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Stephen A. Trolls Josh Hart in New Video, ‘You Haven’t Won a Game Since You Clapped Back at Me’ – BleacherReport
Game Thread: Knicks at. Grizzlies, April 1, 2026 – Posting & Toasting
Knicks’ Jalen Brunson: Ruled out Wednesday – CBS Sports
Knicks close out four-game road trip with wire-to-wire win over Grizzlies – SNY
Knicks 130, Grizzlies 119: “Dang is that stat right? Only 20 rebounds for the grizz” – Posting & Toasting
New York Knicks vs. Memphis Grizzlies Live Score and Stats – April 1, 2026 Gametracker – CBS Sports
Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby help Knicks weather the storm against Grizzlies and snap losing streak – SNY
Knicks Nightcap | Beat the Grizzlies but lost to contenders | Blue Note Whiskey – Knick of Time
Knicks vs Grizzlies Reaction: KAT Steps Up, But Are Concerns Still There? – Knicks Fan TV
The Playoffs Can’t Come Fast Enough | KFS After School | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
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108 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.04.03)”
Big news for Brunson that Cade is now going to be ineligible for the All-NBA team.
We’re getting some funky ass All-NBA teams with all of the dudes ineligible for it this season.
I’m going to say only this… just imagine Michael Jordan missing the first 18 games of a season injured, then proceed to have the best season of all time in the 64 remaining games…
Just take the L, Silver, and we can all move on.
I’m hardly a Rob Manfred diehard, but the extent to which his reforms have been great compared to Silver’s flops is something to behold.
It seems easy enough to set some kind of awards threshold that doesn’t punish guys for bona fide injuries, and yet here we are having to consider the all-NBA case for Scottie Barnes.
Yeah, Silver has had good intentions with deterring tanking and load management, but his methods have largely backfired.
I think there should be a minimum game threshhold, but 65 games is probably too tight. Maybe somewhere in the 55-60 game range? 60 would essentially mean 75% of the season. 55 games would be 2/3.
Here’s a way to address tanking: Go back to an unweighted lottery for all teams that miss the playoffs, and give teams that win in the play-in an extra pick in the beginning of the second round (31st and 32nd for 7th seed, 33rd and 34th for 8th seeds) that can’t be traded until after the draft.
Our starting five with Brunson, Towns, Bridges, Hart and OG is actually statistically among our worst.
Seems like the pairing of Brunson with Towns ai n’
t so great in this system.
Brunson pairs very well with Mitch and KAT pairs well with almost any other point.
If they don’t fix this issue, the season will end quickly.
If these guys really cared about winning a title they would switch some things up. Mikhal for instance I think would fit better as 6th man but there is no way they will accept these kinds of changes. The only thing to do is to move Hart to bench and start Mitch or Deuce
There was so much smoke that people wrote here for weeks about how OKC is where wives modeling careers go to die.
No need for games threshold, it’s an indirect solution to the problem of excessive rest. Let the voters decide, and if they’re stupid, or smart enough to select a player who rests half the games, so be it.
If you want players to rest less, reduce the number of games, reduce the number of b2bs, do random physicals to reportedly injured players. Find a solution that directly addresses the problem.
Actually, if they REALLY cared about winning, the best answer would be to bring KAT off the bench and start Mitch. Obviously the politics make that an impossibility, but it would probably be best for the team.
The seeming readiness to move Hart to the bench strikes me as more of an acknowledgment that it’s the easiest move politically than anything else, because there’s very little evidence he’s the “problem” in the starting 5.
It is a little odd that Brown returned to last year’s starting 5 after a slow start even though Brunson-Mikal-OG-KAT-Mitch was +11.8 in 51 minutes and hasn’t touched the starting lineup since even though the new one has been so middling, but there are still plenty of combinations of Hart with other starters that have performed well.
It’s the specific 5 that has been a dud, and yet we stick to it religiously. I’d be fine with benching Hart because it’s a change and one is long overdue, but my intuition is the optimal move would actually be to make Mikal the 6th man and start Deuce or Mitch in his stead.
People instinctually recoil a bit at the Hart/Mitch overlap due to spacing concerns, but they’ve produced a 121.1 offensive rating in 1,080 shared minutes since Hart arrived. Seems fine!
i’m with you darules, excellent post…
“…but my intuition is the optimal move would actually be to make Mikal the 6th man and start Deuce or Mitch in his stead.”
I know that Deuce has some magical lineup impact data, but to me he’s very similar to Mikal, enough so that I don’t think this switch would solve the slow start problem.
OTOH, Mitch is nothing like any of the current starters. He brings two things that could jump-start that opening lineup…offensive rebounding and rim protection.
I’m pretty serious in feeling that swapping out Mitch for KAT would be a net positive, but we’ll never know, will we? Just like we’ll never know what swapping out Deuce for Mikal would do. Neither of those things have a prayer of happening, do they? But there is a KAT problem at the start of games for sure, and Mitch, either replacing him or next to him, seems like the best way to address it.
My guess is that the only feasible change (politically speaking) would be bringing Hart off the bench, and starting Mitch (more likely) or Deuce (less likely.) But I suspect that at this point, Brown will just roll the same lineup and maybe have a quicker hook….unless a couple of playoff losses force his hand.
What Deuce brings that Mikal doesn’t is a willingness to shoot the damn ball. Our 3PAr is 47% with Deuce on the floor and 41.5% with him off. The numbers for Mikal are 42.6% and 44% respectively. It’s hard to imagine we’d even lose much defensively since between Hart and OG we’d still have a lot to throw at opposing wings (and of course, Mikal would have a massive role off the bench).
Mikal’s ability to score unassisted is theoretically a good fit for a bench role, and in small sample sizes lineups with him on the floor and most or all of the other starters off have performed well.
But for whatever reason, it seems unlikely this debate moves beyond the academic. The plan seems to be to go into another playoffs with a starting lineup we have to actively overcome.
To me this season Bridges defense has been so good that benching him would probably be a mistake.
Good morning, all!
I don’t think that is a sentiment that is widely held in these parts, BBA.
“Our 3PAr is 47% with Deuce on the floor and 41.5% with him off. The numbers for Mikal are 42.6% and 44% respectively.”
I don’t find these numbers particularly compelling. Nor do I think the glaring issue with our starting lineup is that they don’t shoot enough 3’s, or that it would be solved by a 5% increase, which seems pretty minimal to me.
In fact, I see the issue as being much more about other teams getting lots of good looks, both from 3 and at the rim, and the Knicks going one and done on offense, including missing good looks from 3. Having Mitch in there would bump everyone but Brunson down a position….KAT becomes a giant stretch 4, OG becomes a huge SF, Bridges a good-sized SG. That strategy worked quite well for Minny with KAT and Gobert in the starting lineup…and Thibs finally went to it in the playoffs but probably too late.
The irony of this statement should be lost on no one. I mean, we fired Thibs because he was too rigid and wouldn’t change and he only started Mitch in the playoffs after we got in the hole against Indiana.
Meet the new boss….
The thing about the starting lineup issues that make no sense to me is how bad they play together in the 1st quarter but then they play so much better in the 4th quarter.
And why he was fired. And yet Brown is doing the same thing.
So either these supposed vets who want to win a title are too stubborn to actually make the sacrifices required to make the team work the best it can or Brown is no different from Thibs and Thibs was fired for no good reason.
Yeah, that is odd. But maybe also hopeful for the playoffs? It’s just a lack of comittment and intensity to start the games.
A 5% 3PAr difference is pretty significant. Would be the difference between the 3rd and 16th rate in the league. Also seems intuitive to me that the guy who shoots 9.8 3PA/36 would lead to this difference compared to the guy who shoots 5.7.
They may be similar but also part of the egos on this team. At least the minutes per game are down which is meant to save energy for playoffs and hopefully leave room for guys to play more in playoffs.
At least he gives us somewhere to trend up
“A 5% 3PAr difference is pretty significant. Would be the difference between the 3rd and 16th rate in the league. Also seems intuitive to me that the guy who shoots 9.8 3PA/36 would lead to this difference compared to the guy who shoots 5.7.”
If we were talking about replacing all of Mikal’s minutes with Deuce, this might be relevant. But we’re not. We’re largely talking about 6-8 minutes of play in the first Q. A 5% change in 3PAr would maybe result in around 1 additional 3 attempt instead of a 2. we’re talking about less than a point difference in that 8-minute span. Even two more 3’s instead of 2’s in that span, given the slight difference in TS%. would not make much of a difference in the context of this conversation. One would have to assume that those marginal 3’s would either all go in, or that the marginal difference in spacing would make a difference on all shots.
Sorry, I don’t see it making any noticeable difference, at least on that basis.
Playoff games often come down to 1 point. Just sayin!
It seems easy enough to set some kind of awards threshold that doesn’t punish guys for bona fide injuries, and yet here we are having to consider the all-NBA case for Scottie Barnes.
if you sort by 24-25 vorp here to see the awards slippage from injuries plus the dreaded 65 rule plus the winds of change, it screams 1994 90210 when brenda and dylan left.
https://www.entropyisrude.com/65-game-tracker.html
Checking out the Knicks and the Cavs remaining schedules, it looks like there’s a better than even chance we fall to the 4th seed.
The question is: does it matter? We have no idea who the 5th and 6th seeds will be once the dust settles, and if we get to the 2nd round it would be Detroit as opposed to Boston
The way Boston is rolling and with the questions around Cade’s health, I almost think we’re better off in the 4th spot
I should also point out that there doesn’t seem to be much of a league-wide positive correlation between 3PAr and winning, or TS%, or eFG%, or ORtg. I don’t understand why swapping starters for the purpose of marginally increasing 3PAr makes any sense. There would need to be much better reasons for making a change than that, such as Deuce is a much better POA defender, or secondary ball handler, etc.
who knows man, maybe MB surprises us all come playoff time, and depending on our matchup has josh come off the bench and starts either: mitch, deuce or landry…
Just a wild guess, but they all probably help the team performance better the first 6 to 8 minutes of each game…
plus, putting mitch at center should help the team feed him more on offense early…
Remember though d-mar that Knicks have tiebreaker vs Cavs.
“Playoff games often come down to 1 point. Just sayin!”
Right, so if we only have to come back from a 15 point instead of 16 point deficit in the first Q we win all those games. Got it.
We very well could have gone to the finals last year if we had scored one more point in regulation of game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Yeah, I’m guessing that at worst the Cavs go 4-1 (It should be tough for them to beat ATL twice in a row) and we go 3-2, and it comes down to us having the tiebreaker. I like out chances better vs. DET, so if we go 2-3 I won’t be all broken up about it.
It will be interesting to see what happens in that April 9 game at MSG vs. the Celts. I’m guessing that they are very eager to face us in round 2, and if Mazz rests some guys, that might be telling.
“We very well could have gone to the finals last year if we had scored one more point in regulation of game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.”
Right, it was that missed FT in the first Q that lost us that game. Got it.
That April 9th game is the first of a back to back for both the Knicks and Celtics so the injury report might be interesting.
I like the ideas of starting Mitch. Especially if we can increase his minutes to at least 25 minutes per game, preferably 30ish.
OG moves to the SF role. Which helps him kind of act as a free safety. He doesn’t have to be a little out of position at PF.
Mitch would really help us protect the rim, and hopefully allows KAT to focus more on offense. KAT did well with Gobert playing the PF his last year.
This would be a proactive move. Teams would mostly have to adjust to us, being a very big team. I think moving Hart to backup would work if you start Mitch.
Z-man are you suggesting that any shots missed would effect final score?
JR I’m suggesting that in the context of a discussion about disrupting the starting lineup so that we don’t get off to slow starts, interjecting about a 1-point difference sounds kind of troll-ish.
Considering The Pacers tied game one at the end of regulation on a last second shot, I’d say, yes, a missed free throw in the first quarter made the difference. We would have won by 1 point.
It’s wild to me that you think small improvements couldn’t make a difference in a playoff series.
Maybe we should just do away with the first 3 quarters all together, since they don’t matter!
Since you acknowledged Deuce’s lineup magic off the bat, I was assuming you were already aware that the team’s offensive rating is 124 with him on the floor this year, is 121.5 if you include all of last year as well, the defensive rating numbers are 113.7 and 112.7 respectively, and that all of these numbers pretty much hold up even when you filter specifically for Deuce on, Mikal off minutes (120.6/111.4 this year).
“Considering The Pacers tied game one at the end of regulation on a last second shot, I’d say, yes, a missed free throw in the first quarter made the difference. We would have won by 1 point.
It’s wild to me that you think small improvements couldn’t make a difference in a playoff series.
Maybe we should just do away with the first 3 quarters all together, since they don’t matter!”
Not gonna dignify this stupid shit with a response.
@NBA_NewYork
Mikal: “…We got a lot of talent…Just got to share the ball, play off each other, try to make right reads…Just learning. We know JB really skilled…I don’t feel like as a player, knowing how great a talent he is, every time he has to give it up. I don’t believe that. His skill’s undeniable. I think our offense and trusting that everybody else can make plays and don’t have to make it too stagnant for one person—makes it easier for the other teams to guard us”
https://x.com/NBA_NewYork/status/2039847822023884924
Posted last night, but interesting Mikal quote
Unfortunately, the problem is that too many NBA stars are spoiled, entitled jagoffs who don’t actually want to play basketball that badly.
1st 9 years of Larry Bird’s career (pre-back injury) – Never played less than 74 games.
In Magic Johnson’s 13 year career, he played less than 67 games only twice.
In the first 13 years of Hakeen Olajuwon’s career, he played less than 68 games only once.
In Patrick Ewing’s 17-year-career, he played less than 65 games only five times and had an 8-year-streak of playing in at least 79 games.
It sucks for guys to lose out on awards (and bonuses) they probably deserve, but that’s entirely the fault of the players and their enablers.
“Since you acknowledged Deuce’s lineup magic off the bat, I was assuming you were already aware that the team’s offensive rating is 124 with him on the floor this year, is 121.5 if you include all of last year as well, the defensive rating numbers are 113.7 and 112.7 respectively, and that all of these numbers pretty much hold up even when you filter specifically for Deuce on, Mikal off minutes (120.6/111.4 this year).”
As I said, there might be reasons to prefer starting Deuce over Mikal, but I don’t think the marginal difference in 3PAr is one of them. I also think that there is zero data on actually starting Deuce over Mikal, since Mikal has started every single game for every team he has played on since the 2020-21 season.
But by your logic, why not start Deuce over Brunson? His on-off numbers are even better vs. Brunson than vs. Mikal! And the gap in 3PAr is even bigger! And you’d eliminate the problem of Brunson’s shitty defense from the starting lineup!
Knicks and Celtics in the ECF would be epic* !!
*but only if we win 😛
I’m with BBA, i think Mikal’s defense has been good. And we’ll need it even more from now on, because we all know defense matters much more in the playoffs than in the regular season.
Problem with this pair is they don’t work well enough on offense together to be worth the defensive issues. Brunson is best with a defensive center behind him.
That means I win!
Players get injured today because they’ve been grinding since they were 6 years old in a way that nobody before ever did. Older players started working hard in high school or a little earlier. At no time in NBA history did players put their bodies through as much cumulative stress and wear as the players of today and nobody has worked harder, with a few exceptions, than the players of today.
You’re joking, right?
cyber, swifty is a personal fave so I’ll give him this one!
The diplomatic translation: Jalen Brunson needs to give the ball up more.
Bridges is threading a needle here. He’s clearly been asked about ball movement and stagnation, a real issue when JB goes into isolation-heavy mode, but he can’t just say “JB holds the ball too much” without blowing up the locker room. So he wraps a critique in a compliment.
The tell is in this phrase: “I don’t feel like as a player, knowing how great a talent he is, every time he has to give it up.” That sentence is doing a lot of work. He’s essentially saying: “JB is so skilled that players defer to him even when they shouldn’t have to, and that creates stagnation.” The “I don’t believe that” kicker is him asserting that even elite talent doesn’t justify ball-stopping offense.
Then the closing is the real message: “Don’t have to make it too stagnant for one person — makes it easier for the other teams to guard us.” That’s a direct diagnosis of a real problem, delivered in the gentlest possible way.
Bridges is frustrated, it shows in his play. He’s a guy who thrives in motion offense, off-ball movement, and quick reads. He was acquired to be exactly the kind of player who benefits from a flowing system. If JB is in hero ball mode late in games or in critical stretches, Bridges becomes a spectator, which is a waste of his specific skill set.
This is a player politely but unmistakably telling his star teammate – through the media – to trust the offense.
I think Patrick Ewing’s game would work well in the modern NBA, but Patrick Ewing’s 1985-2000 body would be WRECKED in the modern NBA (you could argue, of course, that modern day Ewing would have had different physical conditioning).
On a side note its been a pretty fun start to the Yankees season!
God, Mikal Bridges is still bitching.
Athletes tend to have a difficult time with skill erosion and so instead lash out and blame other people for their poor performance. Mikal’s fault list includes Tom Thibodeau, whatever malevolent influences caused him to need (*) PJ Tucker’s comfort food presence, and now Jalen Brunson.
(*) Or “need.”
More defensive running now, but far less physical grinding, and materially few possessions per game now. Probably a push. No reason to believe peak Ewing would be ground down by more close outs in lieu of way less physical pounding by bigger bodies, and less running in transition.
Oof Luka out for the season. Sux for him but FU LA.
KAT out. Sure is quiet around here!
Last game this season against a losing team, shit gets serious starting next week!
Yabu is making me mad for Bulls fans lol.
Nice discussion of how Jordan Clarkson has completely changed his game in the Athletic.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7169356/2026/04/03/kon-knueppel-hornets-knicks-trends-nba/
Back to back games Knicks start out not messing around, good to see.
Mitch in the starting lineup and we’re up 16-1.
Hmmmm…
Mitch didn’t play last game and Knicks scored 48 pts in 1st quarter, hmmmm…
Did NOT recognize Sochan there!
Fair point. I guess the moral of the story is don’t draw any conclusions from beat downs of blatantly tanking teams.
Yeah but for sure Mitch is physically looking incredible right now, him staying healthy throughout the playoffs being able to play 20+ mins per game would be huge.
mitch mitch mitch mitch…mitch mitch mitch mitch….mitch mitch mitch mitch….
He playedeight of twelve first quarter minutes. I gira it was Sochan who backed him up?
now that you mention it KfniNJ, I think you’re right…no huk…staying small with just mitch…
Wow.
bulls seem like the worst bad team we’ve faced in a while…
billy donovan should just go back to the college game…
The Bulls are godawful…like a G-league team.
Remember 8 games into the season when everyone thought they were breaking out? Lol
jalen, deuce, OG, KAT, mitch…best starting knicks’ five…
poa defender deuce, free safety OG, rim protector mitch…
bench: mikal, josh, landry…if needed: clarkson, huk, kolek, sochan, jose…
we suck, couldn’t even put up 80 in the first half against the bulls…
we are the worst…
This might be the worst defense I’ve ever seen in an NBA game.
The Warriors title teams might have put up 200 against this Bulls squad.
I am enjoying the heck out of tonight’s friday night knicks offering…
I think you guys might be right. Maybe it was KAT holding the offense hostage. Holy shit. The way Brunson is playing is the way I want him working early in the game. Soften the defense with the other weapons, then take charge and kill em later on. But seriously- even against Chicago, who knew the offense would hum like this with Mitch as the starting 5?
No..no..I think we all knew this could happen whether it’s Mitch in the middle or Hartenstein without Randle.
Knicks dominate Grizz without Brunson
Knicks dominate Bulls without KAT
I think it’s pretty obvious – bench Jalen and KAT
Bulls suck, Grizz suck –
But, Brunson and Towns need to figure out how to work together on offense or the pairing doesn’t make sense
“Okuru” in the game.
I call that move the Funny Brunny
UConn choked a perfect season to Staley. Why didn’t the Knicks hire her
Poor Mac McClung… put that fucker in, Billy!
most competitive NBA game today may end up being the pelicans versus the kings…
Mitch = Free Agent
Bulls have plenty of space
NBA playoffs are gonna have to be awesome, cause this regular season has sucked worse than colitis.
look at that donnie, you’ve built such stalwart defense against any knick fan type emotional injury – you are completely unable to access any joy what so ever from smashing the bulls on a rando friday night in, whatever month it currently is…
I hope at some point you are able to search deep within yourself one day to get that joy back…
tonight felt good…
there shall be no joy thieving of any kind allowed…look within…
Oof. Giannis is asking the league to investigate the Bucks for not playing him. That is going to have an ugly ending, and now we might not get him.
oh yeah, ho hum, ‘nother 50 win season…whatever…
Silver has issues. The Bulls tonight should be one of them.
Lol KAT on the bench with a very interesting hat.
The Bulls issues trickle down
Entire bulls rosters seems like a mix of small guards and tweener forwards
donovan looked like he was sucking on a lemon all night…
Billy would be wise to head to UNC or maybe even take over for the Magic..
very amazed to just learn that there is a five foot, seven inch japanese baller in the nba…
that is some kind of journey there…
or adam silver has a serious team tanking problem…
At least Clyde was in playoff form. Who knew that waiting and fornicating rhyme?
The Bulls had some guys who looked like they were playing because they won a contest at halftime.
Fifty wins. Fifty. 5—0.
I guess that was an NBA game… but 50 wins is 50 wins
come on down and suit up, you too can play for a nba tanking team…
will say, our end of the bench keeps looking better each and every season…
3rd season in a row with 50 wins. I mean, life isn’t all bad!
It’s early in the MLB season but this Mets team has appalling fundamentals.
Carlos Mendoza is not good at this.
The best thing about tonight’s game was seeing Deuce stroke it from 3 just like old times.
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