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Knicks Notes: How Karl-Anthony Towns unlocked Mike Brown’s ‘equal opportunity’ approach – SNY
How Knicks’ Mikal Bridges turned his playoffs around – SNY
Why Stephen A. can see a championship in the Knicks’ future – ESPN
Miles McBride’s ‘Golden Child’ tattoo turns sibling rivalry into Knicks fuel – The New York Times
P&T Interview: Danilo Gallinari on his time with Knicks, the success of international players, making it in the playoffs, and more – Posting & Toasting
Knicks 144, 76ers 114: “KAT is a better shooting Jokic” – Posting & Toasting
Knicks Life Crisis Intro Show | Knicks , Friendship, Fatherhood – Knick of Time
Tim Bontemps of ESPN on the Knicks Proving EVERYBODY Wrong! | INTERVIEW | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
Pistons/Cavs Hate-Watch-A-Long – The Strickland
Will This Hurt The Knicks NBA Finals Chances?! – Knicks Fan TV
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220 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.05.13)”
It won’t take a big offer to cause us trouble. Anything starting at $2.7M (120% of the minimum) would require us to use the TPMLE to match, and that would hard cap us at the 2nd apron.
With no hard cap, we can bring back everyone (except Mo, if he gets an offer) and use both our draft picks.
With a hard cap, we can keep Mo but would have to break up the rotation somehow. At least one of Mitch, Mikal, or Josh would need to go. Landy and Alvarado would be in danger, as well. And who knows what we’ll do with the picks.
This is really all about maintaining the improbable Giannis fantasy. That’s probably why we only gave Mo the one year deal in the first place.
The real cost of going over the 2nd apron is we can’t get Giannis. But we probably can’t get Giannis anyway, and I think it’s time we finally admit that and stop making sacrifices for a player who isn’t even on our team. Maybe with the playoffs this team is having we finally will.
Jesus, Dylan Harper. This is Shaq & Kobe again.
We might not actually have a multi-year window bc the whole damn league has just this chance to win a title before these guys are ready.
What Hubert said about Mo is the nub of the problem. Even though we drafted him and he has never played for anyone else we have no special signing rights while for everyone else on the team we can go over the apron if we want to we can’t for him. It’s very frustrating.
One thing I have to say – i am glad we are in the eastern conference and not having to go up against OKC and San Antonio in the next few years. Those teams are stacked with young players, lots of draft picks, and smart management.
Regarding the Diawara problem – we are in a very tough spot. I can definitely see some team with lots of available playing time and more financial flexibility making an real offer to him. I find it very surprising that Brock Aller didn’t attach some sort of team option or nonguaranteed 2nd year contract.
My guess is we are going to have to trade Deuce and Alvarado then salary dump Dadiet (creating another ~$11MM) to create enough space to re-sign Mitch to a reasonable contract and also keep Diawara. Kolek will be the backup PG, we re-sign Shamet using EB rights, keep McCullar plus probably 1 or 2 of the drafted rookies (and trade the other picks or players to preserve second apron space).
I think if we win it all, or come very close, we just go all in, go over the second apron for a few years, and enjoy a few years of top quality hoop before we let it fall apart and presumably retool around Jalen for a second push. That second push would be unlikely to go far unless we get really lucky in the draft and add some cheap talent – we would probably look more like the Warriors the last few years – but it would still be a good time while we back in the afterglow of a championship or two.
Championships are forever…
As for keeping Diawara, I hope we do, but I also think it highly likely we can replace him in the draft. I expect a big to be available and maybe a top wing or two, any of whom would protect similar upside.
I do wonder what Mitch’s market will be – he is undeniably impactful but how much can a team really offer a backup center who probably can’t play more than 20-25 minutes and doesn’t play back to backs?
I am guessing maybe the NTMLE which is $15MM.
Lakers + Luka are lurking. Lots of cap space and he would be so good catching lobs from Luka. He just doesn’t seem like an LA guy though.
Maybe we create an Aspiration-like sponsorship with Ford F-150 or such? lol
I would never consider trading Deuce to keep Diawara.
No one in the world doubted Leon’s vision more than me. But it’s been realized, and it’s fucking glorious.
Run with it — for multiple years. We have the money.
Mo’s not part of it yet. He may never be part of it. He’s all potential. Deuce and Mitch are integral.
Re: Mitch, I think if we play San Antonio in the final his market price will go up considerably when people see his defense on Wemby.
Deuce is going to need a new contract after next year — and honestly he is a little duplicative with Shamet who is also bigger than him and has a little more juice off the dribble. I love Deuce but I would love him much less if he were making $15MM/year which is what he’ll probably get on his next contract…
Anyway – i am going to try not to think about offseason stuff when we are on this glorious run. This really is the best Knicks team of my lifetime and I am old.
I hear you on the offseason. But respectfully, Frank, if this is the best Knicks team of your lifetime, why would you want to break it up to save Dolan money? We need Deuce and Landry (and Mitch, and Alvarado, and our two picks… hell I even want Clarkson back!).
The one guy we don’t need is Mo. I want him, and I hope he doesn’t get an offer so we can keep him, but he’s a luxury and it’s likely we can replace him with one of our picks this year. We can’t replace Deuce or Mitch.
win or lose, if we make the finals, Leon has to run it back as best he can. You can go past the second apron for a year and then reset the following year. If we lose to Detroit or Cleveland, then harder decisions have to be made.
Meanwhile, I find Edwards’ analysis hit or miss, but this is a pretty good breakdown of the strengths and weaknesses of the other two Eastern teams as potential opponents for us in the ECF.
I’m getting worried that Detroit has made Mitchell wake up from his slumber. He was awesome on Monday and has now been good for three games in a row after a very disappointing playoffs. Mobley was also very good defensively (8 stocks, switching all around, etc). Plus, I think their depth matches the Knicks’. They don’t have a lot of Center/PF depth, but their guard/wing depth is pretty good (Strus, Schroeder and Merrill are their 6th, 7th and 8th men; Keon Ellis is not even playing).
Detroit, on the other hand, has a huge Jalen Duren problem. People are considering whether he needs to be benched for Paul Reed. Isiah Stewart hasn’t been great. And Cade seems pretty gassed at this point.
Am I crazy to think that Detroit is the better matchup at this point? I know the Cavs have nothing to replicate Ausar’s impact on Brunson, but KAT might actually be better off facing the Detroit centers at this point, plus they have clear weaknesses on each side of the ball (Robinson and Ausar).
One last thing: if the goal is the championship, Detroit certainly would prepare them better for the Thunder defense.
Edit: Alan, I hadn’t seen Edwards’ article before writing the above. I suppose I don’t put as much emphasis as he does on the regular season performance against them. I also don’t think this is particularly relevant: “Detroit has a personal vendetta that the Cavaliers don’t outside of just trying to take down the Knicks for a chance to advance.”
Ok, one more thing. This is quite silly from Edwards in my view:
If you think that the Knicks’ worst defensive trait is how they give up 3s, why would you want to face the team with the 9th highest 3PA rate vs the one with the 29th? Unless you are putting stock in the small sample shooting numbers of the playoffs (which is what Edwards is doing), this makes no sense as an argument.
He’s literally quoting Cade’s playoff 3P% in the playoffs as a evidence that “he found his shooting stroke”. Dude. It’s literally 22 3PAs against the Cavs.
So glad Katz is covering the team during the playoffs.
Yeah I’m coming around to Clarence’s POV and wanting Detroit.
Cleveland is only impressive at home. But Detroit isn’t impressive anywhere.
I hear you on Detroit vs Cleveland, Marechal, but it would be so awesome to have the first 2 games at MSG. We could hit the Cavs with our best punch and be up 2-0 heading back to Cleveland.
Whereas vs the Pistons I could see us losing a game 1 slugfest in front of an energized home crowd and coming back to MSG 1-1.
But really, we’re better than both those teams so it shouldn’t matter.
Landry has been great, but Deuce is definitively better than Landry. And both have been way more impactful than Diawara.
Considering Mo has played mostly garbage minutes, his .535 efg and negative BPM at age 21 isn’t that inspiring.
And while their comps are all completely different, we should have guys available at our picks like Joshua Jefferson, Alex Karaban, Allen Graves, Milan Momcilovic, or JT Toppin that could fill his role and be just as good or better overall.
Meanwhile, last chance for suggestions on TV character analogues for the Knicks for the Macri segment I’m doing this afternoon. I’m pretty set on most of the guys, but these are the few I’m not 100% on:
KAT: Goal is someone who had worlds of potential forever, but kept screwing around until everyone gave up on them, and only then did they finally turn into what everyone thought they could be
Clarkson: Character who completely reinvents himself partway through the series, so you barely recognize them by the end from who they were when the show started.
Jose: However you want to define him.
Deuce: Ditto.
Maybe it’s old-school/pre-analytics me, but I view having HCA as a large factor, especially when the analytical arguments as to which is the better matchup are not overly convincing either way. I think marechal makes a stronger case for Detroit than Edwards makes for Cleveland… but I rather have games 1 and 2 and if needed game 7 at the raucous sold-out Garden.
Edit: d-mar beat me to it
And I just don’t think Cleveland can stop Brunson. Detroit has flaws of its own, but between homecourt and their difficulty matching up with our best guy, Cleveland is my slightly preferred matchup.
I thought my Clarkson as Tom Haverford comp was pretty good.
Going back to mad men…what if KAT is Roger Sterling?
Golden Boy who floats by on his privilege and charm who for a long time doesn’t reach his potential because he’s been given everything and never been challenged. But eventually has a existential crisis only to come out of it the other side happy and content in his life and finally accepting his charmed but secondary status in life and, ultimately, becomes a really good person.
Darrin from Bewitched.
Speaking of KAT, certainly would prefer that we don’t have to pay him 60 million/year in a new contract. But if this new version of KAT is for real, extending him, especially if he takes a team friendly, Brunson type deal, doesn’t seem so bad. The new passing and playmaking is a skill that can carry into his late prime.
If they continue to play with the equanimity they have displayed in the last 7 games, it won’t matter.
Some folks here were kveching about Atlanta, then “OMG Embiid just played the best 3 games of his life vs Boston.”
You worry about what you can control. Play your best game and be greatful for the opportunity. The chips will fall where they may. If they play as they have the last 7, no one in the east can beat them and they will give SA or OKC all they want.
Also the blond “Welcome to the OC, Bitch” guy.
I think we can take either Detroit or Cleveland but I think my preference is still Cleveland.
I worry Detroit, even though they have not looked great in the playoffs, still presents problems with their physical style of play. Add in the fact that they seem to take playing us very personally, and I worry about that series getting really chippy and someone getting injured.
Also, if Cleveland wins, most likely they win in 7 games. Meaning they would play game 7 on the road on Sunday and then would have to turn around and play us in game 1 at MSG on Tuesday. We saw what that did to Philly and I think having to travel and not being able to prepare for us at all would give us a clear advantage in game 1. If it goes to 7 and Detroit wins, we’d still have an edge but Detroit would not be travelling, so they’d be a little bit more rested/prepared for us in game 1.
Meanwhile, last chance for suggestions on TV character analogues for the Knicks for the Macri segment I’m doing this afternoon.
KAT: Sam Tarly. quirky prodigal son dismissed as a coward by his father jimmy tarly, but later finds redemption alongside the less assholish jalen snow and uses his unorthodox skill set to turn into a literal white walker slayer.
Clarkson. Jamie Tartt. Talented me first scorer with a chip on his shoulder finds late career reinvention as a wisened team oriented veteran doing the dirty work.
deuce: charlie young. well dressed, well spoken, highly professional and extremely reliable glue guy who stays in his lane almost to a fault and can fade into the background or step up under pressure equally well.
jose: ziggy sobotka or benny fazio.
OG peter benton. hyper-competent multi-tool talent who often comes off as an aloof workaholic, but has some moments of sardonic comedy gold if you listen closely.
You have to wonder how much of this insane play by KAT is replicable in the future. The way he is playing at the moment, he is one of the very best players in the NBA. He is dominating the playoff leaderboards, stuffing the box score to a degree that quite frankly seems unimaginable. You could cut this version of him in half and have TWO elite players, that’s how elite he has been.
Towns has had a 7.8 BPM season in his career and has been over 5.0 a couple of times, but this version of him, the one where he defends well, rebounds at an elite level, and racks up an AST% in the high 30’s… that’s uncharted territory. That is a top 5 player in the NBA and the tentpole we have dreamed of.
The other thing to keep in mind about the 2nd apron:
KAT’s contract is set up perfectly to manage it. We can bring everyone back, go over the 2nd apron for one year, and then decide what to do at the end of next year when it’s time to decide on his option.
It’s either remarkable serendipity or extraordinary design. But there’s literally no need to make any sacrifices this summer unless Dolan gets cheap.
Re: the extension KAT will probably want… Morey’s demise helps us here. He needlessly extended Embiid with two years left on his contract, a move that has blown spectacularly. That gives Leon all the cover he needs to withhold an unnecessary extension to KAT this summer.
Ross.
“I find it very surprising that Brock Aller didn’t attach some sort of team option or nonguaranteed 2nd year contract.
My guess is we are going to have to trade Deuce and Alvarado then salary dump Dadiet (creating another ~$11MM) to create enough space to re-sign Mitch to a reasonable contract and also keep Diawara. Kolek will be the backup PG, we re-sign Shamet using EB rights, keep McCullar plus probably 1 or 2 of the drafted rookies (and trade the other picks or players to preserve second apron space).”
Re: Aller and Mo. Kinda like iHart, he probably wasn’t expected to be any kind of cromulent player.
Hell no to trading Deuce and Alvie, especially if it’s to keep Mo. Horrible idea.
Agree with rama that we can replace Mo with a big from the draft. We’ve got those three picks.
– Seth Cohen from the OC
– John Locke from LOST
Alan – how about David Haller for KAT? I admit I didn’t get a chance to watch the third season yet, but assume he saves the world or something?
Oh, and for Jose:
Swiper, of course
(Dora the Explorer)
Off topic, but pretty funny:
Alvarado is Skinny Pete. Appears to be a comic relief bit player but steps up with surprising competence and integrity in key moments.
I believe your analysis is a bit unfair. No one doubts both Deuce and Shamet have been more impactful this year than Diawara. That was not unexpected. Diawara played the entire season as a 20 yr old. When Deuce and Shamet were 20 they were playing in the NCAA not the NBA.
Deuce came into the NBA at 20 and was an abysmal shooter his first 2 seasons. Since you like efg… Deuce’s was .375 and .451 compared to Diawara’s .535. You would have dumped him at 21 or 22.
And by the way, for the record, while Diawara’s efg was .535, the great Jalen Brunson’s was .533 over 1400 shots.
For the record, Diawara didn’t play mostly garbage minutes, he played 28 games where he played >10 minutes and over 15 minutes 16 times.
He is a baby by NBA standards who has elite measurables who needs to marinate a bit. Dolan can afford to pay for him. It would be nice to have someone developing who is significantly under 30.
I’m WAY less worried about losing Diawara now than I was before the fade at the end of the season and into the playoffs. The issue with him has always been shooting. When he got hot from 3, that was a great sign for his future, but there were still clearly questions about sustainability. Had he sustained it and had a major role in the playoffs, we’d be in deep doodoo trying to keep him. Now that he looks more raw again, I think we’ll have a way easier time keeping him. I’m no less ethusiastic about him eventually becoming OG’s backup and then who knows where he goes from there, but I think it’s more likely we will retain him.
Leon isn’t trading his 6th man unless it is for a better player or real draft capital.
My analysis only had to do with the idea of dumping Deuce in order to keep Mo on our contending team.
Obviously my preference is to also keep Mo, and considering how well this postseason has gone thus far, it would probably make sense to just go over the 2nd apron with Dolan Dollars to keep everyone (do we even want Giannis anymore? Probably not?)
That said, even if you draft a 24 year old like Jefferson, he is likely to be imminently more useful next season than Mo, who, I would say, does have a bright future, hopefully with us.
So, ultimately, it’s a system flaw that we can’t easily keep our young player and let him grow into his role without making an unnecessary Sophie’s Choice.
I got it: Richie from The Bear. Major character transformation especially after his fine dining stage.
There are videos of OG shooting in the practice court, which has to be good news when we are still 6 days out of Game 1.
Agreed – but Leon also doesn’t let assets walk out the door for absolutely nothing, which is what we would be doing if we don’t match whatever offer is out there for Diawara — which would then also hard cap us at the 2nd apron ~$220MM.
We all love Deuce but my guess is we will have to choose one of Deuce or Shamet who have very similar roles. We have EB rights on Shamet but Deuce is actually under contract, meaning we could trade him and get something back too, whereas we can’t really do that for Shamet.
Ellsworth from Deadwood?
Oh, could KAT be Dutch from The Shield?
Jalen Brunson – Proposition Joe
As a lifelong Yankee fan — was able to checkout Citi field yesterday and “lucked out” to watch Ewings debut. Charming park.
The production involved in the lights/sounds when pitchers get pulled is diabolical and actually made me really hype.
Sad I didn’t get to see the Apple pop up — these are the gimmicks that kept me engaged without having a dog in the fight.
I love Shamet but he’s fungible compared to Deuce. Deuce is arguably our best POA defender in addition to his floor spacing. Every 5-man lineup he’s in has video game net rating numbers. He is our individual net rating leader – yes, he edges out OG – for a reason.
Shamet is better at shooting off the curl and driving to the basket, but the numbers don’t lie with Deuce.
Ewing had a great debut. I hope he just ignores whatever the Mets’ pitiful major league coaches tell him and just plays the way he knows how to play.
“AJ, stop taking pitches that are six inches off the plate, you need to be flailing miserably at those!”
“When a pitcher throws you a 90 MPH fastball dead center, foul it off!”
“That swing is way too short and compact, stop hitting line drives and using your hit tool and start swinging like a 5’10” 160 pound Ryan Howard”
ding ding ding…we have a winner folks:
initially was going with the mighty mouse comparison – i mean, it comes with its own theme music for goodness sakes, hard to top that, right…
Prop Joe is it though…steady eddy about that business…somewhat similar countenance, plus a few hundred pounds…
hmmmm, encouraged me to google the meaning of gondrezick, was pretty sure there had to be some meaning to that moniker…maybe not…instincts fail me again…
I don’t have a specific character in mind, but Tyler Kolek as the frat bully in every teenage rom com (credit to PT Milo for that one)
whoa on roll…dramatic character arc change…
just recently got around to checking out some of justified, so when ellsworth showed up in the show, i was like – wait a minute, i seen them two together before…
deep cut there, definitely works though…
for those of you whom have to be creative on command in order to pay the rent and eat – kudos…
being able to, i would guess relax (?) in order to be creative, with a deadline looming, seems really really challenging…
maybe relaxing isn’t that necessary to the process…
Tyler Kolek is actually Michael J. Fox’s character in Teen Wolf except without the wolf thing
really enjoy watching him play in our uni, mo is a small price to pay though to keep our first 8 together…
hopefully if there’s tax to pay, dolan will do it…and this is legit encouraging:
Based on 2026 data, the New York Knicks are projected to be a luxury tax-paying team for the 2025-26 season (ending in April 2026), with a projected penalty of $44.4 million, ranking them as the third-highest taxpayers for that season.
Recent Status: Prior to the 2025-26 season, the Knicks had not paid the luxury tax in the previous four years under team president Leon Rose.
Historical Context: Despite their recent avoidance of the tax, the Knicks are one of the most frequent taxpayers in NBA history, paying it 10 times between 2001 and 2022.
Previous Tax Payment: One of their previous, notable tax-paying seasons was in 2012-13.
Isn’t Kolek just a handsome glenn close?
if we were comparing him to spiderman – i’d call him more toby than andrew or tom…
edit: and for the record, still sight unseen on the new spidy, but i was kind of hoping for an older spidy story with either toby or andrew…oh well…we got noir nick…
not judging, yet…
Nailed it, can’t unsee.
Similar comp: Austin Rivers is Andrew Tate with hair
If Giannis gets moved before the draft, isn’t this a mute point? – I mean, we can get him in June and then go over the Apron or he goes somewhere else and then we still go over the apron anyway…
Hi there KBers, i’m still alive. LOL
Heard rumors of a team that plays a beautiful brand of basketball, anyone knows when can i catch them playing? 🙂
Texas. 2 other areas are resting their players.
If we don’t keep Deuce it better be because we made a deal I love (like Quickley going out for OG) because if Deuce is not back I’m going to suggest that our “serious” window is starting to close.
I feel the same way about Mitch.
I’d like to keep Shamat and would very disappointed if we don’t, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world as long as we keep Deuce.
I’m a huge Alavardo fan and want him back, but if Kolek continues to improve I can be happy with Kolek as backup PG next year. But he has to improve further.
I haven’t been a Clarkson fan. I’m still not a Clarkson fan, but I’ve been happy with the way he’s been playing lately. Still, if we keep Shamet, Clarkson can go.
I ilke what I see from Diawara enough to say we almost have to bring him back. This team is getting to the point where we have to simultaneousy think about our current window and having some young players in place to rebuild with once our core starts breaking down.
We have quite a few important players that are 30 or that soon will be. Our best shot at a title with this core may be this year – with the window still somewhat open another year or two. There are a lot of very good young teams to deal with.
We don’t want to go from contender to old, declining and then into all out tank mode.
We want some young talent to grow into roles and replace the players we have now. Right now that’s Diawara, Kolek, Dadiet, Sochan, McCullar and Hukporti.
There are some decent prospects to be rotation players in there, but I suspect Diawara may be the best prospect to become a solid starter.
We’ll hopefully also add someone in this draft.
I think Giannis is basically off the table for the Knicks. Unless there is a spectacular flameout in the next round and everyone from us to management is convinced this team CAN’T ever win it all, the most likely prospects to be included in a Giannis deal were some combo of Towns, OG and Mikal. All three of them are peaking for the playoffs and playing critical roles on either offense, defense or both. Exactly who are we going to give up to get an older frequently injured Giannis to upgrade but possibly shorten our window and cause fit issues?
That doesn’t even count the fact that the Bucks are probably going to want young players and picks and may even make a move before the draft.
Julius has a 49 TS in these playoffs.
“I think Giannis is basically off the table for the Knicks.”
That would be fantastic news, if true.
“Julius has a 49 TS in these playoffs.”
And 45 TS% versus the Spurs specifically.
I think Donnie nailed it.
Kolek is McGinleyish but I see him more as the guy getting bullied.
I am not going to be upset if we lose Diawara. I wouldn’t sacrifice Duece for him in a million years. Ditto for Mitch.
It’s been true since we made the Bridges trade but we’ve continued to harbor this fantasy to our detriment. Hopefully this run will end the harmful charade for good.
Giannis had many chances to come here. He kept choosing to stay with the Bucks. Good for him. Let’s move on.
Even after scoring 25 points (or whatever it was) in a closeout game, Deuce remains underappreciated. The dude has consistently been one of the most additive players on the Knicks irrespective of which lineup he plays in. It’s not a coincidence.
Hard no on anything involving losing Deuce. He might have the best contract in the NBA and he is a net rating demon.
His defense and shooting just make him a pure net positive that adds a lot and takes nothing away. He has maximum portability.
Re: Giannis: Yeah, hopefully we’re past the part of our history where we acquire “stars” about three seasons too late.
absolutely, a deuce in the hand is worth any 2 future deuces in the bush…
SHAMS BOMB:
OG expected to be available for G1 of the ECF. Fuck and yes!
OH SHIT!
I thought Begley said that 2 days ago
Mike Brown was very general about it in his press conference today, and wouldn’t say one way or another. I don’t think we’ll know for sure until the a couple of hours before the game.
“Isn’t Kolek just a handsome glenn close?”
I think I blew a bubble with my nose.
KAT is Shane Falco from the Replacements.
A former All-America quarterback from Ohio State who fell off the grid after choking in the 1996 Sugar Bowl and washing out of the pros after one season, giving him a derogatory nickname of “Footsteps”, because of his impulse to scramble prematurely when he thinks a sack is coming. He then comes up big as a Replacement when everyone counts him out.
2027 Salaries:
Mikal and Hart – $54,405,905
Giannis – $58,456,566
You add Jose Alvarado and it works out.
Wow…
Towns
Giannis
OG
Deuce
Brunson
Mitch
Shamet
Mo
Clarkson
Kolek
Can we keep Mo?
“Towns
Giannis
OG
Deuce
Brunson
Mitch
Shamet
Mo
Clarkson
Kolek”
Except for the fact that Giannis will play 55 games in the regular season and then only 3 or 4 in the playoffs before getting injured again. Everyone seems to keep forgetting that.
Try telling the Bucks it works out.
Good point. I don’t really have to worry about the Bucks taking Hart, Mikal, and Alvie for Giannis.
I read the comments to the recent Edward’s article about who the Knicks should prefer to play. Both Cleveland fans and Detroit fans think they can beat us and that previous playoff losses will just motivate them. They know the Knicks beat Atlanta and Philly pretty comfortably, but their conclusion from that is that Atlanta and Philly just aren’t very good.
That’s rich coming from fans of teams that struggled to beat Toronto and Orlando who were each down one of their best players
That’s a good point.
I can’t be more clear about this. We prefer to play San Antonio
Of course the guy who replaces Duncan Robinson can’t miss a shot.
Cavs are just conceding the switch to get Harden on Cade. I don’t get it.
Cleveland really lax on closeouts here
Cade with the requisite 2 turnovers in 10 minutes.
5-9 from 3 without your best shooter and only up 2. Doesn’t bode well for Detroit.
Tyson single handedly destroying his team’s chances.
Duren with 0 and 2. Wow.
Mobley is back on his BS. What a weird player.
Getting away from the Cavs a bit now. Oh, well.
I want nothing to do with this Piston defense. I hope Brown is working on something.
Mobley sits and the Cavs immediately go on a run.
“I want nothing to do with this Piston defense. I hope Brown is working on something.”
Our offense is nothing like the Cavs offense. Just sayin’.
Point taken, though.
The Knicks would beat this Cavs team in 5. They are not very good, not very smart and they are soft.
The Cavs have to be the dumbest team in the NBA. 🤡🤡🤡🤡
Apart from all the turnovers, the lineups make so little sense.
Cavs should feel lucky to only be down by 8. Mobley disappears in big games more than any star player I can think of.
The difficulty will be staying below the 2nd apron when we complete the trade so we can aggregate player salaries. After the trade, we can proceed to go over the 2nd apron.
Currently we’re $16.5M under the 2nd apron with only our rostered players. Then Mitch by himself has a $24M hold that puts us over the 2nd apron.
In short, we need the sum of:
(1) Mitch’s 1st year salary
(2) Diawara’s cap hold ($2.39M)
(3) Any incomplete roster charges ($1.36M each)
to stay under $16.5M.
If we want to retain Shamet using early bird rights or Clarkson using non-bird rights to give them more than a minimum deal, we’d need to fit their cap holds (each at $2.45M) under the $16.5M limit as well.
Our 1st rd draft pick will also need to fit if we keep it but l assume we send it out in the Giannis trade.
After signing Mitch and the 3-1 trade, we’d be at 8 players. So 1st year Mitch salary + ~$6.8M needs to be less than $16.5M to retain Diawara, which leaves Mitch at a 1st year salary of around $9.7M (around $60M total contract if we give full 5yr & 8% raises). We’d renounce Shamet & Clarkson in this scenario.
Idk, it’s complicated. I could also be wrong about some of this.
There are also older Knicks fans on this blog, who have had to live through Charlie Ward, Chris Childs, Raymond Felton, Howard Eisley, Langston Galloway, Do What Toney Douglas Do, Frank Williams, Jamal Crawford, Nate Robinson, Chris Duhon, and many others.
Many of them were pretty good players, and all had their strengths. But we have been VERY fortunate to not lose Brunson this year to injury. I am unbelievably grateful to gave Alvarado and Tyler Kolek, so I’d rather not sacrifice those guys (or Deuce) if we have to.
It’s a great luxury to have people coming in for the 4th Quarter who extend and not just maintain the lead.
Go, Cavs. As much as I hate you. I think? I guess? I dunno.
The pistons foul all the time and the refs must get tired of blowing the whistle
It’s game 5 and I still have no idea which team is better out of those two, and that’s a pretty great sign for us in the next round.
The constant fouling is starting to bite Detroit in the ass. It’s a 20-11 edge for Cleveland in FTA and that’s keeping them in the game
Biekerstaff disagrees with each call.
What a dumb challenge for one freaking point
Ha I just a fun flashback to how many dumb challenges Bickerstaff made in the ‘23 series.
I kinda want Detroit just for the fun of watching him do that again
It must be a ref’s nightmare to do a Sixers-Pistons game and have Nurse and Bickerstaff bitch at you and whine the entire game.
Detroit doesn’t have an offense if they can’t get turnovers.
The Cavs’ shooters are starting to scare me.
Pistons are a one man show…Cunningham has to play almost all the time
hold on, are the cavs about to win a road game…
if the cavs can simply hold on to the ball better they should win this thing…
pistons are pretty much cade or nothing offensively…
Are you sure about that? You can’t aggregate salaries if you’re over the 2nd apron, and my understanding is if you do anything that you can’t do over the second apron you are hard capped at the 2nd apron.
There’s a picture of Spida in the dictionary next to the word “streaky”
say what ya like, harden does have a pretty nice shoe line…
never fear detroit, james harden wants you to have the ball…
Atkinson coaching like it’s a January game.
Cavs are just shitting themselves
Cavs are so sorry
I almost feel ashamed to be rooting for the Cavs
I’m sure that is precisely what the Bucks are looking for in a trade for Giannis!
Cavs folding right on cue.
They don’t play with passion and are easily rattled.
Donovan complete opposite from last night
Cavs are so mentally weak. Mitchell can’t make a freaking shot.
And then Harden decides to not run after a loose ball.
This is why nobody is scared of Donovan Mitchell, this is a completely pathetic game from him, deferring so much and refusing to be the star his team needs.
This is a rather remarkable example of one team just outworking another team. Cleveland’s only hope is the whistle.
This is the Donovan I expect in the playoffs
I swear we could sweep this lame ass Cavs team
This is going 7 games, isn’t it?
I think it probably will go seven.
Detroit turned it on here and just drowned Cleveland with effort, but it’s still a close game. There is not a huge gap between these teams.
Loose ball, who’s gonna get it, Evan Mobley or not-Evan Mobley?
The Cavs are gutless and dumb but some of it is Detroit’s defense and harder work. I am not looking forward to facing this Piston defense.
Haha Pistons might actually blow this
My god somehow Detroit is throwing this
No one on the Cavs wants to shoot. 🤡
That was a huge miss by Harris. Big FTs by Mobley
OT please.
donovan mitchell with 14 field goal attempts to harden’s 19 is crazy…
This would be a devastating loss for the Pistons considering they were up 9 with 2 ½ minutes left
Cade did not want to get that ball back — he hid out by the logo and watched.
Harris was a bit premature with the put em to sleep sign when he hit that 3 to put them up 9 with 2:30 to go.
I think I’d prefer to play the Cavs if only for the fact that Detroit still has one bullet left in the chamber if/when they figure out that Reed is way better than Duren
How do the Cavs not get a shot off there?
Wow Cavs made it to OT. Good for them but if Donovan can’t make a shot it won’t matter
If we can’t beat either of these two teams we don’t deserve to be in the finals.
I can’t believe they went to Mitchell and I can’t believe I’m saying they should have gone to harden lol . Challenging the best defensive guard in the nba one on one probably not the smartest play lol
How was that not a foul?
Lmao get fucked Detroit if you foul on every play you won’t get the game winning call
That might have been a worse possession than the Knicks at the end of Game 2 against Atlanta.
I think I’d still rather play the Cavs but there is zero reason to be scared of either team, the amount of unforced errors and just overall bad basketball in this late 4th is crazy.
But the best part about Biekerstaff being stupid with challenges is when he gets burned by wasting it and not being able to challenge a decisive call.
I want home court!
Cleveland had timeouts, didn’t they? How do you not call a timeout to draw up a play?
If you want a 7 game series more than any particular opponent, the move is to root for Detroit tonight bc they probably ain’t winning on the road.
don’t want to think it out loud too much, cuz good chance what ever you think you want will end up coming back to get you – but, yeah home court would be best for us…
I want Cavs in 7 then we get game 1 on Tuesday at MSG.
So is this benching of Duren worse than than the benching of Mikal?
Paul Reed is closing out the game, maybe Bickerstaff did figure it out… probably too late…
Mobley, my man, go to the rim.
Cade is completely gassed
This seems more like a first round game, or even a play-in game.
Icky bball
Vomitous
Imagine rooting for James Harden.
Missed free throw
Turnover
Missed layup
What is Harden doing??
Harden fucked that up…should have alley ooped it
What was that bullet lob pass from point blank range by Harden?
How do you not convert that two-on-one? Man that is bad
Harden giveth and he giveth
thank you jesus for never having made me ever have to root for james harden…
that guy is such a headache…
Actually seems more like a college game with all the bricking and turnovers.
If the Cavs win in 6 it means 2 less days for OG to rest his hammy. That trumps home court advantage IMO
Horrendous D by Mobley and Strus there, especially Mobley.
Detroit can win the game on the road though.
just put schroder out there already and get harden off the court…
This would be 115-111, Cleveland ball if they could execute a basic high school two on one play
Let’s see if the Cavs can do something really dumb here
Let’s see who wants to win less
Can they?
Cleveland’s good at home, and Detroit’s only won one road game these playoffs — the one where Orlando scored 19 pts in the 2nd half.
They’re toast.
Turn out the lights….
That tops it off….
Hey Pistons ever hear of boxing out the shooter?
They did beat the Knicks twice at MSG last year.
At the moment, the Garland for Harden trade is looking pretty smart.
Good point. We’ll see.
Detroit stunk out the joint in that overtime.
Really they were lucky to even get it to overtime, because Thompson should have been called for a shooting foul at the end of regulation.
It really doesn’t feel like the better team won, but this is what can happen to you when you’re offensively limited.
I’m going to be very disappointed if we don’t get to the finals based on this game.
It’s kinda funny… in the beginning of the year everyone thought it would be Knicks or Cavs in the East… and then literally no one thought it since then… and now it’s about to happen.
Knicks in 5.
Wow. Surprised Cleveland actually won that
Detroit was up 9 with 2:37 left.
I remember calling in to Termine and Johnson the day that Cleveland outbid Leon for Spida and telling them that I was thrilled and relieved. I can only imagine what our team would look like now if Ainge said yes to Leon’s crazy offer.
Ideal scenario – Pistons blow out the Cavs in game 6, Cavs win game 7 in quadruple overtime
“Tobias Harris, Awesome Player” seems to be turning into a pumpkin. Jalen Duren mostly stunk. The number two option on offense in the overtime was Paul Reed. Cade was still competing out there but looked rather gassed after playing 48 minutes.
Not enough offensive firepower for these guys, and max effort wasn’t enough to make up for that.
If Cleveland wins, they’ll have to play 3 different cities in 5 days, not to mention a 14th game in 29 days (or 15th game in 31 days).
I mentioned this a couple of threads ago, but JB Bickerstaff allegedly said that these Pistons would never lose to the Knicks again. Ever.
One more loss and his boast will have been fulfilled. Poetic justice.
“If Cleveland wins, they’ll have to play 3 different cities in 5 days…”
This will be true regardles of who wins the series, or whether it goes 6 or 7.
Inside the NBA guys being very charitable to the Pistons, if that was the Knicks with the epic collapse they’d be ripping us a new one.
if OG is ready, i’m ready…knicks host the cavs on sunday…
I tried to watch inside the NBA but it refused to stream for me
There’s a difference between ready and healed. Like Halliburton, for instance. Or Durant. They were ready, they looked good, but they were playing with fire.
I’m just having a hard time believing OG’s got some rare hamstring injury with a shorter time table than all the other ones.
I would strangely feel a lot better if they hadn’t reported he was playing game 1.
It’d be great to see Detroit stretch this out to seven and even to come back and win. There’s a lot of parity with these non-Knick teams in the East. Every series that hasn’t involved the Knicks has been a rock fight.
After watching this game I feel very confident that Detroit can’t beat us, for a simple reason: they wouldn’t be able to score. I don’t care how good their defense is, they’re not a good enough offensive team to make a run to the Finals.
Also, despite Bickerstaff’s constant complaining, the Pistons are really handsy on defense and commit a lot of fouls. They got killed by the whistle tonight and I didn’t see very many bad calls. The strategy of just hacking on every play because the officials won’t call them all has kind of hit a wall for them.
This sort of very mild hamstring injury does happen sometimes. Lauri Markkanen had a mild hammy and missed one game in 2023, Giannis missed two games with a tweaked hammy in 2024, Derrick Rose missed two games with one also in 2024, and there are other similar cases.
Very mild hamstring injuries like that do happen, it’s not a complete outlier. Rare yes but not unheard of.
Detroit will be scary once they find a reliable second scorer and change their coach, but right now they have a hard cap on how good they can be.
I’m just having a hard time believing
I got ya brother…just recharged my positivity and optimism battery back up…at around 70% or so, and rising…
got more’n nuff for many…
hi KfniNJ, it should be on youtube shortly…it was pretty bland though…
d-mar already mentioned it earlier, they didn’t really take the pistons to task much…
no doubt they’ll bubble wrap that hammy/quad up in that kinesiology tape stuff…
muscle relaxant or two maybe, for me…
warm him up real good, he’ll be just fine…
come on, back me up doc bob (knick fan in celtic land)…
Did you all know that Ohtani has a .82 era, and a Madduxian whip of also .82.
.82 is the new 67
Detroit and Cleveland continue their titanic mid-off. I hope it goes 7 so both teams have to suffer longer.
Ohtani seems to have sacrificed his bat for his otherworldly pitching numbers
I know it is so hard to believe this, but it might just be that the Knicks are getting….good luck!?
The Cavs winning this series would be a fucking GODSEND. The Knicks can beat the Pistons, no doubt, but come on, they’d have home court against the Cavs, and the Cavs are so extremely mid.
The Knicks could make the NBA Finals playing a #6 seed, a #7 seed, and a #4 seed. That would be fucking AMAZING.
We don’t have that good luck quite yet, Brian. I wouldn’t count the Pistons out, as much as I might like to. Here’s the good news, though: We can beat them, too!
Thanks Geo. I’ll check it out.
Of course there is a chance of re-injury with OG, but the one thing that gives me a bit more confidence is that the Knicks medical staff is among the best in the NBA, if not the best. They have a pretty strong history of not bringing guys back until they are ready and then those guys playing without complication once they came back. I remember being similarly worried when Deuce came back from hernia surgery (remember when he tweaked it in his first game back but it was just a scar tissue thing?)
Shamet’s shoulder, Hart’s finger, Brunson’s ankle, Mitch’s foot, KAT’s various dings are all examples of injuries that were successfully managed. Even last year, with all the minutes police stuff, the Knicks stayed pretty healthy throughout the playoffs.
No, Detroit would stay at home for Game 1 if they win in 7.
Ah correct, my bad.
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