News & Blogs
Knicks Notes: Rotation tweaks, OG Anunoby’s All‑Defense push and Mike Brown’s playoff belief – SNY
Steve Popper: Knicks can’t rest on their laurels in final four games of regular season – Newsday
The fun is over: everything is real now for the Knicks – Posting & Toasting
‘It’s bulls–t’: Knicks’ Mike Brown makes All‑Defensive case for OG Anunoby – SNY
Knicks Bulletin: ‘When we do, we might jump on somebody’ – Posting & Toasting
OG Anunoby’s All-Defense case caught in ridiculous NBA minutes played rule – New York Daily News
Knicks Playoff Expectations REVEALED | CP The Fanchise on ESPN (Audio Podcast) – Knicks Fan TV
The Final Countdown | KFS Weekly Recap | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
YT News
54 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.04.06)”
It was against the Nyets, but in the Hawks’ last game they shot 51% from three on fairly high volume (20-39). That’s a thing the Knicks will need to curtail. That and Dyson Daniel’s 5 steals…
This is nice to see, for a change:
Expected Lineup
PG Jalen Brunson
SG Josh Hart
SF Mikal Bridges
PF OG Anunoby
C K. Towns
MAY NOT PLAY
None
Expected Lineup
PG CJ McCollum
SG N. Alexander-Walker
SF Dyson Daniels
PF Jalen Johnson
C O. Okongwu
MAY NOT PLAY
C J. Landale Out
Random thought
I always enjoyed Zach Lowe, but his podcast is pretty much must see these days. Not only is he a likeable person, but he clearly watches a lot of basketball, looks at the data to supplement what he sees, has an endless stream of knowledegable guests on the show and covers the Knicks fairly often (and really well). I highly recommend taking the time to watch it at least when he’s talking about the Knicks.
Yeah Strat totally agree about Zach Lowe – smart dude, knows his NBA inside and out, no biases. Also feel the same way about Brian Geltzeiler on NBA radio
So we have 4 games left, and it’s either gonna be the 3 or 4 seed for us. We have Atlanta, Boston, Toronto and Charlotte and the Cavs have Grizz, Hawks twice and the Wiz. Likely scenario we go 2-2 and they go 3-1 and we own the tiebreaker so get the 3rd seed.
Really don’t think it matters tho, and maybe avoiding Boston for a few rounds is preferable. Still can’t believe that team is gonna end up winning 55-56 games.
I also don’t feel like it matters much. Tatum has been good, but doesn’t seem as intimidating as years past. Even Jordan needed more time to ramp up his game when he returned in 1995 (although he led the rest of the NBA in playoff BPM that year; he didn’t meet his own standards).
Also, I have a favor to ask (for my in-laws’ business): other than Lowe, who are your top NBA experts in the media that answer sophisticated questions? Especially on niche things like salary cap (I know Larry Coon is off building guitars), injuries, trades, coaching, etc.
(Sorry for the double-post)
I don’t know. Fully healthy, especially if Deuce and Shamet can shake of the rust, I really like our chances to go to the finals in the playoffs.
The starting lineup is a concern but I also think that while Brown will probably not deviate from it (besides maybe starting Mitch and Kat and bringing Hart off the bench)…I think with Deuce and Shamet healthy, Brown has a lot of variations he can run out there and he might have a quick hook on that starting 5 if they come out slow.
the fact that the starting 5 does better in the second half makes me just wonder if some of this is this just conserving energy and not playing to their full ability as we run out the regular season.
I’d like to avoid Philly if possible but excited to see what happens. No matter what, it is nice to know we have an actual bench this post season. Will be curious if Diawara gets burn in the post season.
I’m curious to see how the Knicks play this week. Last year they had the same exact record going into the final week then lost 3 in a row blowing big leads to Boston, Detroit and the Cavs which made me foolishly give up on them going into the playoffs.
Knicks can lose all 4 games this week and I’ll still be cautiously optimistic about their playoff chances but it would be nice to see them win at least 3 games this week and end the regular season with some positive vibes.
Yeah and stupidly I’d like us to win at least 52 games this year. It’s silly but I like thinking that we’re winning more and more regular season games each season and “improving” even if those few extra wins are meaningless.
Has anyone heard anything about Bernard King being ill?
I feel about as good as I expected to feel going into these playoffs, which is a blend of cautious oprimism and neutral uneasiness, meaning that the regular season meant very little and it’s all about whether Mike Brown and this roster has the right stuff. Frankly, I have no idea whether they do or not. The potential is there for sure, when we are cohesive ahd healthy and have it going we can surely beat anyone in the East. We are deeper than last year in a number of ways…Mitch the healthiest he has been in years, Deuce, Shamet, Jose, Clarkson, Diawara, even Huk…and Brown is willing to throw guys out there or yank guys in a way that Thibs wasn’t, for better or for worse.
I had a feeling early on that Boston would be very good and Tatum would be back, although not necessarily a 2 seed…but I actually worried that they would be our first round opponent, so there’s that! Still, they have some weaknesses and I think we can go toe-to-toe with them and wind up on top.
Nothing that any of the other teams are doing is particularly surprising. Detroit is better than I thought but I expected them to be very good, and I think Cade is the real deal, but I like our chances against them. Orlando is surprising in a negative sense, but they still have a good team on paper and could surprise someone. Philly is all about health, playing them in the first round would be no joke, and I’m really hoping it shakes out so that they get the Celts or Cavs. The Cavs might be the sleeper team, Harden and being healthy makes them more dangerous than they have been in prior years.
And there you have it. The potential to beat anyone is there, more so than in any year of this run. I’m firmly in the “get to the finals or make big changes” camp. No one other than Brunson should be guaranteed to be here next year…meaning everyone should feel like they are playing for the privilege of wearing the uniform and calling the world’s most famous arena their home court.
“Has anyone heard anything about Bernard King being ill?”
No, what did you hear?
DS,
I particularly like John Hollinger.
Fred Katz is now one of my faves.
It beats thinking that other teams are trying to lose more and more regular season games each season.
Bernard King having health problems is not a new thing. He’s been having issues since 2009 (https://nypost.com/2009/03/24/near-stroke-cant-stop-bernard-king/). But I don’t know if that is what is being referenced, or something newer.
https://x.com/JLEdwardsIII/status/2041186689394077903 Edwards coming out swinging
UNC hiring Michael Malone as their next head coach is definitely a stunner.
We’ve got problems. Hopefully the playoffs gets some extra effort out of them, but we’re probably making big changes in the off-season. Specifically, I’d lobby to see Deuce as a starter and jettisoning one of the current top-5.
Z-man, I don’t want to spread any false rumors, but someone posted on Facebook that he had passed away.
You inadvertently kind of did just spread it. He’s not dead. This is pretty easily verifiable.
Artūras Karnišovas would be a nice get by Leon to help in the Knicks front office. I think his team-building philosophies are similar to Leon’s.
Okay, so the last few games of the season is really just hoping that Toronto gets the #6 seed, right?
Philly and Charlotte could be tough, but Toronto would be so extremely easy to defeat.
Let’s just take whoever we get and be optimistic that we are a really good team that should be able to beat any of the teams below us in the standings in a 7-game series. If we cannot beat one of them, then we were never really as good as we thought we were. (I happen to think that we are. Now we just have to play like it.)
They should win all of the matchups, but you’d much prefer just sweeping a mediocre team. Look how often the Jordan Bulls swept the first round. It kept them well-rested while their opponents beat each other up.
Fair.
Karnišovas is a tough nut to crack. He was both a prominent member of a front office in Denver that drafted Nikola Jokic and made many other good moves that resulted in a championship, and one in Chicago that made some of the most mind numbing moves in professional sports. Always tough to cleanly separate a GM’s work from possible ownership pressures and the like, but I’d much prefer to shoot for the moon and see what happens if you offer Masai $25M+ Dolan Dollars a year.
The 5-8 seeds are so bunched up I’m taking a kind of zen approach and tuning out the machinations. There’s not much the Knicks can even do to influence their first round opponent, from both a wins and strategic losses perspective, anyway. There’s just too much uncertainty among the other teams.
There’s also the fact that if a bad first round matchup is a serious problem for us, well, this thing was never going anywhere (though the Hornets do kind of throw a wrinkle into that by being ECF/Finals quality for a huge portion of the season after a horrible start).
Yeah, that kind of echoes what I was trying to say.
The startling lineup stuff is mind boggling at this point. Does anyone think it would even negatively impact, say, Bridges’ trade value if we gave him 30 minutes off the bench?
Teeny tiny 94 minute sample size, but Brunson-Deuce-OG-Hart-KAT is has a +34 net rating. 134 offensive, 100 defensive despite good opponent 3PT shooting (38.6%). Sigh.
At this point, I’ve come to believe it’s not about trade value, or even about optics vis a vis the trades. I think there is something that two different coaches have now seen about the fragile locker room dynamics that’s convinced both of them that benching one of these guys would somehow do more harm to the team’s chemistry than the offense and defense would benefit from slotting Deuce or Shamet in in their place.
I think you can get Karnišovas to work FOR you, though, and there’s no way Masai is taking any sort of deal where he’s Leon’s #2.
Not a bad start so far.
KAT’s D has really come a long way.
One of these days hopefully a team will stop shooting 3s against the Knicks as if all 5 players on the court are Steph Curry.
Brunson looks like shit though.
If they’re gonna keep switching Johnson onto Brunson, this won’t go well.
Are we saving game threads for the playoffs?
Bridges came to play tonight.
Playoff Mikal
Clarkson is also becoming a great defender.
This lineup can’t rebound.
Except for Mitch obviously!
Mitch is wrecking the Hawks
Yeah, game threads are on load management until the playoffs. Too important, to risk it this late in the season. 😀
Hawks have no answer for the majesty of mitch
Clarkson is not the player he was in the first half of the season. Thankfully.
Yeah Clarkson looks like a man possessed out there.
Brown has a lotta options on the bench when we’re healthy
We should be up by more but we gave them nine (!) offensive rebounds already.
Offense looks good except for those nagging ghastly turnovers
too many O rebounds by Hawks
The Hawks didn’t shoot better than us but got 12 first half offensive rebounds and put up 15 shots more than us. Yes, 15 more shot attempts in one half! Look no further.
I guess we gotta hope Walker doesn’t make every shot he attempts in the second half
KAT having a game!
Why is nobody howling about this game? I took a few peeks (I’m in NY so of course I can’t watch it) and tuned in for the last minute on NBA play-by-play and holy cow!
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