Knicks Defensive Rank (by DE 14th last year, 10th the year before)
- 11-14 (61%, 17 Votes)
- 6-10 (25%, 7 Votes)
- Yikes! (7%, 2 Votes)
- 1-5 (4%, 1 Votes)
- 15-20 (4%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 28
Loading ...Which Defensive Four Factor will Improve the most?
- REB% (19th) (33%, 9 Votes)
- eFG% (22nd) (30%, 8 Votes)
- TO% (13th) (30%, 8 Votes)
- FT/FG (6th) (7%, 2 Votes)
Total Voters: 27
Loading ...Which Defensive Four Factor will Worsen the most?
- FT/FG (6th) (44%, 12 Votes)
- TO% (13th) (33%, 9 Votes)
- eFG% (22nd) (11%, 3 Votes)
- REB% (19th) (11%, 3 Votes)
Total Voters: 27
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28 replies on “Knicks 2026 Preseason Poll: Team Defense”
Assuming Mitch is not injured, I think they improve in REB%, and on eFG% allowed. I gave the nod to the former. I just don’t know that he’ll play enough to make a significant difference on defense, and the bench will likely be bad defensively. So I picked 11-14 defensive rating overall.
1. 11-14 — The longer rotation will enable more effort, and a healthier Mitch will prevent them from sliding.
2. TOs — Thibs defense deemphasized creating turnovers.
3. FT/FG — The bench will not be disciplined.
But if Mitch is already hurt, maybe we shouldn’t be banking on this mythical Healthy Mitch Season when making our predictions?
Also, which of these is the most likely starting lineup if Mitch is indeed out for the opener:
1)Hukporti at the 5 to keep the rest of the rotation in place;
2)KAT to the 5, Hart starts at the wing, Brown mixes and matches all night
3)KAT to the 5, Deuce starts at the 2, Brown leans into 5-out offense, even if we’re small
If Mitch and Hart are both out, maybe they start KAT at C and Yabu at PF?
Oh, right. Hart might still be out. I hadn’t thought of the Mitch/Yabu combo. That would make us bigger than sliding OG back to power forward, but then you’ve got three bad defenders in the starting lineup, and are placing all of the burden on that end on OG and Mikal.
I don’t think that experiment will last very long, except maybe if Deuce, Mikal and OG are on the court.
So much depends on Mitch…
11-14th — top-10 if Mitch is relatively healthy
TO% — Mikal looks like he causes more havoc off the ball and Brown isn’t insisting he stay on opposing PGs every possession.
FT/FG — Thibs system was to always play it safe. Brown’s will most likely lead to more gambles and fouls. Also, Hukporti will probably foul a lot.
I’d guess Hukporti starts at the 5. Brown said he prefers keeping the rotations intact and started Diawara & Huk in the preseason when KAT & Mitch were out.
I get starting Huk, but who backs him up? Jemison?? That feels a little dicey for game 1.
If you assume that, on nights where the team is at full strength, Huk was going to be on the outside of the rotation looking in, then Huk’s backup would be a combination of KAT, Yabu, and maybe even OG if Brown goes super-small. The concern is more whether Huk can be “Mitch at home,” or if the defensive scheme just collapses without the big guy there.
At the same time, the plan was going to be to load manage Mitch through the season. So unless Brown is a complete incompetent — which we know he isn’t, even if he has warts like all the non-Spo coaches — he and his guys already have a plan in place for Mitch-less games.
can anyone find the link to the official nba injury reports? they typically have a link to that nights games unfortunately they havent updated the season and it still has last season with no link to the actual report: https://official.nba.com/nba-injury-report-2024-25-season/
Hey, come on, come along take a ride
There’s a party over there, that ain’t no jive
It’s live, live, it’s all the way live
Don’t even have to walk, don’t even have to drive
Just slide, glide, slippity-slide
Just forget about your troubles and your 9 to 5
And just sail on (That’s what you do), just sail on…
so excited, they are about to be playing basketball…oh yeah…
They’re playing basketball
We love that basketball
They’re playing basketball
We love that basketball
They (official NBA injury reports) haven’t been updated because they don’t exist until game day.
thanks! but it *is* game day there are two games tonight
whoops, see below
https://ak-static.cms.nba.com/referee/injury/Injury-Report_2025-10-20_06PM.pdf
thanks bernieernie yup i had found that pdf just weird that they havent updated the main page to this season yet that page is where that link usually lives im sure theyll get to it hopefully sooner rather than later
but still very much appreciate you sending the link last update was 6:30 last night used to be updated every hour on the half hour maybe theyve stopped doing that beginning with this season
Tons of caveats, but based on pre-season (caveat one, along with the fact that we mostly played lousy teams, caveat two, and to a large extent their scrubs, caveat three) — if Mitch is out I’m not averse to playing Huk (say 20-24 min), Jemison (say 10-14 min) and KAT (say 14 min) at the 5, with the assumption that 14 minutes at the 5 is about what KAT might play with Mitch out there anyway.
Against a team like the Cavs you want length out there, and I wasn’t seeing either Huk or Jemison blowing coverages left and right. Not that they won’t, but nothing was egregious so far, and their time during preseason felt better defensively than say Sims in previous years.
We should have a poll asking how much are people going to overreact if the Knicks lose tomorrow night.
we dont need to we already know the answer i would guess 86.4 percent would overreact if we lost and 93.8 percent if we look especially bad doing so
Hey, if nothing else, Roundball Rock is back!
https://bsky.app/profile/ohnohedidnt24.bsky.social/post/3m3pevxe6k22z
what is roundball rock seem to need a bluesky account in order to access it
Yabu now weighs 283 pounds, 18 pounds more than last year. When asked about it, Brown again deferred to “our performance people.”
There’s no serious sense in which this is the right weight for him; together with the Mitch situation, we should start to be getting some serious GIGO, junk science vibes from this “performance people” thing.
yeah we talked about the 283 pounds thing yesterday i was already concerned about his propensity to get injured when he was at 265 pounds on his 6-8 frame seems like mb “performance people” = thibs “medical” dont love it but am not overly overly concerned just yet
As always, Doogie, Google is your friend.
Yabu needs a month to get in shape away from the team. Can’t use him as is – he’s been slow and ineffective. Not a great start….
he might actually need staying around the team to be monitored
My thoughts on the defense? It’s going to be frustrating, especially when Mitch gets injured again. Brunson and Towns are not cornerstones on that half of the court in almost inverse proportion to their offensive impact.