Knicks Morning News (2026.02.17)

Alan, I think convo’s about LeBron coming here are clickbait. I don’t see any possibility of it happening. But for argument’s sake, I would most definitely not want LeBron at any price above the minimum, and would not feel great about him even at that price. Really, fuck him. He’s a drama queen with zero interest in anything but his own legacy. His play is teetering on a cliff, and we all saw from the Jason Kidd experience how the wheels can suddenly fall off at a critical moment.

Let him go fuck up Cleveland’s last gasp at a title run.

I will only qualify my above remarks as follows: If Leon acquired LeBron, whatever the price, I would still hold my nose and root hard for it to work out. And on a minimum deal, it is quite likely he would be an asset.

Ultimately, we have no control over what Leon does, so whatever. It’s not really worth discussing unless it happens, or there are definite signs that it’s going to happen. There’s what seems like a billion years between now and when that discussion is even a possibility. Really, this is the most important 4-month stretch of Knicks basketball since the 1990s. Seems like there’s lots of things to talk about that are more germane to our fortunes.

Here’s something that I think merits discussion: What will the Knicks rotation and minutes distribution look like in upcoming games, both with and without Mitch? Deuce isn’t coming back for at least another month, but let’s assume OG is likely to be recovered enough to play coming out of the break. Here’s my guess:

With Mitch:
Starters:
Brunson: 34
Mikal: 34
KAT: 32
OG: 32
Hart: 30

Bench:
Mitch: 24
Shamet: 22
Alvarado: 18
Diawara: 14

Without Mitch:

Starters:
Brunson: 34
Mikal: 34
KAT: 32
OG: 32
Hart: 30

Bench:
Shamet: 24
Alvarado: 22
Diawara: 16
Sochan and Huk: split 16

I left Clarkson out of the rotation, thinking that he will eat whatever minutes from Shamet and Alvarado that Brown think is necessary. But who knows, maybe Clarkson and Sochan have some unexpected chemistry.

I could also see Brown splitting Mo’s and Sochan’s minutes to see whether there’s situational differences.

I think the idea that there is a “best” to bring out in KAT is mostly an illusion. He’s been in the league for 11 years and 23,000 minutes. He is what he is, and it’s quite possible that he lost a step and is struggling because can’t deal with it. He’s got to develop a better sense of when he has an advantage and when he doesn’t. He’s getting beat to the spot time and time again. Maybe LeBron helps shift his mindset, but it’s also quite possible that he would be a detriment to KAT because he’d passive aggressively blame the repercussions of his own decline on KAT, among others.

This team is finally not a media circus, and bringing LeBron in would be a major step back into that abyss.

I don’t think anyone else cared whether Bridges killed Thibs’ vibe or not. The way I saw it, Mikal said something that pretty everyone else here was thinking, and said that he had talked to Thibs about it. Thibs said that they never talked about it. It was never mentioned again by either party, nor did it seem to affect the on-court behavior of either of those two or anyone else associated with the team.

There’s some who believe that Mikal was a major factor in Thibs getting fired. To the degree to which that is true (probably not very much) it was the legitimate issue that pretty much everyone agreed on that got Thibs fired, and I, for one, don’t think how Mikal felt had any bearing on the decision. In other words, I think Thibs would have been fired even if Mikal never said a word and vocally supported him in his exit meeting.

Thibs got fired for essentially the same reason he got fired in Chicago and in Minnesota…failure to compromise and collaborate with management over personnel, strategies, and tactics. Ironically, to the extent that Mikal had any influence, he actually improved the vibe of the Knicks by creating an opportunity to bring on a less vibe-killing coach.

Lent can’t come soon enough!