Knicksfan wrote:I don’t know if it’s a Brunson family issue, but something is really rotten in this team.

For the first time in decades we have an uber talented team, and no matter the pieces, the result is the same: Brunson’s hero ball is the determining factor. I’m tired of that. This year was supposed to be different. The moments when we looked unbeatable, everyone was contributing and the ball moved. We get to the playoffs and the underachieving, lack of movement and Brunson’s hero ball are really sinking us.

I’m tired of this crap.

Is Brunson the problem or the result of a different problem? I lean the later.

Knicks do not have ball handlers. Do they even have 1 guy on the roster who we can point to that the team could give the ball to with Dyson Daniels hounding and we'd be pretty much good that they could just race up the court?

Knicks starting 5 needs 1 other guy besides Brunson who has a handle (Josh got a straight line, in transition handle but that's it) and there is not a PG/bench guy who fills that need either. Coaching staff has concluded that Kolek/Mo cannot start or come off bench outside of spot minutes in regular season. Clarkson is not in a role to handle the ball and was a massive defensive liability early on.

Leon spent $5M on Yabu and then tried to smooth over the same problem and that answer also failed when he couldn't make a shot or middy and now layups.

All of this is a head scratcher for me. So is not using Kolek more, that guy was on FIRE at the end of the year.

This problem was GLARING last year all playoffs long?!?!

Panos wrote:I think the one solution is to bring in someone with a bigger juice card than Brunson that can make him perform differently. As much as I hate to say it and throw up a little in my mouth as I do, can you bring in an elder statesman like LeBron, KD or Curry and what would it take? Can you get LeBron for OG and Bridges?

That's why I said Giannis would not necessarily be a bad pairing with Brunson. They're both high usage, but Giannis is an MVP and alpha enough to keep Brunson in check.

This is also why I keep referring to Melo in relation to Brunson, because you could never build a championship roster running an offense through either of them. They both lack the judgment and discretion required to control the ball that much.

Melo needed to play next to Lebron earlier in his career. Then he'd be just the scorer he naturally was and leave the decision making to someone else. That's how Melo could have gotten a ring, but it was NEVER going to happen with him as the # 1 option. Melo was truly awful at crunchtime. His percentage of win shares taking the final shot of the game was abysmal for a star player.

And that is exactly what has masked Brunson's deficiencies up to now, his clutchness (not this series though). Brunson has been truly great at winning games down the stretch in ways Melo never came close to. And that overcame scrutiny into the rest of Brunson's game. That era is over. Brunson is going to be over-analyzed and picked apart like cracy.

At this point, Brunson's decision making just not good at all so he needs either a very alpha coach or a better player to be his Batman so he can slide into the Robin role.

There is a catch-22 here though. Melo, if he had not been such a damn princess, had a perfect game to adapt to being a Robin. He could just pull up and drain jumpers all day long playing more off the ball.

Brunson, however, needs to make love to the ball and take more steps than jab step, jab step, jab step Melo ever did to get into rhythm and create the space for his shots. It will not be as easy for Brunson to adapt to more of an off the ball role like it would have been for Melo. I actually believed in Melo's potential as a super sidekick. I honestly don't know how Brunson would adapt to that role. He could, but it is hard to say.

martin wrote:

BlueKnickers wrote:

Panos wrote:I think the one solution is to bring in someone with a bigger juice card than Brunson that can make him perform differently. As much as I hate to say it and throw up a little in my mouth as I do, can you bring in an elder statesman like LeBron, KD or Curry and what would it take? Can you get LeBron for OG and Bridges?

That's why I said Giannis would not necessarily be a bad pairing with Brunson. They're both high usage, but Giannis is an MVP and alpha enough to keep Brunson in check.

This is also why I keep referring to Melo in relation to Brunson, because you could never build a championship roster running an offense through either of them. They both lack the judgment and discretion required to control the ball that much.

Melo needed to play next to Lebron earlier in his career. Then he'd be just the scorer he naturally was and leave the decision making to someone else. That's how Melo could have gotten a ring, but it was NEVER going to happen with him as the # 1 option. Melo was truly awful at crunchtime. His percentage of win shares taking the final shot of the game was abysmal for a star player.

And that is exactly what has masked Brunson's deficiencies up to now, his clutchness (not this series though). Brunson has been truly great at winning games down the stretch in ways Melo never came close to. And that overcame scrutiny into the rest of Brunson's game. That era is over. Brunson is going to be over-analyzed and picked apart like cracy.

At this point, Brunson's decision making just not good at all so he needs either a very alpha coach or a better player to be his Batman so he can slide into the Robin role.

There is a catch-22 here though. Melo, if he had not been such a damn princess, had a perfect game to adapt to being a Robin. He could just pull up and drain jumpers all day long playing more off the ball.

Brunson, however, needs to make love to the ball and take more steps than jab step, jab step, jab step Melo ever did to get into rhythm and create the space for his shots. It will not be as easy for Brunson to adapt to more of an off the ball role like it would have been for Melo. I actually believed in Melo's potential as a super sidekick. I honestly don't know how Brunson would adapt to that role. He could, but it is hard to say.

Melo on that Detroit team with Chancey and Sheed and Ben would have been perfect for him. Dumars failure again.

Yes, that kind of roster would have been a beautiful thing for his career.

By the time Melo came to the Knicks, that early Nuggets youthful power and bounce he had coming into the league was long gone. As a Knick, he was basically a jump shooter who'd chase his misses so it fluffed up his rebound totals and got him some second chances. He was a big dude with a booty so he could back people down when he wanted to, but he was primarily a guy who would dribble in front of his defender with the intention of "I'm going to shoot this in your face and you can't stop me" and it mostly worked for him. He was not the highest percentage guy so he would chuck his way to some horrible percentage games and then smooth out those percentages with games when he had the hot hand. Not the most efficient player in the NBA.

And Billups did briefly join the Knicks. Even though he was knocking on retirement's door, you could immediately see the calming influence on Melo. But the Knicks used their salary waiver on him like dolts when they soon needed it for Stat, but for a moment you saw how much Melo needed a veteran PG next to him. And other than Pablo and Kidd later, the Knicks for most of Melo's time here failed to prioritize the PG position. It was awful to go so many years without good PGs.

SergioNYK wrote:Unless you tell me we are getting an equal or better player than Brunson this summer, there is nothing to look forward to next season and beyond.

Brunson, and his dad, straight up for Giannis sounds good.

Move everyone to natural positions (OG at SF and Bridges to SG) and sign either Colby White or Sexton to run PG. Keep Kolek as back up

martin wrote:

Knicksfan wrote:I don’t know if it’s a Brunson family issue, but something is really rotten in this team.

For the first time in decades we have an uber talented team, and no matter the pieces, the result is the same: Brunson’s hero ball is the determining factor. I’m tired of that. This year was supposed to be different. The moments when we looked unbeatable, everyone was contributing and the ball moved. We get to the playoffs and the underachieving, lack of movement and Brunson’s hero ball are really sinking us.

I’m tired of this crap.

Is Brunson the problem or the result of a different problem? I lean the later.

Knicks do not have ball handlers. Do they even have 1 guy on the roster who we can point to that the team could give the ball to with Dyson Daniels hounding and we'd be pretty much good that they could just race up the court?

Knicks starting 5 needs 1 other guy besides Brunson who has a handle (Josh got a straight line, in transition handle but that's it) and there is not a PG/bench guy who fills that need either. Coaching staff has concluded that Kolek/Mo cannot start or come off bench outside of spot minutes in regular season. Clarkson is not in a role to handle the ball and was a massive defensive liability early on.

Leon spent $5M on Yabu and then tried to smooth over the same problem and that answer also failed when he couldn't make a shot or middy and now layups.

All of this is a head scratcher for me. So is not using Kolek more, that guy was on FIRE at the end of the year.

This problem was GLARING last year all playoffs long?!?!

Which is one of the reasons why we miss Donte a lot.

I still can’t believe at one point we thought we had kept the better player. Some might still defend him, but Bridges is a disgrace in every possible way.

Swishfm3 wrote:

SergioNYK wrote:Unless you tell me we are getting an equal or better player than Brunson this summer, there is nothing to look forward to next season and beyond.

Brunson, and his dad, straight up for Giannis sounds good.

Move everyone to natural positions (OG at SF and Bridges to SG) and sign either Colby White or Sexton to run PG. Keep Kolek as back up

If you want to single handedly destroy the culture that was built here over the last 4 years, that’s the right move. Giannis as the main guy; how many playoff series has he won in the last few years? Now if you’re adding Giannis as a 1B, it makes total sense.

Panos wrote:

BlueKnickers wrote:

Panos wrote:I think the one solution is to bring in someone with a bigger juice card than Brunson that can make him perform differently. As much as I hate to say it and throw up a little in my mouth as I do, can you bring in an elder statesman like LeBron, KD or Curry and what would it take? Can you get LeBron for OG and Bridges?

That's why I said Giannis would not necessarily be a bad pairing with Brunson. They're both high usage, but Giannis is an MVP and alpha enough to keep Brunson in check.

This is also why I keep referring to Melo in relation to Brunson, because you could never build a championship roster running an offense through either of them. They both lack the judgment and discretion required to control the ball that much.

Melo needed to play next to Lebron earlier in his career. Then he'd be just the scorer he naturally was and leave the decision making to someone else. That's how Melo could have gotten a ring, but it was NEVER going to happen with him as the # 1 option. Melo was truly awful at crunchtime. His percentage of win shares taking the final shot of the game was abysmal for a star player.

And that is exactly what has masked Brunson's deficiencies up to now, his clutchness (not this series though). Brunson has been truly great at winning games down the stretch in ways Melo never came close to. And that overcame scrutiny into the rest of Brunson's game. That era is over. Brunson is going to be over-analyzed and picked apart like cracy.

At this point, Brunson's decision making just not good at all so he needs either a very alpha coach or a better player to be his Batman so he can slide into the Robin role.

There is a catch-22 here though. Melo, if he had not been such a damn princess, had a perfect game to adapt to being a Robin. He could just pull up and drain jumpers all day long playing more off the ball.

Brunson, however, needs to make love to the ball and take more steps than jab step, jab step, jab step Melo ever did to get into rhythm and create the space for his shots. It will not be as easy for Brunson to adapt to more of an off the ball role like it would have been for Melo. I actually believed in Melo's potential as a super sidekick. I honestly don't know how Brunson would adapt to that role. He could, but it is hard to say.

Yes or Giannis.
None of those 4 guys are going to sit back and let Brunson ISO all game.

Curry and Lebron and Giannis would have that effect. Not KD. That's not his personality. Great player, but not in this role we're discussing.