Knicks Morning News (2025.05.19)

38 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.05.19)”

It’s fascinating that the Nuggets were the last team to win their first title, and it was SO RECENT. Now the Knicks are the only team that WOULDN’T be winning their first title, and they haven’t won one in 52 years!

What a crazy Final Four. A 3/4 matchup, and a 1/6 matchup. It is actually pretty similar to last year’s matchup (#3 Minnesota/#5 Dallas, and #1 Celtics/#6 Pacers), so I guess we’ve had a few weird ones recently.

By the way, who would expect BOTH Indiana and Minnesota to repeat as Conference Finals from last season!? What were the odds of THAT happening?

Actually you were calling a member of this community an asshole without provocation. Like you always do.

Z-Man, after the Knicks won game 4, and every single person here was celebrating the game, you and you alone came here to celebrate your agenda. After the biggest Knicks game of the century, all you wanted to talk about was me.

I mean, let’s face it — “I will not permit you to refer to the 11th pick in the NBA draft as a lottery pick” (*) evinces a level of misanthropic control freakery so stupendous that “I will not permit you to enjoy the Knicks’ playoff run to a potential championship” inevitably follows.

(*) And all the other stuff in this vein.

i do not understand the hate btwn hubie and z they otherwise both seem like nice enuff guys

I guess we’ve had a few weird ones recently

I wonder if we’re seeing more injuries to key players than in previous years. If we do, the 65 games rule may be worth looking into. Although clearly still sss.

I wonder if we’re seeing more injuries to key players than in previous years. If we do, the 65 games rule may be worth looking into. Although clearly still sss.

You see Aaron Gordon complaining about there not being enough time off between playoff games? Dude, come the heck on, a fucking day off has GOT to be enough for you.

we say the same thing about the number of injuries every single season the same is constantly said in football

I wonder if we’re seeing more injuries to key players than in previous years.

Certainly last year that was true not just in the actual playoffs but in the end of the regular season that determined the seedings, eg, Joel coming in and Giannis going out in the East. And this year the conference finalists are all pretty much injury free, having beaten teams in the semi’s who all had injury issues.

Everyone plays these games so much harder now, and pushes their bodies so much more in training, that I’m not surprised injuries are getting so much worse. The human arm is not meant to throw at max effort on every pitch, for instance, which every MLB reliever, and many starters, are now expected to do.

exactly what happened with degrom

Definitely more injuries, almost certainly the result of the de facto expansion of the court with the expansion of the trifecta. If you measured average “speed moved,” with a full-out sprint being 10, I have little doubt that that average has materially increased in the last few years.

Playing defense in that big of a space, against offensive players who have much more room and space to build up a full head of steam, is going to naturally lead to more injuries.

(In no sense is the huge increase in trifectas launched — an aesthetic blight on the games — worth these impacts, but that’s a different issue.)

Fun facts:

– the whole starting 5 of the January Knicks (Brunson, Donte, OG, Randle, Hartenstein) is still standing.

– the Pacers are the only team left that doesn’t have a January Knick in their starting lineup.

If not for Jacques and early bird maximums…

Those are fun facts, Hubert!

What’s also certain is that our depth of understanding around injuries is expanding. A tweak in your lower “calf” or a dull ache in your shoulder used to just be that. Now they can be the harbingers of destruction to hundreds of millions of billions of dollars in earned contracts and revenues.

I’ve always noted that, okay, the 1990s teams would beat the shit out of each other, but that typically was only when you A. had the ball or B. were going to the ball.

That typically meant that, like, 6 out of the 10 players on the court at any given moment were not really doing anything, just watching, say, Ewing posting up Smits for 20 seconds. In today’s modern offenses, often EVERYone is moving, and NOone has a chance to rest on a play.

The calf strain is the quintessential 2020s open court/open lane injury. They’ve gone up by orders of magnitude.

Fun with a slight twinge of pain. Time has only reinforced the notion that team was every bit as good as the small sample suggested they were.

We are blessed to be healthy. Not just the Knicks, but ourselves.

So Z-Man, I apologize for needling you. I also apologize to anyone else here who has been caught in the occasional maelstrom of my passion, especially on those mornings where I have two cappuccinos.

I think it would be great if we put aside our squabbles for the remainder of this playoff season. As the January Knicks showed us, opportunity is fleeting. We may never have a chance like this again. And as ephus’ return showed us, time is precious, and this community is special.

Let the vibes be great. There will be plenty of time in the future to throw old takes in people’s faces. For a couple weeks at least, let’s kick that to the curb and row in unison towards a Knicks championship.

We may never have a chance like this again.

How dare you criticize Leon this way!!!!!

By the way, I don’t think I was around the day ephus came back (and it felt weird to bring it up in the game thread), so let me also say that I’m so pleased that you’re doing well, and that you’re posting again. We all obviously missed you a lot.

The KFS podcast with Caitlin Cooper and Samson Folk this morning was truly excellent. It also made me quite scared that the Knicks have no good strategy to stop the Pacers’ offense.

anyone else think it is a weidr and bad scheduling glitch for okc that they have to finish up a tough 7 game series against denver yesterday and then only have one day in between starting the next series granted they do not have to travel we do not have to travel either but have four days in betwen our last game and our next game

anyone else think it is a weidr and bad scheduling glitch for okc that they have to finish up a tough 7 game series against denver yesterday and then only have one day in between starting the next series granted they do not have to travel we do not have to travel either but have four days in betwen our last game and our next game

The same would have happened to the Knicks if there had been a game 7 (but they would need to travel back to New York from Boston).

Josh Hart is leading all New York Knicks in shooting .420 from deep these playoffs (3.6 attempts per game).

Today is a great day to be a Knicks fan. Our team is one of the last four standing. Everyone is healthy (fingers crossed for OG). We have home court advantage. Brunson is the best player in the series.

By the way, I don’t think I was around the day ephus came back (and it felt weird to bring it up in the game thread), so let me also say that I’m so pleased that you’re doing well, and that you’re posting again. We all obviously missed you a lot.

Thanks Brian (and to everyone else who gave flowers since my return).

Even after two dozen viewings, I still feel twinge when I watch the Nova Knicks & DDV commercial. I’m rooting for Minnesota against OKC. Randle & DDV played the game hard while in NY.

I’m likely to try to sync the Knicks radio feed with the TNT video. I’m not interested in hearing Reggie Miller’s commentary.

good point owne

Has there been any kind of OG injury update? I kind of feel like him being healthy is going to be crucial. Not that there has been much official.

og seemed fine by end of game i would be more worried about mitch back tightening up

That typically meant that, like, 6 out of the 10 players on the court at any given moment were not really doing anything, just watching, say, Ewing posting up Smits for 20 seconds. In today’s modern offenses, often EVERYone is moving, and NOone has a chance to rest on a play.

Maybe Thibs is a mad genius by having us do ISO Brunson so much the second half of the season, keeping our dudes healthy and injury free for the playoff push!

The 82 games + playoffs schedule was simply designed for a different game. Like BC said, while individual possessions could certainly get quite physical, look at highlights from the ’80s, ’90s, and aughts, and you’ll see a whole lot of guys standing around with their hands on their knees on both ends.

Games between two deep-playoff caliber teams increasingly resemble football games these days. Not necessarily in terms of physicality (though at least in the playoffs that’s certainly a factor), but in terms of how much movement is required from every player on the floor on every play.

Ultimately, the NBAPA is going to have to decide if they can live with a short-to-medium term decline in revenues as an investment in a higher quality product year-round. If so, they can make this a labor issue and stand a strong chance of having it addressed IMO.

Unfortunately I can’t say with much confidence the investment would pay off empirically–it may well be the case that the “inventory” approach is a revenue maximizer, even if it disappoints genuinely big basketball fans like us.

throw old takes in people’s faces. For a couple weeks at least, let’s kick that to the curb

Throwing old takes in people’s faces is a bit pretty of what we do here, we’re not just gonna kick that to the curb

(Obligatory reference activated)

og seemed fine by end of game i would be more worried about mitch back tightening up

I agree with Doogie (except in his dispiriting decline in spelling and grammar). Mitch was the biggest + in the Celtics series, and it wasn’t close. If we got past the Pacers – where I’m not sure he’s quite as valuable – he’d be essential vs OKC and to a lesser degree vs Minny.

It’s really the 82 games combined with the needless push for full player participation that is causing all the trouble. The league is so deep with talent that it’s unnecessary and counterproductive to demand everyone play every game. In fact they should probably go the other way, i.e. Instead of making 65 game minimums they should make 70 game maximums. Not only would this increase the likelihood that all the stars are still standing for the playoffs, but it would showcase all the talent that is buried on NBA benches.

The problem with longer breaks is that the season goes on too long anyways (in my opinion). I guess you could have it go another week and maybe space out a few days more between each round?

It would need to be some combination of cutting some regular season games (maybe down to 75) and also giving longer breaks before/during the playoffs.

But IMO you should cut TOO many regular season games. And the season shouldn’t go too much longer (maybe another week).

– the whole starting 5 of the January Knicks (Brunson, Donte, OG, Randle, Hartenstein) is still standing.

And the Pacers have Toppin. You have to wonder that if two years ago you took Randle, Hartenstein, Toppin, and Robinson, and tell them that they all would be in the conference finals but on different teams, what would their face be, and if they could guess where everyone would go.

From Nate Silver’s substack:

Still, I wouldn’t have expected to ever become a Knicks fan. Then I moved to New York in 2009. I’m not sure why exactly, but I felt bad for the team after LeBron James spurned them the next summer, soon unexpectedly finding myself lurking in the comments sections of obscure Knicks blogs.

This has got to be us, right?

I’ve always noted that, okay, the 1990s teams would beat the shit out of each other, but that typically was only when you A. had the ball or B. were going to the ball.

That typically meant that, like, 6 out of the 10 players on the court at any given moment were not really doing anything, just watching, say, Ewing posting up Smits for 20 seconds. In today’s modern offenses, often EVERYone is moving, and NOone has a chance to rest on a play.

Well, the Knicks do clearly move less on offense than other teams, and its often everyone watching Brunson going iso. That perhaps mitigates the heavy minutes (but we also miss on easy looks on offense)

Instead of making 65 game minimums they should make 70 game maximums.

Are you sure you want to see (and pay for) more of the Knicks bench? 😉

If/when the NBA moves to 32 teams, it would be a natural move to go down to a 77 game schedule.

Each team would play 3 games against the 15 other teams in their conference and 2 games against the 16 teams in the other conference:

15 conference opponents x 3 games/conference opponent = 45 conference games.
16 non-conference opponents x 2 games/non-conference opponent = 32 non-conference games.

45 conference games + 32 non-conference games = 77 games/season.

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38 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.05.19)”

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