Knicks Morning News (2025.03.12)

37 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.03.12)”

Keon Johnson scored exactly 1 point in two of his last three games. That’s kind of difficult to do, especially considering that he averaged 27.0 minutes across those two games.

I think that tonight will likely be a night that Mikal goes off against Shaedon Sharpe.

Uh huh. I think that.

Lordy. Had no idea that Cavs have won 15 straight.

All season long, I didn’t want to admit the Cavs are as good as they are. Mainly because we’ve always handled them pretty well. But man! This is their 2nd 15 game win streak of the season. I think it’s time for me to let my bias against them go lol. They are a very good team under Atkinson. Very good team.

Yeah. The Cavs at more than double the payout over Boston and even larger over OKC in Vegas odds right now looks like a nice bet.

Great story on the passing of Junior Bridgeman and his post NBA career. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/40625836/how-nba-sixth-man-built-600m-empire

Hunter was a fantastic get for the Cavs. I don’t think Boston will be able to stop them.

Hunter (14/4/1 in 25 minutes off the bench since joining the Cavs) didn’t even play last night. Don’t sleep on how much of a help Caris LeVert (17/4/3 in 29 minutes off the bench) has been for the Hawks, either.

Does Channing Frye read Knickerblogger?:

“I played for coaches where we have our game plan and it’s not working and the coach yells ‘just do it harder!’ … We go ‘coach, you’ve got to put somebody else in, something has to change,” Frye said. “Let’s say [the Knicks] play Boston … Jayson Tatum’s over here looking at OG Anunoby gassed, he’s chilling.”

“There’s no way you can go dumb hard for 40 minutes every single night in a game,” Frye continued. “That’s why it’s frustrating, because the Knicks have all the talent in the world. Every year, it’s a repeat thing of ‘oh, man, the Knicks are really good, oh hamstring, oh foot, oh hamstring, hamstring, hamstring, knees, knees. They must have a deal with a doctor! What is going on? Give them a chance to be great. You need a break. Just give [the starters] 35 minutes.”

I like the Cavs. A blueprint for the Knicks. Go all in with a young core that can develop. Resist the urge to blow it up/major rejig after playoff disappointment. Change coach off-season minimising disruption. Play lights out including a 15 game winning streak. Don’t think job done but make a semi significant trade. Go on another 15 game streak.

Only one question, BE. Who is the new coach?

I’d be interested in Jay Wright, but I don’t think he wants it and may not even be available. Atkinson obviously already taken. Jeff Van Gundy? Maybe, but probably not at this stage of his career/life.

The Cavs have been good for a while and are great now. The addition of Hunter was excellent and Ty Jerome has been the proverbial “like a new signing” guy. He has been giving them 20 minutes of elite production this year. Allen and Mobley are the best frontcourt in the NBA.

I wouldn’t be looking forward to facing them if I were the Celtics.

https://x.com/FrankBarrett119/status/1899515717197713442

Knicks trading in midrange shots for 3s without Brunson

Celtics/OKC tonight..

Danny Hurley?

Great post on threes instead of midrange, ETW—we probably should have tried that strategy starting a good bit earlier in the season. (It’s not really a new idea to say that we should be taking more threes, in general.) Thanks for sharing it.

Hurley would be interesting. Very fiery guy would play well in New York, especially after somber/quiet Thibs.

The one question mark I have about the Cavs is that Mitchell and Garland are a little less proven under extreme playoff pressure than Tatum and Brown and Mitchell has had a few clunker big games in the playoffs. This is kind of their test year to see if they can break through.

Celtics/OKC tonight..

Jalen Williams is out.

IMO, that’s a pretty big loss for them. He’s their clear cut 2nd option. I guess Wiggins could start. He gets on a roll from time to time.

Hurleys wife doesn’t want to leave New Jersey so NYC makes sense if he wants to jump to the NBA. He has some JVG in him.

With Brunson, the team has to figure out how to fix the shot profile and get more threes up.

Only one question, BE. Who is the new coach?

I am not saying they need a new coach. What I am positing is that the Cleveland FO seamlessly decided JB needed to be replaced, and found a bit of a dark-horse candidate (in that I don’t think he was interviewing for other spots) which probably meant they did their homework vis a vis the roster construction to be the new coach. I only hope that the same dispassionate analysis will exist with the Knicks, despite the Leon/Brunson connection, the Leon/Thibs connection, the Thibs/Brunson Sr connection, the Brunson Sr/Jalen connection, and all the Nova connections. Exactly who would be the new coach is secondary to deciding when and what he/(she?) would need to address.

I’ve lost patience with Thibs on a few issues, but he was just extended. Even though many of us see things we don’t like, the Knicks record is still excellent and the players seem to like him. I think it’s premature to think Leon would even think about replacing him at this stage. If the Knicks flame out in the first round and then get off to bad start next year I think that’s the earliest a conversation in management would start.

Vaunted college coaches tend to not fare well as NBA coaches. A much smarter route is to either promote or poach a top assistant.

https://x.com/FrankBarrett119/status/1899515717197713442

This is everything I was saying yesterday, but you have to get Brunson to buy into moving the ball instead of dribbling around trying to create for himself as often as he has been. And if he doesn’t, Thibs has to get after him.

Brunson sometimes gets into that same playoff mode from last year when Randle and OG were out, we didn’t have Bridges and the team was a mess. With those lineups there was almost no choice but for him to take over, create shots for himself, up his usage and try to carry a huge part of the load. But what was optimal for that lineup is not optimal when you have Towns, OG and Bridges on the court with you. We need less dribbling and way more strategic ball and player movement.

It’s on Thibs and Brunson.

The assistant coach on the Grizzlies who came over from Paris this year seems interesting, but he may also be a system coach. Of course, his system has been pretty good for the most part.

Otherwise… Bryant?

I’d be cool with Bryant, especially after this years’ experience in Cleveland. He probably learned a lot. I doubt if Thibs will be in any real danger for the next 2 years at least.

Hot take.

If we lose in the 1st or even 2nd round, Thibs will be replaced this summer.

3 years in a row a second round exit is clearly hitting a wall.

First year, you get a pass. First time to the 2nd round in a decade. Randle not 100 percent. Facing a Miami team that got hot and went to the finals.

Last year the team was decimated with injuries. Maybe that’s Thibs fault, maybe not, but he gets a pass.

This year, we SHOULD go into the playoffs close to full health (we’ll see with Jalen’s ankle) but even if we don’t, 2 years in a row going out because of injuries is not a fluke. And yes, Boston and Cleveland are both favorites over us in the playoffs but at this point, going all in with Mikal…not having a ton of picks to make another big move without seriously revamping the roster. A new coach will be the most obvious change to make before making some trade of one of our starters to really revamp the roster.

Only way I see Thibs staying is if we make it to the ECF OR we do lose in the 2nd round to Boston but it’s like a 7 game series where we really could have beaten them and then they end up going to the finals again.

The 2nd round is going to go through Boston. The reasonable expectation for any team can’t be to beat them, so it’s hard to go apoplectic and start firing people. (Losing to Detroit in the 1st round, though? Then I get it, off with their heads.)

Is that you Swifty? I don’t think Thibs deserves to be fired after one year with this roster. They are still figuring things out on both sides of the ball. They need this off season to fill out the bench. I think next year is probably going to be there best shot. After that, it will be time to reevaluate the coach.

I hope Knicks play Indiana in the 1st rd, if we’re gonna lose in the 2nd rd then at least let’s enjoy beating a rival in the 1st rd. Beating an upstart Detroit team would be kinda boring and meaningless.

Beating an upstart Detroit team would be kinda boring and meaningless.

I continue to believe that we beat the Cavs in the playoffs because Thibs out coached Bickerstaff, both in and out of the locker room. Assume will do it again so I agree. But as I have mentioned before, am astounded at how a team can fire a coach and get so much better, and the fired coach goes to a new team and that team gets even better!

I just don’t think it’ll be much fun playing Detroit plus if the series goes 6 or 7 games it wouldn’t be a good look for the Knicks. At least playing Indiana or Milwaukee would be pretty fun matchups plus I’d enjoy and take some pride in beating either team even though the Knicks are clearly better than both.

Is that you Swifty? I don’t think Thibs deserves to be fired after one year with this roster. They are still figuring things out on both sides of the ball. They need this off season to fill out the bench. I think next year is probably going to be there best shot. After that, it will be time to reevaluate the coach.

Lol, I know. And I hear you. But, IMO, our window is small and I don’t know if we can “waste” another year with just some marginal bench improvements and Thibs coaching again.

Yes, it’s teh first year with a pretty new roster, but we’re seeing the same bad tendencies that we’ve always seen and, IMO, Thibs is coaching like this is a traditional “Thibs” team when it isn’t. We need someone who can play to the strengths of this team, which is offense, not defense.

Brunson used to throw the ball to Randle and let him do his version of creating. Bridges was supposed to take over that Randle role but it hasn’t happened. Any concrete idea why?

Not really sure that’s accurate, darules. They’re really two very different players, and I don’t think Mikal was supposed to take up Randle’s role — a fair amount of his scoring maybe. But Randle was a pounder, both in terms of dribbling (endlessly) and pounding the hell out of his defender’s body to get to the basket. Mikal’s a skinny little whippet, and he needs to play off of ball movement. They probably have about the same level handle, but Mikal doesn’t think that dribbling until someone steals it is a good idea. So maybe good on him.

I would like to see Mikal do more SGA-type creation, but I don’t know how much of that he has in him, to be honest. He might just be a cutter and catch-and-shooter, which if we play the right way might be enough.

And to be clear, since misunderstanding is something we do here a lot, I am NOT comparing Mikal to the second-best basketball player in the world. Only that their styles are slightly reminiscent (certainly their body types), and that perhaps Mikal could learn something by studying and trying to copy what SGA does.

…if it is even possible to copy what SGA does. Since I don’t get it, even after reading articles about him (since most of the articles just marvel about how what he does is inexplicable…)

I’m changing my earlier prediction about Mikal going off on Shaedon Sharpe tonight. Instead I think that it will be much more of a Deuce/Hart night, with Deuce locking down the inconsistent Simons and Hart being all over the place confusing Toumani Camara.

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses User Verification plugin to reduce spam. See how your comment data is processed.

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

37 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.03.12)”

Leave a Reply