When you look at what Hart and MIles have done it's essentially made us better than having RJ & IQ.

nycericanguy wrote:Josh Hart's defense, rebounding, passing, hustle and overall IQ is huge and I'd take that over a rusty Randle who has shown the propensity to get frustrated when his offense isn't going well and not get back/hustle on defense.

When you look at what Hart and MIles have done it's essentially made us better than having RJ & IQ.

Hart is awesome, I do want to mention something I thought about yesterday watching him get cooked by JWill though. We have a lot of really good team defenders, Hart and DDV included. They are disruptive and create a lot of havoc and turnovers. They do however get cooked by 1:1 mid range maestro's though. I think it's why Hart got cooked so bad against Butler last year and you saw it again last night. He just can't disrupt 1:1 shotmakers for some reason. Miles (at guard) and OG are needed for those guys.

DLeethal wrote:

nycericanguy wrote:Josh Hart's defense, rebounding, passing, hustle and overall IQ is huge and I'd take that over a rusty Randle who has shown the propensity to get frustrated when his offense isn't going well and not get back/hustle on defense.

When you look at what Hart and MIles have done it's essentially made us better than having RJ & IQ.

Hart is awesome, I do want to mention something I thought about yesterday watching him get cooked by JWill though. We have a lot of really good team defenders, Hart and DDV included. They are disruptive and create a lot of havoc and turnovers. They do however get cooked by 1:1 mid range maestro's though. I think it's why Hart got cooked so bad against Butler last year and you saw it again last night. He just can't disrupt 1:1 shotmakers for some reason. Miles (at guard) and OG are needed for those guys.

i agree and we are just lacking size overall right now. we have 4 starters 6'4" and under, hard to ask those guys to defend bigger players night in and night out AND do it for 40 minutes.

OG/Mitch would give us size and more depth. Solves alot.

Fortunately for us I think OG/Mitch are more likely to come back than Randle. Randle has been out since Jan 27th and he's still in pain, I just dont see him being able to come back at a high level.

KnickDanger wrote:Goddamnit losing sucks.

4th/5th is prob where we wanna be though.

#3 could draw MIA or PHI with Embiid.

But then again, we missed 11 FT's. PTSD from that Chicago Game 5 in 93. Everyone remembers Charles Smith missing layups, and getting fouled as well, but we also missed 15 FT's in that game.

Got to love the fight though. Thunder have the best record in the West along with Denver and we took them to the limit. Outscored them 39 to 25 in the third. But the beginning of the fourth was a nightmare. Those minutes without Brunson are just a killer. The minutes police better get their note pads ready cause Thibs is going to be forced to play him 48 in some playoff games. Got no choice. Especially in games where he has no help offensively. DVo, Bogey and Burks, who are supposed to score and shoot, combined for 25 points on 5/20 from three.

me personally i like that they are letting them play more, offense was just getting too easy. I read somewhere that Lillard's free throw rate has been cut in half since the ASB.

It's not just us or Brunson. And yes Brunson got hit on that last play, but it was after he had shot it and it didn't affect the shot.

Overall more physical play allowed favors us, especially if we get OG and Mitch back.

nycericanguy wrote:i dont wanna hear about refs, its a cop out and every team has grievances.

me personally i like that they are letting them play more, offense was just getting too easy. I read somewhere that Lillard's free throw rate has been cut in half since the ASB.

It's not just us or Brunson. And yes Brunson got hit on that last play, but it was after he had shot it and it didn't affect the shot.

Overall more physical play allowed favors us, especially if we get OG and Mitch back.

I tend to agree. We had enough good fortune to win last night where we didn't need to rely on a 50/50 ref call. When Brunson missed 2 FTs and we got the rebound, and DDV's 3 went in and out that was our moment to steal the game and we came up short. Also Hart's attempted alley oop to DDV was a huge moment we could have taken control of the game again. When we drew the flagrant foul we got 1 point out of it despite get 2 FTs and the ball. Those were all moments where we could've wrestled the game back.

From an objective perspective, I agree with the no call on Brunson's layup. I would go nuts if that was made against us. He got his shot off fine and got hip checked a bit on the way down. Good no call with game on the line.

It almost seems like Silver decided to punish the stars of the game after the all star game embarrassment. Once they spit in his face again after begging them to compete, seemed like the next day refs started letting defenders hack the offensive players.

DLeethal wrote:

HofstraBBall wrote:Tough loss.
A lot of crying because of it. .
Facts are, we had 34 free throws. We missed 11 of them. Was always taught that if you can't hit tho easy 15 foot shots with no defenders, you don't deserve to win.
As good as JB is playing, he forced some shots towards the end of the last two games. Needs Randle.
Knicks are now 15 and 13 without Randle.
Devo and Burks, at SG, 6 of 24 will not beat the worst team in league let alone the best in the West.
Deuce is a great TEAM defender and real quick. But not good against taller talented scorers. But who is? Maybe OG. Need him back.
Despite the tough loss and the bad free throw shooting tonight, Knicks look like a tough match up in the playoffs. Especially when we get OG and Randle back. Last night's game was back and forth. We can all complain about the result but hard fought game that took a ridiculous last second shot to beat us.
I am feeling optimistic about the upcoming playoffs.

Starting to feel like all this "when Randle and OG come back" talk has been very premature. Not looking good atm with 8 games left in the season. The pic of OG at the Raptors game looked like his elbow has a giant tumor on it and he hasn't taken any contact yet. Randle hasn't ramped up at all either.

They will both be there. Makes sense to stay out of meaningless games. Considering the current roster is holding on to 3rd or 4th. Playoffs are what really counts.
Randle and OG will be there.

nycericanguy wrote:

DLeethal wrote:

nycericanguy wrote:season ends in 2 weeks, playoffs start in 20 days... or just about 3 weeks.

2nd round would start over a month from now. That could be a realistic time frame to get at least 1 of those guys back.

OG can come back at anytime and help massively right away, so I'm not worried about him stepping in even if it's mid playoffs. Randle needs ramp up time he's the bigger worry now.

agreed, I keep saying I think OG/Mitch coming back is more important than Randle.

OG and Mitch can step right in and defend at a high level, and OG can hit the 3.

Randle... just too many question marks there and he's a guy that has shown he needs time to find rhythm. If his offense isn't good he's hurting the floor spacing, and hurting our defense. Hopefully he can come back in the last few games but I just don't see it. If he comes back in the 1st round cold turkey he could end up hurting us more than anything. Not the popular opinion but our defense, shooting and overall team IQ has been higher without Randle. Randle is a guy that needs to be ON and ready to help us.

Don't get your take. OG with some of the best talents in the East did little to make them any good.(Toronto). Randle with very little talent around him single handedly took us to playoffs for the first time in 20 years. Not saying OG on this roster is incredible but just that once again, Knicks fans underestimate the importance of Randle.