Knicks Morning News (2025.08.07)

Frankly, once the dust settles (10-20 games in) I don’t see much chance of Brown playing a 10-man “rotation” unless you consider the 10th guy as a token “situational” player that provides load management and will vary from game to game.

I interpret “the suits want to play 10 guys” as nothing more than “Dolan took Mikal’s side after his whining because he (Dolan) is still infatuated by the way that he (Dolan) “pried him (Mikal) away” from the crosstown “rival.””(*)

The “idea” won’t last the preseason.

(*) See, e.g., Dolan’s self-congratulatory “and they’ll all be together for several seasons” podcast.

Interesting spin coming from KB’s most ardent Thibs detractor.

I would have expected something like “Mikal was the only player with both the gravitas and balls to openly challenge Thibs and go over Thibs’ buddy Leon’s head to get Dolan to intercede and do the single best thing to improve the team’s chances of winning a title during the Brunson window. That in and of itself makes the overpay worth it!”

Whatever the psychobabble you are deciding to conjure out of your perpetually sour view of anything Knicks, the bottom line is that if Mikal was the match that lit the dynamite under Thibs’ seat, the net result is a massive positive development, as you have stated a million times for the record that a championship under Thibs was a virtual impossibility. However, it seems like your take now is that Mikal is so bad compared to his acquisition cost/contract extension that whatever benefit was gained by replacing Thibs with Brown is more than lost in opportunity cost/personnel degradation.

Shocker!

“I’m very positive about Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns. They’re two very, very good basketball players.”

Well, offensive basketball players, anyway. Leon’s incredible foresight in betting that Brunson would become a “tentpole” as you like to call it should have won some points with you. He also found a way to bamboozle Minny into taking noted albatross and playoff choker Julius Randle as the centerpiece of a trade for that non-fraud all-NBA player. Or did Dolan force Leon into those deals? Was it Leon’s idea to trade the farm for Mikal or Dolan’s? Is your take seriously that Dolan told Leon to “pry Mikal away” from the Nets by giving them whatever wasn’t nailed down? (Never mind, just making shit up for the hell of it. Seems fitting.)

“My “take” is that well-run basketball organizations don’t cater to the likes of Mikal Bridges and certainly don’t make any important decisions based on the likes of Mikal Bridges.”

Well, your “take” is based on the most puposely ugly reading of the situation that one could possibly make. You are essentially saying that Dolan couldn’t care less what his #1 cash cow (Brunson) thinks, and has Mikal’s “whining” ahead of him in the pecking order. You are also stating that Mikal’s “whining” is all about a conscious attempt to hide the fact that he knows he’s in decline and that a coaching change hid what he knows deep down to be the truth from surfacing before he could garner a lucrative extension. Man, Mikal must be one shrewd, ruthless, backstabbing scumbag! (or is that just you projecting your own MO into his shoes? I wonder if Mikal dons a WWLPD rubber bracelet to help him remember those core values: disguise your incompetence and stab your immediate supervisor in the back while sucking up to an egomaniacal owner in order to lock up a long-term deal before word gets out, even taking a pittance below the max to look magnanimous in the press!)

“I don’t know about the second part but all signs point to you being right about Bridges’ complaints finding a very sympathetic ear in Dolan.”

Well, we actually have no idea what transpired between Dolan and Mikal or what weight it carried in making the decision to fire Thibs.

What we DO know is that Mikal, who whatever you think of him as a player was the guy who played the most minutes for Thibs, suggesting that Thibs himself though of Mikal as a “star” who “produces.” That’s beyond dispute, the numbers don’t lie. Whether one agrees or disagrees, the facts are the facts.

We also know that Thibs threw Mikal under the bus when he basically called him a liar in the press (something like “he didn’t speak to me…”) and his point about excessive minutes and good players on the bench that could eat minutes stupid…and then proceeded to completely ignore his points…much to the disdain of E and many others. So if Mikal had an axe to grind with Thibs in his year-end meeting, it was certainly understandable and to the betterment of the team.

We also know that management had been considering whether Thibs should be fired well before Mikal said anything. And that there was much public criticism of his handling of the roster, most intensely after game 2 vs. the Pacers. And that non-stars had whined about him before, even publicly! (See: Obi Topppin) And that he was voted the coach that players would least like to play for.

The insinuation that somehow Mikal’s voice carried more weight than anyone elses because he was Dolan’s golden child and that Thibs would still be the coach if he had kept his mouth shut doesn’t pass any kind of non-agenda-driven smell test.

And even if it were the case, the notion that a player has to be “productive” (whatever that fucking means) to deserve to voice an opinion is total bullshit. It’s on management to decide how to weigh and what to do with those voices. But it is crystal-clear that there were multiple detractors, both then and earlier, and both on the roster and in the board room, that were not fans of Thibs and wanted him gone.

“What a whiney little bitch.”

Which poster are you referring to?