PG: Knicks vs Jazz

[spree2kawhi]

Bridges has had a consistently good career so far. I really wouldn’t even trade him for Randle if it was an option after this game. Everything is okay. I can’t believe the naysayers crept up again. Those suckers can get lost for all I care.

[Buttah304]

They shot 56% from 3 and were talking rim protection.

It’s the same narrative over and over.

We had 42 points in the paint to their 44. We even crushed them on fastbreak points to the tune of 29 to 16.

64% of their offense was quite literally outside the paint and our squad was pathetically lazy. I’ve seen more of a hunger to defend in Carmelo’s gym

[Jalen Bluntson]

Bridges has had a consistently good career so far. I really wouldn’t even trade him for Randle if it was an option after this game. Everything is okay. I can’t believe the naysayers crept up again. Those suckers can get lost for all I care.

I knew the complaints would be fast and furious after every loss. They stay silent in wins though. We have 66 more games to play and we haven't been at full strength from day one. Deuce/Payne/Sims has been our bench and we lost Deuce/Payne for different stretches already. It's no secret that we not only needed patience allowing these players to find their groove, we also needed a bench to support that. It's not that complicated.

[8516knicks]

They can try it but who gets benched? Hart or Mikal? I think Hart has been a lot better and more consistent than Mikal and he does more for the starters than Mikal at this point. If Mikal was to get benched then that might cause some issues, I’m not sure how he would respond and I’m not sure what kind of heat the front office would catch for it because we gave up all those picks for a guy that we are now bringing off the bench. Sticky situation

I expect Precious to play with KAT, more so than I do Mitch. I think they're all in on the spacing from KAT, if not we would have seen Sims or Ariel next to him by now, yet he hasn't played a single minute with a C. I do think Precious is the guy that'll be the one who starts absorbing minutes and playing the 4, mainly because Tom did play him next to Ihart and he has more defensive versatility guarding up or down while protectiong the rim. He'll also take that ugly ass three too.

Who would you bench if you were Tom, Hart or Mikal? Someone has to shift down

Love Hart but bench needs the spark/energy lift.

[8516knicks]

Bridges has had a consistently good career so far. I really wouldn’t even trade him for Randle if it was an option after this game. Everything is okay. I can’t believe the naysayers crept up again. Those suckers can get lost for all I care.

I knew the complaints would be fast and furious after every loss. They stay silent in wins though. We have 66 more games to play and we haven't been at full strength from day one. Deuce/Payne/Sims has been our bench and we lost Deuce/Payne for different stretches already. It's no secret that we not only needed patience allowing these players to find their groove, we also needed a bench to support that. It's not that complicated.

The Naysayers sound like Nova fans in 2015. We know how that turned out.

[Enzo954]

People need to stop making excuses for Mikal. Did you forget what we gave up for him? If we had all of those picks, we'd be in the conversation for Giannis right now. Mikal needs to step up and play consistent good ball. I don't expect players to be perfect, but this guy has been playing his worst ball in years.

[spree2kawhi]

Bridges has had a consistently good career so far. I really wouldn’t even trade him for Randle if it was an option after this game. Everything is okay. I can’t believe the naysayers crept up again. Those suckers can get lost for all I care.

I knew the complaints would be fast and furious after every loss. They stay silent in wins though. We have 66 more games to play and we haven't been at full strength from day one. Deuce/Payne/Sims has been our bench and we lost Deuce/Payne for different stretches already. It's no secret that we not only needed patience allowing these players to find their groove, we also needed a bench to support that. It's not that complicated.

The Naysayers sound like Nova fans in 2015. We know how that turned out.

They sound a lot worse though. It’s more like that alternative facts, sore loser, easy solutions for Karen mentality.

[3toheadmelo]

People are blaming scheme for why we lose games. Rim protection has nothing to do with letting teams go off from three. As poor as KAT may be at protecting the rim, it's not losing us games. Short rotations and poor defensive scheme is. I won't even argue that KAT isn't a great rim protector. He's not. It isn't hurting us as much as the coaching is.

People need to be patient and wait for the bench guys to get back. It's really that simple. Our offense is not the problem. It's our defense leaving players wide open from three and tired legs in the 4th that is. Rim protection may be Thibs bread and butter plan but, he needs to be able to change it up when it's not the problem we are having.

KAT's defense def has lost us games. Ex: Boston made it a mission to attack him every time

Our 3 point defense hasn't always been the best but we were able to live with that for years and still have a top 10 defense. Now it's just worse with no rim protection and you have our wings trying to help out KAT which is giving up even more 3's than we ever have along with awful rim protection. The center is called an anchor on defense for a reason and that's why they're always gonna get the most blame. Timberwolves have tried so many schemes with different coaches to try to make KAT work at the 5 and the best result they got from it was a 13th best defense for one season that couldn't get out the 1st round. You gotta play him with another big to make this work.

No. Boston shot at an historic level from deep against us. Not having a rim protector like Mitch is a problem because it can compound the problem of allowing too many open threes but, almost all of our losses have been due to great three point percentages at a high clip and short rotations. KAT being a poor/weak rim protector has not been the reason we lost games. Not even close.

Nah. They actually attacked him every time.

Read on Twitter

No defense against the hawks

Watch on YouTube

;t=165s

He just never puts a hand up. This has been going on forever.

Read on Twitter

Like I said before, if all of the media, fans around the league are talking about how awful he's been then there's truth to it. Our 3 point defense is gonna suffer even more because our wings are trying to help out KAT who's a liability protecting the rim.

[Iron Mantis]

They shot 56% from 3 and were talking rim protection.

Yea, in light of what actually happened, I don't really follow that argument.

Seems disingenuous or even desperate.

All plays killing the Knicks were from screening action happening on the perimeter getting guys uncontested 3's.

Thibs has to implement a scheme to lock down the perimeter. What's happening is unacceptable.

[Jalen Bluntson]

People need to stop making excuses for Mikal. Did you forget what we gave up for him? If we had all of those picks, we'd be in the conversation for Giannis right now. Mikal needs to step up and play consistent good ball. I don't expect players to be perfect, but this guy has been playing his worst ball in years.

Where are these excuses? I see people saying they are confident he will come around but, is that really an excuse? It's too early in the season and, we have had bigger issues costing us games than just Mikal.

As for what we gave up for him taking us out of the Giannis RUMORS, who else would go in that trade? OG AND? We would be depleting our roster to get one player who isn't even available right now. I won't argue we gave up a lot for him pick wise but, we didn't give up ANY rotation players or even significant talent at all. It was a picks plus garbage for him.

[spree2kawhi]

People need to stop making excuses for Mikal. Did you forget what we gave up for him? If we had all of those picks, we'd be in the conversation for Giannis right now. Mikal needs to step up and play consistent good ball. I don't expect players to be perfect, but this guy has been playing his worst ball in years.

He’s a really useful player regardless. Sometimes I feel like we’d be better off with DiVincenzo idea of him, but ultimately it isn’t true. What he can bring to the table in single coverage is invaluable. It will all be on display in the playoffs, when we face not only Tatum but also Brown, not only Luka but also Kyrie, not only PG but also Maxey, not only Mitchell but also Garlsnd etc. This guy will be with the money.

[3toheadmelo]

Wings trying to help out KAT because he can't protect the rim is giving up more 3's on top of that with zero rim protection. So it's not really shocking that we're terrible defensively. No scheme is gonna fix that.

[spree2kawhi]

Wings trying to help out KAT because he can't protect the rim is giving up more 3's on top of that with zero rim protection. So it's not really shocking that we're terrible defensively. No scheme is gonna fix that.

No version of Randle was gonna do anything about it either.

[3toheadmelo]

Wings trying to help out KAT because he can't protect the rim is giving up more 3's on top of that with zero rim protection. So it's not really shocking that we're terrible defensively. No scheme is gonna fix that.

No version of Randle was gonna do anything about it either.

Knicks wouldn't be playing Randle at the 5.

[Guano]

They shot 56% from 3 and were talking rim protection.

Yea, in light of what actually happened, I don't really follow that argument.

Seems disingenuous or even desperate.

All plays killing the Knicks were from screening action happening on the perimeter getting guys uncontested 3's.

Thibs has to implement a scheme to lock down the perimeter. What's happening is unacceptable.

Not much else needed to be said after this post

Today's game wasn't rim protection, it was giving up the most threes the Jazz have hit since 2022. A shocking number of them were on 1 pass off a screen because of how we defend screens. That keeps happening to us because Tom refuses to switch, it's why random bigs the last couple years would have career games against us from three. Tonight we were asking a 6'4" and 6'7" guys to go over a screen and then try and close out on a 7 footer who is one of the best catch and shoot 3 point shooters in the league. You have to switch against that, you live with them hitting Kessler on the roll and him making plays, or letting them get shots at the rim and trying to force them into long 2s

Our coach has the team selling out the 3 to protect the paint. We have a similar roster makeup as the Rockets, yet they are good defensively because they switch and they also put their center on the worst shooter when they can. At the most fundamental level we guard every team the same regardless of what they do well.

[Jalen Bluntson]

KAT's defense def has lost us games. Ex: Boston made it a mission to attack him every time

Our 3 point defense hasn't always been the best but we were able to live with that for years and still have a top 10 defense. Now it's just worse with no rim protection and you have our wings trying to help out KAT which is giving up even more 3's than we ever have along with awful rim protection. The center is called an anchor on defense for a reason and that's why they're always gonna get the most blame. Timberwolves have tried so many schemes with different coaches to try to make KAT work at the 5 and the best result they got from it was a 13th best defense for one season that couldn't get out the 1st round. You gotta play him with another big to make this work.

No. Boston shot at an historic level from deep against us. Not having a rim protector like Mitch is a problem because it can compound the problem of allowing too many open threes but, almost all of our losses have been due to great three point percentages at a high clip and short rotations. KAT being a poor/weak rim protector has not been the reason we lost games. Not even close.

Nah. They actually attacked him every time.

Read on Twitter

No defense against the hawks

Watch on YouTube

;t=165s

He just never puts a hand up. This has been going on forever.

Read on Twitter

Like I said before, if all of the media, fans around the league are talking about how awful he's been then there's truth to it. Our 3 point defense is gonna suffer even more because our wings are trying to help out KAT who's a liability protecting the rim.

They blew us out from the perimeter. Don't get it twisted. Even with Mitch we would lose games giving up too many threes. KAT being weak inside is not the main issue. It doesn't help but, we aren't losing games in the paint. It's all about open threes due to a weak defensive scheme and a short bench. Period.

Your criticism of KAT isn't wrong but, you're hanging on to it like it is killing us. It really isn't. We have ALL been talking about wide open three point shooting for years before he got here.

[KnicksGadfly]

Rim protection absolutely has an effect on letting teams go off from 3. Beyond shutting down drive and kick strategies, If there's a strong rim protector on the backend, you're going to see this team go another level defensively because our wings can actually take more risks and play closer and trust the guy behind them to pick guys up. They won't need to worry as much as getting blown past. Right now, our wings are actually our defense...they need to cover for KAT.

I actually think this is one of those games where Mitch might have made a difference, as someone who has Thibs' trust. There's always a trade-off, with Mitch clogging up the paint, but I think what we are missing right now is the ability to win dirty, especially when we look like dog-crap on offense. If we're not hitting those 3s and killing people offensively, we need to be able to grind out on defense, grab multiple offensive windows, muck the game up, etc. I really hope Mitch can return and stay healthy.

[Fat]

Get well soon Mitch

[Jalen Bluntson]

Wings trying to help out KAT because he can't protect the rim is giving up more 3's on top of that with zero rim protection. So it's not really shocking that we're terrible defensively. No scheme is gonna fix that.

No version of Randle was gonna do anything about it either.

Knicks wouldn't be playing Randle at the 5.

O
Yeah... it would be Sims. This team would be losing more in that scenario.

[HEZI]

They shot 56% from 3 and were talking rim protection.

Yea, in light of what actually happened, I don't really follow that argument.

Seems disingenuous or even desperate.

All plays killing the Knicks were from screening action happening on the perimeter getting guys uncontested 3's.

Thibs has to implement a scheme to lock down the perimeter. What's happening is unacceptable.

It’s like saying we shot 39-100 from the field and we are talking about our defense?

Yes obviously our offense was a huge issue, we settled for way too many outside shots and couldn’t make them besides OG. Offense was really terrible last night, again 39-100 from the field which included 51 three point attempts. Yet despite that the Jazz only made 2 total 3 pointers more than us. We made 17 and they made 19. But there more to it than that. We were terrible defensively all across the floor, they got into the paint at will, scored inside easily. They attempted and made more free throws. So there was a lot more to it than just we couldn’t guard the 3.