2024-25 Game Thread: Knicks @ Hornets – Black Friday Discount – 60% Off the Hornets Rotation

Mark me as still optimistic, but ill-at-ease. We totally changed the dynamic of a team that before had about two years to gel together behind Randle and JB. Now, the offense and defense are looking totally different and clearly guys are struggling to acclimate on both sides of the ball. We’re not yet at the 20 game mark, though early returns have been utterly infuriating. But it takes more than 20 games to gel when you overhaul the roster as systematically as this.

As such, I think there’s lots of low-hanging fruit that will improve our performance as the season wears on. First, obviously, even more time to gel. Second, the return of Precious and, eventually, Mitch. Precious is almost guaranteed to be a massive improvement over Sims and gives us more lineup flexibility. Our defense will not be world-beating unless Mitch returns back 110%, but even moderate improvement on that end will make a big difference for this team. Perhaps there is also one midseason trade left in the chamber that changes our trajectory.

Finally–and most importantly–Mikal literally cannot be this bad. He will eventually progress to his mean. That said, I’m beginning to think he should be benched for Deuce–if only temporarily–so he can work out his kinks leading the second unit. We look much, much better with Deuce as the fifth guy than Bridges right now, on both sides. Such a move may benefit both of them.

I’ll use this opportune moment to mention one of my hotter NBA takes for this season. The Cavs are not nearly as good as their record or their SRS. They have improved, but they are not on Boston’s level–they are on our and Orlando’s level, and I think we are better than them, at least on paper if we price in some improvement come playoff time.

Obviously their record is eye-popping, but it is predicated almost entirely on unsustainable production from their role players. Ty Jerome is playing to the tune of 6+ BPM. Caris Levert, career BPM of -.2, is playing at a 4+ BPM level. Meanwhile, Garland and Mobley have played pretty much to the back of their basketball cards (though Mobley has surely showed more offensive diversity, though this hasn’t really been reflected in the productivity stats so far.) Mitchell has been mediocre (for his high standard). Once Jerome and Levert regress to the mean, they’re going to look pretty good, but not like a top 3 team in the NBA, especially if Mitchell has a down year, which he has so far, at least by the box score.

Atkinson has done a great job over there–the offense certainly looks better than under Bickerstaff–but they are paper tigers.