News & Blogs
Jalen Brunson Shuts Down Narrative About Knicks Being Perceived as Favorites to Win East – BleacherReport
Knicks’ full postseason schedule for 2026 Eastern Conference Semifinals against 76ers – SNY
CJ McCollum, Hawks gave Knicks the kick they needed to go all the way – Posting & Toasting
Knicks Bulletin: ‘Dude goes down and averages 30 for the first two games? Nah’ – Posting & Toasting
Josh Hart Trolls Mike Brown for Comments About Knicks-Hawks Altercation in Video from NBA Playoffs – BleacherReport
Joel Embiid asks 76ers fans to not sell tickets to Knicks fans – ESPN
How Knicks’ versatility overwhelmed the Hawks and why it matters going forward in the playoffs – SNY
New York Knicks vs Philadelphia 76ers Box Score – May 17, 2026 – The Athletic – The New York Times
Knicks vs Sixers Game 1 Preview: Examining The Keys To Victory For Both Teams – Knicks Fan TV
Josh Hart & Mikal Bridges: Knicks Key Players Explained #shorts – Knick of Time
KFS After School | PLAYOFF PREVIEW | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
Knicks vs Sixers Is the Grudge Match of the Playoffs – Hot Hand Theory
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132 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.05.04)”
The unspoken premise of geek and geek-adjacent GMs never giving out “bad contracts” and doing things like the Nimmo trade and maintaining “payroll flexibility” is that they’ll be able to effectively deploy the “saved money.”
But that only adds up if they are otherwise able to identify good baseball players to give the saved money to. So the con in which they’re engaged puts them in the enviable bureaucratic position of wide swaths of fans and media assuming high competence in the very thing that is at issue and at the core of the job.(*)
You can’t really understand modern GMing without understanding the behavior and the incentives of senior bureaucrat types, the primary of which is job and reputation maintenance. For example, the “tear down rebuild” is the perfect vehicle, if it can be gotten away with.
(*) I don’t mean to pick on David Stearns per se, but is there any real evidence that he is able to identify quality baseball players at above replacement level? Put aside the power points and the (lame ass) quarter-zips and the pompous jargon (“run prevention” lol) and the extremely low bar he had in Milwaukee and dig deep and you’ll probably find the answer is no. Certainly Milwaukee doesn’t miss him.
LOL
RIP, John Sterling. When I was a kid, I found his homerism, and his various catchphrases, incredibly corny. By the time he retired due to his health issues, I found him among the most integral pieces of my Yankee fandom.
My goodness, the Zach Lowe/Bill Simmons preview of Knicks-Sixers is insanely bad.
Do Ringer contracts contain a clause that force you to abandon any serious analysis in favour of hot takes?
I know that Maxey is great and dangerous, don’t get me wrong.
This season, he has a .536 eFG%
Here is the eFG% of Knicks starters:
Brunson: .533
KAT: .556
Mikal: .571
OG: .581
Hart: ..593
He’s going to score a bunch, but he’s not the unstoppable force that people make it seem. His value is tied to his high usage (30%) more so than his efficiency.
I can’t help but think that Alvie (and to a lesser extent, Deuce) are going to be pivotal in this series. They both have the defensive chops to slow down Maxey, and are also probably the only guys we have quick enough to keep up with him.
Here’s hoping that Mike Brown un-Siberias Diawara, at least to some extent, as another big against Embiid that we didn’t really need in the last series.
I know that Philly is the more bonafide opponent, but the amount of stress I feel is miniscule compared to if game 1 was vs. the Celts tonight.
KAT was good enough in that Hawks series to shut up even his most vocal detractors (🙋🏻♂️). It seemed like he finally bought into Brown’s system and the result was spectacular.
In this series against Embiid, though, he has the chance to achieve legendary Knick status. Many of us hate that go so much, and if we can watch KAT can fuck him up like he should, he will become beloved — even by me.
This could be an opportunity for Mikal to rewrite his script, as well, but it’s going to be much harder. No one can handle Maxey, but if he does solid work it will be a big step forward for him. I suspect his redemption arc will have to wait for a later series, though.
The Sterling news hits hard, even though passing peacefully at 87 having lived his life is basically winning the game. Listening to games on the radio will feel weird moving forward. The man had a one-of-a-kind voice, and never let his experience dampen his lifelong genuine curiosity about the sport.
Theeeeeeeeeeeeee Yankees really ought to win it all for him this year.
I don’t think this will happen unless something has gone horribly wrong or Game-6-against-the-Hawks level right. Diawara might not make my top-5 Embiid defenders on our roster.
Thinking of the 2024 Sixers/Knicks series, a couple of things that come to mind:
I-Hart was close to useless that series. Mitch did a great job until Embiid injured him. Remember at one point Thibs had to run the Precious/OG lineup to stop Embiid. The Knicks are better suited to guarding him now with KAT and Mitch.
The Sixers had Tobias Harris in their starting lineup, and he sucked. So advantage Sixers here.
However, they got a pretty good contribution from their bench. Batum, Hield and Payne shot 23-51 from deep (45%). Batum was excellent against Brunson defensively. They don’t have a long guard in the bench now who can also shoot (I suppose Grimes could guard him, but he is not the long type that usually bothers Brunson).
This will be a war of attrition. 6ers are on a roll and though Embiid is slow and grounded, he seems to be more crafty and was a very competent passer when doubled in the Celtics series. Refs will play a big part in outcome if the continuing trend of giving JoJo abundant whistle with his flops( Jaylen Brown gave kudos to JoJos flopping saying he is excellent at exaggerating at the smallest amount of contact), while KAT gets abundant O whistle. I think Knicks lose one of first 2 at home, but triumph in 7 games wearing down the bench poor 6ers.
Re Diawara: “I don’t think this will happen unless something has gone horribly wrong or Game-6-against-the-Hawks level right. Diawara might not make my top-5 Embiid defenders on our roster.”
Fair enough. Not so much as a defensive specialist on Embiid but just another big body that we can throw at him to get in his way a little bit. Could try Huk there, too…….just talking a few minutes a game.
“I think Knicks lose one of first 2 at home, but triumph in 7 games wearing down the bench poor 6ers.”
I abhor losing at home during the playoffs and putting ourselves into even a little bit of a hole. It’s dangerous as F.
This is a series where Huk might have to play real mins, not sure how I feel about that.
He’ll put OG on Embiid if KAT/Mitch are in foul trouble before he even thinks of going to Huk. A lot would have to go wrong for Huk to play a real minute.
The issue with Maxey in this series is not how good he is (we all know he’s very good). It’s how bad Brunson is defensively and how the 76ers are going to do everything they can to get Brunson switched onto someone other than Oubre (who will probably be able to burn him anyway). They will try hardest with Maxey. We really don’t have anyone to guard someone like Maxey. Shutting down a small very fast guard is not OG’s stength. It’s not Hart’s. So it’s probably going to fall on Bridges who has not shown he can still stay in front of a player like that, let alone handle it and play high level offense.
The keys for us are hiding Brunson effectively, KAT staying out of foul trouble and taking advantage of a smaller player if they don’t guard him with Embiid and using our bench depth advantage to wear them down.
I think Deuce and Alvardo could be key players in this series if we need help defending the 76er’s guards.
While I think John Sterling was a great guy and a true fan, his announcing style was only slightly less annoying to me than Johnny Most. But RIP sir, you definitely were a NY legend.
PS not a Michael Kay guy either.
E, you’re starting off with a flawed premise. “Geek” and “Geek adjacent” is meaningless framing.
The Mets are not a particularly analytics-minded team. They’re probably like in the middle of the pack when it comes to the development and deployment of analytics in team building.
The top teams, the ones that rely on “geek” stuff the most? Tampa Bay, Dodgers, Astros, Braves. Those are the geekiest teams in MLB. The teams that use analytics the least? The Colorado Rockies are the poster boy. The Angels, White Sox, and Nationals are other examples of teams that rely less on analytics.
Notice anything about the relative success of those two groups?
The Yankees, if anything are MORE analytics minded than the Mets. Bigger geeks. They were early adopters, under Cashman, of statistics-based analytics. They have invested heavily in tracking tech and infrastructure. Their bullpen and platoon usage is in conjunction with accepted analytics practices. They have used the concept of pitch design to smashing success recently with Cam Schlitter.
The jocks aren’t beating the nerds. The smarter nerds are beating the dumber nerds.
Landry Shamet may be the forgotten man on this team, but I think he can be instrumental as another live body to throw at Maxey and Edgecombe.
Agreed.
Let’s hope that if Maxey is burning us that Brown tries a few other things because our best options to defend him are on the bench.
I wouldn’t be shocked if Huk will see some non-garbage time in this series. Maybe it will come against either Drummond or Bona, but there will be a game where KAT is in foul trouble and Mitch is up against a minutes limit.
OG is so valuable that risking foul trouble on Embiid for more than a few minutes here or there might not be the best idea. But I guess we’ll see.
Honestly, I can imagine trying Diawara as more of a POA guy in short bursts. But Brown probably won’t go there either.
The main achilles heel for the Sixers is Embiid’s lack of defensive mobility. Drummond isn’t all that mobile either. I’m interested to see how Brown attacks that vulnerability.
It’s not jocks versus nerds; it’s “people who can actually judge baseball talent” versus “people who are believed to be able to actually judge baseball talent.”
Or even better, “talent” versus “bureaucratic functionary.”
Just because you use “analysis” doesn’t mean you know what you’re doing.
RIP John Sterling.
Okay, well then what’s with the “geek and geek adjacent” framing then, if it’s not jocks versus nerds?
David Stearns should know enough not to move a productive age 33 hitter for an unproductive 35 year old hitter, because the 35 year old is far more likely to become completely unplayable first, regardless of how good his second base defense is. He didn’t seem to understand this, but not because he’s a geek. He didn’t understand it because he’s fucking dumb.
Serious question JK: why do the Dodgers so often bunt their 9 hitter only to have Ohtani subsequently be intentionally walked? Do the analytics suggest that giving up an out and taking the bat out of your best hitter’s hands is a good outcome? (Cause every time they do it I think to myself “what would JK47 think about this?”)
I’m still in a state of shock and awe after seeing the Knicks annihilate the Hawks the way they did. The offense and scoring was great, but it was the defense that blew me away. The Hawks couldn’t even get into their sets!
I get that the Sixers are a different animal, but they took 7 games to barely (and luckily) beat an overhyped and not very good Celtics team. If we can play anything like we did vs. the Hawks, it should be a short series. I’m thinking Brunson/KAT and Maxey/Embiid should be a wash, and the rest of our roster is far superior to theirs.
Respectfully, it seems a bit weird that a raging argument about baseball analytics is dominating a thread on the day of a playoff game. Just sayin’.
Thibs to Orlando?
Seems like a great fit to me.
I’ve been coming here to not talk about the knicks for years, Z-Man. I’m in playoff form.
We need to beat the brakes off of the Sixers tonight lol. I have a cousin and a friend who are Sixers fans, and they are on my head today LOL. I hope we go to KAT early because I don’t know if they have a wing that they like guarding KAT, so that means Coach Brown should be able to put him in actions where he has to defend KAT on the move. And if they do put a wing on him, then either OG or Kal will have to attack Embiid relentlessly- even if that possession ends with them passing the ball. I’m so hyped up today. This is the next best thing to getting revenge against Indy in the playoffs.
RE: Mets
Please, no lol. I know we’re dealing with injuries, but that’s no excuse for the way they’ve been playing. I don’t know if they don’t like Mendy anymore, or if Nimmo and Alonso meant far more than we thought. I do think we need to cut the cord on either Polanco or Semien in a move for a true 1B. Bichette’s gonna be fine at 3rd, yet we can still move him to 2nd should the need arise. And maybe they should look at switching Benge and Roberts in the outfield. Roberts is an above average defensive CF, but I think he would be better in right and let the more rangy Benge roam center to take better advantage of Roberts’ range and arm. Semien’s a good vet and he’s still great defensively, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they keep him. But, Polanco’s definitely not a 1B. He’s better at 2nd or 3rd, you probably don’t want him displacing Bichette- and he’s super hard to trade because of his early play and injury. I dunno..maybe Stearns over-emphasized versatility. Yet the biggest headache is this team is wasting the performances of Peralta, Holmes, and McLean. They are DEALING!
“I think Deuce and Alvardo could be key players in this series if we need help defending the 76er’s guards.”
Yep, I said almost exactly the same thing about 40 minutes prior when I posted “I can’t help but think that Alvie (and to a lesser extent, Deuce) are going to be pivotal in this series. They both have the defensive chops to slow down Maxey, and are also probably the only guys we have quick enough to keep up with him.”
Have to admit that I did forget about Shamet. Is he quick enough, though?
Well, it is an analytics blog, Z-man.
“I’ve been coming here to not talk about the knicks for years, Z-Man. I’m in playoff form.”
That’s a shame, because if you watched game 6, you’d have seen a brand of basketball you were hoping to see back when you were a fan. It was like the Dream Team vs. Angola. Or the Dodgers vs. the Brooklyn Cyclones. Or Donnie Walsh vs. James Dolan.
My problem with analytics is that I think when you use data and stats, there is a tendecy to OVERUSE whatever it is you’ve just learned and miss some of the exceptions to the rules that require a more detailed dig and analysis. IMO it’s sometimes easier to inuit those exceptions.
I’m a big fan of intuition. In fact, I think it’s an area of intelligence we don’t or can’t measure well, but imo we are not all equally intuitive and it’s not fully related to other areas of intelligence we do measure.
I think teams should use all reasonable avenues of analysis and obviously including and maybe especially the data.
rama, maybe, but no one on the Hawks flops anywhere close to the way Embiid does.
I think he could have done it prior to his injury. Not like he would lock down Maxey, because nobody but maybe the Thompson twins could do that. But he would have made him work. But Shamet’s clearly not himself since he returned, which is why Alvardo has taken his rotation spot for the moment. Maybe the extra rest will help, and he’ll be more in form whenever his moment comes again in these playoffs. (And it almost certainly will if we make a deep run.)
Why is it that whoever plays the Knicks are world beaters? The Hawks play us, they are the hottest team in the NBA, we are screwed. The Sixers play us, they are not a 7th seed, they can win the Eastern Conference.
Having said that the sixers are a legit threat. Both Embiid and Maxey can have 30 in their sleep, and we don’t have great matchups for either. I think we need to do a heavy dose of mixing up the match ups, and doubling and sometimes not doubling Embiid. We need a decent dose of McBride on Maxey, and Bridges. OG went off against Atlanta, I’m not sure he’s turned into prime Kawhi. We’ll need Mikhal to show up this series – his turn to make an impact.
Marechal, I heard you about the podcast so I listened to the Dunc’d on series pre view instead. It’s one of their free ones. It was good. They spend a lot of time discussing specific matchups and issues for each team on defense. They both think it will be a close series with the edge to the Knicks because yge Knicks have a slightly better bench and Brown will use it while Nurse probably will overwork his starters. They also think it more likely Philly will have injuries.
I agree with Alan – Shamet isn’t the guy for Maxey, particularly because he’ll have to get through a lot of screens. Not great with that shoulder. And probably why Mikal is so bad at it – he doesn’t want to get hurt.
We don’t really have an answer. But that’s why Brunson has to give us more than Maxey gives them – not necessarily in the scoring, but creating good possessions, good shots, being the decoy he was during the Hawks series, etc.
“But Shamet’s clearly not himself since he returned, which is why Alvardo has taken his rotation spot for the moment. Maybe the extra rest will help, and he’ll be more in form whenever his moment comes again in these playoffs. (And it almost certainly will if we make a deep run.)”
Alan, I agree, although I think it’s as much about Alvarado playing extremely well as Shamet not being himself. Deuce seems to have come around as well.
I really hope that it doesn’t take us 3 games to figure this team out, as it did with the Hawks. We can’t keep doing that…….Mike Brown has to be a bit more agile and nimble in making the necessary adjustments.
One of the things that was odd about the BOS-PHI series is that the Sixers outshot the Celtics from 3PT range, .352 to .337. Against the Celtics, PG13 shot 22-40 (55%!) and Maxey shot 23-55 (42%), while Pritchard and White were a combined 32-110 (29%) and many of those misses were wide-open looks, including at the end of game 7.
I’m expecting that we will be better from 3 than the C’s were, and significantly better than the Sixers, who will regress.
Why not? So long as we win one or two of those games it doesn’t matter. These aren’t amateur teams we’re playing; they have great players and will put up a fight. Expecting anything less is unrealistic. In the end the only thing that matters is getting the win without getting anyone injured.
I’m not worried about the win; I am worried about the injury. Fuck Embiid.
I don’t know about that. Yes, they have the defensive personnel to kick ass in his schemes. But Orlando needs a coach who can figure out how to make this offense actually put the ball in the basket. I don’t know if Donovan (the other rumored top candidate) is that guy, but better to hire an offensive mind for the top spot and give him a solid enough defensive coordinator who will be smart enough to let Suggs and the others keep doing what they’ve been doing.
Masai Ujiri joining the Mavs. Good spot for him.
I agree with what you are saying, but I think they need another scorer and to stay healthy to do that.
To show that the geek and geek-adjacent GM is far more of a corporate bureaucratic functionary than his predecessors. (*)
And the framing wasn’t really the point; the point was more that we have to look past the bureaucratic machinations of the GMs, and the attendant fanboy squeals, to get to the substance.
If Sun Tzu were to write an updated Art of War for the bureaucratic functionary, his first principle would be something like, “Get your supervisors to lower the criteria by which you are judged.” And so within senior levels of sports bureaucracies, that would mean, “Do anything you can to get your supervisors to judge you on something other than your team winning games.”
“He maintained payroll flexibility” would be one possibility in this regard. “His farm system is ranked 8th by Baseball America” would be another.
The zenith of course, the thing that would make Sun Tzu stir in his grave with pride and a wide grin, would be, “He’s just starting his rebuild.”
(*) In large measure, but not entirely, because the teams are bigger businesses now.
All indications are that key players with the Magic are sick of Mosley. Whether the sickness is based on things a Thibs could fix is an interesting question. Maybe.
Thibs would be a far superior coach compared to Mosley, but alas, the drama.
The series will turn on in significant degree on whether KAT can remain an all-world point forward. ATL didn’t counter that conversion very well at all and doesn’t really have the personnel to do so. Philly will likely be quite a bit better at countering it.
Did it really take 3 games? They won Game 1 and choked Game 2. Both games the Knicks seemed in control of.
“The series will turn on in significant degree on whether KAT can remain an all-world point forward. ATL didn’t counter that conversion very well at all and doesn’t really have the personnel to do so. Philly will likely be quite a bit better at countering it.”
Because they’re more ready for it than the Hawks were, having already seen it in the previous series? Or because they have personnel better suited to countering it?
Or both?
The thing is, Embiid can barely move. He can protect the rim, but he can’t chase KAT if KAT is moving around at the top of the key and dishing dimes from there. Point center KAT would be huge in this matchup.
Think this will be much easier series that most realize. Our Nova boys love playing in Philadelphia under their championship banners. I’m calling Knicks in 5 and a gentlemans sweep. We only loose game 2.
The answer is that they don’t actually do it very often. The Dodgers have five sacrifice hits this year, putting them right in the middle of the pack in MLB, but the Dodgers are also second in the league in OBP, meaning they have more runners to bunt over in the first place.
I’m guessing that in the situations where they did bunt, it was in close games where they were playing for one run, and liked the matchups of the 2 and 3 hole hitters against whatever pitcher was in the game at the time.
You give up an out with the bunt, but now you have runners on first and second with some premium hitters with lots of XBH potential coming up. I’m sure the math pencils out.
There’s an additional benefit: you get Ohtani the baserunner. He’s a very good baserunner with superior instincts although he is prone to an occasional mistake like anybody else. Double in the gap, he’s probably scoring. He has above average sprint speed and great baserunning instincts usually.
Donte has been replaced by Mikal
The challenge will be to get Embiid out of the paint as much as possible. In other words, make them pay for playing drop coverage. I’m sure KAT will be a big part of that strategy.
I don’t think Embiid has the foot speed or lateral movement to deal with KAT. They going to have to guard him with PG13 most of the time.
Either way, seems like this series will be another test of Mike Brown’s coaching
I’m thinking the Knicks kick ass tonight and game 2 is a nail biter that we win because we have Jalen Brunson.
Btw this is my first game 1 since attending the nightmare that was game 1 vs Indiana, when my son threw his Knicks giveaway tshirt in the garbage in anger.
Hope he takes it home with him tonight! (-:
Interesting. I am new to analytics baseball (last followed the sport in 2009), know most of what I know about modern baseball strategy from a knicks blog.
I mainly tune into games to watch Ohtani, so the last thing I want to see is him get intentionally walked in the late innings with a chance to get a big hit. When they do the bunt>IBB thing, I a) feel cheated by my own team’s manager, and b) remember that bunting away outs is dumb per the knick fans. (As far as I can tell, sometimes the strategy pays off, and sometimes it doesn’t, kind of like everything in life — it just feels kind of lame to me regardless of outcome:)
I’ll be there with my son tonight too. Bleacher seats at section 222.
Let’s go!
I was reading a 1st rd recap on ESPN this morning talking about different trends and one of them was how much scoring has declined during these playoffs. The part that threw me off was when the writer mentioned the elite defensive teams still alive in the playoffs and the Knicks were mentioned, felt like I was back in the 1990s.
Is Jaylen Brown accidentally doing us a favor by putting such emphasis on Embiid flopping so we don’t have to do it? He is going off again today on Stream
After meditating on this one, I don’t feel good at all and I wish we were playing Boston. I was wrong to prefer the Sixers.
Maxey is the best player in the series and I am terrified of him. Nobody in the NBA can guard that guy, and he has no real weakness. He is better than Brunson offensively now and isn’t half the liability on defense that Brunson is.
I’m worried about Embiid stacking ridiculous fouls on everyone while getting away with murder as he usually does.
Comparing to two years ago:
-Sixers aren’t exactly deep but they are a LOT deeper than the last series. Oubre was their third best player and is now their fifth.
-Towns is probably better than iHart was in that series but that is offset by the fact that:
-DDV was playing like a borderline All-Star whereas Bridges is more like a borderline G-league All-Star
-Josh Hart played out of this mind shooting 43% from 3, every bit of which we needed to close them out. Not likely to happen again.
-Paul George now seems pretty healthy and is thus a colossal upgrade over Tobias Harris
-Maxey destroyed us back then and has only improved since
-We had more and better options to throw at Embiid. Precious was particularly effective.
All in all, the platonic ideal of the Sixers is just really, really fucking good, and that’s who we’re unfortunately playing. They have the two best players in the series. If they don’t fall apart due to injury, I think we lose this in 6, starting with a surprisingly uncompetitive loss tonight as we are overdue for a letdown game after that feel-good ending to the first round.
League TS% is down 25 points from the regular season.
Embiid does not have the stamina for this series. He was unstoppable in the first half of game seven then he wasn’t. He does not have the stamina for this series. Are they gonna put him on Hart? Action up top with KAT? Zone? He’s either gonna be guarding air or huffing air.
Is there a chance that Magically Reinvented Jordan Clarkson is actually a decent option on Maxey? I don’t what to think of this guy any more — he’s spotting dimes and eating onions.
Why is this asshole allowed to continue to troll this board with moronic takes like these?
The idea of trusting Jordan Clarkson on Tyrese Maxey for a single second would’ve thrown me into a panic two months ago or so, but the Clarkson we’ve seen since he re-entry into the rotation does strike me as someone who could at least make Maxey work a bit.
I mean, if I start thinking about who I trust more to navigate screens between Clarkson and Bridges, I’ll get depressed thinking about the respective prices paid for both players. So I’ll try to avoid getting too specific and just say I wouldn’t be surprised if Clarkson gets a shot at the assignment at some point.
Given that the Sixers aren’t deep and that Embiid isn’t in peak shape, if Brown doesn’t run the shit out of this team it’ll speak volumes about not knowing how to create advantages
Geez, I completely forgot about Clarkson as an additional reason why Shamet isn’t in the rotation.
An all time quote.
For the record I did update my prediction after Game 4 to Knicks in 6, which turned out to be exactly what happened!
I was also right about Brown taking too long to go to the double big lineup, which was highly effective.
Of course, I do hope to be similarly wrong here, as always. It’s not “trolling” if I think the Knicks are going to lose a series. I’d think life as a Knicks fan would have led you to grow a thicker skin.
Maxey likes it fast.
“For the record I did update my prediction after Game 4 to Knicks in 6, which turned out to be exactly what happened!”
Translated: I was so fucking embarrassingly wrong about everything (while purposely and totally unnecessarily nauseating the board in the process) that I updated my prediction to the exact opposite of what I was fucking embarrasingly wrong about, and now I feel vindicated by it to the point that I can be delighted by that updated prediction being exactly what happened!
86TGCP
Pags is Stillwell Angel from A League of Their Own
No you weren’t. Too long would be we lost the series. Try again!
Being perpetually super negative about shit doesn’t mean you have “thicker skin.” It just means you’re a wet blanket.
What an absolutely moronic take. At best Maxey and Embiid are a was with Brunson and KAT, but I’d still give the edge to KAT and Brunson because of their collective experience and the fact that one of them isn’t perpetually injured. Maxey is not better than Brunson or KAT or, at least, not enough for it to make a real difference.
More hope less mope
The sad thing about your comparison to 2 years ago is that you act like our team was better when it’s so obvious we’re better now.
2 years ago Randle didn’t even play he was hurt. So we were literally missing one of our two all=stars and we still closed them out in 6. This year we have KAT. Even if Randle was healthy 2 years ago, KAT is better than Randle.
2 years ago we had iHart and Mitch and mitch got hurt in the series. This year our center rotation is MAT and healthier Mitch.
2 years ago we had no bench. Even Bojan got hurt in game 1. This year our bench is legit 5 deep.
You also forgot to even mention Deuce, who is way better than he was 2 years ago. DDV was playing great, no doubt.
But it’s like you purposefully take the most negative stance on every single position related to The Knicks in order to what?
It’s so fucking tiresome.
Oh good, Pags is gonna do crybaby doomer shit every time the team falls behind by five points. I’m glad I have such mindless garbage to look forward to for the next two weeks.
I do love having the intelligent conversation here interrupted by some dipshit who likes to use this blog as a place to vent his stupid fucking anxiety in the most brainless and obnoxious way possible. Should be lots of fun.
We’re talking about basketball here, Clarence
You misunderstand me. I’m glad to be wrong, not embarrassed.
Delighted? Yes! Vindicated? Not really! I know I’m ridiculous. Why do you take me so seriously?
Careful! That kind of talk can get you indicted today. Just ask BPL, E, and Strat about how how we don’t do lawfare anymore.
Pags, everyone engages in dark thoughts. The thing is that we don’t go write every fucking one of them in a message board.
Pags, I for one love your special posts…keep them coming brother.
more hope less mope
i want this t-shirt…
Shit. What the fuck am I doing here.
Also it’s time for a character dynamic with a little less defense mechanism, Pags. Everybody knows you.
expectations were sky high (conference finals at least) following along in thibs’ wake…
at least a half dozen mutha fuckas had their dick shrivel when faced with the glorious opportunity to lead this forlorn franchise to the promised land…
MB stood up, erect, accepted the challenge and let everyone know the name of the game was: spray spray spray…
you signed up for this MB, make it work…
fuck, at least MB seems to listen to others, a little…
See Rama.
Fair! But I’d rather have swept them and avoided a few dings on Hart and Mitch’s bodies.
I literally predicted wins the last two games!
Sorry but I do have a principled disagreement with you there, no trolling. Of course this is assuming they are healthy, but Embiid is a LOT better than Towns on both ends still. This isn’t really debatable. Even if you exclude his MVP past and look at only his 38 games this season, he destroys Towns in every category but rebounding. Add in his golden whistle vs. Towns’ shit whistle and that gap grows wider.
Same for Brunson vs. Maxey. Brunson peaked two years ago, and that is the only year he was comparable with current Maxey. Maxey is still improving while Brunson is now a bit past peak. The numbers are pretty clear: Maxey put up more points on higher efficiency with comparable playmaking and much better defense.
It’s not a huge gap and they do have more injury risk, but I think it’s a pretty clear objective fact that they have the two best players in the series.
alright pags, so you do not dance…no shaking of the ass going on there…
how about singing pags, do you like to sing along to songs…or, better yet just let out some a cappella lyrics as the mood grabs ya…
right now got this hook looping in my mind…
This may be the night that my dreams might let me know
All the stars are closer
All the stars are closer
All the stars are closer
yeah, another dominant and engaged defensive effort, and i’ll be much more willing to believe…
Agreed! We are better than we were in 2024, though I’m not sure we’re better than we would have been with a healthy Randle.
However, the Sixers are better than their 2024 iteration by a much larger margin. They’re thin now but were downright anorexic back then. They played essentially a 6-man rotation! Any of Edgecombe, George, Grimes, and Drummond would have been their third or fourth best player.
I assure you I have not posted every fucking one of my dark thoughts, or even most of them. You’re welcome!
Oh look, JK47 is gonna do crybaby whiner shit every time someone thinks the team might not win.
Get over it! Or show me some basketball analysis as to why I’m wrong.
so ya think there’s something to work with there, do you clarence…
take notes pags…redemption arcs are almost always fascinating…
be yourself, just a better version…more acceptable to and for the masses…don’t we all just wanna be loved…
or, you know, continue to scream fuck the world whenever possible to any and all that will listen…legit option, not to be undersold for its value…
what i really wanna know pags – where do you go when you are not here?
no way are you keeping all this crazy to yourself when the knicks ain’t playing…now that is very difficult to believe…
so, who are you sharing all this shit with, when you ain’t sharing with us…tell me tell me tell me…
Just everyone stop talking to this guy. He isn’t worth effort and the gimmick is unoriginal and uninspired. Stop talking and maybe he will go away.
To be honest, geo, I don’t really appreciate music the way others seem to, which is probably why I don’t get dancing. I did listen to music some when I was a teenager, but these days I basically don’t.
I actually find that the music that has stuck with me most is from video games, from the soundtracks of RPGs I enjoyed as a young man to the catchy chiptunes from the games I loved as a kid.
It’s definitely one of my more autistic traits. When my son needed to be rocked to sleep I used to hum through a medley of songs from Zelda games for him. He’s 3 now, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss those moments sometimes.
The 76ers bench in 2024 had a few 3pt shooters who killed us during the series, I believe they made over 20 threes on over 40% shooting. This year Grimes is the only bench player on Philly that has a prayer of doing any damage against us, unless Drummond miraculously starts hitting 3s like he did one game this season against the Knicks.
It’s not about the team winning or losing.
It’s about this forum being the one place I can come without some fucking idiot ruining the conversation with bullshit. There are actual intelligent thoughtful people here, in fact everybody else here I have no problem with.
I honestly don’t remember what reub’s opinions were. But I sure as hell remember that reub was a fucking asshole who made the place worse.
There was another poster here recently who had a hard time refraining from posting incredibly annoying shit. I’m not going to name who it is because he’s a normal regular here now and nobody has any problem with him, myself included.
Not you, though! You’re completely committed to annoying the living shit out of everybody with your idiocy. You don’t give a shit about this place and you’re only here to make it worse.
Eat shit.
that was funny…hahahahahahahahahahahaha…
just squeeze your eyes tight, put your hands over your ears, pretend it’s not happening…
wait, i am willing him to vanish – now…there you go, poof to pags…disappeared…
awwww right on pags, thanks for sharing that…appreciate it…
hopefully you’ve absorbed and adapted to having a “thick skin”…it’s a hard world, and humans ain’t always so nice…
can’t imagine the ai humanoid things coming will be much friendlier…overall…
edit: as a side note pags, start checking the link in my name from time to time…
i got anxiety demons crawling up my ass non stop most times, so – music therapy is an incredible tool…
i’ll occasionally link some different sound therapy stuff that helps to balance me out a bit…
“I assure you I have not posted every fucking one of my dark thoughts, or even most of them. You’re welcome!”
Mike, Brian, Owen…assume you are dealing with this appropriately.. Somewhat disturbing…
Knicks, Stats, Humor, Some fucking idiot ruining the conversation with bullshit.
Put it in on a t-shirt.
Wow, Pags. Whenever I write a character I compile a playlist based solely on that characters personal music taste and build them while listening with them. You should at least listen to “go ny, go ny go” when posting. It might help you and us. Nobody here knows what’s going to happen in these games. Everybody has access to the data.
FWIW I am trying, geo. I did crash out a bit early in the Hawks series but before today I hadn’t posted anything negative since Game 3!
Mostly nowhere! I go to work and then I go home and do child care so my SAHM wife can stay sane. I don’t have a lot of outlets, or time when there isn’t someone who needs something from me.
Like any self-respecting and gainfully employed autist, I know how and when I need to mask. I know human beings need a general bias towards optimism to cope with the world. I’m in sales now so my job requires the mask on a near full-time basis. It’s just tiring is all.
I never show the crazy in any other context, believe it or not. I live in Canada and I don’t have anyone else to talk basketball with. On the rare occasion that I do I’m too nerdy about it for them, even if I keep the mask of positivity up. Most people just don’t want to hear anything uncomfortable, whether true or not. It’s hard knowing you can’t say what you really think most of the time.
That said, I’m usually more rational, and more often right, about things than I am about the Knicks.
Tobias Harris is lighting it up in this year’s playoffs, but he wasn’t that great a fit in Philly on that 2024 team and yeah, looking back, definitely a weaker roster. Net-net all-in, Paul George is just a better player.
Front four then: Embiid/Maxey/Tobias/Lowry
Front four now: Embiid/Maxey/George/Edgecombe
However much better Embiid was then than now is offset and more by Maxey’s improvement since then.
Advantage 2026.
Pythag was a straight up 3-3 then, Knicks outscored Philly by a meaningless tenth of a point per game, 108.3 to 108.2.
Knicks the favorite, but if Philly stays healthy it’s gonna be a tough series.
I have this weird feeling Mikal Bridges is going to have a really good two-way game tonight, and if it does it will be a portent of a title. Cuz that’s what happens on championship teams, right? Random shit like underwhelming dudes showing out in the second round feels like a thing.
“The 76ers bench in 2024 had a few 3pt shooters who killed us during the series, I believe they made over 20 threes on over 40% shooting. This year Grimes is the only bench player on Philly that has a prayer of doing any damage against us, unless Drummond miraculously starts hitting 3s like he did one game this season against the Knicks.”
This is kind of misleading. Here’s how the Philly bench shot from 3 in that series:
Game 1: 1-5
Game 2: 2-6
Game 3: 4-7 (Payne 3-4)
Game 4: 1-6
Game 5: 4-11 (Payne 2-5)
Game 6: 11-20
So for the first 5 games the bench was 12-35 from 3 (34%). In Game 6, Buddy Hield went wild and Batum and Payne also hit some, but even then they lost. Only Cam Payne contributed 3’s over the course of the series.
One big difference between this year and ’24 is that in Game 7, Thibs basically went with a 5.5 man rotation. A hobbled Mitch and iHart split time, and Deuce played 9 minutes. Our bench was really bad, and Thibs didn’t have anyone beyond the top 7-8 who was ready to play.
Really? If I posted about how the Knicks were unbeatable and guaranteed to win would you get big mad every time?
I’m not a fucking idiot. I am an intelligent and thoughtful person. You can tell because I don’t call people childish names when I don’t like what they have to say, nor do I pout about a conversation being ‘ruined’ when that happens. You do those things.
I’m really not. I love this blog and its community. I just have a different definition of what makes this blog better or worse. I like spirited disagreement and debate. I much prefer that to, say, extended discussions about non-basketball things like the Mets. I just don’t go on unhinged rants about posters who do that, because I recognize this is a shared space where different people value different things.
No, I don’t think I will.
I’ve been married to a catastrophizer for almost 30 years. When we finally experienced an actual catastrophe last year, she handled it amazingly well. My best guess is that she vents it on Hermèsblogger.org, telling people their Birkins are all fakes and the ones that are certifiably on-brand all have blemishes only she can see. So if Pags is helping his marriage by coming here, I say let him pee in the sandbox. Just don’t eat the yellow sand is all.
I agree that it’s possible that Philly is improved, but so much hinges on Embiid’s health, Paul George being able to keep up, and Edgecombe not having rookie-type problems.
But we have most definitely improved significantly, both in terms of quality of top of rotation players and legitimate depth.
“I like spirited disagreement and debate.”
Wow, that’s deep. I get it now. Thanks for clarifying.
Yes, that’s right, Pags. I would. Because that would be fucking dumb, and beneath the level of conversation that happens here. You do the inverse, and that’s just as fucking dumb.
You’re inconsiderate, Pags, that’s the basic bottom line. That’s the problem with you. You act in a way that’s childish, and you’re unapologetic about it, and have no plans to change it or work on it. Most of us here find your presence to be insufferable, and you just don’t care. You’re gonna do your dumb doomer shtick anyway. It’s rude and selfish and inconsiderate, but hey, you do you.
damn, I felt that one pags…
again, appreciate you trusting enough to open up a bit…truly…quid pro quo, if there’s anything you wanna know, ask…
get in where you fit in…and it sounds like you do get it, and are just in the process of continuing to calibrate the self regulation stuff…
like just about everyone else…
La commedia è finita!
So what exactly is Philly’s bench?
PG: Justin Edwards, the corpse of Kyle Lowry?
SG: Grimes
Wings: Barlow, Watford?
C: Drummond, Bona
That is one gnarly bench.
We don’t need no stinkin’ backup PG. Maxey played 44.6 MPG in 2024 even with the somewhat cromulent Cameron Payne and the not-yet-completely-dead Kyle Lowry behind him.
Lowry has been unplayable so far this year so Nick Nurse is probably gonna make Thibs look like Gregg Popovich with the rotations. That’s our biggest edge.
Pags at 4:42 p.m.: “I’m not a fucking idiot. I am an intelligent and thoughtful person. You can tell because I don’t call people childish names when I don’t like what they have to say, nor do I pout about a conversation being ‘ruined’ when that happens. You do those things.”
Backtrack to Pags at 3:18 p.m.: “Oh look, JK47 is gonna do crybaby whiner shit every time someone thinks the team might not win.”
on behalf of your beloved, just like to say: to heck with you dear donnie…
there is absolutely zero wrong with fully expecting the worse to happen, in any and all circumstances…and, you know it’s also critically important to simply be aware of alllllll that can go wrong, so many things, so so many things…
also awareness leads to acceptance…your wife is simply being brave to worry for you…you should thank her…
just yesterday had binged a bunch of weird shit caught on video (tennessean snow is no joke, yuch yuch yuch) in 2026…so, later in the day driving along on the I10 looking up at some serious ominous looking clouds – fully – expected to see some lights and spaceships, cuz you know, it seems shit like that happens…
and you what, haaaad something occurred, i’d have been pretty okay with the situation…
future proofing isn’t for everyone, only those brave enough to bear the burden…hero your partner is i say…
even with the philly thin bench, and them coming out of a seven game series, i’m expecting these first three games to be tough, frustrating (embiid) games…
also expect nurse to ride the starters hard…hopefully our deeper roster and full court defense wears them down…
fresher players in the 4th quarters, i like our odds in the series…
cross my fingers and hope for knicks in six…
gonna start noting the fools picking against us…
Last year the deepest teams made the finals. I think that’s gonna be the case this year.
who knew though the wolves were this freaking deep…kudos to their gm…
made me smile to see mike conley and ayo dosunmu on the court at the same time…that’s some serious next level gm’ing work done there…
like if we had picked up jose and somehow still kept yabujelly…no thanks though…
I appreciate the stenography, Doogie, but that was a retort to JK47 where I borrowed his own phrasing. It also characterizes his conduct, not his character — not calling him names.
This should be the easiest game.
The 76ers are coming off a tough game 7 win on the road and the Knicks are rested and have been preparing for this matchup.
What if the Sixers aren’t actually good?
I called the Celtics an overrated try hard team before the playoffs and I think that one might have set the land speed record for fastest time one of my takes went from contrarian to consensus. And here I am a week later worried about the shitty team that beat them?
I admit it: I have Maxey PTSD from game 5 in 2024. And I’m a little worried that Paul George got his money’s worth on that suspension and went full BALCO.
But fuck that. Knicks in 5.
Let’s get retarded, Director.
Let slip the dawgs
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