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Knicks Morning News (2025.12.09)

News & Blogs

  • Knicks’ OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges have serious NBA All-Star cases – The New York Times
  • Knicks Injury Tracker: Miles McBride being evaluated for left ankle injury – SNY
  • Knicks brace for Miles McBride injury update while embracing next-man-up mentality – SNY
  • Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns: Ruled out Sunday – CBS Sports
  • Knicks 106, Magic 100: Huk yeah! – Posting & Toasting
  • How good are the Knicks & how great is Mitchell Robinson? – Posting & Toasting

    • YT News

  • Knicks Weekly: Deuce McBride Injury Update, NBA Cup Preview & Fanchise Forecast | Ep. 137 – Knicks Fan TV
  • Beware of Greeks Bearing Grifts | KFS Weekly Recap | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School

    • 74 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.12.09)”

    Shams on potential Anthony Davis suitors, plus Giannis intel and other stuff: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/47245704/shams-pass-nba-trade-deadline-notes-news-buzz-anthony-davis-giannis-antetokounmpo-teams

    The Pistons (19-5), Raptors (15-10) and Hawks (14-11) represent high-level threats in their conference and are having seasons that give hope that a player like Davis — a 10-time All-Star who has spent his entire career in the Western Conference — can elevate them into a viable championship-quality team.

    I’d much rather Detroit try to get AD, who’s fragile and not the shooter he once was, than Markaten, who feels like a hand in glove fit

    Expected Lineup
    PG Jalen Brunson
    SG Josh Hart
    SF Mikal Bridges
    PF OG Anunoby
    C K. Towns Ques
    Projected Minutes

    C K. Towns Ques
    F P. Dadiet Out
    G M. McBride Out
    G L. Shamet Out

    Expected Lineup
    PG I. Quickley
    SG J. Walter
    SF B. Ingram
    PF S. Barnes
    C Jakob Poeltl

    MAY NOT PLAY
    G J. Shead Ques
    F J. Battle Doubt
    F RJ Barrett Out

    the Dadiet mention inspired me to go look at the Westies stats and woof, they need to rename them the bricks. Pac Daddy is making 33% of his 3s which makes him the best shooter-by far-on the squad, there’s 4 guys on the team taking more than 8 3s per 36 and hitting sub 30. Not surprisingly they’re 1-10, but at least they’re getting a lot of shooting practice

    Pretty surprising cause last couple of seasons the Westchester Knicks have been decent including winning the G League version of the in season tournament last year.

    Especially since we have a number of young veterans on the Westies squad. if we’re hoping for reinforcements from the two-way guys, doesn’t seem likely to me.

    than Markaten, who feels like a hand in glove fit

    I wonder about that, actually. Offensively he’s perfect. But Detroit trading for Markaten is like the Knicks trading for KAT. He’ll supercharge the offense and leave them with a very easy to attack front court on defense (Duren is a bad rim protector).

    If I’m a Detroit fan, I want my front office to pass the marshmallow test. The teams that went all in (New York, Cleveland, Orlando) haven’t put any distance between them and the Pistons after spending all their assets. They’re neck-and-neck in a race with drivers who have used up all their moves, which means they’re winning.

    Obadiah Noel is the only name in Westchester that I recognize from last season excluding the 2-ways.

    They have a 100 offensive rating, a 53.5 TS%, and more turnovers than assists. They suck.

    Katz has a great article out this morning about the revival (and then some) of offensive rebounding. The Knicks, among others, are prominently featured. There’s a whole lot from a tactical and storytelling perspective I found fascinating.

    Big takeaway for me: coaching will only make so much of a difference, but it’s truly refreshing to have a coach who seems to love experimenting and innovating.

    https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6859085/2025/12/09/nba-offensive-rebounding-new-zealand-coaching/?source=user_shared_article

    I should also mention that Dadiet has only played 4 games for Westchester, McCullar 3 games, and Tosan 5 of 11 games. So it’s not too much of a reflection on 2-ways/kids.

    Jemison has been there for 9 games but shouldn’t be the lynchpin of their offense… I would hope.

    id prefer that jemison get a few minutes here and there up with the big club rather than being a lynchpin of anything at all

    The teams that went all in (New York, Cleveland, Orlando) haven’t put any distance between them and the Pistons after spending all their assets. They’re neck-and-neck in a race with drivers who have used up all their moves, which means they’re winning.

    I don’t really agree with this. They are neck-and-neck in the standings, but I don’t think it’s reflective of their talent. Detroit has won an unsustainable number of close games and has had the third easiest schedule in the East. Their SRS is decent at 4.28 – still more than 3 points below the Knicks. A lot of their guys are shooting above their career highs from deep.

    I think there is a decent case for them to wait for next year given that their core is young, but I don’t think they are reasonable contenders as currently configured. And also, windows close very quickly in the NBA, so you might as well go for it when you can (otherwise everyone will be waiting out OKC).

    Edit: One more thing: he stuffs the box store, but Cade is having a pretty bad shooting season. He has a sub .500 eFG% at 32% usage. Yikes. And that’s with the highest FTA per game of his career. Maybe they can expect some positive regression there, but it’s somewhat concerning, especially given that his turnover percentage remains pretty high (although lower than last year).

    marechal, why would you assume that Detroit is winning an “unsustainable number of close games?”

    Of their 19 wins, 13 have been by 6 or more points. Of the games decided by less than 6 points, they are 6-4. I don’t see that as either “winning every close game” or “winning an unsustainable number” of them

    This is not to say that they are as good as their current record, only that it seems pretty dubious that “winning close games” is in any way a factor that stands out as a statistical anomaly that will regress in and of itself. In fact, one of the hallmarks of good teams is that they win close games more often than they lose them.

    I agree with your analysis, Marechal. We’re better than Detroit this season. But we’ve used up every avenue to improve available and have a fully mature roster. They’ve used none of their assets and have quality young players with large windows for internal improvement (Duren’s already made a leap, but Ausar is the guy I think is going to jump eventually).

    When I said neck-and-neck, I meant in the ultimate race of winning a championship. Is our core more likely to win a championship (ever) than theirs? I don’t think so. I think Detroit is likely to continue rising while we decline.

    So if I’m them, I’m not going to make Leon’s mistake and go all in prematurely with a great but flawed player who doesn’t even make them a championship favorite. I’ll let all the teams in the East around me burn out while I continue developing my young guys, and make a move later when my roster has matured and a more complete player than Lauri Markannen becomes available.

    Zman, I’m going by the NBA clutch stats, which I think is defined as games in which the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime had a score within five points:

    https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/clutch-traditional

    Detroit has played the second most games that reached clutch situations in the league (17). They are 13-4 in those games, which is the 4th highest winning % among all teams.

    The Knicks have the second fewest clutch games in the league (8) and are 3-5 in those.

    These are pretty volatile stats and don’t correlate too much with team talent. The Knicks were 19-12 in the clutch last year, with Brunson winning clutch player of the year of course.

    iq now questionable for tonight:
    Expected Lineup
    PG I. Quickley Ques
    SG J. Walter
    SF B. Ingram
    PF S. Barnes
    C Jakob Poeltl

    MAY NOT PLAY
    G I. Quickley Ques
    G J. Shead Ques
    F J. Battle Doubt
    F RJ Barrett Out

    I should point out I agreed with your Detroit analysis. I don’t agree with this:

    windows close very quickly in the NBA, so you might as well go for it when you can

    I think that’s the exact line of thinking that leads to the… (I’m not going to say the word because it triggers folks) … that leads to building a team that is really good but not as good as the teams that win championships.

    I think we are more or less on the same page, hubert. I think Detroit has a good window in front of them. I guess my point is that the risk of going all-in is well understood, but there is a risk of not going all-in too. Players can leave – Duren is an RFA next year – or get injured, your younger players might not develop, etc. For every team that got screwed by going all-in, there is also another promising team that became irrelevant for choosing to wait. It’s hard.

    I think one could make the case that if Detroit got an excellent player (not sure if that is Makkanen), they might actually become a real contender in the East. And who knows what happens if they don’t? Maybe Giannis joins the Hawks or the Celtics or the Knicks and they lose their opportunity.

    Edit: I also think that the second apron rules make it really hard to “wait for the right piece” when your other players are getting expensive. Cade already makes 50+m. Duren will do so soon. So it kind of becomes hard after a while to build around an expensive core. OKC is an exception in which their core (minus SGA) is getting expensive at the same time, giving them so much flexibility to do stuff like getting I-Hart before they have to pay Chet and Williams.

    Interesting piece on post ups:

    https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/47243702/nba-2025-2026-season-postups-trends-kristaps-porzingis-victor-wembanyama

    The problem was/is in the way people tend to use stats.

    The tendency is to start by looking at large general samples. That misses a lot. You have to refine the data further.

    What is good or bad is player/matchup specific.

    IMO, the league developed a lot of excesses by reducing post ups and mid range and moving towards so many 3s. Now we are in the phase where we are correcting the excesses and realizing that a good matchup in the post can be BETTER than some of the 3s teams were taking. And even if they are just similar, they are less volatile. Same with mid range. The long 2s are terrible, but closer 2s are fine, especially if the player is drawing fouls or his shots are creating more OREB opportunities.

    marechal, beyond my concerns about what seems like a dubious definition of “games that reached clutch situations,” I don’t see how anything useful/predictive can be taken away from that particular stat. Is there some sort of historical data that suggests that Detroit is bound to regress to some mean by starting to lose close games? Or is it that they will will eventually start winning games by larger margins? Or that this is how they tend to win games and the trend will continue?

    I mean, if anything, the fact that out of their 13 “clutch” wins, 7 have ended up being by 6 or more points, which suggests a team that closes out games well in the last 5 minutes, meaning that they are not being decided by a random make or miss.

    And since this is a team with lots of young players with upside, there’s just as much of a chance that they get better over time and start winning games by larger margins.

    Detroit has played the second most games that reached clutch situations in the league (17). They are 13-4 in those games, which is the 4th highest winning % among all teams.

    The Knicks have the second fewest clutch games in the league (8) and are 3-5 in those.

    These are pretty volatile stats and don’t correlate too much with team talent. The Knicks were 19-12 in the clutch last year, with Brunson winning clutch player of the year of course.

    You need a “go to” player late in close games, but you also need stops. Detroit gets stops.

    Bit of a run on sentence but…If a team like Detroit, secondary market yet up and coming with a young core because they sucked but hung on to their picks can’t take the next step because if wrong will cap them out, the CBA is not fit for purpose.

    “windows close very quickly in the NBA, so you might as well go for it when you can”

    Facts. Just look at Boston. JT is way ahead of schedule and is playing 3v3 already. They’re a Gafford type trade away from going back to the finals. Plus, another one or two first round exits and Jade is gonna walk risk goes through the roof.

    Edwin Diaz was excellent last year, but I’m not mad about not spending $33M AAV on a closer. The Dodgers apparently have a truly unlimited payroll so it’s no big deal to them, and he’s one of the better relievers in baseball. But that’s double what he made last year, and he’s turning 32. Too much opportunity cost for the Mets, I wouldn’t have wanted Diaz back at that price.

    testing a comment where I don’t have to see if there are bikes…

    Yup! Thanks Mike!!

    ha, now that my nemesis has been removed, time to come clean: I am in fact a robot, always have been, always will be…

    go kick rocks captcha…

    1

    Facts. Just look at Boston.

    Yes, just look at Boston.

    They didn’t jump the gun early when Brown & Tatum were young.

    They didn’t use all their assets just to go from a first round team to a conference finals team.

    They never traded for guys like KAT or Markannen who can be targeted easily on defense.

    They only traded when the price was strongly in their favor.

    They made their move after their core got to the NBA finals, not the first or second round.

    And when they made their move, they got perfect guys who impact both sides of the court.

    You can always look at Boston. They never do the shit we do.

    yep, we can all lament, the suspected demise this season of the boston celtics has been greatly exaggerated…

    fast forward a few months and i could see the standings as:
    knicks
    celtics
    magic
    pistons
    cavs

    fwiw Diaz is getting $23MM/yr for 3 years

    it’s out there that the Mets last/best was $22MM over 3 and Diaz didn’t give them the chance to match/improve, so that’s a slightly bitter pill

    Losing Hartenstein for nothing is what triggered the Towns move. IMO, it wasn’t irrational. Without I-Hart and with Mitch out an undetermined amount of time, not making a move for a C would have been throwing away a prime year of Brunson, OG and Hart after they just traded a lot of their assets for Bridges.

    We’ve debated the price paid for Bridges and whether they were certain Hartenstein was going to leave when the pulled the trigger on Bridges. I’m not sure we’ll even know. But had the team been I-Hart (Mitch in the wings), OG, Randle, Hart, Bridges, Brunson, DDV and Deuce on the bench. That would have been a pretty solid team. (especially defensively) and they still would have had the Detroit 1st rounder and about 4 additional 2nd rounders to work with along with Randle. I-Hart leaving was a debacle.

    You can always look at Boston. They never do the shit we do.

    What we really need to do is get the Bucks to hire Allan Houston as GM, so he can send us Giannis on a sweetheart deal, like McHale did for the Celtics and KG.

    BREAKING NEWS!!!

    The Bidens funded Epstein Island with Saudi money funneled through Khashoggi’s drug cartel. Read the verified story here and here and especially here.

    as if we were actually going to click on those links without checking them first 🙂

    Edit: I also think that the second apron rules make it really hard to “wait for the right piece” when your other players are getting expensive. Cade already makes 50+m. Duren will do so soon. So it kind of becomes hard after a while to build around an expensive core.

    This sums up the challenges of going from good to great. Unless you get a franchise cornerstone AND good young players marketing at the right time, it’s very difficult. We almost got there, but have too many deficiencies to be a legit contender without a bit of (injury) luck.

    The reporting* on the Diaz deal also indicated that when the Mets offered
    66/3, they indicated that there ” was wiggle room”. That Diaz did not give them a chance to match or top the Dodgers deals indicates he wanted the Dodgers.

    *”The Mets offered three years and $66 million with modest deferrals, The Post’s Joel Sherman reports, and they expressed there was wiggle room to go higher.”

    I’ve given up on trying to figure out what Cohen and Stearns are doing. I guess they are not interested in competing with the Dodgers in the “money is no object” chase.

    I’d guess the Mets are going to make a substantial offer to Robert Suarez, who would be a solid replacement for Diaz. What the Mets really need is bulk innings from starting pitching, they need like two guys who can go out and throw 180 quality innings without breaking down. If they go back into the bargain bin again after last year’s rotation debacle, that’s not a great look for Stearns.

    They need guys who can throw strikes and go deeper into games. Get a couple of those guys, keep developing the young pitchers, and fill in the rest of the cracks with the better starters from last year (Holmes, Peterson) and you’re kind of back in business.

    marechal, beyond my concerns about what seems like a dubious definition of “games that reached clutch situations,” I don’t see how anything useful/predictive can be taken away from that particular stat. Is there some sort of historical data that suggests that Detroit is bound to regress to some mean by starting to lose close games?

    There is little to no year-to-year correlation in teams being “clutch” . They revert to the mean when there is a large enough sample. Detroit was 23-25 in clutch situations last year with a similar roster. Brunson was a ridiculous closer last year, and now the Knicks are 3-5 in clutch situations this year. It’s mostly noise.

    My point is that Detroit’s record is not indicative of their true talent because they basically won a bunch of clutch games above expectations. Now, those wins are banked, so their record will also be better than expected at the start of the year. But it’s not indicative of their talent, or that they are neck-and-neck with the Knicks in terms of talent, which was the point I was making.

    Edit: it’s the same with 1 run wins in baseball. Every time a team has a 23-7 record or whatever in 1 run games, you see rationalizations that it’s about their great bullpen or contact-oriented hitters, and then the following year they are 13-17 in these games and you hear whispers.

    They never traded for guys like KAT or Markannen who can be targeted easily on defense.They only traded when the price was strongly in their favor.

    I get your concern with premature ejaculation; both timing and the proper quality player is important but what about guys like Kyrie Irving, Gordon Haywood, Big Al Hortford,($113m), Kemba Walker, Porzingis (sacrificed their Josh Hart + Two 1st to do so) and Drew Holiday? – Both Ainge & Stevens went all in with several different versions.

    They went to the Eastern Conference finals in 6 of the last 8yrs. The 2yrs they missed it was because of Giannis. Boston was all in every year…since they drafted JT in 2017.

    The reporting* on the Diaz deal also indicated that when the Mets offered
    66/3, they indicated that there ” was wiggle room”. That Diaz did not give them a chance to match or top the Dodgers deals indicates he wanted the Dodgers.

    If the money was equal or slightly greater, what moron wouldn’t rather play for the team that has been the best in baseball the past ten seasons over one in flux (and that is being charirable)? Plus weather. Taxes similar.

    watched monica mcnutt make a decent case for us not bringing in giannis…

    basically, although giannis will be the best player in any trade, whatever any other players included (most likely a player like kuzma or portis) wouldn’t equal the 2 or 3 players we would need to send out…

    sentimentality aside, I’d really like to see giannis in a knick uni…however, talk about paying a steep price for: OG, KAT, and mikal – the price for giannis may end up being 2 of those players…

    The Dodgers and the Thunder take some of the fun out of their respective sports. Moreso the Dodgers, partly because the Thunder becoming an evil empire was part luck and part clever moves, while the Dodgers are just the despicable 1% of professional team ownership.

    Which brings up another pet peeve — where the fuck did Austin Reaves come from? He’s averaging 28.4 ppg, 5.5 reb and 6.7 assists.

    Who had THAT on their bingo card?

    did not know bam and aja wilson were together…very cool, what a statuesque pairing they make…

    looks like we’re on after the magic/heat…wish we were first, still interested to see that game though…

    Looks like the Dodgers offer to Diaz was the same as the Mets, it just included playing October baseball in nice weather.

    Not entirely sure how this is happening, but Heat and Magic are playing without a functioning shot clock in the arena.

    1

    they just do it the old school way where a couple of people have clocks on the sideline its difficult but ive seen it done

    The music is great, JK. 🙂 I’m gonna spread this among my friends, maybe we can gather a legion of fans here in Portugal and you come here with Violet to play some gigs. 😉

    I liked the song too.

    It seems today we are playing for the right to play Orlando once again.

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