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40 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.09.25)”
I have for some reason decided to start arguing with Cal Raleigh fans on BlueSky this morning. Please stop me.
UPDATE: I stopped myself and deleted all my comments. I don’t need to be alienating potential subscribers this week.
Was mentioned briefly yesterday, but I only listened to Zach Lowe’s pod this morning, and he said he’s also heard that the Knicks right now are looking at the double-big lineup as the starting group. And Macri said that the top bench unit at practice yesterday include Deuce, Hart, Yabu, Huk, and “presumably Jordan Clarkson.” (This was harder to make out from photos.) Obviously early days, but it’s still slow and this is the time to go full Zapruder.
Those lineups seem logical, Alan.
So two strong defenders (Mitch and OG), one who used to be (Mikal) and two bad ones (we know who they are). Then a weak defensive 2nd unit. Sounds like an average defense?
It’s a classic half measure.
I just hope they spend the regular season exploring all the options. The nice part about having anyone other than Thibs is not having that sagging feeling when you know whatever we do in game 1 is also what we’re going to do for the next 81 games.
Alan I didn’t see any of the bluesky stuff but it’s incredibly hard to argue against either Judge or Raleigh this year – both unbelievably productive and Raleigh also catches which is a more valuable position than RF most likely. My guess is Raleigh wins just based on people being tired of giving it to Judge every year.
I do think Raleigh has a very significant advantage batting in front of J-Rod. If you put J-Rod behind Judge, I feel pretty certain that Judge would have 65 homers right now. Cody Bellinger (or even Stanton) is nice but doesn’t inspire the same respect as J-Rod does. Judge has 34 intentional walks vs just 16 for Raleigh.
Back to the knicks – I am not 100% sure about the Mitch starting lineup. The whole point of hiring Brown was to juice the offense, and his best offenses in Sac were with Sabonis being the hub and the other 4 players all being able to shoot/dribble/pass. The only analogous player to Mitch on the Kings was Alex Len who played about 600 minutes total over 2 seasons with Brown.
Love Mitch but he is a brute force guy who can’t do anything on offense other than o-reb and dunk. I guess he could be the the Kevon Looney starter in name? But even Looney averaged 3.6 assists/36 during the Warriors heyday – I can’t possibly imagine Mitch ever being able to do that.
This seems like an updated version of our 2023 team with a better starting lineup but weaker bench:
1 Brunson > Brunson
2 Barrett > Bridges
3 Grimes > Anunoby
4 Randle > Towns
5 Robinson > Robinson
Bench:
Quickley > Clarkson
Hart > Hart
Toppin > Yabu
Hartenstein > Huk
Deuce > Deuce
The modern NBA is increasingly rock-paper-scisssors.
I’d throw that against Cleveland and Orlando, but we’d need another look to play OKC.
Maybe they’re practicing what Clyde calls “the oldest play in basketball.” I sure hope so.
“The whole point of hiring Brown was to juice the offense…”
I think this is an oversimplification. I think there were lots of reasons to hire Brown, but more importantly, to move on from Thibs. First and foremost, the front office seemed exasperated with Thibs’ unwillingness to be collaborative, most importantly when it came to roster utilization. As to Brown, I think he checks the boxes in those regards.
As to the offense, our offense was pretty juiced for the first 3 months or so…we were neck and neck with CLE for the best offense in the NBA. But then opponents changed tactics against us and for the rest of the year, including the playoffs, teams started to guard Brunson 84 feet with athletic wings and switching non-C’s onto KAT on the perimeter while putting their C on Hart. The offense then became very iso-centric and gummed up with bigs dropping off Hart and helping on KAT and Brunson when they penetrated while guarding Mikal and OG in the corners.
Mitch actually helps in that regard. If he’s setting screens and hanging in the dunker’s spot, The opposing C better keep an eye on him or else it will be a lob/OReb festival. And the hack-a-Mitch tactic is much less effective when the game starts and opposing starters don’t want to get into early foul trouble in situations where he doesn’t even go to the line. Plus having Mitch out there with KAT and OG makes for a giant front line defensively, as KAT can do what he does better, which is NOT worrying about protecting the rim.
You can take Mitch out 5 minutes into the game and bring in Hart, and then fold in the other subs…and end quarters with whatever lineup the situation calls for. But I’m not worried that starting Mitch might be detrimental to the offense because it’s all about net rating, not offensive rating in a vacuum. I think he will definitely help us get off to good starts.
Just +1 for Z-Man’s description of Mitch. I would have written that with more coffee and better English.
One of the things that amuses me for this coming year is whether Mitch might actually be able to be more than a brute force guy. We’ve seen things in practice videos. Might Brown unleash the brute? And if so, what might that look like?
As for J-Rod, up into the all-star game he sucked. Nobody was afraid to pitch to him. He’s had an utterly fantastic back nine, so he’s probably helped of late. But Cal has raked all year.
Take me on, Alan. I’m yours.
“Just +1 for Z-Man’s description of Mitch. I would have written that with more coffee and better English.”
LOL, I’m having my coffee aright now after just getting back from having my esophagus and stomach scoped…hella shitty way to start your pre-coffee morning. Gives new meaning to the old Welcome Back, Kotter line, “Up your nose with a rubber hose!” Anyway, all good!
“We’ve seen things in practice videos.”
I wish I had a nickel for every time I got my hopes up based on summer practice videos. Still waiting for Tyson Chandler to start hitting jumpers…
don’t follow baseball as close as I used to, but 60 homeruns by a catcher is pretty historic…not too mad about raleigh getting the mvp this season…
Didn’t Tyson Chandler suddenly become really good with his 10-12 foot baseline and elbow jumpers toward the end of his Knick tenure? I swear that suddenly became a thing, like money, after years of not doing it.
Maybe I dreamed it, but I swear it was a thing. Of course, I am not suggesting Mitch can do that. Don’t know what Mitch can do, which is part of the fun mystery. A cross-over dunk now and again might do me fine.
So other than the 10 guys mentioned on the A and B teams, I wonder what’s going on with the next 11 guys. Maybe it’s a team of youngsters and a team of vets?
Team C: The Kids
Kolek
Dadiet
Diawara
McCullar
Ewoma (too tired to look up the spelling)
Jemison
Team D: The Vets
Brogdan
Shamet
Matthews
Ryan
Len
In practices, particularly in preseason with a new HC, you have to assemble 5-man groups that don’t necessarily serve as a good prediction of what minutes people will receive. For example, Hukporti, could be integral in completing a second unit for a scrimmage and then not be a part of rotation. I say this because there’s an impulse to try to make such predictions.
Cody, Stanton and Rice are all better hitters than JRod. But unless Bonds is hitting behind Judge he’s gonna get IBBd more than anyone else.
“Didn’t Tyson Chandler suddenly become really good with his 10-12 foot baseline and elbow jumpers toward the end of his Knick tenure?”
I think you dreamed it. First, TC was notoriously low-usage…6.6 FGA per 36. In his most prolific “jumper” year (2013-14), he took 4% of his shots from 10-16ft (31%, 4-13) and 8% of his shots from 16 ft out (44%, 12-27). In his other 2 years as a Knick he hardly took any.
God, the arguments we used to have about Chandler’s high efficiency at extremely low volume versus Melo being less efficient but at a vastly higher volume.
(Not trying to conjure those back up! Just remembering.)
That’s pretty funny, and a great example of how a rare event becomes a bizarrely highlighted sample size in one’s memory over time. I distinctly remember the announcers gleefully crowing about Chandler hitting those shots (“Tyson with another jumper!”), almost certainly that year, since as you say ‘he hardly took any’ in other years. Clearly made an impression on me.
… and now we’re arguing about 53 vs 58 wins. THAT seems more dreamlike…
Wasn’t Chandler more of a willing jump shooter earlier in his career but by the time he got to the Knicks his offense was entirely lobs, dunks and putbacks?
I think no matter what Brown chooses to do with the lineups there are going to be upsides and downsides.
Towns and the overall offense should be most effective when he plays C and we play 5 out, but the defense will suffer.
Hart starting gives us rebounding, playmaking and other less tangible things but hurts the 5 out spacing.
Deuce starting helps the spacing and POA defense, but makes us small and potentially causes issues rebounding.
Mitch starting gives us a paint presence and much better overall defense, but kills the spacing and pushes Towns to PF where his own value as a spacer is diminished.
That’s why I’m such a broken record about the possibility that Leon may not be done and this may not be the final version of the team. We have a ton of talent, but there are issues that are hard to address with Towns/Brunson on the court together.
I’m hoping Brown can figure out a way to adjust the minutes to the needs on each night and the matchups. That would be an area of flexibility that could be a jump up from Thibs.
Well, to be fair, statistically speaking he DID hit significantly more that year…and maybe there was a game or two where he got hot and hit 2 or 3 of them. Thing is, he was actually a “decent” FT shooter (68%) so those summer videos sort of resonated.
“Wasn’t Chandler more of a willing jump shooter earlier in his career but by the time he got to the Knicks his offense was entirely lobs, dunks and putbacks?”
He was more willing but hardly more able. In Chicago he had a higher usage and took 18% of his shots from the perimeter but hit only 33% of them. After that he rarely took them…in fact, that 2013-14 year was the post-CHI peak.
Between getting abused by the immortal Roy Hibbert and the dunk that bounced off of his head and back through the rim, pretty much ending our playoff hopes, my memories of Chandler are probably less fond than most. Glad that we have finally moved on to a more sustainably good team than the Melo-Tyson-Amar’e fiasco.
I agree with the positives of starting Mitch with the caveat that he can handle it and he probably shouldn’t play starters minutes. 25 a game tops. But starting each quarter with him gives us a huge front court and puts OG in his best position.
A 100% accurate argument that sends the anti-Yankee Raleigh boosters into a tizzy: Raleigh would have significantly fewer home runs if he played in Yankee Stadium.
“I agree with the positives of starting Mitch with the caveat that he can handle it and he probably shouldn’t play starters minutes. 25 a game tops. But starting each quarter with him gives us a huge front court and puts OG in his best position.”
There are lots of configurations that Brown can tinker with, especially if Hukporti becomes a plus bench player. I think a bench unit of Huk,Yabu, Hart, Clarkson, and Deuce can pound some opposing benches for 5-10 minutes each half, and then you can work the starters back in, starting with Brunson and KAT. If Huk isn’t ready, then you can go small with OG at PF and Yabu at C. An uptempo bench mob of Yabu, OG, Hart, Deuce and Clarkson might also be interesting.
And that’s not even considering possibilities with Brogdon, Shamet, or any of the kids who could possibly develop into something useful.
The main thing is that there seems to be lots of productive ways to repurpose some of the starters’ minutes compared to last year.
I honestly believe if any other player was having the type of season Judge is having he’d be universally thought of as the surefire MVP but since it’s Judge people have gotten so used to it they’re numb by it.
Funny part is in 2017 Altuve got MVP over Judge because all Judge did was hit HRs which was bullshit but that was the general excuse not to vote for him. Now Raleigh is being touted as the MVP strictly cause of HRs and his position. Thing is Judge is a pretty good defensive RF and the defensive metrics support it so people touting Judge as just a good hitter are full of crap.
I’m not sure about this. If Towns is the center but on the perimeter that hurts offensive rebounds. On the other hand, if Mitch is on the inside and Towns is on the outside, that’s a dilemma for teams that don’t have two really good big men. If they keep their center on Mitch, Towns will kill them from the outside. If they send him to defend Towns, Mitch can create havoc inside.
Voter fatigue is dumb. Jokic once had a BPM over 13 and somehow finished second to that bitch, Joel Embiid.
BBA, I’ll start by saying the only fair decision is to award both Judge and Raleigh co-MVP awards.
In defense of Cal, besides a whole lot of homers and being a catcher (and a superb one), he’s already got a shit-ton of MLB all-time records this year. Most homers by a catcher ever, most homers by someone actually playing catcher in those games (vs. occasional DH) ever, most homers by a switch hitter ever, and tied for most multi-homer games in a season. It’s a pretty unique year.
If you’re going with most valuable to your team, it’s also hard to parse. Once the Mariners got Suarez and Naylor, and Julio started to hit, Cal’s overall importance in the lineup was lessened. But for the entire first half of the season, with no Suarez or Naylor and basically no Julio, who sucked camel dung for that stretch, he was carrying the team on his back with very little help.
It’s a good thing that JRod is having a great 2nd half cause Raleigh hit below .200 in both July and August!
Since I’m being Chatty Cathy today, here’s some factoids from Macri’s newsletter today on the subject of who’s going to drive and kick, especially to Brunson. (For those who didn’t read it, he doesn’t really answer the question, but parsing it is interesting…)
Here are the driving stats for all of last year’s rotation players still with the team
• Jalen Brunson: 17.8 drives, 40.4 PASS%, 10.2 AST%
• Karl-Anthony Towns: 8.0 drives, 11.8 PASS%, 4.2 AST%
• Mikal Bridges: 6.3 drives, 42.7 PASS%, 10.3 AST%
• OG Anunoby: 5.9 drives, 37.7 PASS%, 7.5 AST%
• Josh Hart: 4.3 drives, 41.7 PASS%, 12.1 AST%
• Deuce McBride: 3.5 drives, 48.9 PASS%, 10.7 AST%
Of the returning players, Bridges is the most obvious candidates for an uptick. Bridges averaged over 11 drives per game over the course of his time in Brooklyn where he was one of their top offensive options. We saw him run far more pick & roll when Jalen was out for a month last season, but those drives often ended with midrange jumpers and were less effective against defenses that didn’t guard him with traditional drop coverage.
In terms of the starting lineup it doesn’t really matter to me, I just hope that Brown will be way more flexible and experiment with a bunch of different lineups.
Mostly agree, BBA, although I do think who starts is important in judging whether Brown actually is “way more flexible.”
as previously noted, I’m a little light on friends…
which simply means I often feel compelled to come here to share, good or bad…
and, after waiting 4 plus years to hear the news on my latest VA claim the decision came back: Denied…
lawerly fella helping me out will appeal, but god dang that stinks…fortunately already rated/covered at 100%…
forget that mo’ money, mo’ problems bullshit…financial boons and a money security blanket is always welcome…
guess it’s just a wonderful opportunity to practice continued/heightened fiscal responsibility…
it’s tough you know – cuz i got a nut…was hoping to grow it…oh well…
That’s why he didn’t like playing for Thibs and it may have effected his poa defense. Running around and defending little guards for 40 minutes gets anoying when you don’t get touches on the offensive end.
I think he’s going to want to prove that last year was on Thibs so I expect Mikal to have his best season of his career.
I don’t really care what the Brown led team identity is as long as all the players are ought in and there is actually one.
I do hope we hoist up and extra 8-12 threes per game that come from offensive sets, drive and kick, corners and not step back off the drible from top of key that KAT had to take all of last season.
I think Precious is going to be a very nice fit on the Heat, since I’ve always thought the Heat were a little bit precious.
And I both love and hate this quote from Jordan Clarkson: “I think all the guys know if they show (the ball to me), it’s going to get in the air. The majority of the time I feel like I’m open.”
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