News & Blogs
Can the Knicks survive without Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby? Eastern Conference hopefuls trying to tread water – CBS Sports
Knicks still searching for first road win following 115-113 loss to Heat – SNY
Knicks use great shooting night to throttle Nets, 134-98, in battle of boroughs – SNY
Knicks’ defense opens door for opponents to strike from deep: Film breakdown – The Athletic – The New York Times
Knicks Bulletin: ‘It’s unfortunate. I can only speak for myself’ – Posting & Toasting
Game Thread: Knicks at Heat, Nov. 17, 2025 – Posting & Toasting
Knicks vs Mavericks Preview w/ Kirk Henderson of Pod Maverick & Mavs Moneyball | PREGAME POD – Knicks Film School
WTF MIKE!? Diawara Benched For No Reason!! #knicks – Knick of Time
Knicks News: Jalen Brunson Expected To Return vs Mavs!| NY Sports Surgeon Reacts – Knicks Fan TV
YT News
45 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.11.19)”
LOL
I’m guessing that Brunson plays tonight, hopefully we can get a road win in Dallas.
Expected Lineup
PG J. Brunson Ques
SG Landry Shamet
SF Mikal Bridges
PF K. Towns
C M. Robinson
MAY NOT PLAY
G J. Brunson Ques
F OG Anunoby Out
shamet starting over deuce is…….interesting pretty sure this isnt the first time brown has gone that way he seems to at least partially start based on matchups which is something that we were hoping hed do
Underdog NBA
Notable players out with injury:
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Victor Wembanyama
Anthony Davis
Kawhi Leonard
Joel Embiid
Zion Williamson
Trae Young
Ja Morant
Jalen Williams
Paolo Banchero
Darius Garland
Jalen Green
Brandon Miller
Cam Thomas
Tyler Herro
OG Anunoby
Jaden Ivey
Christian Braun
Dylan Harper
Stephon Castle
Aaron Nesmith
Kelly Oubre
Bradley Beal
Jordan Poole
Keegan Murray
Walker Kessler
Jayson Tatum
Tyrese Haliburton
Kyrie Irving
Damian Lillard
Fred VanVleet
Dejounte Murray
per the athletic white chocolate turns 50 today some of the best highlights ive ever seen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9Hb-hpkDYc and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0bd-LW3ZV8
Deuce is the closest thing to a backup PG on the roster. I think it makes sense to put Shamet in the 2-slot instead of him. Landry shot poorly but had the highest +/- on the team on Monday.
A couple of days ago I posted this:
Seems like Kerr is wondering the same thing:
As I’ve noted for years, back when teams were beating the shit out of each other every play in the 1990s, it was only the dudes with either the ball or trying to get the ball that were smacking the hell out of each other.
The other six guys were pretty much just chilling there, watching it happen (and occasionally doubling, but obviously that was less labor intensive).
Re: Injuries, – think the long term health risk management of the players pendulum has moved materially on the other directly way past the equilibrium point.
I watched Jalen Brunson pre game workout on Monday and he looked amazing. Any team captain from 20 yrs ago plays that game. Leaving your teamates to suffer was frowned upon. I’m not advocating for team return to being short sighted, – just making an observation.
While the game speed and lack of hard core practiices/training are both valid reasons, the culture of injury management has a lot to do with it too. From the captain on a long term contract to a rookie 2way player, – no one plays hurt anymore. Playing hurt and being injured are now one of the same.
They need to allow more physicality on the perimeter to mitigate how easy it is for players to drive which forces all the helping and scrambling.
BBA I also wonder whether allowing more hand-checking would help in that regard.
I personally liked the game a lot more when there was a balance between 3pt efficiency and 2pt non-paint efficiency. I’d like to see 3pt shots more in the hands of specialists and a return of low-post play. The Bird-Magic era of basketball was my fave, aesthetically speaking, but sub-10% 3PAr ain’t happening. I loved the way that the Spurs played in the Duncan-Manu-Parker-Kawhi era, at about a 25% 3PAr, that might be a sweet spot for me. Just don’t see how to get there without some pretty radical change.
One irony is that Jokic, Giannis and SGA all are phenomenal in the 2PT range, and Luka takes lots of 3’s but is only so-so from there. I guess the 3pt threat from teammates gives them more space to operate, so there’s that.
Expected Lineup
PG B. Williams
SG Max Christie
SF C. Flagg Ques
PF P. Washington
C D. Gafford Prob
MAY NOT PLAY
C D. Gafford Prob
C D. Lively Prob
F C. Flagg Ques
F C. Martin Ques
C A. Davis Out
G Dante Exum Out
G K. Irving Out
G R. Nembhard Out
I really want to see Kolek (because mystery, and Jalen’s hurt — even if JB plays) and Huk (because he might actually be cromulent) play tonight, in regular time, not end of game. If they don’t, even if we win going away, that’d be a demerit on Brown’s report card in my grading.
I’d also like to see Huk play the Mitch role with KAT, as I think that could be quite effective. And certainly any time that might otherwise go to Yabu at the 5, that should never happen on this earth again. And I don’t want to see Kolek go against Dinwiddie, as he’s just the kind of guy (tall, fairly talented, and with an attitude) that could make Kolek look bad (or worse).
The 82 game schedule is simply a relic from the days when the shot clock was new. The level of physical exertion demanded by a game is now probably closer to football than baseball. There are no shortage of empirics that show this is a serious issue, but anyone who follows the league can also just see it with their own damn eyes. 82 games (not including the playoffs, FIBA, the Olympics, etc.) isn’t sensible and you get the impression that push is eventually going to come to shove on this.
It might take a while and both players and owners will probably try any number of other solutions before willingly agreeing to less revenue, at least in the short-to-medium term. But the playoffs increasingly becoming a literal war of attrition is neither desirable nor sustainable, so my guess is we see some kind of scheduling reform within the next decade.
Part of me really wants to see Kolek too. But I also watched Sheddeur Sanders debut, and I also realize that sometimes that’s not what you actually want.
I don’t think high 3PA rates are going anywhere absent drastic changes people would soon regret, but I would like to experiment with some ways to incentivize more stylistic diversity.
One thing that comes to mind for me: why do we still have the 5 seconds back-to-the-basket rule? Does anyone think this is the one thing standing between us and games full of dueling never-ending post ups? I’d be in favor of repealing it immediately and seeing if anyone can take advantage.
Of course, one irony is allowing post behemoths to back down their defenders as long as they want may well actually increase 3PA, but I’d be fine with that. I don’t view the goal as cutting down on 3PA as much as encouraging a wider variety of shot types.
Did I miss a discussion of Greek moms? I have plenty to say on the subject….
There’s so much potential with the NBA schedule.
They could play every 3rd day from Halloween to mid-May and get in 65 games. Literally every 3rd day may be too rigid for scheduling and/or unwise for broadcasting (or maybe limiting the games to Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday taps into part of what makes the NFL special). Either way, it gives a sense of how frequently they actually need to play to get in a meaningful amount of games in.
The issue with doing that is broadcast rights. I’m not sure how the NBA can expect to make the same money on those deals by offering 255 fewer regular season games per year (a bit more than 20% of the schedule).
Not all of those 255 games are carried by the broadcasters who pay the huge bucks. So, shortening the schedule and making the same or better money could be possible by doing more with mid-season tournaments.
The bubble was legitimately awesome and I’m a little surprised they haven’t built on that lesson. So maybe something like, twice a season, take 7-10 days off the regular schedule to run an in-season, intraconference tournament in two fixed locations. Without travel, you can have 4 games every other day: that’s four rounds of a 16-team tournament. (This is predicated on a 32-team league but that’s clearly coming).
You run one tournament in mid-December against the dog days of the NFL and then again around what has historically been All-Star Weekend, which sucks as an event and should be replaced by the league.
As far as the stakes of the tournaments, keep awarding individuals with cash and heavily promote that but also reward winning teams with something like the first pick of the 2nd round in the draft.
The bubble was awful and should never be replicated.
Hard disagree. The bubble was great.
What, exactly, didn’t you like about it?
Don’s idea would not mean there would be no fans and everyone would be socially distanced, lol.
Good early insight about the pace and injuries Z-Man.
I think one problem is that when the math guys finally figured out that 3s could be very valuable, the shift away from mid range shots was overdone (that’s something that tends to happen when have new information).
In reality, the longs 2s were the shots that should have been eliminated. The best closer mid range shooters are very efficient, they get fouled more often and the rebounds are more predictable.
In the same things with post ups.
The math guys figured out that post ups were not very efficient as a group. But instead of thinking about it on a player by player and matchup by matchup basis, young players, coaches and teams moved away from post ups. The thing is, some guys can be extremely efficient in the post due to a size advantage, strength advantage or just great footwork. But you have to actually teach those skills and use them.
I’m not sure that shooting a boat load of threes leads to more injuries as opposed to long twos.
Finishing strong at the rim with contact and then landing on a crowd of feet or being shoved and landing on your hand or shoulder has to be more risky.
The difference is warrior/soldier culture vs CEO of my career. Players are now more knowlegeble, self aware and in full body preservation mode to extend their careers. From prioritizing sleep to eating right to work load management. 30yrs ago, Kawhi would have retired like Alan Houston did. Instead he got two more contracts out of his career and no show jobs.
KD admitted that injury forcing him to take a year and half off was a blessing in disguise.
Longevity focus started with work load management to preserve health for playoffs and it has now morphed into career longevity strategic plan. If I’m not 100%, I should take a few days off culture is prevelant. Why come back in a week? – I should take an extra week off just to play it safe. Recovery road back is now a ramp up activities process, including 3 minute game spurts.
Jordan came back at lit up Boston for 62 with doctor telling him and Jerry Krause that he had a 10% chance of a career ending injury. Jordan said “well, that means 90% chance I’ll be all right”
I don’t blame the players at all. But it is what it is
It’s a bit weird that quite a few of the all-time greats in today’s game don’t really shoot all that many many 3’s (relatively speaking, of course!)
Jokic
SGA
Giannis
LeBron
Embiid
even Durant!
Second level/faux stars:
Ja
Zion
And some up and coming stars:
Wemby
Sengun
Banchero
Franz
Cade
Barnes
JDub
Jalen Johnson
Mobley
I recall reading about how the 3PT revolution is creating more space in the midrange for the guys who should actually be taking those shots.
In any case, I still think the game would be easier on the eyes if the league-wide 3PAr was somewhere in the high 20’s…
Here’s another idea, also perhaps outlandish, but baseball successfully introduced a clock so all bets are off.
It’d be cool if they rewarded teams on the scoreboard differently. The issue is 3>2 and you have to change that math if you’re looking for a more varied shot mix than you’d target in NBA Jam.
Basketball is the game of runs, right? So, reward that. Maybe it looks something like make a defensive stop 5 possessions in a row, or 5 straight baskets on the offensive side, and you put 5 team points on the scoreboard.
The value comparison of a 46% elbow jumper and a 38% corner three changes if you’re incentivized to take/defend against the highest percentage shot available in each offensive possession rather than trying to engineer the best shot makeup over the course of ~100 possessions.
Team points are also fairly tidy from a historical recordkeeping standpoint, you can materially change the game and its incentives without altering individual stats.
Soccer went through the same evolution, in that teams realized that if they run more and move more they will get better chances. The game was much more static in the 90s and even 2000s. The way it evolved is that top teams have a much deeper roster today and rotate players more often – sometimes not even playing their A team in some lower competitions.
I don’t think you can solve the problem through rule changes. Moving more and faster will always be better than not, and teams know this. So I think you have to change roster rules and the cap. But it’s admittedly much more difficult for basketball to cope because one superstar is significantly more valuable in basketball than in soccer, so your incentive is to play that start as much as humanly possible. The talent pool in soccer is also perhaps less stark than in basketball, so top teams actually can find top-level non-starting players to fill their benches. You probably can’t do in the NBA.
The truth is that NBA basketball is a commodity and it is up to the Commissioner to sell as much of that commodity for as high of a price as possible. I don’t expect a dramatic decrease in games. Injury concerns (and load management as a way of addressing them) will more likely be addressed via rule changes. For example, there might be a limit on how many games (or minutes) a particular player can play in a particular time frame….maybe something like no more than 3 games in any 7-day period, including no back-to-backs. Or if a player plays more than X in a given game (e.g 40), he is automatically to be rested for the next game. Or maybe some sort of offsides rule to slow down the game. They can also experiment with some things in the G-league….maybe eliminating the corner 3, or making the diameter of the rim smaller, or whatever.
But if the game goes on being as popular and lucrative as it is now, maybe they just leave things alone.
I hope the Knicks win tonight. I’m not sure I can hande the reaction to a loss. If they lose tonight “can’t win on the road” will become this year’s “can’t beat the top teams” from last year.
Thibs would play every starter 39:59.
Unfortunately offsides would kill one of the most exciting plays of all, the fast break. I’d hate that (and in fact I’m all in favor of killing that rule in other sports, as game-changing as that might be…).
jordan had 63 against boston
As usual I think they should take a cue from the overseas football leagues. Everyone plays everyone twice. Everyone plays once on the weekend (either Fri/Sat/Sun) and everyone plays once during the week. Double the amount of group stage cup games from 4 to 8 and that takes everyone to 66 regular season games. Plus 3 weekends of knockout cup games where no one else is playing so it gets lots of attention.
And FFS copy the coefficient seeding system bc it would fix tanking in 2 seconds.
Short version – instead of the lottery being based on one season’s standings it’s based on a coefficient that includes the last 5 years worth of standings (harder to manipulate, doesn’t overreact to single seasons). But most importantly the coefficient system heavily weighs winning tournaments. If you win the Champions League your coefficient is going to be very high. The NBA equivalent is winning lotteries. So if you’re San Antonio and you just won Wemby, you don’t have a great chance of getting the #2 pick two years later when you shamelessly tank again to ensure your next dynasty.
It’s all very simple and easy to adopt but Americans have a hard time doing anything that works in Europe. I’m sure someone will argue that coefficients failed in Venezuela or something.
To be fair, the math on reducing to 66 games is:
16 games * $6,700,000 (average revenue per game) * 30 teams = $3,216,000,000
So yeah, I get it.
But then limit the amount of games a player can play to 65. You get the same amount of games and introduce an extra element of strategy. The counter argument (you wouldn’t see everyone in every game) is already true anyway bc of the injuries.
I will say this as an American, Americans as a group don’t like anything that’s too complex. If you can’t explain it simply, then Americans aren’t going to go for it. If it requires a paragraph or two and nuance, you’re going to lose to the idiot who can sum up the opposite side succinctly. “Teach the controversy”, “Nobody wants to work anymore”, “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun, is with a good guy with a gun”, etc.
But I do love that idea. Years ago when I made a model for team strength, I found that previous season rank + high draft picks from 1-3 years ago actually made a measurable difference in a team’s current strength. It makes sense to account for that when it comes to the draft.
Can the NFL implement it too? Asking as a Jets fan.
Americans are dumb narrative is annoying me enough to write this.
#1 in science and technology
#1 in Nobel prizes
#1 in space exploration
#1 in wealth and value generation
#1 in higher education
Give me a break. What have Europeans accomplished in last 75 yrs since they’re so smart?
ya know who has a good chance of killing us tonite if were not careful? brandon williams
Yeah, we’re dumb. This is what annoys me nowadays, no one can defend himself without attacking the others. I was agreeing with you until the last sentence.
They created Nikola Jokic.
A system of sports that doesn’t reward losing on purpose.
There’s a small sliver of a percentage point of Americans who are the smartest, most qualified, most adept, etc. Many of whom have been poached from overseas. There’s the vast majority who are dumb and loudly dumb.
I’m not sure if they’re meaningfully dumber than the vast majority of any country, but America is certainly the loudest when it comes to its successes and failures.
Btw I didn’t suggest Americans are dumb, Director, just that we run our leagues in a dumb way. Ironically our leagues are all socialist (until it’s time to build a new stadium) and European leagues are ruthless capitalist engines that relegate the bottom feeders at the end of each season. It’s glorious and I wish we did it here.
They also have a much better method of determining who the best team in the league is.
cooper flagg not playing
#1 in school shootings!
#1 in healthcare costs!
#1 in using archaic and illogical measurement systems!
#1 in chess champions from 1973-1974!
Heck Europe hasn’t even won a CONCACAF soccer title ever!