Barring an improbably serious game from them tomorrow, Cleveland is going to get blown up this summer. I wonder if they try a Mobley-for-Giannis deal.

Not gonna lie, I was getting a little excited about the prospect of an easy game 1 at the Garden with Cleveland playing on 40 hours rest.

Every time I’m sure I want one of these teams they do something slightly impressive. I guess I just want whichever team loses, i.e. the Early Bird Corollary.

I suppose in the long run it will be better for us to beat Detroit — they got a little cocky this year and need to be put in their place.

Also Dylan Harper should be taken off the Spurs as punishment for their shameless tank job last year. Seriously fuck that team.

Detroit will be more annoying to play, absolutely. But I wouldn’t mind getting some revenge on them for this season.

Speaking of teams that need to blow it up… the Wolves have to find a way to get rid of Randle. I think Gobert still has value, he was great against Denver and was just a bad matchup against Wembanyama, but Randle was just terrible, unacceptable performance when they needed him the most.

Throughout the series, Kenny Atkinson had this dead man walking look on his face as if he knew his fate in advance. The Harden trade did no favors for the Cavs.

I don’t put it past the Cavs to win the game tomorrow. They have the shooting, and I think Cade is basically exhausted.

Even if I don’t think the next round will be a cakewalk, it’s best case scenario for the Knicks.

Minutes played in the playoffs – leaders:

1. Cade – 535
2. Harden – 488
3. Mitchell – 472
4. Harris – 462
5. Mobley – 458

…

26. Brunson – 347

Throughout the series, Kenny Atkinson had this dead man walking look on his face

This is very true, but are you sure that is not just the way Atkinson naturally looks?

Everyone will focus on the disappearing Harden and Spida, but Jarret Allen was terrrrrrible, and Mobley wasn’t much better. This two bigs pairing, that initially looked so promising, is soft and clanky.

Detroit is not great either, and could lose the next one. I hope they don’t, it would be amazing to see how the Knicks deal with their defensive intensity.

In a certain way it’s admiring that he doesn’t stress out, but to me it looks like Atkinson lacks urgency in the playoffs. He coaches Game 6 in the same way that he would coach a close game in January. He hasn’t pushed his younger starters in minutes all series. Maybe that pays off and they win Game 7, but it’s weird. The Pistons had multiple runs while Mitchell was sitting on the bench.

Not sure the Wolves need to blow it up. They lost Donte and Edwards was likely still recovering from his injury. Both could’ve made a big difference.

That said, Joan Beringer looks pretty damn interesting at C and they should look to get him more minutes. A pivot to Naz & Beringer could be on the horizon.

The difficulty is finding suitors for Gobert, who has 2yrs left at 36.5M & $38M, and Randle who will be making $33M & $36M. Idk, maybe the new lotto structure will convince a team to chase them.

Would the Lakers be interested in Gobert? Surrounding Luka with defensive pieces has generally been a good recipe. They have the cap space and draft assets.

If the Wolves need to blow it up then everybody in the west needs to blow it up.

If the Wolves need to blow it up then everybody in the west needs to blow it up

Not OKC and the Spurs, which are the two teams that are going to be beating up on the Wolves every year while Randle and Gobert look unplayable against them…

At the risk of rehashing some Knickerblogger debates of yore, the best argument for the Wolves blowing it up is probably that we now have a pretty big sample size of Randle being a chronic playoff disappointment.

He was great last year and most players experience some level of drop off from the regular season, but I mean, he’s liable to turn into an unplayable mess. That’s…hard to build around, to say the least.

I continue to like him a lot and root for him, but I don’t miss having to pray we get Good Randle in crucial games. KAT is far from perfect but you can be damn sure his spacing and rebounding will be there at a minimum (and now, out of nowhere, his Jokic level passing too). I think we’ve gotta put this one in the Leon win column.

I can’t recall another example of a player like KAT unlocking a God level skill at age 30 like this. It’s like overnight he went from a 3.0 BPM player to a 10.0 BPM player.

The only thing I can think of that similar is Daniel Murphy discovering launch angle in the 2015 playoffs.

I meant everyone else in the west. Say what you want about the wolves but I’d rather be in their shoes than the Lakers, Rockets, Suns, Blazers, etc. I’d probably even blow up the Nuggets before them. They’re a tweak team to me.

That I agree with, but many of those teams are either screwed or still trying to build up. My point with the Wolves is that they have Ant entering his prime, and you can’t afford to waste that with two guys like Gobert and Randle who, as tnfh put it better than me, have repeatedly shown over years and years that they can’t elevate their game in the playoffs, at least not consistently enough to challenge two young juggernauts.

I don’t think teams like the Suns or Rockets even can do anything that brings them to contention level, but the Wolves already have one piece who is at that level in Edwards.

In this Cavs-Pistons series, there really haven’t been any surprises i.e. players who greatly surpassed or fell short of expectations

– Harden and Spida pretty much living up to their playoff reputations
– Allen and Mobley inconsistent and soft in the big moments
– Cade turning the ball over way too much even with his high usage
– Harris going back to being an average player

I guess Duren’s pathetic performances (until yesterday) were pretty jarring, and Sasser going 8-11 from three in the series was unexpected, but otherwise it’s been status quo for both these highly flawed teams.

The Cavs seem very vanilla, like they just run their two high usage guys at you, they have the two bigs whose games don’t seem to mesh all that well, and everybody else is a 0.0 BPM type rotation player who can make some plays but don’t do anything spectacular. The whole is less than the sum of the parts. You never watch them and think “wow those two bigs are just crushing it right now.”

They’ve gone as far as they’re gonna go with this group.

Given how rapidly young players are developing (seriously, what is with Dylan Harper and Ajay Mitchell?), the Jazz strike me as a team that could rise to 3rd in the West rather quickly.

the nuggets got to cut ties with aaron gordon, they’re super dependant on him and he’s always hurt in the playoffs…

hard for me to imagine them moving murray…I thought cam johnson would make more a difference, and watson faded as the season went on…

talk about a guy having to carry the team on his back and just wearing down from it…

no wonder joker can’t wait to get the heck back home…get the man some help already…

i have no expectations to see anthony davis play a full season, like ever in the future…who knows…

trae is an on court defensive liability…full stop…his team always has to score more to win…
🙃

aj dybantsa seems to be a franchise leading kind of guy…reminds me of brandon miller, who I like a lot, with even a better handle and someone who’ll play with more force out on the court…

interested to see more of sarr…

Are we pretty confident that 2025 Conference Finals Pacers > 2026 Conference Finals Pistons? I think maybe/probably, but it’s closer than I’d like it to be. (Can you tell that I had a moment of panic this morning when I remembered how we felt like we were going to coast to the Finals after beating the Celts and only having to “go through *those guys*”?)

Someone please talk me off that ledge. (And I *do* know that 2026 Conference Finals Knicks are better than 2025 Conference Finals Knicks if we keep playing as we have been, so I’ve already got that.)

And if it’s the Cavs, then I’m pretty much not worried.

“At the risk of rehashing some Knickerblogger debates of yore, the best argument for the Wolves blowing it up is probably that we now have a pretty big sample size of Randle being a chronic playoff disappointment.”

I mean, this was a weird playoffs for the Wolves. I thought Randle was pretty good in the first round (and somewhat instrumental in beating the favored Nuggets) but absolutely terrible in the second round.

As you said yourself, he was great last year, and that lasted 15 games and into the conference finals, where they lost to the eventual champs.

With the Knicks, he missed the 2024 playoffs with a freak shoulder injury, was hobbled the entire 2023 playoffs with a twice-sprained ankle, and miscast as the team’s #1 with a terrible supporting cast in 2021.

In that sense, “chronic playoff disappointment” seems pretty harsh. He’s a $30M player in the role of a $50M player, so the question is, is he worth that money going forward in a 3rd-4th option role? It’s certainly a point worthy of discussion as to whether they should try to ditch him for someone who fits their team better, but he’s been a good player for them.

“…but I mean, he’s liable to turn into an unplayable mess. That’s…hard to build around, to say the least.”

Are they realling around him? That would be like saying we are building around Mikal Bridges. Randle should be viewed as a high-level role player and 3rd option.

“KAT is far from perfect but you can be damn sure his spacing and rebounding will be there at a minimum (and now, out of nowhere, his Jokic level passing too). I think we’ve gotta put this one in the Leon win column.”

The version of KAT we got in last year’s playoffs as by far our highest paid player on a supermax contract is one thing. The version we’ve seen thus far this year is a different story.

Leon won that trade from a valuation standpoint from the very time it was made; only stupid Minny fans thought otherwise. But now it has turned into an absolute steal (assuming KAT doesn’t turn into a pumpkin in the conference finals like he did 2 years ago.)

whoever we play on tuesday, I’m going to feel tired for them…

9 days in between playoff games is probably going to show up on tuesday…

also means they’re getting time to refine this point KAT we’ve recently implemented…

of course, here at KB, bunch of us had reconciled to this being the way forward – like maybe back in december or so…

iso captain clutch will not work all the time in the playoffs…works more than it probably should, but, that is why he is captain clutch…

ha, stubby six foot nothing guy out on the court closing teams out with everyone trying to stop him…usually getting whatever shot he wants…lucky us…

curious to see how team(s) adapt to KAT creating from around the arc…

one thing for certain, whoever we play tuesday will not have had much time to prepare for the test they’re about to take…

hi jk, came across some footage of the record store performance…

looked and sounded superb sir…rock n roll…

2025 Conference Finals Pacers > 2026 Conference Finals Pistons?

That team was an insane run of luck. The shots that Haliburton made across the three series in the East, and then taking OKC to Game 7? Yeah. I think they might be better on paper than this year Pistons, but ultimately it was the crazy run they were in.

the nuggets got to cut ties with aaron gordon, they’re super dependant on him and he’s always hurt in the playoffs…

Seriously, what on Earth are you talking about?

While he DID miss 3/6 games this year’s playoff, he played all 61/61 the playoff games the past 5 seasons with Denver!

He is intergral to their success.

Gordon’s great. Murray is the guy Denver needs to cut ties with. He just doesn’t get it done enough.

Then again Michael Porter Jr proved harder to replace than anticipated. Cam Johnson really underwhelmed.

All this talk of Denver and Minny makes me think Jokic and Ant-Man should try to team up. That might be the only way to stop OKC and The Spurs out west.

The whole “OKC vs Spurs is the NBA finals” will get annoying in a few days.

Thanks geo! The full length album comes out in two weeks and we all have high hopes for it.

He returned to practice this week and has been a full participant the past two days, saying he feels good.

“It didn’t feel as bad as the past when it happened,” Anunoby said. “So knowing that, just trying to improve it day by day.”

He said he felt a quick pain that he tried to play through, missing a dunk after first experiencing it. He called it weird more than painful.

“He’s been back, and he looks good to me,” guard Mikal Bridges said. “So I think maybe the crowd, maybe the fans and media worried a little bit more, but I know how OG works and how his body is, so I think he’ll be all right.”

If Bridges blessed it…we’re good.

Say what you want about David Stearns but the one thing you gotta feel good about is letting Edwin Diaz walk. Stearns did manage to dodge that one bullet.

JK, I saw a headline in passing but thought it had to be fake news. That’s clearly my bad.

the article quotes Diaz saying, “It’s a pastime I’ve followed since I was a child. It’s legal in Puerto Rico, thank God. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.”

Well, it’s important to note that cockfighting is not legal. A ban was put into place in the 50 US states and its territories, including Puerto Rico, in 2019. Cockfights have continued in Puerto Rico, but the maximum punishment for participants is five years in prison and a fine, and the maximum penalty for a spectator is one year in prison and a fine.

Stearns has been King Midas In Reverse this offseason but Devin Williams over Edwin Diaz has worked out quite well. Williams’ stats look bad on the surface but he has had awful BABIP luck and solid peripherals. FIP is 2.37.

Diaz was terrible then got placed on the 60 day DL and now has a cockfighting scandal to deal with.

The whole “OKC vs Spurs is the NBA finals” will get annoying in a few days.

If we beat Detroit by 35 in game one, maybe that will change

for myself, rock n roll is music and a show…such a cool sound and vibe for that spot…loved the beginning when, i guess, the owner got up to introduce you all…the whole thing screamed excitement and authenticity…

the story of the performer is a fascination in of itself, so to actually have good music to perform well is an enormous plus, and i’m sure quite the relief…

honestly it makes me smile to think of the role you play in the story…

if you wanna be considereal a serious musician, we’ll guess what, you have to surround yourself with and engage with serious musicians…

just to be able to have earned that sort of trust in that situation is an achievement in itself…

I live less than a mile from Fingerprints in Long Beach, so it felt like I was playing on home court.

I’m not doing the touring for the album and was just filling in for the one show, but I’m glad I got to be a part of it. The drummer Anthony Lopez and his wife Ainjel Emme who plays bass were part of the core team that made the record, so it was a nice little moment for all of us.

They’re playing at the Moroccan on the day the record comes out and I will be there cheering them on.

awwwwwwww, that is cool…such an intimate moment with all the familiarity…

and, thank goodness for fans and family…

looks like whomever documented and posted that very unique experience started the channel just for it…

There’s no basketball on this morning and the Mets are playing the Yankees so I turned it on. I have a silly question. Why do the Mets uniforms have “NYC” on the front. I haven’t watched the Mets in a while and I remember their logo being “NY” in a very different font from the Yankee one.

Stearns has been King Midas In Reverse this offseason but Devin Williams over Edwin Diaz has worked out quite well. Williams’ stats look bad on the surface but he has had awful BABIP luck and solid peripherals. FIP is 2.37.

I root for the Mets when they aren’t playing the Yankees, but after getting PTSD watching Devin Williams pitch last year I just say, beware.

He can look almost brilliant for 5to 10 game stretches, but he lost his closer role twice last season for good cause. He has a tendency to cause his own downfalls.

He has lost a couple of mph off his fastball since his first few seasons with the Brewers and throws fastball/change about 50/50. The problem is when he gets behind in the count even to the 8&9 batter he is afraid to throw a strike with his fastball.

Unless he makes a complete turn around you will want to throw a brick through your flat screen a half dozen times this season when he walks hinself into trouble.

My point is not that Devin Williams is great or even very good. I’m just glad somebody else is dealing with Edwin Diaz’s “loose bodies,” his 10+ ERA, his 60-day DL stint, and his cockfighting problems. I’ll take the guy who’s sorta mid and doesn’t throw very hard over Loose Bodies In Elbow Cockfighting guy all things considered.

Flat screen, how quaint…

I’m gonna throw a brick through my color tv

Doing the Saturday night Saratoga scene with my boy post graduation from Skidmore. What a great moment for me, Ms. Z-man and my kid.

Mazel Z-man

Thanks Clarence! Funny thing is that I’m fired up to party all night but alas they petered out so I’m back at the room feeling cheated!

Congrats, Z-Man!

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