News & Blogs
Knicks 116, Raptors 94: Shredding a paper tiger from the north – Posting & Toasting
Knicks’ Jalen Brunson named Eastern Conference Player of the Week after dominant four-game stretch – SNY
Knicks’ Jalen Brunson not surprised by Immanuel Quickley’s success with Raptors – SNY
Knicks Notebook: Deuce is loose, an offensive tweak and Josh Hart starts – New York Daily News
Knicks Bulletin: ‘We have a standard. That’s that contract everybody signed’ – Posting & Toasting
Why the New York Knicks suddenly look like contenders again – The Athletic – The New York Times
Knicks at Celtics Preview w/ Noa Dalzell of Celtics Blog & CLNS Media | PREGAME POD – Knicks Film School
Deuce McBride The Knicks’ New STAR Sniper You Won’t Believe His Stats! – Knick of Time
Pod Strickland Episode 547: Knicks Creating Chaos – The Strickland
Knicks vs Celtics Preview: Breaking Down Key Matchups, Adjustments & X-Factors – Knicks Fan TV
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82 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.12.02)”
jalen johnson 26.8/10.8/8.8 over his last five 33.0/13/8.7 over his last three
garrison mathews scored 15 points for the pacers last night…….on 3 shots from the field
It’s the magical 20th game tonight. Undoubtedly the worst thing about Mike Brown’s Knicks so far is the three point defense. I’m optimistic this will get better but this is arguably the worst team to be playing with things the way they currently are. Hopefully it gets a little better tonight ot this could be a massacre.
Can you guys comment on the solo guitar in the middle of this clip? The guitarist is considered great, “a force of nature” in Israel, and I don’t hear it. I wonder if you do.
It sounds like Hotel California.
The singer, who is well known, is doing a cover of a different singer, and I guess the guitarist is improvising. Yes, it does sound like Hotel California.
Another Nova boy makes good, undrafted Conor Gillespie is killing it in Phoenix, 28 points vs the Lakers last night. Yes, Luka was probably guarding him but he’s still having a great season overall
@darules, i agree with you, if i had listen to the music without you telling me to notice the guitar, i probably wouldn’t even notice him. But i know nothing about how hard it is to play, so you’re probably waiting for more “valid” opinions, like JK. 🙂
This is one thing we don’t talk about, when we’re talking about the Knicks 3P shooting… we don’t have the luck to play against the Knicks defense! LOL
Here’s a scary thought: Trae Young + Risacher + 2026 Pelicans pick + some of the Hawks own picks for Giannis.
I don’t know that the Bucks would say no to that if Giannis is keen on leaving.
Jalen Johnson is winning me my fantasy league but I wish he was winning the Knicks the real thing 🙁
Thanks, Cyber. While none of us has JK’s ear and experience, your opinion is very valid!
its still collin gillespie not conor gillespie no matter how much you and your family and friends think otherwise conor gillaspie (with an e instead of an a) used to be a major leaguer maybe youre thinking of him although he went to wichita state and not villanova
Expected Lineup
PG Jalen Brunson
SG Miles McBride
SF Josh Hart
PF Mikal Bridges
C K. Towns
MAY NOT PLAY
F OG Anunoby Out
G L. Shamet Out
Expected Lineup
PG P. Pritchard
SG D. White Prob
SF Jaylen Brown
PF Jordan Walsh
C N. Queta Prob
MAY NOT PLAY
C N. Queta Prob
G D. White Prob
F J. Tatum Out
Seemed like a pretty pedestrian guitar solo to me, like something you’d hear from the lead guitarist in your local bar band. So I flipped around some of his other work and yeah, he’s not a very remarkable player. “Competent pro” is about the highest accolade I’m willing to give.
Thanks Doogie just wanted to make sure you’re still on your never ending and highly annoying grammar police beat
dunno about doogie but thats not grammar thats the spelling of someones name and in this case even getting his name correct it would be like calling jalen brunson julian brunson
top 10 teams thunder rockets nuggets knicks heat pistons magic spurs wolves raptors
top 10 players sga wemby cade luka giannis dmitch booker barnes joker holmgren
top 5 knicks brunson kat hart og bridges
top 5 knick killers wagner giannis giddey npowell randle
First time I have looked at the NBA standings, or any team metric standings for that matter. I did not know OKC is 20-1. I did know that Indy was terrible (because of posts here) and 4-17 doesn’t surprise. But that delta between last season’s finalists has got to be some sort of record by a mile, and is shocking even considering the Hali injury. Not a good look for the NBA, their CBA, and tanking incentives when a near-champion changes course because of one injury (admittedly to their best player, but it is the only injury, and Hali is at best a top 10, not top 5 player).
bottom 10 teams wizards kings pelicans nets pacers jazz clippers mavericks hornets bulls (they of the 5-0 start and who also beat us early in the season)
Funny story, my better half (Ms. Dog?) very rarely checks in on the Knicks. When we first started dating, Randle was the big dog in town, but, as you all know, Brunson came on the scene and really changed the math. But by the time the missus checked back in, she only knew one player (Julius), so she was like “who’s that guy, he’s good… he’s like a mini Julius Randle.” Cut to years later, and Brunson is still known as “Mini Julius Randle” in this household.
Indy also lost their starting C to free agency and has had some injury problems as well. It wouldn’t surprise me if they went on a run at some point. It also wouldn’t surprise me if they continued to tank.
Watched Giants highlights from last night and boy is Dart dumb. He and Skatteboo are looking like they might have a 2 year shelf life in the league. Please keep him sidelined for the rest of the year until there are real adults in the building.
Remember my five-year standings for draft position idea that I stole from soccer? It would give the Pacers almost no shot at winning the lottery this year and completely disincentive them from tanking.
But the Pacers are the leaders of the small market cartel that writes the rules of this league.
If the Knicks go 20-62 they lose a fortune.
If the Pacers go 20-62 they make a profit bc they just take the Knicks’ money.
Because of parity, it seems like, even after 20 games, there are still a few pretenders out there. OKC is obviously not one of them, but as we saw, Toronto (and the Lakers to a lesser extent – is Bron finally washed?) has been buoyed by a soft schedule and probably some luck to boot.
Re: Hubert’s issue with 3pt defense, I know we’ve been not so great, but this seems (to me) like the most fungible stat out there… a lot of it is luck (hot hands, injuries, etc). As such, I’m pretty ok with the state of Brown’s Knicks thus far.
“Indy also lost their starting C to free agency and has had some injury problems as well.”
The loss of Turner is sort of my point. Whether or not he is worth what the Bucks paid him, if you get to game 7 of the Finals, you run it back even if you need to wait a year to do so. Let’s save money, increase flexibility, and hope for some ping pong luck should not make sense for a fan given what they did last year…but it does.
totally agree with huberts dart is dumb take he just doesnt get what he needs to do to survive in that league and no one seems to be helping him with that and then theres abdul carter of missing meetings fame he “got a talking to” and then proceeded to miss another meeting this past week very selfish group of players only good news is that by the time they figure it out kafka will have already been fired
to be fair obi has only played in 3 games mathurin 10 nesmith and mcconnell 11 nembhard 13 so yeah to say theyve had injury problems beyond hali is an understatement
Add in Abdul Carter and you have one of the most immature draft classes ever.
just said that
still think its odd that its pronounced skatteboo when in fact there is only one o on the end of his surname but that seems to be what everyone says so it might actually be correct
“to be fair obi has only played in 3 games mathurin 10 nesmith and mcconnell 11 nembhard 13 so yeah to say theyve had injury problems beyond hali is an understatement”
But this is sort of my second point. Early injuries and just a quarter of the season gone…13 games under .500, might as well go for the hard tank for the rest of the season.
Gallinari retired. A very good player, and a fun Knick, but yet another example this century of us picking one slot too late to get our hands on a future Hall of Famer. (To be fair, Brook Lopez went several spots later, and could well make it to the Hall, but he wasn’t on the level of Russ or Kevin Love.)
probably but the positive consequences of tanking aint what they used to be
and kevin love obviously never even played for memphis anyway
Giannis deleted all of his Instagram posts related to the Bucks. It feels stupid to use that as information, but also feels important at the same time.
it aint great but hasnt he done that before maybe not huge announcement for us later today perhaps?
the rams are great but i actually think that the seahawks are better the quick turnaround of the pats under maye and vrabel is almost astounding
Interesting read on the scheduling issues associated with the IST.
That latest loss to the Wizards coming pretty much on the heels of Giannnis’ exhortation was really ugly. They are now 3-10 in their last 13 games, with the 3 wins coming against the Mavs, Hornets, and Nets who are a combined 17-46. I could see Giannis reading the writing on the wall and quietly asking to be traded. Sadly, I don’t think Horst is dumb enough to trade him for anything less than a bonanza package, which we can’t offer right now, mostly due to the Mikal deal.
At least Mikal is playing like a 2-way demon right now. And who knows? Maybe something happens this offseason when we can trade more picks.
If Giannis is willing to make things just a tad ugly, though still pretty tame by the standards that exist for these situations, his contract situation sets him up well to say “take the best offer from the Knicks.”
Of course, any other team would be free to call his bluff. But that’s a hell of a risk to take given the package it’d likely require.
Cavs 2 extra games since they missed out on the Cup quarterfinals are home to Charlotte and at Brooklyn…
Thanks for the Cup link , Z-man. Can’t fault it or the logic. But I continue to believe the solution is to keep and tweak the Cup as a showpiece and strip down the All-Star and pre-season stuff. Having another competition where teams actually compete (albeit inferior but at least more than 80% of the participants give a shit) is better than propping up a meaningless pre season and a game where no one competes.
BE I like your ideas, but whether they do that or not, it’s really about making winning the IST truly meaningful beyond the salary boost for scrubs and an embarrassing banner. Something with either real playoff implications or real salary implications. Some possibilities: a) both finals participants get a tiebreaker “wild card” that they can use to either have automatic home court in any playoff series, with the winner of the final game also having an additional auto home court over the loser if they meet in the finals, or even more radically, if they already have home court, they get a 5-2 home court advantage. b) In addition to the league payouts to qualifying teams, those teams get a salary increase of 5% per player to be paid by their team with no cap charge (so the rich players would benefit proportionally.) You could also have draft implications, so although the players might not care about that, the coach and executives definitely would!
These are just brainstormed half-baked ideas, it’s more to suggest that the current incentive is not enough to justify the imbalances.
Sadly, I don’t think Horst is dumb enough to trade him for anything less than a bonanza package, which we can’t offer right now, mostly due to the Mikal deal.
well we’re technically the only team who can make him a godfather offer. i would never though, bc my proudest accomplishment is being the anti donnie.
Yes and no.
If you rate 3 pt defense by opponent shooting percentage, it’s pretty fungible. And yes, right now opponents are lighting us up. But this is not how I’m judging our 3 pt defense.
I’m judging our 3 pt defense by the quality of shots we’re allowing, and both advanced data and the eye test indicate we are allowing a lot of great shots.
It all stems from this pack-the-paint principle Brown’s employing. It’s very early, and I expect it to get better with time and practice. But right now it’s bad. And if it’s bad tonight, it could get ugly. You’ve got the team that takes the most 3s vs the team that allows the most 3s.
This will be a good test of Brown’s adaptability because the Celtics under Mazzulla want the 3 much more than the paint. You can give them the paint like we did in the playoffs and they’ll still take the three. I know teams don’t change tactics much in the regular season but it would be a little alarming if we played right into their hands tonight.
They also need to limit the number of 1st rd picks a team can hoard
Yes! This was an idea I mentioned a while back that got ridiculed but hoarding picks is to small markets what spending money is to large markets. By designing a 2nd apron to limit large markets and leaving pick hoarding and tanking unfettered, the CBA tilted the ice towards small markets (not surprising since they literally wrote it themselves).
We’re already looking at half a decade of Oklahoma and San Antonio dominance. If Indiana lucks into a generational superstar like they’re undoubtedly trying to, the league is going to be full Small Market for a long time.
I thought the Pacers would weather the Hali sabbatical a lot better, but, that said, Ben Sheppard, Jarace Walker, and Isaiah Jackson are three of their top four minutes leaders, Siakam’s just not good enough to carry that on his own.
If the game tonight turns ugly it’ll most likely be cause the Knicks are destroying Boston like they did for the majority of their 1st matchup this season. Boston still launches a bunch of 3s but so do the Knicks, both teams make the same amount of 3s per game but the Knicks make them at a higher percentage.
I’ve gotten to the point where I no longer worry about how much the other team will torch the Knicks defense because the Knicks will probably still just outscore them anyway.
Boston is only 4th in 3P Attempt Rate this year, 3 spots above the Knicks. They also allow a lot of 3P shots. So the teams have a similar profile on that front.
They are also 29th in defensive rebounding. I can see Mitch and Hart killing them all night on that side.
I would prefer that teams not be allowed to trade draft picks at all, or any drafted player until they have been with the team for a year. I would also like to see even flatter lottery odds with a bonus given to all teams in the play-in (win or lose) and more amnesty provisions for dumping albatross contracts. Poor cap and pick management hurts the NBA more than it helps.
Thanks, JK. That’s what I thought.
BigAl, – weird but I found myself in a similar position…used to get upset on missed defensive assignmnets and get furious on dumb consecutive turnovers or poor defensive effort but this last month, find myself more and more calm knowing that weeds it don’t really matter that much because Knicks will end up outscoring them at the end and win the game.
My emotional in game volatility index…(think VIX) has been significantly decreasing and I’m afraid it’s not an early season trend.
I’m not sure I like the feeling of being near certain the end result will be a W. Is it weird that I may prefer and actually enjoy in game emotional volatility?
Somebody notify Jimmy Dolan and maybe he’ll try touring with him instead of meddling at the trade deadline
yeah its a little weird i thoroughly enjoy end to end knicks victories with very little drama especially in the weeds category
Just curious who would be willing to trade Brunson for Giannis.
I’m notoriously cold hearted and even I would have a hard time doing that. But deep down I think I want it.
A starting 5 of Deuce, Mikal, OG, Giannis, and KAT is really fucking good.
Thanks. Figured it was probably just me…have to focus on the art of the game itself I guess. Need to learn to admire the art and skill of shooting and creating open threes because the level of player creativity and spontaneity has been materially diminished.
I don’t think the Celts have any answer for either KAT or Mitch. Also, if their shitty bench outplays our bench, that’s a bad sign. I can see us losing due to some serious 3pt variance, but beyond that we should be able to grind out a win.
“Just curious who would be willing to trade Brunson for Giannis.”
very odd that you just said that because it crossed my mind for a moment earlier today and i was very surprised that it did i kind of concur that it would probably make the knicks better but maybe a little bit less rootable/likable that said we would probably like them plenty when they hoisted the championship trophy
Selling the soul in order to achieve dream outcome is not somthing I can get behind. Learned this lesson at a young age. Not all money (ring) is good money.
My only concern is that Giannis has rarely been a go-to halfcourt shot creator, usually deferring to Middleton or Dame when the team needs a last second bucket.
Don’t know how much that matters, but we don’t have a guy to do that without Brunson.
lets not forget that trading brunson would be much complicated by the fact that his dad is you know a coach here regardless of that i cannot see the knicks considering it even for as long as weve just been doing
I have played with NBA trade calc sites and can’t come up with a non KAT package that works even when including a 3rd team as a delta salary dump for a pick scenario.
It would have to be Brunson + Hart + Mitch or something of that sort to make the salaries work, and no way would I do that, even if it made the team slightly better (which I’m not sure it would given their inability to add good players at this point).
Why aren’t we trading KAT for Giannis in this fantasy scenario?
I assume because the Bucks wouldn’t want KAT?
If you’re just talking about being literally legal, I see no reason OG + Hart wouldn’t work. We’d be shedding $4.9M and MIL isn’t even a tax team at the moment, so they could absorb it.
If you’re taking into account feasibility, then yeah we would need to do all kinds of things to make the package even semi worthwhile.
That plus the fact that Giannis needs a stretch 5 to operate and KAT is the self proclaimed GOAT at this specific thing.
Director, loving your selling the soul post. And this one about needing a stretch 5 has been my personal brain block for thinking about this. Giannis is basically a gigantic, super-charged Josh Hart. And like Josh, he would present some real lineup quandaries.
Perhaps a first-world problem, but still.
Shams:
Rust Cohle:
at this stage of their careers, it’s close, would choose the best closer in the game at the moment…
we haven’t had too many close games this season, at some point we probably will…plus jalen is still improving his game, seems giannis has peaked, fair enough a pretty high peak…
building around giannis hasn’t been so easy for the bucks, but he would fit in really nice with KAT, OG, deuce and mikal…
they’re not that far apart in age, they both play a really physical game…not so sure which of them will be playing more effectively longer in to their career..
I just finished listening to an hour of Gary Moore moving in and out of blues with extreme feel and then shredding at warp speed and making it all make perfect sense. So NO this other guy is not great (at least that solo wasn’t). Gary Moore was great.
The short answer is bc we’d have a much better team if we trade Brunson. The resulting KAT-Giannis combination fits like a glove and Deuce is ready to start.
We’re too thin at big to replace KAT. Neither Mitch nor Yabu is as ready to move up as Deuce. And the resulting team still has easy problems to exploit.
Giannis is a better big than KAT? Or am I crazy?
They are never trading Brunson for Giannis but I would do it.
Giannis = 54.12
Brunson & Hart = 54.41
Brunson Mitch & Yabu = 53.39
Obviously I’d want to the Mitch & Yabu one.
But isn’t Brunson & Hart for Giannis a bigger step up than Randle & Donte for KAT?
Brunson’s great and all but objectively speaking there is a canyon between him and Giannis. KAT’s better than Randle but not by that kind of margin.
We traded Randle and fired Thibs. We’ve been selling our soul for a while now, and for a lot less gain than this.
Oh fuck, is the game on Peacock again? This is some real bullshit
We all know the Bucks are sending Giannis to the Lakers for a package around Austin Reaves… seriously though, Miles, Mikal, OG, KAT, and Giannis is a killer lineup.
Dadiet played in Westchester today:
23pts on 18 shots and 4FTs
4rebs 4asts 1blk 4TOs
Seems to have improved over last season by a fair amount. He’s scoring about 10 more PPG than last season in his 3 games.
That is good news about Dadiet. Young players are supposed to improve, but that don’t always do so.
I’m seeing it listed on the Gotham Sports app schedule so I assume it’s also on MSG?
The new TV system screws over the real fans of a team. There is no way to pay one fee and watch all your team’s games. You have to subscribe to many services and also know what service the game is on.
If you’d like some light pregame reading, this article was being enthusiastically shared in a group chat of mine. I clicked through, saw the author, and immediately knew it wouldn’t disappoint…
Great piece, Alsep!
Fuck, I paid for Peacock and now it’s saying I can’t access the game because of my region. It’s NY vs. Boston and I live in fucking Seattle!! What the living F?!?!?!