DLeethal wrote:

Knicksfan wrote:

DLeethal wrote:

Uptown wrote:

Clean wrote:

VDesai wrote:Its a W that counts the same as the Denver one. Thats what matters.

THis better be a ****ing wake up call

Is that all that matters? This team was meant to be a contender. We went all in on this roster. Unless we are having all time shooting that game we are struggling to beat teams no matter how bad they are. We all know it won't be a wakeup call. There is no wakeup call to be had. This is what our new team is now. This is not last years team anymore. We are not good enough.

Last years team wasn't good enough to contend, either. Also, this currentvteam has a 3-4 years window to contend, not 3-4 days or weeks.

Yea, look at the difference between the Cavs last year and this year.

This team needs to get seasoned and get Precious/Shamet back.

Also we have a cupcake schedule coming up in December and probably end up 8-10 games over .500 by the end of it. Seriously I don’t think we play one above .500 team the whole month.

Look how this cupcake game materialized.

No sweets for this team with this rotten defense. Today’s unfocused play was even more disappointing because it shows how immature they are, not giving their best effort against a undermanned team.

Nah, this team is rotten right now. And Bridges is pathetic.

The ran off 4 in a row last time they had a cupcake schedule and just went 3-2 on their road trip including a massacre in Denver two games back. There are red flags sure but the doom and gloom is overkill in here. They can easily turn it up and win 8 in a row like they’ve done many a time last few seasons.

Of course they can win 8 in a row. They can suddenly become almost unbeatable. That might make them the team to beat in the league as they breeze their way through the playoffs into a championship.

Anything can happen, right?

Sure, but the point of my pessimism with this team right now it not an “out of nowhere the-sky-is-falling”, but just basic “open your eyes and see the trends”. How exactly are they gonna win 8 games in a down when they can’t even have 8 strong defensive possessions in a row in a game? The defense is broken and it’s not one single player underperforming.

Can they shoot their way into 8 wins in a row? An unreal streak could get it done, but we have seen how this team looks when shots aren’t falling and it ain’t pretty. Why? Because of the above.

How did last years team get their streaks going? Sure, there was inspired offensive plays from some players, but our bread and butter was a very solid defense. That hasn’t happened yet.

I wanna be optimistic like you. Heck, I also believed that getting Precious alone could have a very good impact on this team and its defense. But the way this team struggles is becoming a trend and TODAY every worst part of our team showed up: no defense, no focus taking care of the ball, no ball movement, overuse of the starters.

Will they improve? I do believe so, but no longer do I believe it will happen soon. No longer does it seem like we are a contender just finding our way. This team has A LOT of things to work out and it might take them until the last part of the season to get really close to.

Blame it on at the noon start time the day after Thanksgiving (great job NBA!) or it being the last game of the road trip but our heads were clearly not in the game. 19 turnover with 8 coming in another putrid first quarter where we only scored 15. It didn't look like we wanted to play this game but you have to give them credit for sticking it out and coming away with the win.

I think Deuce's dunk in the 4th kind of turned the game around and gave us a spark. Brunson also took over late in the 4th and hit some clutch FTs. Hart was like the only one hustling for those loose balls.

Frustrating game for KAT. Zebras made a decision early they just wouldn't allow him to bully ball. OG was off again too. That shot has gone ice cold since his career high earlier in the week. 0/12 from 3 last 2 games.

Bridges was awful. That turnover at the end of the half that resulted in 4 points was embarrassing. His defense was awful too. I'm trying to be super patient because he's a proven vet but his play today was unacceptable.

DLeethal wrote:

Knicksfan wrote:

DLeethal wrote:

Knicksfan wrote:You see other teams playing defense (currently watching ATL v CLE) and the teams look balanced and set up on defense. The Knicks ALWAYS look late to cover, hunting for nonexistent steals and then ALWAYS leaving a man open for three. They are ALWAYS scrambling like crazy. Everyone plays them exactly the same: run the offense fast, constant screens and just wait for the definite open man that you will get, and always crash the boards because the Knicks can’t get consistent defensive rebounds. It’s been 19 games and I see no adjustment. Instead, Thibs is trusting less on his bench, keeping sorry-azz Bridges on the floor as long as he can even though he clearly isn’t right.

I’m very down on this team. Their offensive highs aren’t as trustworthy as their defense was last season, so it’s very hard to root for such an inconsistent and uninspired team. It’s ironic that we have the most talent we’ve had in years, yet this team sucks and it’s turning into a story that goes beyond an adjustment period. No, many things are already becoming trends hard to see them change. The defense seems to be a philosophical problem, Bridges’ seems to be mental and the trust on the bench is alarming considering this is probably the team we’ll have moving forward after Precious returns and then Mitch next year.

This team honestly sucks. Next amazing offensive performance won’t fool me anymore. Until they care to improve their defense, this team is nothing more than an overrated pretender. Yes, I’m mad. One thing is a few mistakes or some shots not falling. Today, it was embarrassing.

Precious and Shamet are not nothing when it comes to bench additions. Both fill huge needs for us right now.

I believed the same thing. But you have to wonder: how come such a talented team has to hope for players like Precious and Shamet to return as their latest hope. We are talking about our bench. Yes, I do get their value, especially with our defense and with Thibs again forgetting he is allowed to use the players he has right now on the bench, but again: how does a talented team like this need to hope for those players to return to hopefully play better?

It shouldn’t be the case. I’m not even talking about wins. I’m talking about play and effort. The defense is a huge mess that seems to be beyond one guy returning and fixing it. The gameplan seems to be the biggest problem. And the effort is part of the problem. We are ALWAYS LATE on defense. ALWAYS!

Mavs were a below .500 team and went to the finals after adding Gafford and PJ Washington last year. It’s not uncommon at all for things to “click” after getting some support pieces back.

But no one is expecting Shamet and Precious to transform the team. Knicks are not far off from being 13-6 or 14-5. And they most likely pad their record bigly next month.

VDesai wrote:Just a reminder for those that Brunson has been subpar - he is averaging 25.5 and 7.9 assists on 49 pct shooting, 40 pct from three and 85 pct from the line. He has another gear- but at this point the only thing he can do more of vs his career numbers is shoot.

He’s turning it up but there were a few games he failed us in the 4th Q when he normally delivers. Maybe stats don’t back this up and I’m wrong but I’d be curious to see his clutch numbers vs last year. Brunson delivering in the clutch in a couple losses is a drastically different narrative rn.

fishmike wrote:

DLeethal wrote:We are 11-8 with a tough schedule and brand new team. Brunson overall has been subpar and our bench has been riddled with injuries. We have a cupcake month ahead where we will put together some win streaks and the team will get right and the record will look fine. Don’t think this team contends this year but with a little seasoning and savvy moves on the margins and we will get there. This was a 4 year play. Even Miami big 3 took awhile to figure out how to maximize their talent.

this is it man... there is a lot of time. It's so early and we always seem to see Thib's cooking late.

I think the defense will improve. We need Mikal to play better. We need Precious back and the 20+ minutes of muscle we all knew he would give us. As far as competing we need Mitch to also come off the bench. This starting 5 with McBride/Precious/Mitch off the bench is the nightmare nobody wants to deal with

The defense overall is the biggest worry for me. I’m not worried about Mikal finding his game or anything else. But we need to be a 15ish ranked defense and a top 3 offense. That’s our path and the D is a concern. KAT’s rim protection is by far ranked worst in the league. I’m not sure how we fix that but I’m hoping the versatility of Precious to play defensive 4/5 ends up being huge for this team. And I’m hoping the D gels over time. And maybe layering both Precious and Mitch into the rotation gives us a big defensive jolt.

I don't like bridges antics after making a shot. He either laughing with his mates or talking **** too much.
Where are the open cuts? What are teams now doing to take easy baskets away?
OG has no lift and falling. I think he is hurt.
We got Deuce back and he starting to look good.
Knicks looked tired.
The root on Hornets really played hard. they lost.
they got some good breaks down the stretch but could not take the lead back.
that rattler shot to end the game was funny as ****.
Sat with knicks fans and nobody was that upset like you guys were. Nobody thought could conceive the knicks were going to lost the game.
I congratulated the Hornets fans that there team played really hard and were well coached. They were like "we had like one guy that could crack their rotation (Miller).

Knicks got a win. who cares if if it was one point or 7?

guess what, until the bench gets sorted out and Precious and Mitch can make solid contributions there is no way we contend.

Hornets held knicks to under 100pts. That why the game was close.

Clean wrote:

Tweet was deleted or there was problem with the URL:

https://www.twitter.com/ShaxNBA/status/1862701962455576606

This is why our defense sucks now. iHart covered up so many mistakes after the perimeter players got beat. Now this is a dunk 95% of the time. We have to stop giving up 3's if we can't stop dunks.

Yes, this is part of the issue: relying on your center to cover up for everyone’s mistakes when your new center is not like that and you know it. I was expecting some tweaks in the defensive schemes to do just that, but so far we keep playing the same kind of defense without the cleaning up center and still expect to stop teams? What? KAT is awesome but he isn’t Mitch or iHart and if we can't realize that after 19 games I don’t have much hope for improvement other than Precious coming back and being in the starting lineup until Mitch fully returns.

Clean wrote:

DLeethal wrote:Also the offense of the past couple years was always fools gold. It was a gimmick using offensive rebounding to inflate metrics. So we made a bet on becoming a legit championship offense and a 10-15th level defense with KAT. Defense is lagging but offense is there.

Yes! I been saying this to. Our defense was trash all those years if you take out the offensive rebounds. We just have to find the right balance and gameplanning to fit our new group of players. Thibs got to give Huk a try until other defensive bigs come back. That game where he went crazy on D was just what we need but he been benched ever since.

To me the clearest path is staggering KAT next to a big throughout the game. Just need to be able to put the clamps down for stretches when our offense isn’t carrying us. Precious on paper is a perfect guy for that.

We've seen over the years how trades on the margins can have a crazy impact sometimes. Rose trade a few years back? Hart trade? Those trades transformed our seasons. OG too obviously but he's basically a star. Why can't Precious, Mitch, Shamet being added to the mix make a significant impact on this team? They can, and I bet they will along with some good old fashioned gelling.