win, lose or – there is no draw – tonight’s game is an important step for the team…

I agreed with Al that it’s really the two games together that matter, not just game 3.

Except then ptmilo said we’ll only get his definitive Bridges’ take if we win tonight. So now it feels critical.

FWIW I appreciate the 7pm start. 7:00 >>>> 7:30.

win, lose or – there is no draw – tonight’s game is an important step for the team…

I’m feeling pretty detached from the outcome…

if it had to lay down odds for the game tonight, all things considered, i’d call it even…

On offense, the expectations seem to be that he should be playing at an all-star level (to a large extent based on the price paid).

Respectfully, strat, this is a complete straw man. Nobody expects Mikal to be All-star level on offense. What we did expect was basically what he’s done this year plus:

-Not having the worst FTA rate in the NBA
-Not having his worst 3p% year since 2019

He was expected to be a tertiary shot creator and contribute to a credible 4-5 out offense. Instead he’s avoided the rim like the plague, and it’s not like we’ve had Mitch in there clogging the lane, and reinvented the wheel on his shot such that he’s now a below average 3p shooter while also lowering his volume. That fucking sucks.

His midrange game has actually been pretty nice. If he’d just undo the above two developments that nobody asked for there would be nothing to complain about offensively.

Defensively, he’s just massively overrated and is demonstrably not elite in any aspect. If it was just Brunson and Towns holding him back we wouldn’t have seen out defense consistently look much better with Deuce or Wright at the PoA. It’s not just that he can’t guard pocket rocket Maxey type guards either because he can’t guard the wing-sized Cunningham either.

All this adds up to him being massively overrated, an average NBA player for a superstar price. Paying 5x 1RP for the final piece is something you do when you have OKC level asset surplus, precisely because of the risk of what has happened to us. He’s locked us into mediocrity for the rest of the decade.

Man Zach Lowe just murdered Thibs on his podcast.

I didn’t listen to it yet, but I’d be willing to bet I agree with at least 90% of it. Zach Lowe is very good. Thibs has generally had a bad year, but it has become so apparent recently he’s losing people that have been supporters for years.

Putting aside the issue of whether we should trade him (I find it pointless to debate without a baseline return package), I’m not on board with the idea that we’re not “using” Mikal well on either side.

On offense, the expectations seem to be that he should be playing at an all-star level (to a large extent based on the price paid).

First, he was never an all star. He was considered an elite role player.

Second, playing at all-star caliber level on offense is close to impossible when you are the 3a or 3b option with OG and you have a score first PG dribbling around looking to create for himself first (and has the green light from the coach to do it).

IMO, he’s a terrific 3rd option that can step it up and do more on occasion, but he’s never going to meet the expectations based on the price. IMO he would be more consistent and more efficient if he was playing in an more organized offense instead of often standing around watching Brunson.

On defense, he’s often given the POA assignment against some really quick small PGs not because that’s his specialty on defense, but because our PG can’t guard anyone and he’s the least bad option for that job. The only good option is Deuce and he doesn’t start (another discussion) IMO, he’s supposed be guarding 2s or 3s with some switching ability .

I also don’t think he’s a bad fit.

I think the problems are Brunson, Towns and Thibs.

Brunson and Towns are a bad fit because they are both negative defenders and Thibs and Brunson have too much of the offense geared towards Brunson ISO (which is extremely valuable when we need it, but not the right way to run an offense for 36-40 minutes).

I thought the offense looked a lot better when Brunson was out. It wasn’t as potent because we didn’t have our #1 option when we actually needed him to get a basket, but it ran better for a lot of the time and got the others more involved.

He didn’t throw dirt on the Knicks, just killed them for how they played the first two games while suggesting approximately 20 ways off the top of his head that Thibs could have responded better. And of course pointing out how insane it is that Thibs wasn’t prepared to be defended the way he’s been defended all year.

Just because we overpaid and are not using him well on either side doesn’t mean we should trade him.

Putting aside the issue of whether we should trade him (I find it pointless to debate without a baseline return package), I’m not on board with the idea that we’re not “using” Mikal well on either side.

I am on board with the idea as it relates to KAT, as while at the end of the day the buck stops with the player, there are some fairly obvious coaching related decisions we can make with regards to him. We’ve literally seen him take more threes, set more ball screens, etc. It can be done.

But how exactly are we leading Mikal astray? He made the conscious decision to stop trying to draw fouls due to some galaxy brained theory about the playoffs, and also simply did not hit enough shots.

On defense, we gave him a simple, though difficult, task because, well, we thought we were trading for a very good perimeter defender–defend the point of attack with his long ass arms and nominal mobility. He mostly underwhelmed.

The way I see it, Mikal needs to make the old “play better” adjustment.