Knicks Morning News (2025.01.10)

At the tail end of yesterday’s shitshow of a thread, I posted this:

One thing conveniently left out of today’s “discussion” was that Brunson, KAT, and Bridges never played an NBA basketball game together before this year, OG only joined the team last year and was injured more than not, and Mitch has yet to suit up.

Meanwhile, Cleveland’s core of Mitchell, Garland, Mobley and Allen, plus core rotation players Okoro and Wade, are together for their 4th year, and rotation players Levert and Merrill have been there for the last 3. Their big additions have been Strus and Niang.

Maybe folks should give us some more time to gel and for Leon to find some Niang- or Strus-level players before we pass final judgment.

BTW, who are CLE’s backup bigs behind Mobley and Allen? Only asking because their starting guards are somewhat diminutive.

and then this:

On that note, count me among those who hope we finish in Cleveland’s playoff bracket rather than Boston’s. I am licking my chops at the thought of a Brunson-Spida reunion.

So how important will seeding be going into this year’s playoffs? I, for one, am very concerned about facing the Celts in round 2, and much, much less so about the Cavs. Thoughts? (If you can tear yourselves away from the scintillating back-and-forth above)

Moving Raven’s post into this thread:

One thing I’ve been quite impressed by is just how much bigger KAT seems to be than opposing players — he just seems to gobble rebounds well above everyone else’s heads. I haven’t been tracking how big the opposing center actually is, and it may just be that a lot of teams go small these days, but it’s as much a visual thing as much as the stat of him leading the league in rebounds.

Assuming Mitch comes back and is more or less okay, and not traded, I’m really curious to see how Thibs plays with lineups to find something that works with someone who plays even larger (but simpler). The specter of Gobert looms, but I’d imagine Mitch would partly just sub for KAT and play 20 minutes or so max. Even so, how the team can find a ‘fit’ with a non-floor-spreader should be interesting.

KAT is great at keeping the ball above his head on defensive rebounds and throwing passes from up there. Seems like a simple thing but a lot of bigs bring the ball down and get stripped.

As to Mitch’s return, I noticed that Thibs is playing KAT and Precious together for a shift here and there, my guess is that’s a precursor of things to come. I think a healthy Mitch will make a major difference in how we match up with the best teams. Last night I posted a highlight reel from Game 5 vs the Cavs two years ago, and you could see how he just manhandled Allen and Mobley.

I also think KAT’s timing on blocks is showing some improvement. Could be just wishful thinking, but that one that was originally called a goaltend and was overturned, along with some others, seemed different than what I observed earlier in the season.

The big difference between the Cavs and Celts for me (other than the obvious playoff experience factor) is the size of the Celts’ backcourt and 2-way versatility of their forwards. They have 4 guys to throw at Brunson 1-on-1 with decent rim protection behind them.

Whereas Brunson should be able to do more damage vs. Spida and Darius, both of whom are smallish, especially with KAT and Mitch crashing, OG and Mikal spotting up, and/or Hart slashing and crashing.