News & Blogs
Analyzing the Knicks: Mike Brown’s strategy, defensive deficiencies and more – The New York Times
November P&T mailbag: the move to make, the Pistons & does more rest = more injuries? – Posting & Toasting
Landry Shamet’s shoulder injury puts Knicks in a bind at wing – New York Daily News
How Knicks’ OG Anunoby’s hot start, new approach impacts winning – SNY
Knicks Bulletin: ‘I wasn’t even looking at him’ – Posting & Toasting
Knicks use great shooting night to throttle Nets, 134-98, in battle of boroughs – SNY
Ian Said What!?? Knicks Open To Anthony Davis Trade – Knick of Time
Do Not Lose To Brooklyn! | KFS Weekly Wagers | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
Anthony Davis to the Knicks? Breaking Down the Trade Talk – Knicks Fan TV
KNICKS at NETS | FULL GAME HIGHLIGHTS | November 24, 2025 – NBA
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68 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.11.25)”
Good win last night. Watched a few bits and pieces last night. Man, the Nets are terrible.
I recommend watching Jokic highlights from last night.
That kid from Duke is a lock to win Rookie of the Year
I’m referring of course to Kon Knueppel
I watch Diawara play and wonder, man, how bad must Dadiet be in practice for him to be behind Diawara.
You see the bones of something good in Diawara but he’s a complete zero on offense and is averaging 7.6 fouls/36.
I did like what Kolek did last night. Hard to know what to make of it since he’s like 5 years older than most of the Nets players. But he plays with really good pace and the offense seems to flow well when he’s in charge of it. 3 pointer just needs to come around. He’s small on defense but tries hard, which is probably good enough for backup units.
That behind the back assist was something.
jokic does that pretty routinely
Is it premature to conclude that Jokic is the most offensively skilled big man of all time?
He’s played at this level long enough that one could certainly conclude that. The question is, who are the other contenders, and how are we defining “most offensively skilled”? Kareem had the most unblockable shot in league history, and was a beast down low overall. Hakeem and McHale had a million different post moves. Wilt and Shaq could physically overpower anyone. None of them had as many varied skills as Joker, and obviously none of the ones who played after the 3-pt line was implemented were expected to spend any time shooting from beyond it. Walton, by most accounts, was similar to Joker in how many things he could do on that end, including passing (and was a better defender, but that’s besides the point of this discussion), but he did it for such short bursts of time that you can’t really count him. Ditto the elder Sabonis, whose prime genius was only briefly glimpsed by us at international competitions, and who didn’t come to the states until he was old and a shadow of what he’d been.
Would you rate any of them alongside, or even above, Jokic? And have I left out any obvious candidates? Patrick was great at the fadeaway and probably would have been an excellent 3-pt shooter had he come up in a later era, but his overall offensive game wasn’t as well-rounded as, say, Hakeem’s.
I had a similar thought. It’s one thing if the coach just plays vets and no young guys get on the floor at all, then you can imagine Dadiet is developing well, but just not getting the opportunity. But with Brown playing Diawara, there clearly was opportunity.
I think Jokic is the best offensive player of all time. Full stop.
Not sure why the big man caveat is necessary.
He shoots threes. He’s leading the league in assists. He scores very efficiently and in volume. He has more gravity than Jupiter.
This is going to be the sixth season in a row he has led the league in OWS. Who else has done that?
In honor of Raven I paid close attention to Huk at the game last night to try to see it. And yeah, the guy does some things that in a vacuum are useful but this is not his era. If I squint I can see a guy who might have been useful on Melo’s team. But not the way teams defend 4-on-5 now.
There is no path to the rim when he’s on the court. It is completely sealed, all the time, and the offense instantly deteriorates into guys trying to beat their man one-on-one on the perimeter to take a contested long 2.
Calling him a mini version of Mitch is kind of insulting to Mitch, like when they called Harold Miner Baby Jordan. A healthy Mitch is both a one-man offense and a defensive wrecking ball. Huk might be the worst offensive player in the NBA, and his defense is ok.
I don’t know what the history of guys getting better at ORebounding is but his only path to being a useful NBA player is dominating the boards like Mitch and Steven Adams. He has no skills on offense, and he doesn’t give nearly enough on defense to make up for it.
“Kareem had the most unblockable shot in league history…”
This is arguably the case, although a case could also be made for Wilt’s fadeaway bank shot, which was way more of a thing than people realize, and followed up by Duncan and Dirk. ,
“Hakeem and McHale had a million different post moves”
Jokic has all those as well as a face-up game.
“Wilt and Shaq could physically overpower anyone.”
Jokic does this routinely as well, although he’s also been overpowered by the only true “power” center of his day (Embiid.)
“Walton, by most accounts, was similar to Joker in how many things he could do on that end, including passing”
Walton was indeed a great passer (as was Wilt), but I think Jokic is on another level. And there is no comparison as to their arsenal of moves and shots.
“Ditto the elder Sabonis, whose prime genius was only briefly glimpsed by us at international competitions, and who didn’t come to the states until he was old and a shadow of what he’d been.”
He’s definitely the most Jokic-like, imo. Sadly, his knee injuries came early in his career so it would be hard to judge no matter what. He’s certainly on the list of “what might have been” C’s along with Walton, Yao Ming, and yes, Embiid. But even healthy, it’s hard to imagine any of them putting up the ridiculous offensive numbers and highlights that Jokic routinely puts up.
I’d put Ewing, Hakeem, the Admiral, and Duncan on the list of players that were so good defensively that it’s hard to judge whether they had more impact on winning than Jokic. But for sheer skill with the ball, it’s probably not all that close.
To put it differently, Jokic’s offensive skills rise to the level of wizardry that put him in the conversation with the greatest guards and forwards in history. I’d really be hard-pressed to say that about any of the others.
How much of Towns’s big game was him back at C vs playing the Nets vs. random?
I’m not sure, but I think it’s evidence he’s better on offense at C.
The dilemma with KAT is that he’s better on offence at C and worse on defense at C. So it becomes a question of who the PF and C are beside him, as well as the others on the floor.
Kareem was also good defensively
Facts. Pairing him with someone like KP would be insane.
We are just talking about one end of the courtt.
It’s literally insane that Jokic has a 50% assist rate and no one talks about it.
The thing that hurts Jokic the most is that this is a really mediocre era for centers (an argument that was also used to diminish Wilt’s dominance.) I mean, who are the all-time great C’s of today? Or put differently, how would the all-time great C’s of the past have done if they had the advantages of modern skill training, medicine, diet, refereeing, court space, financial incentive, etc., when matched up vs. a) Jokic and b) the other C’s in today’s NBA?
When we’re talking about any big prior to 2010, and even more so prior to 2000, we’re talking about being mostly confined to back-to-basket play with less space to operate. Help defenders didn’t have to worry about closing out to 3pt shooters. Hand-checking was allowed. Going under screens 23 feet from the basket was the norm.
So I’m less impressed with Jokic’s raw numbers than I am with the sheer volume of ways he can generate points, either by iso’ing, passing, catching, ORebing, leading the break, etc. Which is saying something because I’m absolutely wowed by the raw numbers!
Owen, agreed, it’s insane. And with relatively low turnovers.
Another thing that really jumps out about Jokic’s shooting stats this year is that he is killing it from everywhere he shoots from!
0-3 ft: 81.1%
3-10 ft: 63.7%
10-16 ft: 59.1%
16-3P: 76.9%
3P: 43.4%
FT: 85.3%
Jokiq biggest problem is his lack of emotions and personality on the court during the game and the fact that the plays half of his games in Denver.
Even Duncan showed emotions through facial expressions and a ton of joy when lifting the trophy. Jokiq was dissapointed that he had to stay in Denver for three more days just to go to the parade.
“It’s literally insane that Jokic has a 50% assist rate and no one talks about it.”
what exactly does assist rate measure
jokiq wth
The formula is a ratio comparing the player’s assists to the number of teammate field goals made while the player was on the court.The formula is typically represented as:\(100*Assists/(TeamFieldGoalsMade-(MinutesPlayed/(TeamMinutes/5))*TeamFieldGoalsMade)\)It is a tempo-free statistic, meaning it accounts for how fast or slow a team plays, making it a more consistent measure of passing ability.
got it
I’m unaware of any other C that conceivably finishes a season leading in:
Points
Assists
3P%
TS%
I’m not really sure what other offensive skill areas exist, so…
Diawara has per 36 numbers of 7.6rebs 2.2stls and 1.1 blks. For a team in need of defense, I don’t find it surprising he was playing.
Oh yeah, he was also running point the last minute of the game
Hubert, thanks for the Huk Report. From last night I completely agree with your assessment. However, before the injury last year he showed two minor but effective offensive skills — a good role move for effective dunks, and a surprisingly effective floater. I haven’t seen him pull either out of his pocket yet this year (well, at least one floater I think).
A little ways to go before threatening Joker, I suppose.
Huk was a decent offensive C in his overseas career, so far it hasn’t translated but I wouldn’t be so quick to conclude that there’s nothing there.
He’s no Mitch, but in some important ways (including availability) that’s a good thing. I’d like to see him in there a bit more.
Diawara’s length is a thing. He’s got the rookie jumpiness, so the ball-handling and shooting is a minus, but that might come around. Let’s remember how quickly (npi) folks were to write off Deuce until he turned the corner.
As to Dadiet, I truly wonder why he isn’t given a longer leash.
now espn has taken away the first decimal place for each of the shooting percentages now its only an integer how is that an improvement
I mock when I call Diawara Little Giannis, but I do remember when the Freak first showed up he was skinny and largely unskilled, just hugely long and with intangibles that offered hope. I have a hard time envisioning Diawara even sticking in the league, but if he does it’ll likely be because he develops a very junior, bench-worthy version of what Giannis does.
I’ve never seen what others like in Dadiet. It might be the similarly enormous forehead, but I see Knox 2.0 there. I’d love for him to prove me wrong, but so far so bad.
Kolek’s shooting has been a disappointment. He should be lock-down from all over the court, and he’s even blown some easy layups. If he starts knocking them down he’ll be super-cromulent. Fingers crossed.
ESPN has clearly fired all their programmers who actually know how to program and there’s only programmers who think AI solves everything.
Kolek was a good enough shooter in college but mostly stuck to C&S. Apparently he hit 37% (14-37) on C&S last season but went 0-10 on pull-ups.
Weirdly he’s 2-11 on C&S this year and 2-5 on pull-ups.
So I guess the best news is that he really hasn’t taken enough shots to stabilize to any terribly meaningful extent. If he gets some actual run here, maybe he gets into more of a rhythm.
I think ESPN must be onto you, Doogie. Feels very targeted.
Vecenie’s draft report on Huk was that he needs a simple offense and his ability to process wasn’t great. Brown runs a much more complex offense, so that probably doesn’t help.
In general, Kolek/Huk/McCullar are more Thibs players than Brown players. So that’s another part of the issue.
I’m curious how good ppl think a healthy Anthony Davis would be on this team; probably assuming that KAT would exit in the deal.
DS, It’s a waste of time brother, – he’ll be injured. You could say I’m curious how good AD will look in Keith gear while Nova boys play their hearts out and loose to Detroit in six.
the offense looked smoother last night with kolek handling the ball, KAT definitely seemed more comfortable with kolek initiating the offense…
Isn’t he routinely in the top-10 of defensive metrics too?
Until he played Wilt 🙂 Most of you guys never saw prime Wilt play, but even old Wilt was the greatest post defender ever. From our friends at Google:
“Wilt Chamberlain blocked Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s skyhook three times in one possession during Game 3 of the 1972 Western Conference Finals, a series where he unofficially blocked the shot 17 times. While official blocks weren’t recorded until later, this is a well-known event that demonstrates Chamberlain’s defensive prowess even in his mid-30s against a prime Kareem. ”
https://youtu.be/Un7DaNr3Zq4
“I’m curious how good ppl think a healthy Anthony Davis would be on this team; probably assuming that KAT would exit in the deal.”
not sure why this very hypothetical question is even being asked hes about as reliable as mitch at this point in his career and maybe even less so
AD could easily lead the Knicks to a championship this year, as long as a global pandemic pushes the NBA Finals to late August and the government mandates you have to stay 6 feet from him at all times.
I only started watching the NBA at around 1990, so I missed the Bird & Magic era, but since then I haven’t seen anyone, at any position, passes like Jokic, which makes him my favorite player-to-watch ever.
Jordan closing a game would be 2nd, although he did it against the Knicks, and Shaq dominating physically would be 3rd.
I’m fairly certain the top centers that Wilt played against such as Russell, Nate Thurmond, Jabbar, Walt Bellamy, Bob Lanier with personal trainers would all be starting for the 2025 Knicks.
I’d love to see prime Wilt try to defend Jokic. Wilt had the strength to guard him in the post, the athleticism to guard him on the perimeter and the length to harrass him all around.
“I’d love to see prime Wilt try to defend Jokic. Wilt had the strength to guard him in the post, the athleticism to guard him on the perimeter and the length to harrass him all around.”
wouldnt a healthy mitch have all that as well
The Brunson/Mikal/OG/KAT/Mitch lineup has a 53.1 net rating, so I’m not quite ready to sellout that lineup for a broken down AD.
The defense has been great with OG, it feels a little knee jerk to trade KAT’s offense for AD’s defense because we’re struggling on defense without the player our defense is built around.
Facts. Stay the course and make Detroit or Cleveland beat them.
From the linked Athletic article:
This caught my eye. Thibs did the opposite: he tried to grind out every possession like it was the last crumb on the table. But that means once the regular season is done, you don’t have the surprise factor. There are no tricks left in your bag, and you are who you are. ANd of course it also means there’s a 82 games of tape on you and it can be dissected to find weaknesses.
Maybe that why Brown will have a better chance in the post-season? Maybe it’s not about Hart being too broken down from leading the league in minutes. But instead the the team will have more tools at their disposal, and less predictability as well.
Was Mitch Robinson a college track & field star?
In theory, Anthony Davis is the perfect guy to play next to KAT. The guys we’d have to trade for him to make the salaries work are OG and Mitch, and it’s not like they’re injured less often than AD.
I’d wait til February but I’d give that a long hard look if AD’s physical is good and OG and Mitch have been constantly in-and-out like they normally are. We’d need draft picks back, too, though.
My trade calc says that doesn’t work. What am I missing?
We could throw in Yabu, which should then work and lets us sign the vet mins we need to meet the roster minimum.
Personally I’d rather have Mitch & OG, especially when factoring in AD’s age & contract.
Even if it did work, OG’s our starting 3 and backup 4, while Mitch is our starting 5. A straight swap, even if it also involved some packing peanuts to make it work, leaves us with gaping holes even if nobody gets hurt. And they will.
May as well ask for a majority stake in the Cowboys, South Fork, and the tourism rights to the Book Depository while you’re at it.
I can’t take seriously any kind of AD deal. It’s just ridiculous. Don’t believe it’s a thing.
It’s a salary dump. Giving them OG and getting that contract off their books is way too much (and that’s with my assessment of OG’s contract).
It’s off by $1.6M. The Knicks could throw in literally anyone (Kolek, Huk) to make the math work.
Trading Luka Doncic and draft picks for OG Anunoby is one way to alienate a fan base, I’ll give you that.
i dont think most fan bases consolidate multiple trades over a period of time together in their heads like we seem to here
“I’m fairly certain the top centers that Wilt played against such as Russell, Nate Thurmond, Jabbar, Walt Bellamy, Bob Lanier with personal trainers would all be starting for the 2025 Knicks.”
This is true, but hardly reflective of the competition Wilt generally faced, especially when he was breaking scoring records. The year that Wilt averaged 50 pts a game (1961-62), these guys were the starting C’s of his opponents:
Lakers: Jim Krebs
Knicks: Phil Jordon
Nats: Red Kerr
Pistons: Bob Ferry
Royals: Wayne Embry
Packers: Walt Bellamy
Hawks: Clyde Lovellette
Celts: Bill Russell
So Wilt played 22 games against Bellamy and Russell and the rest against guys that were either much smaller (Embry was fierce but only 6’8″) or players that wouldn’t have the size or skill to play a minute in today’s game.
His best competition at C during his prime years was from Russell, Bellamy, and Thurmond. Zelmo Beatty was also very good. By the time Wilt was playing against Reed (at C), Unseld, Lanier, Kareem, he was on the downside of his career. He only played 17 regular season games vs. Kareem and 16 against Lanier. Kareem mostly dominated him.
OTOH, Wilt played against packed-in defenses with very little space to operate, and was constantly doubled, tripled, and fouled. In today’s game, I can imagine him as a taller, faster, longer, stronger, more agile, and more skilled version of Giannis.
I can imagine Jokic as an equally great player to who he is now, with similar scoring numbers and better rebounding but lower assist numbers (assists were awarded less liberally then, or so I have been told.) He’s probably live at the foul line.
Would Jokic have been able to win more than 2 chips during Wilt’s era? He’s going to need to during whatever is happening in OKC for brand sake.
Clarence, although I’m thinking it’s not a serious question, I’ll treat it as such.
It wasn’t until later in Wilt’s career that he both came to realize that he needed to make his teammates better and had championship-level teammates. So whether Jokic would win 2 or more championships would depend on his teammates, and whether they could get by the Celts, a talented and high-IQ team with a great coach and the ultimate sports champion in Bill Russell.
Wilt had some bad injury luck that probably cost him two championships. He got hurt in Game 7 against the Celts in 1968 (there is controversy over whether he could have returned down the stretch) and in 1970 he made a miraculous comeback from a torn patellar tendon which caused him to miss nearly the entire season, and Elgin Baylor was pretty washed. He gets a bad rap for not dominating Game 7 vs. a hobbled Reed, but his teammates were just as much to blame if not more, as Wilt had 21 points on 62.5% shooting and 24 rebounds (he did go 1-11 from the FT line, though!) But he was nowhere near 100% at that time.
Wizards put a hurtin’ on the Hawks, CJ went off and Sarr with an excellent game.
That Wizards score should serve as a cautionary tale for the Knicks tomorrow. Charlotte is reporting no injuries so while they’re still not very good and Knicks should score at will against them the Hornets will put up a shitload of pts too on the Knicks if they don’t come ready to play some defense.
magic also up by 40 over philly
mccollum suggs and black so far a winning combination in daily fantasy
hmm… that would be a pretty decent player, eh. 🙂
Wilt, even at the skill level he had in the ’60s which was limited by the constraints of how C’s were allowed to play and not having the Birds, Magics, or Jordans to emulate, would still surely have been a multiple-time MVP in today’s game. Probably not setting the absurd records he did back then, and certainly not playing 48 minutes a game, but surely a 2-way monster.
Suggs was ejected in the 2nd but still had 11 assists. He feels on the verge of being unlocked, then watchout.
Charlotte is a good defensive rebounding team and shoots well from three. That sounds like trouble for us.
Thanks, Z-man. Totally serious. Never had the pleasure to watch Wilt play but the legend is compelling in so many ways narrative and by the numbers. Thought there was another wrinkle there in terms of legacy since the legacy of Jokic feels tangible as he marches through the tides. He is the greatest offensive talent of his day, and Curry just heydayed. I guess I feel like his exploits could be relegated to era if he doesn’t win some chips.