(Monday, December 04, 2017 4:37:23 PM)
INDIANAPOLIS — The Knicks are officially losers again and December is shaping up as less than merry. The Knicks were without their top two scorers in Kristaps Porzingis and Tim Hardaway Jr., but coach Jeff Hornacek would not give his team a pass for being lifeless on defense. With a club possibly facing life without…
(Monday, December 04, 2017 8:27:16 AM)
INDIANAPOLIS — As Tim Hardaway Jr. undergoes tests to determine the extent of a stress injury to his left shin, a leading orthopedist at Northwestern University told The Post the Knicks shooting guard could be out as little as two weeks or as long as two months. Dr. Wellington Hsu, a professor of orthopaedic surgery…
[NYDN] Knicks stumble again without Porzingis, Hardaway in latest loss (Monday, December 04, 2017 4:14:38 PM)
The Knicks haven’t been good enough on the road regardless of who is playing.
[NYDN] Knicks need others to step up in Tim Hardaway Jr.’s absence (Monday, December 04, 2017 2:54:16 PM)
Depending on the results of potentially season-making (or season-breaking) test results, Tim Hardaway Jr. may be out a while.
[NYTimes] Pacers Rout Knicks With Seven Players Scoring in Double Figures (Tuesday, December 05, 2017 3:54:55 AM)
The Knicks were without Kristaps Porzingis and Tim Hardaway Jr. for a second consecutive loss.
(Tuesday, December 05, 2017 12:37:14 AM)
INDIANAPOLIS — The Knicks had better hope Kristaps Porzingis and Tim Hardaway Jr. aren’t out for an extended period, or they could have a lengthy losing streak.
(Monday, December 04, 2017 9:27:06 PM)
INDIANAPOLIS — Tim Hardaway Jr. remained back in New York and underwent tests on his left leg, but the Knicks had no further updates.
[SNY Knicks] Porzingis-less Knicks blown out against Pacers, 115-97 (Monday, December 04, 2017 9:28:00 PM)
Without Kristaps Porzingis and Tim Hardaway Jr. for a second straight game, the Knicks were blown out against the Indiana Pacers on the road Monday night.
[SNY Knicks] Shorthanded Knicks take on Pacers on the road (Monday, December 04, 2017 5:05:55 PM)
Kristaps Porzingis and Tim Hardaway Jr. won’t play for the Knicks in Monday’s road game against the Pacers.
[SNY Knicks] Porzingis, Hardaway Jr. out for Monday’s contest against Pacers (Monday, December 04, 2017 11:19:50 AM)
The Knicks’ top two scorers — F Kristaps Porzingis and SG Tim Hardaway Jr. — are out for Monday’s game against the Pacers, per ESPN’s Ian Begley.
41 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2017.12.05)”
Looks like Dotson is gonna starting for a while, and we will see a 2nd unit backcourt of Ntilikina and Baker. This injury to THJ could be a blessing in disguise because it means we get to see what McBuckets, Baker, and Ntilikina can do with consistent minutes. Baker has been playing fairly well, and Dotson looked a little lost in his first start- but looked alot better last night. I kinda hope THJ is out for a few weeks so that we can see what Baker and Dotson does with bigger roles. But at the same time, I hope he recovers quickly, as he has played well thus far. Nevertheless, this is a good developmental opportunity for Hornacek & his staff.
Baker should be a SG which he actually looked decent at last night. Hopefully him and Dotson show us something so we can have more reason to explore a Lee trade.
We really need an appropriately sized SF on the wings. Kevin Knox and Mikal Bridges please.
Trey Burke scored 39 points last night and shot 6 for 7 on threes. He was a plus 29. It’s time to call up this youngstet before someone else signs him.
Don’t like Knox. Seems soft and has the Beasley stoned look in his eyes.
Of course that’s only based on watching him twice and his mediocre stats across the board.
Bridges has grown on me
As of right now, nbadraft.net has Bridges going 12th in the draft. The Knicks would pick 13th. Food for thought.
Of course, lots can and will change over time, and I fully expect the Knicks to be picking in the top 10 before all is said and done. Gonna lose a lot of road games this year. And I’m crossing my fingers that the Knicks can somehow get a second first rounder (Courtney Lee, anyone? You can have OQ, t00)..
🙂
I have high hopes for Mikal Bridges, he has elite size, is a great athlete and has all the tools necessary to be a 3 in this league. He’s averaging 3.3 steals and 1.8 blocks per 40 and even though his insane shot efficiency is bound to come down eventually (.705) ts%), he has shown efficient shooting in a more limited role before, so it’s very probably not fool’s gold. He has doubled his shot attempts so far this season and is shooting even better while posting better numbers everywhere else.
I’ll admit that the only reason I like Knox is his Giannis-like strides to the rim. Plus he’s the youngest player in the draft.
Also Jaren Jackson isn’t very good offensively yet but he’s the perfect mobile/rebounding 4 to pair with KP for the future. Not sure if I’d take him over the other wings available tho.
I want to see the Frank and Baker combination. After a quick start, Frank hasn’t been getting many assists, but Baker has been doing better than expected. They should be good defensively and we may get enough play making between them both to be equivalent to the typical PG/SG combination. That kind of two guard front is what Phil had in mind to begin with. Why not give it a whirl and see what they can do together. Frank may even get some better shots playing off the ball when Baker has it. We aren’t going to get enough shooting and scoring out of that combination, but without Hardaway we don’t have a floor spacing and scoring combination unless we use Lee at SG and McBuckets at SF.
One other thing, I don’t think we should use the Kanter (C) and Beasley (PF) combination anymore when KP is out. It exposes both of them defensively. Maybe Beasley should play with Noah or O’Quinn off the bench and use someone else that can defend to start with Kanter.
We are so bad at PG it’s ridiculous.
Some of the defensive lapses last night were mind boggling, I can’t count how many times a Pacer player ended up with a dunk with no one within 5 feet of him.
I don’t know if it’s coaching or whether we just have dumb players (paging Michael Beasley). It’s one thing to be missing all your shots, which the Knicks were in the 1st half. It’s another to allow uncontested dunks, layups and 3 pointers over and over again.
Inexcusable.
@9 Some of the time it was the Kanter/Beasley combination. That’s why I brought it up. It’s possible that Kanter has looked OK on defense this year partially because KP has been covering for him so well. But with another weak defender like Beasley out there (who sometimes seems totally lost) it’s a disaster.
It’s the Jack / Beasley / Kanter lineup, one of the biggest defensive atrocities I’ve seen.
Jack switches on every pick and roll because he simply can’t stay in front of anyone + can’t or won’t ever go hard on screens, then we have Kanter or Beasley, bad, slow footed defenders guarding guards who’ll blow by them anytime AND Jack being posted up by a guy 10 inches taller. Every single possession it seemed Indiana was running the simplest pick and roll and this would happen everytime, then the Knicks would either double and allow an open 3 or get wrecked in the post.
i missed the game but looks like dotson and beasley started?
why would anyone start beas over mcbuckets?
anyway indiana is a bad match up for us even with Kp and thjr
I agree on bringing burke up; but don’t we have to cut someone? To me, no brainer (sessions), but it seems the team was reluctant to do that before
mikal bridges looks for real… he’s absolutely one of the best targets for us in the upcoming draft….
Let Ron eat!
looks like julius randle wont be re signed, do we want him?
sounds versatile and inconsistent, so ive read
@14 we all know which Bridges is most likely to become a Knick.
As of now at least Miles is getting projected ahead of Mikal but yeah, I fully expect Mikal to end up ahead of he keeps this up.
Jeff or Beau?
Wow, Tatum with 17 points on 6 shots yesterday. And he’s playing 30 mins a game for the #1 ranked defense in the league.
I haven’t seen him play. I wonder if his impact on the game is evident with the eye-test, or is this a guy that you barely notice out there during the game without a stat sheet in front of you?
(Speaking of which, I listened to some of the Timberwolves game on the radio the other day. The commentator spoke only in eFG% and per-possession stats. Is this the new way that all anaylsts speak, or has Minnesota jumped ahead of the curve here? (Back when I joined this blog I don’t think a single commentator even knew what eFG% meant).
Mikal Bridges won’t be a top 10 pick in the NBA Draft. He’s too old to be looking as awkward as he does and still get picked in the top 10.
djphan was one of the few knickerbloggers I can recall who was on the Tatum train from the station. I nominate him for a 2017 redraft article. so little information and yet so much more information. this is the redraft sweet spot.
Ainge basically took him with the #1 pick. Does it still count as a re-draft?
Only Ainge could trade down in the draft from #1 to #3 and get the best player in the draft (so far) and pass on a guy who has shoulder issues and a possible broken shot.
And speaking of Boston, I watched a little of their game against the Bucks on NBA TV last night. Honestly, Heinsohn makes the game almost unwatchable. I’m sure Celtics fans find him loveable and quirky like we do with Clyde, but at least Clyde attempts to be objective and do some analysis. All Heinsohn does is cheer (or boo) like a fan. His repertoire basically consists of “That’s a foul!” and “What a play by Mah-cus!”
heinsohn is painful but al horford has reached basketball savant levels. in many ways he helps Stevens realize the most out of his coaching edge (yes haters, Stevens is fucking awesome) the way Nash helped early d’antoni. horford actually looks like he has physically slowed down a lot, more even than the usual aging curve. but he has really become one of the smartest two way players I’ve ever seen and suddenly he is a 6 assist per 36 guy without being a TO machine. he is like early Noah with a shot but without the bouncy bounce.
I can’t remember many already good players having a career best year when they were so obviously physically diminished from their prime like horford.
I thought Tatum was a possible bust so I won’t talk about my views, but most people in the media I remember saw Tatum as a NBA ready prospect, probably the most, but remarked that he had a mid range game that wouldn’t translate if he couldn’t hit 3s and that his ceiling was probably lower than Fultz or Ball.
Tatum shot .342 from 3 in college so the concern was justified (and is shooting .513, which could not be expected really) and the ceiling part is still to be seen. His 2p% is right where it was in college and it’s pretty good (around .510), and he’s shooting less free throws in about the same percentage, so its pretty much all on this massive 3p% improvement.
He’s much, much better already than I thought, but to expect him to keep shooting like this through a whole season is not realistic be to honest.
I still think as long as Cleveland is reasonably healthy they’ll beat Boston this year but Boston is really well set up to control the east after this season.
I knew Tatum would be an NBA player (that’s what I loved about this past draft – so many guys I saw as NBA rotation guys in the first 8 picks or so), but yeah, come on, dude’s suddenly one of the best three-point shooters ever? Seems hard to believe.
The career leader in 3PT% is Steve Kerr at .454. So unless Tatum is magnitudes better than any shooter that has ever played, he is due for a sharp regression.
He’s much, much better already than I thought, but to expect him to keep shooting like this through a whole season is not realistic be to honest.
that’s why this is the redraft sweet spot. it doesn’t take insight to expect Tatum to revert from the best 3 pt shooter in nba history. But how much is the hard question. He’s now a 41% 3pt shooter if you combine college and nba without weighting for recency. He’s also an 84% ft shooter. so that’s probably closer to a starting point for an updated prior, a huge difference from a few months ago if you were a numbers-heavy analyst. does that make him consensus #1? does Mitchell go before fultz fox or ball?
miles is roughly the same as mikal… in that they are both pretty decent except mikal is probably more of a true sf than miles is … they have some limitations but relative to what’s going to be out there on draft day they are pretty decent…..
tatum should have been ranked at least #2… he was both younger than jackson and much more well rounded than isaac…. going to boston certainly helped since one of his criticisms was that he liked to iso too much… he’s not asked to do much but he’s playing that otto porter hyper efficient low usage game now but he’s def capable of lot more…
And lo, The Stevens said unto him, shoot thy 3 point shots more accurately
he is shooting wide open 3’s multiple times a game…. he’s probably not that good of a shooter but the percentage will go down once boston let’s him expand his game…
Tatum can regress a lot and still be awesome. He looks like he’s going to be a very fine NBA player.
He’s basically what the Celtics hoped they were gonna get out of Gordon Hayward.
@30
I agree it’s interesting, but I don’t think results would be much different. Tatum was the Celtics pick for the same reasons they would be redrafting him 1st, because he’s NBA ready and the Celtics have Irving set as the PG for the next many years. If Philly knew Boston was going to pick Tatum anyway they would have simply stayed put, the Lakers would have gone for Lonzo and then Fultz to Philly. I still think both Lonzo and Fultz are the top 3 picks because it’s about ceiling and not current production for both teams, to be honest.
Things get interesting when it comes to Phoenix. While I think Jackson is going to be a hell of a defender (he’s already showing signs) they could be tempted by Mitchell, who’s pretty much the only lottery guy I see rising a lot. Then outside of the lottery, there’s Kuzma and Bell who would get into the lottery for sure (probably ahead of guys like Kennard, Zach Collins, Adebayo and maybe Ntilikina or Monk) by the rest is still to early to tell.
@20
Not sure who was doing the radio call, but I think the T-wolves broadcast team are considered to be 1 of the best in the NBA currently (Dave Benz & Jim Petersen). Personally, they’re one of the few I can watch/listen to. Obviously we’re spoiled with Breen & Clyde.
FWIW, here’s a survey from 2016. T-wolves come in 5th. Check out who’s 1st though. 😉
http://awfulannouncing.com/2016/the-nba-local-tv-announcer-rankings.html/6#main-content
@33
That’s not really true. According to stats on NBA.com, 26% of Tatum’s shots have been wide open. For comparison, Ryan Anderson has a 49.2% mark on the same category.
He has a much better mark on wide open shots obviously but it’s not like he’s making super easy shots one after another.
Timmy’s out at least two weeks per Begley.
that might be true… i mean i’m just looking at highlights and thin slices of games that happen to come on…. but it does look like 98% of his 3s are assisted… literally… so he’s definitely not generating these looks himself….
Tatum and Otto Porter have a lot in common. It’s not like Tatum is going to be Durant, but his floor has rocketed up even with his ephemeral frothy shooting. It’s just uncommon for a 19 year old to be doing it so quickly. It’s not just the 3 pt shooting. He’s a key cog in the best defense in the league, and one of those defenders is Kyrie.
I still think the Celtics are due for major regression.