sphinxes.

Chess isn’t obsolete and machines are 100% better than us at it. Serious, imaginative writers are protected for now. I think.

Holy shit Denver just fired Michael Malone.

BREAKING: The Denver Nuggets have fired coach Michael Malone, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/bZoKRx6kgt— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 8, 2025

Jesus, Memphis’ proximity-to-the-playoffs-after-a-firing record didn’t last long.

Well, there will be serious options available if we want to move on from Thibs this offseason.

Firing a coach less than 2 weeks before the playoffs starts seems like a rash decision.

Whoa! Just saw the Malone news. I can’t believe Denver (and Memphis just before) are making such a big change right before the playoffs. Admittedly, I’m not much of a Malone fan but still.

And Calvin Booth too!

Jokic “I’ll do it myself”

And Calvin Booth too!

Holy shit! I don’t understand what Denver is doing. What’s the benefit of doing this now instead of after the playoffs?

That’s nuts!

What’re ya gonna do? Complain about it?

was in the drama club in high school and did this this one act play thing at stonybrook (beautiful campus), i was terrible, monotoned, robotic…

after the thing wrapped up, this one critic, who was a legit critic, unfortunately articulated out loud the obvious, very well…broke my spirit a bit, made me more cautious…

thankfully uncle sam let me play army shortly thereafter, great acting opportunities there…

so, to answer your question, hang on to it…forever and ever and ever…maybe til you laugh about it…

nice, the nba now has their star players and tenured coaches all a little shook up and nervous…

don’t believe the hype…

there will be serious options available if we want to move on from Thibs this offseason.

Maybe only making one finals with Nikola Jokic was more of a FO problem, but I’ll never get past Malone bringing Jokic off the bench long after it was obvious he was the best player on the team.

no new coach over 40…

Unless there’s something going on we don’t know about yet, the owner of the Nuggets is a wildman. We should hire Malone as a consultant or assitant. He’s a NY guy. He could take over for Thibs eventually if we fail badly in the playoffs.

Man, the West is brutal. Not sure what Malone was supposed to be doing with key players predictably out on a shallow team.

Let’s get Jokic…fuck Malone! (No offense…)

I’d rather play the Pitsons for the reason expressed in this thread. I want nothing to do with rolling the dice against Giannis and Lillard. Either of those guys could have a tremendous “series” and if they both do, we’d be in trouble, even against Doc.

wow, if nikola or giannis really did become available, that would definitely change the roster math around…almost anyone could be gone then…

Not sure what Malone was supposed to be doing with key players predictably out on a shallow team.

doesn’t seem shy about speaking his mind, maybe said some magic words to the gm or owner…

KAT for Joker. Make it happen Leon.

Is it true, only Nash, Pop and Spoe with longer tenures that Thibs atm?

How do you think Joker feels about being only the second best athlete with that name from his country?

but I’ll never get past Malone bringing Jokic off the bench long after it was obvious he was the best player on the team.

I totally agree. The previous front office was had to trade Nurkic so Malone was forced to play Jokic.

Thibs currently trending on Twitter rn

And here I thought firing Taylor Jenkins late season when the team is in the top 5 of their conference…sheeeeeesh. What happened in Denver? You don’t fire a coach that good this late when you’re a top 5 of the conference team even with injuries and bad roster decisions.

How do you think Joker feels about being only the second best athlete with that name from his country?

We should get Novak on a 10 day for some bench depth

Malone was probably making too much money. Denver’s owners are cheapskates.

I like Michael Malone but have no idea of he’s a good coach.

Calvin Booth.. not surprised he’s taking some heat for not putting a better team around Joker #2.

If we flame out early, I could see Malone as the guy just because of his NYC history. Narrative is the best way to make these decisions, right?

Btw anyone here follow the IPL? Between the Brunson injury, the Sunshine Double, St Johns losing in the second round, and the IPL… Have been completely tuned out of basketball.

Champions League worth a watch, Although it will have to be in Spanish unless you have Paramount Pls

Malone is part of the same coaching tree as Thibs. His dad coached with JVG, and then Mike’s first NBA job was as a coaching associate when JVG was the head coach and Thibs was one of his assistants. They speak very fondly of each other. I wonder if he’d even want the job — on top of wondering if we’d want to try replacing Thibs with a guy with shared coaching DNA.

Also, remember how indignant Malone got about the Kings firing Mike Brown at mid-season? I wonder if Thibs will now deliver a similar monologue on Mike’s behalf at his media availability tonight.

What a diiiiiick move.

Anyone know who’s replacing him? Has to be from within, an assistant coach? Even if you believe coaches don’t really matter, knowing the schemes everyone is familiar with, player tendencies, that sort of thing, you can’t bring in an outsider four games before the playoffs, right?

Hilariously, his top assistant, David Adelman, is replacing him, and yes, Malone, a nepo baby coach, is, indeed, being replaced by another nepo baby coach.

You have to wonder if perhaps there was some Larry Drew shit going on here, with Adelman dripping poison in some people’s ears about Malone.

As long as the coach knows enough to trot out Jokic, they’ll be fine. Hopefully they run some Murray/Jokic PnR too, but there’s a lot of dumb coaches in the league, so who knows.

Pop/spo/Kerr the only ones with their current teams longer than Thibs

Malone has a flammable side to him and could always see it getting him canned. But unless his rant was at Jokic, seems like whomever the rant was aimed at should have been guy who leaves.

I didn’t realize that Popovich (who is practically retired) is the only coach older than Thibs. Seems like a changing of the guard is happening in most places…

ownership flexing this season…

it’s close, but I’d take giannis on our team over nikola…

What a diiiiiick move.

This ^^^^^^^^^^

My son is a Nuggets fan and he sent me this:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DIMgkyESIWq/

I think Nuggets fans aren’t happy with this move.

The nuggets still have those rainbow jerseys?

KAT for Joker. Make it happen Leon.

Jokic told the front office “don’t fire Malone,” but Booth thought he said “fire Malone”. When Booth did it, and Jokic got irate, Booth said “oops, my bad.” “Hire him back,” Kroenke said to Booth. “I can’t. We had him forcibly ejected from the building, we’ve already taken out a restraining order.” “ How did you let this happen??” “It’s not my fault,” Booth said, “you know I can’t understand Polish well.“ At which point Kroenke fired Booth and Jokic demanded a trade to the Knicks.

Booth deserves it more than Malone. They have an expensive, thin team that is losing now that Murray has an injury. The roster should have been better.

Of course, my Western conference thoughts from yesterday are now totally up in the air. It just goes to show how unpredictable the conference is.

Kevin Harlan’s voice annoys the hell out of me.

Reggie Miller’s existence annoys the hell out of me.

Might be a long game.

Okay, we’re still in this one.

Damn rebounds!

Towns complains a lot, but I haven’t seen a big man get no respect from the refs like this for awhile. He has to get mugged twice to get a call.

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