Comments on: Knicks Morning News (2026.01.16)

By: JollyRoger

JollyRoger — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 13:19:12 +0000

Thibs has a high floor but I think also a lower ceiling. Brown may have a higher seeling but a lower floor. We shall see.

By: Z-man

Z-man — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 04:51:52 +0000

rama, I agree with the spirit of what you are saying, but the other side of the argument is that Thibs’ rigid approach was rooted in masking our deficiencies, whereas Brown’s approach exposes them. For example, maybe Thibs eshewed zone defense because our players were not well-suited to play it effectively.

I’m not saying this is true, just pointing it out as a possible counter-argument.

By: Underground_Kings

Underground_Kings — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 04:40:35 +0000

Cavs might have a secret weapon

Jaylon Tyson led the Cavaliers with 39 points (13-of-17 FGs), five rebounds, four assists and seven three-pointers in a 117-115 win over the 76ers on Friday.

His numbers look solid for the season

By: ess-dog

ess-dog — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 04:29:21 +0000

Meanwhile, Randle’s doing some good work against Houston (Minny is up by 4 in Q3).

By: JK47

JK47 — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 03:56:02 +0000

2019 vs Minnesota: 147 wRC+
2019 vs Houston: 78 wRC+

Let’s do a thought experiment.

Let’s pretend the ALDS isn’t a best of five series and the ALCS isn’t best of seven. Let’s pretend each is a 31 game series. You need to win 16 games to win the series.

Do you think the Yankees’ wRC+ splits against those teams would be so large if those were both best-of-31 series?

I don’t. I think those would regress to the mean. They’d get closer to 100 against both teams. They’d probably still hit Minnesota better, as Houston had better pitching, but the gap would close substantially.

By: JK47

JK47 — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 03:48:17 +0000

That’s not obviously the result of a small sample size to you? The Yankees hit like Joe DiMaggio against Minnesota but like Rey Ordonez against Houston? Houston’s pitching was THAT much better? How did the Yankees ever beat a good pitcher in the regular season?

This just isn’t how things work. The delta between the quality of pitching from Houston to Minnesota in 2019 is just not that large.

It was fairly large, as Houston’s team R/G allowed was almost a run lower than Minnesota’s. So it’s not surprising that the Yankees would hit Minnesota better.

Just not “double the wRC+” better. That’s variance.

By: hubert

hubert — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 03:30:56 +0000

Last thing I’ll say, then I’ll leave it:

2019 vs Minnesota: 147 wRC+
2019 vs Houston: 78 wRC+

Do you think this was random?

By: rama, orchestra seats baby

rama, orchestra seats baby — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 03:02:58 +0000

I’m slightly amused by the criticism of Brown, because… What did you expect? He installed a better offense, more fluid, with more options. Less Brunson-heliocentric, more flexible. He’s doing what everyone asked for, playing more people and limiting the minutes of starters. He’s treating the regular season like an opportunity to learn and to teach, prioritizing growth over wins. WE ALL WANTED THIS! We’ve seen zone, we’ve seen more switching on D, we’ve seen an increased 3-point rate… I mean, this was what we hoped for from any new coach.

Yeah, some of his rotations are a bit random. No, Yabu should not be playing over Huk or maybe even over Diawara. But it’s defensible, given what Yabu was supposed to be and what he’s being paid. We’ve seen that in competition, Brown tightened the rotation; it looked more Thibsean. But that was appropriate for the moment – and doing (most of) the other stuff he’s doing is appropriate for these moments: mid-season road trips, relatively inconsequential games.

I don’t think he’s a mastermind technician, but in general we are where I hoped we’d be, with lots of time to still figure it all out. (Though KAT has lost me because of his lack of heart.)

By: Rough

Rough — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 02:53:13 +0000

He game-planned to player’s strengths

The same applies to the team as a whole. Earlier in the season, I was wondering where Plan B is. I recently started discerning there isn’t even a Plan A to begin with. The team seams lost and helpless, without adjustable game strategy both on offense as well as defense.

By: hubert

hubert — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 02:38:05 +0000

And you’re basically telling me that because random things happen, everything that happens is random.