Definitely a step in the right direction: the starters played well together — and specifically, KAT and JB played well while sharing the court — Mikal attacked the basket, etc, and we beat one of the hotter teams in the league on their home floor.

Not out of the woods yet, but the KAT/JB thing is by far our biggest issue. If we’re starting to sort that out…

The very last day of the regular season includes these games:
Orlando @ Boston
Washington @ Cleveland
Detroit @ Indiana
Atlanta @ Miami
Charlotte @ New York
Milwaukee @ Philadelphia
Brooklyn @ Toronto

I’m pretty sure that we will not know our first round opponent until after all of those games have been sorted out. It should be a fun day.

Big win and fun game last night. Wow, was Mitch a beast guarding the basket. And he turned back time when he blocked a 3 too. Although Hart didn’t score a lot (or even shoot much) I noticed him flying around on the defensive end. He was all over.

Mitch sprawling across the floor with guys falling on him is not something I want to see a whole lot of in these last 3 games.

Atlanta still seems like it is a couple of players away, mainly a big and a backup guard.

TNFH made a comment about how bad the 2024 draft was, and yeah, it doesn’t look good right now. But Stephon Castle looks like a superstar-to-be and some others will probably continue developing into very good players with high ceilings: Sarr, Clingan, Holland, Sheppard, Ware, Edey, George, Mitchell…

There are also some that might turn the corner at some point, including Risacher. I’d put Salaun, Buzelis, Scheierman, and others in that category.

Bottom line: still too early to judge.

Atlanta needs a go-to scorer. It likely won’t matter much what moves they make unless they can find one. Could easily steal a series or two with Jalen and NAW cobbling together enough offense, but hard to imagine they can go the distance without a star move or another leap from Jalen.

Am I wrong for this?

I was looking through box scores from last night’s games, and noticed Wemby only played 16 minutes. So I checked to see what injury cut his night short and the opponent he played against. Saw that he didn’t return due to ribs contusion and thought, “yup..Embiid did that shit on purpose”

LOL

I agree on Atlanta. They are close, but they are still a player or two and some development away from serious contention. Good win for the Knicks. They tried hard on both sides.

“yup..Embiid did that shit on purpose”

LOL

We might not want to laugh. Mitch might be next on his list…….again.

Since we have several musicians on here, I have a favor to ask: I’m starting up a new TV podcast, and we need a theme song. Would JK or anyone else be up for writing an instrumental theme song? I would obviously pay for the work, though I have no idea how much this kind of thing costs. If you’re interested, hit me at alan@whatsalanwatching.com

Good win against a good team on the road.

I’ve not been able to watch the games much except for the recaps on youtube. Saving up my tv time for the playoffs.

But question for those watching. Why is Brown playing Clarkson so much still over Alvarado? Is it just because Alvarado’s in a slump? I thought for sure once Deuce and Shamet got back we’d see Clarkson go to the bench.

The most promising thing about last night, was the amount of two man game we saw btw Brunson and Towns. More than I think we’ve seen all season. More of that please. Also Towns is largely looking good over the past few weeks. Brunson has been off, but came through in the 4th, a bit too much chucking from in the 1st half

We might not want to laugh. Mitch might be next on his list…….again.

With the way Mitch has been playing lately, there is no doubt in my mind Embiid is plotting to injure him

Apropos of exactly nothing I see Basketball Ref has listed 72-73 block figures for Wilt even though NBA doesn’t list blocks as a stat until 73-74.

Unsurprisingly they list the 36 yr old version of Wilt blocked 446 shots for a 5.4 per game average! For comparison this would be the second most blocks in an NBA season to Mark Eaton’s 456 in 84-85. During Eaton’s 36 yr old season he blocked 79 shots.

Wilt was amazing…

Why is Brown playing Clarkson so much still over Alvarado?

Because he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

PS: Clarkson is playing a bit better these days but I’d still way prefer Alvarado or Deuce.

With the way Mitch has been playing lately, there is no doubt in my mind Embiid is plotting to injure him

That should be one of Hukporti’s functions on the roster.

Swift, I haven’t watched the last few games because I’m in NY and of course I can’t access them, but from what I’ve seen earlier, Clarkson is playing his ass off since his benching. He’s throwing himself around on defense as compared to his historic traffic-cone impersonation, and he’s not forcing many shots, which was also his historic MO. With Jose in a shooting slump, it’s why not play this version of Jordan, it’s a very good one.

It’s a bit spooky to see this reinvention of someone I’ve long given up on, but hey, we can maybe all learn something from it (if it sticks…).

Yeah, Clarkson is playing great and José not so much. Alvarado still defends well, but he’s not shooting well

Agreed. Clarkson has vastly outplayed Alvarado lately, and that includes on the defensive end. Katz and others have talked about how Clarkson looked at the extended benching and realized he couldn’t just keep playing the way he always has. There will probably be a moment for Alvarado at some point in the playoffs, but Clarkson is who I want as the ninth guy right now. Maybe even the eighth, since Landry is still feeling his way back from the injury to some extent.

There’s a decent chance we play the Raptors this Thursday in a game in which a loss would secure the Raptors as our first-round opponent, in which case…

There’s a decent chance we play the Raptors this Thursday in a game in which a loss would secure the Raptors as our first-round opponent, in which case…

Has there ever been a worse player to be named team captain than Lance Thomas?

Clarkson was functionally reinserted into the rotation on March 11 against Utah, and he’s cleaning Alvarado’s clock since then. He’s averaging 18.2/4.5/3.2 per-36 with a .605 TS%, and he’s been one of our better perimeter defenders to boot.

I’d post Alvarado’s numbers to make the comparison, but I like the guy and don’t want to be mean.

Mike Brown is making the commons sense choice, and should continue to do so.

Oh, so brown does know what he’s doing. Interesting.

Yeah, Strat is letting his priors on Clarkson color his judgment on how Clarkson is playing right now. It’s a largely different guy.

The closest players to Wilt physically since that time are Dwight and Giannis. Yet Wilt was bigger, longer, stronger, faster, quicker, more agile, far more skilled, and with likely a higher b-ball IQ than either of those two.

He lost 2 prime NBA seasons to playing in college and for the Globetrotters.

He did not have the benefit of modern medical technology, fitness technology, or other amenities that modern players enjoy (travel, diet, scheduling, etc.).

He played every minute of every game for an entire season while putting up 50 points and 25 rebounds and who knows how many blocked shots. That included (at least, feel free to check for accuracy):
-14 back-to-back
-8 back-to-back-to backs
-2 back-to-back-to-back-to-backs
-1 back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back…during which he put up 62 and 23 (OT), 54 and 31, 53 and 21, 44 and 28, and 62 and 23 (OT) while averaging 50 mpg.
-He played 19 games in the 28 days in February.

I should also mention that the pace of the game was ridiculously fast in that era…teams averaged over 118 ppg, and that’s without the 3-pt shot. Average pace was 126.2. Players mostly wore Converse Chuck Taylor hi-tops or similar.

There is really no telling what kind of stats a healthy, reasonably well rested, modern version of Wilt would have put up in today’s game. Suffice it to say that if Giannis could average 30 and 13, Wilt could easily have done that, and likely would have been substantially more dominant. Even the greatly diminished version of Wilt at age 36 was an MVP candidate playing 3500 minutes (43+ mpg in all 82 games.)

Clarkson’s effort level is off the charts right now. He still does some questionable (to be kind) stuff out there, but it is pretty cool to see how he gets up into guys’ grilles on defense.

It’s easy to forget that Clarkson is 6’5″ with a 6’8+” wingspan, and had a max vertical of 38.5″ coming out of college. He doesn’t seem to have much explosion (not sure if he ever did) but he seems sneaky athletic otherwise.

I don’t think Clarkson is a different guy but he has played much better lately….

Lucky wins are not dominant wins. The defense is terrible, lucky they didn’t go to OT cause they were gassed. We should be steamrolling teams these last few games.

“Yeah, Strat is letting his priors on Clarkson color his judgment on how Clarkson is playing right now. It’s a largely different guy.”

Not at all. Small samples just mean very little to me.

Clarkson is Clarkson. He’s not some young kid on the upswing. IMO he was never in his life “overall” as good as Alavardo or Deuce. A small number of games does not change that. It’s statistical noise and recency bias. The only thing Clarkson is better than Alvarado at is creating shots (at below league average efficiency). That may be something the voting media and Brown likes even if the defense is worse, playmaking not as good and some decsions are terrible, but not me. IMO most of our lineups would be better with superior playmaking, defense and decision making. I’l grant that in a series of recent games he’s getting results at the upper end of his 3rd string ability, but Alavarado and Deuce are both better players. That’s the choice. Do we want more Deuce or Alvarado?

Sometimes you have to play your hot hands my friend. Clarkson is one playing well and putting in effort. Alvarado has not been good lately and Deuce still coming back into shape. Also no one really suggesting he play over Deuce.

That should be one of Hukporti’s functions on the roster.

I would love to see Huk become the enforcer on this team. He has a little of a mean stral, but overall he’s still too nice. He needs to be Oakley level ornery..or Buck Williams level ornery at least lol

I will beg to differ with Strat. Clarkson was held accountable in a way he never had before. There really is no comparison between the way he is playing now and the way he played before he was perma-benched. I also remember Breen remarking on how terrible his shot selection was when he was still playing for the Jazz.

Sure, it’s a small sample, but it’s also a sample taken after a long trip to the woodshed. He now knows that he will be benched the minute he reverts to his pre-benching ways because Brown actually has choices that he didn’t have when Shamet was hurt and Alvarado was still in New Orleans.

Right now, no objective observer would play Alvarado over Clarkson except perhaps for very specific matchups. That could change tomorrow if Clarkson fritzes out and Alvarado starts shooting lights out. But for now it’s a no-brainer.

I was not a fan of the lineups that started the 2nd and 4th quarters with all 3 of Deuce, Shamet and Clarkson on the floor. Those were the periods during the game when Atlanta was dominating the offensive boards.

BTW Tony Bradley gave me flashbacks to Game 4 in. Indy where he hit a huge 3 and was +10 off the bench in 10 minutes. That’s my hope with Brown, that he will have guys outside the rotation ready to produce in situational minutes, whether it’s Huk, Kolek, or Diawara…and whoever out of Clarkson and Alvarado is not in the playoff rotation.

“I was not a fan of the lineups that started the 2nd and 4th quarters with all 3 of Deuce, Shamet and Clarkson on the floor. Those were the periods during the game when Atlanta was dominating the offensive boards.”

I don’t think Brown is married to that, probably still tinkering since he has a fully healthy roster probably for the first time probably all season. The idea seems to be to break up the playmaking/ball-handling between those 3 while Brunson rests as an alternative to playing Jose or Kolek. I’m fine with it as a way to eat minutes, so long as there’s a quick hook when it goes sideways. Seems like having Mitch out there is a must though, and it was pointed out by Breen when he was re-inserted.

He’s not some young kid on the upswing. IMO he was never in his life “overall” as good as Alavardo or Deuce.

There is not a single metric, or series of metrics, that can be spun to support the idea that Clarkson has never been as good or better than Alvarado.

On the contrary, all indicators say he’s had multiple seasons better than Alvarado’s best.

But let’s put that aside and accept for the sake of argument that Clarkson is a higher-ceiling, lower-floor player than Alvarado. Isn’t that exactly the kind of gamble an outer-circle should take in a short series against a better team?

“Right now, no objective observer would play Alvarado over Clarkson except perhaps for very specific matchups. That could change tomorrow if Clarkson fritzes out and Alvarado starts shooting lights out. But for now it’s a no-brainer.”

Agree, Z, but how can we know if Alvie might start shooting better if he gets DNPs (like he did last night—his first one since joining us, I believe—other than his first game, that 38-point horrible blowout loss to Detroit)?

I’m also not loving the supposed benching of Kool Moe D (Kool No D?).

Oddly interesting from heavy.com:
Knicks PR wrote: “Karl-Anthony Towns is the fastest player in NBA history to eclipse 16,000 points, 8,000 rebounds and 1,000 three-pointers (718 career games). He’s also the seventh player in NBA history to accomplish this.”

I was not a fan of the lineups that started the 2nd and 4th quarters with all 3 of Deuce, Shamet and Clarkson on the floor. Those were the periods during the game when Atlanta was dominating the offensive boards.

Facts. Any small lineup has to include Josh Hart.

It is a little wild to think that Brown is still tinkering and trying out new rotations with like 5 games left in the season.

But I think it’s ultimately good. We know who our top 8 guys are:

Brunson, KAT, OG, Mikal, Hart Mitch, Deuce, Shamet

After that, though, 9 through 13 all offer something in certain situations:

Alvie, Clarkson, Diawara, Huk, Kolek

Which is quite something, honestly. I don’t necessarily trust one of these 5 dudes to play heavy minutes in the playoffs but I do think there could be situations where one of them is inserted and gives us a boost or different look and throws our opponent off for half a quarter. And that can very well be the difference in a game.

With the health of this team being what it has been all season, it makes sense Brown would still be experimenting.

A 3-guard lineup is definitely not new for Brown. Idk about this one specifically, but he does do this fairly often, I suppose to give up rebounding in an attempt to go on a shooting spree (and since Josh refuses to shoot, he’s rarely a part of that). It’s kind of a risky move, but I guess he can pull the plug whenever he wants.

There’s a decent chance we play the Raptors this Thursday in a game in which a loss would secure the Raptors as our first-round opponent, in which case…

wow noble, what a crazy sorry group of players…double yuch…although lance thomas certainly did: “play the right way”, just not at a high level…

last game was the first time I lamented not having peacock, may have to sign up for next season…seems like they may have televised 5 or so games this season…

Not worth it for the number of games they show, geo. I think I’ve only missed two Knicks games the entire season by refusing to sign up for a channel I would probably never otherwise watch.

that sounds pretty right doogie…

how are you sir?

hope things are well with your health/family/work stuff…

starting tomorrow gonna take some time to reset…nothing scheduled on the calendar for a week or so…we’ll see if any sprites pop up though…

today’s been busy, a lot like the last X number of them…

noticed that I had started repeating myself to myself 🙃 also noticed I had begun stuttering in my internal dialogue…

time to take myself out of commission for a while…hopefully stay out of the car, and try to limit how much I gotta listen to others speak…just full up on life…

anyways, you’re in my thoughts…

Boston head coaches, nypost getting tmz leaks

https://x.com/nypost/status/2041644812160426000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2041644812160426000%7Ctwgr%5E8ac2485dbe9d9d0e8200e3a3939143340ff0a9fa%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fboxden.com%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D3542384

That sucks. I like(d) both of them.

All is well, geo.

Hornets have a higher SRS than the Cavs this season . 4th in the conference . They could put forth a very interesting series against Boston/Detroit.

The Hornets are a dangerous team. The East playoffs could be something.

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