News & Blogs
Draymond Green says Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns ‘brings out the best in me’ – New York Daily News
Miles McBride’s impact on Knicks’ starting lineup on full display in win over Clippers – SNY
Knicks begin West Coast road trip with 112-107 loss to Suns – SNY
Knicks Bulletin: ‘I thought we played good in stretches’ – Posting & Toasting
Warriors 126, Knicks 113: On E in Cali. – Posting & Toasting
5 questions facing the Knicks heading into the second half of the season – Newsday
The Run.down Knicks vs Suns Postgame Show – The Strickland
Knicks vs Suns – Recap & Reaction | POSTGAME SHOW | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
SUNS at KNICKS | FULL GAME HIGHLIGHTS | January 17, 2026 – NBA
The Knicks Fold Again In Crunch Time Loss To The Suns | Post Game Ep 682 – Knicks Fan TV
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62 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.01.18)”
Heat, without Herro, Jaquez, and Mitchell defeat OKC. I guess coaching matters and Heat Culture is a thing. There’s still time to right the ship, so I’m not ready to say its getting late early.
There have been a lot of injuries and inconstancy. This team needs to find its chemistry again.
We can argue coach vs KAT vs fit til we’re blue in the face (I’m becoming of the mind that all three should be addressed), but it’s becoming pretty clear it’s definitely something and we’re inching closer to a point where the front office has to take action.
Problem is Leon convinced Dolan that he had put together a championship team to get a $30M buyout of Thibs, and I can’t imagine our beloved blues singer is going to be magnanimous about that.
My Sunday morning thought.
If KAT is untradeable right now then we need to make multiple smaller moves to fix the bench and surround Brunson and KAT with as many plus defenders as possible.
You keep these guys: Brunson, KAT, Hart, OG, Mikal, Deuce, Hart, Mitch and Shamet.
Clarkson and Yabu need to go. Dadiet, Kolek, Huk, McCullar, Diawara are all expendable if you must include them to upgrade the bench.
Get Alvarado from pelicans to be a true back up PG who is also a plus defenders. Get another 4/5 who is also a plus defender sincer w don’t have Mitch every game and he is only best if he plays like 25 minutes tops.
Offense is not really the problem. We need defense and while schemes and coaching matter, personnel matter more. If we’re going to have Brunson and KAT as our main guys we can’t have negative defenders like Yabu and Clarkson playing at all.
Would this fox everything? I don’t know and I would not want to give up picks to make this happen beyond maybe one second rounder.
Side note: I had a random basketball conversation with a young woman who is connected to NBA people; when KAT came up and I mentioned he has been playing terrible lately she said “oh he just got engaged to Jordyn Woods on Christmas he probably can’t concentrate on anything right now.”
Defense is def a problem but they scores 99 points at home last night. Even down two starters they have more firepower than that. The guys aren’t clicking right now. Still time to get it right and like you said, it’s playoffs that count. But they need to get act together.
They definitely aren’t clicking but maybe bringing in some tough minded defenders would help. Offense comes and goes but if you have decent defense it will keep you in games when things aren’t clicking and gives you confidence to turn the offense around.
So in about 18 months, he should be playing with some serious, misplaced aggression.
Anyone else think it might be bad for the team if KAT makes the all star team Monday? His selection would largely be due to his standing among an extremely scarce group of centers in the East, but he probably wouldn’t see it that way. It would likely reinforce his “I’ve been a martyr” act, has the potential to make coaching him even harder, and might rub his teammates the wrong way (like OG, who had a case a month ago but isn’t close any more).
Potentially. Or it could remind him that “hey, I’m a fucking all star” and give him a confidence boost to get back to where he needs to be. Or it could increase his trade value.
Come on, swifty. Do you really think any GM is stupid enough to think “hey, he made the all-star team, let’s pay more for him!”
The Suns were very impressive, and that’s without Jalen Green. If they make it into the playoffs healthy, they will be a tough out. They are hyper-aggressive and grind out every possession, and Booker can be completely unguardable when he gets it going. They could definitely use some size, but I’d be very happy if I were a Suns fan, considering the Durant-Beal fiasco.
The mavs trade Doncic for brown down Anthony Davis, so yeah I do think there are some GM’s dumb enough to fall for that.
The Raptors are talking about trading a bunch of guys for him now too aren’t they
#browndown
Well since we’re making up stories about people we don’t know anything about, how about KAT doesn’t make the all-star game and blames Brown for it, going into a deep, season-long funk (worse than the one he’s in now).
Only got to watch the first quarter, but reading the thread it sure seems like it’s consensus that everyone now thinks Clarkson sucks, a position I came to fairly early. I am truly mystified why Brown plays him serious minutes (and Yabu at all) when one of his actual goals of employment is to win games.
I would do Yabu and a 2028 second-round pick for Nick Richards (the Suns badly need picks) and Dadiet + Clarkson for Alvarado.
It would hurt to give up on Dadiet so soon, but I’m not seeing a future all-star there.
Then you can somewhat safely start Mitch and have a bench of Hart, Shamet, Alvarado, Richards.
The Suns play like a Thibs coached team in the sense they play much harder than the opponent. I’d be interested to see how it translates to the playoffs when everybody ramps it up .
Delon Wright is currently sitting around doing nothing . Bring him back
A problem is the bench sucks . Clarkson comes in and kills any good vibes and you can’t play him with Kolek . Brown is playing his roster and some players really shouldn’t be touching the court at all .
https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/knicks-plus-minus-leaders Clarkson is a now a flat zero on the season .
As for Pacome, he should get a chance to play . Let him get some burn
I have always hated Clarkson’s game. I was surprised and gratified when he opened the season in reasonable form but I am now fully over him being on the team.
If we are going to lose games I’d rather it not be because of Clarkson.
This ^^^^^^^^^^
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oyEIYINa9t8&pp=ygUYRGVhbmdob255IG1lbHRvbiBob3JuZXRz Currently second on the Warriors in plus minus . Similar deal to Clarkson. Leon could’ve gotten better players off the bench or maybe Mike Brown wanted Clarkson . … he might see Clarkson as his Malik Monk.
If we were the Pistons, we could afford to give a guy like Clarkson minutes, but our defense is currently Fizdale-level bad, so he needs to be replaced.
Brown might be giving both Clarkson and Yabu a larger runway to gain a bigger sample size to judge the efficacy of playing either or both in the playoffs. Closing with Clarkson last night was ceding the game to the Suns. Also do not understand why Kolek was standing in the corner during his shift instead of handling the ball. Though he did struggle against Goodwin’s pressure the only reason to have him in there is to run the offense.
The player I see rumors about that I find really intriguing is Keon Ellis. Dadiet + the Was pick might be enough.
He is an elite POA defender and a ball hawk and is a great 3 point shooter.
Him plus McBride and Robinson as our primary bench rotation would really give us a lot of defensive punch off the bench. Plus Brown seems to really like him so he’s a good fit with the coach.
Or if we want to get silly do a Towns for Sabonis and Ellis trade.
Yeah the pressure from Goodwin made him overmatched. If he isn’t going to run the offense he can be sat on the bench .
Where have I heard that before?
It was a bad off season.
Clarkson is not very good, very negative defender, bad decision maker and not what we needed.
If Yabu is not going to score and hit 3s at a good clip, he’s terrible. I’m really disappointed in him so far.
On another note, having Brunson and Hart out at the same time is a bit much to overcome. That’s our #1 option and two guys that make plays and handle the ball, especially if Kolek is not playing or at least not playing well on that night as he was last night.
When OG Anunoby leads your team in assists, you know you have playmaking issues
OG is taking some 3s that imo he should not have taken and he’s falling back into that herky jerky form on some of them. I’ve concluded it’s a confidence or “yip” kind of thing that’s mostly impacting the non corner 3s.
Our problems in rank order:
It starts with Towns, he’s playing like a #4 option at $60m/yr. He needs to play with more ruggedness and inside out vs launching 3s.
Then Brown needs to get his rotation and defensive scheme together, though all the injuries is not making it easy. In the meantime he needs to pull players faster based on who has it and doesn’t on a given night. Playing KaT at the top of the key is all I’m seeing Sabonis style. Wasn’t he supposed to be moving KaT all over the court, where has that been? He needs to ensure his lineups are coherent and synergistic.
JB and Hart are injured, but we should be playing much better without JB and def with JB and no Hart
Mikhal is supposed to be the guy who was a #1 option before on the nets, yet he settles for catch and shoot threes and mid range fadeways.
Mitch is great but not dependable and can’t shoot free throws.
Yabu, our big free agent signing is a disaster.
OG is inconsistent and uncoordinated but is still a plus defender and an overall positive more nights than not. We just can’t rely on him to score 20 every night.
Clarkson, Kolek and all the guys who won’t get meaningful mins in the playoffs and are on near minimum contracts is the last issue on the team.
Deuce is the only player currently playing above expectation consistently.
I haven’t lost confidence in the season if we 100%, but if we go back to pre season I said that basketball analysts and fans were probably overrating the positive impact of Boston and Indiana taking a step back because quite a few other teams around the NBA were going to take a step forward and the Knicks really did nothing significant other than get Mitch back. At the time I was expecting Mitch to play more than he has.
Saw something odd in the first quarter that I’ll just mention here, since a couple of comments have been about KAT at the top of the key supposedly doing Sabonis passing things. I noted him doing this but nobody else on the court was moving hard or cutting or really doing anything but jogging hither and yon, so there was nobody for KAT to pass to until someone came out to where he was standing.
I don’t think the offense will work well if that’s how it goes. Just sayin.’
My point being maybe it’s not all KAT’s fault. But it was just one play, so who knows.
Remarkably you left out the biggest problem: Leon Rose is responsible for everything on that list except Mitch’s free throws.
Every single move he has made since the Bojan trade has been bad. He has been on the opposite of a heater for two full years.
Well Leon is definitely responsible for the lousy weather so I think it’s reasonable to blame him for KAT’s slump and Hart’s and Brunson’s injuries.
I think it’s fair to blame him for acquiring KAT in the first place, and while the injuries aren’t his fault the lack of depth to get us through them certainly is.
He is kinda the Jordan Clarkson of GMs. That streak he went on where he landed Brunson, Hartenstein, Hart, Donte, and OG was like a brief stretch of peak Clarkson. And everything else he’s ever done is bad Clarkson.
The most dispiriting thing about this current team is the lack of young players that could emerge, the impossibility of any internal improvement. Our young players are all guys with “could be a decent bench player if he reaches 99th percentile outcome” players.
The core of the team is all 28-30 years old and they’re all at their peak and creeping up to their decline phase. This team either needs to get younger, or make some sort of a move for a real tentpole player, not a fugazy tentpole like KAT. Otherwise we’ve kind of plateaued.
Maybe it’s possible to make a deep playoff run this year and get to the Finals, but the Knicks experience is starting to get a little bit less exciting for me.
Blaming KAT for all of our woes is kind of like blaming Randle for all of our woes in Thibs’ second season.
sort of feels like the ship be sinking, or at the very least listing badly…
were things this awful feeling this time last year?
I remember the constant worry about injuries, I don’t really remember though us looking this bad or lost last year…or lacking so much energy and desire…
saw something today that stated Pluribus was performing really well for apple tv…
guess there will be a second season after all…
got 2 more episodes of this first season to go…near as I can tell so far it’s a show about:
the meaning of life
yep, that’s about all I can come up with…rhea seehorn has absolutely no problem carrying a successful show as a lead…
she is just so good and unique an actor…
and vince gilligan forces you to submit in to deep immersion with a constant on screen barrage of: details details details…
talk about being observant, dude is a freak…
Randle was very clearly awful in his post season games with the Knicks. It’s not comparable.
I agree. Leon deserved most of the blame then, too.
Raven, I saw the same thing – in general, we just aren’t moving a lot. Maybe it is just people being tired? But there’s a lot of season left to play …
It’s actually remarkable how close it’s tracking.
Last year leading up to the MLK game we went 3-6.
This year leading up to it we’ve gone 2-8.
Last year we beat Atlanta on MLK to turn things around and start the most impressive stretch of the season — a 5 game winning streak that included dominant performances at home against Sacramento and Memphis, plus an impressive win over the Nuggets. Then LeBron came to MSG and popped the balloon, and we staggered to a 19-15 finish.
I also hate how predictable he is. Our other guards — JB, Hart, Kolek, and Deuce — do different things on the court. And there is thus an element of surprise.
Clarkson does press conferences where he says “I love to shoot. If you give me the ball, I’m going to shoot.”
And then, if the shot clock gets to 5, they pass it to Clarkson, and everyone on the court knows exactly what’s going to happen.
It makes him way too easy to defend.
TheRant, if they pass Clarkson the ball with 15 seconds left everyone on the court knows exactly what’s going to happen…
The Nuggets have gone 7-3 since Jokic got injured.
The big difference between us and Denver is that their second best player is Jamal Murray and ours is supposed to be KAT, and we know how he’s been playing lately.
When Brunson is out there’s a massive drop off on the offensive end and our defense doesn’t make up for it.
Clarkson ——> Alonzo Trier
David Adelman is a good coach
Peyton Watson is also pretty good. He’s been doing work with Jokic out.
This is a very weak AFC
CJ Stroud just embarrassing himself .
I was wondering about this fact and I just saw Tommy Beer tweet about it, since November 14th Knicks have only played 1 entire game with all of their Top 7 players available.
We didn’t know how good we had it with Cam Payne.
Clarkson has had almost as many turnovers as assists. His assist rate is half of what it was last year. He’s a chucker of the most egregious fashion and is having a dismal year even by his own standards. Payne had better than a 3-1 assist ratio last year. Payne also defended at least a little bit.
It’s not even close. Payne blows Clarkson’s doors off.
And Payne is currently unemployed and still better than Clarkson …
That about sums it up
Payne was unplayable in the playoffs though.
Payne won the Knicks that 1st game against the Pistons . After that I agree, but Clarkson isn’t playable even in the regular season .
What’s crazy with the Jets if them beating bill bellicheat in the last game of his pats career allowed them to get Drake Maye.
Drake Maye is 16 years old. And Fuck the Patriots.
https://nypost.com/2026/01/18/sports/mikal-bridges-disappearing-acts-arent-his-only-knicks-problem/
What’s the gist, pepper? Firewalled. I get that it’s about Mikal disappearing, but anything interesting written about it?
Like, maybe, why?
Calebbb with an awful turnover jeez
bondy basically called him a pussy without really calling him a pussy…not that it is any news to anyone who watches him play but i can’t recall any media person being that direct about it…
Have to inform You:
Payne plays in euroleague for Partizan…since he joined in late dec. they lost all five games on -20 avg. .Not his fault entirely, but he sure doesn’t help in any way.
Have to mention that our beloved Frenkie left Partizan in september and they are not the same team since.
Five days ago there was a game in Belgrade where Ntilikina(Started) and Evan F. played for Olympiakos and Payne(started) for Partizan. None of them had any significant impact on the game. Partizan lost 104:66. Not one of those three is IMO a NBA rotation player any more, but Payne is a big net minus RN.