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Knicks 119, Wizards 102: KAT reaches 15,000 career points, dominates Washington – Posting & Toasting
Patience required as Karl-Anthony Towns adjusts to Knicks’ new system – SNY
Game Thread: Knicks vs. Wizards, Nov. 3, 2025 – Posting & Toasting
Knicks use 41-point third quarter to run away from Wizards in 119-102 win – SNY
Where The Value Reside? | KFS Weekly Wagers | 11/3/25 | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
WIZARDS at KNICKS | FULL GAME HIGHLIGHTS | November 3, 2025 – NBA
Knicks Weekly Recap: Brunson Leads Knicks Rebound | Brown Talks Rotations | Hart Injury Update – Knicks Fan TV
The Run.down Knicks vs Bulls Postgame Show – The Strickland
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72 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.11.04)”
11 stocks for OG and Mikal yesterday, pretty cool. Both are in the top-10 for stocks for the season.
Nice win last night.
The Good:
-It wasn’t rocket science to predict that KAT would have a big night. He’s moving better (looks like the quad thing is behind him, fingers crossed!) and Sarr is not Turner or Bam, at least yet. His D was still an issue but less of one than in prior games.
-Josh Hart had a second solid all-around game. He seems to be getting used to the finger splint, as he swished a couple of 3s and made some great highly contested running layups. Defensive Player of the Game. I like that Brown kept him in his bench role, just so Hart doesn’t think that he’s competing for a starting spot. And 26 minutes seems like a very good number for him.
-Mikal just keeps on putting up all-star level go-go-gadget games. He’s doing everything out there, just filling in the blanks on both ends. 4 assists, 3 steals, 3 blocks, 0 TOs! The above-the-break 3pt shooting seems light years better than it looked last year. Still not worth 5 firsts but looking worth the extension, and an absolute bargain this year, the last of his prior contract.
-Brunson had an off shooting night, but who cares? He still opened things up for everyone else. 9 assists is a great number. 32 minutes an even better one.
-OG had a typically excellent OG game. 5 steals!
-Clarkson has hopefully put all chatter about “decline phase” to bed. Still takes some dumb shots (news flash: so does Brunson, KAT, and OG) but mostly playing smart, effective basketball on offense and doing his best on D.
-Deuce still looks to be in grief recovery mode, but I loved his aggressiveness on D, he rocked Sarr with two hard fouls (one called a flagrant, but not really) and generally a positive contributor. We’ll need more from him next game, and I think we will get it.
-Shamet gave us exactly what we needed in a starting role vs. a young, athletic team…veteran savvy, decent shooting, hustle. The decision to keep him over Garry Bird seems more and more like a no-brainer.
-32 assists on 44 made shots…more, please! Seems like the Brown offense is starting to click, but it’s the Wiz so who knows?
The Bad:
-Yabujelly trying to impact the game in non-shooting ways, but largely (!) ineffective. His 3pt shot seems temporarily out of order, but he mixed it up on the boards and set some solid screens. Looks like he’s severely pressing. Probably back to scant minutes in games when Mitch plays.
The Ugly:
-The rotation players couldn’t really put the game away, so the scrubs didn’t get in until around 4 minutes left, and proceeded to look very scrubby. The only positive was Huk’s rebounding.
Shamet put up a Bargnani-level dumb 3 off of an offensive rebound when the Wiz were trying to come back.
So far, the biggest benefit to Brown’s arrival has been the play of OG and (especially) Mikal. Brunson’s been his usual self, albeit with what feels like more poor shooting nights than usual for this time of year. KAT and the role players have all been very up and down. Though if Hart has already figured out how to play through the nerve injury, we are in much better shape than I thought only a few games ago.
yeppers
Shams: “Free agent Precious Achiuwa has agreed on a deal with the Sacramento Kings, sources tell ESPN. Achiuwa enters his sixth NBA season and gives the Kings immediate rebounding and defensive versatility.”
If sustained, this is pretty huge. Cap will Cap so if Kat can improve a bit on PnR D, there is reason for optimism. Also, giving bench players run, even if the results are mixed will help at the back end of the season. edit:
Mitch’s ability to contribute still a major open item.
Yabu looked a lot better to me on offense despite his missed but he was lost on defense often and seemingly confused about what scheme they were running at times.
He’s probably too ground bound to ever be a rim protector and doesn’t have the instincts to wall off the rim in a way that could make up for it.
He looks quick enough to plausibly defend well at the 4 at least.
Yeah, I would like to see people complain about that OG contract now. He’s made a significant impact on both ends of the floor. Obviously he has his limitations (not a great dribbler, trouble finishing if he doesn’t dunk, too many dumb passes for TOs), but he’s a one-man wrecking crew on D and his 3-point shooting has been great. Not a max player, but he’s not getting the max. The kind of player every team would like to have.
Crickets on my Yabujelly moniker? Sigh…
(alas, he scored a point, otherwise I was gonna break out a ‘jelly donut quip…)
Would you really? Because it still sucks but I thought we were all happily in the acceptance stage now. I didn’t think we’d go back to denial.
Ha, The Athletic dropped the Knicks from 2 to 15 in ranking this past week. Which, whatever. I think the oft-mentioned mantra of ‘give them 20 games’ is more sensible this year than any in recent memory.
I thought this tidbit was interesting, though:
“The preferred starting lineup under Mike Brown has only played 12 minutes together. Those 12 minutes have been encouraging, as New York has outscored opponents 37-26 in that time.”
Though Brunson is missing some shots, the offense is making everything so much easier for him, it’s remarkable. He doesn’t need to drive into the paint between three defenders every single possession, or deal with a full court press. I’d guess this will pay off in the long run.
I don’t think you ever had lots of company on the “OG’s contact is terrible” island. You beat the drum loudly, but only a few people were dancing to it…
I feel like this is the theme to the early season. I see a lot of changes that the players may be struggling to get used to now but should pay off well in the long run. And not even 5 months from now but rather quickly.
I’ve been to three games so for this year (working out of 1 PENN is a blast) and the vibes are fantastic. It’s a weird team because you feel like we’re not doing well and then suddenly you look up and we’re up 18 and the game is over.
It was nice to see a good Clarkson game. Honestly if he can play like that just one out of every 5 games he’ll be decent. His defensive effort has been surprising. Yabu meanwhile is still testing our patience.
I’ve never warmed to KAT, to be honest, but I’d love him if he played more like he did last night. He looked like Shaq against Alex Sarr, and if he did that every time someone put a small on him he might even start getting to the free throw line like Embiid. I hope this is a point of emphasis and not a random flash in the pan.
I definitely believe in the system. There was a play last night that got Hart the ball in a full sprint after two handoffs. I can’t say for sure that it was designed for Hart but it certainly looked like it. He got an easy layup.
Hart never had a play drawn up for him to score with Thibs. It’s easy offense that adds a few points here and saves Brunson from needing to create on every single play. There and can make the difference between a win and a loss.
Also, Brunson has a .580 TS% on a career high 31.8 usage. He’s shooting 32.1% from 3. When that reverts, we’ll be looking at his best scoring season yet.
That argument was always dumb and showed how many people fundamentally don’t understand the new salary cap and just how much salaries have and continue to increase.
“Hart never had a play drawn up for him to score with Thibs.”
EB, do you have evidence that a) Hart never had a play drawn up for him to score with Thibs (seems pretty dubious that a guy who averaged 13.1 per 36 and had the majority of his FGs assisted had nothing at all run for him), and b) Hart scored on an actual play drawn up for him by Brown and not simply the same kind of variation on a set that Hart scored on many times under Thibs’.
I guess I should have qualified it.
Very few plays looked designed specifically for Hart to get an easy bucket under Thibs.
There were probably some pick and rolls or dribble handoffs, but he very rarely received the ball in an all out sprint going downhill.
Even if Hart was only one of several options, Thibs rarely had secondary and tertiary actions that would give players these opportunities.
TC and Rama, would you kindly show me the other NBA team that has allocated 26% of their cap to a spectacular 3-and-D wing? The market rate is currently around 12-15%, and that’s factorial.
Sorry but this is a really simplistic way of looking at it.
Are we a “market rate” team? Or are we fucking contenders?
Also, you described OG as spectacular and you really think that every team that is paying “market rate” for their 3 and D players are all getting “spectacular” players?
This is like telling someone they’ve overpaid for their house because it cost more than the average house in their city when they house they bought is in a neighborhood that has the best schools, lowest crime, highest walkability rate, etc.
Here’s the thing, though: we lack depth, and that’s probably going to be our achilles heel in the end.
There are many reasons we lack depth, but one of them is how much more we pay OG than the next highest paid player of his ilk (OKC for instance has two players like OG, and Alex Caruso and Lu Dort combined make $4M less than OG Anunoby).
So I would say it’s more like telling someone they overpaid for their house when they’re riding their bike 10 miles to work in the snow because they couldn’t afford a car with their mortgage.
But that would be if I brought it up, which I didn’t. So really it’s like someone riding their bike to work in the snow, pulling up to you in your car, and saying “hey remember when you told me I should buy a house I can afford? I’d like to see you tell me that again!”
Caruso & Dort also combined to score 0.8 fewer points per game than OG despite playing a combined 12.2 more minutes than him.
We need E to chime in on the OG debate would be curious to know his opinion on this issue.
ha
A master class in using stats to say nothing.
Look the problem with both OG’s salary and the 5 picks for Bridges is that they were both “final piece” prices and they weren’t the final pieces. There’s nothing more to talk about. We know where everyone stands.
I guess I didn’t think I needed to explain that scoring points is a valuable NBA skill and players with valuable NBA skills get paid more money.
Scoring points is, to my knowledge, considered the most important NBA skill and, to my knowledge, considered to be worth the most money.
Senator Hubert imposes a cloture vote on the proceedings. 🙂
Looks like the Jets are having a clearing sale. Probably for the better.
The problem isn’t that we’re paying too much for OG. The problem is we don’t have a Doncic/Jokic/SGA/Giannis tentpole providing so much value it papers over the other holes.
Brunson is a great player. Those guys are on another level, and it’s really really hard to win without one of them. Indy came close but ultimately just lost to the team that had the 10+ BPM player.
OG is a better player than Caruso and Dort, by a lot. By EPM, OG is a much better player on offense and defense than Dort and a wildly better player on offense than Caruso.
Bob, Senator Hubert would be happy to keep talking about how OG’s outrageous AAV has already limited our roster flexibility and will continue to in the future (this summer, for instance, we’ll likely have to choose between either Mitch or the second apron because of it).
But like I said in the beginning when Rama said he would love to hear people complain about OG’s salary now: would you really? There must be better things to talk about than trying to take a ridiculously unearned victory lap.
I think it’s certainly fair to believe that a) the initial price paid for acquiring both OG and Mikal was to high, and b) Their current extensions are higher than actual market value.
That said, given the fact that Brunson signed a FAR below market contract (he’s clearly as much of a $60M player as others making that amount, although I’m not sure what he actually could get if he went UFA in these cap-constrained times), you have to gauge the value of these contracts in the context of the chosen hybrid approach. The Brunson-OG-Bridges trio taken together are decent value. It’s the KAT contract that worries me the most.
OG is our third scoring option and has a USG at 19.5 this year. Lu Dort’s usage is around 12 and Caruso’s is usually under 15.
OG’s not really a 3 and D guy. He’s an average usage player, had the same usage up near 20 last year too. He maintains fairly good efficiency on that higher usage too, TS+ over 100 this year and last year.
On the other hand, Huk averaged ~40 rebounds per 36 yesterday…
I love math.
When did the NFL trade deadline become so exciting?
today
hung out in bed watching dog vids, with the dog this morning…this life stuff ain’t so bad at times…
nice to have josh hart back on the team…
one of KAT or jalen, plus a decent bench game should put us in good shape against most of the teams in the association…
add in a strong game from both OG and mikal and we should be good against all the teams…
I’m sure MB realizes he has to address the lack of depth with our defensive bigs…
maybe diawara gets some more run, huk gets some minutes…sure hope mitch is ready to go against minny…
interested to see OG try to shut down julius (who’s off to a nice start himself)…
reid, gobert, and julius could be a handful for us…
can’t imagine him taking a pay cut, and he’s already over 50 million (53.14)…
not sure what his max is, but hopefully (unlike OG) he cuts the knicks a deal…maybe something in-between what jalen and mikal did…
we need to pay a center next season, going rate for those range from like 18 million to a lot more…
Joe Dumars is a genius, though.
I continue not to have any problem with OG’s contract
Not a fan of RJ Barrett, but he’s scored more points than either Ja or Zion.
obviously thats just due to availability but that certainly counts for something
I’m wondering how many teams in the NBA would rather have either Zion or Ja on their existing contracts. Or if any teams would prefer either of them to RJ. Both seem like very toxic assets, although Ja’s contract is for 2 more years and Zion’s has protections built into it.
Zion was not playing all that well before he got hurt despite appearing to be in pretty decent shape. Maybe he should put the fat back on.
“I’m wondering how many teams in the NBA would rather have either Zion or Ja on their existing contracts. Or if any teams would prefer either of them to RJ.”
three of them exactly three of them
Oof. Ballmer being sued by Aspiration investors: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/clippers/2025/11/04/steve-ballmer-aspiration-lawsuit-kawhi-leonard-deal/87083055007/
Will it make Kawhi the most expensive player in NBA history?
probably not but even if so ballmer is on the upper end of the riches category
It’s an interesting lawsuit, but I would think the plaintiffs would have to show they were harmed by the Kawhi shenanigans. But actually Ballmer paid the company enough money and probably a little extra to pay Kawhi, so if anything the company benefited financially from the deals. Kawhi even received company stock paid for by Ballmer. This certainly helped Aspiration. So where are the damages?
If you really want to pick nits, you can argue OG’s salary is 27th in the league while EPM puts him in the 40-50th range in overall quality.
It just wouldn’t be a very smart critique, because that’s largely a function of when he signed vis-a-vis other players, I still have not heard of any better path the Knicks could’ve taken with the nonexistent cap space we could’ve opened up by letting him walk, and if the Knicks want to trade him for value they will be able to easily.
Reminder that the Pelicans’ pick goes to the Hawks because of the brilliant trade to move up 10 spots in the draft to get Derik Queen.
Also, reminder that the Pelicans traded the 2026 Pacers pick back to Indiana to get the pick that they then traded to the Hawks along with their 2026 first.
The Pacers and Pelicans are a combined 1-12.
The Pellies are tragic. Like the Wiz before the new group came in.
Or the Jets.
They might have a good team in ’28 or ’29. Or not. That is the way.
On top of that the difference between OG’s salary and the 45th highest is only $3 million. So even if EPM was perfect and everyone was paid exactly according to it OG would only be overpaid by $3 million or so. But when you take into account age, availability, and our place on the win curve we didn’t overpay him at all.
Also he is not simply a 3&D player. He was 48th in pts per game last year and less than 1 point below Bam, Randle, Porter Jr, Haliburton, and Mobley, and less than 1.5 points from Sengun, Bane, Sabonis, and Barnes. All while playing with two extremely high usage scorers.
I think OG’s salary is actually just about market value, he’s not really a bargain but he certainly isn’t overpaid. Looking at the 27 players above him there are at least 10 that he is clearly more valuable than.
I think OG at $39 million is better than Towns at $53 million.
The Pelican’s trade was so clearly terrible when it happened but now it’s looking truly tragic. It doesn’t even matter if Queen becomes good. That pick is probably going to be top 5 in a draft that’s looking quite good at the top.
They are as bad as I’ve seen a team look, especially a team with no pick.
There’s really only one poster who is shitting on the OG maneuver. To his credit, he didn’t bring it up today. But that said, it’s very consistent with his tendency to find fault in anything and everything, just for the hell of it. He is a well-established whinery, and every year produces a new vintage, come hell or high water. This OG stuff is a particularly weak and underwhelming vintage, offensive to all but the basest palates.
Thanks a lot, Z-Man, now I have to go pour myself a big glass of cabernet.
Raven, there’s many reasons for that tonight…
As the immortal David Wells used to say, “You can’t pull fat!”
no politics no politics no politics…….
RJ with a masterpiece tonight. The Clank Barrett takes are aging like milk in a broken fridge.
you made it seem like rj had between 35-40 points on 17-19 shooting so seeing that he had 23 points on 50 percent shooting was unimpressive he wasnt even the best player on his team tonight (barnes) also kind of good to see that giddey did the same thing to the sixers tonight that he did to us
Doogie, you are one annoying and dumb asshole.
In 31 minutes, RJ had 23 points on 12 shots, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 stocks vs. 1 turnover. How stupid do you have to be to try to demean his game? Really, I hope you get banned again. You add nothing to this blog.
In what world is 23/8/4 a “masterpiece”? Nice or good game, sure.
And “clank Barrett” claims are aging badly because of 7 games and 228 minutes of .649ts%? I guess that means we are supposed to ignore his 58 games and 1859 minutes of .547ts% last season? Or his 13,000+ career minutes?
“The Pelican’s trade was so clearly terrible when it happened but now it’s looking truly tragic.”
While I agree, Queen nearly put up a triple double off the bench in 18 minutes, so maybe he will be decent.
Honestly I think their best move now is to move Zion while he has value and try to attach Poole to him. Queen, Fears, Jones and Murphy are a nice core to start with. If they can just get any ‘26 first back in a Zion trade, they could at least pivot in a decent direction.
BrunsonPeroneusLongus gets it re: rj hes very correct and wrote it better than i ever could
That’s my position as well. I guess I shouldn’t have brought it up, but I always thought the “terrible overpay” takes were off-base, and so far this year he’s looked to me like our most consistent player…maybe with Mikal a close second.
I do expect Cap to play better – he’s missing lots of shots he’d normally make. I will say, though, that his effort on D has generally been better, so maybe he’s concentrated on that (except for the second Chicago game, which he took personally).
I wish I had more faith in KAT to play better consistently, but it doesn’t seem in his DNA. When he’s on, he’s a force, and can even be cromulent on D. But when he’s off, he gives up points like corn dogs at a rodeo…
Never heard it, but gotta love it. Him, Cone, and Pettite were such a great core of starters.
never heard that either and kind of a strange thing to say isnt it