News & Blogs
Guerschon Yabusele on amending Knicks contract to facilitate Bulls trade: ‘The passion is more than just the money’ – SNY
Why the Knicks’ Landry Shamet might be the best vet-minimum signing in the NBA – The New York Times
Jalen Brunson Hopes Knicks ‘Do Right by Me’ in Next Contract, ‘I Feel Like I Sacrificed’ – BleacherReport
5 questions facing the Knicks following the All-Star break – Newsday
The New York Knicks are your 2026 Shooting Stars champs! – Posting & Toasting
Jose Alvarado immediately impacts Knicks in debut win over Celtics – SNY
Knicks Bulletin: ‘I did a two-hand dunk, which I never do’ – Posting & Toasting
Pod Strickland Episode 569: Gearing Up – The Strickland
Mike Brown Mid-season Grade feat Recap – Knick of Time
Knicks vs Pistons Preview w/ Omari Sankofa II | PREGAME POD | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
Are The Knicks Benching Diawara for Sochan?! – Knicks Fan TV
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56 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.02.19)”
Good morning, and happy Return to NBA Day!
OG not out of the woods yet (Questionable), but Duren is out (very odd since he looked just fine when he played in the All-Star Game). Mitch not on the injury report as of this moment:
Expected Lineup
PG C. Cunningham
SG D. Robinson
SF A. Thompson
PF Tobias Harris
C Paul Reed
MAY NOT PLAY
C J. Duren Out
C I. Stewart Out
Expected Lineup
PG Jalen Brunson
SG Josh Hart
SF Mikal Bridges
PF O. Anunoby Ques
C K. Towns
MAY NOT PLAY
F O. Anunoby Ques
G M. McBride Out
Duren was suspended as a result of the recent fight.
Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder. Still (a little bit) interesting that it didn’t affect his All-Star stuff. I guess it shouldn’t have, but it’s a little weird (at least in terms of optics) to play in the All-Star Game in the midst of being suspended by the league.
In my opinion, the Knicks should get all of the rebounds with Detroit’s two main centers out for the game.
Assuming that OG is back but on a minutes restriction, this game might be an opportunity to look at Sochan without benching Diawara.
I’m wondering how Brown should (and will) approach this.
Maybe something like this?
PG: Brunson 34, Alvo 14
SG: Mikal 28, Shamet 20
SF: Hart 30, Mikal 6, Diawara 12
PF: OG 26, Sochan 18, KAT 4
C: KAT 28, Mitch 20
I like it, Z. I *wish* that Mikal only played about 28-30 minutes per game—that would be the “sweet spot”—but he averages almost 35, so it seems unlikely. I notice no Kolek—I guess there won’t be any garbage time because we’ll be decimating them. 🙂
Interesting (and very impressive) :
Pistons are 5-1 without Cade and 8-1 without Duren
I listened to a KFTV podcast with a Detroit guy. He talked about some of their strategies on both ends and how they have evolved, both since last year and over the course of this season.
On defense, they put Ausar at the POA, usually on the opposing PG. Then everyone else is mandated to keep folks out of the paint to avoid the dreaded “spray.” This is particularly effective against us because Brunson is our only guy who can get into the paint at will. They also thrive on winning the possession game by forcing turnovers. They throw waves of fresh bodies at teams, going 10-11 deep and playing relentless balls-out on D. He said that Cade is much improved as a defender.
On offense, it starts with Cade, who the guy claims was fueled by getting stifled by OG in the playoffs and has improved significantly in his ability to draw fouls against that archetype of defender. He said that iso’ing him on other defenders fuels their entire offense. When doubles/blitzes come, he makes a quick pass to take advantage of 3-on-4 that results in a dunk by Duren or Ausar, or an open look from 3. When they are hitting 3’s like they were against us in the last game, they are virtually unbeatable. When they aren’t falling, they just use Cade’s midrange game and relentlessness and bench depth to win the possession battle and tilt the scales in their favor. Duren has become kind of a secondary shot creator for them. Their bench of Reed, Holland, Huerter, Daniss, LaVert, and Javonte is very tough.
Still, the guy said that they are not great in the halfcourt on most nights when the 3 isn’t falling, although maybe Huerter helps with that. We got killed in the turnover battle in both games, so just taking care of the ball and controlling the boards should work for us tonight with both Duren and Stewart out. But they are very deep and very motivated to beat us. JB Bickerstaff has told them that he never wants to lose a single game to us again.
Some please remind the genius that played Schroder 33:06 as the primary defender on Brunson (40 points) in game 6 last year and Thompson 22 minutes, that people in Hell want ice water…
“JB Bickerstaff has told them that he never wants to lose a single game to us again.”
So *that’s* all it takes? We should try that. 🙂
” JB Bickerstaff has told them that he never wants to lose a single game to us again.”
This sentence should be prominently displayed as the Knicks enter the locker room tonight.
I honestly don’t understand why the Detroit defense has been so good. Ausar and Jackson are great, but a lot of their regular rotation is made of players who have long records as negative defenders. Duren does some nice things but was never an excellent defender. Duncan Robinson plays 28 min/game! Maybe it’s just the way they play and how they basically cross the boundaries of what is allowed to a point that referees stop calling fouls? I don’t know, it’s a bit weird to me.
Really stinks that OG is questionable. Was hoping he would be full speed to start the stretch run.
he’s technically questionable but all the reporters said he’s fully practicing and cleared to play
Ok, that’s what I read yesterday so was a surprise to see the injury report.
“Ausar and Jackson are great, but a lot of their regular rotation is made of players who have long records as negative defenders.”
Jackson?
Yeah, I think OG plays tonight despite the Questionable tag, as well.
Not Jackson, Stewart. Not sure who I was thinking about.
Bickerstaff is not a great coach, but this one can be explained easily by the fact that the Pistons were behind most of that game, often by double digit leads, and could not score when Thompson was on the court.
I think the Pistons are pretty legit. Cade is a legit MVP candidate who will probably get more votes than Brunson. He, Ausar, Duren, and Stewart (who didn’t play against us in the playoffs last year) were all kids in their first playoff series and all have predictably worked on their respective games and improved since last year. Their depth is very legit, and they might have one of the best defenses we’ve seen in a bit (factoring in how tough it is to defend in this current offense-heavy league.) JB is a young-ish coach who might also be developing, and is clearly doing his best work yet. They will be a formidable team come playoff time.
OTOH, I think our new-found depth at big wing should help. Two guys that we only had one answer for (OG) are Cade and Harris. Now we have Sochan and Diawara, both of whom can also dribble and pass a bit. We also have a massive edge in size at the C position. Our 3pt shooting is definitely a major plus over theirs, although Trading Ivey for Huerter probably hasn’t sunk in yet and will probably help. Alvarado is going to make a difference against Jenkins.
I like our chances against them come playoff time, but am not taking them lightly at all. Unless we slip to 4th (which would be a very bad sign), we probably won’t see them until the conference finals. And it wouldn’t shock me if they got knocked off in an earlier round by being too cocky.
We are home, fresh, added two guys that can defend to the roster, solved the backup PG position, added a guy that can play PF, should have this game circled on the calendar and they are weak at the C position due to suspensions. If we don’t win tonight I’m going to start thinking about how we fix this team for next season.
It would be nice if KAT could/would go off against Reed tonight. Reed is kind of a no-defense guy himself, isn’t he?
Strat, the one thing going against us is that we are not “gelled” yet. Adding new players is always a bit unsettling. But we definitely should get this one.
Reed is actually built to give KAT some problems, shorter but strong and with quick feet. Very active on both ends.
Got it. Thanks, Z.
If KAT and Mitch can dominate the boards, we could blow these guys out.
And don’t allow Robinson/Jenkins go off against us on 3s. Jenkins killed us last time, which was embarrassing.
Generally speaking I think this has been a problem. OG would be more effective slotted elsewhere but we didn’t have anyone else with the size to guard the 4. Before the playoffs last year, he ended up staying on Tobias Harris instead of Cade, which was a waste of his abilities.
OG upgraded to Probable. He’s playing.
I would have liked to have seen this matchup with both teams at full strength, but with only 27 games to go we need the win regardless of who is playing. Getting the 2 seed or at least not falling to 4 should be our top priority.
Winning the championship should be our top (only?) priority regardless of where we are seeded at the end of the regular season.
I’d like to see us being more physical than them tonight, crush them on the boards, don’t turn the ball over…
even without their two best bigs – they’re still really good, cade himself is a handful…
very interested to see sochan match up on certain larger sized ball dominant opposing players…
used to think other teams were targeting brunson (running in to him all the time off the ball) – i’m not so sure now that he’s not the primary instigator in most physical mashups out there on the court…it’s weird to watch…
I like that we now have two guys that we can send out there to harass other team’s ball handlers – small or big…
I mean it’s cool to see shots go in, so much more satisfying to smother another team’s offense though…
let’s freaking go…
Kind of wish the first game after the all star break was against a tanking team. I won’t call it a trap game, but they’ll be armed to the teeth against us, so we’ll need to hit the ground at a dead sprint. Hopefully it’s not the Paul Reed Revenge Game… (he is hitting threes at a 38.5 clip this year…).
Tell me you’re a Knicks fan without telling me you’re a Knicks fan lol
Why would Paul Reed be holding any particular animus against us? Because we snubbed him when he was a free agent? (He is indeed hitting .385 from 3, but he only takes 0.7 attempts per game from there.)
thinking about jalen’s upcoming payday in a couple of seasons…hopefully make it incentive laden on reaching at least the conference finals 🙃
trying to remember other smaller yet physical point guards that had long careers…
maybe stockon and thomas…at least we don’t have to worry about jalen losing his hops…
Riveting USA-Canada women’s hockey finals right now…
Yeah, watching, doesn’t feel like we can win this….
Edit: Only second period, thought it was third
The USA goalie is from my town…
I like that game 1 is Detroit at home. Time to make a statement that after ASB, – its all business.
Think this new MBs let’s see what this kid Jeremy Sochan can do for us project will keep Mo Diawara glued to the bench and unlikely to be offered a contract by other teams as a restricted free agent.
I can see Leon call him mid-July and say, “Same as on draft night, – I’m still the only that believes in you kid. Here is a 4yr – $15m deal. What do you want to do?
Sochan is a really good versatile chess move by Leon but will Hubert agree?
This is going to be a hot game. I’m going to set the odds on a shoving match at about 40% and if it happens it’s Alavardo at 80%. 😉
I have to agree, but at least there was some time off. So maybe they squeezed in a couple of practices. I want to win this one really badly just for my own psyche.
Mr. AI says:
How often do the Knicks practice?
…….usually when there is more than one day between games. If there are 2 or 3 days between a game, they practice.
Admittedly not worth much. But I have to imagine that they practiced today with the last game for anyone having been four days ago (and that was only for two players).
I just read Sochan plays for the Polish national team. It turns out his mother is Polish, but he grew up in England. I love the international flavor of this team!
Since we’re paying 2 head coaches, for tonight i think i’d prefer Thibs’ game 7 mentality. 😀
Hilary Knight!!!
Sudden death!!
Woooohoooo
Not feeling the excitement from this group. 🙁
Wow, not only that but a gold in women’s figure skating!
Yep. Good day over there.
saw that the nba just put out a list of possible anti-tanking strategies…
hopefully something helps with the competition issues…
Silver can try all the strategies he wants, but so long as there is any connection between record and draft order, there will be a reason for certain teams to tank.
Either sever draft order from record or eliminate the draft. I would take door #2.
Again, the reason for the draft is to promote market balance and competitive balance. There are ways to accomplish this without a draft. In fact, eliminating the cap on rookie-scale deals would encourage the best prospects to go to the teams with the most cap space. I think offering amnesties to teams that are not selling tickets to give them the cap space to either land the best prospects or to sign amnestied players to the best contracts (capped out playoff teams would be ineligible to either amnesty players or sign amnestied players.)
Institute a hard cap!
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