News & Blogs
Knicks want to play their best ball going into the playoffs. Time is ticking – The New York Times
Game Thread: Knicks at Thunder, March 29, 2026 – Posting & Toasting
Karl-Anthony Towns’ struggles, Miles McBride’s injury headline Knicks’ 111-100 loss at Thunder – SNY
Thunder 111, Knicks 100: Scenes from down and out in Foul City – Posting & Toasting
Knicks await Miles McBride injury update after ‘tough’ exit from Sunday’s loss at Thunder – SNY
Knicks’ Miles McBride: Exits to locker room – CBS Sports
Standings Stress | KFS Weekly Recap | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
Knicks Weekly: The Unpredictable Knicks Look To Rebound | Deuce McBride Injury Update – Knicks Fan TV
The Run.down Knicks vs Thunder Postgame Show – The Strickland
YT News
36 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.03.31)”
Sorry ess-dog, i usually don’t follow european basketball except from time to time going to my local team (FC Porto) games, when i’m trying to see how a Knicks draft and stash progresses (i followed Rokas playing for FC Barcelona after we drafted him) or when there’s a possible generational player (last one: Luka).
If Max was around, he’d probably could help you. Or maybe KBA is vying for a position of european scout for the Knicks. LOL
But now that i have a name, i’ll try to know more about Luigi. Dolan will be interested because we could sell the patch on the jersey to Nintendo for Super Mario! LOL
Players go through statistical ups and down all year that have nothing to do with how good they are. IMO fans focus way too much on recency. First it was Towns, then it was Bridges, now it’s Alvarado. Hart and OG have had ups and downs too.
Unless a player is old, injured or being misused (which can be corrected if the coach is good) I think it’s best to look at long term data and the trend of improvment/decline and not focus on a handful of games.
Alvarado is fine.
The Knicks can totally still win this division. They just really need to beat the Rockets tonight.
“The Knicks can totally still win this division. They just really need to beat the Rockets tonight.”
Well…….if we can keep it close, they’re really bad at finishing.
You know who I *really* don’t want to see in the first round of the playoffs? Atlanta……..which is the exact team we would face if the playoffs ended today. But so many teams are bunched up 5-10 that it could easily also not happen that way.
Last night Detroit shot 23 free throws, and Shai 25, in a 4 point game. The league has got to stop this bs.
That is outrageous and bad long term for the league (in my opinion). I don’t get how they don’t see this
Should the refs not call fouls just to keep certain players from going to the line? What’s the other solution?
yes…
Comparing a player like KAT to Alvarado is just unserious. KAT has frustrated me immensely at various times throughout his tenure, but even when he’s slumping he’s good for a baseline level of production from both a volume and efficiency standpoint.
When Alvarado is struggling he puts up goose eggs. Over his last 5 games he has 18 total points on 24 FGAs and 0 FTAs. From March 1st to March 13th, he played 8 games and 100 minutes and did not hit one 3. This is the kind of play from a rotation player that can be the but-for cause of a lost playoff series.
Again, I like Alvarado and have no problem acknowledging he does a number of helpful things on a basketball court. This is not Frank Ntilikina. I just don’t think a team with slim margins can survive deep in the playoffs deploying a guard who can’t hit the broad side of a barn.
SGA seems to have mastered a go to the line hack, ala James Harden. Don’t know how much ref discretion is available based on the incidental/marginal contact standard. The NBA responded to Harden’s ( and IQs) foul baiting by targeting ” non-basketball moves” ( ie those designed mostly to draw fouls). Don’t know if SGAs foul drawing moves fall into this standard. While the rules committee is at it, how about its okay to smash a driving player if he has KATs measuarables being revisited.
Donnie, if I can flesh out geo’s response a bit more (sorry for speaking for you, geo, I’m actually just speaking for me) — in the NBA there’s probably a foul on 3/4 of the plays, somewhere on the court. Most of those aren’t called, because reasons. If there’s a player who is clearly foul-baiting, the refs can absolutely decide to only call fouls on clear contact that affects the play, not ticky-tack reach-ins or minor lower-body contact that again happens on most plays.
Because of his rep and his style of play, the refs call everything for SGA, including numerous plays way less egregious than what happens to KAT or Brunson on most drives. It might be unconscious on their part, but it’s something I agree needs to be consciously reined in.
I remember one play against the Knicks where the defender was playing perfect stand-up D, totally vertical, and Shai finally leaned into him with his back and threw up a shot over his head like “Ow, why’d you do that?” Whistle.
One play I think they can quickly regulate are the push offs he (and several others) get away with. It makes absolutely no sense to me that an offensive player can initiate contact with a forearm shiv and then have the audacity to fall to the ground while shooting a fade away/jumper. Eliminating those calls alone would reduce the infractions significantly.
I think they need to expand the definition of “non-basketball moves” and “foul baiting.”
A descent amount of the time SGA is playing for a foul. Just like Embiid. He is like a smaller version of him. They both end up airborne and sideways. It is wild. If all players were treated equally for fouls, like those 2, the game would just be a free throw contest.
There is a descent chance that in the playoffs or finals SGA wins a game just on foul shots. He got basically the same amount of foul shots himself as the entire Knicks team, then the next night gets more than the entire Pistons team.
just read that woods had a couple of hydrocodone pills in his pocket when he got picked up…like a couple of loose mints…
don’t always feel great, thank god though I don’t feel that bad…
The league let defenders physically assault Jordan back when it was impossible to stop him any other way. That wasn’t fun either.
The biggest one for me which SGA gets away with all the time is when he’s driving and intentionally leans into the defender then shoots an off balance shot. Brunson tries to do this alot too but he does it at the rim and hardly gets away with it, SGA does it from 15 ft away then purposely shoots a fadeaway as if he was drilled and knocked off balance.
Knicks and Giggles, the shove-the-defender-out-of-bounds and then spin for a layup gets my dander up — but that kind of push move to get space for a shot is a BIG part of both Jalen’s and KAT’s repertoire, so….
Donnie no one is saying don’t call fouls and make and get away with assaulting guys. Stop being ridiculous. There is a wide gap between it. People are asking to call things evenly.
Also to watch a player shoot 25 free throws is beyond boring. Since I mostly watch recaps, I jump those forward. (Unless Clyde and Mike are on, since they’re fun to hang out with on TV.) But even jumping and not bothering with this boring act, it still stops the game and frustrates the hell outta me.
No one is comparing them as players. That would be idiotic.
I am comparing them to their baseline production and role on the team.
We want 20-10+ with a 60 TS% from Towns in starter minutes. There are going to be times he’s giving us more or less for 10 or more games because of random statistical noise, defensive adjustments, he and Brunson having almost no value added chemistry, Brown being slow to adjust back or a minor knee/finger issues etc… It’s not a big deal and barely worth discussing (as I was saying practially every day during his slump)
We want ~8-10 PPG (13-14 per 36, 6-7 assists per 36), 53 or 54 TS%, 35% from 3 and good pestering defense (impact does not show up in boxscore) from Alvarado as the backup. There are going to be times he gives us more or less for 10 or more games that is just noise. There is absolutely zero reason to think that’s not what we are going to get from him because he shot poorly for a few games.
It’s all noise and fans with recency bias barking for no good reason.
I obviously don’t know, but it seems very likely at least some of his problem stems from pain due to all his inuries and surgeries. He should just totally stop playing, get his physical and mental health in order, do something about his spiritual health and enjoy his 1.5 billion another way.
I gotta say the one (only?) reason I’m glad I’m not uber-wealthy is that the few times I’ve dabbled in opioids I enjoyed them WAY too much…
Gotta be challenging becoming the best at one of the great old man games before your balls have dropped.
There’s a piece in The Athletic about the glut of young shortstops that is actually largely a drill-down description of the new approach to player development that is both fascinating and, to me, a trifle creepy.
I like Alvarado as a backup. I think his energy sparks the team. I also like him playing alongside Brunson (if the matchups are ok). Yes, he has struggled since the trade for the most part, but I think his career suggests he can be a successful backup for us.
He might be trying to hard playing in his home city. Hopefully he gets more comfortable and plays more to his career averages, which I believe is good for a backup.
They’re not even, though. Shai is supremely better than the people defending him. They foul him a lot because of it. Sure, there’s some hunting going on, but he has the body control to get to the paint at will, at which point he’s going to absorb contact from bigger guys. Seems unfair to punish the skilled players for being too good is all.
Shai doesn’t even lead the league in FT attempts per game. And he’s tied with Deni Avdija, who I’ve never even seen play in my life. That’s star treatment?
Deni averages almost 26 pts per game and is second in the league in # drives to the basket, just behind Jaylen Brown and just ahead of SGA.
So yeah, he probably gets a ton of foul calls.
Meanwhile NBA.com has SGA second in FT attempts per game (Brown again), with Deni down at like 16th.
Which kind of does suggest star treatment, since Deni is heading into the pits more than SGA and getting way fewer calls.
Shay probably earns 80+% of the calls he gets. The problem with Shai is that he just doesn’t miss any clean look inside of 20 feet. And when someone is that good, you have to get up into him to effectively guard him. And once you do that he is so crafty that it is inevitable that he will cause the defender to reach or lunge or get to the spot a split second late.
He is possibly the best scorer between 20 and 5 feet I have ever seen. If you change the rules just for him, it would be unfair. If you change the rules for everyone until he doesn’t get those calls, then it is going to hurt lots of players, including Brunson, and the likelihood is that foul calls will be even more contentious.
In real life, though, Doncic leads the league by quite a lot with Shai a hair ahead of Avdija.
But the conclusion is the same either way: guys who are good enough to get to the basket tend to get fouled, whether it’s called or not. You can’t give a guy a quota just because he’s good.
Narcissists gonna Narcissist…
Since it’s all hot takes for me today because Tuesday, I’ll just mention that it sure seems like Tiger’s had real dependency problems for going on almost two decades now. That’s one crappy entourage he has.
Must win game on the road against KD and Houston, no love lost from Knick fans from either, to win the division and host the 2nd round of playoffs…let’s refocus with what’s important and in front of us.
LET’S GO!
DEUCE IS PLAYING TONIGHT!!!!!!
What annoyed me wasn’t only SGA getting more foul calls than Mitch had rebounds. It was all of the OTHER extracurricular action as well.
This play was so egregious, when Lou Dort plowed into Josh Hart and the call was an invisible offensive foul on Hart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY67PhiGjkw
Even worse, the female ref was standing ten feet in front of Josh Hart, saw everything. She made a reasonable no call (though it was a foul on Dort). Instead, another Ref, who had no view of the action, comes running in from twenty feet away to call it an Offensive Foul on Hart. Glaring.
How to say you have bet money on the Thunder without saying you have bet money on the Thunder. The League needs to stop this nonsense.
There was another one, I can’t find it on YouTube, but it was on national TV. Chet Holmgren grabs Brunson and pushes him out of the way, to get an Offensive Rebound. Ref calls Brunson for a foul.
Ridiculous.
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