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179 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.05.28)”
Mikal Bridges has played roughly 38.5 minutes per game in 16 playoff games.
He has shot 14 free throws.
I have the same feeling today that I had in 1992 when the Rangers were on the brink of being eliminated by the Penguins. 52 years of disappointment had built up a reservoir of despair. The Rangers had exceptional talent, but Roger Neilson was limited by a lack of imagination and his teams underperformed on the biggest stages. The difference between failure and success was razor thin. We do not have the right coach. Games 4 and 6 against the Celtics gave us a glimpse of what could be.
Not a great morning to be a Knicks fan as a hater I would really like them to at least win game 5 I don’t want to see haliburton prancing around the garden
I don’t generally believe in pace as something that’s important, ie “you should make them play your pace”, but the Knicks really did get sucked into trying to outplay the Pacers at their own game last night. So many bad turnovers, so many bad shots.
Mitch was not the answer last night.
Delon was a plus 13. I still think our best chance is to put 4.5 competitive defenders out there.
But end of the day, Siakam and Hali combined for 62 points on 50 true shots with one turnover. You aren’t going to win many games when that happens.
This has been the reverse of the Boston series. By handing them two games at the garden we should have won, they only have to play their best twice to beat us. Last night was one.
I got home from my daughter’s concert at the end of the first, then my stream of the game went wonky 3 minutes into the 4th. At that point I got tired of fighting with pop ups and disconnections and gave up. I’m hopeful we can do it, but I doubt we can beat Indy 3 games in a row. They have hit their stride at the right time and are clearly the better team this series. I’m starting to think our sloppy offense is a result of Indy’s smart and opportunistic defense. They made plays on defense last night that made me realize that I’m not giving them enough credit. My only solace in this is that one of my favorite players in the league is gonna win the chip this year- SGA.
The Knicks now have a painful discussion to gave. The Jalen Brunson Conundrum. Great great player. Do we stick with the relationship between Thibs and Brunson? Or do we grab a coach that’s gonna possible ruffle some feathers by maximizing the players around Brunson- which Thibs is clearly unwilling to do. I can see them retaining Thibs because we’re in the ECF, but I’m not sure he’s earned it. This roster has the most top to bottom talent Thibs has ever had, and he hasn’t been able to use them optimally. Out of stubbornness. The minute we let thibs replace Johnny Bryant and Mike Woodson with more Thibs guys should have been the biggest red flag. Thibs need someone on that staff that has different ideas than him. This season, I was happy with adding Mark Bryant and Moe Cheeks, but one of those other assistants should have been replaced by an offensive minded coach. Do you guys think Thibs stays if he adds an offensive minded coach? I mean..I still think he’s a good coach, but he’s very stubborn and has gotten outclassed easily in the ECF. I don’t want the pain of that to skew the reality of Thibs. He’s kinda like Dak Prescott. Very good, but doesn’t put it all together at the right time. The FO needs to push him or replace him. So maybe it isn’t the Jalen Brunson Conundrum as JB is probably more malleable than Thibs at this point.
Josh Hart played 36 minutes and Deuce played 15. I know Deuce sucked, too, but come on. We’re over 3,500 minutes for Josh on the season, and that’s about 1,200 too many.
We have never even seen what this team looks like with its best players playing without him. He is in every single lineup, and it’s been that way since Randle got injured.
My other solace is that Hali’s gonna get steamrolled by OKC.
I think he’s easily in my top 3 dislikable character guys – but only because he’s not on my team. I would love to have him.
The only thing I don’t like about the Pacers is that they’re the Pacers. And I don’t think they’re a long shot to beat OKC at all.
Yeah, that sucked.
Game one fucked us mentally I think.
There are lots of questions to ask this off season but the season is NOT OVER YET.
We got one more game at home. Win it. Honestly, after getting blown out in game 7 at home last year, you gotta think the team is going to come out extra motivated to not lose at home again to end the season. Win tomorrow and I’ll be good with whatever happens in game 6 (yeah right, lol).
And unless we go on some crazy run and win this series, I think Thibs has to go. I love the dude and, honestly, it scares me to get rid of him because I think he is a VERY good coach in a lot of ways. But this series is showing the difference btwn him and someone like Carlisle.
Some of the line ups last night I was like WTF is going on here but that’s only because the bench has not been developed all season. Wright is the perfect example. He freaking started when Brunson was out and did very well. Then Brunson comes back and Delon isn’t just moved to the bench, he’s moved completely out of the rotation and didn’t reappear until game 3 of the ECF.
If he had been playing with Deuce and the bench the rest of the regular season and the first two rounds, perhaps that bench unit has better chemistry.
I’m hesitant to make some big move like trading KAT or Mikal for another starter without letting this team run it back with the bench shored up and a new voice as the head coach. Someone who can get the most out of this offense. Honestly, we have freaking KAT and Brunson. We should be lighting teams up and, as many have said, we’ve never even tried the 5 out line up with McBride all season. WHY?
Me neither. I think, at the minimum they might give them as good of a scare as Denver did. We’re not giving them enough credit. They’re playing VERY well.
I mean, they won 50 games and we won 51 and since January they’ve been once of the hottest teams in the league. They brought back the entire team from last year and they’ve had internal improvement and have improved defensively. It’s one of the reasons why I would be hesitant to blow our team up or many some huge change to the core players. We got to the ECF the first year with this team. Boston is going to be rebuilding next year. It will be us, Indy and Cleveland as the top 3 teams again.
But a new coach might be the answer.
Coaches are more fungible than talent. Let’s do one change at a time and see.
Hypothetically, let’s say Mikal is just not the guy and needs to be moved. It’s to our benefit anyway if we install a new coach who implements a real offensive system to boost his trade value first.
Totally. Overall, Mikal has been a disappointment to me these playoffs. These soft attempts at the rim that get blocked. The turn around fadeaways that come up short. Missing wide open corner 3’s. He’s had his moments, for sure, but, for me, he’s been the biggest disappointment.
Honestly, I’m good with KAT. Look, he’s not the best defensive player and he commits some incredibly stupid fouls sometimes. BUT, IMO, he’s played very hard during these playoffs and even in the games when he didn’t have it going offensively or wasn’t being featured/used properly, he still battled, rebounded and got some huge buckets for us. I truly believe we haven’t used him to his full ability this season.
Brunson is the closer. But, IMO, KAT should be the number one option on offense most of the game, especially when Brunson and KAT are playing together. Get KAT going early. Then Brunson can close it, but, IMO, Brunson’s tunnel vision is partly Thibs’ fault.
I have a friend who is a Bulls fan, loved Thibs, etc. But he said to me the other day that it’s weird now watchin the Knicks play because the same way Thibs used Rose he’s using Brunson and the ISO heavy offense that is not super creative is by design. It drove him crazy when he was a bulls fan but he said seeing it again as a neutral observer with Thibs and Brunson, he was like “yup. still the same issue.”
All I’m saying (again) is the Lakers couldn’t lure Dan Hurley because LeBron is on his way out and Hurley wanted back to back titles. Well- LeBron is still 97 years old, and UConn didn’t get the b2b. Meanwhile, we’re in a big market with a talented roster either young or in their prime. Oh- and our best player is on a really good contract. If that’s not enticing for anyone, I don’t know what is. If it’s not Hurley, then I’ll accept Thibs with a change to his coaching staff or I hope Lue leaves LA for NY
The scales have fallen from my eyes in a similar way this season. After the KAT/Brunson pick & roll stopped working in January when teams starting putting a wing on KAT and their 5 on Hart, Thibs was like “well, change doesn’t work” and reverted to his signature mismatch-hunting iso ball. It’s the number of other options that were left untried.
Then I’m the detective in The Usual Suspects looking at Derrick Rose in Chicago, Jimmy Butler in Minnesota, Randle here, and now Brunson here.
I really think Lue would be ideal for this team. Do they still trade first round picks for coaches like they did with Doc Rivers?
I think an offensive assistant for Thibs would help, but Thibs still being in charge of lineups and minutes allocation still worries me. I could see it leading to more frustration.
I think that’s completely right Swift: Thibs has literally not changed his style on either side of the ball since 2009. It’s drop coverage with a rim protecting big on defense, iso ball with a single fulcrum on the offense, and a seven man rotation (unless you’re down 2-0 in the ECF.)
He’s Mike D’Antoni but worse, because his defensive principles—unlike Mike’s offensive ones—don’t work as well as they did in 2009.
There will be plenty of ink spilled on, well, everything. Coach, front office, the refs, you name it. A lot of it will be valid. There’s rarely a monocausal reason for a 3-1 deficit in a series in which you were favored.
But looking back at the game, the playoffs, and really the whole season, it’s hard for me to get past the performance of Mikal Bridges as the primary culprit for the disappointments, weird feelings, etc. we’ve all had about the team.
He has a .485 TS% in this series. He has a .510 TS% throughout the playoffs. His regular season was substantially better but still pretty underwhelming outside of isolated stretches. He’s definitely a net-positive defensively, but also has only rarely truly blown anyone away on that end.
His primary cover this series is averaging 24-11-7 on a .577 TS%, and though these numbers do take an impressive hit when he’s been guarded by Mikal specifically, how impactful of a defender are you really if it’s relatively easy for the offensive player to pick a different matchup?
Again, there’s plenty of blame to go around. I don’t think it’s tenable to spend all season rigidly refusing to experiment and then blurt out lineups and schemes we’re using for the first time in the conference finals. We’ve got defensive liabilities that may well be intractable. The roster suffers from a general lack of athleticism that shows up on both ends.
But I’m going with Occam’s Razor if I’m asked to pick one reason we’ve underwhelmed. We moved heaven and earth for a guy who has given us a level of play you can get from 100+ NBA players. There aren’t many teams that would be able to sustain that, and a team that forewent a traditional rebuild (instead choosing a suboptimal version I am happy to concede they executed very well), thereby limiting its margin for error across all transactions, certainly can’t.
Today is a day when it’s not easy to be a Knicks fan. As I wrote during the game thread, we lost that game in very frustrating ways.
Too many easy cuts to the basket.
Too many live-ball turnovers.
Too many Pacers’ fast breaks off of Knicks’ baskets.
The Pacers do not have a good half-court offense, but the Knicks are letting the Pacers score too many points without going into their half-court offense.
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On a completely separate note, I was at Pershing Square for breakfast this morning and Ben Stiller was at the next table. Although I was tempted to say something grateful, I decided that the truly New York thing to do was leave him alone.
I imagine he was on a flight back from Indy last night right after the game.
Deuce should be playing over Mikal, with the roster the way it is Hart (who was a wreck last night) has to play if the team is going to ever get any rebounds
Occam’s Razor is the coaching. If Mikal is playing that poorly, why does he keep that many minutes when Deuce and Delon and Shamet play the same position?
At the heart of this team’s problems is a logical flaw: the belief that combining half measures balances things out.
In other words, we think that if we have KAT and OG it means we have offense and defense. But it actually means is you have neither. The incredible defensive impact of OG can be mitigated by attacking Brunson and Towns. And the offensive firepower of Brunson and Towns can be mitigated by playing off three guys who have major offensive flaws.
Mikhal has been a train wreck. Compared to his own playoff standard, this is the worst he’s shot from three, the 2nd worst from two, the worst from the free throw line in his playoff career. His season was okay, but playoff riser he has not been. I thought he was solid on the defensive end in the Pistons series, and the Celtics series, but the amount of dying on screens he has done is unbelievably irritating. Compare what Brunson has to face, with his key defender fighting over and through every screen, to what Hali has to face, with Mikhals soft as a baby switches or going under, and it makes it that much harder to stomach
The NBA may be getting to the point where it’s going to hard to win an NBA championship with even 1 bad defender on the court, let alone 2 the worst at their respective positions.
Mikal needs to go and so does one of KAT/Brunson.
We could win the next 7 games for the championship and I’d still have a hard time letting go of this notion.
Yeah, Hart’s flaws certainly hurt but I’m not sure people realize how many crucial things he does.
I could get into the numbers, but I think everyone who watches the games can just think it through logically–in Hart’s absence, who is putting pressure on the rim? Getting out in transition? Getting us any rebounds that aren’t grabbed by a center?
Again, the lack of athleticism on the team is a structural flaw, and there are empirics that most people would agree are indicative of “athleticism” or lack thereof that support this idea. Ideally a player with as many holes in his game as Hart would not be so crucial to our success, but while Thibs almost certainly overdoes it at times, he’s directionally correct that we often need Josh Hart on the floor.
Which is why at the end of the day we can kill Thibs all we want but he was dealt a terrible hand from the get go. This roster was built to expose him.
I’m pretty much at the point where I understood the questions/problems with this roster before the season started, they wound up being a little worse than I expected, but I’m willing to draw a line through the season because I think Thibs is so ridiculously bad (like horror show bad), these players don’t deserve much of the blame they are surely going to get if we lose this series.
Based on personnel, it was easy to say this series was a lot closer than many people thought. I think I said I wouldn’t be suprised if either team won 4-1 because of the Pacers style.
The Pacers are playing their style and game well. The Knicks, well, we have no plan on either side of the ball other than play hard for 48 minutes in no logical way or fashion and with lineups that often don’t make any sense much of the time.
That’s why this series may end 4-1 against us when we should probably be up 3-1 or have even closed it out already.
If the defense was the only problem, I’d agree with you totally. However, the offense is a catastrophe most nights depsite a ton of talent, the lineups make no sense at all in trying to mitigate the problems and mazimize our own talents etc.. He’s so beyond clueless I can’t find the word.
The cockamamie idea that the fadeaway jumper is such an important shot in the playoffs that you’re going to “practice” it in games all year set off my bullshit detector the second I heard it. Mikal’s FTr+ for the season was an astonishingly bad 41. His free throw rate was less than half of a typical NBA player. That’s not quite Steve Novak territory, but it’s close.
When you draw that few fouls, you’re not putting any pressure on the defense. You’re intentionally giving them the kind of low percentage look that they try to force you into. He makes those shots sometimes, but it’s just suicide to build your whole offense around a low percentage shot. You don’t really need to account for Mikal at all. Just guard him straight up, he’ll likely settle for a bad shot or make a pedestrian pass to whatever teammate happens to be standing near him.
He’s not the sole reason that we are almost certain to lose this series… far from it. There’s plenty of blame to go around. But he is a major contributing factor to why our offense looks so ragged. You just don’t have to account for him, for OG really, or for Hart. Mikal’s an okay rotation player but he is not an above average starter, and was pitifully bad value for the package we gave up.
That’s why it was built to expose him. Every core lineup presents a problem he needs to solve, and solving problems is his worst attribute (especially in the middle of a game).
Curious if people think we will win game 5 or not.
And yet we’re in the eastern conference finals and should be tied 2-2
It’s bizzare he can get to the rim and he’s a good FT shooter
No one ever said it’s hard to get to the Eastern Conference Finals with a team that can’t win a championship.
After watching game 4, it surprises me that we’ve won any game ever. Are we gonna win game 5? I doubt it.
I’m starting to think there is something to the theory that he wants to preserve his ironman streak and so he doesn’t go to the rim because he doesn’t want to get hurt. There has been only one time these entire playoffs that I can remember when he went to the rim hard and dunked the ball. I think it was the Detroit game where he did play really well.
Every other time he either settles for the stupid turn around fadeaway (which he makes sometimes, other times doesn’t) or he goes for a soft layup or under and around the basket type move and he misses what should be a gimme or he gets blocked.
He did hit a couple of 3’s last night but it feels like when he’s wide open and it’s a corner three, he misses it, which should be his bread and butter.
And yes, I feel like he is the main culprit of the bad vibes. OG is OG. He is a quiet dude but OG typically plays very hard and rises to the occasion more often than not. Mikal seems to be weirdly disengaged from the team often. Like he wants a bigger role somehow or something or is unhappy with his current role? It’s just odd. He was brought here to finish the Nova connection but it doesn’t feel like he vibes with Hart and Brunson the way DDV did.
“The Pacers are playing their style and game well.”
I think this sentence nails it and can be extrapolated to other series. “The Pistons were playing their style and game and the Knicks had enough talent to counter”; “The Celtics were playing their style and game but very poorly and the Knicks had enough talent to counter”.
The Knicks didn’t play their style and game because they actually never developed one. Offensive juggernaut disappeared when teams figured out how to defend us with little adjustment on our part, Mitch returning showed us what we were missing but minutes restrictions probably meant it was futile to revamp to fit him in, JB’s absence allowed us to see how OG and Mikal could be better utilised but his return was too close to the playoffs to experiment. I’ll leave it to the off-season (hopefully well into June!) to point fingers and suggestions.
I think we will win wire to wire and will lose a heart crushing game 6 in the last two minutes
RE: Mikal Bridges
The adjustment period shouldn’t take nearly half this long when you have 2 guys in the starting lineup you already have chemistry with, plus a backup PG that you’re familiar with. Everything about Mikal has been below his standards this season, except for defense in clutch moments. We could blame Mikal for not getting used to his role when OG has more of a green light, but I would argue that’s solely on Thibs’ system. Contract or naw, Anunoby shouldn’t be above Bridges in the pecking order. His middy game should fit right in between KAT and Brunson. But instead, Thibs had no system to help Bridges, or OG for that matter. All of Bridges’ shooting numbers were down except total FG percentage. And we all know Bridges is not that player. Even when defenses focused on him in Brooklyn he put up better shooting numbers. To make matters worse on offense- the offensive system, or lack thereof, forced Anunoby to create way more than his game dictates. I love Thibs, but that is failure to use your pieces. That’s what’s gonna get him replaced, not being out-coached by Carlisle. The misuse of all of the weaponry this roster has is unacceptable. You would think ANY coach would use the full extent of this type of weaponry:
1. 3 easy but unselfish 20ppg scorers in Brunson, KAT, and Bridges.
2. A do it all 2 way guy in Hart who excels in pushing the pace.
3. A vertical floor spacer when healthy in Mitch.
4. A bench with guys who can shoot it in Payne, Shamet, and Deuce- with Payne being a good enough floor general to take that pressure off of Deuce. Not to mention Payne’s infectious energy.
Not world beaters, sure. But what coach can’t build a consistent offense out of that?? Probably only Thibs due to his stubbornness. Maybe it’s horse blinders rather than stubbornness. He’s stuck in his routine and only sees what it allows him to see. Which is why he needs an outside voice. Mark Bryant and Moe Cheeks are outside voices, but they are Thibs guys types. I don’t necessarily think they were bad hires though. But the more I think about it, if Thibs is unwilling to adapt enough to get the best out of his roster, then he definitely needs to go. The best coaches adapt to the talent, not force a rigid system onto a roster. Didn’t we already go through this with Colonel Sanders and Hornacek/Fisher? And Larry Brown before that?
I’d like to submit a 3rd name I’d accept as a coach after not being fully on board with the idea all season. I am now good with a Taylor Jenkins hire too. Completely good with it..no more waffling. My preferences are now:
1. Dan Hurley
2. Taylor Jenkins
3. Ty Lue. Only 3rd here because it would take alot for him to jump ship.
4. Thibs returning with a real OC on staff
No Jenkins please, I think he’s been a bit of a fraud.
I don’t know who’s the right guy, you need to have a malleable ego and a thick skin to succeed in NY.
Josh Hart is on the same branch as Russell Westbrook. Hart is not nearly the player that peak Westbrook was, but both generate value through velocity, attacking the rim, passing lane defense and rebounding. Both are minus shooters, which allows defenses to slough off of them and protect the paint.
“No Jenkins please, I think he’s been a bit of a fraud”
ex-Grizzlies coach, looked good, not sure he should have been fired, didn’t get along with his star player…aka Fizdale 2.0?
+ IQ level above 125 & a driver personality trait with a touch of expressive.
I mentioned it last night, but for serious stretches this year Mikal’s fade-away was guaranteed money. You can argue it’s still a bad shot, but a guaranteed two points is rather nice. Lately though, it’s like he has that early season hitch again or something, and he’s short or long or whatever but not making them. Which is poison when he’s absolutely assured of not getting to the line. Like ever.
Hubert, you do not yet realize your importance. You’ve only begun to discover your power. Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict, and bring order to the eastern conference.
Mikal is not a point of the attack defender, he brings zero value defending Haliburton. The coach has take him away from that job.
Josh Hart played more minutes in Game 4 than he did he game 2 or 3 so he really didn’t get a demotion. He had a solid stat line last night, but had awful turnovers and has his defense wasn’t good. Seems like he can do anything and it won’t mess with his minutes.
Delon and Deuce – got shafted with minutes last night. These are two of the best point of attack defenders the Knicks have and the coach just doesn’t care. How does Delon help you come back in the second qtr and he doesn’t see playing time until the 4th qtr and for 2 minutes? Great job
We’re not talking about it because we love Jalen Brunson but Tyrese Halliburton was a lot better than our guy last night and that’s the biggest reason we lost. Assists in this series: Tyrese – 44, Jalen – 22.
You may have missed it when I mentioned it the first time but I made a sizeable bet on the Pacers to win the title at +5500 during the second round. So you’re one win away from being the second biggest Pacers supporter on KB.
https://x.com/shwinnypooh/status/1927613074074177565
Darth Donnie (Donnie Dartho?), that’s a plot twist I didn’t foresee
It is a legitimately valuable skill to be able to get off a ~0.9 xPPS look at anytime against any defense. Obviously not every possession will consist of beautiful ball movement that results in an open look, and this is increasingly the case at the end of games and in the playoffs.
The problem with Mikal is he does this shit all game, against all defenses, regardless of the situation. He takes a shot that should be taken with <5 seconds left on the shot and/or game clock basically every time he's not shooting a 3.
Most people would agree Mikal is a substantially more talented offensive player than OG, yet their offensive numbers are very similar because OG distributes his shots sensibly, and it's not like OG's ability to take end-of-clock midrange stuff withers since he's not taking them all the damn time. He just…takes them when it's appropriate.
“We’re not talking about it because we love Jalen Brunson but Tyrese Halliburton was a lot better than our guy last night and that’s the biggest reason we lost”
In hindsight, a loss can always be attributed to one particular player being better than another particular player. But it is hardly ever “the biggest reason”, and certainly in this case why we are not talking about it. Hali’s assists are solely JB’s responsibility/JB’s lower assists are because of Hali?
Offensively, JB hasn’t been himself from behind the arc and last night in the 4th quater but the Captain is averaging 34 ppg, 48% from the field and 93% from the line this series. Woudn’t go as far as saying his teh biggest reason we lost just becuase Haliburton had an all-time great type game.
Who was defending Hali last night? Was it Brunson?
81 minutes is a nice sample size. Nice to see only 15 minutes last night.
Yeah the second quarter we made a nice push and even took the lead for a bit with Deuce, Shamet, etc. So then they hardly play at all in the second half. It doesn’t make sense unless you believe Thibs is unable to bench/play the starters less because of politics/salaries.
This has been a hot topic of discussion on NBA twitter recently, kicked off by this article about the NBA entering its weak link era.
Basically, because of the 2nd apron acting as a de facto hard salary cap, the league has shifted from a strong link model (the team with the best player usually wins) to a weak link model (the team with the fewest weaknesses usually wins.) The NBA is more like soccer now.
The current CBA expires in about four years, so this might be the new orthodoxy for a while.
You will be the only one happy about it, though!
I very begrudgingly admire this Pacers team. They executed a flawless hybrid rebuild.
I hate that Hart is gettin all this heat because he is/has been so important to this team.
But before this season, he did not start. He only started when we were devasted by injuries last year and then started this year because we lost DDV. He is a fantastic player but he should get like 25 minutes a game off the bench as our 6th/7th man. He’s come up huge for us in so many games it’s difficult to question him, but him being Jalen’s best bro, the podcast, etc…it feels like he’s kind of untouchable and that isn’t right. Who the F cares if he gets a few less minutes bc Deuce and Wright are the better match ups for us. Win the damn game so everyone can play more with more games!
Also the same unit mixed with with a flame throwing Towns that won them game 3. It should be obvious what it working, but the coach goes away from it to play the big salary guys.
That’s another thing that drives me crazy. Hart is an elite 30 mpg role player and a less-than-ideal 40 mpg lineup anchor. He is not OG. All we have to do is moderate Josh’s usage and play him more situationally. Set him up to succeed by coming in as a wrecker off the bench to exploit favorable matchups. Swap him out if he’s having a bad defensive stretch.
That we can’t back off on his minutes even a little is making me become the Joker.
Doug I think the NBA has been in a weak link era for a while now. The Kawhi Raptors were one of the ultimate not-the-best-team-but-no-weak-link champions.
And Josh would be the first to accept a smaller role for the good of the team. I really don’t think he is some kind of prima donna who would take it as an affront.
https://x.com/ShaxNBA/status/1927765954928206150 Haliburton walk up jumpers
After the Knicks lost Game 2 my hope was to force a Game 6, so just win tomorrow and put some pressure on Indiana to close this series out at home.
That’s an interesting point. Were the Kawhi Raptors a precursor, or representative of a change that already happened?
2019 champs: Kawhi Raptors (weak link team defeats Curry/Durant strong link team)
2020: Bubble Lakers (strong link team beats strong link team; Lebron + AD over Jimmy + Bam)
2021: Bucks (strong link team beats strong link team; Giannis over Booker )
2022: Warriors (strong link team beats weak link team; Curry over Tatum/Brown/Smart/Horford/White/Timelord)
2023: Nuggets (strong link team beats weak link team; Jokic over Jimmy + Bam + that bunch of undrafted fuckers)
2024: Celtics (weak link team beats strong link team; Boston’s 1-8 beat Luka and Kyrie)
I gotta disagree, Hubert. I think the Kawhi Raptors were before their time.
Oh yeah Donnie pacers fan, now you are singing my song sensei…
I’ve gone from thinking knicks in six to pacers in six…I’m slightly optimistic we don’t get sent on vacation from our home court…we shall see…
One game in a series we are most likely going to lose anyways shouldn’t be a big deal. But, to me, if we lose tomorrow, especially if it ends up not being close (or even if it is)…would be a big red flashing warning sign that major changes need to happen this off season.
Losing at home in what amounts to a gentleman’s sweep after getting blown out by the same team at home in game 7 the year before, would be an AWFUL look for this team and would not bode well for next season.
But win at home tomorrow and force Indy to close out in Indy, I think it salvages the series to some degree. Maybe that’s all optics but it feels important to me that we win tomorrow.
I disagree with some of those characterizations, Doug. The Nuggets, for instance, were an outstanding team with no weak links. The ‘20 Lakers had KCP, Danny Green, Alex Caruso, and the last vestiges of Rajon Rondo and Dwight Howard filling the gaps.
‘21 & ‘22 were just down years for the NBA, IMO.
I’ve always been a no-weak-link guy. That’s what drove me hating the OG contract. Sure he’s fucking great but look at all the weak links it opens up. The Pacers have Nesmith at $11M. The Thunder have Dort at $12M. Are we really getting 3x output from OG? Of course not. But they’re getting the benefit of depth and no weak links bc they didn’t overpay.
The strange thing is that when he does to go the rim, he finishes very well. So it’s not like he can’t finish, can’t hit FTs or has some other logical reason to avoid it. I think it’s great that he has the mid range game if they are taking things away in the playoffs, but he’s overplaying it.
This is a very very winnable series with minor adjustments which Thibs can’t seem to do.
Like last year, we lose a game on a on a prayer shot. Thibs job here is to settle guys and get them focused which he can’t do either.
I know this is a very stats vs Vibez blog, but how much of Pat Riley’s successes & Phil
Jackson’s successes attributed to the mental edge they gave their guys?
Theoretically it’s not over. Indiana may play with less urgency tomorrow, and I think the Knicks will get a better whistle (some of those calls last night were disgraceful). Win tomorrow and than who knows.
But does this team have anything left? They seem emotionally spent. Even Jalen.
Nesmith was a buy-low guy who didn’t do much in Boston. The Pacers saw value in him and locked him up on a cheap deal.
With the exception of Miles McBride, this is really the kind of move that Leon Rose is allergic to. He wants “proven” players and those guys are expensive.
Donte was nice value before Leon dumped him for Towns.
At times Mikal’s shot has looked like guaranteed money, but at the end of the day it’s not and plenty of players go through hot streaks. The difference is that those hot streaks often come from beyond the arc for 3pts instead of 2 and are supplemented by FTs and high percentage layups.
Mikal is not efficient or consistent enough with his midrange shot to use it as a replacement for layups. Shooting 50% from 2 is a .500 TS%, which is unbelievably bad. It’s a big part of why his TS% for the playoffs is .510. Again, it’s just godawful value for 5 picks, or even without the 5 picks.
I want to take some of the heat off Thibs here and put it where it belongs. Because we had a style. A very clear one. And Leon traded for that style’s kryptonite.
Imagine if Indiana traded Siakim and Nesmith for someone who is really good like KAT but plays at the slowest pace in the NBA. Say, a hobbled Joel Embiid, for instance. No more leak outs, no more fast pace. They have to figure out who they are all over again.
It would be not be easy.
But then again they probably wouldn’t be stupid enough to do that.
(Spoiler for Ras: my apology note is not forthcoming.)
Optics over a 4-1 or 4-2 series loss? They don’t matter. Winning the series does. Game 1 sucked but it’s not going to put teamwide PTSD into them for next season, and neither will a 4-1 defeat. The team has a contender’s starting 5 and that’s all you need to keep competing. They’re not going to turn into soft losers over a single game.
(Tennis analogy: At Miami in March of this year, Carlos Alcaraz lost in the Round of 64 to an aging, past-prime player named David Goffin, a player whose style has been compared to my 4.0 ass’s, and there was all sorts of punditry about whether he was in trouble for the year. Won two Masters 1000 titles in Monte Carlo and Rome and is steamrolling fools at Roland Garros right now. Great players don’t bust out over individual contests. You lose and move on.)
Knicks in 7.
The main issue with Hart is that when he’s on the court we aren’t in a true 5 out offense which is what we need if we are going to play Towns and Brunson together. We have to go “all in” on offense and hope that overcomes the bad defense. Half measures aren’t working.
Thibs should have experimented with Deuce starting instead of Hart during the regular season (or at least given him a LOT more minutes with the starters). That might actually make both the defense and offense better.
Early on I was strongly in favor of Hart starting (over Precious) due to spacing and playmaking, but at a certain point you have to try other logical combinations when the data also suggests they might be better.
How long were we screaming for Mitch and Towns together just to see if it would work or how teams would try to exploit it?
No we are in a deep hole and he’s trying to figure out line up moves we should already know and understand.
Thibs is so obsessed with winning regular season games he leaves information, seasoning, freshness, familiarity etc… on the table. Other coaches sacrifice a couple of regular season wins preparing themselves and the team for the playoffs.
THCJ has spoken.
The Raptors benefitted from some massive injury luck.
I think OKC will destroy the Pacers. They can play that style much better than Indiana and are much deeper. SGA is a significantly better defender than Brunson.
That said, I am not declaring the Knicks dead, although the shovel is in my hand.
Totally agree about Bridges’ midrange bullshit. It’s antediluvian. Hart had a bad game. The Pacers played really well. Those Siakam threes, the Toppin 3, a lot of the perimeter defense, you have to give them credit. Tony Bradley was somehow a plus 10.
Hoping for a win in Game 5 and if not, well, there is a whole summer to discuss this stuff.
Alcaraz plays elite defense, the Knicks don’t.
Would you really rather have RJ in that starting role?
Sometimes you have to pay a guy to make the move that makes you better and worry about it later rather than just sucking.
And to be clear, I don’t think OG is untouchable. If the right player was available and wanted NY, OG could be moved as part of it. I think plenty of teams still want OG.
I had to look it up. Nice word. If my memory wasn’t so shot I’d start using it, but I’ll forget it by this evening.
All that I’m saying
Is give pacers a chance.
wait what, jowles the optimist…I did not see that plot twist coming…
dang, your lady must have really put those rock hard glutes to work this morning…
“good will and peace to all” is like your new motto…wow…getting old are you…
Swifty stop hacking Jowles’ account
And hey, at least this summer will be shorter than any previous knicks offseason since 2000. So there’s that?
Lost in all the gnashing of teeth. Those 5 consecutive foul calls on the Knicks in the 4th when we were starting to mount a comeback. TOTAL BULLSHIT. Like 3 of them were loose balls where 2 guys were diving for the ball. To call a foul on those is insane. And the other fouls were so incidental.
I know all fans think the refs have it out for their team, but it really does feel sometime like every time we play a team on the road, the other team gets massive home cooking from the refs but when we play at MSG, the refs can’t be biased towards us because they don’t want it to look like they favor an NYC team on their homecourt.
This is exactly the thing. And it lines up with the many complaints from our Minutes Policemen.
The problem is not just that the golden five starters run the risk of wearing down all year long, it’s that we lack versatility and familiarity for the guys in different lineups/situations when necessary.
We can all say Shamet, Huk, and Kollek are not the answers, and that Thibs has seen enough of them in practice all year long to know this is true, but … “the game is now telling him what to do” and forcing his hand.
i wonder what the game is saying to thibs right now
I’m not really pressed about OG’s contract. He was the 30th highest paid player in the NBA this year, and while the contract does ascend, it’ll also get overtaken as new extensions are given out. The cap is also projected to rise quite substantially.
His ideal number might be a hair lower, but we were over the cap with him or without him. The opportunity cost isn’t zero, but it doesn’t strike me as all that high. The less fungible assets we gave up for him were RJ and IQ, which has aged very well.
Mikal on the other hand might cost us Giannis Antetokounmpo.
https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/knicks-plus-minus-leaders-vs-pacers-in-the-playoffs-this-year
That Brunson/Bridges backcourt
More Deuce/Delon
Maybe, but teams like the Spurs/Rockets would still easily be able to beat a Knicks pick offer as they have better young players.
*The Spurs right now are in prime position to trade for Giannis
2nd pick, Castle, Vassell/Sochan and Picks…
5 picks and wh
With Quickley still on the bench, or starting in place of Hart?
Zero question.
Depth problem, defensive problem, imbalance problems didn’t exist in the spring of 2023.
It was, is, and will always be a talent dilutive trade. Those very rarely work well and whatever chance the better “fit” gave the
“January Knicks” is long gone — not least because NBA rosters are inherently flexible and in flux and the January Knicks weren’t going to last.
They didn’t suck for a single second between signing Brunson and trading for OG.
OG had his third D+ performance (*) in four games last night against the Pacers.
Was the trade the abject disaster of the Mikal move, or even close? No, of course not — but that’s not the measuring stick.
RJ/IQ out, OG in among other things naturally begat iso-Brunson and susceptibility to tight 3/4 court ball pressure Knick playoff offense, which has turned out to be no bueno.
OG would have been fine at a better price point.
(*) Stefan Bondy’s (**) grades in the NY Post.
(**) A possible Knickerblogger lurker. He also wrote in the wake of the trade that it was talent-dilutive (yet still sensible), and has been fully vindicated in that evaluation.
I think the game is doing a Ben Stiller as Starsky in an absurd wig impression saying DO IT
No worries. Be happy.
Knicks in Six was yesterday.
Now its Heaven in Seven!
OG has scored 17.5ppg on a .598 TS% this series and has the best drtg of the starters, including Mitch. Of course, that has a lot to do with the starters being laughably bad and in the worst defense of all-time category.
Looking at both his offense and defense, there’s a strong argument he’s been our best player this series. Again, the lowest of bars.
We had the 19th ranked defense in 2022-2023, and on the day of the OG trade we had the 19th ranked defense in 2023-2024.
I would argue the defensive problem existed.
TNFH don’t you know that the Knicks had the best defense in the association during the 2023 playoffs.
Yeah, OG slander is strong. He’s been very good.
Nesmith and Dort were both restricted free agents when they signed their deals. Nesmith had a -2.3 OBPM the year he signed his current contract. Dort was at -1.5 OBPM.
After watching OG for a full year being “integrated’ into the offense (read: forcing terrible drives and missing layups) I’m a lot more down on him after last year. He’s overpaid, but there’s a reason he’s making a lot more than those two.
McDaniels is another comparison, and he’s making half the salary of OG despite being a pretty terrible offensive player -1.4 OBPM this year, -3.3 OBPM last year. I suspect that’s undersell his offensive, but still.
(*) I don’t love OBPM, there’s better metrics, but it’s easier to use as the contract data and BPM are both on BK-Ref.
LOL. I always imagine The Game as Tracy “Jordan” from 30 ROCK stabbing at Conan with knives. It’s time to call Dr Spaceman.
https://x.com/YourManDevine/status/1927637235056185565
Then he missed out. I woke up and had an amazing breakfast here on Market Street. Corn flakes with warm corn syrup, on a bed of cornstarch and a side of popcorn.
Wow, that’s a crazy stat
The Pacers acquired Nesmith in the Brogdon trade. It was a 1st, Nesmith, Daniel Theis, and a bunch of players waived within a week.
Nesmith was the only young player included in the trade. He was a recent lottery pick on a rookie deal. His major flaw was a single down year shooting the ball, despite being his most bankable skill in college. I doubt he was a random throw-in.
The Pacers bought low, but giving up Brogdon, even accounting for the 1st, is far from a basement price.
You can justify and explain OG getting paid 3x more than his equivalents on other teams but you can’t deny the impact of it. The idea is not to slander OG but rather to understand the predicament we’re always going to be in when one team gets Nesmith for $11M and Nembhardt with the 31st pick while we’re paying $42M for OG and using 5 round picks on Mikal. Our guys are better, but not that much better. That difference is expenditure is why they have Pascal Siakim and our only power forward is Precious Achiuwa.
It continues to blow my mind that Thibs had all season to run out an all-shooting lineup of Brunson, Deuce, Bridges, OG and Towns – a lineup we might need in the playoffs, and a lineup that can truly play five out – and he only ran it for 82 possessions total this season.
https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/team/20/lineups#tab-four_factors
The team has no identity. You would like to see them play 5 out lineups, but as you said it’s not in the plans. With Towns and Brunson on the court it will always be hard to have a good defense so the team should go all out on offense .
But instead, as Hubert kind of noted above, they decided instead go with an offensive “silo” (KAT, JB) and port in on a defensive “silo” (OG, Mikal, Hart) but NBA basketball doesn’t really work anything like that.
Haven’t posted all year because like Farfa I’ve never really warmed to this version of the team- my distaste for KAT and Bridges being the main reason. But for the real reason for my existential panic right now is Brunson. He’s what, a bottom 10 defensive player and it’s not effort related, he’s just awful. And in the playoffs you can’t hide someone that bad. On offense he’s basically Iverson- a great (and I mean great- among the very best in the league) iso player who doesn’t make anyone better. He barely tries to run pnr- he just wants to get the switch and then iso so everyone else just winds up standing around and you can’t cut because you never know exactly what he’s going to do. He never, and I mean NEVER pushes the ball in transition- KAT is one of the best secondary transition players in the league with both walk up threes and blow bys, but the Knicks can’t take advantage of it because Brunson won’t/can’t play with any pace besides a slow trot. With Brunson the Knicks are a purely half court team with a major disadvantage on half court defense- that tough to overcome against good playoff teams. Maybe another coach can get Brunson moving quicker. Maybe adding another ball-handler/playmaker is enough to supercharge the offense enough that you can live with the defense. I don’t know but right now I have questions about whether you can win a championship without Brunson making some changes to his game.
Brunson only became an iso-hog after the OG trade (*), when it became necessary. His 2023 playoff USG was only 28.4. This year’s is 33.1, when he has another offensive superstar on his team.
I hope that the trade wasn’t motivated in any degree by the thought is that Brunson *should* became more of that, but suspicions that it was are certainly well-founded.
(*) NOTE to his fan club: This isn’t remotely a criticism of OG, much less any kind of “slander.” It has nothing to do with him or his play on the court.
What if you could trade KAT for a secondary ballhandler who has been one of the stars of the playoffs, a quick triggered two guard who has great chemistry with Brunson, and a solid pick in the middle of the first round that you could use on a C to replace Isaiah Hartenstein, and with the $11M you’d save on this trade you’d be well under the first apron so you’d have more flexibility to add some depth to the roster?
Nah. He’s worth quite a bit more than that.
If they didn’t have one of the worst, if not the worst, defenders of any major NBA player as his fellow star sidekick, his defense is easily lived with.
Leon’s move this summer has to be trying to turn KAT, JB, and/or OG into something more well-rounded and then hopefully better. The clear starting point is trying to get Milwaukee interested in something like KAT and OG as the core of a package for Giannis. If they want to retool rather than rebuild, that should be a package worthy of discussion at least.
(If they want to rebuild rather than retool, the Mikal disaster took the Knicks out of contention.)
The issue isn’t OG, so much as spending 5 picks on a roleplayer who has been awful on offense during the playoffs.
Siakam was, for instance, acquired for three 1sts. One of the picks was the worst pick between 4 different teams. There were a couple other young players in the deal, but the extra picks should offset that.
Did you watch game 4 of the WCF?
How quickly we forget, lol.
And I love Randle but come on, man. That train has passed.
Rather than try to bring the band back together, why not get a new band leader?
I would posit KAT has also been one of the stars of these playoffs.
Lil penny, I like that idea but could we make it KAT and Mikal, please? 🙂
The only issue with a 2 for 1 is now we’ve depleted the core even more. Giannis is obviously a super star and maybe having a 2 way superstar like Giannis with Brunson is better than having KAT and Brunson (and OG or Mikal) but now we got another hole to fill somewhere.
And I’m not sure how you can play Mitch and Giannis together. Defense would be sick but that spacing on offense. Oof.
What sucks here is Giannis WITH KAT and OG would be perfect. Move OG back to the 3, Giannis at the 4, KAT at the 5. Then what….Brunson and Deuce as the front court. Hart off the bench with Wright, Shamet, Huk and Kolek?
W
Bad tennis analogy. I saw the Goffin-Alcaraz match. One playing above his current level, another having a bad day. If they played again in 2 days, Alcaraz would have been favoured to win comfortably as Goffin exposed no flaws in the Alcaraz game other than his ability to lose focus. Few are pinning the 3-1 deficit on the Knicks having a bad day or two (or three).
I also think as anxious and angry as we all are, we need to take a collective breath and remember we got to the ECF this year with this team. The core 7 guys are all set to come back next year (Brunson, Mikal, OG, KAT, Hart, Mitch, Deuce). We should be able to bring back some of Shamet, Cam, Wright, etc…if we want. There’s a chance there’s some good FA’s available this summer for cheap bc of all the new cap restriction stuff.
Indiana has the exact same team as last year. That continuity and also desire/drive to take the next step has fueled them in these playoffs. They deserve credit. But we’re an insane Hali bounce away from it being 2-2 right now. We’ve been in these games till the end.
It may all be mute because we would still get thrashed by OKC, but blowing up the team may not be the move. It might be about a new coach/voice, some key moves for the bench and continuity with the core. Last night was bad. This series is a huge disappointment, but next season we’re gonna be right back in the mix. Boston is done (for now). Orlando and Detroit might improve but are probably not going to be there yet. Miami is done. It’s gonna be us, The Cavs and the Pacers again most likely.
OKC looks like a juggernaut but if someone knocks them out before the finals, we just have to get to the finals. We’re REALLY close guys.
The infamous “Tuesday Night in Indianapolis” hangover is real, guys. Oof. It’s just like Sony Boy Williamson sang:
Wednesday in Nap Town
Nothin’ gets done
Heads a beatin’ badly
After the Pacers have won
Here’s my poem:
Assuming Milwakee can’t do a full gut rebuild through draft becuase they don’t own their own picks….this works in fanspro:
Giannis and Portis for KAT, Mitch and Dadiet.
We desperatly need a instant offense 6 man type who can create their own shot. Does Leon have a mid-level to to spend this summer like he did when he got Donte two years ago?
Alec Burks was available for the vet min.
I love that we’re, well, three wins from the NBA Championship Series, and all we can talk about is bringing back Randle, Portis, and Burks.
Maybe we can win 21 games again!
Yes when I watch this team play I immediately say to myself we’d be so much better if we still had Randle, RJ and Burks!
I figured this out a little while ago, so I’m just going off memory… I believe we can have most of the taxpayer MLE available if we cut bait on all but 1 of our semi-useless vet bench players (Cam, Shamet, Precious, etc
). It wouldn’t be the full taxpayer but something like $4-4.5M out of $5.4ish.
It’s not a lot, and much less than the full MLE we used on Donte, but some good players got squeezed out last year and signed for the minimum. Nobody amazing, but possibly someone pretty useful.
I’d guess we don’t go that route, and opt to bring back some of Shamet, Precious, Cam, or whoever. Or just sign other vets at the minimum and not hard cap ourselves by using the MLE.
“suck” was hyperbole.
We would be worse and imo definitely not in the conference finals.
RJ is still a negative player on both sides (just less so than he used to be). As much as I loved Quickley, he’d still be riding the pine for Thibs.
And if you want to be more results oriented (which I prefer not to do because it wasn’t easily predictable) that doesn’t even take into consideration the fact that OG was suppoed to be the injury risk and he played a lot of basketball this year. It was RJ and Quickley that both missed a lot of games.
That’s a very telling stat and good question.
Am I shocked?
Not really.
Brunson is what he is. He’s a score first PG that dribbles a lot and uses great footwork trying to create for himself. He’s great at it, but he doesn’t make players around him a lot better. A lot of his assists come from simply having the ball in his hands so often, not from delivering great passes, running set plays or consistently finding open players when he gets doubled. Hart may be a better passer than Brunson.
That said, it’s preposterous that Brunson only has 1 assist to Towns.
That’s some kind of catastrophic misuse of assets right there.
JB isn’t really a point guard, either by play style or mentality.
Pretty sure we can spend the full taxpayer MLE next year, FWIW. Including Huk’s TO were at $196.3m with ten players – the core 7 plus Huk, Kolek and Dadiet. Second apron is $207.8m. So $11.4m in room and min 4 slots to fill. If one is a second rounder or UDFA and 2 are vet mins we have the fill $5.7m to spend. Whether we want to under that formation is less clear – might be better with 5 vet mins…!
Just went on a trip to 2019-2020. What a motley collection of players. And so very many power forwards…!
At least the coach was decent…
Even thinking about a rebuild is a laughable waste of energy. Even if we had Mikal and 5 1st round picks the probabiity of a rebuild would be 0% for the next 2-3 years at a minimum.
We are in the conference finals and 7 straight 3s and fluke bounce by Hally from the series being 2-2 with home court.
What we are talking about here is identifying the issues on this team and figuring out how we can be better next year with mostly the same team.
The easy answer is replacing Thibs and trying to upgrade the bench.
The more complex answers involve trying to trade for a starting quality PF or SG and moving Hart to the bench so we are playing a true 5 out offense. That’s not so easy to do given our limited asset trove, but we do have some decent young players. Unfortunately we have a coach that didn’t use, develop and showcase any of them at all because he’s so concerned about winning regular season games.
A bigger move would involve trading Towns, OG or Bridges.
Was just kind of musing about if we had Nesmith instead of Mikal.
Crazy stat re Brunson/Towns
116-defensive rating when Brunson played during season
111-defensive rating- when he didn’t play
120 – offensive rating with Brunson
117- offensive rating without Brunson
The offensive rating sample size is small, the defense despite the small size will obviously be better no matter how many games played..
thanks english knick…
i actually got all that…
what sort of extension do you think mikal might get?
every team but one eventually flames out during the season…
trying hard not to be too emotionally involved to not be able to evaluate stuff with at least a smidgen of rationality…
Personally I think the Knicks should look to move Mikal instead of handcuffing themselves to him long term. He plays all the time which is very valuable, but just don’t feel he’s worth a big pay day.
You’re right, Swift, it’s a really good team. It’s also one with fundamental flaws so big that it’s almost mathematically impossible for it to get through 4 rounds without running into someone who can ruthlessly exploit them. Even if we beat the Pacers, look what’s waiting for us.
We also had perfect health this year and only made it to the halfway point.
We seem to easily forget struggling and sweating for every basket and every win before this season.
I wonder if wolvesblogger is talking much about splitting ant and julius up…
going on about just how limited ant man is as their number one option…
I’m not really getting the fundamentally flawed roster thing…
no question though we have not optimized our roster…that I’m pretty certain of…
not so sure I’d vote for breaking up KAT and jalen, or not extending mikal…
beware of what you ask for is sometimes a real thing – i’d move on from thibs as coach…
I’m okayish ( 😊 ) with this front office picking a new coach/staff for next season and especially for the post season…
but again, the pacers are playing well also – it’s just the post season really does highlight the shit you’re doing wrong…
I’m at Smits, a sports bar here down in the Geist, to watch the okc game and do a little advanced scouting. It’s kind of cool, at 10:55* tonight they are celebrating the one week anniversary of “The Bounce”, giving away free beers and corndogs. I love this town!
(*Did you know that half of Indiana is in the eastern time zone and half is in the central time zone, and, further complicating things, the state only recently started observing daylight time? Turns out you can learn a lot about a place if you buy a pied-à-terre, sight-unseen, and ingratiate yourself among the locals. Go Colts!)
We won 50 games and were the 2 seed last year.
rik smits does not own any establishments in or near indy tho
Not long ago https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/03/14/knicks-defense-since-jalen-brunson-injury-mitchell-robinson/
Now you wouldn’t be accusing trusted knickerblogger member and former Knicks PBO Donnie Walsh of telling lies, would you?
Unexpectedly, with only 4W more than the 8 seed and while most expected regression before the season started…
The Swirling Dervish days were fun but offensively stressful.
It’s the first season after decades that the offense despite being Iso heavy seems automatic.
Anyone can score easier than the past.
Unfortunately not anyone can guard successfully…
nice to know you are with your people donnie hoosier…
we have always known he was kidding about indy the hole time so no harm no foul on smits in the geist
The real Donnie Walsh worked for Indy during the 26 years prior to joining the Knicks and also the year immediately after. He then retired. You can drop the act, you’ve always been a Pacers fan.
Knicks Getting players that can go Iso successfully was a pretty good idea for clutch playoff times but unfortunately it kills team ball’s flow.
Most successful teams not only have Iso wizards but also play fast, pass a lot and Guard their asses off for 48m
We’re actually pretty good but… they’re a few better than us as it seems
You think this offense is automatic, KYN? “Sweating for every bucket and every win” sounds exactly like what this postseason has been.
The days of saying “isn’t this so much better than the Isiah era” ended when Leon traded every asset that wasn’t nailed to the floor this summer. Thanks to the Mikal Bridges trade we likely have another terrible Knicks era waiting for us around the bend.* These 3 seasons need to be worth it.
* the idea that those picks are likely to be late first rounders is preposterous. We’re in the era of aprons and repeater taxes. Even the OKC Thunder can’t project to be drafting in the late first round out to 2031.
Yeap
I feel stress free while attacking
My problem is with digging holes and D struggles
The stats don’t support you.
’24 playoffs vs ’25 playoffs
ORtg: 118.7 vs 113.6
eFG%: 52.1 vs 51.7
TOV%: 10.2 vs 12.1
OREB%: 31.4 vs. 27.4
FT/FGA: .210 vs .234
The only thing we do better this year is get to the line.
The fact the Nuggets took OKC to 7 is such a testament to Jokic
Also, I tried to type Nuggets there and autocorrect turned it into the worst possible word. Can’t believe it. So strange.
I’ll state it again
No negative defenders touch the court
Strange but True!
I’d swear that we score easier
Maybe Randle’s absence made the difference
i do not think that he is a pacers fan i think he claimed the other day that he used to be a sixers fan i think what he realy is is just a knicks hater so he likes any team that plays us
Turnover
Turnover
Turnover
Turnover
apple cherry cheese blueberry inthat order
Soo at least we’re not the wolves? Geeesh
Quite a display by OKC
The defense is really extraordinary
That Giddey for Caruso swap was good
-Caruso definitely qualifies for most underrated player in the league
LeGMs biggest mistake with the Lakers was letting Caruso walk after the bubble title, he was such a perfect fit with that team.
Not only game 5, we’re going to win games 6 and 7 too. 😉
And then everybody will be talking about how fabulous Thibs and Mikal are. 😀
Knicks in VII is ON!
Thibs Dynasty starts here!!
Europeans pretty giddy in the middle of the night
Knicks Digging Holes seems fun compared to Minnesota’s Crater in an elimination game 🚧🕳️✌️
Caruso off the bench is just ridiculous. It’s like when the ‘96 Yanks used Mariano in middle relief.
Wrong, as always! I caught Pacer fever on March 20th, while watching my godson BM lead them in a resounding overtime victory over the whelming enthusiasm of the Brooklyn Nets. Here is the proof…
https://knickerblogger.net/2025/03/20/2024-25-game-thread-knicks-hornets-charlottes-a-harlot/#comments
Recorded and time-stamped weeks before the unlikely collapse of the Boston Celtics made this long-shot of a series possible.
So there you go. No bandwagon here. Y’all were watching your Knicks lose to the 18-51 Hornets at the time by a mere 17 points, while I was witnessing the birth of a team on a divergent pathway, bound for Oklahoma in June — a place where Rogers and Hammerstein aptly mused way back in 1943 “Oklahoma, where the win come right behind the Knicks pain”.
ESPN has to say anything to keep the viewer tuned in
Caruso for Giddey worked out for both teams. Caruso is 31 and was not going to be a part of any good Bulls team. Giddey just had a 3.0 BPM in his age 22 season and is probably the Bulls’ most valuable young player.
Giddey upped his FTr and 3pt% with the Bulls, and had a 99 TS+ to go with his boxscore stuffing of rebounds, assists, and steals. He’s a talented player.
we are not winning if kat is out we may not win even if he is in but you get what i mean
yeah, I don’t know – that kind of mostly sounds like donnie bandwagon fan…
did you just say ben mathurin is family, or is it like sports’ family…
Julius’s box score looked pretty good until I got all the way over to the right and saw -28. Ouch.
I wish it were true irl.
Speaking of fam, did you know that Haliburton, Jalen Suggs, and Eddie Jones are all cousins? The things you learn just from 24hrs in Indiana, my oh my.
did not know that and now that i kow it do not care about it
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