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Knicks vs. Pistons odds, prediction, line, time: 2025 NBA playoff picks, Game 2 best bets from proven model – CBS Sports
04/21/2025 11:03:21
Pistons vs. Knicks Game 2 Prediction, Odds & Expert Picks: NBA Playoffs, April 21 – Sportsbook Review
04/21/2025 10:48:00
Pistons vs. Knicks Best NBA Prop Bets for Game 2 (Predictions for Jalen Brunson, Cade Cunningham and OG Anunoby) – Sports Illustrated
04/21/2025 10:45:00
New York Knicks Rookie Emphasizes Jalen Brunson’s Impact – Sports Illustrated
04/21/2025 11:00:02
Knicks’ key to beating Pistons is stopping Cade Cunningham. Their answer? OG Anunoby – USA Today
04/21/2025 10:08:43
Is Jaden Ivey playing in playoffs? Pistons guard’s injury status for Knicks series – Detroit Free Press
04/21/2025 10:27:53
Detroit Pistons season hinges on the youngsters – few NBA teams survive an 0-2 hole. – Detroit Free Press
04/21/2025 10:07:53
‘He went and grabbed his cape’: Jalen Brunson sparks Knicks’ Game 1 rally vs. Pistons – USA Today
04/21/2025 09:43:53
Pistons vs Knicks score prediction: X-factor, key questions for Game 2 – Detroit Free Press
04/21/2025 10:07:53
Isaiah Stewart injury update: Status of Pistons top defender for Game 2 vs Knicks – Detroit Free Press
04/21/2025 10:11:48
NBA Playoffs picks, odds for Monday: Knicks, Nuggets look for 2-0 series leads – The New York Times
04/21/2025 09:00:26
What channel is Pistons vs Knicks on today? Game 2 playoff time, TV, streaming – Detroit Free Press
04/21/2025 09:31:53
Game 1 Takeaways – Substack
04/21/2025 09:01:46
Knicks? Jalen Brunson named finalist for Clutch Player of the Year – Posting and Toasting
04/21/2025 08:37:31
How to Stream Detroit Pistons at New York Knicks: Live, TV Channel, April 21, 2025 – Fubo
04/21/2025 07:35:43
No time for losers in Game 1 to sulk – Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
04/21/2025 07:27:00
Knicks vs. Pistons Predictions, Best Bets and Odds: NBA Playoffs Game 2 ? Monday, April 21, 2025 – Bleacher Nation
04/21/2025 07:27:59
NBA playoffs Game 1 winners and losers: Lakers get wake-up call, Curry cooks Houston, Knicks go on awesome run – CBS Sports
04/21/2025 05:12:02
Knicks? Jalen Brunson named finalist for NBA Clutch Player of the Year award – SNY
04/21/2025 04:04:51
2025 NBA playoff bracket: First-round matchups, schedule, game times as Warriors, Cavaliers take 1-0 leads – CBS Sports
04/21/2025 04:36:18
35 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.04.21)”
we’re not realistically worried about ivy coming back sometime during this series are we?
I was worried that after game 1 we would think it’d be easy, but guess i don’t need to worry and they know the Pistons will try to improve and come at us even stronger.
https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nba/pistons/2025/04/19/jaden-ivey-injury-update-pistons-playoffs-knicks/83162937007/
One thing i read on Twitter/X that has got me thinking:
“Do the Knicks need to better define Mikal Bridges’ role?”
I haven’t looked at the numbers myself, but someone told me that Mikal’s numbers are much better when he shares the floor with Payne (or, I guess, the other PGs) than when he plays with Brunson. This whole thing continues to be strange to me. Remember last season when Mikal guested on Roommates and Hart jokingly called him “Squidward,” invoking the meme of Squidward sadly watching SpongeBob and Patrick having fun? Maybe he really is the Squidward here: the guy who resents the other Villanovans and can only enjoy himself when they’re not around?
Obviously, some of this is also on Thibs. But it’s baffling that none of Jalen, Josh, or DDV (who was still here when the Mikal trade happened) seemed to realize that this could be a bad fit. Or maybe they knew and Leon didn’t ask/care?
thanks for the update on dets other sg (ivey), alan seems that even if he somehow appears late series he wouldnt really be ramped up enough to take minutes from beasly at the bench spot guess i won’t worry about it.
I think alot of the Bridges hate is way over the top. He averaged 17.6 ppg with a 58.5% TS% while being 3rd on the team in assists with almost 4 per game. He was an iron man as usual playing in all 82 games while leading the league in minutes. What else did you guys expect?
To me one of the benefits of getting Bridges was when Brunson is out we’d still have someone like Bridges who can pickup the scoring which is exactly what he did. I understand the 1st rd picks will always be an issue for most but I thought for the most part he was as good as expected.
The Pistons played much better after Ivey left the lineup — more for Beasley and Thompson to do — they were under .500 with him and almost .600 without him. Seems like a guy you should worry about not returning.
definitely did not realize that but good point wonder how much of that improvment was because of ivey not being in there with his usg or if they just gelled better over the season unlikely we’ll have to find out though
Mikal’s 3pt% was substantially below his career average, his 3PAr was way down, his free throw rate collapsed to nothing and shot chart changed drastically for the worse. In the age of dunks and threes, Mikal became a guy who mostly shot from 10-16 feet. He shot well from that distance, but if somebody described that player to me, I’d say “no thanks.” He was also not a difference maker on the defensive end.
If he has some sort of personality quirk that makes him turn into a middling nonentity when he plays next to Jalen Brunson, then obviously he needs to go. A regular normal Mikal Bridges who averages more than one made FT per game and shoots .375 instead of .350 from 3pt would have been a useful player. The Mikal Bridges we actually got, not so much.
Bridges was fine I guess if you ignore the cost, but he also wasn’t particularly good
Bridges was 30% on 3s above the break – not great – and a mediocre defender, when what we needed was a premium defender. The cost factors into the disappointment, but those two issues were far more significant.
Really, if he defended as well as he did when he came into the league, I’d have no complaints. But…he did not.
mikal rookie year defense was not great but next three years all in phoenix were quite good almost elite started going downhill as soon as went to nets and has not fixed itself since
I think this is way too simplistic of an analysis.
If you don’t like guys who shoot the majority of their shots from mid range, you would never like “Playoff Jimmy.” You mentioned he underperformed his 3 ball career shooting for this season by 1.7%, you didn”t mention he tinkered with his shot in the off season and shot 29.3% in december, and then shot above his career rate for the rest of the season.
Bridges problem this year was on the defensive side of the ball as he didn’t get over a single screen the entire season. It was almost like he was playing a different system than Thibs wanted, and I wonder if that is the basis of their mini-schism.
I find it hard to believe he cant play with Brunson and Hart since they managed to win big in college.
Not sure why we’re assigning arbitrary endpoints to Mikal’s shooting. He went on a heater in December and that made his season line look a little better, but after that he regressed again. He shot .347 from 3pt over the last 50 games of the season, which includes that hot streak in December.
Agree 100%. I wonder if his need to play in every game, and Thibs having him play more minutes than ever in his career, hurt his willingness to fight on D.
This is like saying “if you don’t like players who can’t make a free throw you would never like prime Shaq.” Jimmy Butler is a great player on offense because he generates FTA at an all-time great rate, not because he shoots a lot of middies.
If Mikal Bridges averaged 7 FTA per game instead of 1.4 with his current shot diet he might approach being worth the price paid, at least on the offensive side.
Mikhal shot the worst from 3P range since his rookie year, the 2nd worst FT % of his career, the least rebounds per game of his career, the least steals per game of his career, and the 2nd least fouls per game of his career. To both the naked eye and from the stats perspective, he’s having one of his worst seasons, and too often looks disengaged. He needs to STEP UP the effort and production in the playoffs.
Mikal has been a disappointment. I wonder if something is going on with him behind the scenes that we aren’t privy to?
It’s weird because I find it impossible to believe that Leon would make that trade to complete the Nova Voltron if he didn’t have absolute knowledge from Brunson (and Hart) that they wanted him here.
But maybe this all stems from the DDV trade? Leon made it thinking we could keep iHart and DDV (or find a suitable replacement for iHart) and then had to pivot to get Towns (which was a good move) and had to sacrifice DDV to do it and that’s made it all a little weird because if he didn’t give up 5 picks for Mikal, maybe DDV is still here?
And maybe Mikal isn’t as tight with Brunson and Hart the same way DDV was? Still, after a full season you would think this would be resolved if that’s the case. Or is it really him wanting some larger role he isn’t getting (or isn’t capable of having despite him thinking so).
Or maybe, he’s just having an off year?
Mikal’s stated reason for adopting a blatantly inefficient shot profile was that in the playoffs FTA and 3PA are harder to come by, so being an excellent midrange shooter becomes essential. I found this somewhat dubious since scores of players are able to excel in the playoffs without this kind of galaxy braining, but plausible. His Christmas game was something of proof of concept—scoring an efficient 41 with all of 1 FTA was wildly impressive. The idea is he was trading some regular season efficiency to be better positioned to perform in the playoffs, a tradeoff we’d all be happy with if it were real.
So far the playoff body of work consists of an 8 point, 9 shot performance in which his coach is rightfully being praised for benching him for Cam Payne. Suffice to say I am not yet sold on the Playoff Hooper idea.
Just out of curiosity, is there any case against the proposition that we’d be better off with DDV instead of Bridges straight up?
Elite 3p shooting on very high volume was nice. He started the year like ass in Minny but rounded into a 1.9 BPM. He tries hard on defense and gets a lot of steals — I’m not sure he’s worse than Bridges at the PoA at this point.
Jimmy Butler is a great player because even though he is absolutely the least “modern” player in the NBA with his utterly pathetic talent from 3 he can generate his own shot at reasonable usage efficiently and plays terrific defense. Butler shot 51% of his shots from mid range this season, Bridges 42%. Bridges biggest hole this season (and the last 2) was his defense. He wasn’t brought here to be a high volume scorer.
Mikal’s first two seasons he put up 1.9 stls/36 and 1.8 stls/36, he then dropped down to around 1.2 stls/36. This year he averaged 0.9 stls/36.
He’s still a good defender, which is partly being masked by the poor defenders around him, but playing fundamentally sound defense doesn’t make up for the kind of drop-off in TOs that he’s had.
This is doubly true when the rest of the defense can’t hold up. He can play defensively sound all day, but the opponent will eventually be able to line up their attack against Brunson or KAT to score if he doesn’t force a TO.
Not to switch topics, but can we talk about the extended run of KAT and Mitch in the 2nd quarter?
From watching the game, it seemed to be fairly successful, no? But I can’t remember us doing it in the 2nd half. Maybe for a little bit. Mitch was out there on his own in the 3rd and I think some of that was when Detroit pulled ahead of us. But the 2 big line-up seemed to do pretty well in the 2nd. Also wondering if that gave KAT a little more energy in the 2nd half.
But I think that’s the longest stretch Mitch has played all season, no?
Mikal takes 18.5% of his shots within 3ft of the rim. Butler takes 31.7%. What are we talking about?
I can live with my guy shooting lots of midrange shots if he has a .650 FTr like Jimmy Butler and averages like 8 FT attempts per 36.
Not really that much into it when my midrange shooter NEVER takes the ball to the hole, has a FTr of a paltry .100 and averages 1.4 FT attempts per 36.
This is an embarrassingly dumb conversation we are engaged in right about now.
OAKAAK Landry Fields out in Atlanta.
Not shocking, I think he was the one behind the Dejounte Murray fiasco, but sad it didn’t work out.
On the other hand, Fields at least made pretty good lemonade out of those lemons he acquired with the Dyson Daniels trade. May we be as successful if Leon decides to flip Mikal this summer.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with Bridges.
He’s the 3a/3b option on offense with OG. End of story.
That means when he’s on the court with the starters, unless he has a very favorable matchup or the defense is giving him his best stuff, he’s not going to be a high usage option. Brunson and Towns will be the highest usage options most nights. When Brunson or Towns is off the floor, he rises in the pecking order and is asked to be more aggressive because we need more scoring and ball handling from him. We saw that from OG and Bridges when Brunson was out.
On defense, he’s more of a quality wing defender. He was used as a POA defender against faster PGs a lot of time because Brunson sucks and has to be hidden. He’s not very good at that, but he’s the least bad option to handle that assignment.
If people want to complain about the price we paid, that’s fine. We gave up a lot (but less than all the hysterical Knicks fans think when you weigh his contract and how those picks are likely to resolve.)
But aside from that, you can win a championship with Bridges as one of your starting wings. He’s alread been to the finals. Bridges is the least of our problems. Our problems are on defensive side (mostly the fault of Brunson and Towns), the need for more quality depth on the bench and an inflexible uncreative coach.
The knicks would be idiotic to trade Bridges unless he wants out or they are combining him with something else for a short and long term upgrade.
Obviously we have no idea who was calling the shots at any given time, but technically Fields became GM after the trade for Dejounte and proceeded to consummate the trade of Dejounte, which was a heist for the Hawks.
He had his misses e.g. trading a bunch of second rounders for Saddiq Bey and we’ll have to see how Bufkin and more importantly Risacher turnout, but I’m a little surprised netting Daniels alone didn’t buy him more time. He didn’t exactly inherit a great situation.
I’m fine with Bridges too.
He’s not a flashy scorer or a defensive juggernaut but he’s flexible and his numbers are very efficient.
Protecting himself from injuries is positive As Long as he’s not avoiding playing hard in order to achieve a stupid record.
The stupidity of the NBA never ceases to amaze me. The Hawks are finally on a positive long term path by adding defenders and young talent and they fire the guy. He should start a podcast with Jeremy Lin where they analyze NBA owners.
Well if this is going to be the case, seems quite reasonable to ask him to have a TS+ above 101.
The concept of opportunity cost kind of necessitates that accounting for this is fair game while evaluating Bridges, or anyone else for that matter. I get that Bridges had no control over what we gave up for him, but that doesn’t absolve the front office, and doesn’t absolve Bridges of having an objectively weak year relative to even one of his average years.
Bridges seems to me like an utterly generic NBA wing. Gives you league average scoring efficiency on league average usage, and I honestly think you have to squint pretty hard at him to see more than an average defender.
I guess there’s some value in having an utterly generic player gobble up 3,000 minutes for you, but Mikal just doesn’t move the needle much. That trade just did not really pan out.
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