The layup goof that d-mar mentions was the most glaring example of his having kryptonite in his pockets, but it was very strange as his terrible game didn’t seem to have any relationship to any possible injury. It was more like he had his meds dialed all wrong.

And the low point was when he had a wide open follow up layup and got all backboard.

I’m almost hoping it’s the quad, because that version of KAT is unacceptable and you can forget championship aspirations if he doesn’t step it up.

Versatile wings who can guard up and down

I thought he lost this ability last year, and that’s why I wanted to sell high on him this summer. He’s still a heady, intelligent, team defender. I don’t think your wrong about his importance, but he’s a rapidly deteriorating asset (and will still be even when he starts playing better).

KAT was protecting the rim?

It was his job, yeah…
https://c.tenor.com/ekRteecrPMUAAAAM/verify.gif

But I can say very confidently that he’s an enormously negative player for us right now, and not in ways that tend to sort themselves out e.g. OG’s 3PT%.

He’s only even attempting 28% of his shots at the rim so far (40% last year), and the less I say about his hit rate, from there and everywhere else, the better. He’s simply not doing the Josh Hart Things™ that make up, and then some, for him being guarded like Mitch on the perimeter.

I’ve said before and I will say again that there are people who generally take Hart’s importance to this team way too lightly. Versatile wings who can guard up and down, make plays, get out in transition with the best of them, and rebound like a demon don’t grow on trees. This all applies even more so to the current Knicks, who want for athleticism generally. Warts and all, I think it’s no accident we’ve consistently been meaningfully better with him on the court since he arrived. A prolonged absence would hurt us.

But he sucks right now and getting him right needs to be an urgent priority, because it’s hard to win tough games giving a lot of minutes to someone who sucks. Whether it’s rest for his back, getting the hand surgery, or whatever else, get it done and patch up the holes somehow.

What I observed last night is that Milwaukee made adjustments at halftime…mostly Giannis saying “Hey wait, I can just kick their ass singlehandedly and they have no one to stop me or even slow me down…” and “We are longer and more athletic than them, so let’s just defend harder and they will fall apart, especially after we paste a few shots to the backboard. BTW, Hart sucks so leave him wide open every time from anywhere outside of 3 feet. And KAT is both dumb and in a funk so goad him into dumb decisions on both ends.”

On the other hand, here are some frightening BPM numbers:
KAT -3.4
Hart -4.0
Huk -5.2
Kolek -5.5
Clarkson -7.0
Yabu -7.5

That said, it also seems like when things aren’t going well, the guys abandon Brown’s ball movement system and go back to Thibs-style iso-ball. And only Jalen and Mikal are good enough to do that consistently. It’s a work in progress, and hopefully in time they learn to trust the new offense and play like they did in the second quarter.