PG: The hair foul game

[Maury2423]

I’ve been saying this since the beginning of the season, we play far too aggressively on defense.

We give up so many points off of back door cuts, way too aggressive close outs, and pressuring the ball/man way above the 3pt line.

I get that we’re trying to impose our will on the opposing team but we have to be smarter

[rajajackal]

This was the most significant game of the season...and I mean that in a good way. Hear me out....

Yes we looked like complete dog shot for most of the game. But that comeback .....


It was the first time this season I saw those grimey gritty Knicks. It was like seeing a long gone friend you never expected to see again. But there he was just when we needed it the most...ready to do battle, ready to play lockdown dee, fatigue be damned, clutch shots left and right....

And the fact that the guy who I thought might be a little soft was the toughest Mfer in the building....

Now you combine that with the fact that he is one of the most talented bigs in the league....

Man of man ..do y'all realize what we have unleashed?!

But back to the team....I expect us to be on a tear from this point on.

Look out NBA.

i feel you. one of our stars said nah **** that and turned up and everybody around him did too. if we won, it would've been only the second win we didn't coast to. part of why i hesitate to pile on thibs right now despite finding myself puzzled often is becuase i've tracked that by the end the season i'm always like "damn thibs really ground an edge into these guys with his twisted ways". first glimpse of that tonight

[F N 11]

KAT shooting FT's after 40 mins in b2b

crazy

Tough he’s on the garden floor shooting now after the game. Good take.

Read on Twitter

?s=46&t=W09F6FrMDfp5_y1gKYgF1g

My franchise player Folkssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well on the way to milking NY. The showing of the New York on the Jersey to the crowd. Wish him the best.

[YouthMovement]

This was the most significant game of the season...and I mean that in a good way. Hear me out....

Yes we looked like complete dog shot for most of the game. But that comeback .....


It was the first time this season I saw those grimey gritty Knicks. It was like seeing a long gone friend you never expected to see again. But there he was just when we needed it the most...ready to do battle, ready to play lockdown dee, fatigue be damned, clutch shots left and right....

And the fact that the guy who I thought might be a little soft was the toughest Mfer in the building....

Now you combine that with the fact that he is one of the most talented bigs in the league....

Man of man ..do y'all realize what we have unleashed?!

But back to the team....I expect us to be on a tear from this point on.

Look out NBA.

agreed, brutal loss but i think we may have tapped into something tonight

[ctorres]

So we basically dogged it for three quarters and tried to win it in one. Why can't we play a bench then? You're telling me playing 10 minutes of the rooks puts us down more than 22? Thibs is an absolute maniac.

Towns 39 mins

OG 36 mins

Mikal 43 mins

Brunson and Hart at a merciful 34 mins each

On the tail end of a back to back where everyone in the starting 5 played 34 mins and up.

I dunno. I don't know what happens in practice so I can't explain why Thibs won't open up the rotation

OG is getting paid to play big minutes now. He's no longer a 28 mpg player. At $40 million a year and being the 31st highest paid player in the NBA, he is paid to play big minutes and produce like an all-star now. He's having a 2022 Andrew Wiggins type of season.

Bridges will probably lead the team in minutes this season, but he is built for it. I'm sure he has a sense of pride over being among the top players in minutes.

Towns will come down at some point. He hasn't averaged about 34 mpg since the 2017-18 season. If he is shooting free throws after droping 46, he might be in the best shape of his career right now.

So yeah, my predictions are that by the end of the season, Bridges will be among top 5 in mpg, OG and Josh will be in the top 15, Brunson will be in the top 40, Towns will be top 55.

Tatum and Brown for the Celtics are each averaging 36.1 mpg. Those are the two that OG, Josh, and Mikal are coming after.

[robillionaire]

I’ve seen people on this board blame anybody and everybody except for the front office for making this trade.

Thibs hasn’t changed; he’s doing what he’s always done, previously to great success.

Many are even about to catch a hernia twisting and contorting trying to blame Jalen who’s doing his own high wire act trying to become the facilitator KAT needs.

Some want to blame Mikal who was always meant to be in a complementary role.

You can have 46 and still be the fulcrum of the issues at hand. Especially defensively. History shows it. Hopefully the team always meant for he and Mitch to play together to mitigate the damage but we’re a play-in team as it currently stands, and too many are okay with that as long as they can feel right about Kat’s production, even at the expense of wins.

Except he was a +4 so when he was out there we won

Plus minus is a terrible stat to use. There are none other guys on the floor determining that number. Plus, even in a vacuum, a +4 against the Bulls when you have 46 means your defense must’ve been terrible! The Bulls aren’t good!!!!

Even from that perspective it’s clear by the stat his offensive output was still enough to make up for whatever defensive lapse there was. I can’t say the same for several other players tonight. And he carried the offensive load. Where was anybody else to step up and make a play? Even OG somehow got cooked by Patrick Williams. And when we effectively had the game won twice, the two fouls on the other end to lose the game were not him.

[K_ick_God]

Big picture the defense has been bad but Towns has been
very good.

The team has a high ceiling I think.

[MrDollarBills]

that's where i land too

3pac must be trash in practice though it's hard to fully buy into that cause he has looked decent in the mins we've seen him on the court.

Right. I can't call it.

All I know is that this isn't sustainable and by the end of the game guys were gassed and committing mental errors. Just like the Pacers game.

we saw the bench give us good mins tonight, too. but like you said we will end up with players missing major time if he doesn't start playing his bench.

Thibs is scaring me right now

I know that the roster is top heavy but he has to find ways to get guys some rest throughout the game so that they aren't so gassed that they miss FTs and commit critical errors in the 4th.

I don't think that letting Kolek or Dadiet get some short mins in the 1st and 3rd will be a disaster. But again. I don't know enough to second guess Thibs, but he may want to weigh the risks here.

Running the top 6 into the ground by Christmas vs letting the young guys get a few mins so that the starters aren't spent with 5 mins left in the game, which also risks injuries...the goal is getting these guys to late April by any means necessary.

[Luv those Knicks]

Still a lot of talent and we miss Precious & Mitch and a back to back. I'm not worried . . . (yet).

[TKKnicks1]

Once again the offense was marvelous. Our top 3 scored 80 points combined. But once again we couldn't defend anything. The foul at the end was a horrible call but we shouldn't have been down 20+ tonight to begin with.

[Context]

I'm not worried at all...but I get why some want a upgrade at coach...

[spree2kawhi]

The team is running out of gas. Where is Lonnie Walker? The Kessler trade needs to be pulled off. We can’t hope for Robinson to be there, we need him… or someone like him. We need Hart to come off the bench.

I don’t want to blame the coach, but as unplayable as the rookies might be, we need to have the players fresh in fourth quarters and the second half of the season. We keep coming up short.

Is Thibs a baller? Does he understand the feeling of fatigue in the body and how guarding someone or trying to create space feels with heavy legs and winded?

[SelbyCobra]

Championship caliber talent, but an established, set in his ways coach with cartoonish-level flaws to the point where some games/situations/trends are laughably predictable.

I can't believe they signed this guy, whose most talked about postseason accomplishment in his 13 years as a HC is that his teams repeatedly underachieve and/or burn out, to a three year extension starting after this season that will take him through age 70.

I have such high hopes for this team, and at the beginning of the season my only major concern was injury. Even though I have always believed Thibs needed to be moved on from eventually, I thought the talent could outweigh his flaws as a coach. I'm not so sure about that anymore, and it makes me frustrated because they just committed huge money to this guy for the next 4 years.

This game was demoralizing, but I really hate how it makes me feel about the bigger picture.

[Galvationknicks]

Kinda done with Thibs. We are not making adjustments at all. Not with match ups nor with who stays on the court with a hot hand. Everyone takes the L on this game not just Hart. Outside of Towns and Cam, everyone else failed this team. Bridges midrange shot is dope but his defense is beyond disappointing. Brunson needed to sit down while Cam was lighting it up and that seem to get him back going.

This is the game you choose to get rid of thibs lol.

Y'all missed so many opportunities to fire him it's stupid to give up on him now

Who's out there that is willing to take the team right now? We will end up with Mo Cheeks running the show if Thibs is out.

Exactly it's Monty Williams and Mark Jackson lol

[NewEra]

We win this if he had braids. Simple.



Good night

[NoDopeOnSundays]

I’ve been saying this since the beginning of the season, we play far too aggressively on defense.

We give up so many points off of back door cuts, way too aggressive close outs, and pressuring the ball/man way above the 3pt line.

I get that we’re trying to impose our will on the opposing team but we have to be smarter

It's boiler plate coaching, one size fits all and makes no real changes based on who's across from us. We guard every team pretty much the same basic way, this is what we're going to do and we're not changing it no matter what your strengths are. Our center guards your center, and that's that, nothing creative like putting OG on Vucevic and KAT on Giddey, which is what teams with our lineup could do. It's why he needs a rim protector in a league where the Thunder are now starting a 6'6" guy at C and still winning, because he can't think outside the box, you have KAT you should be switching, but we don't, even though he's held up better at switching than he has at drop.

[Knicks Byke]

what happened to our defense smh.

[Buttah304]

Historical Data (because why not):

22-23 Season (11 Games)

5-6 Record
O-Rating: 23rd
D-Rating: 19th
Net Rating: 22nd

23-24 Season (11 Games)

6-5 Record
O-Rating: 15th
D-Rating: 5th
Net Rating: 7th

24-25 Season (11 Games)

5-6 Record
O-Rating: 4th
D-Rating: 19th
Net Rating: 8th

[3toheadmelo]

Still holding out reservations. Still believe they'll get it together. But my god, Thibs better trust his bench more.

It’s not about trusting just anybody and playing them like that’s what’s going to lead to wins. Pac playing ten minutes this game doesn’t ensure victory today or in the future.

The issue is we lost iHart to free agency, Mitch and Precious to injury, Julius and Donte to trade, and we only got back Towns. We lost four veteran rotation players, and we didn’t/don’t have the money to replace them.

bingo

[spree2kawhi]

Historical Data (because why not):

22-23 Season (11 Games)

5-6 Record
O-Rating: 23rd
D-Rating: 19th
Net Rating: 22nd

23-24 Season (11 Games)

6-5 Record
O-Rating: 15th
D-Rating: 5th
Net Rating: 7th

24-25 Season (11 Games)

5-6 Record
O-Rating: 4th
D-Rating: 19th
Net Rating: 8th

Yeah, exactly. Gotta go through growing pains, face adversity, make adjustments. I hope Thibs is ready to do the latter when guys come back.