Knicks Morning News (2025.04.20)

71 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.04.20)”

My sister and niece were in town from California, so I ~~had to~~ was very happy to have dinner with them during the game. I watched a lot of it surreptitiously through a reflection in the window of the restaurant.

That was awesome, and it was clear that the Pistons are still a bit young and dumb, choosing to go for poster dunks instead of just making sure the ball actually goes into the hoop.

The Pistons are feisty, but I think that this game shows that the Knicks just have too much talent, and the one coach who Thibs has definitely outcoached in the playoffs recently in terms of Xs and Os has been Bickerstaff, so that’s nice, too.

Watched the 2nd half replay, seemed like a good playoff win. Is anyone worried about Jalen being well guarded and slowed down by Schroder, of all people?

had a family dinner so watched the replay…seemed like everything was speeded up…both teams were wired…things should settle down by next game…its really physical and they are hammering brunson but we did the same to cade…i think brunson will figure out that asshole schroeder…

deuce and mikal stood out as nonentities…they need to be better…i am not sure how much mitch and kat played together but last night seemed to be the longest stretch (i think in the 3rd qtr) since mitch returned..but that also may have been the stretch where the pistons extended their lead…don’t think mitch saw the court in the 4th …

beasley is our new villain

Deuce and Mikal will recover. Not worried at all about them. Remember last year when Brunson started the playoffs with two god-awful games? It happens.

One thing that does bug me is that they make poor decisions down the stretch of games when they have a lead. Teams like the Celts would have figured out how to come back from that deficit (see: last Cs game). For example, Josh Hart drove to the basket and missed rather than run the clock. Brunson tried to draw a foul and instead dribbled out of bounds.

Hart was awesome down the stretch, but man he does more things to drive me crazy than anyone else on the team. Same is true for OG and KAT….not so much in this game but I generally worry about them not reading the game situation and playing within themselves at key moments.

Beasley can really shoot but he’s kind of a fake tough guy. Probably why he has bounced around so much. He’s got a lot of JR Smith in him.

That fourth quarter is as backbreaking an outcome as the knicks could have delivered. I would not be surprised if this series is over. I would not be surprised if the Knicks sweep. It would have been one thing for the Knicks to just play to their ability and mop the floor… I’d have preferred that, but in one short synaptic rearing of the lizard brain the Knicks were able to demonstrate dominance in the most brutal way possible. They flexed and there was no mistaking who wins between these two teams when the juice flows.

What the game last night suggested to me is that we are in for another run of high playoff drama from this team. They are Thibsian to their core. This team has worked on “showing up” all year and that’s a good thing because “showing up” is perhaps the 2nd most important human muscle. Heck, Jalen Brunson is a 6foot ball of the best showing up this team has had in my life time. They’ could still be more Ray Jackson than Frank Dux. They need to be more Frank Dux if showing up is your core skill set.

My thoughts on this first one:
Pistons are more athletic, score easier baskets, had a mediocre game with many turnovers and their leader shut off and “almost” got away with an opener break.
Thankfully they choked HARD and psychoPane was at the right spot the right time.
KAT scored difficult shots and tried on D but I’m not sure that he’s Locked in yet
He’s either Lazy or Dumb in way many plays on D.
We definitely have a TON of weapons but we need to Assemble them together to go far.
If i were a Pistons fan I’d be optimistic.

The Pistons fans are sort of where we were during the We Here season…just happy to be in the playoffs but aware that there was a lot of work to do to build a true contender. It’s a nice space to be in after years of failure.

Their vets are talented but there’s a reason why they were cast aside, in the case of Beasley and Schroeder, repeatedly. I don’t think they have enough to will the young, inexperienced kids to more than a gentleman’s sweep, but we can’t let our guard down. We saw for the first 3 quarters what can happen if any of Beasley, Harris, or TH2 goes off from 3. But we should be able to weather that and pound them inside. They have no answer for KAT, and not really for OG either.

Speaking of getting pounded inside I’m off to Surreys for the crab omelette.

Wish i was more optimistic and pumped about our team this post season but i see signs of “trouble”…
The one is going after the “iron man award”, the other is asking for the DPOY, the third is looking for triple doubles and the big dogs are more interested about offense than defense…
If We Just FOCUS Entirely on Winning, sweat our asses in the Gym and stop “fucking around” about individual trophies, awards and flashy celebrations and other distractive shit i guess we’ll be fine.

KYN, I dunno, seems a bit hyperbolic to me. However, I think you have a point in that the offense seems to have become too heliocentric, with Brunson dominating the ball too much and less ball movement than when he was out.

Detroit shot 47% from 3 and lost by double digits

Idk Z-man… before watching the game i expected us to kick their ass royally, go to our “Playoff gear” and show them that we were just strolling during the regular season matches.
When we were down 10p and they throw away 4p more with their 2 missed dunks i felt “depressed”….
I expect a MUCH better game to be fully convinced about this year’s squad

Detroit had 10 more TOs and 2 missed dunks and lost by a Royal Choke imo

Don’t give in to the nothing KYN.

I don’t see us “blowing them” out in any game…we’re not that good defensively and they have a super star in the making point guard…he was even posting up OG and getting whatever he wanted….I think he gives the rest of the team a lot of confidence…

We are much more talented, but their coach gets way more out of their talent than our does. Our talent should win the series anyway, but this is a mismatch. The only reason I am even watching is because I think this group/coach is capable of blowing it with low IQ plays down the stretch and terrible lineups.

https://x.com/nahitsjaycee/status/1913951573476069553

The Pistons fans are sort of where we were during the We Here season…just happy to be in the playoffs but aware that there was a lot of work to do to build a true contender. It’s a nice space to be in after years of failure.

They are missing Jaden Ivey, who would take a lot of pressure off of Cade

Timmies & Tobbies were just a run away from a series opener upset.
I keep that and wait for Our Statement Game.

I agree that we can’t expect to win again with the Game 1 formula. They will look at film and clean up some of those turnovers, and without all of those easy transition buckets, that will put more pressure on our offense. But at the end of the day, they really don’t have an answer for KAT and if he continues to make good reads and to hit those awkward floaters we should be okay.

Nice analytic film breakdown link, pepper.

harris had 22 at HT and finished with 25 was that him cooling off or did we actually adjust to what he was doing? mitch scored more per 36 than mikal did that cannot continue…….i actually think that there is going to be at least one mikal breakout game in this series and instinct tellm me that it will be game2

“I keep that and wait for Our Statement Game.”

In truth, no Knick had a particularly great game. KAT was efficient but 23 points in 40 minutes isn’t exactly a vintage offensive performance for him. Brunson got his but shot 12-27 and tacked on some tech and take-foul FTs. OG was solid but 8-18. Deuce, Mikal, and Shamet were all sub-par.

So yeah, there is a lot of juice left to squeeze out of this team, especially from Mikal and Deuce.

game 1 update

1. during the season mikal was the primary cade matchup. it never looked great for us, and cade mostly got where he wanted. in the most recent game, we put deuce on him for pretty much the entire game. pretty confident this was just thibs making a reciprocal tariff self harm threat against a team he knew we were likely to meet in the postseason, and hopeful it’s a prelude to putting OG (who didn’t play) on him in the series. although it’s sad to say, bridges best use on defense this series is probably sticking to beasley/th2.

nice job thibs. Cade was OG’s primary assignment and it went about as well as you could hope. in fact it went so well we should expect Cade to make a bit more headway against him in future games. very good OG game.

2. all season bickerstaff has tried to put cade on jalen. this seems like a huge mistake. cade isn’t horrible defending him, but he’s far from great. and jalen tires him out and gets him in foul trouble. you have to think they’ll switch it up and mostly stick ausar on him, but if not i think that’s a big win for us. cade is the type to strongly request checking jalen.

nice job bickerstaff. pretty much everyone except cade guarded jalen, but ausar was his primary assignment. ausar isn’t actually a great jalen stopper because he is too upright and prone to spacing out, but he can be difficult when he’s locked in. of course he is brutally effective at pressing him full court, and not just on the end of game turnover he caused. definitely not jalen’s best game despite the late surge. he’s got to throw that lob to mitch when it’s there, but also he just missed shots.

3. KAT’s advantage over duren on O is leagues better than against beef stew. in the regular season matchups there was little evidence that anyone on the knicks was aware of this (especially kat). i think we’d be much better off leaning hard on kat to attack duren on drives more and spread/pick and pop more against stewart. during the year we did the opposite. mitch also has a big ORB edge on beef stew and it would be great if we could try to game that matchup a bit.

tied for the biggest strategic suprise, duren hardly guarded kat at all. jb bickerstaff had harris guarding kat when stewart was out and tried to let duren roam by putting him on hart. the things is, harris isn’t very good at guarding kat and duren is not a smart roaming C, so this is a frying pan fire situation. thibs did a good job making sure to go to KAT against harris; he not scored on him efficiently but also got the pistons into rotation several times. i especially like the set where he had him at the top and josh on the left. this allows him to drive right on harris and duren is the obvious intended help but he is too by-the-book to adjust in time just sagging off josh on the left side. duren also got 2 separate 3 second calls trying shade paint off ball against kat. i don’t love as much giving kat on the ball facing up 20 feet out in the left corner against harris, which we went to a few times. in general duren didn’t play well despite some awesome one-off moments and i don’t think he was used well on either end.

4. the pistons are the best team in the league at getting transition off of live rebounds. this is an advantage that often diminishes in the playoffs and is a definite coaching opportunity for us. it will be incredibly frustrating if our wingstoppers, who suck at offensive rebounding anyway, don’t get back consistently. because we know that KAT will probably not be getting back and jalen will struggle to stop transition even when he’s there.

this went about as expected. they ran on 42% of their drb and that’s a huge # (we ran on 25% of ours and that’s typical). if josh hadn’t played we’d be at about 2%. luckily we didn’t turn it over a ton, so that helped. one weakness of the other strategic surprise — the major towns and country first half minutes — was that it leaves us struggling to match up to 3 point shooters in semi transition.

5. when they manage to get jalen switched onto cade in the post, we need to surprise him. as good as cade has become he’s still a mistake maker. letting him iso on jalen is not an option but during the year our doubles were slow and predictable. making it easy for a very good but overconfident passer is an ugly, unnecessary mistake.

this almost never happened because we just weren’t switching those screens when they tried it. but ofc this put us in rotation a decent amount and they got some open 3s from the chucky triplets ™ as a result of OG relentlessly recovering to cade on picks. they also didn’t run jalen into pnr with cade as often as i might have guessed they would.

my one general comment is that kat’s defense is getting wildly overhyped. tbf he made some fantastic plays in the 4th and his steal from cade that led to an easy break was just about the clincher. and that wasn’t the only nice play he made bothering cade when blitzing the pnr. credit thibs for stepping away from sticking us in drop hell with kat on every damn pnr and working in a fair amount of blitz and hedge. but still, kat made a ton of basic, costly mistakes on D including getting caught in never never land with his hands down several times. he also did stick to harris as well as i might have hoped in the twin towers lineup after having seen him do such a nice job on durant last playoffs. i though mitch gave them real problems guarding the cade pnr both in hedge and in drop. all things considered i do agree he beat his bar on defense and he was a real problem for detroit on offense. more so than jalen.

lastly, detroit is smartly mucking shit up as expected. i counted 8-9 stewart fouls in 19 minutes. he moved on literally every screen but one and also set a couple of moving gortat screens. schroder was literally wrapping both arms around OG when they ran guard to guard screens late — the one that led to the Cade bank three was laughable. i resent zman’s beasley jr smith comp bc jr’s cray cray wasn’t a forgery. but beasley also got away with a lot and even tilted deuce enough to draw an offensive foul.

“So yeah, there is a lot of juice left to squeeze out of this team, especially from Mikal and Deuce”

On paper this seems like a 4-0
On TV ain’t convinced yet…

So glad to have ptmilo around on days such as this!

It’d be nice if Mikal could contribute some secondary shot creation/playmaking but he was not an impact player at all in Game 1. Kudos to Thibs for sticking with Payne, who was playing aggressively and looking to make plays. Mikal often plays a very passive brand of basketball.

no one has mentioned precious getting 0 i still think he could have played 10-12 and given a little breather to someone but yeah, in last nights game it might have been dangerous because we werent playing well enough consistently to try it

I missed the 1st quarter because I tried to squeeze in a matinee of Sinners- great movie btw. But man! Was the last 3 quarters frustratingly good! Has there been any news on Brunson yet? Or was it really just a shoe thing?

Am I the only one here shocked at KAT’s energy. He played like he was trying to set a tone physically, and we don’t see much of that from him. I thought he was great, and the pairing of he and Mitch for stretches are gonna be key for us in this series. The Pistons don’t have an answer for either of them, even though they play really tough. All we need is to not lose sight of Beasley and TH2, and to keep knocking Schroder on his ass. He gets under my skin- respectfully. He’s definitely the villain of this series. Cade is not ready to be the only shot creator out there in a playoff series. Let’s make him that. Even with great defense yesterday, he still put up great numbers though. Cade’s close, but not quite ready to do that consistently in the playoffs. Thibs had the perfect game plan, we just didn’t execute it perfectly because TH2 and Beasley almost stole the game- if it weren’t for their collective inexperience showing up in the 2nd half

“On paper this seems like a 4-0”

4-0 is always tough because it’s hard to bring the same level of intensity when it goes to 2-0 and 3-0. I don’t see enough of a gap in talent to ever expect a sweep. 4-1 is possible, and 4-2 would be fine. Just win, baby.

And stay healthy. Brunson’s ankle tweak hopefully doesn’t mean that it will bother him all playoffs to the point that he’s not close to 100%.

I was happy to see Hukporti active last night. He won’t play, but if we go deeper, he gives us “some” insurance if KAT or MR tweaks an ankle for a couple of games or is in extreme foul trouble.

I tried to squeeze in a matinee of Sinners- great movie btw.

The dance sequence is already an all timer. Iconic stuff.

Yeah, Hukporti’s availability is really surprising. because the last thing Thibs said about him suggested that he was a long ways away. But it is consistent with the original timeline of being re-evaluated after 4-6 weeks.

Hopefully it suggests that it’s not going to be a chronic problem. I really like him as a potential backup.

the ptmilo update = sublime. i have disabled my caps key all day to honor it.

i only worry bickerstaff might google “knick blog” later today after sorting his hangover.

fun movie, yep some of the dancing/singing stuff was crazy…really fun weird movie…

thought it was gonna be more like From Dusk til Dawn, but was definitely it’s own unique thing…

Good thing for Brunson this week is after tomorrow they get 2 days off between Games 2 and 3 then another 2 days off between Games 3 and 4.

The dance sequence is already an all timer. Iconic stuff.

fun movie, yep some of the dancing/singing stuff was crazy…really fun weird movie…

thought it was gonna be more like From Dusk til Dawn, but was definitely it’s own unique thing…

Yes and yes. I loved how Coogler used the vampires. And the cast turned in a really great performance. That type of movie with those themes and that time period is HARD to pull off. I don’t know who’s character turned in the best performance because all of the main characters nailed it. Delray Lindo was great..Michael B Jordan was great..Hailee Steinfield was great..and Jack O’Connell Miles Caton were awesome. They said Miles Caton learned how to play guitar just for that role. I enjoyed that movie just as much as I enjoyed the Knicks’ performance in the 4th quarter lol

At the end of the third quarter it seemed like Brunson was completely cooked, like he just had nothing left in the tank. He went to the locker room for a brief spell, and when he came back he was basically Prime Jalen Brunson for the remainder of the game.

So, I don’t know what to make of his health/conditioning at the moment. Fourth Quarter Jalen was awfully goddamn good.

In honor of Easter I’m resurrecting my last post before Lent…

Let’s just get to the playoffs healthy.

Mission accomplished!

Rest the ankle. Give KAT PTO. Get Mitch in shape. Adjust the minutes down for the wings.

Three out of four ain’t bad!

And chill. These games don’t matter.

Christ almighty did no one listen to that. The meltdowns were spectacular.

The only thing that matters now is how we show out against Boston in round 2.

Still true.

It reminds me of the ’92 Knicks. That team was 0-8 against the two top teams in the East (Chicago and Cleveland). Their major offseason acquisition was a wing (Xavier McDaniel) who underwhelmed all season. They had no shot at the title.

But man did the team (and the underwhelming wing) show up in round 2 against the Bulls. And that series set the tone for the next 8 years of the franchise.

A few more similarities arose:

1. Both teams stumbled down the stretch: we went 3-4 in ’25 and almost blew the 3 seed; we went 3-5 in ’92 and did blow the 2 seed a Celtics team that won its last 8 games

2. Both teams ended with 51 wins which somehow felt disappointing.

3. Both teams faced the Pistons in round 1 and the defending champs in round 2

And yes, we’re getting to round 2. The Detroit Pistons are the perfect first round opponent for us. I’m not saying it will be easy but this is not a team that can shoot two proton torpedoes into our thermal exhaust port. They can’t spread us out. There are places we can hide Brunson. And Plan A should work (which is critical for a Thibs team).

I’m not gonna lie: I was on the edge yesterday before that 21-0 run (the most glorious stretch of playoff basketball I’ve seen since the 30-2 run we unleashed on the Pacers in Game 2, 2013). But that run, and the fact that it came with an adjusted lineup by Thibs, really buoyed my confidence.

I feel bizarrely optimistic this spring. I say it’s bizarre bc I hated almost everything that happened this year. I thought Thibs sucked. Leon sucked harder. Bridges sucked hardest. And I low key became slightly less enamored with Jalen Brunson who I think deserves a lot more blame for some of this team’s shortcomings than we give him (particularly KAT’s often criminal lack of involvement).

And yet… it’s like things went too bad. I thought we’d struggle against the best teams but 0-10 with a net rating of minus 16 or whatever it was is frankly ridiculous and I actually think it helps us bc there’s no way we can go into a series with the Celtics thinking “if we just play our game blah blah blah”. I’m glad we lost those last two games to Boston and Cleveland. I feel like it was so humiliating it had to invite some soul searching and — god forbid — maybe even some coaching adjustments.

There is a history of teams finding themselves in the playoffs. The aforementioned ’92 team did it. The ’99 team did it. But the team I am wildly optimistic this team resembles is one from a different sport completely: the ’07 Giants. Recall they went 0-3 against the Packers and Cowboys and lost by probably 40 points total before beating both teams in the playoffs despite literally no evidence they were capable of doing it. It is possible that all the struggles this year were the best thing for these guys, and we might see a brand new team develop in front of our eyes this postseason.

But fucking hell please get KAT more shots.

Will try to stick to relatively untrodden territory:

1. Cam Payne turned the tide of a playoff game we were losing, which automatically puts him on Knicks Minimum Signing Mount Rushmore right?

2. My impression from watching was that Mitch was generally very good and posed particular problems for them on defense. I am seeing now he was a -9, but I’m assuming that’s pretty much just because he missed the Cam Payne campaign. Given that KAT was excellent all around, would love to see more twin towers in spurts.

3. Cade as a playmaker is scary. He can really thread the needle in finding shooters. Cade as a shot creator is…kind of what we want, IMO.

I enjoyed that movie just as much as I enjoyed the Knicks’ performance in the 4th quarter lol

i know right poindexter, they did kind of go together perfect 🙂

I really enjoyed the cinematography, all the close-ups gave the movie a very intimate feeling, like you were in the scene, very immersive, so well done…

SGA is 2-10 and the Thunder are still up 32 at halftime.

I’m starting to think beating the Memphis Grizzlies in January wasn’t as significant as some of you made it out to be.

it’s Easter, and I’m wearing my sweats to go out to eat, and my sandals…because. I’m old, don’t care so much, it’s nice out, i’m feeling lazy, and well – it’s california, why not…amazing to think I ever lived in new york…

Edit: oh yeah, and wunmi mosaku does full grown sexy real well, stood out a bunch in the loki series…

Just checked the score of the okc-mem game. Currently 78-36.

What the actual fuck? Are we going to need to break up the Thunder via anti-trust legislation or what?

Desmond Bane is -51.

122-67

Would Thibs take the starters out? No lead is safe in todays NBA

But I was told OKC was gonna struggle in the playoffs instead of being the generational juggernaut I’ve been saying they are since last season

On a sad and sorry note — remind me again what happened to Kevin Knox?

Pags taking an OKC victory lap after game 1 of round 1 is very on brand.

Who said OKC was going to struggle in post season? I don’t recall anyone saying that

Memphis has been falling apart the last few months and now they have the bad luck to face a both formidable and hungry team in the first round.

Imagine what will happen if the Knicks lose game 1 in Boston by 50 points. Thibs probably won’t even be allowed to travel back to New York.

I guess Taylor Jenkins wasn’t the problem…

I suspect there will be a rule in the near future limiting the number of 1sts you can own or the number of consecutive years you can participate in the lottery.

Luisangel Acuna: surprisingly useful player

Brett Baty: not so much

I think it is important to pair Brunson with another guard, be it Deuce or Payne (or maybe Delon Wright, why does Shamet get minutes?), to keep the offense from stalling if the opponent’s defense tightens up. In reality, Bridges and Hart are forwards, and having them as SG is suboptimal, IMO.

Edit: oh yeah, and wunmi mosaku does full grown sexy real well, stood out a bunch in the loki series…

Yea Mosaku’s dope. I thought she was great in Lovecraft Country too

Soto finally with a Soto-looking swing…

Acuna looks like he has the makings a future star leadoff hitter….tiny strike zone, blazing speed, electric energy…all about OBP with him.

Acuna has positional versatility and probably a 70 speed tool. If he can put up a 100 wRC+ he’ll be a very nice player. I love his glove at 2B. Arm is fringy at SS but plenty good enough for 2B.

I wonder if he could play CF.

Soto was a great throw in for the Yankees last year in the Trent Grisham trade

Do you believe in Magic!

i called a magic sweep the minute i heard jaylen brown’s hot mic harry potter dad pun pregame

Do you believe in Magic!

Definitely rooting for Orlando. A healthy Isaac is a huge X factor this series. He’s the one guy that would be perfect defending the 3pt line with his ability to recover and challenge

“Acuna has positional versatility and probably a 70 speed tool.”

I’m not familiar with the speed tool stat beyond “80 is elite” but according to this site Acuna is tied for 5th fastest in MLB…the guys around/above him are CFs and Bobby Witt Jr. I personally like CFs who can hit for power a bit and throw guys out, so my preference would be to keep him at 2B, where McNeil is aging out. But who knows? Acuna has some pop and is only 23, maybe there is some further development possible with him in the outfield.

Phillies lose!

It’s astonishing what Stearns and Hefner have been able to do with the Mets’ pitching. They’re missing their #2 and #4 starters, and still lead MLB in pitcher WAR, FIP, xFIP and ERA. Coming into today’s game they were second only to Colorado in groundball rate.

None of it seems to be luck-based. Mets pitchers are 20th in BABIP, so they have not benefitted from BABIP luck, and while they are first in HR/FB, a stat that implies regression to the mean is imminent, they’re also first in xFIP, which normalizes HR/FB. If they had a league average HR/FB rate they’d still be the best pitching staff in the league.

Their top prospect is 24 and pitching successfully in AAA, and they have another helium SP prospect in AA in Nolan McLean. Blade Tidwell is another prospect with big time stuff who is succeeding in AAA and had a dominating start today. They can take their time bringing back Manaea and Montas because they don’t really need either guy at the moment.

Also they’re first in both SP WAR and RP WAR. Incredible job all around.

Ya think Popovich would like to undo the Derrick White trade?

it’s like 80 degrees out here today, so decided to wear shorts 😊

what about it bob, do you find folks going out to eat much in florida in shorts, t-shirts and sandals…

do you find folks going out to eat much in florida in shorts, t-shirts and sandals…

here in AZ…that’s considered formal dinner attire…

ha…

Orlando played good defense. They slowed down Boston as much as they could. You can’t entirely shut them down; they are too deep and experienced, and have superstars that Orlando does not.

Now, if the Knicks play similar defense consistently against Boston, they will have a chance to beat them. Unfortunately, there seems to be a smaller chance they actually do play consistently good defense.

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