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What is the best way to use Jeremy Sochan and Mo Diawara? – Posting & Toasting
The only thing consistent about the Knicks lately has been their inconsistency – The New York Times
Knicks Bulletin: ‘We’re still trying to figure out the system’ – Posting & Toasting
Guerschon Yabusele on amending Knicks contract to facilitate Bulls trade: ‘The passion is more than just the money’ – SNY
Jose Alvarado immediately impacts Knicks in debut win over Celtics – SNY
Top 10 Knicks tough guys of all time – Newsday
Knicks at Bucks Preview w/ Ti Windisch | PREGAME POD | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
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Knicks Fall to Pistons and Cavs| Rockets Fail to Launch| Coming Whiskey – Knick of Time
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42 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.02.27)”
Precious with 29/12/3 last night. I know all the caveats about logging extra minutes on a horrible team, but still…….whoa.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/48046098/nba-intel-pistons-cavaliers-knicks-celtics-east-playoff-contenders
From The Athletic:
“I think we’re still trying to figure it out,” Josh Hart said. “I think we’re still figuring out the style we want to play, the identity we want to play. I think that is where some of those lulls come from. We have to, collectively, figure that out.
“Time is of the essence. We have to really spend the next 20 or so games really finding our identity and how we want to execute.”
I love exactly none of the mesaging coming from this team lately.
For a team that apparently has no idea what they’re doing being 37-22 is pretty good.
I am left hoping that this team is analogous to the teams that have beaten us in the playoffs the last 3 years. All were at 50 wins or less and had major struggles during the regular season.
And that’s the rub with this season in general. Even if we were on track for 60 wins, I still wouldn’t have any more confidence (or anxiety) going into the playoffs than I do now. In fact, I might even be more anxious. Expectations can be toxic. Think of Cleveland and their 64 win regular season. Detroit is on that pace this year, and believe me, they will have their hands full with expectations come playoff time.
Somehow, I still believe that this team will be ready to play their best basketball come playoff time. They might not be good enough, but whoever plays them will have their hands full.
OAKAAK Obi played (what I think is) his first game of the season last night.
April Headline: “in shocking development, Knicks go down 3-0 in first round of NBA playoffs”
Random Knicks player: “we’re still trying to figure it out.”
Nice cope, Z-man. Seriously!
You honestly can’t say with a straight face that if we were on pace to win 60 games, you wouldn’t feel just SLIGHTLY better about our team going into the playoffs?
The expectations wouldn’t be any higher if we were on pace to win 60 games because the expectation is that this is a championship contending team.
The only difference is we’d be the 1st or 2nd seed and would have home court in the first two rounds guaranteed and an easier opponent in the first round.
So yeah, I’d rather we be winning closer to 60 games than winning 50, which I think we will do.
The only solace I’m taking right now is that we’re basically on the same track of wins for this season as last but with our starters playing less minutes and Brown tinkering more with rotations and going deeper into the bench. And we’ve had more injuries overall this season to deal with.
But no Deuce potentially is a HUGE blow for us, partially offset by Alvarado’s arrival but seriously, we were hoping to have Alvarado and Deuce in the back court coming off the bench and bringing that defense and shooting and now we’ve basically just replaced Deuce with Alvarado.
I’m also hopeful if only because Mitch will play every game in the playoffs (if he continues to stay healthy) and his minutes will likely ramp up too. So there is more juice to squeeze.
But the vibes are weird, especially with KAT and Brown, and that is the biggest X factor, IMO.
My mind hasn’t changed.
I still think this team has a lot of talent on offense, but is not being used optimally. I mostly blame Brown and Brunson for that.
I still think Brunson/Towns are an issue on defense and will be targetted, but I like the pickups of Alavardo and Sochan. We are also missing Deuce. It will help when he’s back.
I think coming into the season the team was overrated based on it’s playoff results. But a closer look says it struggled badly with a very young Detroit team with a key injury and could easily have lost. It more or less beat Boston legitimately, but mostly because Boston shot themselves out of couple of games foolishly by insisting on shooting high varaiance 3s despite being the much better (albeit injured) team.
This team is good. It’s deeper than last year and Mitch is healthy, but it’s still not maximizing its talent, Towns/Brunson are going to be targetted and some of the young teams from last year are better and some of the injured teams are healthier.
You can’t discount beating Boston because they “foolishly shot themselves out of games”, that was their primary offense and they were never going to deviate from it.
“You honestly can’t say with a straight face that if we were on pace to win 60 games, you wouldn’t feel just SLIGHTLY better about our team going into the playoffs?”
I can’t really tell you for sure. I mean, yeah, if we kicked DET’s ass 3 straight times instead of the other way around, and it looked like they had no answers for us, then maybe I’d feel better about things. But now, I still have a suspicion that Detroit is not as good as their record. They have a young, hungry team with a young, hungry coach, and he’s done a good job of making them play their asses off each and every game. I don’t see a whole lot more to unlock there, whereas with our team, we’ve seen them play beautiful basketball and beat good teams, just not consistently. I like having another level to go to, and I like the idea of being less of a favorite and blindsiding a brash, overconfident team.
Another thing I like in a twisted sort of way is that if we don’t “figure it out” and have another level to go to in the playoffs, there will be justification to make big moves this offseason, starting with finding a new home for KAT.
“The only difference is we’d be the 1st or 2nd seed and would have home court in the first two rounds guaranteed and an easier opponent in the first round.”
Maybe this is where we differ. I think home court is overrated. Indiana beat the Cavs and Knicks despite not having home court, and were a Hali injury away from beating the Thunder without home court. We beat the Celtics without home court. If you are the better team, you should win one of the first two games and then you have the advantage.
And the “easier opponent” thing in the first round is pretty random. You never know when a play-in team will figure it out when the playoffs start. I mean, would you rather play the Heat or the Raptors in the first round?
I understand your point, but if what you are doing is not working and you have the talent to win in other ways, it makes sense to adjust, especially late in games when you have the lead. Either way, whether you blame it on bad strategy or bad luck imo they wre the better team. Beating them raised the expectations in the conference finals and coming into this year becuase we got to the conference finals.
People seem to forget that this team was not exactly playing at a high level in the second half of last season. The payoffs were a kind of welcome surprise that may not have been as good as it’s cracked up to be.
I think you’re over thinking it. The more games a team wins in the regular season, they better they usually are and the more likely they are to get to the finals and win it all.
Generally the teams with the best records get to the finals. We’ve had some 50 win teams get there but usually if they win 55, they have a higher chance than if they won 50. And if they’ve won 60, they have a higher chance than if they won 55.
“The regular season doesn’t matter” and “seeding doesn’t matter, just get to the playoffs” are things that lesser teams tell themselves to hype themselves up and make them believe they actually have a shot at winning a title.
Of course there are upsets and teams that kill it in the regular season that flame out early. But these are still the exceptions, not the rule.
It’s a lot of sturm and drang for a team that is by objective measures very good. We all know they aren’t great but they do have a proverbial puncher’s chance.
I also feel the loss of Deuce a lot. I feel like he was ready to step forward and actually take a star turn.
Would it have been crazy for him to announce himself as a top 50 guy (or close) with a great season this year? I felt like that could be a thing that happened this year so it’s especially disappointing.
Without him, it’s a much tougher row to hoe.
We beat them 4-2, Strat. Three-point variations is real, but not as real as the win total at the end of the series. If we’re a “worse team” that wins the Finals there won’t be an asterisk about how OKC was actually better.
When I read about the injury, I was hoping for a return in the second round. But even that may be unlikely.
Love this. The team with a better SRS than we’ve ever put up in our 80 year history, whose 3 best players are under 25, has nothing left to unlock.
Meanwhile our team whose performance has been stable at the low 50-win level for 3 years now, and whose core averages around age 29, has tons of upside left to tap.
Yeah, we’d hate it if we were maxed out like those Pistons with the second best player under 25 in the whole NBA. Teams like that never amount to anything.
He was operated on 2/5 and the first round of the NBA playoffs start 4/19 almost exactly 10 weeks from the date of surgery. he had an abdominal muscle tear, not an amputation.
He’ll be ready for the first round and it they need Deuce to get by the first round, they aren’t going anywhere anway.
The Cavs won 60+ game last year and fizzled out. I am sure it will be the Pistons make finals but it’s not set in stone at all.
No, it’s not set in stone. Just more likely. The teams that win more games tend to go further in the playoffs.
Again, upsets and regular season paper tigers not withstanding, the norm is for a mid 50’s win team to go further than a high 40’s or low 50 wins team and high 50s and 60s win team to go further than a mid 50 wins team.
If we were on track to win 60 games right now, everyone of us would feel much better about our chances. If we then ended up losing early in the playoffs, it would be a shock and not expected.
Would it have been crazy for him to announce himself as a top 50 guy (or close) with a great season this year?
not crazy, but he’s got to find a way to get all the way to the rim at least once in blue moon to help round him out a bit. he was hitting 1.06 fg/100 at the rim before he got hurt. landry shamet 1.75. jose alvarado: 2.4. payton pritchard: 1.6. even a small kick to his finishing repertoire, which still mainly consists of trying miracle dunks, to get him to the bottom of normalcy would make a difference. he’s still really good. come back deuce.
Being healed and being in NBA shape with no chance of re-injury are two totally different things. I am sure he’ll be working out with the team by the playoffs, but ready for the rigor of playoff hoops? Seems unlikely.
Edit: core injuries are a different thing, Bob. They really need to be completely healed and the muscle rebuilt or you’re just not capable of professional-level athleticism.
Jeez, I was just about to write what ptmilo wrote (without the actual facts to back it up, of course), as well as what rama wrote. I take pride in never leaving my lawn chair on Deuce Island even once during his early struggles, but I’m not seeing a true star jump. A solid chance for 6MOY? Absolutely, he was edging there before the injury already.
And as per rama, even if Deuce comes back and he’s fully healed, it is likely to take a while to get his legs back under him and get his shot back. I’m not holding my breath that his being able to play is going to do us a hell of a lot of good if it’s only for the playoffs; although with the time off between games, if we go deep enough maybe he’ll round into shape later on…
Pags, did it occur to you that I was only talking about this year’s playoffs and not long term outlook?
We’re talking about two months from now. I’m not wishcasting injuries, but for example if Cade or Donovan Mitchell is unavailable for playoff games things could look a lot different. Hopefully we won’t lose more than Deuce between now and then.
Here’s a recent update on Deuce.
Great news if it goes that way; hopefully no setbacks. Thanks, Z.
By the way, there is no injury designation for Mitch right now.
I’m not sure where you are getting your information from, but I’m taking the under… 🙂
So we are definitely picking up Cole Anthony, right? Blood in the soil, etc.
Deuce does need to get to the rim more. He’s a pretty complete two way player though
And I know your point was that Landry is not a great driver of the ball but he seems be showing more aggression lately which I have loved.
And I agree about core injuries. I he oblique injuries in baseball are often very debilitating.
SGA looking like he’s back tonight versus Joker, his main MVP competition. Can’t say that he ducks, for sure.
“So we are definitely picking up Cole Anthony, right? Blood in the soil, etc.” Sure, if he doesn’t cost hardly anything.
Our roster is full and I don’t think we need a PG now that we have Alvarado.
If one of our current PGs gets injured, you consider cutting someone and bringing him aboard.
Yeah, my previous post was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. I much prefer Kolek in that last-PG-off-the-bench spot over Cole Anthony.
One of the issues with Deuce is that his lovely three-point shot has a very high arc, high release and it is kind of a fade. The core surgery will IMO impact his form more than a little. I know what an excellent athlete he is, but not optimistic about his return to form this year in this regard. He is also kind of twitchy on defense and the scar tissue will loudly protest. I think we should base our playoff expectations on a compromised Deuce, which is better than nothing, but maybe not better than what we have now healthy. As a stupid self-indulgent aside, I had inguinal surgery about 4 months ago for a large hernia. It is healed, I am back to hoop, but I still feel the mesh repair. Of course I am an old dude (69), but the surgery does have some lingering effects, particularly for a finely tuned machine like Deuce. Hope I’m just projecting, but I don’t see him as being a big factor in the Playoffs.
FWIW, Deuce didn’t have an inguinal hernia.
Lest ye forget that Clarkson is still on the team for reasons, Deuce is out for a bit, and Shamet has a glass shoulder.
Bob, I know he didn’t. I think it was an abdominal tear. I do think the recovery might be similar though. Am I wrong on this? I hope so.
the bucks are somehow 8 – 2 over their last ten, boy sure how that’s possible…
hope we’re not in for a loss tonight…
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