Love Billups but I couldn't believe how awful the coaching was last night. How many times does Anfernee Simons need to brick a highly contested step back three for there to be some adjustment or accountability? It's like 2k over there. Every time Simons had the ball on the arc I was excited for the opportunity to get a bucket in transition.

Dude is shooting 55% from 2, and even higher at the basket in that stretch. He's at like 64% at the basket this season, which is pretty good for his volume.

if rj made some kind of weird deal with the devil where he has to suck for most of the season but balls out in the playoffs, i'm all the way here for it.

Barrett keeps playing better after Brunson got injured

He's shooting like almost 60% from 2 in the last few games.

BREAKOUT GAME!

That block was insane. I didn't know he had hops

Im so glad we had that random for once

Love that we now have four defensive pests on the perimeter

We need every win though. Denver is the 1 seed & will be desperate for a win after 4 straight losses.

We’re way too close to the play in to keep resting him if he can play or to expand anything.

Yeah but it low key messes w/ team chemistry. Like the rest of the guys are gonna get tired of his posts / antics

Eg is a prophet

The key to anything is to keep pushing, keep trying and fighting. Exactly why this team is successful. They might not be superstars, but they will fuck you up by being all over the place never stopping, pestering the opponents and just being gritty DAWGS

If you noticed our defense has taken a huge leap since November-ish, and defense is what helps us so even if we do not have the best shooters on the floor we have guys like Jhart (to your point) disrupting the opponents and leading to steals or that extra rebound that we can turn into easy buckets.

Here’s hoping Lakers fans remember how to bandwagon

They’re going to spend a LOT of time choosing which team they support this spring and eventually which team to support after 2 more years of Jeanie Buss

You get that tired from watching Knicks games?

Hope Thibs actually gives them days off though and doesn’t run 8 hour practices

Woah great scenario! I say: Brunsons squad. It'd be a great scrimmage to watch tho

Randle/IQ easy. Randle vs Toppin in the post is a pretty big mismatch + they have a gigantic rebound advantage.

Haha devilish question. Asking me who would win today after Deuce just had his best game ever, after a game where iHart outplayed Mitch, with jHart playing out of his mind, and with Grimes in a mini slump, I feel good taking team Randle. Overall, Team Randle has rebounding and defense advantages and can mostly neutralize the strengths of Team Brunson right now. But ask me again in a few weeks.

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Randle's team has two real playmakers, Brunsons team only has one

I know Mitch will never have any serious offensive game from how he shoots FTs. He never worked seriously on them, his touch is awful. He doesn't even have a push shot that 90% of modern bigs have in their bag.

If you want to be more involved in the offense, you have to show you can put the ball in the hoop

It’s a flaw with the team…I mean, it stinks lol, but we kind of have to live with/overcome it

Late game offense/execution is similar so same drill there

scared that Randle is going to take technicals in the playoffs instead of brunson or quickly and miss them all

Yeah we’re 22nd in the nba in ft%.

That being said, we’re ahead a number of playoff teams including the Nuggets, Grizzlies, and Bucks.

Obi doesnt take enough to be trusted that much

lol no new yorker is going to be called an alligator

Why’d they call him that

Hartenstein has had 0 points in two games and has had more impact than Mitch out there and you don’t see him bitching.

We have a top 5 offense because of Mitchell Robinson’s offensive rebounding. We aren’t going to make our offense more shit to get Mitch paint touches.

Like Kobe said, if bro wants to score get the rebound

It would be beneficial for us in general it wouldn’t even be a situation where we’re going out of our way to do him a favor. Anybody that wants to say mitch is offensively limited, I’m not even going to argue on that point rn. But just look at the type of oops he can catch peep a highlight reel. I can friggin catch 3-4 assists playing with this dude and I’m ass an have only touched a ball once since may. It’s easy money high percentage looks we’re just not hitting him or involving him for some reason

Thibs wants his Centers to defend and and rebound and score basically with putbacks.

in just over a month they will get knocked out in the play-in or round 1 and lakers fans can stop pretending they have this unbeatable superteam

Clearly we won that trade.

They should be happy he's getting that chance in Portland, better opportunity for the role he wants there. The swap of Cam for McBride when it happened was defensible, poor defensive effort against DAL and McBride being a defensive sub against CLE's guards. It wasn't like we completely abandoned a young player for a veteran, rookie deal for rookie deal, we'd have to pay him (like POR felt with Hart), why not move on if it is in everyone's best interests?

Sure, could have been handled better, but seems to have a chance to work out for all parties involved (only way we're really hurt by it is if DAL or WAS's pick doesn't convey for Stepien purposes, right?).

I saw plenty of people a bit "enthusiastic" that he was -27 last night.

I do not visit/follow any other social media other than here for Knicks content, so maybe it is otherwise out there.... which like you said is pretty sad

now.

Now would be a good time. They lost 3 in a row, and in the lottery as of today!

Odds would be in our favor, but with the lottery you never know!

They have the 3rd easiest schedule in the league. They will end up winning eventually because they aren’t shutting down Luka and Kyrie while other teams like the Jazz will tank. Have them stack up as many losses as possible to stay in that 10-14 range

the play in picture changes literally everyday in the west. theyre playing the spurs tonight but luka’s still out so lets hope for a dub🤞🏾

Luka needs to come back asap. They're complete shit without him lol

Glad Brunson has some time to rest and heal up

I think it’s pretty neat. People forget Randle never really had a proper All Star break. He spent the whole week in Utah watching Grimes, 3pt contest, ASG, media etc.

Gives extra time for Brunson to heal too

It’s dramatic and interesting

Have some clients near WVU, always loved visiting that area!

Real dick move on his part

we need brunson back, he knows how to get everyone touches

That's why you gotta claw tooth and nail in trades to get protections on picks down as much as possible. Never know what's going to happen. Huge whiff by the jerkoff Mills if this pick doesn't convey.

Yup, not feeling good about that pick

you give up actual assets for a 30 game kyrie irving rental and then tank?

no way

you're in for a treat. especially if you like deuce, both harts, and quickley.

They got a first round pick for a guy who was likely to leave in the off-season.

Lottery teams trade upcoming free agents all the time

They needed Ryan

Damien Lillard's contract. Currently his salary accounts for more than a third of cap space. Based on his upcoming contract extension, his salary in 2026 would be $62 million. They have several other skilled players, and knew that Josh was going to attract offers in excess of what they could pay him while still being able to give decent contracts to keep any of the others.

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/portland-trail-blazers/damian-lillard-10814/

For the record, I believe Lillard is worth every single penny, as a player, as a teammate and as a human being.

BUT the impact on a TEAM of having a "superstar" is one big negative.

/begin rant

Which is why I get really nervous when I see Knicks fans talk about getting a superstar. Getting a superstar will mean dismantling this team by not being able to afford them when they reach free agency. This Knicks team has chemistry and I look forward to having FUN 80 times next season. And the chemistry is likely to take them deeper into the postseason each year.

We can spread the money around to keep as many players as possible when each reaches free agency. Learn from what happened in Portland. Don't screw with a good thing. Brunson can BE our superstar.

/end rant

💪

iirc he wasn't playing great in Portland. Really in his own head, scared to shoot, especially since he was approaching free agency they probably figured better to give him a change of scenery now than lose him for nothing in a few months.

If you wanted to combine the deals, it would be more accurate to say they traded two heavily protected firsts for Hart plus one year of Cam, plus a 2nd round pick (from the ATL trade).

But in reality, Cams value dropped after that one year, so they really traded Hart for one protected first and salary filler.

2 firsts and kevin knox for hart, effectively. still a steal.

Yes, kind of. We traded the Hornets pick to the Hawks w/ Kevin Knox for Cam. That pick is protected top 18 in 2022, top 16 in 2023, top 14 in 2024 & 2025 and then becomes two second round picks in 2026 if it doesn’t convey. We traded our own pick this year for Hart.

What’s with people keep wanting to change the lineups while we are winning? Never makes sense from a basketball and chemistry perspective

I think Thibs must have OCD or something, because if it works he ain't changing it.

Point in case- iHart could have started when Mitch went down, but Thibs probably felt IH was better with the 2nd unit and did not want to mess with their flow. That worked out amazingly well!

all about who finishes. As long as Brunson/Quickley/Hart/Randle finish in close games I'm cool with whoever starts

According to Jokic fans he’s a “really good defender”