Game Thread: Knicks vs Wizards 8:00 Sat 3/22 MSG

[god shammgod]

Led us out of the mud into a treadmill team..... Also its hard to say the bones are bad when the are playing in the wrong positions.

Thibs coaches the knicks to the ECF he deserves to stay. If they flame out in either the first or second round, its time to go in a new direction.

so based on their roster and our roster we're supposed to beat the celtics in round 2 ? because nobody who analyzes basketball for a living would pick us over them

The fact is it is not ok to run this roster back with this coach who showed a lack of willingness to adjust to this roster strengths and weaknesses through the season. Blaming it on the roster completely takes away Thibs agency in how that roster was deployed.

There is always some excuse for why we shouldn't hold Thibs accountable.... Randle needs help (when Trae damn near beat the knicks by himself, cause Thibs let him hide defensively on Bullock) or oh no one can stop Jimmy (until he was stopped), or everyone got injured before the indy series (because everyone was tired), now its..... well we have no chance to beat the Celtics (because we can't defend the 3 from anybody). The knicks have given Thibs multiple rosters and he hasn't even gotten to the ECF yet with none of then,

At what point does anyone say.... maybe the regular season record doesn't matter if we cant get past the second round?

is our roster better than the celtics ? answer the question

[god shammgod]

thibs is like a b coach. could the team be slightly better with an a coach. sure. better than the celtics better ? nah. sorry realgm. wrong again.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

so based on their roster and our roster we're supposed to beat the celtics in round 2 ? because nobody who analyzes basketball for a living would pick us over them

The fact is it is not ok to run this roster back with this coach who showed a lack of willingness to adjust to this roster strengths and weaknesses through the season. Blaming it on the roster completely takes away Thibs agency in how that roster was deployed.

There is always some excuse for why we shouldn't hold Thibs accountable.... Randle needs help (when Trae damn near beat the knicks by himself, cause Thibs let him hide defensively on Bullock) or oh no one can stop Jimmy (until he was stopped), or everyone got injured before the indy series (because everyone was tired), now its..... well we have no chance to beat the Celtics (because we can't defend the 3 from anybody). The knicks have given Thibs multiple rosters and he hasn't even gotten to the ECF yet with none of then,

At what point does anyone say.... maybe the regular season record doesn't matter if we cant get past the second round?

is our roster better than the celtics ? answer the question

The Celtics aren't going to have a long shelf life.

Read on Twitter

We have a window, insulated by the fact that Brunson is a top 10 player that will be making less than Jalen Suggs next season. Why such a short view point? Why not retool the roster, and find a better coach who will make sure we're not 27th in threes attempted per game.

It's going to be the Cavs/Thunder for 2-3 years before the second apron puts them in hell as well, then Spurs + Random current young team, but as long as Brunson is making what he's making we have a leg up.

[TKKnicks1]

Fixed.

thibs is a b. could the team be slightly better with an a coach. sure. better than the celtics better ? nah. sorry realgm. wrong again.

[god shammgod]

The fact is it is not ok to run this roster back with this coach who showed a lack of willingness to adjust to this roster strengths and weaknesses through the season. Blaming it on the roster completely takes away Thibs agency in how that roster was deployed.

There is always some excuse for why we shouldn't hold Thibs accountable.... Randle needs help (when Trae damn near beat the knicks by himself, cause Thibs let him hide defensively on Bullock) or oh no one can stop Jimmy (until he was stopped), or everyone got injured before the indy series (because everyone was tired), now its..... well we have no chance to beat the Celtics (because we can't defend the 3 from anybody). The knicks have given Thibs multiple rosters and he hasn't even gotten to the ECF yet with none of then,

At what point does anyone say.... maybe the regular season record doesn't matter if we cant get past the second round?

is our roster better than the celtics ? answer the question

The Celtics aren't going to have a long shelf life.

Read on Twitter

We have a window, insulated by the fact that Brunson is a top 10 player that will be making less than Jalen Suggs next season. Why such a short view point? Why not retool the roster, and find a better coach who will make sure we're not 27th in threes attempted per game.

It's going to be the Cavs/Thunder for 2-3 years before the second apron puts them in hell as well, as long as Brunson is making what he's making we have a leg up.

i mentioned this in another thread. this was the best thing that happened to the knicks this year. the celtics are too expensive to stay together.

and i said many times, fire him. i don't care. but don't tell me that basically we'd be winning a championship with a better coach this year. we wouldn't. the celtics have a starting lineup where everyone can play defense well, everyone can shoot the 3, almost everyone can create for themselves. we just don't have that level of talent. we have to face them in round 2 and we're losing in round 2. with any coach.

[WargamesX]

so based on their roster and our roster we're supposed to beat the celtics in round 2 ? because nobody who analyzes basketball for a living would pick us over them

The fact is it is not ok to run this roster back with this coach who showed a lack of willingness to adjust to this roster strengths and weaknesses through the season. Blaming it on the roster completely takes away Thibs agency in how that roster was deployed.

There is always some excuse for why we shouldn't hold Thibs accountable.... Randle needs help (when Trae damn near beat the knicks by himself, cause Thibs let him hide defensively on Bullock) or oh no one can stop Jimmy (until he was stopped), or everyone got injured before the indy series (because everyone was tired), now its..... well we have no chance to beat the Celtics (because we can't defend the 3 from anybody). The knicks have given Thibs multiple rosters and he hasn't even gotten to the ECF yet with none of then,

At what point does anyone say.... maybe the regular season record doesn't matter if we cant get past the second round?

is our roster better than the celtics ? answer the question

Ok the celtics have the better roster but I would also argue then a smarter coach would say.... Lets avoid the celtics to the ECF and play the Cavs to see if the Celtics get banged up. Look what happened to us last year.... but we know Thibs isn't going to play guys to get a favorable seeding. He'll run the starters into the ground for a better season record.

Also to answer your likely next question I do think the knicks have a better roster than the Cavs, but I don't think they can get through them specifically because the cavs have better coaching. Struggling to win games now instead of playing the bench more to maybe fall into the 4/5 seed and avoid playing the Celtics in the second round only serves the purpose of saying "Well the roster wasn't good enough to get out of the second round".

[Iron Mantis]

Led us out of the mud into a treadmill team..... Also its hard to say the bones are bad when the are playing in the wrong positions.

Thibs coaches the knicks to the ECF he deserves to stay. If they flame out in either the first or second round, its time to go in a new direction.

so based on their roster and our roster we're supposed to beat the celtics in round 2 ? because nobody who analyzes basketball for a living would pick us over them

The fact is it is not ok to run this roster back with this coach who showed a lack of willingness to adjust to this roster strengths and weaknesses through the season. Blaming it on the roster completely takes away Thibs agency in how that roster was deployed.

There is always some excuse for why we shouldn't hold Thibs accountable.... Randle needs help (when Trae damn near beat the knicks by himself, cause Thibs let him hide defensively on Bullock) or oh no one can stop Jimmy (until he was stopped), or everyone got injured before the indy series (because everyone was tired), now its..... well we have no chance to beat the Celtics (because we can't defend the 3 from anybody). The knicks have given Thibs multiple rosters and he hasn't even gotten to the ECF yet with none of then,

At what point does anyone say.... maybe the regular season record doesn't matter if we cant get past the second round?

We can finally blame Thibs if he can't get past the second round only if Leon first gives him 5 All-NBA All-Star players in the starting lineup and 3 All-Stars on the bench to round out his rotation.

If Leon can't get that done for Thibs, then it's not fair to blame Thibs for being a perennial first or second-round flameout coach.

Having only a mere two All-Star starters is a fatally flawed talentless roster, with no potential, that has no business even getting past the first round.

Scapegoating Thibs for underperforming when he has this 1-15 G-league lottery roster just shows how unappreciative this fan base is. All season He's tried everything with all of these players and experimented in every way with offensive and defensive schemes and they've just gotten worse and worse.

[god shammgod]

The fact is it is not ok to run this roster back with this coach who showed a lack of willingness to adjust to this roster strengths and weaknesses through the season. Blaming it on the roster completely takes away Thibs agency in how that roster was deployed.

There is always some excuse for why we shouldn't hold Thibs accountable.... Randle needs help (when Trae damn near beat the knicks by himself, cause Thibs let him hide defensively on Bullock) or oh no one can stop Jimmy (until he was stopped), or everyone got injured before the indy series (because everyone was tired), now its..... well we have no chance to beat the Celtics (because we can't defend the 3 from anybody). The knicks have given Thibs multiple rosters and he hasn't even gotten to the ECF yet with none of then,

At what point does anyone say.... maybe the regular season record doesn't matter if we cant get past the second round?

is our roster better than the celtics ? answer the question

Ok the celtics have the better roster but I would also argue then a smarter coach would say.... Lets avoid the celtics to the ECF and play the Cavs to see if the Celtics get banged up. Look what happened to us last year.... but we know Thibs isn't going to play guys to get a favorable seeding. He'll run the starters into the ground for a better season record.

Also to answer your question I do think the knicks have a better roster than the Cavs, but I don't think they can get through them specifically because the cavs have better coaching. Struggling to win games now instead of playing the bench more to maybe fall into the 4/5 seed and avoid playing the Celtics in the second round only serves the purpose of saying "Well the roster wasn't good enough to get out of the second round".

the cavs have gotten better but i'm still not convinced we can't beat them. mobley and allen were just getting bullied by zubac the other day the way mitch did it to them 2 years ago. start our double big lineup and that takes away a big advantage from them. they have no real perimeter or wing defenders of note. they can't coach their way out of that. it wont be easy like last time but could go either way. unfortunately we'll never know it seems.

and avoiding the celtics is a front office decision, not a coaching one

[NoDopeOnSundays]

is our roster better than the celtics ? answer the question

The Celtics aren't going to have a long shelf life.

Read on Twitter

We have a window, insulated by the fact that Brunson is a top 10 player that will be making less than Jalen Suggs next season. Why such a short view point? Why not retool the roster, and find a better coach who will make sure we're not 27th in threes attempted per game.

It's going to be the Cavs/Thunder for 2-3 years before the second apron puts them in hell as well, as long as Brunson is making what he's making we have a leg up.

i mentioned this in another thread. this was the best thing that happened to the knicks this year. the celtics are too expensive to stay together.

and i said many times, fire him. i don't care. but don't tell me that basically we'd be winning a championship with a better coach this year. we wouldn't. the celtics have a starting lineup where everyone can play the defense, everyone can shoot the 3, almost everyone can create for themselves. we just don't have that level of talent. we have to face them in round 2 and we're losing in round 2. with any coach.

Who has them winning a title this year? The point is that they should be better than they are right now, the offense is spiraling and was doing so with Brunson still in the lineup. We went from a fake contender, to now people being worried about the Pistons in the first round. A team built this way should be shooting threes like their lives depend on it, high volume, hunting the shot almost every time down. That is one clear and obvious coaching change that another man/woman could make and have big impact, especially since this team rebounds well. Instead, we're still playing junk ball offense that relies on cuts, isos, post ups and putbacks, it's like building a race car for turns and complaining that it doesn't run the quarter mile fast enough. This is an F1 car, we need an F1 driver, not Ricky Bobby.

The Celtics won't be around as long as people think, look at how much they've rested Jrue & KP this season, or the fact Horford is going to be an UFA and is turning 39. We shouldn't be building with them in mind, I'm more confident in this team retooling and beating the Cavs moving forward than I am the Celtics, but with Thibs I have no confidence in this team at all. This team wont be healthy in April next season if he's the coach, just like they weren't last year, the year before, or 2 years before that.

[WargamesX]

is our roster better than the celtics ? answer the question

Ok the celtics have the better roster but I would also argue then a smarter coach would say.... Lets avoid the celtics to the ECF and play the Cavs to see if the Celtics get banged up. Look what happened to us last year.... but we know Thibs isn't going to play guys to get a favorable seeding. He'll run the starters into the ground for a better season record.

Also to answer your question I do think the knicks have a better roster than the Cavs, but I don't think they can get through them specifically because the cavs have better coaching. Struggling to win games now instead of playing the bench more to maybe fall into the 4/5 seed and avoid playing the Celtics in the second round only serves the purpose of saying "Well the roster wasn't good enough to get out of the second round".

the cavs have gotten better but i'm still not convinced we can't beat them. mobley and allen were just getting bullied by zubac the other day the way mitch did it to them 2 years ago. start our double big lineup and that takes away a big advantage from them. they have no real perimeter or wing defenders of note. they can't coach their way out of that. it wont be easy like last time but could go either way. unfortunately we'll never know it seems.

and avoiding the celtics is a front office decision, not a coaching one

I agree, I think we match up well if we double Big and I know thibs is experimenting but I would like to see dedication to that. Either give us that of Deuce joining the starters with Brunson and Hart to the bench once Brunson gets back. I also don't know if its a FO decision. There seems to be some clear lines between the FO and the Coach and whileI cant prove it I think Thibs is allowed to coach how he see's fit. We seen the FO get way to many player that Thibs will just outright sit and we'll here the FO is annoyed but they will do absolutely squat because Thibs coaches as he see's fit.

[robillionaire]

We should buy a pick and draft karter knox

[Wildcat]

My enthusiasm is so low right now. Had tickets and I was like, "Pass". Rather get drunk at home and boo them then be there in person and get escorted by Dolan's security.

I mean, could be infinitely worse. I could be a Dallas fan.

[knicks94]

Knicks players will definitely shoot lights out in this one and then go the next several games averaging 42 points in the first half.

[Wildcat]

Thibs sticking to Hart/Deuce starting lineup (yeah, I know it's stupid to even assume he would change it).

[god shammgod]

Thibs sticking to Hart/Deuce starting lineup (yeah, I know it's stupid to even assume he would change it).

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[Clyde_Style]

Deuce out.

Orc thinks "Kolek? Nah."

P.S. and wise guys, you can calm TF down. Just minutes, not even talking about starting.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

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[knicks94]

If Thibs had to choose between Kolek and Mitch to play the PG he would choose the latter.

[MrDollarBills]

This will be interesting

[Wildcat]

Thibs sticking to Hart/Deuce starting lineup (yeah, I know it's stupid to even assume he would change it).

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Well, that's better than the usual. Chance to see Kolek play. Say what you want about Payne, I trust him more to run PG then Deuce.