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Trae Young Jabs New York Knicks Fans in Praising Oklahoma City Thunder Crowd – Sports Illustrated
05/19/2025 11:00:00
NBA Eastern Conference finals preview: Knicks-Pacers X-factors, predictions and more – The New York Times
05/19/2025 11:00:09
2025 NBA playoffs schedule: Games today, complete bracket with conference finals matchups set – CBS Sports
05/19/2025 10:16:22
Classic Post: Nobody Has the Knicks? Number Like the Pacers – Neil Paine | Substack
05/19/2025 10:00:40
2025 NBA playoffs: Full schedule and results – NBA
05/19/2025 08:56:38
Jaylen Brown: Boston Celtics ‘losing to the Knicks feels like death’ – Yahoo Sports
05/19/2025 09:06:47
The NBA’s final 4 is set: Thunder, Knicks, Wolves and Pacers remain, and parity reigns again – AP News
05/19/2025 07:00:00
Inside look at Knicks-Pacers? intense Eastern Conference final history – New York Post
05/19/2025 04:53:00
Yankees, Mets Fans Unite in Uproarious Applause for Knicks’ Star Karl-Anthony Towns – Sports Illustrated
05/19/2025 02:26:36
Celtics star Jaylen Brown: ‘Losing to the Knicks feels like death’ – USA Today
05/19/2025 01:49:28
Trae Young trolls Knicks fans during Thunder-Nuggets Game 7 – New York Post
05/19/2025 01:22:00
Knicks vs. Pacers Game 1 prediction, how to watch, TV channel, odds – May 21 – FOX Sports
05/19/2025 01:23:40
Trae Young pokes fun at Knicks fans during Nuggets-Thunder – ESPN
05/18/2025 22:54:59
Wild numbers from Knicks vs. Celtics Game 6 highlight historic NBA playoffs moment – USA Today
05/18/2025 22:49:55
NBA playoffs 2025: Conference finals news, schedule, scores and highlights – ESPN
05/18/2025 22:52:00
137 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?
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 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.
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
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.
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
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.
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)
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).
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:
This has got to be us, right?
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)
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.
Conference finals are gonna be so interesting. You got 4 relatively young teams with the best players pretty much just entering their primes or still in their primes, and 4 good coaches. Am I the only one here seriously intrigued by the WCF? I don’t know if Minny will win, but considering how Jules operates, I can see him having a monster series. He’s finally got his postseason legs after not playing so well & being hurt in the playoffs as a Knick. Plus, Chet is tall, but nowhere near strong enough to handle Randle in the post. And he’s going against a former frontcourt teammate in Hartenstein. You just know he’s gonna go at them with reckless abandon lol. I’m genuinely happy for him too.
As far as our series goes- there’s the triple rivalry. You got the 90’s stuff between us and them, Brunson vs Haliburton, and Hart vs Pacers fans. The cherry on top is Obi’s a former Knick. From Thibs down, we need to stay disciplined because Indy can go on a run at any moment. If that roster was anywhere but Indy, I’d give that team all the respect in the world. They’re good. But..they’re the Pacers, so I wanna see our guys beat them DOWN.
Fuck, I can’t wait for Wednesday!
Can you think of a 1990s playoff rotation player who wouldn’t even be playable in the modern NBA? Could Chris Dudley play in the NBA today?
He could play for Thibs lol
i am rooting almost as much for the wolves as i am for the knicks it would be a much better championship series with them in it than it would be with the thunder in it i am hoping that okc is tuckered out while minny had a easier series against gsw and is coming in much better rested plus i just like minny more than okc overall
chris dudley is indeed still playing in the nba today he is disguised as alex len
Luc Longley, a center who could not shoot or rebound, and was rocking an unfathomable mid-40s eFG% for the greatest team of all time.
Poindexter I am also rooting strongly for Julius to have a monster WCF, but I can also imagine him getting blocked at the rim over and over and over again…
I could be conflating him with RJ, though…
My thoughts on Randle (from the conversations in last thread).
I think for a significant portion of his time in NY he was the #1 option on a team without much help. So teams would focus their defense on him and double him. He would often then try to play right through the doubles, take some bad shots and commit some terrible TOs. That was expecially true in the playoffs. It was a frustrating thing to watch, especially if he wasn’t giving maximum effort on defense.
I think a lot of it was the situation and coaching strategy, but some of it was poor decision making by him. Maybe it would have worked better with Brunson, Mikal and OG, but we never got to see it for a full season and playoffs.
In Minnesota, it was clear Ant was #1 option and he was #2 and the new guy. He didn’t have to carry the load and accepted his role well. But it did not start well. In the early part of the season they were already talking about trading him. Then they finally eventually figured it all out. So IMO he’s not necessarily playing better, but he’s getting better results than he did in NY.
As to Randle vs. KAT.
I think KAT is clearly the better player.
KAT’s the much better shooter and will be more efficient on similar or even higher volume.
The difference is that Randle is a PF that can create a variety of things for himself off the dribble and KAT is a 7 foot C that like most Cs mostly needs someone else to get him the ball in good spots. You don’t really want KAT dribbling too much to create something other than on a straight drive here or there.
That means KAT is more likely to just disappear on offense when he’s not getting the ball in good spots. It’s on the coach and team to make sure his talents are being used effectively. It’s not on a 7′ KAT to suddenly become an elite shot creator.
Z-man,
Wanted to follow up Re: KAT vs. Randle and that trade.
Last year, Minny won 56 games. This year they won 49. Beyond whatever individual stats each player has had in the playoffs, I think it’s pretty clear Minny did take a step back with Randle/DDV vs. KAT. 7 games is not nothing.
They’ve just gotten EXTREMELY lucky with their first two opponents being the Lakers with zero front court and GSW without Steph. I mean, GSW with Butler all season but no Steph probably doesn’t make the playoffs this year.
Also, I do not think we should discount KAT’s thumb/hand injury. It has clearly affected his shooting/confidence to shoot.
From the 1990’s Knicks besides Dudley I’d also throw in Anthony Bonner.
During the regular season Randle and DDV combined for a lower BPM than KAT.
“Can you think of a 1990s playoff rotation player who wouldn’t even be playable in the modern NBA? Could Chris Dudley play in the NBA today?”
The thing is, if I made believe that Mitch played in the 1990s as a successful playoff rotation player, he probably would be right up there in my list of unplayable in today’s NBA. And here he is as the mvp (according to today’s Macri’s newsletter) of a series against a very very very modern NBA opponent.
Like the man in black once said to Inigo, get used to disappointment.
“Last year, Minny won 56 games. This year they won 49. Beyond whatever individual stats each player has had in the playoffs, I think it’s pretty clear Minny did take a step back with Randle/DDV vs. KAT. 7 games is not nothing.”
Swifty, beg to disagree. They took time and are now what we like to call “gelling”. Have won 25 of their last 30 games.
We took time to gel, too.
They’re also “gelling” partly because they’ve gotten to face two pretty easy opponents in the playoffs.
ECF baby! I was 10 in 1985 when my Knicks fandom started with the drafting of Patrick Ewing. Also starting playing basketball around that time. My first love was baseball and the Mets. But my immigrant dad didn’t have the money to buy me the equipment and pay for little league. So going to the local courts in queens, and playing pickup using other kids basketballs became my sport.
I lived and died with the 90’s Knicks. Took me through junior high (JH 157), high school (Bronx science), college (suny Binghamton). The Knicks were a source of heartache and happiness, but were always there for me. Through relationships, school, and post college jobs. I was working in manhattan as a paralegal at Mayer brown and Platt, when they made their run in 1999. Watched almost every playoff game at this bar on the east side with Knicks fans. Can’t even remember the name anymore.
Last time they went to the ECF in 2000 I was in my first year of medical school. I was 25. I’m almost 50 now. The last 25 years are a blur. Med school, residency, marriage, kids, houses, 4 moves, aging parents, and consistent Knicks mediocrity. Until the last several years. My kids are entering their teenage years and are die hard Knicks fans. They have been lucky enough to go to playoff games. I couldn’t even afford a basketball as a kid. I do hope they experience sustained success. Mostly I hope- I get to see a championship with my kids, and cry with them. It’s all surreal. This life has gone fast. I’m taking the time to slow down and enjoy this. I was at game 3 and 4 against the Celtics. Trying to score game 5 tickets for the pacers. I’m still on cloud 9. When I was young I thought the Knicks would always be in contention. 1989-2001 they always seemed to have a punchers chance or better. I’ll never take success for granted again.
Love this blog. I read it daily. I lurk mostly. The regular posters here feel like family, even though we’ve never met. Welcome back ephus. Congrats on beating cancer. Fuck the pacers! Fuck Reggie miller! Let’s fucking go Knicks!
Randle has a very long track record of being a good NBA player. People willing to throw that out because he had a bad series against the Hawks and needed surgery immediately after the 23 playoffs are now shocked to discover that Julius Randle is a good NBA player. Sometimes guys play badly for a few games, or run into a particularly good or bad opponent. If it was that easy to turn Randle from a borderline all star to one of the worst players in the NBA he’d never have played thousands of minutes of effective NBA ball.
Had the exact same thought when I read it.
I love the idea of a 77 game season and 70 game maximum forcing player rest on non-nationally televised games. The goal is to be leaner and more exciting during qualification games, generate less revenue in January and February but focus on growing revenue & excitment during April, May and June.
Top 16 are in the playoffs and next 10 best records in the league joined by top 6 international teams compete in an NIT type playoffs with NBA rules.
This provides high stakes playoff 7 game series type competition experience for younger and playoff aspiring teams and it turns April, May, and June into a global basketball bonanza.
Players and coaches would take this opportunity to compete, grow, learn and show their worth to the market or risk euro players come take their jobs. It’s not just the players anymore, coaches are coming for NBA jobs too.
Ratings, basketball and non basketball revenue will all explode. Adam Silver would do good to read this blog. While all the teams an the league stays put, the relegation issue is solved by labor by showcasing labor through NBA competition and free market is further enabled.
Hey all, sometime poster, longtime lurker — apologies for the shameless plug, but my brother designed this sick Cap’n Clutch shirt, and it’s been going a bit viral. Here’s the link to his Etsy site if anyone wants one! Much love, to the KB community! Go Knicks!!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1903481295/captain-clutch-jalen-brunson-knicks-t?ref=share_ios_native_control
llcoolbp, that was a great read. Individual Knicks origin stories are always interesting, as they’re often more complex than “my dad was a Knicks fan, so I was too.”
For me, it was my grandpa who introduced the Knicks to me while my dad never cared much for basketball. I watched a few games with my grandpa and pretty soon after was begging him to take me to a game. My grandpa was a classic genius-but-very-absentminded type so it took some convincing for my parents to let him take me to a game without them, but they relented and in what I think was the 1998-1999 season me and grandpa went to MSG.
Hell if I remember the opponent or score, but I do distinctly recall having a great time. Grandpa bought me a Marcus Camby jersey, which at the time was a little big on me. After I outgrew it, I put it on a big stuffed penguin the same grandpa got me. That penguin, jersey and all, remains in pristine condition at my father’s apartment.
It took me until I was around 8 or so to actually follow the team in a meaningful sense, and their futility didn’t really bother me until I was a little older–for a while I was content to just watch Spree, Houston, and Marbury do some cool stuff.
Of course, the silver lining of said futility was tickets were pretty affordable for most of the mid-to-late aughts. Me and a close middle school friend named Timmy went to dozens of games during that time. He’s doing pretty well now, still a Knicks fan as best I can tell.
About 4 months ago I started dating a beautiful, brilliant woman who makes me happier than I’ve ever been. At the time I don’t think she could name an NBA player. Now she has strong opinions about Miles McBride, has done YouTube deep dives on Knicks history, and wouldn’t dare miss a playoff game.
Go New York Go New York Go.
“Had the exact same thought when I read it.”
Said he had been lurking, doesn’t mean he hasn’t posted since. So can eliminate JK and you noble considering your comments. And Alan, because we know he is Alan. And Raven since he keeps on posting his name via KFS. But could be anyone else….
At the beginning of the season I had argued that KAT raises our floor but lowers our ceiling. I think KAT does great against worse teams, where he is easier to hide on defense and his offense shines. So it could be that Minnesota could be a worse regular season team, and a better playoff team.
With Mitch in the fold, we can somewhat hide KAT’s weaknesses (as did the Wolves with Gobert before us), but he still makes the team vulnerable.
llcoolbp, really great story, thanks for that (and too bad you can’t remember the bar, wondering if we were bending elbows together).
I will take issue with one point you made: “consistent Knicks mediocrity.”
Mediocrity is like 41-41 or thereabouts. The Knicks had extensive stretches, repeatedly, of winning like 17, 23, 29 games a year. That ain’t mediocrity, that’s suckitude. If you start after the 2000 season and go to 2020 and consider mediocrity as being, say, 35-45 wins, we had I believe 6 of those in those two decades. Which means 14 seasons of true suckitude.
It is truly worth it to think back on that execrable suckitude in this moment of joy, and to also realize that every one of us is clearly insane for having stuck it out.
swifty, just to be clear, I think the KAT for Randle, DDV, etc. trade was a no-brainer, just don’t think it made us significantly better or made Minny significantly worse. Randle has clearly outperformed KAT in these playoffs, correct? Isn’t that significant? I continue to believe that Randle has been underrated and KAT overrated by some folks here, but am perfectly fine with how things are turning out for both players.
[citation needed]
The all stars injured in the playoffs are Lillard, Curry, Tatum, Mobley, and Garland. All these guys were load managed during the regular season or played career lows in minutes.
Meanwhile Jokic and Murray obliterated their career highs in MPG, and Edwards played his most minutes, and Brunson averaged a career high in minutes, and Towns played his most minutes in almost a decade, and Halliburton played his most minutes in a long time, and Siakam played 2500+ minutes, and Shai played 2600+ minutes, and then there are the non-all stars named Bridges, Hart, and OG that all played every second of every game this year. These guys are all healthy and playing deep into the playoffs. So, not sure if you are correctly identifying the problem or the solution here.
llcoolbp, fantastic Knicks origin story, but I know it most be fiction because of this line
Edit: Raven already debunked it lol
No question.
Nate was probably over at P&T with all the other cool kids….
I do think it’s cool that an NBA title is going somewhere it hasn’t been in a very very long time or ever….
To some extent it’s hard to argue that both teams have benefited from this trade since we’re both in the conference finals, but I do wonder whether Leon would’ve made this trade knowing how great Mitch looks right now. I mean, we probably could’ve muddled through the regular season with journeyman center X while Mitch got healthy and be going into the playoffs with Mitch, Randle, OG, Bridges, Jalen with Donte, Hart, Deuce, and center X off the bench. That’s probably a better team than this current one. But we’ll never know.
I expect Mitch to play and play a lot this series – if he can shoot 50% from the line but at the same time steal possessions for us, play great defense, and let the Knicks play halfcourt defense rather than transition defense after the hack-a-mitch, it’s probably a net positive us.
Sure, against 2 opponents that, in aggregate, are much easier than Detroit and Boston.
Randle has also had bad playoffs too. And, like KAT this year, was hurt during some of those playoffs. I mean, if KAT’s main value is on offense, one could easily posit that having a broken finger or thumb might affect that, right? Is KAT dinged for having his finger broken?
Not for nothing but KAT was killing it until he hurt his hand this season.
I’m not making excuses. It is what it is. But Randle has faced easier opponents and is fully healthy for these playoffs. That….matters.
OKC will actually be an interesting test because Minny faced them last year too.
Forget about playoff rotation players. How about really good, HOF-caliber players?
We often need reminders of how revolutionary things are, particularly when they’ve happened right under our noses, and so here’s today’s reminder.
Career three-point makes/attempts per game (rounded significantly), make percentages, non-centers, 1995-96 all-NBA teams.
Penny Hardaway: 0.8/2.4, .316. (*)
Michael Jordan: 0.5/1.7, .327 (**)
Karl Malone: 0.1/0.2, .274
Scottie Pippen: 0.8/2.5, .326
Grant Hill: 0.2/0.7, .314
Shawn Kemp: 0.0/0.1, .277
Gary Payton: 0.8/2.7, .317
John Stockton: 0.6/1.5, .384
Charles Barkley: 0.5/1.9, .266
Reggie Miller (***): 1.8/4.7, .395
Juwan Howard: 0.0/0.0, .120
Mitch Richmond: 1.4/3.5, .388
So basically, with the exception of Miller and Richmond and Stockton kind of – third-teamers – not only do you have to imagine and extrapolate a world in which they were trained in and worked on the trifecta enough to be elite (****), you have to imagine and extrapolate such a world to make them even playable.
Now of course there’s a lot of yin-yang, chicken-egg, push/me-pull/you dynamics going on here, among them that the league had far better two-point defenders then because the shot was relatively more valuable than now, and a lot of these guys’ trifectas were desperado heaves at the end of the shot clock, but the modern consciously-planned and generated trifecta, and the skill sorting it’s engendered, has completely changed the game.
(*) There were those who said in 1995-96, not entirely without merit, that Penny Hardaway was the best player in the association. He never made more than 1.4 trifectas per game in a season.
(**) Michael Jordan in 1995-96 *was* the best player in the association. While it’s close and arguable, he’s the best choice for best player in the history of the association. He never made more than 1.4 trifectas per game in a season.
(***) GFY.
(****) My philosophy on this one continues to be and will always be, “If Brook Lopez could do it, I’m pretty sure Michael Jordan and Dwyane Wade and Charles Barkley could have done it.”
Is there a competing obscure knicks blog that I am unaware of?
I would actually be excited to see games where Tyler Kolek or Pacome Dadiet is given a start. It breaks up the monotony of the regular season. When Brunson was hurt, for instance, I found myself more interested in watching bc I was curious to see Kolek, plus Mikal and OG in larger roles.
No one gets upset when Jonathan Quick gives Igor Shesterkin a rest, or when the catcher gets a day game off after a night game. There’s literally no difference. We just have to accept that playing basketball is just as grueling.
Better idea is to cut games to 40 minutes. Fourty-eight must have been pulled out of someone’s arse way back when (*), even though college basketball was way more popular back then and has always been 40.
(*) No idea why, but spitballing the possibility that the owners in 1950 or whatever thought people would be more willing to pay to get 20% more “entertainment.”
Hi Nate!
Hey Priggie, can you ask your brother to design a Knickerblogger shirt?
I can’t stop thinking about Nate taking great delight in playing with his dark side by fucking with us all as Pags…
Exactly. 80’s players didn’t practice 3’s until they were in the pros. 90’s players would have only practiced them MAYBE in high school and college and that was only if they were a guard or MAYBE a SF.
I mean, Dirk shooting 3’s as a PF was a BIG deal and now it’s considered a prerequisite for being a good PF to shoot 3’s at a respectable clip. It was unheard of for center’s to shoot 3’s until a few years ago.
These dudes practiced like crazy. IF they had been hoisting them up since they were toddlers, they would have shot just as well as dudes do today. To think otherwise is an insult to their talent.
That being said, it says A LOT about how good of a shooter Bird was that he shot so well from 3 having barely practiced it until he got into the pros.
I think in 2010 this site was part of ESPN, was routinely read and retweeted by Howard Beck et al, had some truly great content, and was referred to on-air by Matty Guokus as being a must-read site for statistical analysis. Mile K got press passes, and interviewed certain POBOs whose names I can’t remember anymore. This site has fallen into obscurity, but it wasn’t always just hubert and z-man fighting over how to spell markanon.
i think that a min numbr of game could become untenable if a team has multiple major injuries at once think memphis or pelicans in recent yerrs btween injuries and healthy players not being able to play because they already readhed their max there could be circumstances where a franchise is unable to field a team on a given night
Knicks won the Athletic Training Staff of the Year award.
With Thibs as the coach, at least we’d able to stop worrying about our bench.
It doesn’t look like anyone has mentioned this, but I think KAT was wearing a t-shirt with a screencap of the “Don’t you regret not coming to the Kniiicks” dude yesterday at Yankee Stadium:
https://x.com/yankeestadium/status/1924497484493070696
King.
Knicks won the Athletic Training Staff of the Year award.
Didn’t know it existed but reading the press releases seems like that off season hire from Dallas paid dividends. Stuff like that matters, so kudos for getting the award.
I think I-Hart, Randle, OG, Bridges and Brunson with Mitch, DDV and J-Hart on the bench is better than this team.
I think Mitch, Randle, OG, Bridges and Brunson with DDV, J-Hart and Sims is close but high risk given Mitch’s injury history.
I think Sims, Randle, OG, Bridges and Brunson with DDV and J-Hart on the bench and Precious as backup C is not even close to as good as this team.
I think Leon felt going into the season without a starting C for “x” months (which turned out to be a long time), no real backup C and Mitch being high risk to stay healthy even when back risked throwing away the entire season and wasn’t a good long term solution either.
Trading for Towns solved the C issue (but created some defensive issues). Towns was the starter and Mitch could be the backup when healthy and be a lower risk issue. They could also experiment with Mitch and Towns together. That just left the bench weak, but they could scrape something together.
So far Mitch has looked great, but the injury risk is probably still higher than for the average player. I think he’d make the same deal again. I don’t think he wanted to risk throwing away this year and trying to replace Mitch if he didn’t rerturn to form or got hurt again – which would be a huge problem even for next year.
What’s special about Leon is that he was forced to build a championship contender twice in 9 months. Doing it once can be attributed to luck. Doing it twice is both impressive and gives me hope he can do it again, if necessary.
Latest ESPN mock:
50. New York Knicks (via Memphis)
Eric Dixon, PF, Villanova, super senior
The amount of talent and brainpower on this obscure blog is astounding. Of course, instead of doing our jobs we are spending all of our available time defining “mediocrity” and “suckitude” from a Knicks perspective.
This, right here. He certainly doesn’t get enough credit for it…at least not around here.
Does P&T refer to themselves as an obscure Knicks blog? We call ourselves an obscure Knicks blog with some frequency.
And P&T never felt obscure to me. I never dwelled in the comments section, but in comparison to KB it feels rather mainstream. Even with the ESPN connection, I thought their user count dwarfed ours.
P&T is connected to Vox or Bleacher Report or some other bigger mainstream-ish media “conglomerate,” which runs similar sites for virtually all the teams in all the major leagues. It’s not even independent, much less obscure.
If in academia, the arguments are so fierce because the stakes are so small, what does that make Knickerblogger?
Looked at objectively, Leon’s actually built three teams with puncher’s chances. The marketplace actually liked the 2023 team even more than this one, in part because it overvalued, IMHO, the top-end teams this year but the 2023 odds were consistently lower earlier in the process than even this year’s.
Josh Hart plays like Josh Hart (*), a healthy Randle, and the 2023 team beats Miami, beats Boston, and plays Denver in the finals. For all intents and purposes, the marketplace agreed. Rightly so. Miami beating Milwaukee was the “things falling nicely into place” of that spring — together with the Knicks curb-stomping Cleveland in every imaginable way in the first round — but unfortunately they didn’t capitalize.
(*) As he did play against 2023 Cleveland.
In Hitchhikers Guide, the answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything is 42. However, they can’t figure out what the question is. In the real world it’s “What is the mezzanine?” The answer: 42 wins. We can all pack it up and let the intergalactic highway construction resume.
There’s probably truth to the arguments that the grind is more taxing than it was in the past. And the playoffs themselves are much, much longer, with finalists having to play four best-of-seven series.
But the history of the NBA playoffs is littered with injury drama involving the game’s better players. Heck, I had an old Celtics fan friend of mine remind me that maybe the Knicks have one less title if John Havlicek wasn’t playing through a debilitating injury. Willis Reed gets all the kudos, but Wilt blew out his patellar tendon early in the 1969-70 season and made an unprecedented recovery to be available fopr the playoffs…but was not back to pre-injury form. We might have seem a repeat of his remarkable game 6 followed by a dud game 7 with Jaylen Brown having nothing left for game 6 after dominating game 5.
Players are far better conditioned now, have access to all kinds of techniques, technology, medication, and nutrition, have personal trainers, massage therapists, custom footwear, orthotics, braces, taping techniques, surgical techniques, etc. so that probably helps on the injury front in a way that balances out the way the game is played.
In any case, I don’t think it’s on Adam Silver to figure out how to keep Jayson Tatum or Dame Lillard from blowing out their achilles, or Steph or Gordon from pulling their hammies, or Mobley, Spida, and Hauser from spraining their ankles or Garland from jamming his toe, or Brown from tearing his meniscus, or KP from getting sick, etc….and you can include lots of non-stars like Jalen Suggs, Beef Stew, Jaden Ivey, and so on. At some point, I think the onus is on the players, coaching staff, and owners. And in a way, injuries make the whole puncher’s chance thing more of a thing, so that the parity Silver is trying to achieve is even more pronounced.
If Silver reduce the amount of games, either in the regular season or playoffs, that revenue has to be replaced by something. Most arenas sell out at higher ticket prices during the playoffs and the revenue from broadcasts, streaming, concessions, merch, and other sources…domestic and overseas…is enormous. And folks will pay even if stars are hurt. So there’s that. I mean, if anything, Adam Silver’s in-season tournament is adding more “playoff” games to the regular season, with players risking it all during the finals but the game not even counting in the standings or player stats.
One thing with which I definitely agree…having the 3 point line at a distance that makes defenses (and offenses) scramble to guard all 5 players out there, including many bigs, is not helping to prevent injury. I loved the way the game was played in the Magic-Bird era…where only specialists were shooting those shots at any kind of volume. Maybe start with the G-League and try moving the line out to 25 ft and eliminate the corner 3 and see how that goes.
Dixon averaged 5rpg with some terrible stock numbers, which makes me pretty averse to taking him. But he sure scored a lot and it’s the 50th pick.
So basically Leon has built 3 contenders in 3 years. My how the turntables turn…
Not three contenders. Three different teams with puncher’s chances.
I’m not averse to the argument that with load management, tanking, injuries, and three point variance that the difference between a “contender” and a “puncher’s chance” is so small that it’s not worth quibbling about. I’m not fully there yet though.
But it’s looking very much like we’ve passed from the multi-decade era culminating in fanatic Hinkie-ism to something much closer to the postseason crapshoot of the other sports, particularly baseball and hockey.
The association regular season, for the aforementioned reasons, is giving off much weaker of a “signal” as to underlying quality now. It’s been going on for several years, at least back to the 2022 Warriors. If you’re a Cavs fan thinking in the way the KB “pessimists” think, you’re probably thinking that although your regular seasons have improved, underneath it all, you’ve barely moved the needle since you got smoked by the Knicks in 2023. (And other than Mobley getting two years older they kinda sorta … haven’t.)
… which means that Utah’s teardown was a product of far too much attention being paid to lagging indicators that passed into history shortly thereafter, which couldn’t have happened to a more deserving douchebag than Danny Ainge.
In terms of Adam Silver’s business, with load management and injuries and tanking, there’s already like an 80% chance that if I buy a ticket or turn on the regular season TV, I’m not going to see all the front-line players on both teams. If he’s now telling me that even if I do see all the front-line players, I’m going to get a much weakened “quality signal,” I’m sorry but that really isn’t that compelling a product. (Other segments of his marketplace of course might differ. I’m sure his gamblers do. Crapshoots and variance are catnip for gamblers.)
Draymond Green will be with the Inside NBA crew for Games 1 and 2, guess I’ll be skipping the pre and post game shows on TNT.
Buster Douglas was a champ. Puncher’s chance IS a contender! We’re still punching today!
Yeah, looking back on Utah with Mitchell and Gobert you gotta wonder if Ainge had just stuck with those guys maybe they could still be contending (or being a puncher’s chance team).
The new NBA landscape might be get to be a perrennial 50 win team with an all-star or two and just hang around for 3 or 4 years and you might win a chip.
At the risk of offending jazzfunk again (perhaps a new hobby), I’ll just note that if you got in the ring with Mike Tyson back in the day you were formally contending for the heavyweight title. You might not have a puncher’s chance in hell (I certainly would not have), but you were a contender!
eric fox would be a reach at 50 how about amari williams center at kentucky or we can get andy nemhard little brother ryan from gonzaga but we do not need another tiny pg
Adams was right about a lot of things, especially “always being a towel.” Having spent many months over the last couple years in distant lands, spot on advice.
Or a 68 win team is gonna win a year after a 65 win team did.
In looking for trades where the Celtics could get below the Second Apron, I learned that the new CBA severely restricts the ability of a below-the-cap team (i.e. Brooklyn Nets) to take back salary. Even though the Nets could fit Porzingis in their 2025-26 salary cap, they cannot take back that salary without sending out at least $22.5m.
This is from Fanspo’s Trade Machine:
no that’s not the rule. the nets can trade out any amount as long as they are fitting the incoming salary under the cap. i didn’t check but either fanspo has miscoded the rule or they are assuming the nets are over the cap post trade due to random cap holds or whatever.
Hubs cent ever just let someone comment and make a casual observation without arguing against it lol.
Mavs won 50 games last year and made the finals. Year before the nuggets won like 53 games and heat won 44. Year before that warriors and Celtics won low 50s.
Obvs a 60 plus win team is going to be considered a contender but right now it doesn’t seem to be set in stone that those teams are gonna win it all or even get to the finals.
What part of “might be” did you not understand?
Celtics are cooked. That $500 salary this year is a booked loss. Its gonna hurt especially since it’s probably a red shirt type tank season without Tatum and Brown likely needing surgery too.
Only player they can possibly move of 2026-27 cap is Derrick White (@4yrs ~$130m).
No one is touching Meniscus Brown (@ 4yrs $250m) or Jrue Holiday (@3yrs and $104M). Sam Hauser (@ 4yrs ~ $45m) is way to expensive for 9th or 10th man roster spot too. Pritch is their best value contract.
Add the second apron to the laundry list of things started above that materially change the planning landscape. All else equal, it lowers the chance that your team is going to run into a multi-year juggernaut you’re never going to be able to get through without tearing down and getting new players and waiting the juggernaut out.
I am just making a casual observation of my own, Swift. If OKC wins, it would seem like the bar to win a championship is the highest it’s ever been. Two juggernauts in consecutive years would be a far cry from the ‘22 Warriors and ‘23 Nuggets.
kumbaya lasted only about nine hours sigh
PTMilo is correct and Fanspo is wrong (and I was wrong to quote Fanspo):
Here is the actual rule, taken straight from the CBA:
Fanspo is weirdly bad at times. Maybe moreso in the off-season when nobody is technically under contract and they include the holds on players who won’t make a third of that salary, which sucks because that’s when I most often want to use it.
Still the best trade machine out there right now, as far as I know.
I’ve been wondering if Brooklyn might want to use their cap space on Randle. It doesn’t seem like he’s going to opt in anymore.
he mush hae relly enjoyed living in the nyc area
Won’t Brooklyn still be tanking next year?
The Doogie doth typo too much, methinks.
They don’t have many of their own picks unless I’m forgetting a trade where they got them back.
Broken clock phenomenon
I’m not really seeing a weakening of the correlation between regular season and playoff success, at least not as measured by actually winning a championship.
SRS rank of the last 10 champions: 1, 6, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 1, 4, 1
The 10 before that: 1, 2, 4, 8, 5, 3, 1, 1, 6, 1
I admittedly haven’t run a regression analysis but just eyeballing it the correlation looks pretty similar. I intuitively understand how the rise of 3PA could break it, but it doesn’t look like that’s happened. You still want to score a lot of points and not give up a lot of points in the regular season, though there will always be outliers e.g. teams that got hot, had a uniquely favorable injury situation, were dogging it a bit in the regular season, etc.
Now, if we actually do the damn thing with our 9th ranked SRS, then yeah, that will certainly be a datapoint. But the most likely scenario is the team ranked #1 wins it all. So I’m not pre-writing the eulogy for the predictive importance of the regular season.
You’d think so but this is the NBA, teams love bailing the Celtics out of their stupid moves.
According to Fanspo and Spotrac, the Nets have their own first round pick in 2026. They got it back from the Rockets in a trade. It enabled them to trade Bridges once they had their 2025 and 2026 first round picks back.
The Pacers have a shooting regression coming from them, and I hope it comes in this series.
So far in the playoffs, they are shooting:
.406 from deep (1st among playoff teams)
.431 from 16ft to the 3pt line (3rd)
.500 from 10-16 ft (1st)
.506 from 3-10 ft (3rd)
They have only been average at the rim (8th)
The Randle sweepstakes will be interesting. He probably made himself a lot of money this spring, and that’s exactly what Minnesota did not want.
Detroit will have plenty of cap space and can probably open up more if they need to. His physical style and secondary playmaking would fit in very well there.
Pacers have played against four of the best interior defending/rim protecting players in the league over the first two rounds, fwiw
Re the Pacers:
Should we have OG guard Turner & KAT guard Siakam?
This negates Siakam’s size / seeking mental advantage vs OG & complicates the Hali / Turner pick & roll.
DRed the Celts don’t quite have the Lakers’ level of author’s saving throw/ass-pull if Brooklyn can’t bail them out.
Oakley had a jumper. I think he could’ve developed a 3-ball.
But the biggest candidate to who could’ve been a stretch-5 was… Patrick Ewing! Could you imagine his ability to stretch the floor and pull opposing Cs out of the paint in this day of age?
We aren’t coming all this way to lose the fn Pacers again.
I hope that Randle gets paid. One Bill Simmons affectation that I hate is when he “announces” that a player he believes to be overpaid “will be picking up his player option.” He did that to Randle many times this year.
Meanwhile, his Celtics have multiple “bad contracts” that they are going to be hard pressed to move: Porzingis, Holliday & Hauser
Llcool I enjoyed that origin story. When I moved from Yonkers to the Bronx full-time late in the summer of ‘92**, I was only able to take the exam for one of the specialized high schools (instead of all of them) bc of how late I registered for school in the city. My dad’s new house was in the southern end of Castle Hill in the Bronx, and for some odd reason I didn’t want to bus it across town to Bronx Science. Trying to commute to Brooklyn Tech was out of the question, so I decided to apply for Stuyvesant.
**this was a convoluted plan my dad hatched to get my brother and I to move in with him and away from our mom. Very long story in which only two goods things came of it: me graduating from Stuy, and my ironclad love of the Knicks.
Feels apropos that if we’re going to win it all, we need to beat our historical playoff nemesis en route.
We only have late career data, but Ewing shot 41% from 16-3pt range for the last few seasons he played in the NBA and he attempted 125 3s across his entire career
Cdiggy I graduated from Stuy in 94 so I guess we overlapped briefly
Cdiggy, and dred, I graduated from science in 1993. I had many friends at stuy. You are just one year younger. My sister graduated from stuy in 1988. She was there when the beastie boys were at stuy. I’m sure some of the guys on this blog have crossed paths with each other over the years. Less then six degrees of separation.