jskinny35 wrote:Here's my take - Thibs got us to respectability last season as we overachieved for a variety of reasons. He was always known for a few things - his teams will play hard, work on the defensive end, be offensively stunted and play at a slow pace. He seems to be a "my way or the highway" type of coach and prefers vets.

I don't feel as annoyed about him not playing McBride yet as I suspect that Thibs is weighing McBride's development vs how much he can help us on the court. As an example - maybe Grimes's impressive play would have been less had Thibs played him earlier on (eg before he was ready).

So is McBride a better choice vs Burks? Yes but maybe the front office is realizing that it really won't make much of a difference in terms of draft position regardless of who plays as we're pretty bad. It also makes me think that playing Burks is going to be better for possible trade options vs if you sit Burks for the remainder of the season. Of course this doesn't completely fit as Burks at PG is going to look worse compared to Burks as a SF or off the bench. Thibs reportedly wanted McBride so I wouldn't be shocked if McBride starts to play much more minutes at the beginning of next season.

I think it's simple...We are 5 games out of the 10th seed, and as long as there is a chance in Thibs' mind, we will continue to push for the play-in. I think we only see Deuce if and when we are mathematically eliminated. In the meantime, regardless of how bad Burks has been as the starting lead guard, he had Thibs trust...

franco12 wrote:

HoustonSprewell84 wrote:

PassTheBall wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:

HoustonSprewell84 wrote:We don’t have any rim protection, last night was rough to watch.

Our defense looks soft, even with Mitch and Sims. Sixers just drove in the paint all night, with no fear.

We can’t get any stops, we look soft.

We could stand an injection of toughness

Mitch is still lacking a lot of discipline on the defensive end.

Between this and his terrible FT percent I wouldn’t mind moving on from him as a starter.

Currently he would be benched in the 4th quarter of a game 7.

Mitch is not good at guarding pick and rolls either,

The gap on the defensive end from Noel to Mitch is pretty wide imo.

We miss Noel a lot, especially as a rim protector. I was really disappointed in Sims last night, he looked soft on defense. Did even ball contest, when defenders drove into the lane. Obi is not a rom protector either, harden just pushed him out the way. Our bigs all looked soft.

I already know we have issues with perimeter defense but our bigs look soft on defense and provide 0 offense. Bad free throw shooters also.

It's hard to defend Harden and Embid if the refs allow them to bull into the defender and bail them out with a foul call.

Meanwhile Randle gets hacked 40 minutes a night and doesn’t get any calls

I love nba officiating

I admire the effort. All I know is the second unit suffers without Drose. This we know.
The First unit suffers because Walker did not pan out and Burks is not as good as Elf was last year.
Chemistry issues with Randle mid season. Emergence of RJ throws chemistry off also.

Bottom line, other team outscores knicks and we lose 100% when that occurs.

IN the “Gee, im making **** up” catagory: This season Randle is 14th in minutes played an RJ is 50th. This is avg per game, not total minutes.

As for “Not playing yoot”,, other than Deuce, is there any other issues? Injuries are part of all teams seasons. Cam is getting his. Grimes got his. We stopped complaining about OBI when parts of his game are showing holes and Randle is back to what is likely his place. Not quite last years all NBA player but better than Grumpy Jules! And paid accordingly.

BRIGGS wrote:The disappointing part of season— in best interests of team now have to hope they lose. Play Barrett only 27-28 min to keep wear and tear to min

No. Keep running the offense through RJ and put Mitch in a ton of PnR's to see what you got.

BRIGGS wrote:

martin wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:The disappointing part of season— in best interests of team now have to hope they lose. Play Barrett only 27-28 min to keep wear and tear to min

No. Keep running the offense through RJ and put Mitch in a ton of PnR's to see what you got.

No chance at playoffs. Wear and tear playing Barrett 40 unnecessary. I know what he abs mitch r already.

You don't want to develop either RJ or Mitch?

Randle’s overall psyche is of concern inside the Knicks organization, according to an NBA source.

The source said Randle didn’t come into training camp in the same type of sensational shape as he did last season, before Thibodeau’s first year guiding the Knicks. Perhaps that prevented him from being the type of two-way player — giving energy on both sides of the ball — that he was during his second team All-NBA season.

https://nypost.com/2022/03/05/julius-randles-erratic-psyche-a-growing-knicks-concern/

Wasn't there that video from early in the offseason of Randle looking lean and working out? I remember being confused when he turned up at the start of the season looking slightly plumper- wonder if that workout vid was left over footage from the previous offseason.