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28 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2024.12.16)”
The gif we have all been waiting for…
https://x.com/knicksmuse/status/1868465921846575576?s=46
Bridges was very good last night. I will take it.
Brunson was superb
As someone pointed out on the game thread, Bridge’s POA D was vastly better ( albeit against Suggs) and he did not die on every screen. If he continues this trend there is reason for cautious optimism. OTOH, OG seemed discombobulated on offense last night. He seems to struggle when he shoots contested 3’s and still doesn’t finish at the hoop well.
From an Athletic article (Edwards) about the game last night:
“Towns seeks out Wagner after the final buzzer. The two embrace after going at it over the last 48 minutes. All is good.”
Always impressed when sports stars are better people than I am.
KAT is just really freaking good. He got 22 and 22 like it was nothing, even while being mugged by the hateable Mo Wagner.
Not to diminish Bridges’ D, but I once saw Suggs go 4 for 19 in the layup line.
Two things can be true: Bridges was much better at getting around screens and making life difficult for the opposing teams’ lead ballhandler, and said lead ballhandler has many nights where he can’t throw the ball into the ocean.
Baby steps. We probably won’t see the fully-realized version of this squad until next season, since Leon will have an easier time adding one or two depth pieces over the summer. But if Bridges goes back to being his Phoenix-level defensive self, and Brunson and KAT continue this chemistry, we will hopefully get a more consistently entertaining product.
I know it’s hard for some people here to accept but Knicks don’t have to win the championship this season, their window is open for a few years.
Yeah, the team is very good but maybe not great and we will be dealing with that for the foreseeable future.
I know “Jalen Brunson is good” is not a novel take, but every now and again you just have to marvel at the guy. He’s looking at his 3rd consecutive career year. We’re lucky to have him, and I bet he’s got his next matchup with Dyson Daniels circled on the calendar.
Also, I still don’t know how we wound up with Towns. I liked Randle and DDV a lot but we’re winning that trade by a landslide.
The non-Mikal aspects of the team are sturdy as hell, so at this point we basically go as far as he takes us, which is why this season has been a little underwhelming. I suppose the remaining X-factors are how much he continues to improve, how much internal improvement we can generate elsewhere, the Mitch wild card, and any potential trades. The range of potential outcomes still feels pretty large.
@Alan, I understand why you aspired to the above as I feel the same way, but the bar can be set higher than the above. Maybe, ECF if Mitch unGodots himself and everything else falls in line.
I really liked that this was the first grit win I can remember this year. We got smacked around, and we got in the trenches with them and fought back, upped our intensity to match theirs pretty much across the board. I’d like to think that was a lesson learned, we’ll see…
“The range of potential outcomes still feels pretty large.”
Agree but with an important caveat—Leon, and probably Thibs, have enough good will banked that downside outcomes can be fixed by an astute trade that looks bad optically. We are not Morey in Philly or Horst in Milwaukee (or when Dolan told Isiaih to coach his assembled roster).
The season has also been a little underwhelming because of OG Anunoby — a negative-BPM player — just as the post-Covid seasons with a quality nucleus for Raptors fans pretty consistently underwhelmed and disappointed.
In terms of the window and BBA’s comment, I mean sure, in theory — but they still have to decide what to do with Mikal, who’s contract runs only another season and a half. Maxing him I assume second aprons everything for the indefinite future, and he isn’t a max player. It’s not as though everything’s locked-in peachy with this nucleus for a long window.
If Jimmy Butler is somehow available to the Knicks, we know Thibs would want him and either Mikal or OG could go out the door for him and it would be significant talent accretion and pretty clearly something you do. (*) But most likely all the stuff about Riley “really liking” those guys was just smokescreen and market-generating puffery.
(*) Small mention of the possibility in today’s NY Post.
Edit: (for Doogie)—hate the guy so much that spelling his name correctly is a bridge too far
In terms of last night’s game, Orlando didn’t have their two best players and, given the context of the schedule addition, Pidto on PBP, and all the rest, it had the feel of about as jerry-rigged and saccharine as any association game you’ll see.
The test was last Tuesday night in Madison Square Garden. They didn’t pass. Last night’s game didn’t move the needle on this fundamental.
I ain’t reading all that
I’m happy for you though
or sorry that happened
Also hard pass on spending assets to reunite old man Jimmy Butler with Towns
Butler wants the Mavs, Warriors, Rockets, or Suns, and they can have him, as far as I’m concerned.
He is one tough little bastard too, last night Suggs was trying to intimidate (?) him by harassing him full court, and Brunson just kept plowing ahead while Suggs hacked and whacked him. Jalen looked at the refs like really?
Also, trivia question – name one Knick who has drawn a charge this season not named Jalen Brunson?
Knicks have come a pretty long way when a 16-10 start with a +6.5 net rating feels underwhelming.
Not really understanding why we’d want 35-year-old Jimmy Butler who basically plays ~60 games per season and is not available for the playoffs these days.
Brunson is better than I thought he would be. Only a little, though!
KAT is better than I thought he would be. Only a litle, though!
Mikal is worse than I thought he would be. Only a little bit more than a little, though!
Our record is worse than I thought it would be. Only a little, though!
“Knicks have come a pretty long way when a 16-10 start with a +6.5 net rating feels underwhelming.”
Hence the definition of being all-in. When you have a stack of draft picks still left no matter what happens, there’s less anxiety when you get a shitty card on the turn.
Huh?
In terms of why you’d want him, the obvious answer is that he’s really, really good. (He also does actual “winning things” that lead to actual team success, as opposed to imaginary or fictitious ones.)
This shouldn’t really need to be re-litigated, but whatever. If people want to dream of a world where Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby are really swell and great and just need time to gel and adapt, and Jimmy Butler sucks, well … it’s a free country.
Yeah, that sequence last night when Suggs fouled out, he had about three clear fouls on Brunson in a row and the Captain just plowed through it all.
His stepback three this year has been awesome, someone had a good tweet about that.
And his touch around the hoop has reemerged after being awol the first ten games.
It’s incredible to have two offensive players of this caliber on the team. We haven’t watched players who can do this in decades. Melo was like a pale facsimile of this.
It feels kind of middling but I am still going to enjoy it.
Someone on the radio mentioned that the teams who have traded for aging superstars on megadeals are not faring particularly well. Lakers, Suns, Sixers, Bucks, Clips…
Let’s not become one of them.
Be the change you want to see in the world
Weirdly OG had the best ORtg on the team last night at 120 despite being kinda awful (No idea what that fadeaway 3 at the end of the quarter was)
Partly it’s that Achiuwa didn’t look much better, but I think speaks more to how much better 5 out is. OG struggled but they still need to keep a man on him.
Mikal was great, though it did help that the Knicks had 4 guys in the paint on basically every possession.
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