LivingLegend wrote:

EwingsGlass wrote:

LivingLegend wrote:

DuckVader wrote:Bridges' defense is overrated

He offered zero deterrence and simply allowed Hali to get right all night long.

He looked like he was on meds —- maybe drank a bottle of Vicks cough syrup.

Pacers ran double screens all night to get the switch.

There never was a switch unless you count Hali making it all the way to paint with Kat in drop coverage guarding both Hali/Turner.

Strong Disagree. Hali basically had the option call off the double screen - often with Turner top of the box. Knicks often failed rotate. When Brunson stunted back to take away the pass to Turner, Hali would release a long 3.

On a single screen, usually Turner, would be slightly moving and extending his arms. An illegal screen, to create space on Mikal.

Deuce seemed to anticipate the double screen and would hop past the first and fight over the second - pretty successfully.

Not really worth the argument though. Knicks got beat.

DLeethal wrote:

Panos wrote:

DLeethal wrote:

Panos wrote:OG is an offensively stunted player. How is he so strong and so bad down low?
He is NOT a $40m player. Sorry.

I’m fine with OG. He’s close to his pay grade. The big problem is Towns and his salary when he can’t even share the floor with Brunson.

You can’t have your top 2 players horrible on the court together and be a legit finals team. I’m still on the KAT for Durant train.

CLose to his paygrade? Seriously? He gets paid more than Brunson!

Brunson took the pay cut of the century.

OG is a top 3 defender at his position and scores an efficient 18ppg. That’s a 30M player minimum.

A bit of a reach here but after watching these playoffs OKC alone has 4 wing defenders (Caruso/JW/Dort/Chet) and a guard defender (Wallace) that might be better than OG on ball.

DLeethal wrote:

Tweet was deleted or there was problem with the URL:

https://www.twitter.com/jonmetler/status/1927534134819258876

SO TRUE

LivingLegend wrote:

DLeethal wrote:

Panos wrote:

DLeethal wrote:

Panos wrote:OG is an offensively stunted player. How is he so strong and so bad down low?
He is NOT a $40m player. Sorry.

I’m fine with OG. He’s close to his pay grade. The big problem is Towns and his salary when he can’t even share the floor with Brunson.

You can’t have your top 2 players horrible on the court together and be a legit finals team. I’m still on the KAT for Durant train.

CLose to his paygrade? Seriously? He gets paid more than Brunson!

Brunson took the pay cut of the century.

OG is a top 3 defender at his position and scores an efficient 18ppg. That’s a 30M player minimum.

A bit of a reach here but after watching these playoffs OKC alone has 4 wing defenders (Caruso/JW/Dort/Chet) and a guard defender (Wallace) that might be better than OG on ball.

In terms of a 6’8 SF/PF to guard the Tatum’s and Giannis’s of the world there aren’t 3 guys better than OG and he’s a brilliant team defender. OKC has no weak links in rotation defense. OG is a better defender than all those guys.

Chandler wrote:

LivingLegend wrote:Josh Hart is such a problem and I don’t give a crap about his meaningless double/double.

He guarded nobody, he pushed/hacked and played undisciplined all night.

Jalen guarded one 2 possessions the entire night both with under a minute to play. Otherwise he just got in the way or screwed defense up. F Thibs for going away from switching.

F Thibs for not playing Wright/Shamet and even Precious over Hart & Invisa-Mitch.

While I’m being critical by my calculations Mitch basically gave us 2 or 3 good games this year - per usual.

Mikal OMG. Duece come on man guard TJ.

Outside of 2 egregious TO’s Wright may have been 2nd best player on court tonight.

Kat I thought was valiant and OG played as tough as he can without falling down.

I don’t say this much but Thibs and love affair with Josh is a KILLER.

Brunson is a HUGE issue going forward as he ages, gets slower, more injuries and can’t guard paper bag - SERIOUSLY.

I agree a lot with what you say. by way of comparison, Bryant was the Pacers' #2 center. You haven't seen Carlisle call his number since Mitch played. Bryant simply wasn't the right guy against us. Bradley's size proved reasonably effective in combatting Mitch. Yet Thibs continue to be largely inflexible.

I'm still rooting for the Knicks to pull off the improbable and break the Pacers' hearts in the process. But if we fall (as stats suggest) we have very difficult decisions on how to improve.

We need to add some innovation to coaching, and I think we need to consider adding a real pg to the team. Bridges had his best years playing off a true pg. And I think KAT would benefit tremendously as well.

Brunson is too ball dominant. He needs to be off ball and fed the ball when the situation dictates.

Yes on the secondary or actual lead ball handler but unfortunately not easy to find and/or if we can get who has to go to get a PG.

Has to be a legit player and probably someone with size.

D Fox would be interesting- he’d add ball handling/speed to a team that needs it and I think he can defend some.

Interesting to think about but I totally agree on your points.

blkexec wrote:

VDesai wrote:Delon was probably the best player on the floor.

Mitch can make a bigger impact off the bench.

Josh too many boneheaded turnovers.

Mikal really kinda sucks. Picks are gone - is he a good enough player? Nesmith showing you the kind of player we need in that role.

Even though I was joking, and someone said hell no. But I bet if we want to trade Mikal we probably gotta give up a pick. Damn, didn’t know rentals was that expensive.

Mikal should’ve came off the bench and deuce should’ve started. Really don’t care between hart and mikal, but deuce was my selection to start. Carlisle countered Mitch with a goon and that neutralized Mitch impact.

I don’t agree we’d need to give up a pick for Mikal but the more he plays the more I’m longing for the great Kevin Knox

jskinny35 wrote:Let me try to summarize what seems obvious by now (to me)...KAT and Brunson are both great offensive threats but clearly defensively challenged. Playing both at the same time puts too much pressure on Bridges, OG and Hart or whoever else is there to play defense and stand around for kickouts when those two can't iso well. Playing Mitch alongside KAT helps but Mitch has his challenges staying healthy, hitting free throws, etc...

Assuming no significant roster changes it really makes little sense to keep both KAT and Brunson at their salaries and need to both be starters. If KAT could come off the bench and be featured we would probably be more effective as a team overall (but that would not happen). Ironic that we supposedly were considering Myles Turner for like 3 seasons as he would have been better for us because we wouldn't have to hide him defensively and while he's not a potent - he can shoot well enough from deep.

So unless Mitch starts at C KAT is probably the odd man out since Brunson is god-like and a Nova guy. I think OG is actually undervalued as he can fit on most any team. Yes we overpaid for Bridges and he does fit next to Brunson but I think if we want to upgrade this team it has to be KAT and Bridges.

I think we take Game 5 at home btw!

Really think we missed DDV this post season.

Brunson being treated as god-like is going to be a/the problem going forward - will be interesting to see if front office will make right decisions.

We are seeing some of the issues Becky Hammon pointed to in terms of Jalen and being at that top/top tier.

DLeethal wrote:

LivingLegend wrote:

DLeethal wrote:

Panos wrote:

DLeethal wrote:

Panos wrote:OG is an offensively stunted player. How is he so strong and so bad down low?
He is NOT a $40m player. Sorry.

I’m fine with OG. He’s close to his pay grade. The big problem is Towns and his salary when he can’t even share the floor with Brunson.

You can’t have your top 2 players horrible on the court together and be a legit finals team. I’m still on the KAT for Durant train.

CLose to his paygrade? Seriously? He gets paid more than Brunson!

Brunson took the pay cut of the century.

OG is a top 3 defender at his position and scores an efficient 18ppg. That’s a 30M player minimum.

A bit of a reach here but after watching these playoffs OKC alone has 4 wing defenders (Caruso/JW/Dort/Chet) and a guard defender (Wallace) that might be better than OG on ball.

In terms of a 6’8 SF/PF to guard the Tatum’s and Giannis’s of the world there aren’t 3 guys better than OG and he’s a brilliant team defender. OKC has no weak links in rotation defense. OG is a better defender than all those guys.

Give me Caruso/Dort - the other 2 JW/Chet probably have to play some more. OG is great as well,- I agree.

the difference was they had more steals, and we had more turnovers

I can't remember any dribble penetration and kickout other than in opening minutes.

We seem to take a lot of high difficulty shots

LivingLegend wrote:

DLeethal wrote:

LivingLegend wrote:

jskinny35 wrote:Let me try to summarize what seems obvious by now (to me)...KAT and Brunson are both great offensive threats but clearly defensively challenged. Playing both at the same time puts too much pressure on Bridges, OG and Hart or whoever else is there to play defense and stand around for kickouts when those two can't iso well. Playing Mitch alongside KAT helps but Mitch has his challenges staying healthy, hitting free throws, etc...

Assuming no significant roster changes it really makes little sense to keep both KAT and Brunson at their salaries and need to both be starters. If KAT could come off the bench and be featured we would probably be more effective as a team overall (but that would not happen). Ironic that we supposedly were considering Myles Turner for like 3 seasons as he would have been better for us because we wouldn't have to hide him defensively and while he's not a potent - he can shoot well enough from deep.

So unless Mitch starts at C KAT is probably the odd man out since Brunson is god-like and a Nova guy. I think OG is actually undervalued as he can fit on most any team. Yes we overpaid for Bridges and he does fit next to Brunson but I think if we want to upgrade this team it has to be KAT and Bridges.

I think we take Game 5 at home btw!

Really think we missed DDV this post season.

Brunson being treated as god-like is going to be a/the problem going forward - will be interesting to see if front office will make right decisions.

We are seeing some of the issues Becky Hammon pointed to in terms of Jalen and being at that top/top tier.

Are you honestly suggesting trading Brunson lol

I’m suggesting that his play to contract $ may become a major issue in a few years and he takes a significant beating every night.

We have 4 years starting next season to worry about that.