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Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns: Iffy for Saturday – CBS Sports
Knicks Injury Tracker: Karl-Anthony Towns questionable for Saturday’s 76ers game with back spasms – SNY
Latest Karl-Anthony Towns Trade Rumors, Knicks Buzz Ahead of 2026 NBA Deadline – BleacherReport
Jordan Clarkson confident he can still ‘impact winning’ despite recent Knicks benching – SNY
Looking ahead at the tough road that lies ahead – Posting & Toasting
Knicks’ Kevin McCullar: Stuffs stat sheet in G League – CBS Sports
Knicks Shock Sixers in Thriller! Game Winning Plays Revealed – Knicks Fan TV
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76 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.01.25)”
From previous thread:
https://x.com/SamQuinnCBS/status/2015169704915050532?s=20
(1) Knicks get Giannis, Jerami Grant (2) Milwaukee gets KAT, Deuce, Dadiet; WAS pick owned by Knicks; right to swap Knicks’ 2030, 2032 picks; three Portland 1st-round picks [via Orlando and the Bucks themselves] (3) Portland gets Mikal Bridges and Yabu
Brunson, Hart, Grant, OG, Giannis; Bench Kolek, Shamet Clarkson, Mitch… I, for one, would take the downgrade in depth for the upgrade to an MVP-level big man.
It doesn’t leave Milwaukee destitute.
Bridges turns 30 this summer. Portland needs money for Deni down the line. So I have trouble envisioning them taking it.
what you might be missing is the major upgrade in team chemistry and “vibes” with the subtraction of kat worth considering something like that for that reason alone altho what we really need is a stretch 4 who can hit 3s getting kat out the door would be the classic addition by subtraction move as long as what we get back is what we need
In a vacuum, KAT + Mikal + Deuce for Giannis is like stealing the Mona Lisa. But in the context of Leon’s two year run of major blunders I fear it leaves us too thin and incapable of competing for a title.
We should be modeling ourselves after the Celtics and Pistons instead of trying to recreate the Bucks teams that predictably fell apart and forced Giannis to demand a trade in the first place.
I’d have faith in 5 players on the roster, and one of them can’t play back-to-backs
Zion’s basically cap filler now I’d rather buy low on him and trust our infrastructure and medical staff to straighten him out. Something like KAT for Zion, Missi, Alvarado, and a Pelicans pick give us a ton of flexibility.
Even if Zion never plays a minute for us having his nonguaranteed contract and a Pelicans pick to trade this summer puts us in a much better position than having KAT. And Missi (or Looney, if we prefer) and Alvarado are two good depth pieces we desperately need.
It’s a no brainer for New Orleans, too. For all his faults, KAT is worth his weight in gold to a team that just wants to be decent and doesn’t care if it can’t actually beat the Thunder or Spurs.
I can’t even think about offseason possibilities until a) we get past the trade deadline and b) the end of the playoffs. It’s nice to know that there are possible multi-team scenarios, but we kinda knew that anyway, didn’t we?
Beyond that, if we can trade KAT, Mikal, and Deuce for Giannis, Grant, and whoever, my only concern is that Giannis seems to be pretty injury-prone these days, and that tends to get worse with age, not better. But if we disappoint in the playoffs, you have to figure out how to maximize the 2-3 years that Brunson has left in his prime.
On a positive note, I thought Hukporti looked very viable last night. It was only a glimpse, but he seemed to be in the right place at the right time for the entire stint, and his blocked shot and rebounds were all in sync with what the game needed when KAT went out with fouls and Mitch needed more rest. I hope Brown continues to spot him in. We really need whatever his ceiling is to reveal itself this year before the playoffs.
Really impressed with Shamet last night (and lately). He’s playing alarmingly good defense, and hitting big shot after big shot. I’ve gone from faint concerns to complete confidence when he’s in the game.
As for Mitch, “the Knicks had a 92 defensive rating during his 27 minutes and a 140 defensive rating in the other 21.”
I was thinking what if we traded Mikal to the Blazers straight up for a package of Rob Williams, Matisse Thybulle, their 2 Bucks swaps, and a first round pick?
That gives us a platoon partner for Mitch and a bench defender. Some combo of Hart/Deuce/Shamet can easily man the 2 spot.
And most importantly, we’re still getting stuff Milwaukee will want for Giannis if he becomes available in the offseason.
But that’s probably not ideal.
I prefer something like Zubac, Collins and Jones for KAT and Clarkson.The Clippers don’t own their own first round pick til 2030 and the Beard and the Claw are playing remarkably well.
Loving Shamet as long as nobody hits his shoulder with anything harder than Charmin Ultrasoft.
Huk looked great but there was one sequence when the shot clock expired because he couldn’t get the handoff to anyone in time. His processing on the offensive end is really slow.
100% with you on that, Raven. More importantly, the difference between him and Clarkson is night and day. Frankly, I’m surprised that he has come back so well from an aggravation of his shoulder issue, and because of that, I cringe every time he jumps a screen. But maybe all the rehab has made him tougher and honed his shot, which looks pretty pure these days. He was really good at keeping in front of Maxey. I am tempted to think that at age 28 he has actually improved over the player that bounced around for a couple of years. If so, that takes some sting out of the Clarkson disappointment.
Obviously Mitch is wrecking shit up out there, but in the postgame, Nurse said that if he was left in the game, they were going to go hack-a-Mitch for at least a couple of possessions, both to get his guys some rest and to hope for FT misses. That continues to bug me. Still, he looks great, seems to be handling the minutes he gets well, and whatever the negatives are, the way he is dominating on both ends is pretty freaking awesome!
Brown has gone to the OG at C lineup a few times now, but I definitely thought he went to it here as a counter to Hack-a-Mitch.
I think Giannis is great, but I also think his tendency to get injured at this age is being underrated.
“I was thinking what if we traded Mikal to the Blazers straight up for a package of Rob Williams, Matisse Thybulle, their 2 Bucks swaps, and a first round pick?”
Hard pass on this one. Mikal is in a bit of a slump but he’s still an excellent 2-way starter and the most durable player in the NBA. Thybulle sucks and TimeLord is even more injury prone than Mitch. I also have a lot less faith in Hart, Shamet, and Deuce eating Mikal’s 37 minutes than you apparently do.
I think that’s a terrible trade for the Clippers.
I wonder if the Knicks are thinking about Steve Kerr for this summer.
I said before the season the key would be Mitch staying healthy and getting back to peak form and I still think that. He’s very impactful when right.
I wasn’t expecting Towns to struggle so much shooting. He has always been foul and brain fart prone. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen any star player get a worse whistle. If he does anything he gets called and he doesn’t get a call half the time he gets mugged.
“Brown has gone to the OG at C lineup a few times now, but I definitely thought he went to it here as a counter to Hack-a-Mitch.”
For sure, and that is okay when it works. Problem is, OG at the 5 kills our rebounding and also makes him unavailable to defend freely. That’s where Huk’s situational viability becomes important. I think that barring a pre-deadline trade that offer an alternative, Brown has to build him up and get him playoff ready. He seems physically capable and not mentally immature to the point of being unplayable situationally, i.e when KAT is in foul trouble or ineffective and Mitch is resting, hurt, or facing hack-a-Mitch.
Shamet has been terrific. IMO he’s been a better player since coming to NY. I was a fan for many years just from visually watching him play, but the data I look at never supported what I thought I was seeing on the court. Now I think it’s clearer that he’s a solid bench piece that can start in an emergency. It’s a shame he missed so much time.
“I wonder if the Knicks are thinking about Steve Kerr for this summer.”
If he’s available and Brown fails, I’m sure he will be at the top of the short list. But that’s so far out of the realm of the current that I can’t even think about it. Nor do I think he is the answer unless he had the right roster to work with (see: current Warriors).
Brown has gone to the OG at C lineup a few times now, but I definitely thought he went to it here as a counter to Hack-a-Mitch.
i was hoping to see mitch back in at the 2min mark. the offense did manage to exploit the faux-five-out (we had the yipsy version of josh last night) spacing somewhat, mostly because a tired embiid is just uniquely immobile on defense, and he doesn’t make up for it with his wits. both shamet 3s, the OG pump fake 3 and the shamet free throws were largely the result of embiid being stuck in the mud. but the defense with the og at the 5 lineup actually went pretty terribly. 1. help og on embiid leads to wide open oubre three. 2. oubre drops a one footer in while jalen and deuce watch and no tall person in sight. 3. help og on embiid leads to wide open edgecombe 4. embiid easy put back over all smalls. 5. embiid misses 7 footer over og (this was an okay shot from our perspective because he was off balance, but it was terrible choice by him to rush that shot and still not a bad shot). 6. maxey pullup 3 that is mostly just maxey being maxey, partly og really fucking up failing to step on the screen and partly that mitch would have a much better contest there.
Strat, sure…his ceiling is higher than we all thought it was, and that’s exciting! But the fact remains that he has a loose shoulder. Dislocations nearly always involve structural damage that can’t be 100% corrected with rehab. Unless and until he has surgery, that fear will always be there for me, especially because of how aggressively he plays on D.
I was looking at a Mikal for Williams and something trade, too, ess. But there’s no something I could find that makes up for the availability delta between Mikal and Williams.
Plus it still leaves us holding the live
Neither the game to game noise or manic depressive mood swings of fans/media based on the last few games changes anything.
The Knicks are very good when healthy, but they are one of many very good teams that are either a little better or close enough to beat us in a series (other than OKC and Denver when they are 100% who would both be clear favorites).
Our weaknesses now are the same ones we had at the start of the season. Very good teams are going to take advantage of the Towns/Brunson combo and we don’t have a true backup PG that can defend when Brunson is off the court. Kolek is close and there’s some time for him to get there, but he has to play and for now Brown is going with a tighter lineup and no real PG. Getting another true PG that can defend a little should be a priority over the next couple of weeks unless Kolek is the man.
Watching the first half yesterday I was thinking about what a tough out the Sixers will be come playoff time.
By the end of the game I was thinking PG13 is kinda shot, Embiid will never stay healthy and Edgecombe, while a promising rookie, isn’t all that great right now. Oubre is having a career year which may not last and their bench is pretty shaky other than Grimes.
Oh and fuck Joel Embiid.
I agree with everything you are saying, but I can’t worry about every possible injury. He’s healthy until he gets hurt again, if ever. I don’t know how long rehab would be, but maybe he should consider an off season surgery.
“i was hoping to see mitch back in at the 2min mark.”
One tidbit I learned this year is that the “away from the play” foul does not fully indemnify Mitch. If he sets a screen, he is no longer away from the play and can be sent to the line even without touching the ball. He can also be fouled immediately when he gets either an offensive or defensive rebound, and possibly even on a hard box-out after the ball goes up.
Not that it helped when OG takes stupid shots rather than running the clock and getting fouled, or when Brunson bricks 2 FTs with a 3pt lead, but still…
That’s been my default KAT trade for a while now but I’m not sure LA would do it. That’s the kind of trade someone like Leon would make but a smart team wouldn’t. I don’t know where the Clippers are on that scale.
IMO they are on the deep pocketed dummies side of that equation.
Unfortunately so are we, so we probably wouldn’t even propose it.
Happy to see you here and well, the rest please give a shoutout because that was the definition of a heart attack inducing game. The ending was a real mess, but we prevailed and that’s what matters.
Other than the Paul George trade turning into one of the worst trades ever, Lawrence Frank seems to do an OK job… pretty surprised how much Harden and Kawhi have bounced back.
Agree d-mar, the Sixers are purely a “theoretical” tough out but the actual outcome for them come playoff time is most likely something like what we saw yesterday or worse.
I still would feel a lot better about it if a) Huk improves and b) we cash in Yabu and/or Clarkson for a viable rotation-level player.
The mood swings.
Portland isn’t trading three ones for Mikal Bridges.
The KAT hate is beyond absurd.
100% agree on all that. I don’t love the OG at C lineup but avoiding the Hack-a-Mitch I assume is the reason. Also thought it was concerning they didn’t put Mitch back in right at the 2min mark.
Sitting Mikal there was interesting — right given his play yesterday, but interesting — the lineup could’ve benefited defensively from the added length.
Of course throwing Huk in there would be a lot simpler.
That Carter/Suggs trade for KAT makes some sense in theory, but it would never work for Orlando with Banchero clogging up the lane.
The other thing about Mitch was that he had already played 27 minutes, so maybe that was at the upper limit of his restriction.
Just checked Mitch’s game logs, and yesterday was in fact the most minutes he had played all year.
Some of you guys remind me of the traders who were buying the dip in 2007.
“The Knicks are very good when healthy, but they are one of many very good teams that are either a little better or close enough to beat us in a series (other than OKC and Denver when they are 100% who would both be clear favorites).”
not sure what this means strat but yes we do often beat ourselves
“I’d have faith in 5 players on the roster, and one of them can’t play back-to-backs”
there is nobody on our squad (at least that I can think of) who is unable to play back-to-backs if your referring to mitchell robenson hes played in 10 of our last 11 games and has already played in 24 games this season in which he also played in the previous game if your only talking about literal back to back nites then weve only had six of those this season anyway so not being able to play in both such games is not that big of a deal
We have two days off again? I guess that’s good considering the weather.
Good luck to everyone on the East Coast’s heating systems today, just got a defrost signal from one of my units…
I feel the same way about Shamet. I thought he defended much better in the playoffs than he did in the regular season and it seems to have carried over.
Embiid was absolutely vintage in the first half and then looked like a different person in the second half.
Really glad we didn’t blow it
“Embiid was absolutely vintage in the first half”
In a way, he reminded me of Amar’e after the first season where you would see flashes but you could also tell that the athleticism was significantly compromised even when he was feeling good. Embiid still has the strength, length, skill, and bulk to go on runs, but even then he’s not like he was during his MVP-level run where there was an athleticism component. Even that monster dunk down the lane was more about length and bulk than athleticism, and it was preceded by a pathetic fail on a similar move. He just can’t get off the ground or explode at all. Just like with Amar’e, I don’t think that version of Embiid is ever coming back.
2 quick thoughts in defense of Kal, and I hope I don’t sound like I’m making excuses for him. I think:
1. He might be banged up. He’s been grimacing and limping a little during games these past few weeks. He may be too caught up in this whole “Ironman” thing to rest when he needs to.
2. He was far more effective on both ends of the floor earlier in the season as the starting SG. Is it possible he’s a 2 who can occasionally play the 3 in a small ball run? Problem is- if we move Hart to the bench, our starting 5 is clearly not as good.
Beyond Absurd – that’s speaking bigly.
No it it isn’t, it’s all Hubert’s fault, and lots of people are feeling it.
Probably a little overwrought but what isn’t nowadays.
KAT can’t fail, he can only be failed. (Sound familiar, E?)
rip alex pretti
“He might be banged up. He’s been grimacing and limping a little during games these past few weeks. He may be too caught up in this whole “Ironman” thing to rest when he needs to.”
Obviously I would never wish an injury to a Knicks player, and I know it means a bunch to him personally, but I have certainly considered whether it would be a good thing if something like s minor ankle tweak or stomach virus or something would intercede to break Mikal’s Iron Man streak so that he can be rested here and there like any other player.
Zero chance Leon sells KAT while his value is at a multiyear low.
He has proven his competence but somehow most folks in the media and fan sites propose trades that imply he’s a bloody cunt.
that was a bit excessive director wow
It’s British, you fucking moron.
lol i know that but the c word is offensive whether used in american or british english moron if you dont already know that then i dont know what to tell you not only that but i addressed director specifically so i wasnt even directing (pardon the pun) anything towards your general direction (again) 🙂
Leave cunt alone, Doogie.
This is no cuntry for old men…
lol exceedingly obvious why director raven z-man dont have women in their lives enjoy football these should both be pretty good games (i hope!)
I don’t think anyone “hates” KAT. Quite the contrary: everyone seems to say he’s a wonderful human being.
He’s also a very good if not great player. I think many here are just considering what could replace his oversized contract (and again, that pre-apron contract isn’t his fault).
Personally, I don’t put too much stock into “vibes”. Vibes are bad when losing, and they’re good when winning (prime example = the Reggie Jackson Yankees who hated each other but won so it was fine.)
And lastly, if you don’t like fake trade ideas, you’ve come to the wrong place, my friend!
Billy Butcher often twists it in to a term of endearment in The Boys…useful gender indeterminate noun…
No way the Clippers trade Zubac. They had a horrid start to the season in part due to bad 3 point shooting luck, but they’re clawing their way back to .500. Kawhi is healthy and they’re going for it.
You know why I call you a moron? Because based on your moronic logic, Director was directing nothing toward you, so you had no right to react to him.
And the problem is your moronic posts are on a public site so we’re all horribly exposed to your unpleasantly mean-spirited, passive-aggressive idiocy.
But go Stiddy. Because fuck the Patriots.
zubac seems though to be the best arch-type to play with our cap, jalen…
at some point hopefully we can obtain a zubac like center…or every morning he wakes sprinkle magic pixie dust on mitch so he can stay healthy…
check out The Ha Dance by MAW, Doogie. It is as cunty cunt as a track can get and inspired a whole lot of future cuntyness. ALSO, the track samples my favorite movie ever, Trading Places, when Billy Ray Valentine runs into yours truly on the train. Clarence Beeks is a right cunt.
I know I shouldn’t speak directly to the devil, but z-man has referenced his lovely wife and daughters many times, Raven clearly has a “lady Raven”, and I would also assume that Director has a special someone, so what gives?
Btw, Merry New Year to you, Clarence.
“z-man has referenced his lovely wife and daughters many times”
thanks, ess, not to mention that they all freakin’ own the c-word, as in cunt-positive, cunty this-and-that, serving cunt, etc.
We’ve come a long way from Virginia Slims…
Back atcha, Ess.
just because someone “speaks” of someone in their lives doesnt mean that they actually exist ive posted about my girlfriend of over 2 years a few times or so and yet you claim that she doesnt exist so i hate to tell you this but the same rules apply to everyone if you dont feel the need to believe me then i similarly dont feel the need to believe any of you quite honestly we dont even know the gender of anyone posting here in the first place and it really shouldnt matter on a forum mostly associated with professional basketball anyway
In England, it’s way more offensive to call somebody “wanker” than, uh, the c word.
But what we DO know now is that Knicks 2025 is definitely Doogie because that was a right Doogie throwback rant.
Ya cunt.
WTF is going on in this thread…
The flaw here is the baseless assumption that his stock is going to go up again.
Sorry, BBA, just having a little fun. Hey, watching this football game makes me say y’all be safe out east. Thoughts are with you.
We’re at like 14″ and counting…
yeah at least 12 inches here had to drive back home late last nite before it started so i could be here for work tomorrow morning kinda sux looks like pats going back to the big game great job by vrabel and maye wish they could move up the start time of the nfc game i imagine they didnt think there would be a half hour gap in between the two
My God the Kings are awful. I hope they are currently planning a fire sale because one is long overdue. Fingers crossed they trade LaVine to the Bucks because that would be a very entertaining train wreck to watch.
i imagine sabones isnt happy playing for such a crappy team rite now and in truth he does deserve better
darnold and walker getting seemingly most of what they want against a pretty porous rams defense thus far
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