Looks like the Knickerblogger NewsBot might be out for a short while. It complained of routine knee pain, and was promptly given an MRI, which is very bad for robots. Team officials are listing the bot as “day to day”.
Categories
Looks like the Knickerblogger NewsBot might be out for a short while. It complained of routine knee pain, and was promptly given an MRI, which is very bad for robots. Team officials are listing the bot as “day to day”.
104 replies on “Knickerblogger News Bot Hurt in MRI Accident”
In Knicksian lingo this means he’s going to retire soon… 😉
P.S. great screenshot of the injury
Another disappointing loss, another winnable game that slipped away.
“Wait till game 20” makes sense but denying the issues doesn’t.
– Issue number one (and by a mile) the defense doesn’t work.
This isn’t the right personnel to fit into Thibs’ dogmas and we need to try something different (more switching? short burst of zone?).
Mitch will ease the problem a bit but he’ll have an effect on offense too.
– The offense isn’t the worst problem, and it’s not even close, but trading two for threes isn’t a good way to win games in 2024.
Also, I HATE that we’re 30th in pace (with Hart, Bridges and OG? Come on!).
– Playing a faux 7-men rotation on November 10th is criminal, not even when the covid protocol was in effect Thibs’ stubborness was so maddening, Leon should tell him something.
– The sense of unfitness between Thibs and this roster is growing and it projects, at least for me, worrying shades of the disastrous 2021-2022 season.
– It’s early and things can change quickly but so far Bridges has been a disappointment.
He’s the poster boy for the “this team has lost its soul” campaign.
– We absolutely need to win the next 5 games, 4 of them at home (opponents’ combined record so far 12-25). Even going 4-1 should be considered a low standard.
I think it’s fair to give Thibs at least until Christmas to see if he can make it work, and it’s not his fault if the roster doesn’t fit him, but ultimately players are the one who, uh, actually play the game, so if Thibs can’t adjust he has to go as soon as possible, considering that the window to make some noise isn’t that wide to begin with.
Who do you want to shoot less often?
Towns 24.9 PPG TS 65.5%
Brunson 25 PPG; TS 58.2%
OG 15.6 PPG; TS 60.1%
Hart 13.8 PPG; TS 66.7%
Right now the only obvious negative on offense is Bridges shooting poorly from 3 away from the corner. We are the 2nd rated offense and very efficient; albeit clearly too slow pace wise. If we could step up the pace or Bridges could work out the issues with his shot; we’d probably be the #1 offense. If we could do both, we’d almost certainy be #1 at least until KP is back in Boston. And it’s still early. This offense is going to improve a bit just from expereince together.
The problem so far is 100% defense.
The offense is absolutely fine, the defense is not, and if playing six guys makes the team too tired to play defense in the 4th quarter that’s not good either
The NewsBot actually looks like the rugged interior defender we need right now.
I don’t think pace matters much but when you only have 6 playable players and the other team has 10, it seems like playing at a slower pace might have some ancillary benefits.
Do I feel smart for using the word ancillary in a blog post? Absolutely.
Am I about to find out if I used it correctly? Definitely.
Just noting that the Knicks aren’t playing five-out, especially with the current version of Mikal — it’s three-out. So having the second-ranked offense is kind of amazing.
But having Miles Turner take almost twice as many threes as your 55%-from-three counterpart is really stupid.
To me, that’s not on Thibs, that’s on the CAP. He had a damn good game on paper (33-6-10), but he’s got a ways to go to be getting the most out of his teammates.
I guess I-Hart will start after all.
We need to grow the pie with more posessions and shoot ~44 threes and NOT eat each other slices of the same pie.
Roster has holes on defense that are not going away and coach needs to make up that extra spillage. Instead of trying to make KAT & Brunson something they’re not, we must focus on their strengths.
In order to beat Boston and win a chip, Knicks must have the highest scoring offense in the association. This is why Thibs is not a fit. I know its not what us 90s fans enjoy watching but that’s what it is.
OT: Running players into ground in November is getting really really old. Only a matter of time before someone goes down. WTF!!!
It’s kind of hard to complain about a 120 ORtg. The main issue with the lack of three point shooting, in my view, will manifest itself when Precious or Mitch are in the starting lineup (they will be, I’m pretty confident at this stage). The ORtg will likely go down with less spacing, but more shooting from deep could alleviate that. And hopefully that makes the defense passable at least.
I agree with you in a general sense, but more possessions is about offensive rebounding and causing TOs. We are middle of the league in OREB% which is kind of what we expected with the loss of Mitch/I-Hart. I haven’t see TO stats, but it feels like OG, Hart and Bridges are doing fine in that area.
Maybe we could do a better job of improving the pace and creating more 3s, but sometimes you have to take what the defense is givng you. Last night I thought the Pacers did a good job of covering the 3 point line at the expense of giving up the inside. So we did great in the paint. Next game it may be the opposite. The problem was they destroyed our defense in the 4th quarter not that we didn’t shoot more 3s.
It’s not about the slow pace. They’re slower to rotate, slower to get around screens, slower to move laterally, and slower to release a shot. The last one doesn’t matter for KAT because his release point is so high but the slow release of Bridges is noticeable. He really only gets good 3PAs in rhythm and it hasn’t been hard for defenses to recover to him.
I’m sure someo one can get thie data but the 2 point vs 3 point shot selection is correlated with defense.
How many times we have seen KAT or JB drive and dive after the rim or floter shot attempt thats followed by us giving up transition points that are often threes? On both misses and makes.
They also considerably decrease injury odds. Shooting 45 threes helps with both trasnition defense and prevents injuries while putting up more total points on the scoreboard.
needs to be screamed during every time out.
I focused on Kolek’d defense during his 2 minutes. He didn’t make any mistake or cause any problem. Not playing him again afterwards is complete nonsense.
He made a really bad mistake not switching onto TJ, which led to an easy pull up. It shouldn’t have led Thibs to pull him, but the mistake did happen.
Here’s the play: https://x.com/BenRitholtzNBA/status/1855829697801650325
100% spot on. Also, having a scoring center like KAT means that offensive rebounds must come from wings and guards. The only way this happens is when you miss 3FGA and rebounds are longer in the tooth.
They’re 28th in causing turnovers. They’ve never really been that good at it under Thibs, 30/40-ish percentile eyeballing it.
He doesn’t like them going for steals; this has been reported multiple times.
In terms of doing well at the rim offensively, they’re not. Twenty-seventh in the association in rim shooting percentage.
They’re third in FG% from downtown; they just aren’t shooting anywhere near enough of them.
I agree they are slow on defense, but since poeple have been focusing on the offense, I’m just pointing out that while I don’t think the offense is a problem at all, we could theoretically improve it by upping the pace.
Last night, Rick Carlisle played humans like Quenton Jackson, Jarace Walker, Enrique Freeman and Johny effing Furphy.
Lets please stop making rational explanations for irational decisions.
(I think the numbers in my last post were from 2020-21, so never mind.)
Here are the proper numbers:
28th in causing turnovers. (*)
16th in FG% at the rim.
20th in FG% from downtown.
22nd in FGA from downtown.
(*) The statement that they’ve never been good at it under Thibs is accurate.
I can’t believe Johnny Furphy is an NBA basketball player and not one of the lead singers in a Hall and Oates cover band….
They’re 24th in getting to the line and 15th in OReb%. They still take care of the ball well, 6th in TO%, and at least this year they’re good at making shots — third in eFG%.
Given all the underlying numbers, not really seeing the advantage of re-Moneyballing things and swapping out eFG% for offensive rebounds. Really the only thing this team does well, at least with this coach, is take care of the ball — in part helped by the slower, less risky pace — and put the ball in the basket.
Yeah, when the other coaches are down three guys, they don’t then shorten their rotation and let commentators blame injuries.
Risking beating a dead horse, let me see if I can re frame it again.
Think of SATs. We suck in the english part and will likley suck for a long time. It just doesnt come naturally. However, we’re really really good in Math.
In order to maximize the total SAT score this year, we need to be close to perfect in Math which requires us strategically change the way we solve the math problems.
Best part, they’re the best in the world in this new way of doing math, just need a teacher that forces them to change and doesn’t allow them to use last year’s methodology.
I don’t know guys. I’m sure there are ways to strategically create more 3s at the margin. We are 20th in 3p attempts as a percentage of FG attempts, but some of it is defense and our players. Other than Hart who is a bit reluctant to shoot 3s unless he’s got a lot of time, I have’t seen anyone else passing up on good shots from 3. And it’s not like the ball isn’t moving. The ball is moving well. If anything, maybe when certain players are driving instead of shooting mid range there may be opportunities to kick it out for a 3, but I’m seeing too much of that. Maybe Brunson forces one here or there and maybe Mikal prefers driving to midrange, but they are both very good there.
IMO this conversation is missing the target.
We should be discussing how we can improve the defense.
Mikal’s FT rate has fallen off a cliff, from .233 career before this year, to .066.
Probably part coach, part player, but all no good.
I’m concerned that the Mikael trade will be viewed as an accelerating calamity year after year. Five 1 RPs plus swaps is brutal brutal brutal.
marechal did Thibs’ scheme call him to switch on this play?
Considering that he was yanked almost immediately after, I’d say yes!
Yeah but the SAT scoring is so much easier now than back when I took it.
Hard to complain about a 120 ORtg but when you had a 118 ORtg last year, it kinda makes you wonder if selling out to gas the offense was worth it. If you’re adding KAT and Bridges, you want your offense going up more than 2 points.
The top four players in the NBA in DRating are Chet Holmgren, Alex Caruso, Ousmane Dieng, and Jalen Williams. And they’re all on the same team!!!
“In order to maximize the total SAT score this year, we need to be close to perfect in Math which requires us strategically change the way we solve the math problems.”
Derrick Rose would like a word…
good news…i missed the knick game yesterday…bad news…i was at the jet game…
The Giants seem like they’re finally going to tank successfully so of course it’s a weak draft for QBs. I like Cam Ward if he’s there but not keen on giving up a ransom to move up for him.
I wonder if Belichick is looming.
Tyrone Tracy looks like a great pick.
Caruso is having a TERRIBLE season offensively so far (27% shooting, 18.5% from three). So good to see his D is still effective. He’s such a weird offensive piece I figure things’ll come around eventually.
As for things to worry about regarding the Knicks D: “there is a growing gap in New York’s defensive rating between the minutes OG plays (112.2) and the ones he sits (119.2).”
Tyrone Tracy makes not bringing Saquon back so understandable that it’s crazy that people still actually complain about it. There was 100% no reason for them to bring Saquon back.
Well, you should, because a high eFG% is more desirable than offensive rebounds for reasons that should be obvious. The best offensive teams in the league every year are the high eFG% teams. The idea of the game is to throw the ball into the basket.
High eFG% plus low turnovers WILL work as a basis for an offense. That is basically last year’s Celtics team. The Knicks are the #2 offense in the NBA right now, 3rd in eFG%, 6th in turnovers, middle of the pack in ORB, lagging in FT/FGA. That is exactly the kind of offensive team Boston was last year. Same Four Factors profile.
The problem, of course, is defense. You might have to rob Peter to pay Paul in this instance, as the guys you need to bring in to fix the defense are going to hurt the offense. But the whole “trading eFG% for offensive rebounding” thing worked just like you would hope it would. It’s a better offensive team, an elite offensive team even, and honestly it feels like the offense hasn’t really even hit on all cylinders yet.
We’re just hapless against a basic screen action. That’s pretty much the whole problem in a nutshell.
So here’s something I didn’t have on my season’s bingo card: Cam Reddish, ball-hawking defensive stalwart for the Laker’s starting five.
Strat must be so proud…
Just checked in on Nikola, who caught a ball like a water polo player last night, and he is shooting 56% from three, leading the league in rebounding and assist %, and obviously is still clearly the best player in the NBA.
https://x.com/BenRitholtzNBA/status/1856016599985049894
And I do! Guess I wasn’t clear. Now that they’ve de-Moneyballed, swapping OReb for eFG, I don’t want them re-Moneyballing and swapping the two back out.
Cam’s a better defender than Mikal. Eye test will tell you that, pretty easy to see. Whether Mikal was a better defender when I wasn’t eye testing him is an interesting question, but at this point neither here nor there.
That’s why those who keep saying “it’s not the offense, it’s the defense” are missing the point.
We have KAT at the 5. Our defense is never going to be good.
The offense has to be special. So the focus on the lack of 3PA or Mikal Bridges being used like Quentin Grimes is absolutely appropriate bc we’re more likely with the current personnel to get this offense from a 9 to a 10 than to get this defense up to a 6.
This defense with this coach with this personnel might be a long term problem. He’s insisting the team play defense “his way” despite the fact that we lack the personnel to do that.
So what we really may be seeing here is a disconnect between Leon (get the best players) and Thibs (I will only coach a certain way).
We don’t have a Thibs-y team. But we do have a Thibs-y coach.
Spot on. End of story, really.
Chets out for 3 months with a fractured hip, that sucks for the league
Towns is really lost on some defensive possessions, and does not cover mistakes in the way that I-Hart did. But I think they still suffer from the same problem as the team did last year – lack of switching and over-helping. They are simply not switching as much as they could (even if it’s focused on switching 2-4 rather than 1-5), and it’s making opponents live in the paint. Then the defense breaks down because the Knicks have a tendency to help from one pass away, leading to the easiest assists an opponent could have for corner 3s. It seems like a scheme thing, not a player thing, and I don’t know how much of that is on KAT.
Yeah but the SAT scoring is so much easier now than back when I took it.
Pendulum will overcorrect swing to levels that will make everyone normal cringe. Orange baffon just confirmed, he’s eliminating entire department of education. Education is now all local, same as abortion. Plenty more of this shift to conservatism to come.
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1856021616503009296
Orange baffon?
I read this morning a trade proposal I think from Sporting News saying Knicks should trade Bridges and Hart to Chicago for Zach LaVine. That’ll solve the defensive problems!
BigBlueAL, I saw that and almost spilled my coffee. Insane…anything for clicks, I guess.
Sorry, but IMO the idea that we should focus more on the offense is bat shit crazy.
You don’t necessarily have to have an elite defense to win the championship when you have a top 5 offense (we are 2nd right now). You just need to play better defense than we are right now. You can win a title with a top 5 offense (which we already have) and a top 10 defense.
The Nuggets won the championship with the 5th best offense and 15th defense. Last year they had the 8th best defense and no one was panicking before they got upset.
The Cavs won with the 4th best offense and 10 best defense.
I’d say it’s close to a 100% certain the defense is going to improve as these guys get used to playing with each other and make some adjustments and when we get healthy.
We were 17th before last night’s no defense showing. We were 10th last year with Randle.
Can we get to top 10?
That’s tougher to answer.
However, we are missing our 2nd best defender in Mitch, who would be anchoring the defense in the 2nd unit and Precious who would certainly be getting minutes and helping with the interior defense.
If general improvement with time and those two players are not enough, either of those players and other other assets can probably be moved for a bigger 3&D type PF to put next to Towns at the deadline .
We are NOT going to outscore everyone to title contention. You have to get stops. Anything else is crazy talk.
We can certainly try to improve the offense.
Why wouldn’t you?
But the focus has to be on improving the defense and consistent defensive effort.
That guy is probably also a politcal pollster in his spare time.
That’s not the idea at all, Strat.
We should focus on everything that needs attention.
https://x.com/TheKnicksRecap/status/1856047542641012833
@TheKnicksRecap
Karl-Anthony Towns is allowing 91.4% shooting! Players are shooting 32 for 35 against KAT in the restricted area this season according to@TimBontemps. It’s the worst defensive percentage for any player who has guarded at least 30 shots at the rim.
Oh Jesus why? smh
How could anyone talk about Grimes and Bridges in the same sentence (and I’m a Grimes fan)?
I predict that if/when we have a stretch where either Towns or Brunson is out and Bridges becomes the 2nd option he’s going to be asked to create more off the dribble and he’s going to score 20+ points per night. IMO it would be dumb to ask him to do more now when the players he’s starting with are more efficient doing what they are doing or more efficient creating off the dribble. All we need from Bridges is to get more consistent from 3 and defend more consistently. If he can’t do that, we have a problem, but we don’t have a problem with how he’s being used now.
Raise those fucking arms KAT!
I think those numbers are a bit bullshit. Last week it was 27 for 30, now it’s 32 for 35 yet last night KAT clearly got a block at the rim and was credited with a blocked shot. He has 8 blocks overall yet you’re telling me they’ve basically been mostly outside the paint? I assume shots in the paint are different than shots at the rim?
Been reading a lot from previous fanbases about Mikal and his defense.
Mikal is regarded as a strong team defender, not particularly strong at point of attack defense. Generates good defensive plays because of his awareness, length, and ability to disrupt passing lanes. Adept at switching 2-4.
Now, that is not the profile of an elite defender— it is the profile of a guy who is a pretty solid defender for a two-way player who is not a zero on offense.
We’re using him as a POA defender usually against the opposing team’s quickest ball-dominant guard. *That is setting him up to fail.* It is not the best way to use him. He’s getting roasted on a nonstop basis. We need to do something different scheme-wise.
We don’t really have a good POA defender that can bottle up opposing lead guards. We’re jamming a square peg into a round hole by using Mikal as the primary on-ball defender. It’s just not going to work.
I said we should try to improve the offense also.
But there are no major obvious problems in the 2nd best offense in the league so far. There are a couple of things we can do better, most obviously is try to up the pace. 95% of the problems are on the defensive side. So that’s where you concentrate.
This discussion is like of like saying Tyson & Foreman didn’t work hard enough on their power. Maybe neither hit as hard as Ernie Shavers and you’d always rather hit even harder, but it was other issues that caused them problems.
You’re acting like what we talk about here is going to determine what gets fixed.
Giving up 5 picks for a guy and telling him to stand in the corner like Quentin Grimes seems suboptimal and may be discussed.
JK47,
Thanks for those notes. I always like to hear what passionate fans have to say about their players.
Might be time to use Hart on tough opposing PGs but we saw how bad that strategy worked against Maxey in the playoffs last season. Although with Bridges and OG helping that should help minimize the drives into the paint, Bridges is averaging over a steal per game and much like OG they’ve come with him playing help defense. Against the Bucks he had a great steal where he was off the ball and read the passing lane and picked off a pass as if he was a free safety.
Taking more 3s is pretty simple to implement. You just shoot the damn ball. Maybe you add in a bit of motion or a few more back picks, but really you just throw the ball over the defenders head sometimes. Our guys should be good enough to do that and have it go in often enough.
Overhauling a defense with a new scheme or teaching KAT how to defend or whatever else, that sounds like a much bigger ask. It’s more important than fixing the offense, but it’s not something that can be fixed quickly. It may not be fixable at all while playing 5 out.
Umm. Was this on the scouting report before the trade? Haha.
He’ll figure it out (touch wood).
I’m acting as if most of conversation is about how we aren’t running a modern offense with Thibs or Bridges is being used poorly or the reason we are losing is because we aren’t shooting enough 3s and I’m disagreeing because we have the 2nd best offense in the league so far and these guys aren’t even used to playing with each other yet.
I think part of the idea with Bridges was to have him create some with the second unit but at least as of now our second unit is Jericho Sims.
I have no idea what counts here and what doesn’t, but anecdotally there are several times a game in which KAT is faced with a 2-on-1 after the ball handler evades his defender in a screen action. He could do a better job (he’s caught in between too often), but the breakdown happened way earlier.
The thing with POA defenders these days is that it’s virtually impossible to guard the ball handler one-on-one. Mikal could do a better job with screens, but to me there are too many situations in which they could just switch to prevent penetration, and avoid it at all costs.
We talk about the math issue on 3s, but it applies defensively: you live with isos against your poor defenders because even if the matchup is good for the offense, there are better shots on the floor that you are preventing.
Much of this conversation has been you telling us what we’re allowed to focus on.
We likely need to use Precious or Mitch to fix the defense, at which point these issues with the lack of threes and Bridges’ uninvolvement will become more meaningful bc we might not have a 120 ORtg without KAT at the 5.
I expected the defense to be bad and I don’t see many solutions with this personnel. Talking about something that’s actually fixable seems ok to me.
+1. Also noticed some vocal complaining between teammates about exactly this.
Either Mikal and Hart need to get back in the play faster or KAT needs to play closer to the level of the screen, giving Mikal more time to get back. Probably a bit of both.
We do some trapping and switching but the communication on it is poor and someone is late to step out or rotate or whatever else. Not sure if it’s planned or just what happens after a particularly tough screen.
KAT is slow to recognize when he should help. Mathurin just pulled up over Brunson 3-4 times.
FWIW, opponent ORtg is 104.6 when Sims is on. Maybe Sims is better than we think or KAT is much worse. Probably a fluke.
Idk, everything is broken on defense except OG.
Let me sketch a Goldilocks scenario. Our offense, while potent, has a “too many cooks in the kitchen” issue that is affecting Bridges.
When Precious and Mitch are back his offensive skillset as a usage soaker will be better utilized and the offense-defense trade off won’t be so bad as a result.
And having a premier defender like Mitch backing him will help his POA issues.
I feel like DJPhan right now…
I do think Mitch coming back will help the defense an enormous amount without hurting the offense very much.
Defense is THE big problem, like in “so big that maybe it can’t be fixed”.
The disconnection between defensive philosophy and players on the roster is structural.
This team, as constructed, is more apt to win games 140-139 than 110-109 and if the defensive issues force you to use Mitch or Precious in the starting-5 it will probably lower the efficiency of our offense.
For what’s worth (nothing) like Marechal I think we should try to switch more often and live with the results… and I’d love to mix some zone situationally, but Thibs isn’t Spo.
As for being “2nd best offense in the League”, to me it’s too early to believe in numbers (the schedule is too unbalanced at this point) and our offense in contested games’ 4th quarters has often sputtered when it counts, but it’s an easier thing to fix because there’s a lot of firepower on the roster, you could hope it’s just a matter of using it wisely (ooops!) and learn to know each other.
Can’t imagine why he wouldn’t be….
Bc he’s having more fun elsewhere 😉
I’d say this is a function of Sims playing against backups and not starters. He is more mobile, but he is not good in any way, to these eyes.
I’m definitely experiencing some cognitive dissonance about our offense. On one hand, it’s been immensely frustrating to watch opposing teams shoot threes at the rate expected in 2024 while we pound the paint. On the other, 2nd in the league in offensive rating does kind of scream “non-issue.”
In any event, we should be shooting a lot more 3s, though of course it’s more complicated than simply chucking them up. For one reason or another we haven’t been able to generate the looks we want. I’m reasonably confident this will sort itself out as the team gels and Payne and Shamet come back, as our 3PA volume under Thibs has been in the top half of the league ever since 2020-2021.
The defense…woof. Has Mikal Bridges always been absolutely erasable with a basic screen?
My 2024 beat is that any defender is erasable with a basic screen in 2024, and penetration is thus a team defense issue rather than an individual defense issue (that does not excuse Mikal, he’s been bad individually in a way that puts more pressure on the rest of the defense).
offense/defense…
I think our main issue is chemistry and jalen’s offense…
a bunch of times each game it seems we get caught in transition on one of his bad shots…
Edit: the KAT stat on defense is crazy…
again, more so than anything – I think we have a backcourt issue…mikal and jalen need to figure it out…
Thib’s scheme with its drop coverage and focus on preventing penetration and rim protection can work in the modern NBA but it requires supreme focus and effort from every player on the court.
It’s why Randle and Toppin often looked so bad because they were responsible for covering so much space thay even the slightest bit of I attention would led to wide open threes.
With our current personnel we need to focus less on trying to be an elite defense and more on triage. We need to take away threes first and then focus on the rim and be more about slowing down our opponent over stopping them. We also should take more risks and cause turnovers. Giving up the occasional easy basket is less of a big deal when your defense is mediocre.
Our offense is great and will get better as we gel so we don’t need an elite defense just a solid one to win games. If we can limit threes and cause turnovers it’s okay if we are only average or worse at the rim.
Sorry about the typos writing on my phone sucks.
also, before anyone gets called “cap” (during an interview KAT kept referencing jalen that way) – it should be mandatory that you’ve won at least one championship with that team…college don’t count here…
jalen and thibs need to get this thing figured out…
i was hoping that precious would be back to on court activities by now…we still may not see him for another four or five games…ugh…
news bot is day-2-day according to “team officials”? sorry to hear he will never play again – that’s definitely a kiss of death.
every time i look at a box score i see Sims with a + in the +/- column, yesterday he was the only plus player on the team. and yet, he is the worst player on the court period. What does this mean? I don’t know. It’s a mystery of life I guess.
Saw the Holmgren clip. Broken pelvis does not seem surprising.
As for Sims, it does give me hope for the return of Mitch bringing balance to the Force
Cam *and* Deuce are both questionable for tomorrow now?!? Sheesh.
Wild Cavs stats:
– Mitchell leads the team with a meager 30.3 minutes per game.
– No one else on that team averages 30 minutes.
– Their 9th & 10th guys average over 16 mpg even though they’re Ty Jerome & Georges Niang.
These guys are hardly breaking a sweat!
Thibs has done a great job but the hire Kenny Atkinson camp didn’t exactly get it wrong. He’s one hell of a coach.
“every time i look at a box score i see Sims with a + in the +/- column, yesterday he was the only plus player on the team. and yet, he is the worst player on the court period. What does this mean? I don’t know. It’s a mystery of life I guess.”
We should make the next game into a Sims Watch Party. For all we know he’s boxing out like crazy and moving his feet well when on the ball (I have seen him do both once or twice). It might be fun to break down his play on the game thread when he’s in. See if we can reach consensus — okay, we probably do have consensus that he’s the worst player on the court. So let’s see if we might change our minds.
Speaking of Thibs I am surprisingly in his camp with the lack of defensive adjustments. His strategies are sound and I don’t want him to compromise them. It’s 9 games into the season and you want him to scrap the team’s defensive principles? I don’t. We’re not going to get better at defense through adjustments. If it takes 75 games of repetition for KAT to learn to put his hands up and start making better reads, so be it. This is what it takes to be a 5 in the NBA.
“We have to do better,” Thibodeau said. “And we will.”
This doesn’t sound like the coach who is going to let guys play bad defense the whole season..
Ha. Hubie, I don’t always agree, but I appreciate your contrarian takes as they force me to reconsider my own.
I think you’re wrong on this one, though. Thibs had two of the best defensive centers in the league last year, a hulking power forward, and DDV flying around like a nut. It feels like his strategy is still based on that. I’m pretty sure that turning KAT into a defensive stalwart though sheer repetition is probably close to the old saw about the definition of insanity.
I don’t think they have to scrap Thib’s strategies, but I do think he has to tweak them to better help/hide some of the current weaknesses. I think if it’s been 8 years of not working for KAT, another 75 games probably won’t help that much.
And I just stumbled on this on nba.com:
‘Donte DiVincenzo (MIN) was a plus-63 in four games last week.’
Last I’d looked, which was a little bit ago now, he was having a pretty crap start. So this surprised me.
So much to unpack here I’ll just quote the whole thing (from nba.com):
That the Knicks are 4-5 with the league’s second-ranked offense tells you where their issues begin. Their starting lineup has allowed 122 points per 100 possessions, the worst mark among 10 lineups that have played at least 100 minutes. Some of that is 3-point shooting (42.2%) which should drop with time, but opponents have also shot 63% inside the arc with the starters on the floor.
The Knicks are also 4-5 with a positive point differential, having lost four of their five games that were within five points in the last five minutes. They’ve grabbed less than 30% of available rebounds with the score within five in the last five and their inability to grab a board (without fouling) hurt them down the stretch in Atlanta on Wednesday.
They didn’t have to worry about clutch time on Friday when they beat the Bucks by 22 (when Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart combined for 16 assists and zero turnovers). Brunson’s scoring efficiency is down a little from his first two seasons in New York, but his assist/turnover ratio of 3.69 is the best mark of his career by a wide margin. Hart, meanwhile, is averaging a career-high 5.1 assists per game, having dished out 28 over the last four.
If it takes 75 games of repetition for KAT to learn to put his hands up and start making better reads, so be it. This is what it takes to be a 5 in the NBA.
after 20k minutes in the league including a few k with thibs, kat isn’t going to suddenly develop the cognitive reflexes and body discipline you need to play drop well as an nba 5. repetition isn’t magic. there is a reason tim connelly yeeted the whole 401k for a late prime sentinelle rather than go with kat at the 5. he’s an amazing offensive player. he can do some half decent things on defense against select lineups or with another rim protector behind him. but he’s not mastering the thibs drip and drop then or now.
All the Thunder bigs are hurt. . .is it possible Isaiah is cursed?
The Knicks have been an excellent defensive team under Tom Thibodeau exactly once: the famous Invisible Sixth Man season. And that seemed rather fluky to be completely honest.
I don’t think Thibs’ shit works as well as it used to back in the pre-everybody-shoots-threes days.
Raven & Milo I’m not going to argue with you bc you’re probably right but some of this shit is as simple as putting your hands up and maybe the reason you’re alluding to is Tim Connelly just caved. I’m imagining KAT-on-defense here as a spoiled Gen Z kid who gets people to stop asking him to do what he doesn’t want to do by not trying hard at it.
FWIW I said the same exact thing about Connelly. That’s a smart executive and I think he knew what he was doing when he traded for Gobert and when he dumped KAT. His defense is our problem now, though, and if I were Thibs I wouldn’t cave. I’d drill.
The best defensive game the Wolves played all last year btw was game 2 at Denver with Towns at the 5 bc Gobert was hurt. He was a beast in that game. I’m not expecting Isaiah Hartenstein but I wouldn’t scrap the defense after 9 games.
We had good defense last year when we were healthy. If you have JB, Randle and RJ as your top 3 guys in minutes I think it’s as simple as you’re not going to have a good defense unless you have a rare talent in the middle.
This is what I was coming here to say and why I was wondering if the real plan was to play KAT next to Mitch (or at least the backup plan when the current plan fails).
It does seem odd that Thibs is just plugging the new guys into defensive roles they are not ideal for (KAT at the 5, Mikal at POA), but who knows, maybe they are working on other roles in practice? Or maybe Thibs really thinks he’s a gifted teacher and can make those guys solid in their new roles? idk. At least there will be some rim protection coming on the horizon eventually.
I remember when Thibs went 20 games or so with Kemba and Fournier as starters and then perma-benched them. These games don’t mean a whole lot.
Cavs are 12-0
I guess I’ll keep doubting them as serious contenders until they go 82-0
7 vs 8 play in game is going to be a tank off to face the 1 seed Cavs and not the 2 seed Celtics
If these 20 games lead to Thibs perma-benching Mikal, I’m gonna be pretty upset. We invested a hell of a lot in him.
Leon is cooked if Mikal is benched. Thibs will be fired before anything like that happens.
That wasn’t the point. The point is that what you see now is not what you might see later. It’s possible that Mikal starts but has his minutes with the starters significantly reduced. Or that Hart comes off the bench in favor of Deuce or Precious or eventually Mitch. Or that unless Mikal plays better he is benched coming down the stretch of 4th quarters.
In 4 of our losses, there was one common theme: we could not stop the opposing offense from efficiently scoring down the stretch. In Houston, it was in the paint with Sengun going to a bread and butter move over and over. With the Pacers, it was poor 3-pt defense augmented by Hali getting into the paint at will and either scoring or kicking out. In Cleveland, it was Garland and Mobley both having their way. With the Hawks it was Trae, Capela and the rookie clowning us.
Our 4th Q defense is putrid right now, and it’s not just defending the line.
Our offense was pretty putrid down the stretch in 3 of those 4 games, as well, so I’m not buying that it’s all good bc of an ORtg that includes KAT hitting 54% of his 3PA and Josh Hart shooting nearly 100 pts above his career TS%.
But you’re right, these games don’t matter (even though I don’t think Thibs realizes that based on his rotation). That’s why I wouldn’t be making major adjustments right now. This is basically extended practice.
How is benching Mikal a conversation?
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣