Knicks Morning News (2025.05.19)

79 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.05.19)”

It’s fascinating that the Nuggets were the last team to win their first title, and it was SO RECENT. Now the Knicks are the only team that WOULDN’T be winning their first title, and they haven’t won one in 52 years!

What a crazy Final Four. A 3/4 matchup, and a 1/6 matchup. It is actually pretty similar to last year’s matchup (#3 Minnesota/#5 Dallas, and #1 Celtics/#6 Pacers), so I guess we’ve had a few weird ones recently.

By the way, who would expect BOTH Indiana and Minnesota to repeat as Conference Finals from last season!? What were the odds of THAT happening?

Actually you were calling a member of this community an asshole without provocation. Like you always do.

Z-Man, after the Knicks won game 4, and every single person here was celebrating the game, you and you alone came here to celebrate your agenda. After the biggest Knicks game of the century, all you wanted to talk about was me.

I mean, let’s face it — “I will not permit you to refer to the 11th pick in the NBA draft as a lottery pick” (*) evinces a level of misanthropic control freakery so stupendous that “I will not permit you to enjoy the Knicks’ playoff run to a potential championship” inevitably follows.

(*) And all the other stuff in this vein.

i do not understand the hate btwn hubie and z they otherwise both seem like nice enuff guys

I guess we’ve had a few weird ones recently

I wonder if we’re seeing more injuries to key players than in previous years. If we do, the 65 games rule may be worth looking into. Although clearly still sss.

I wonder if we’re seeing more injuries to key players than in previous years. If we do, the 65 games rule may be worth looking into. Although clearly still sss.

You see Aaron Gordon complaining about there not being enough time off between playoff games? Dude, come the heck on, a fucking day off has GOT to be enough for you.

we say the same thing about the number of injuries every single season the same is constantly said in football

I wonder if we’re seeing more injuries to key players than in previous years.

Certainly last year that was true not just in the actual playoffs but in the end of the regular season that determined the seedings, eg, Joel coming in and Giannis going out in the East. And this year the conference finalists are all pretty much injury free, having beaten teams in the semi’s who all had injury issues.

Everyone plays these games so much harder now, and pushes their bodies so much more in training, that I’m not surprised injuries are getting so much worse. The human arm is not meant to throw at max effort on every pitch, for instance, which every MLB reliever, and many starters, are now expected to do.

exactly what happened with degrom

Definitely more injuries, almost certainly the result of the de facto expansion of the court with the expansion of the trifecta. If you measured average “speed moved,” with a full-out sprint being 10, I have little doubt that that average has materially increased in the last few years.

Playing defense in that big of a space, against offensive players who have much more room and space to build up a full head of steam, is going to naturally lead to more injuries.

(In no sense is the huge increase in trifectas launched — an aesthetic blight on the games — worth these impacts, but that’s a different issue.)

Fun facts:

– the whole starting 5 of the January Knicks (Brunson, Donte, OG, Randle, Hartenstein) is still standing.

– the Pacers are the only team left that doesn’t have a January Knick in their starting lineup.

If not for Jacques and early bird maximums…

Those are fun facts, Hubert!

What’s also certain is that our depth of understanding around injuries is expanding. A tweak in your lower “calf” or a dull ache in your shoulder used to just be that. Now they can be the harbingers of destruction to hundreds of millions of billions of dollars in earned contracts and revenues.

I’ve always noted that, okay, the 1990s teams would beat the shit out of each other, but that typically was only when you A. had the ball or B. were going to the ball.

That typically meant that, like, 6 out of the 10 players on the court at any given moment were not really doing anything, just watching, say, Ewing posting up Smits for 20 seconds. In today’s modern offenses, often EVERYone is moving, and NOone has a chance to rest on a play.

The calf strain is the quintessential 2020s open court/open lane injury. They’ve gone up by orders of magnitude.

Fun with a slight twinge of pain. Time has only reinforced the notion that team was every bit as good as the small sample suggested they were.

We are blessed to be healthy. Not just the Knicks, but ourselves.

So Z-Man, I apologize for needling you. I also apologize to anyone else here who has been caught in the occasional maelstrom of my passion, especially on those mornings where I have two cappuccinos.

I think it would be great if we put aside our squabbles for the remainder of this playoff season. As the January Knicks showed us, opportunity is fleeting. We may never have a chance like this again. And as ephus’ return showed us, time is precious, and this community is special.

Let the vibes be great. There will be plenty of time in the future to throw old takes in people’s faces. For a couple weeks at least, let’s kick that to the curb and row in unison towards a Knicks championship.

We may never have a chance like this again.

How dare you criticize Leon this way!!!!!

By the way, I don’t think I was around the day ephus came back (and it felt weird to bring it up in the game thread), so let me also say that I’m so pleased that you’re doing well, and that you’re posting again. We all obviously missed you a lot.

The KFS podcast with Caitlin Cooper and Samson Folk this morning was truly excellent. It also made me quite scared that the Knicks have no good strategy to stop the Pacers’ offense.

anyone else think it is a weidr and bad scheduling glitch for okc that they have to finish up a tough 7 game series against denver yesterday and then only have one day in between starting the next series granted they do not have to travel we do not have to travel either but have four days in betwen our last game and our next game

anyone else think it is a weidr and bad scheduling glitch for okc that they have to finish up a tough 7 game series against denver yesterday and then only have one day in between starting the next series granted they do not have to travel we do not have to travel either but have four days in betwen our last game and our next game

The same would have happened to the Knicks if there had been a game 7 (but they would need to travel back to New York from Boston).

Josh Hart is leading all New York Knicks in shooting .420 from deep these playoffs (3.6 attempts per game).

Today is a great day to be a Knicks fan. Our team is one of the last four standing. Everyone is healthy (fingers crossed for OG). We have home court advantage. Brunson is the best player in the series.

By the way, I don’t think I was around the day ephus came back (and it felt weird to bring it up in the game thread), so let me also say that I’m so pleased that you’re doing well, and that you’re posting again. We all obviously missed you a lot.

Thanks Brian (and to everyone else who gave flowers since my return).

Even after two dozen viewings, I still feel twinge when I watch the Nova Knicks & DDV commercial. I’m rooting for Minnesota against OKC. Randle & DDV played the game hard while in NY.

I’m likely to try to sync the Knicks radio feed with the TNT video. I’m not interested in hearing Reggie Miller’s commentary.

good point owne

Has there been any kind of OG injury update? I kind of feel like him being healthy is going to be crucial. Not that there has been much official.

og seemed fine by end of game i would be more worried about mitch back tightening up

That typically meant that, like, 6 out of the 10 players on the court at any given moment were not really doing anything, just watching, say, Ewing posting up Smits for 20 seconds. In today’s modern offenses, often EVERYone is moving, and NOone has a chance to rest on a play.

Maybe Thibs is a mad genius by having us do ISO Brunson so much the second half of the season, keeping our dudes healthy and injury free for the playoff push!

The 82 games + playoffs schedule was simply designed for a different game. Like BC said, while individual possessions could certainly get quite physical, look at highlights from the ’80s, ’90s, and aughts, and you’ll see a whole lot of guys standing around with their hands on their knees on both ends.

Games between two deep-playoff caliber teams increasingly resemble football games these days. Not necessarily in terms of physicality (though at least in the playoffs that’s certainly a factor), but in terms of how much movement is required from every player on the floor on every play.

Ultimately, the NBAPA is going to have to decide if they can live with a short-to-medium term decline in revenues as an investment in a higher quality product year-round. If so, they can make this a labor issue and stand a strong chance of having it addressed IMO.

Unfortunately I can’t say with much confidence the investment would pay off empirically–it may well be the case that the “inventory” approach is a revenue maximizer, even if it disappoints genuinely big basketball fans like us.

throw old takes in people’s faces. For a couple weeks at least, let’s kick that to the curb

Throwing old takes in people’s faces is a bit pretty of what we do here, we’re not just gonna kick that to the curb

(Obligatory reference activated)

og seemed fine by end of game i would be more worried about mitch back tightening up

I agree with Doogie (except in his dispiriting decline in spelling and grammar). Mitch was the biggest + in the Celtics series, and it wasn’t close. If we got past the Pacers – where I’m not sure he’s quite as valuable – he’d be essential vs OKC and to a lesser degree vs Minny.

It’s really the 82 games combined with the needless push for full player participation that is causing all the trouble. The league is so deep with talent that it’s unnecessary and counterproductive to demand everyone play every game. In fact they should probably go the other way, i.e. Instead of making 65 game minimums they should make 70 game maximums. Not only would this increase the likelihood that all the stars are still standing for the playoffs, but it would showcase all the talent that is buried on NBA benches.

The problem with longer breaks is that the season goes on too long anyways (in my opinion). I guess you could have it go another week and maybe space out a few days more between each round?

It would need to be some combination of cutting some regular season games (maybe down to 75) and also giving longer breaks before/during the playoffs.

But IMO you should cut TOO many regular season games. And the season shouldn’t go too much longer (maybe another week).

– the whole starting 5 of the January Knicks (Brunson, Donte, OG, Randle, Hartenstein) is still standing.

And the Pacers have Toppin. You have to wonder that if two years ago you took Randle, Hartenstein, Toppin, and Robinson, and tell them that they all would be in the conference finals but on different teams, what would their face be, and if they could guess where everyone would go.

From Nate Silver’s substack:

Still, I wouldn’t have expected to ever become a Knicks fan. Then I moved to New York in 2009. I’m not sure why exactly, but I felt bad for the team after LeBron James spurned them the next summer, soon unexpectedly finding myself lurking in the comments sections of obscure Knicks blogs.

This has got to be us, right?

I’ve always noted that, okay, the 1990s teams would beat the shit out of each other, but that typically was only when you A. had the ball or B. were going to the ball.

That typically meant that, like, 6 out of the 10 players on the court at any given moment were not really doing anything, just watching, say, Ewing posting up Smits for 20 seconds. In today’s modern offenses, often EVERYone is moving, and NOone has a chance to rest on a play.

Well, the Knicks do clearly move less on offense than other teams, and its often everyone watching Brunson going iso. That perhaps mitigates the heavy minutes (but we also miss on easy looks on offense)

Instead of making 65 game minimums they should make 70 game maximums.

Are you sure you want to see (and pay for) more of the Knicks bench? 😉

If/when the NBA moves to 32 teams, it would be a natural move to go down to a 77 game schedule.

Each team would play 3 games against the 15 other teams in their conference and 2 games against the 16 teams in the other conference:

15 conference opponents x 3 games/conference opponent = 45 conference games.
16 non-conference opponents x 2 games/non-conference opponent = 32 non-conference games.

45 conference games + 32 non-conference games = 77 games/season.

Conference finals are gonna be so interesting. You got 4 relatively young teams with the best players pretty much just entering their primes or still in their primes, and 4 good coaches. Am I the only one here seriously intrigued by the WCF? I don’t know if Minny will win, but considering how Jules operates, I can see him having a monster series. He’s finally got his postseason legs after not playing so well & being hurt in the playoffs as a Knick. Plus, Chet is tall, but nowhere near strong enough to handle Randle in the post. And he’s going against a former frontcourt teammate in Hartenstein. You just know he’s gonna go at them with reckless abandon lol. I’m genuinely happy for him too.

As far as our series goes- there’s the triple rivalry. You got the 90’s stuff between us and them, Brunson vs Haliburton, and Hart vs Pacers fans. The cherry on top is Obi’s a former Knick. From Thibs down, we need to stay disciplined because Indy can go on a run at any moment. If that roster was anywhere but Indy, I’d give that team all the respect in the world. They’re good. But..they’re the Pacers, so I wanna see our guys beat them DOWN.

Fuck, I can’t wait for Wednesday!

Can you think of a 1990s playoff rotation player who wouldn’t even be playable in the modern NBA? Could Chris Dudley play in the NBA today?

Could Chris Dudley play in the NBA today?

He could play for Thibs lol

i am rooting almost as much for the wolves as i am for the knicks it would be a much better championship series with them in it than it would be with the thunder in it i am hoping that okc is tuckered out while minny had a easier series against gsw and is coming in much better rested plus i just like minny more than okc overall

chris dudley is indeed still playing in the nba today he is disguised as alex len

Can you think of a 1990s playoff rotation player who wouldn’t even be playable in the modern NBA? Could Chris Dudley play in the NBA today?

Luc Longley, a center who could not shoot or rebound, and was rocking an unfathomable mid-40s eFG% for the greatest team of all time.

Poindexter I am also rooting strongly for Julius to have a monster WCF, but I can also imagine him getting blocked at the rim over and over and over again…

I could be conflating him with RJ, though…

My thoughts on Randle (from the conversations in last thread).

I think for a significant portion of his time in NY he was the #1 option on a team without much help. So teams would focus their defense on him and double him. He would often then try to play right through the doubles, take some bad shots and commit some terrible TOs. That was expecially true in the playoffs. It was a frustrating thing to watch, especially if he wasn’t giving maximum effort on defense.

I think a lot of it was the situation and coaching strategy, but some of it was poor decision making by him. Maybe it would have worked better with Brunson, Mikal and OG, but we never got to see it for a full season and playoffs.

In Minnesota, it was clear Ant was #1 option and he was #2 and the new guy. He didn’t have to carry the load and accepted his role well. But it did not start well. In the early part of the season they were already talking about trading him. Then they finally eventually figured it all out. So IMO he’s not necessarily playing better, but he’s getting better results than he did in NY.

As to Randle vs. KAT.

I think KAT is clearly the better player.

KAT’s the much better shooter and will be more efficient on similar or even higher volume.

The difference is that Randle is a PF that can create a variety of things for himself off the dribble and KAT is a 7 foot C that like most Cs mostly needs someone else to get him the ball in good spots. You don’t really want KAT dribbling too much to create something other than on a straight drive here or there.

That means KAT is more likely to just disappear on offense when he’s not getting the ball in good spots. It’s on the coach and team to make sure his talents are being used effectively. It’s not on a 7′ KAT to suddenly become an elite shot creator.

Z-man,

Wanted to follow up Re: KAT vs. Randle and that trade.

Last year, Minny won 56 games. This year they won 49. Beyond whatever individual stats each player has had in the playoffs, I think it’s pretty clear Minny did take a step back with Randle/DDV vs. KAT. 7 games is not nothing.

They’ve just gotten EXTREMELY lucky with their first two opponents being the Lakers with zero front court and GSW without Steph. I mean, GSW with Butler all season but no Steph probably doesn’t make the playoffs this year.

Also, I do not think we should discount KAT’s thumb/hand injury. It has clearly affected his shooting/confidence to shoot.

From the 1990’s Knicks besides Dudley I’d also throw in Anthony Bonner.

During the regular season Randle and DDV combined for a lower BPM than KAT.

“Can you think of a 1990s playoff rotation player who wouldn’t even be playable in the modern NBA? Could Chris Dudley play in the NBA today?”

The thing is, if I made believe that Mitch played in the 1990s as a successful playoff rotation player, he probably would be right up there in my list of unplayable in today’s NBA. And here he is as the mvp (according to today’s Macri’s newsletter) of a series against a very very very modern NBA opponent.

i am rooting almost as much for the wolves as i am for the knicks

Like the man in black once said to Inigo, get used to disappointment.

“Last year, Minny won 56 games. This year they won 49. Beyond whatever individual stats each player has had in the playoffs, I think it’s pretty clear Minny did take a step back with Randle/DDV vs. KAT. 7 games is not nothing.”

Swifty, beg to disagree. They took time and are now what we like to call “gelling”. Have won 25 of their last 30 games.

They took time and are now what we like to call “gelling”. Have won 25 of their last 30 games.

We took time to gel, too.

They’re also “gelling” partly because they’ve gotten to face two pretty easy opponents in the playoffs.

ECF baby! I was 10 in 1985 when my Knicks fandom started with the drafting of Patrick Ewing. Also starting playing basketball around that time. My first love was baseball and the Mets. But my immigrant dad didn’t have the money to buy me the equipment and pay for little league. So going to the local courts in queens, and playing pickup using other kids basketballs became my sport.

I lived and died with the 90’s Knicks. Took me through junior high (JH 157), high school (Bronx science), college (suny Binghamton). The Knicks were a source of heartache and happiness, but were always there for me. Through relationships, school, and post college jobs. I was working in manhattan as a paralegal at Mayer brown and Platt, when they made their run in 1999. Watched almost every playoff game at this bar on the east side with Knicks fans. Can’t even remember the name anymore.

Last time they went to the ECF in 2000 I was in my first year of medical school. I was 25. I’m almost 50 now. The last 25 years are a blur. Med school, residency, marriage, kids, houses, 4 moves, aging parents, and consistent Knicks mediocrity. Until the last several years. My kids are entering their teenage years and are die hard Knicks fans. They have been lucky enough to go to playoff games. I couldn’t even afford a basketball as a kid. I do hope they experience sustained success. Mostly I hope- I get to see a championship with my kids, and cry with them. It’s all surreal. This life has gone fast. I’m taking the time to slow down and enjoy this. I was at game 3 and 4 against the Celtics. Trying to score game 5 tickets for the pacers. I’m still on cloud 9. When I was young I thought the Knicks would always be in contention. 1989-2001 they always seemed to have a punchers chance or better. I’ll never take success for granted again.

Love this blog. I read it daily. I lurk mostly. The regular posters here feel like family, even though we’ve never met. Welcome back ephus. Congrats on beating cancer. Fuck the pacers! Fuck Reggie miller! Let’s fucking go Knicks!

Randle has a very long track record of being a good NBA player. People willing to throw that out because he had a bad series against the Hawks and needed surgery immediately after the 23 playoffs are now shocked to discover that Julius Randle is a good NBA player. Sometimes guys play badly for a few games, or run into a particularly good or bad opponent. If it was that easy to turn Randle from a borderline all star to one of the worst players in the NBA he’d never have played thousands of minutes of effective NBA ball.

This has got to be us, right?

Had the exact same thought when I read it.

I love the idea of a 77 game season and 70 game maximum forcing player rest on non-nationally televised games. The goal is to be leaner and more exciting during qualification games, generate less revenue in January and February but focus on growing revenue & excitment during April, May and June.

Top 16 are in the playoffs and next 10 best records in the league joined by top 6 international teams compete in an NIT type playoffs with NBA rules.

This provides high stakes playoff 7 game series type competition experience for younger and playoff aspiring teams and it turns April, May, and June into a global basketball bonanza.

Players and coaches would take this opportunity to compete, grow, learn and show their worth to the market or risk euro players come take their jobs. It’s not just the players anymore, coaches are coming for NBA jobs too.

Ratings, basketball and non basketball revenue will all explode. Adam Silver would do good to read this blog. While all the teams an the league stays put, the relegation issue is solved by labor by showcasing labor through NBA competition and free market is further enabled.

Hey all, sometime poster, longtime lurker — apologies for the shameless plug, but my brother designed this sick Cap’n Clutch shirt, and it’s been going a bit viral. Here’s the link to his Etsy site if anyone wants one! Much love, to the KB community! Go Knicks!!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1903481295/captain-clutch-jalen-brunson-knicks-t?ref=share_ios_native_control

llcoolbp, that was a great read. Individual Knicks origin stories are always interesting, as they’re often more complex than “my dad was a Knicks fan, so I was too.”

For me, it was my grandpa who introduced the Knicks to me while my dad never cared much for basketball. I watched a few games with my grandpa and pretty soon after was begging him to take me to a game. My grandpa was a classic genius-but-very-absentminded type so it took some convincing for my parents to let him take me to a game without them, but they relented and in what I think was the 1998-1999 season me and grandpa went to MSG.

Hell if I remember the opponent or score, but I do distinctly recall having a great time. Grandpa bought me a Marcus Camby jersey, which at the time was a little big on me. After I outgrew it, I put it on a big stuffed penguin the same grandpa got me. That penguin, jersey and all, remains in pristine condition at my father’s apartment.

It took me until I was around 8 or so to actually follow the team in a meaningful sense, and their futility didn’t really bother me until I was a little older–for a while I was content to just watch Spree, Houston, and Marbury do some cool stuff.

Of course, the silver lining of said futility was tickets were pretty affordable for most of the mid-to-late aughts. Me and a close middle school friend named Timmy went to dozens of games during that time. He’s doing pretty well now, still a Knicks fan as best I can tell.

About 4 months ago I started dating a beautiful, brilliant woman who makes me happier than I’ve ever been. At the time I don’t think she could name an NBA player. Now she has strong opinions about Miles McBride, has done YouTube deep dives on Knicks history, and wouldn’t dare miss a playoff game.

Go New York Go New York Go.

“Had the exact same thought when I read it.”

Said he had been lurking, doesn’t mean he hasn’t posted since. So can eliminate JK and you noble considering your comments. And Alan, because we know he is Alan. And Raven since he keeps on posting his name via KFS. But could be anyone else….

Last year, Minny won 56 games. This year they won 49. Beyond whatever individual stats each player has had in the playoffs, I think it’s pretty clear Minny did take a step back with Randle/DDV vs. KAT. 7 games is not nothing.

At the beginning of the season I had argued that KAT raises our floor but lowers our ceiling. I think KAT does great against worse teams, where he is easier to hide on defense and his offense shines. So it could be that Minnesota could be a worse regular season team, and a better playoff team.

With Mitch in the fold, we can somewhat hide KAT’s weaknesses (as did the Wolves with Gobert before us), but he still makes the team vulnerable.

llcoolbp, really great story, thanks for that (and too bad you can’t remember the bar, wondering if we were bending elbows together).

I will take issue with one point you made: “consistent Knicks mediocrity.”

Mediocrity is like 41-41 or thereabouts. The Knicks had extensive stretches, repeatedly, of winning like 17, 23, 29 games a year. That ain’t mediocrity, that’s suckitude. If you start after the 2000 season and go to 2020 and consider mediocrity as being, say, 35-45 wins, we had I believe 6 of those in those two decades. Which means 14 seasons of true suckitude.

It is truly worth it to think back on that execrable suckitude in this moment of joy, and to also realize that every one of us is clearly insane for having stuck it out.

swifty, just to be clear, I think the KAT for Randle, DDV, etc. trade was a no-brainer, just don’t think it made us significantly better or made Minny significantly worse. Randle has clearly outperformed KAT in these playoffs, correct? Isn’t that significant? I continue to believe that Randle has been underrated and KAT overrated by some folks here, but am perfectly fine with how things are turning out for both players.

It’s really the 82 games combined with the needless push for full player participation that is causing all the trouble… Not only would this increase the likelihood that all the stars are still standing for the playoffs…

[citation needed]

The all stars injured in the playoffs are Lillard, Curry, Tatum, Mobley, and Garland. All these guys were load managed during the regular season or played career lows in minutes.

Meanwhile Jokic and Murray obliterated their career highs in MPG, and Edwards played his most minutes, and Brunson averaged a career high in minutes, and Towns played his most minutes in almost a decade, and Halliburton played his most minutes in a long time, and Siakam played 2500+ minutes, and Shai played 2600+ minutes, and then there are the non-all stars named Bridges, Hart, and OG that all played every second of every game this year. These guys are all healthy and playing deep into the playoffs. So, not sure if you are correctly identifying the problem or the solution here.

consistent Knicks mediocrity

llcoolbp, fantastic Knicks origin story, but I know it most be fiction because of this line

Edit: Raven already debunked it lol

This has got to be us, right?

No question.

Nate was probably over at P&T with all the other cool kids….

I do think it’s cool that an NBA title is going somewhere it hasn’t been in a very very long time or ever….

swifty, just to be clear, I think the KAT for Randle, DDV, etc. trade was a no-brainer, just don’t think it made us significantly better or made Minny significantly worse. Randle has clearly outperformed KAT in these playoffs, correct? Isn’t that significant? I continue to believe that Randle has been underrated and KAT overrated by some folks here, but am perfectly fine with how things are turning out for both players.

To some extent it’s hard to argue that both teams have benefited from this trade since we’re both in the conference finals, but I do wonder whether Leon would’ve made this trade knowing how great Mitch looks right now. I mean, we probably could’ve muddled through the regular season with journeyman center X while Mitch got healthy and be going into the playoffs with Mitch, Randle, OG, Bridges, Jalen with Donte, Hart, Deuce, and center X off the bench. That’s probably a better team than this current one. But we’ll never know.

I expect Mitch to play and play a lot this series – if he can shoot 50% from the line but at the same time steal possessions for us, play great defense, and let the Knicks play halfcourt defense rather than transition defense after the hack-a-mitch, it’s probably a net positive us.

Randle has clearly outperformed KAT in these playoffs, correct? Isn’t that significant?

Sure, against 2 opponents that, in aggregate, are much easier than Detroit and Boston.

Randle has also had bad playoffs too. And, like KAT this year, was hurt during some of those playoffs. I mean, if KAT’s main value is on offense, one could easily posit that having a broken finger or thumb might affect that, right? Is KAT dinged for having his finger broken?

Not for nothing but KAT was killing it until he hurt his hand this season.

I’m not making excuses. It is what it is. But Randle has faced easier opponents and is fully healthy for these playoffs. That….matters.

OKC will actually be an interesting test because Minny faced them last year too.

Can you think of a 1990s playoff rotation player who wouldn’t even be playable in the modern NBA? Could Chris Dudley play in the NBA today?

Forget about playoff rotation players. How about really good, HOF-caliber players?

We often need reminders of how revolutionary things are, particularly when they’ve happened right under our noses, and so here’s today’s reminder.

Career three-point makes/attempts per game (rounded significantly), make percentages, non-centers, 1995-96 all-NBA teams.

Penny Hardaway: 0.8/2.4, .316. (*)
Michael Jordan: 0.5/1.7, .327 (**)
Karl Malone: 0.1/0.2, .274
Scottie Pippen: 0.8/2.5, .326
Grant Hill: 0.2/0.7, .314
Shawn Kemp: 0.0/0.1, .277
Gary Payton: 0.8/2.7, .317
John Stockton: 0.6/1.5, .384
Charles Barkley: 0.5/1.9, .266
Reggie Miller (***): 1.8/4.7, .395
Juwan Howard: 0.0/0.0, .120
Mitch Richmond: 1.4/3.5, .388

So basically, with the exception of Miller and Richmond and Stockton kind of – third-teamers – not only do you have to imagine and extrapolate a world in which they were trained in and worked on the trifecta enough to be elite (****), you have to imagine and extrapolate such a world to make them even playable.

Now of course there’s a lot of yin-yang, chicken-egg, push/me-pull/you dynamics going on here, among them that the league had far better two-point defenders then because the shot was relatively more valuable than now, and a lot of these guys’ trifectas were desperado heaves at the end of the shot clock, but the modern consciously-planned and generated trifecta, and the skill sorting it’s engendered, has completely changed the game.

(*) There were those who said in 1995-96, not entirely without merit, that Penny Hardaway was the best player in the association. He never made more than 1.4 trifectas per game in a season.

(**) Michael Jordan in 1995-96 *was* the best player in the association. While it’s close and arguable, he’s the best choice for best player in the history of the association. He never made more than 1.4 trifectas per game in a season.

(***) GFY.

(****) My philosophy on this one continues to be and will always be, “If Brook Lopez could do it, I’m pretty sure Michael Jordan and Dwyane Wade and Charles Barkley could have done it.”

finding myself lurking in the comments sections of obscure Knicks blogs.

Is there a competing obscure knicks blog that I am unaware of?

Are you sure you want to see (and pay for) more of the Knicks bench?

I would actually be excited to see games where Tyler Kolek or Pacome Dadiet is given a start. It breaks up the monotony of the regular season. When Brunson was hurt, for instance, I found myself more interested in watching bc I was curious to see Kolek, plus Mikal and OG in larger roles.

No one gets upset when Jonathan Quick gives Igor Shesterkin a rest, or when the catcher gets a day game off after a night game. There’s literally no difference. We just have to accept that playing basketball is just as grueling.

Better idea is to cut games to 40 minutes. Fourty-eight must have been pulled out of someone’s arse way back when (*), even though college basketball was way more popular back then and has always been 40.

(*) No idea why, but spitballing the possibility that the owners in 1950 or whatever thought people would be more willing to pay to get 20% more “entertainment.”

Hi Nate!

Hey Priggie, can you ask your brother to design a Knickerblogger shirt?

I can’t stop thinking about Nate taking great delight in playing with his dark side by fucking with us all as Pags…

My philosophy on this one continues to be and will always be, “If Brook Lopez could do it, I’m pretty sure Michael Jordan and Dwyane Wade and Charles Barkley could have done it.”

Exactly. 80’s players didn’t practice 3’s until they were in the pros. 90’s players would have only practiced them MAYBE in high school and college and that was only if they were a guard or MAYBE a SF.

I mean, Dirk shooting 3’s as a PF was a BIG deal and now it’s considered a prerequisite for being a good PF to shoot 3’s at a respectable clip. It was unheard of for center’s to shoot 3’s until a few years ago.

These dudes practiced like crazy. IF they had been hoisting them up since they were toddlers, they would have shot just as well as dudes do today. To think otherwise is an insult to their talent.

That being said, it says A LOT about how good of a shooter Bird was that he shot so well from 3 having barely practiced it until he got into the pros.

I think in 2010 this site was part of ESPN, was routinely read and retweeted by Howard Beck et al, had some truly great content, and was referred to on-air by Matty Guokus as being a must-read site for statistical analysis. Mile K got press passes, and interviewed certain POBOs whose names I can’t remember anymore. This site has fallen into obscurity, but it wasn’t always just hubert and z-man fighting over how to spell markanon.

i think that a min numbr of game could become untenable if a team has multiple major injuries at once think memphis or pelicans in recent yerrs btween injuries and healthy players not being able to play because they already readhed their max there could be circumstances where a franchise is unable to field a team on a given night

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