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49 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2024.12.22)”
Thank god for Jalen Brunson. And thank god for me going to sleep early and missing most of what sounds like a rock fight, and one on one of those inevitable, but hopefully rare, nights where KAT couldn’t stop fouling.
Knicks fandom social media is talking about how Precious stunk and Sims badly outplayed him. Thoughts on this from y’all?
Precious was pretty bad and Sims did give us some energy when he came in, had a couple of nice weakside contests. But i wouldn’t say he was great or anything, he was good if we’re grading on a curve where the expectations for him are really low.
The entire bench sucked last night to be honest, Deuce couldn’t hit anything and couldn’t stay in front of anybody and Payne was completely invisible.
Yeahhhh..the bench couldn’t get anything going at all. Nice to see Thibs stretch to a 9 man rotation a couple games in a row though. Last night was more evidence of just how good KAT is. Was in foul trouble, so he couldn’t get a rhythm offensively. But his presence alone opened the offense up and allowed JB to do JB things. KAT’s addition cannot be understated. He’s winning me over this season. I’ve always acknowledged his skills on the court, but he’s making me a fan this season. That orange and blue suits him.
a secretly weird thing about last night is that jalen had one of his better defensive games. we’ve been switching the guard guard screens recently and a fact about jalen is that he’s a much less bad help defender than man defender. not just as a crash test dummy but even blitzing the pnr in the right situation. if a team isn’t too interested in using our switch to target and iso jalen in an ugly mismatch, then it’s a no brainer. the pels were smart enough to flummox us with the zone when we had two plus non shooters on, but they don’t have anyone healthy to really punish jalen on switches given what dejounte looks like these days.
Hart grenade AKA the American Idiot album cover plan
This game last night showed the same thing all season… when playing the Knick, pick Brunson up 75 feet from the basket and bump the shit out of him like you are Jim Marsalis, Mel Blount or Lester Haynes.
Length and aggression bothers the crap out of our offense.
I thought Sims was pretty good at protecting the rim last night. I am starting to think there is some signal in the stats that say he’s been a good rim protector.
The offense was a bit concerning given that New Orleans has the second worst defense in the league, but Herb Jones hasn’t play much this year and I thought he was good defensively yesterday despite Jalen’s explosion.
The refs seem unable to consistently apply the new marginal contact rule whereby a defender can bump the offensive player as a long as he does not reroute him. The current interpretation allows almost unfettered bump and run against Brunson, when he is far from the basket.
We’re now 13th in the league in DRtg.
For all the good a 12min sample is worth, Sims had a net rating of 70.8 driven by a preposterously low 41.7 DRtg and Precious had a net rating of -57.3 thanks to a terrible 76.0 ORtg and an equally terrible 133.3 DRtg.
They bothered Brunson so much he scored 39… 😉
And if the refs let the defense bump and grope you fullcourt even Stephen Curry would be bothered, when the refs tightened their calls JB just destroyed everyone.
That said yes, JB is a small guard, he’s bothered by lenght and Herb Jones is an elite defender, where’s the news?
Alan, expectations about Precious are higher than Sims’ and he had a pretty lousy game, Jericho did “stay in his track” (4 Oreb no shots), got some defensive boards and gave us a little rim protection, but it was just one game.
None of them is “the real answer” for the 4/5 backup role, but for now we have to make do…
Thank you ptm, good point about Brunson’s defense.
This is fun: Edwards on Mikal the trash talker: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6010893/2024/12/22/mikal-bridges-knicks-trash-talker-nba/
One of the worst teams and worst defenses in the league had the #1 offense in the league completely stymied for 32 minutes. Brunson isn’t gonna shoot 7-10 from 3 to bail them out often. The refs called the game differently in the 4th quarter and NO was in the penalty with 7:18 to go.
They haven’t effectively found a counter to that strategy as in the Atlanta games as of yet, but the sniffed at it by having Brunson throw it to a player flashing to the FT line and that player immediately firing to either corner for a wide open 3.
They did that 2 or three times with success in the second half.
Brunson is gonna be liquefied if he has to play 55 more games against that defense BEFORE the playoffs.
It’s time for Thibs to do some world class public whining a la Pat Riley and Phill Jackson.
It does sometimes feel like open season on Brunson when he’s just past half court. I trust the front office/coaching staff is doing the obligatory whining to the league about it, for whatever that’s worth.
The Pelicans are obviously decimated but even in their current form they have personnel theoretically well-suited to defending Brunson, he just decided not to care.
I’m irrationally invested in him having a big game against Dyson Daniels next time we play the Hawks (1/20), since Daniels gave him more trouble than anyone I’ve ever seen.
I agree on this, even on double teams we’re sometimes a bit slow to exploit the other team, we need to be better at it.
And I agree that JB is at risk of “wearing and tearing” if defenses would be allowed to treat him like this all season long.
Thibs must spend some dollars in fines and throw a tantrum now and then to help his Captain, we know it works (see Carlisle last season).
P.S.
To me yestarday’s game was called in a different way after halftime, maybe the refs talked about it and/or we complained…
The offense was notably awful in the second quarter. KAT basic didn’t play at all and JB only played 6 minutes
The fine folks at r/timberwolves are panicking about the prospect of Randle opting into his $31M player option next season. Back when we thought it was our problem, there was some discussion here about how dicey his free agency could get–it’s just very hard to identify a team that would give him $40M AAV, or something in that ballpark. Will be a fascinating situation to monitor.
I was surprised the Pels didn’t go back to playing zone defense, we couldn’t get anything going against it in the first half.
One of the worst teams and worst defenses in the league had the #1 offense in the league completely stymied for 36 minutes. The refs called the game differently in the 4th quarter and NO was in the penalty with 7:18 to go.
dred is spot on this not a good weather report from last night. jalen scored 30 efficient points in the first 36 minutes of the game and the team scored 71 points in 58 possessions in his minutes through three quarters. that’s 122.4 pts per 100.
I think the offense would look a bit better no matter what they did against us if OG was hitting 3s. We know part of the issue is Thibs asking him to take a bigger variety of shots, but he was hitting more of the “tough” shots in the beginning of the season. Right now it seems like he’s taking 1-3 shots every game I don’t think he should even be taking and he’s missing almost all of them. He also looked better going to the basket earler in the season (the infamous “handle” issue). He may be off physically. At least the defense remains high caliber.
pt’s keyboard has no caps or commas and doogie says nothing. friendliest whistle this side of joel. run-on sentences are fouls too ref
One stealth issue I see rearing its head is rooted in the way teams are defending Jalen, and that is that our starting lineup has 4 average or below-average ball handlers on the floor with Jalen, so taking the ball out of his hands makes sense beyond just keeping him from shooting and scoring. It really muddles our offensive flow.
This is where I see teams like Boston and Cleveland having an advantage against us. The Celts have 4 guys that can handle the ball better than any of Hart, OG, or Bridges. The Cavs have essentially 2 PGs in their backcourt. So they are not as vulnerable this kind of defensive strategy.
In particular, OG’s forays into the paint are very unsettling. Seems like half the time he winds up on his ass. Hart is excellent when he can get a guy on his hip going to the rim, but everything else is clunky and despite his gaudy eFG% not one that builds confidence.
Mikal is probably our best option in this regard. He looks much better lately, but I don’t see him as a great ball-handler either. It doesn’t help that gets to the line less than fans in the halftime contests.
The saving grace is that all of our starting 5 are pretty good passers, so ball handling is not the end-all it might be for a more selfish team. But it still is an issue.
Anyway, seems like everyone sees this and that’s why Brunson is getting defended this way every night. We have enough talent to make do against these shitty, depleted, or discombobulated teams we have been facing. That’s why I’m so curious to see how it plays out in January and February when the schedule toughens up.
Sims had more good moments last night than he usually does and Precious had fewer than than he usually does; but I’m not sure that means Sims outplayed Precious.
I do think it suggests that Sims is a useful player, which some here have doubted. The Pels announcers seemed to think so too.
He’s taking heat from T-Wolves fans all over social media.
He’s not even having a bad year statistically. He’s playing well according to the boxscore. It’s all the dribbling, ball holding/stopping, late decison making and taking possessions off on defense that make him worse than the boxscore says. Fans pick up on that.
The other issue they are having is spacing. Fans want Antman to drive and finish at the rim more, but he said himself when he tries there’s often nowhere to go because there are 3-4 guys inside. The spacing with Gobert/Randle is a problem just as it was for Mitch/Randle.
pt’s keyboard has no caps or commas and doogie says nothing. friendliest whistle this side of joel. run-on sentences are fouls too ref
malcolm why do i keep having to remind you about what happens to us if timmy york attacks paris nevada
Julius has always been low emotional IQ, empty calories, which another fanbase is now discovering to its relative horror.
OG’s true shooting percentage is now two basis points above league average. The point and purpose of the enterprise continues to escape. Would be great if they could get out from under his contract, but probably not many takers.
There’s nothing “stealth” about the ball handling and creativity issues around JB. They’ve been there all along.
I agree with that entire post.
OG’s handle has been a weakenss all along which is why I got so excited early on when I thought he might be showing signs of improvement.
Josh Hart is too one handed.
Mikal is only other player that can handle a bit.
We have to rely more on movement, cutting and passing. There might also be times we can mix Payne in there.
He’s had streaky years in the past from 3, but this year we know what the issue is. He’s taking way more of them, from spots he didn’t take them from in the past and he’s mixing in some clearly bad choices where he’s covered, rushed, or off balance.
It’s a very easy fix.
If he goes back to what he was doing before he’ll go back to around 40% going forward. But they are trying to expand his game a bit. IMO right now he’s struggling with the “should I take this one or not” part of his expanded role and he’s erring on the side of taking bad shots.
OG has had several years of more trifecta attempts per 36 than this year. Last year at TO was one. There just isn’t that much there offensively.
How I always picture Doogie
https://images.app.goo.gl/syXdNALBaB5c57ZKA
Donnie, you may be out of your element
He’s had a couple of years where he took more per 36, but he typically takes fewer. That misses the point though. There’s a difference between shooting good 3s and rushed, off balance, closely defended 3s. After his very good start, Thibs pushed him to be more aggressive and NOW he’s taking some bad shots every game (at least imo). He’s hasn’t found the right balance.
I was incorrect. The Pels (one of the absolute worst defensive teams) stymied the Knicks for 29.28 holding them to 52 points. Brunson did sun run the last 18 minutes.
The fact that Thibs had no choice but to play Brunson, Hart and Bridges 127 minutes vs the lowly Pels without Ingrham and Zion tells you all you need to know about how bad their offense was the first 29.28
“The fact that Thibs had no choice but to play Brunson, Hart and Bridges 127 minutes vs the lowly Pels without Ingrham and Zion tells you all you need to know about how bad their offense was the first 29.28”
Agree with this if you replace “had no choice but to” with “had an excuse to”
A team like the pels is a good team to find out how a payne/miles/Josh/OG/Precious lineup would fare
People do realize that really good teams sometimes play close games against bad teams especially in the road, right?
The idea that we’re supposed to blow out every team or else we’re not legit good is the hottest of hot takes. We won the game.
Love this, from Bondy last night:
“Our postgame interview with Jalen Brunson was interrupted by a Facetime call from. ….Ryan Arcidiacono.”
Swifty, don’t see any panic in the comments, other than disappointment which is a natural reaction to being down double digits to one of the worst teams in the league. “Really good teams” win statement games and we are 1-1 on that score. Luckily we have another one on Christmas against Wemby. We should win but statement aspect is that we need to win big. Loss means we are 1-2 on statement games, eked out win relegates it to a non-statement game.
I mean, it was an 11 point win on the road. We’re 13-4 over our last 17 and our defensive rating has climbed to 13th. Some of that is due to soft opposition, but… at least we’re beating the soft opposition.
when I was a kid, and got in to it a bit with other kids, remember my dad was always telling me: nobody ever asks how you win, just if you won…
yep, dad wasn’t a big fan of a fair fight…
I guess it’s kind of like there are only two outcomes that count in basketball: win or lose…
I’m with you swifty 😊
continue to feel much much better about my mikal adoration prior to his arrival here…
my thought that OG was gonna take an offensive “leap” this year though, that’s looking pretty questionable at this point in the season…
if needed, hopefully he can just go back to what he was doing before…
hopefully he’s not hurt…
Wemby blocked 10 shots last night. He got off to a slow start but he’s playing really well lately and the Spurs are looking fiesty
Wemby blocked 10 shots… in 29 minutes.
This kid is just everything that was advertised, absurd talent.
If you haven’t looked at them yet, take a look at Wemby‘s highlights versus the Hawks. They are absolutely insane.
As a Raider fan, I must say that the Giants are a most worthy tank adversary.
Moe Wagner out for the year. I hate but respect him, so that stinks.
Bad news for Wagner, a feisty player you always want on your team*, best wishes to him for a full recovery.
Orlando is ravaged by injuries.
* Imagine him instead of Precious or Jericho
OG had a bunch of open looks. There was one the Pels didn’t bother closing out on when his man rotated to Brunson. Maybe they didn’t want to give the effort, and yet maybe they didn’t care that he was open. OG bricked it anyway.
I watched that game while you all were off watching some other game. Made some comments in the your game thread about it. Unless things go terribly awry, he’s going to end his career as the best player ever.
OG was wearing the brace again last night. Not much was made of it, but I do wonder if the elbow is bothering him given how poorly he has shot.
It’s hilarious how hard people try to make a debate about the best player ever when no matter what even 100 years from now the GOAT will always be Michael Jordan.
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