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58 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.04.04)”
A fresh clean start!
https://ilvoloflightcrw.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/calvin-hobbes-snow-and-new-year.png
No friday night Knicks? Bummer!
All I had done was respond to Raven’s 6:02 pm post about Brunson at 6:12 pm (on a topic that I started) when Donnie decided to denigrate me for no reason at 7:12 pm. What on earth did I do to deserve that?
Just because a million people complain about me, that doesn’t make it justified.
Time for finger gun chain 2.0
It won’t be started by me. 🙂
Good news, Cyber. Biggest questions remaining in the season, in order:
1. How healthy will we be come playoff time?
2. How much of the recent aggression by OG and Mikal will be sustainable once Brunson is back?
3. If/when Mitch and Deuce are both at full-ish health, what does the rotation look like, and will Hart’s minutes go down?
Yeah, Alan, those are the questions.
Nr 1 is a mistery, we have to wait and see. I hope nr 2 has a good answer from Mikal and OG, meaning they keep trying to be aggressive, which will require the opponent to focus on at least four of our players, instead of simply doubling Brunson and KAT. About nr 3, i think Hart’s minutes have to go down, we have more options we must spread the minutes. But will Thibs do it?
One thing that is bothering me is we’re not trying KAT at PF and Mitch at C for long stretches. If KAT’s defense is a problem in the playoffs, it’d be good to have tested the possible (probable?) solution before going to it.
I’m curious who our backup PG and SG will be when healthy…
Yeah, I was maligned and mocked unfairly (as usual) when I went so far as to say when Okeke was playing well for the Sixers (including an efficient double-double) that we should have brought him up to the main club, especially since we’d already had him in the building. Apparently it’s safe to allude to something like that now, so that’s cool.
Assuming full health, it’ll be Deuce and Cam. Delon has played well, but not so well that Thibs would leapfrog him over two guys already in the Circle of Trust.
We could see an 8-man rotation, with those two and Mitch off the bench, and Payne’s time limited to how well he’s shooting. We could get an 8.5-man rotation, where Shamet gets a few minutes per half just to let the wings get a breather. But that’s as far as I expect Thibs to go.
Don’t you think Thibs might go for Delon if we need more defense? Cam is an ok to bad defender, while Delon looks like a very good defender. Or will Deuce get more minutes in that case?
I think a more flexible coach than Thibs would find a way to sprinkle in some Delon minutes. If we’re just getting killed at the point of attack, I assume he will just increase Deuce’s playing time.
We need to be close to 100% in both health and play in order to hope for a deep run in the playoffs. I hope KAT steps up. Scoring twenty-five ‘quiet’ points while disappearing in critical moments (particularly down the stretch) or giving up a ton on defense is not good enough. He is the second superstar on this roster. We need someone beyond JB to be able to take over games.
Co-sign on what Alan is saying. We’ve had multiple years where we’ve learned that Thibs pretty much doesn’t adjust until he’s forced to, one way or another. And even then, he’s kind of slow to do so.
I think the other big strategic question is how much Mitch/Kat together will there be? If Mitch is just the backup center and situational end of game D substitute then against Boston (if we make it there) we will be down double digits early in games a lot.
I continue to be relaxed about the course of our season. If we have Mitch and Brunson and Deuce we have a small chance at making some big noise in the playoffs. That’s fine for this year.
Cry harder, bitch
I do feel like Mitch/KAT lineups fall just enough within Thibs’ comfort zone that I expect to see a bit more of it in the playoffs than we have since Mitch came back.
Alan, I think we need you to put a different hat on and script a great ending.
All the pieces are there. We just need Josh Hart to play like he did in the first half, KAT too, OG to play like he has without Jalen. Shamet to hit threes in a small role. Deuce to get healthy and back to being the shadow plus minus leader. Bridges to channel his mercurial talent. Mitch to be the surprisingly evolved and slender version of himself that he has flashed glimpses of lately. Koleksanity can continue as well. Delon, Deuce OG, Bridges and Mitch is a nasty defensive lineup.
Leon has assembled some pieces. I know how mezzo mezzo most people are about him but I reluctantly have to give him credit for putting a fair amount of talent out there, more or less top to bottom.
There is absolutely enough on this team to thread the camel through the eye of the needle come playoff time. Likely won’t happen but I wouldn’t be surprised if we did better than expected.
I’m saddened but not surprised at the lack of twin towers so far. With Precious being the only (undersized) other option, and Mitch still on the 21-minute plan, Thibs probably feels constrained using them together much, especially with KAT’s tendency to get in foul trouble. He’d rather have a big backup than experiment much at this point.
Huk, we miss ya.
Would it be too much to ask that Thibs has had Mitch and Towns working on things together in practice and he’s waiting until the playoffs to unveil some new wrinkles?
That’s the biggest negative about the Brunson injury.
He hasn’t had a chance to work with Mitch and Towns together, not even in practice.
Knicks will have 5 to 6 days off in a row between their last regular season game and 1st playoff game so they’ll have plenty of time to work on stuff.
The bummer statistic that I keep looking at is that we’ve gone from an elite eFG% team to a merely good one. We’re 8th in the NBA in offensive eFG% now. Trending down for quite a while. Obviously the injury to Brunson has hurt a lot, but even before his injury it was pretty clear that the salad days of the offense were pretty much over.
Maybe we find another gear in the playoffs.
It’s in part the injury to Brunson, JK. But I would say the biggest contributing factor has been KAT’s injuries. Between the thumb and then the knee, he hasn’t been quite himself for most of the 2025 games. So much of what contributed to those salad days was how much of the offense was running through him, and inspired by how defenses had to play him out of fear he would just hit a million 3s in a row.
Macri violently against Precious seeing a minute of playoff basketball:
“According to NBA.com, the Knicks are getting outscored by 1.3 point per 100 possessions with Achiuwa on the floor, which is far worse than the next lowest player who has seen at least 500 minutes. When he’s off the court, they’re outscoring teams by 6.1 points per 100. It doesn’t matter what position he plays either.”
I was about to say KAT has been kind of pedestrian for a while, that his thumb/knee injuries were the likely cause, and that this has flown under the radar because he still adds a lot with his spacing and rebounding. Then I looked it up and he’s still at 24.5/10/3 on 50/44/80 shooting splits since Brunson went down, so that wouldn’t be a fair characterization.
Still, it’s safe to say he hasn’t notably stepped up without Brunson. We can only hope the injuries heal up by the playoffs. I tend to agree with Owen that there just might be another gear somewhere, but we ain’t gonna find it with a compromised KAT.
As he should be, Precious has been awful most of the season. He should only be seeing playoff time on defensive possessions at the end of the quarter.
Sorry, but again from Macri, since the twin towers were brought up — I find this hysterically bizarre:
“In just 76 possessions, Towns and Robinson have outscored teams by 12.2 points per 100 possessions, but it hasn’t come in the way you might expect. They’re giving up a woeful 128.6 points per 100 possessions, but it hasn’t mattered due to a 140.8 offensive rating. These lineups have basically been unreal in every quadrant of offense”
That is some small sample size craziness and I totally love it.
It’s absolutely worth a try.
was thinking at this point PJ Tucker might be a better option than precious…
I think this is a bit simplistic. Precious is an innings (minutes) eater, and might need to fill that role in the playoffs.
If the typical game is 100-ish (or 200-ish offensive and defensive) possessions, and Precious is on the floor for, say, 25 (or 50) of them, i.e. 12 minutes, that translates to a 0.26 (or .52) point swing on average. If he could “hold the fort” while OG, KAT and Mitch, and to a degree Hart and Mikal, rest, there’s a role for him in the playoffs.
Agree, Precious is a ( do your best to) hold down the fort while we rest our lynchpins rotation player rather than give me some different oomph rotation player. If his inclusion in games is ala the Macri stat, that’s not just on Precious but on Thibs rotations; and that said, not sure Precious continuing being the “worst” in his limited role means he should never play.
By EPM, Precious is easily the worst regular on the team. He’s -2.6 which is 12th and is 28th percentile in the NBA. He’s the exact kind of player who should be taken out of the rotation in the playoffs. Assuming everyone’s healthy, Mitch and KAT should be playing all the minutes at the 5 and KAT/OG/Hart can take all the minutes at the 4.
And being -1.3/100 (though I see -1.9/100) does not mean it’s only a 0.25 or 0.5 point swing for the possessions he’s actually in for unless he’s replacing someone who’s a net 0/100. He’s replacing one of Mitchell Robinson (+5.5), KAT (+6.9), OG (+5.3), or Hart (+3.7). That’s a net change of between 5 and 8.2 which would mean we’d lose between 1.5 points and 4 points while he’s playing.
maybe just KAT, OG and a little josh at the four?
why not roll PJ out there for a few minutes, even having not played for almost 2 seasons now, i’d bet he’d shoot better than precious, rebound better than precious, defend better than precious…
can’t imagine jalen or deuce playing in a back to back after just coming back…
Playoff rotation should be something like this:
C: KAT 24, Mitch 24
PF: OG 32, KAT 16
SF: Hart 38, OG 6, Shamet 4
SG: Bridges 38, Deuce 10
PG: Brunson 40, Payne 8
You can quibble with the minutes, but it’s definitely possible to cut out Precious, which we absolutely should.
We’ve got a 14% chance of getting that 2026 1st rd WAS pick
that looks way off EB, maybe something closer to:
C: KAT 24, Mitch 24
PF: OG 32, KAT 16
SF: Hart 38, OG 10
SG: Bridges 38, Deuce 10
PG: Brunson 40, Payne 8
and you can quibble with my quibbling with the minutes if you’d like…
actually, i hope we start mitch, and have josh and deuce off the bench…
i fully expect cameron payne to have a few: holy cow he’s shooting good, and holy cow he’s shooting like crap moments…maybe even in the same game…
we lack size, but cam, deuce, josh off the bench should up the pace of the game considerably…
My main quibble with both of these is I’d want Deuce in for more like 20 minutes per. Which you can do by nibbling away at some of those 40+ minute grinds.
Still, no Precious.
Deuce needs to play at least 20 minutes a night, for both spacing and defense reasons.
Resident Delon Wright booster here: I get that there’s no clear way to squeeze him into the playoff rotation, but let’s say he keeps up his steady play for however much longer he’s in the rotation. You can easily imagine lineups that might benefit from him instead of Shamet, Deuce, or even Hart, right?
I know it’s not that simple and Thibs gets paid the big bucks to understand the impact jiggering too much with the rotation at this point in the season might have on players in an intangible sense. But since we probably want to avoid playing Hart and Mitch together, ever, using Delon strategically to get Hart’s minutes in the 28-30 range, and getting Shamet’s to 0 if he’s not hitting shots, seems like something we should be open to.
He might be our best POA defender and he can switch up to 4 positions, IMO. If he can keep hitting some shots and getting some sneaky rebounds, there’s gotta be a role for him in the playoffs.
Or this is a mirage and he’ll turn into a pumpkin soon, but we should use the rest of the regular season to find out.
can’t count on injuries either, that rotation may get expanded – a bunch, hopefully not, but…
the level of physical play rises significantly in the post season…
man, KAT may never get a whistle…
Interesting piece in The Ringer on how for the first time there are more missed threes than twos. Mostly makes me wonder if teams are already scheming for where to stick the wings of the world after a shot goes up for those long rebounds, rather than just rushing back on D. I would imagine there’s a sweet spot that allows the player to get back quickly but doesn’t completely take them out of the play for long rebounds…
Probably already figured out, but that was my first thought…
clearly its a foul ball
Did anyone notice why Freddie Freeman was placed on the injured list?
Freddie has a sprained ankle. But it was precautionary yeah. They are 8-0.
OG is our best POA defender. But I like Delon. I always have. I remember wanting to draft him.
Sprained my ankle showering never.
they referred to it as a “mishap” in the shower…hmmm
Ahh, thought it was a continuation of last year’s issue.
I’m very pro-Delon, but I just don’t know where you squeeze him in. Maybe I’m just hedging too close to what I think Thibs will do. We could absolutely use him, but as other posters have mentioned, I’ve already shaved Deuce’s minutes quite a bit.
Yeah, maybe we could cut Josh & Mitch’s minutes so they’re rarely/never on the court together. I’m not sure we could cut that tandem out completely without playing Precious some at the 4. I guess a bit of Hart at the 4, but we’ve barely seen that this year.
Now, if PJ Tucker has anything left…
Lol, yeah we can cut Shamet out. He’s just been on fire lately.
You guys made fun of me for suggesting it. But Freddy will miss more games from it than the Knicks top-3 mpg guys will miss this season combined:)
I’m very much hoping Thibs is holding off playing Mitch and Towns together because he is aware what a potent lineup it could be in the playoffs
Further to that, my guess about the offensive efficiency is that Mitch’s o-board % is higher than ever, and with KAT pulling a big away from the hoop, the combo is lethal, with Mitch grabbing the rare potential board
Aaron Judge is pretty good.
Rama, did you come out to LA yet? I was supposed to email you and forgot, and now I can’t find the post with your email.
I have no idea whether it was like ten days ago or two months. Been a little hectic around here. Anyway, hope I didn’t miss you!
I like things about Delon and wouldn’t object if Thibs gave him some run in the playoffs in a situational role. He has length, seems completely comfortable in his own skin, and is clearly better than a replacement-level player.
It just seems like we have a glut of rotation-level players between 6′ and 6’6″…Brunson, Mikal, Hart, Deuce, Cam, Landry, and Delon…each with at least one specific skill combination that differentiates him from the 6 others…to make an argument for minutes.
Beyond Brunson, Mikal and Hart, it’s not an easy call. My guess is that it’s Deuce’s and Cam’s job to lose, and that Thibs sticks with those 2 and probably Landry as an offensive spark. At first, Delon will probably only see action in situational defensive situations e.g 20 seconds left, up one, need a stop, in for Brunson. But if one of Deuce or Cam is off and/or getting burned, I could see Delon’s number getting called.