2. I have Raging Bull on a short list of films whose achievements I obviously admire, and whose place in the film canon makes perfect sense to me, but that I find absolutely miserable to watch, and generally avoid revisiting. See also 2001, though to a lesser degree.

Agreed Alan,

I eat on the Jensen cutlery used in 2001. A seminal movie for me. Still gives me the willies.

Raging Bull does commentary on the modern male better than all this other tm drek.

The Knicks won a game that was easy to lose. I’m glad I had to work until the end. And probably glad I have to go to the new Bruce LaBruce premiere tonight during the Cavs game.

And farewell Tribeca Grill.

Raging Bull does commentary on the modern male better than all this other tm drek.

Yeah, I appreciate exactly what it’s doing and how well it’s saying. It’s an undeniable classic — just one that’s goddamn miserable to sit through. Once was enough.

Hear that. It ain’t pretty like Rocky.

My Dad knew Jake LaMotta (just a little bit) from growing up in the Bronx, although my Dad (turning 92 tomorrow!) is approximately 10 years younger than he was. I’ll leave unwritten what his impression of Mr. LaMotta is.

On the game: I’ve been reading threads for a month instead of watching bc of the time difference. When we’re bad, the descriptions suggest we’re disorganized on both sides of the ball. Is that true? Or are we just missing the shots we’re supposed to take and the other players are just better than our defenders.

Beyond the minutes thing, I’m trying to understand if Thibs has the guys working together, or if the wins are just random hero-ball from KAT and Jalen.

And on the movie stuff — Coming up I had so many friends who were big Scorsese fans, but I could only really get into his “off” pictures instead of the macho stuff. So I liked KING OF COMEDY, LAST TEMPTATION, AFTER HOURS, and even (yes) AGE OF INNOCENCE. Overall, I am/was constantly surprised that Altman was not considered the bigger genius of that American period. I def want Scorsese to make as many movies as he can — guy is a legend — but they rarely move me.

Oh and, Clarence, at the risk of droppping indie-queercore-celebrity-adjacent-names, you may know my friend Susanne Sachsse as one LaBruce’s erstwhile muses (RASPBERRY REICH, THE MISANDRISTS). Or maybe you even know her in person. Either way, she’s a fearless acting talent and “good people”. She jokes that she’s always available as the poor man’s Isabella Rossellini. Hire her 😉

The modern male?

In listening to the pregame pod on KFS, the Bulls guy described that team as the “ultimate trap game team” because of their pace and 3pt variance. But hidden in their team are a bunch of long athletic guards/small wings who can be disruptive on D at the point of attack, and the missed 3’s lead to long rebounds and lots of helter-skelter basketball.

But the reason the game went along as it did was a) because we shot so poorly, especially for the #2 ranked offense in the NBA, and b) they played with more energy and hustle than we did.

The key play was the missed wide-open 3 by Lonzo. It sort of made up for the tough made 3’s like the one Vuc hit off of the out-of-bounds play, and a couple of the Ayo and Giddey 3’s, but still, Ball hits that and it’s over. Can’t let them get that shot in that situation, I think it was a major miscommunication between Deuce and Mikal. Even the Mikal block was not a shot you want them to wind up with, if Vuc gets his shoulder a bit more into him, that’s essentially a layup.

But after they had beaten us on some dubious plays..the Hart “Coby hair foul” in particular, I’ll take it.

I don’t know if Hart would have helped with most of those long rebounds, but he would have definitely helped with some, so the game might not have been as close as a result.

On the other hand, Deuce looks awfully good with the starters. Put him in a lineup where it’s a healthy OG at power forward instead of Precious, and holy crap.

KBA, don’t know her but am definitely a fan!

The modern male?

People born with penises most of the time.

LaMotta used to hang out at Il Vagabondo, an Italian restaurant on the east side that, in addition to having very good red sauce fare, had a real, live bocce court. Was introduced briefly to him in the mid-aughts. Met Tom Hanks there as well.

I think there’s a chance both OG and Hart play tonight, but I’m probably giving them too much credit.

Certainly not Thibs, but medical may have realized the Knicks were on a B2B with the first one against a weak Bulls team. If you are reluctant to play either in a B2B with/off an injurie, you certainly might choose to skip the game against Chicago because there’s a good chance of winning that game at less than 100% anyway. Then you can go into Cleveland at close to full strength with two fresher players and have a chance there also. The OT threw a little money wrench in that freshness plan, but I think there’s some hope both can go.

LaMotta used to hang out at Il Vagabondo, an Italian restaurant on the east side that, in addition to having very good red sauce fare, had a real, live bocce court. Was introduced briefly to him in the mid-aughts. Met Tom Hanks there as well.

I loved that place. I had a few first dates there.

https://bsky.app/profile/riveraveblues.bsky.social/post/3lioyqsgjg22v

The Yankees finally got rid of their stupid facial hair policy.

The funny thing is, they waived the rule for Jack McDowell when they traded for him 30 years ago, letting him keep his trademark goatee. If that had gone well, I suspect George would have let the rule go soon after. Instead, Black Jack flipped off the fans, and it took three decades for Hal to finally drop it.

Donnie, I think there is an immense gulf between “it’s just as likely to get hurt slipping in the shower and playing too many minutes” and “It’s questionable whether playing a lot of minutes leads to an increased chance of injury.”

I don’t think Allen Iverson should be held up as proof of anything, other than Allen Iverson played a shit-ton of minutes for a long stretch of his career, especially since he was essentially washed up at age 33.

OTOH, I think there is a natural predisposition even among intelligent fans to “blame the coach” for stuff, including injuries, if they do anything that is not in the mainstream. Relatively speaking, Thibs plays his starters a lot of minutes as a rule. His teams have generally not been fully healthy in the playoffs. But how much of that is coincidence and how much is on him?

I think there are valid arguments to be made on both sides, but the truth is that we really don’t know for sure. Thibs has not coached a championship-level team in the playoffs since Derrick Rose blew out his knee. Last year’s team was probably close, but it seems to me that blaming Thibs for any of Randle blowing out his shoulder, or OG pulling his hamstring, or Mitch breaking his ankle, or Hart pulling an abdominal, or Brunson breaking his hand, or iHart tweaking his achilles, is a guessing game.

One thing we can say for certain: he is not one to go out of his way to protect guys from injury by pulling them in virtually decided games or resting them when they are cleared by medical.

“People born with penises most of the time.”

Sure. Most men are essentially like Jake LaMotta.

You poor thing.

Case in point.

On the other hand, Deuce looks awfully good with the starters. Put him in a lineup where it’s a healthy OG at power forward instead of Precious, and holy crap.

this is what I would like to at least try, there’s still plenty of minutes for Josh backing up like 3 positions

Unlike you, I don’t believe in stereotyping. If that makes me a modern male, so be it.

I’m trying to understand if Thibs has the guys working together, or if the wins are just random hero-ball from KAT and Jalen.

I wouldn’t call it random hero-ball but we have a decided talent advantage over most teams in the league and I think that accounts for most of the winning. Even with OG and Hart out, we had the three best players in the game last night.

I have never gotten the sense that Thibs has the guys working together well, at least not in the way we’re accustomed to Thibs’ teams working together.

That’s not all on him. It takes time. But it feels likes his rigidity is an impediment that makes it take longer. No amount of time makes a square peg fit into a round hole.

The Boss is rolling over in his grave.

Deuce looked great, but starting him introduces a “tiny backcourt” problem. I know he plays bigger than he is, but not by enough to convince me that it would make any net positive difference.

Ok sweetie.

My mom was a bookkeeper, and kept books for a prominent shady nightclub owner in South Florida. 1970’s-1990’s. She kept running across weird payments in the books to something called “Mr. Street.” She was dying to know what that was, so she asked around. Turned out Mr. Street was Jake LaMotta.

She didn’t find out exactly what is was that he was up to, and what the payments were for, but it probably wasn’t anything very nice.

Interesting connection between Jake LaMotta and Chipwich, from Wikipedia:

“Jake’s father forced the boy to fight other boys in order to entertain neighborhood adults, who threw pocket change into the ring. LaMotta’s father collected the money and used it to help pay the rent. One of LaMotta’s cousins on his father’s side was Richard LaMotta, who became an entrepreneur and creator of the Chipwich ice cream treat.”

Coming up I had so many friends who were big Scorsese fans, but I could only really get into his “off” pictures instead of the macho stuff. So I liked KING OF COMEDY, LAST TEMPTATION, AFTER HOURS, and even (yes) AGE OF INNOCENCE. Overall, I am/was constantly surprised that Altman was not considered the bigger genius of that American period.

This. Maybe it’s that the culture in general glorifies violence, and Scorsese does it more passionately than most.

How did Huk and KAT look when on the court together?

If OG doesn’t play tonight, that will bug me. It’s been 3 weeks.

Not that I would be shocked if he isn’t back for another week or two. Four to six weeks would be consistent with a minor lisfranc sprain, which is at minimum what it looked like when he originally went down. If it was in any way sore after a full practice, they should not play him. Any setback could leak in to the playoffs.

As to Mitch, same thing. Any soreness is a no-go until we get so close to the playoffs that you kind of have to give it a shot.

Thx, Hubert. I guess — post All Star Break — I’m ready for these Knicks to have gelled, haha. But it sounds like we’re still waiting for godot, er, Mitch.

And, if memory serves, I believe I have once seen Vicky LaMotta in the buff (Mrs Street?) — thanks to my dad’s subscription to Playboy, for the articles. 😉

I don’t know if Hart would have helped with most of those long rebounds, but he would have definitely helped with some, so the game might not have been as close as a result.

On the other hand, Deuce looks awfully good with the starters. Put him in a lineup where it’s a healthy OG at power forward instead of Precious, and holy crap.

I second this. Might have some rebounding issues because we’d lose Precious compared to last night, but I agree we should try it.

Deuce has been very good at PoA defense this year. Hart is better at scrambling in rotation, but I don’t think that’s what the unit needs.

darules, Huk is a very live body out there but he makes a lot of rookie mistakes. It’s hard to judge the efficacy of the Huk-KAT minutes because the Bulls are such a funky team, but they certainly didn’t stand out as bad.

I don’t know if anyone else noticed, but there was one defensive possession in the first half where Huk covered an enormous amount of ground on the left side, and while he didn’t get a stat, he blew up the possession. It was something I never saw KAT do, and it reminded me of the way iHart used to cover ground.

Seems like quite the find at pick #58. We used to say that about Sims, but Huk seems to have a much higher ceiling.

It should come as no surprise to note that, typically, men do things that are to their advantage in the sexual marketplace. Trying to cut down male competitors, and otherwise ingratiate, by referring to them as exemplars of “toxic masculinity” is in this vein.

Isn’t Scorcese coming out with another mafia movie this time based in Hawaii? I believe Dicaprio and the Rock will be in it too.

My thinking with start Deuce is there’s not much we can do with the roster aside from add Mitch and eventually some G league guy who is not very likely to be a needle mover.

My brain knows the facial hair policy is (was?) stupid and paternalistic. My heart has a soft spot for it because 1) it’s a relatively harmless way to assert Yankee exceptionalism and 2) a lot of baseball players have very aesthetically upsetting facial hair situations. It was kinda funny when people discovered Johnny Damon was a good looking guy after he had already been in the MLB for over 10 years. Oh well, I know this is for the best.

If OG, Josh, and/or Mitch can’t give it a go tonight, I’m not saying we should fully punt the game, but I’d like for us to do whatever we have to do to keep the remaining key players at civilized minute totals. We likely aren’t winning a game in which e.g. Delon Wright plays 20 minutes, but I’m not sure how much it diminishes our chances compared to us playing 4+ guys 40 minutes on the second night of a back-to-back against Cleveland anyway.

I know, keep dreaming.

I always found Casino to be kind of wack. It’s basically the same movie as Goodfellas, but with this “he lost it all because of a woman” theme tacked on. There are good scenes in it, but Casino doesn’t hold the suspension of disbelief for me. It’s like an old classic rock band like Bachman Turner Overdrive trying to write a new song but it’s really just a weak rewrite of “Taking Care Of Business” or something.

I found The Hateful Eight to be like this as well. A director who is running out of ideas and just repeating all of his tropes.

Vagabondo was the best! Chicken parm with the bone. I miss that place so much

Put [Deuce] in a lineup where it’s a healthy OG at power forward instead of Precious, and holy crap.

Deuce in the starting lineup shows us how much we miss Donte’s shooting from all over the court. Mikal and OG pretty much only make corner 3’s. But who do you sit in this scenario? Sounds like Mikal. And if playing Deuce over Mikal so you can get what Donte used to give you makes sense, well, that’s a pretty major admission that I don’t think this team is willing to make politically.

We’re the #2 offense in the league and are third in eFG%, so “we miss Donte Divencenzo’s shooting” doesn’t sound like a particularly strong argument to me.

You sit Hart, Hubert. He backs up three positions (and can sporadically, act as point guard in lineups where Deuce is the other guard), and KAT has been so good at rebounding this year that Hart’s genius in that area is ever so slightly less essential with the starters than it has been in past seasons.

This creates other complications, because once everyone is healthy, the reserves will include three different guys that opposing defenses won’t guard. But Thibs has shown a decent amount of flexibility regarding the rotation that way this season, and I imagine it would need to far more mixing and matching between the bench and the starters, rather than full hockey lineup changes.

But I’m not so much advocating for a change to the starting lineup as I am for Thibs to experiment even more with Starters + Deuce as a rotation staple.

Isn’t Scorcese coming out with another mafia movie this time based in Hawaii? I believe Dicaprio and the Rock will be in it too.

Not sure about Scorsese (or The Rock), but apparently Estonia has entered a mafia song in this year’s Eurovision contest. The subject is evergreen. Sample lyrics:

“Mi money numeroso, I work around the clocko. That’s why I’m sweating like a mafioso,”

“Life is like spaghetti, it’s hard until you make it.”

“No stresso, no stresso, don’t need to be depresso.”

Naturally, half the Italians are protesting and the other half are voting for it.

We’re the #2 offense in the league and are third in eFG%, so “we miss Donte Divencenzo’s shooting” doesn’t sound like a particularly strong argument to me.

Then why are we talking about putting Deuce in the starting lineup when everyone is healthy?

I think everyone knows this offense doesn’t strike fear into the contenders. It gets easily handled by any team that can put a wing on Towns, and teams are happily putting their center on Josh and leaving him wide open.

(EDIT: I see Alan proposed Deuce as a solution to that Hart problem; makes more sense but opens up a ton of other issues.)

There was a short stretch in the game where Mikal put the team on his back and hit three iso jumpers in succession. Of course, that was after Mikal was responsible for digging us into a hole by short-arming a bunch of those same looks.

He’s been a tantalizing yet frustrating player to watch this year. At his best, worth all of those picks. Rarely at his best.

I doubt that Deuce will ever start over Bridges, or Hart. That’s just the way Thibs rolls, and to be fair, probably any coach not named Mike D’Antoni. Certainly not on the basis of a strong performance vs. a shitty team.

“But I’m not so much advocating for a change to the starting lineup as I am for Thibs to experiment even more with Starters + Deuce as a rotation staple.”

This is far more possible, and I agree that Thibs should mess around with this, and other things as well. He seems to be warm to the “2 bigs” situation, at least far more than the Randle at the 5 thing. He has also experimented with 3 smalls and Precious as the only big.

Bridges does have the 2 biggest defensive plays of the season with his end of regulation buzzer beating blocks on Schroder and Vucevic.

It’s the #2 offense, but somehow it’s not good? That’s certainly a novel argument.

My not-so-hot take: when we’re healthy, Deuce should absolutely not be in the starting lineup. He’s perfectly cast as a reserve guard.

Our problem is that we can’t defend.

The main gripe seems to be that Thibs’s love for each of Hart and Mikal is outsized and results in him keeping them on the floor way too much. I think that’s very fair, but that’s kind of what you always get with Thibs…for better or for worse. He has a rigid sense of trust in a few key guys, and seems to have a pathological fear of blowing a game because of a decision to not have his most trusted players on the floor at a critical time. The ol’ play every game like it’s game 7 of the NBA finals thing. He constantly says “you never know which single possession is going to win you a game or cost you a game.”

So alas, until he is fired, that’s the way it is going to be.

I think everyone knows this offense doesn’t strike fear into the contenders.

I do not think this is the consensus, actually, here or anywhere else.

Deuce in the starting lineup shows us how much we miss Donte’s shooting from all over the court. Mikal and OG pretty much only make corner 3’s.

I think they’re putting OG & Mikal in the corner more because Hart has been killing it in the spread offense. His ball handling and passing have really shone, and it’s easier to do that from the wing, where you can go left or right, than the corner.

KAT has always operated at the top of the key, his % of 3PAs from the corners is very low. Probably helps with floor balance too.

That only leaves the corners for OG & Mikal.

That said, Donte would give this offense a lot of life. He could drive better than OG & Mikal, and was a 1000x better off-ball threat than Hart. If you doubled off Donte, the ball went in.

Last night I said I moved from Start Deuce Skeptical to Start Deuce Curious, which is a confusing way of saying I still think the incumbent starting line up is the best literal starting lineup, but mixing and matching a little bit more to get Deuce playing with our more high-octane offensive players seems like an obvious call.

Fun fact: our top six lineups by net rating all have Deuce in them, per CTG. Brunson-Deuce-Hart-OG-KAT has a 141.2 ORTG and 100.8 DRTG.

The sample sizes are way too small for me to say anything about this other than that we should make them larger and see what happens, but yeah, we should do that.

We’re the #2 offense in the league and are third in eFG%, so “we miss Donte Divencenzo’s shooting” doesn’t sound like a particularly strong argument to me.

I think it’s worth noting, JK, that the ORtg and eFG% of Brunson, OG, and Hart with KAT and Bridges (118.5, 57.3) is the same as it was with Hartenstein & Donte (118.3, 57.4).

We don’t necessarily miss Donte’s shooting because we get it from Towns now, but it was extremely valuable. And Deuce is the only player on the roster who can provide a reasonable facsimile to it.

ha…strat…i also had a first date at il vagabondo…wasn’t me who picked it…I wonder if we were dating the same girl (I recall she wrote childrens books or illustrated them)..that must have been the place listed first in some “nyc first date handbook”…

We also got an outlier, career year kind of season from Donte that he has not come close to replicating in Minny. His BPM in that one season is almost triple the number of his second best season. He’s generally a 1 BPM or under player who has been over 1 BPM exactly one other time in his career.

It was a fluke season and I doubt he would have repeated it.

I do not think this is the consensus, actually, here or anywhere else.

We’re averaging 105 ppg against the three contenders and have seen our offense get picked apart in every one of those games. It may not be the consensus here but it definitely is elsewhere.

I think everyone knows this offense doesn’t strike fear into the contenders.

I do not think this is the consensus, actually, here or anywhere else.

Actually, I think that neither Boston nor OKC fears our offense, not even a little bit. We’ll find out more vs. Cleveland tonight (although the sample will be tainted if either of OG or Hart don’t play). All of those teams have held our offense to below league average numbers, and in the case of Boston and OKC, rather easily, especially on the occasions when the game was in the balance in the second half.

Beyond that, I think the rest of the league “fears” KAT and Brunson more than they do “our offense.”

darules, Huk is a very live body out there but he makes a lot of rookie mistakes. It’s hard to judge the efficacy of the Huk-KAT minutes because the Bulls are such a funky team, but they certainly didn’t stand out as bad.

Interesting, thanks. Hopefully it’s a preview to Mitch-KAT.

I love Goodfellas but I have to disagree about Casino.

Casino is AMAZING.

And yeah, he loses it all because of a woman but Sharon Stone gives an AMAZING performance in that movie. It’s her best performance and she should have won the Oscar for it. I love the whole fall of the old school Vegas world aspect of that movie.

Goodfellas obviously came first and is a masterpiece. And it certainly pops more than Casino. But I just love Casino so so much.

Donte got off to a terrible start in Minny for pretty excusable reasons. Since December he’s been shooting over 40% from 3.

His shooting stats with the Knicks were almost identical to what they were in Golden State the year before. The only thing that changed was his role and usage. That’s 2 1/4 out of 2 1/2 years of similar shooting.

If anything, his play in his first 20 games with Minny is what seems like a fluke.

Add last year’s Donte to this team and we’re a tier 1 contender. I think he’s off this year (now injured) because Minnesota used him as a backup 1, which takes away his explosive shooting.

ha…strat…i also had a first date at il vagabondo…

Aside from the food, I love the bocci court. It made me feel like I was with family. My father’s side was a huge Sicilian family. When we would get together there were very always serious and passionate bocce, horse shoes and pinochle games going on. They also used to play this game where you put out between 0 and 5 fingers and your opponent does the same at the same time and you both scream out what you think the total fingers will be. It sounds silly, when a bunch of passionate Sicilians are screaming out the numbers in Italian it’s a lot of fun.

Loved Il Vagabondo. Grew up nearby. Went there with everyone from my parents to high school buddies to dates. Great food and vibe.

My problem with Thibs is that he always says “the game tells you what to do” but tactically it doesn’t seem like he changes what he’s doing based on what’s specifically happening in the game. Eg if the opponent has small guards like Cleveland then going to a Deuce / JB / Mikal / OG 1-4 could be really good.

Who cares if Boston, OKC or Cleveland are “afraid” of our offense or not?

All that matters is how we play them when it fucking counts. In the playoffs.

Tonight is meaningless even if OG and Hart and Mitch play. First, all three will be rusty as fuck (especially Mitch) but also it’s a back to back for both teams.

I know it’s interesting data points when we lose to the elite teams but it does not mean we can’t beat them in the playoffs.

our goal is to keep everyone healthy and integrate Mitch (and TJ lol).

We can still shock the world these playoffs. Why? Because we have the ability to get hot. People talked about this with Miami a few seasons back when they went to the finals. We have that ability. If our key players get hot, we can roll anyone.

Donte’s overall line this year, including the poor start and the strong surge, looks like a very typical year for him. Take a look at his career ledger and tell me which year looks like the outlier.

We don’t look as good against the #1 defense in the league, that is true. Nobody looks very good against them, that’s why they’re the #1 defense. They tend to be good at making you look bad.

Meanwhile we’re the 17th ranked defense.

The point I was trying to make was that Deuce shoots from above the break like Donte did, and we need that. Not that we need Donte.

We don’t look as good against the #1 defense in the league, that is true. Nobody looks very good against them, that’s why they’re the #1 defense. They tend to be good at making you look bad.

We’ve also looked horrendous against Boston’s 5th best defense, which is pretty good but not an all-time outlier like OKC’s.

The point I was trying to make was that Deuce shoots from above the break like Donte did, and we need that. Not that we need Donte.

Agreed.

Deuce is such a nice piece for us, really gives us a lot of what we got from DDV/Grimes at a very affordable price. He probably would fare better playing more with the starters. The lineup data TNFH provided is definitely intriguing.

It’s too bad we don’t have just like one or two more of these cheap but effective role player types that can actually get some run under Thibs.

A few offensive challenges that I think are pretty clear from small but definitive samples against the top 3:

1. We cannot play Hart and Precious together (and that probably doesn’t bode well for Hart & Mitch).

2. We need a counter to the effective strategy of putting a center on Hart.

3. We have a big problem when a team can guard Towns with a wing.

It does seem like Deuce is the best answer to #2, but it probably creates a new problem.

And I will be curious to see it Cleveland can use Hunter on Towns. If they can, that’s trouble.

Another Vagabondo fan. Miss that place. And Volare downtown, West 4th, I think. Looked for it last time I was back in NYC and it is no more. Not a lot of old school left.

Never remotely sold on DDV. Decent bench piece, I guess, but so are a bunch of other guys. Not as good as either of the pieces that went out for OG.

I saw a stat recently that broke down the Knicks offensive rating against the bottom 10, middle 10 and top 10 defenses. Their offensive rating ranked 4th against bottom 10, 1st against the middle 10 and 4th against the top 10 defenses. Obviously the actual rating changes but the Knicks are still one of the best offenses in the league regardless of the quality of defense they play.

I know it’s interesting data points when we lose to the elite teams but it does not mean we can’t beat them in the playoffs.

You’re right, Swifty. The more meaningful data points are usually within the games themselves. For instance, the Celtics beating us two weeks ago without OG wasn’t nearly as meaningful to me as how helpless KAT was on those double screens. And losing to the Thunder wasn’t as important as how effective their strategy of putting Hartenstein on Hart was. Those are the data points that suggest we cannot beat them in the playoffs. I’m looking for change in those more than I’m looking for W’s.

Phil Jackson is an ass clown who laid waste to the Knicks, but I have always liked his Forty Before Twenty heuristic, so I hope we somehow steal one of these next two games.

My problem with Thibs is that he always says “the game tells you what to do” but tactically it doesn’t seem like he changes what he’s doing based on what’s specifically happening in the game.

This.

I still think the incumbent starting line up is the best literal starting lineup, but mixing and matching a little bit more to get Deuce playing with our more high-octane offensive players seems like an obvious call.

I think the starting lineup hosts the 5 best players as individuals, I’m not convinced it’s the best for the team

Hey Pepper, are you by any chance a lawyer named Andrew? If so, you may have briefly dated my sister!

‪@jledwardsiii.bsky.social‬
Josh Hart and Mitch Robinson are OUT.

OG Anunoby is questionable.

I would like to see OG sit out until such time as he is unquestionable.

For all the Thibs skeptics out there of which I am becoming more and more one of them, if ever there was an overuse injury it’s surely Hart’s knee. How we keep ending up in the same place year after year is really depressing.

I’m actually at a low point in my belief that this team will ever play at full strength again this season.

We have a really good chance of ending up being 37-20, so that’s no bueno for Phil Jackson’s way of thinking.

I do find it funny that when a player sits out, we immediately blame Thibs for overuse when, in fact, right now we’re doing what we should be doing with Hart.

There is an alternate world where Hart isn’t sitting out these games even though he has this nagging soreness or whatever and then gets really hurt. Instead, we’re being smart and keeping him out these 2 games. One we could (and did) win without him and one we probably would lose with him. But then we get the news he’s out again and we’re like SEE THIBS RUINED HIM!

Like I get it. They play a lot of minutes. But we’re actually being super cautious with Hart, OG and Mitch but it’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

You would believe The Knicks have the worst injury history under Thibs of any team in the NBA the way we go on about this but I don’t think the evidence supports that at all. outside of Mitch not coming back sooner, we’ve actually been pretty healthy (knock on wood) all season.

The team isn’t “falling apart.” They’re suffering from the same wear and tear that all NBA teams go through every season.

This isn’t me saying Thibs couldn’t do better. I mainly agree that in blowouts either way he could play the starters less at the end because we just don’t want to risk an injury at the end of a game and we want to give our bench and young players more burn. But it’s just funny that we rest Hart and the response is “Thibs ruined him” instead of “good for the Knicks to give Hart some rest.”

I’m actually at a low point in my belief that this team will ever play at full strength again this season.

Why? Hart doesn’t have an injury. It’s knee soreness and he’s getting some rest. OG and mitch are coming back soon. Everyone else is fine.

Barring an epic collapse (or injuries) we SHOULD been in the driver’s seat as far as the 3rd seed is concerned. Indiana is too up and down for me and play no defense whatsoever. Haven’t seen Milwaukee with Kuzma but with Portis out 25 games that’s a huge blow for them. Both of their schedules are kind of middle of road so long as Knicks play .500 ball or better, seeding shouldn’t be an issue and we can hopeful rest players going into the playoffs

Of course if we play .500 the rest of the way this site will be in total nuclear meltdown…

I would like to see OG sit out until such time as he is unquestionable.

Seems like the obvious thing to do. And honestly it’s probably better for our psyche to have the “Hart & OG didn’t play” excuse for these next two games.

Honestly it’s PTSD probably more than anything else in terms of my pessimism. I just felt that coming out of the break we were going to start to see guys coming back and instead we are going backwards in that regard.

My point about Thibs and Hart is that the overuse is what has caused the soreness in the first place.

“Of course if we play .500 the rest of the way this site will be in total nuclear meltdown…”

But today’s posts are why I love this site. Great bball and non bball posts from everyone!

And honestly it’s probably better for our psyche to have the “Hart & OG didn’t play” excuse for these next two games.

This seems the best argument, alas…. Gonna be a tough few games, just in time for national TV again….

Honestly it’s PTSD probably …

For sure this is my problem. I admit.

As a proud minutes-policeman, I love that guys are resting. But — Is the health regime more conservative this year? Or are guys breaking down past the same thresholds we’ve always had? I hope it’s the former.

We’ve had some physio staff turnover, so I’m optimistic. But if everyone except Jalen ends up on the bench again come playoff time, that will be some Knicksy luck.

As someone who plays fantasy basketball and had his team decimated this season by injuries I think some of you are vastly underestimating how many injuries there are around the NBA. Knicks have probably been one of the healthier teams this season.

But it’s just funny that we rest Hart and the response is “Thibs ruined him” instead of “good for the Knicks to give Hart some rest.”

We’re not resting Hart. He’s injured. Same with Mitch and OG.

We’re not “being super cautious” with these guys. They cannot play.

Hey hubert,

I’m not saying that you’re wrong, because I have no idea whether they can or cannot play, versus “just resting.” But why do you think that this is the case? One cannot place any meaning on information coming out of the Knicks organization or on the labels we’re putting on players—all teams fool around with that, and ours is one of the ones that does it more than others. (The Lakers are another one. They literally have LeBron James on the injury report for every single game, and he rarely actually misses one. They’ve been doing this for at least a couple of years. He was on the injury report yesterday and then went out and got 40.)

One piece of evidence in support of what you are saying is that tonight is a big game, so whereas one could guess that Hart especially was out for last night’s game against a lesser opponent could have meant that he was being “saved” to play tonight against Cleveland…….well, he’s *not* playing tonight. Mostly I’m asking how you can be so certain?

Instead, head coach Tom Thibodeau revealed ahead of Thursday’s matchup against the Chicago Bulls that Hart practiced Tuesday before being shut down with patellofemoral syndrome, a condition commonly known as runner’s knee or jumper’s knee.

The Knicks do not appear overly concerned.

“Just knee soreness,” Thibodeau said.

Patellofemoral pain syndrome, also known as runner’s knee, is pain at the front of or around the kneecap and is common, particularly with athletes whose sports involve running and jumping, according to a physical therapist reached by phone Thursday.

“I don’t think it’s going to derail anyone’s season,” Charles Homoky, who is with Rusk Rehabilitation at NYU Langone Health, said of the syndrome.

Josh Hart is not injured. The Knicks are doing exactly what people here clamor for them to do. They’re resting him because we’re playing a back to back against one team that we can (and did) beat without him and one team we probably can’t win with him.

This is exactly what people have asked the Knicks to do. But when we do it, it’s Josh Hart is injured and The Knicks/Thibs have ruined our season again!

Lordy. (from the Washington Post)

“Trump again raises idea of running for an unconstitutional third term

The suggestion followed a stretch of days in which Trump referred to himself as a king and quoted a dictator in suggesting that he was immune from following laws.”

Sorry. It’s becoming too much.

Statmuse had us as fourth last year in missing games due to injury. Which seems about right given the plethora of people out especially toward the end, but also there were three teams that were worse off, so there’s that.

Can’t find something similar for this year to date.

Doogie don’t do that again. Seriously. Not here. Ever.

Sorry. It’s becoming too much.

Doogie, before anyone tells you “no politics” I’m gonna say there is no need to apologize. It is too much and to act like it’s just politics is lunacy.

The country is marching towards fascism. We should all be very upset about it.

Raven, why?

We are not in times where it’s ok to say “hey guys let’s not argue about abortion here.” This shit is fucked up.

How can I be certain that Josh Hart isn’t perfectly healthy and just resting? I trust the reports from respected journalists more than the idea that the Knicks are engaging in a conspiracy to deceive the public so that an able Josh Hart can sit home and chill.

Yeah, basically. As I mentioned, evidence that he is not playing tonight is definitely on your side, and I’m not now or was I ever saying that you are incorrect. I just wonder how you know what “the real deal” is, because I sure as hell don’t.

EDIT: I wrote mine before you added most of yours. 🙂

Josh Hart is not injured.

OK, Swifty.

What about Mitch? Is he just on a sabbatical?

I just wish they would stop listing OG as “Questionable” instead of “Out.” If he’s not going to play, just say so.

Because I come here largely to get away from that shit. If I wanted to talk politics I would go to Politicblogger. I do not, I come here.

Also, personally, for my mental and emotional health, I have had a complete news embargo since November. Of course things come through, it’s not entirely impervious, especially as a number of things going on affect my profession (and career) fairly dramatically.

But if I want to find out what’s going on in DC I go somewhere else. As Doogie HIMSELF has stated endlessly, he wants to come here to talk basketball. Which is clearly a lie, but maybe he should walk the talk.

Seriously, if this becomes a forum to discuss our current political crisis, I’ll just quit this place, too. Which would be a shame for me, at least. I love this community.

I just wonder how you know what “the real deal” is, because I sure as hell don’t

I mean, the reports are pretty credible. I suppose I can’t be certain they are true any more than I can be certain that the Pacers beat the Grizzlies last night. But there’s a box score and an AP recap and I just don’t think everyone’s lying.

Raven…i considered taking the LSAT at one point…but got no closer to joining the legal profession than that…

I slipped up for sure, I guess……and for that I apologize. But if we cannot talk politics, then we should also not talk Yankees, Mets, Il Vagabondo, Jake LaMotta, 4Nations, movies, food, sex, airport bathrooms, television, books, or music. It should either be just basketball, or it should be whatever is on anyone’s mind. I would prefer the former, but it will never be that way. But why are we excluding only one *specific* topic. Believe me, I want to hear about the Yankees as much as you want to hear about politics.

But yeah, sorry again. And I hope that’s coming across as being sincere, because I mean it sincerely. Like I said, I slipped up.

Figured it was a long-shot, pepper. Would’ve been damn funny if it was you, however…

I think every player gets sore over the course of a season and some of that soreness reflects lingering injuries. And these injuries have technical names. Now teams have to use those technical names because the league doesn’t like rest days and may punish teams that rest players for no real injury reason. Hart could be injured to the point where he really can’t play; but, from what Thibs said, it sounds like if it was the seventh game of the finals, he would play. If that’s the case it’s a gray area, not a play stopping injury. Whether you count that as a “rest” day or not is up to you. But it’s certainly suspicious that, unlike OG and Robinson, the injury was suddenly worse enough to rest him right after Hart had a one week break from playing because of the All-star game.

Now teams have to use those technical names because the league doesn’t like rest days and may punish teams that rest players for no real injury reason.

Useful nuance. Thx.

I’m trying to be the change I want to see on the board at the moment

Yeah, I know…….I missed a question mark. 🙂

I’m with Raven. That subject is an order of magnitude different from pretty much every other off-topic thing we get into. When I want to know about the crisis, I can go elsewhere. This is my escape from that. if it becomes a regular thing here, I’m out.

‪@chriskirschner.bsky.social‬
Aaron Boone said Chase Hampton underwent Tommy John surgery today. Brutal blow for the Yankees’ No. 2 pitching prospect.

Damn. Like the saying goes, TINSTAAPP (aka, There Is No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect).

Figured it was a long-shot, pepper. Would’ve been damn funny if it was you, however…

yeah…well…what was funny (as I thought about that time period for a few minutes after I typed it)…was that the woman was a patient of my aunt’s (who was a psychiatrist)…and i wondered about the ethical part of that when I accepted the blind date…and my aunt never told me why she was seeing that person but of course I was trying to figure out what it might be for the whole time we were on that date…I think I went out with her once more…but then the two date (or is three date) rule went into effect…and that was that…

Should you have even known that she was a patient of your aunt’s, in the first place? I mean, I guess that’s OK if the woman told you on her own accord that she was seeing your aunt, but that’s kind of an odd conversation in itself. 🙂

I mean…i guess my aunt could have lied to me about how she knew this person she was setting me up with…but she didn’t seem to have a problem with it (telling me that is…not with lying)..

I look back on the Covid era period where we decided to fight about politics with some regret.

Not fun, not worth it.

our current…crisis

the crisis

late Middle English (denoting the turning point of a disease): medical Latin, from Greek krisis ‘decision’, from krinein ‘decide’. The general sense ‘decisive point’ dates from the early 17th century.

when the world is runnin’ down
you make the best of what’s still around

Deuce hit a lot of shots but his defensive impact was quite noticeable filling in the spaces btw Brunson and Tectonic Towns. He looked great last night

earth shattering news in yankee land, they’ve relaxed their grooming standards…what?!?!

the thing that stayed in my mind last night – exactly how much we were paying the guys from the bench…

we’re paying premium pricing for KAT and OG, good deal on jalen, real good deal on mikal, steal on josh…

our bench though is making peanuts…no more wasted salary on players not in the rotation…that’s progress…

more HUK pleeeeaaaaseeee…

Yabbut, what if someone else thinks that politics is *not* an order of magnitude worse or different than the other stuff, and that sexual escapades and airport bathrooms and the Yankees *are* an order of magnitude worse or different? Everyone here is smart enough to see the point that I am making: that the topics that each person thinks should be forbidden here will vary from person to person.

I am *not* arguing that we should be able to talk politics here, although I personally do not feel that it should be forbidden, and that other things should be. I am just underscoring my point that eliminating *any* one topic from our airwaves is going to make some people happy, while at the same time upsetting others…….no matter what that one topic is.

Politicsblogger was one of our worst eras, the Frankie Smokes debates were somehow better than that

Yeah, I was pretty happy with Deuce last night, notwithstanding the bad defensive opponent.

Doogie, do you genuinely not understand why politics is a no-no but the occasional deviation into baseball or music or what have you is fine

I understand it just fine. I’m just pointing out the slippery slope, is all. (And I do truly hate the sexual and bathroom stuff as much as many of you hate the politics stuff.)

“Remove heaves from his record, and he’s [Jokic] shooting 48.6 percent from deep, tops in the NBA”

That’s just insane.

Agreed (on Jokic). He’s a machine.

Cmon, Frankie Smokes talk is more addictive than nicotine.

Don’t pretend you didn’t love it…

Kevin Knox is currently on the Warriors roster. We can talk about him, too.

hard to think of two players who came in to the nba with a more different attitude than doe-eyed frank and simmerin’ fury deuce…

HUK is about a billion times more enjoyable to watch play than jericho sims…not sure what routines he’s doing for it (josh hart like candy consumption perhaps) but HUK brings much needed energy to the game…

considering julius and ddv haven’t even been playing much – not really missing anyone from before the start of this season…

also enjoying the growing confidence from precious…

Just had the most ridiculously good goat biryani at Angel in Jackson Heights.

‪@shamsbot.bsky.social‬
FROM SHAMS:

New York’s OG Anunoby – out since Feb. 1 with a toe injury – will make his return tonight against the Cleveland Cavaliers, league source tells ESPN.

LFG!

Wow OG playing. I’m still skeptical we’ll see all of Mitch/Kat/OG/Bridges/Brunson/Hart healthy in the same game, but that’s one step closer!

glad OG had time to rest, glad josh is getting a chance to rest…wish mitch was already back, but, oh well…

would be nice to break through with a win against one of the top teams in the nba…

If this place starts talking politics, it won’t recover without a slew of banned accounts. If Clarence talks about farting, we laugh and then argue about RJ Barrett again.

I’m more focused on kittens in this the finest year of the 2025.

Precious is starting over Deuce

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