The Knicks have won 9 in a row!

[Jalen Bluntson]

Good to see the Knicks finding a groove and an identity to help maintain it. Make no mistake, this team has a foundation forming as we speak. Early this season it didn't look good.

Brunson/Grimes are looking like possibly becoming one of the top BC in the league. That's a lot to build on right there. Time will tell. Brunson already playing like an All star and Grimes has all the tools to get there. They are off to an amazing start so far. Perfect fit together and they have the rest of the team playing proper roles.

The rest of the rotation players are upping their value for whatever star trade may appear next summer. Otherwise you keep them together and if they can maintain a playoff level team and make some noise, stars will want to come play here. We may have a couple on the team already too.

Nice run against some banged up teams but, the last 11 games or so have all been really good games with the exception of the Dallas blowout right before this run started. They are winning thebganes they should and destroying teams while doing it at times. That's called progress around here. Why all the hate?

Hope they can keep it up all season. There are a bunch of games they can win in the next 20 game stretch or so. It gets a little more difficult later in the season though. Fun times.

Nets fans talking trash and they have exactly ONE game on us.

[RAPSinCAPS]

They play defense, strong young talent, not bogged down with bloated contracts, and have all their draft capital. They have like the best foundation to build on lol, what's to hate on?

That Grimes kid looking like a real gem.

[cam24thomas]

Nets are 9-1 in their past 10 games. Have won 6 in a row

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

The Nets make more noise than just about anyone, probably the most talented and the most controversial big3 in basketball !!!

[iLLmatic860]

Nets are 9-1 in their past 10 games. Have won 6 in a row

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

The Nets make more noise than just about anyone, probably the most talented and the most controversial big3 in basketball !!!

LOL that has to be fake??? Ben scored 58?

[SelfishPlayer]

Jalen Brunson is a bigger winner than Luka Doncic?

[cam24thomas]

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

The Nets make more noise than just about anyone, probably the most talented and the most controversial big3 in basketball !!!

LOL that has to be fake??? Ben scored 58?

He did in my NBA2k19, and he could in real life too, he's already had a 42 point game at Utah....

[DrCoach]

And they have up to potentially 4 first rd picks this draft

[Duffman100]

The Nets make more noise than just about anyone, probably the most talented and the most controversial big3 in basketball !!!

LOL that has to be fake??? Ben scored 58?

He did in my NBA2k19, and he could in real life too, he's already had a 42 point game at Utah....

Sweet, I just loaded up some 2K and Pascal dropped 80 points.

Here we come!

[iLLmatic860]

The Nets make more noise than just about anyone, probably the most talented and the most controversial big3 in basketball !!!

LOL that has to be fake??? Ben scored 58?

He did in my NBA2k19, and he could in real life too, he's already had a 42 point game at Utah....

I play myleague online and Ben has always been a cheat code lol

idk how he is this year but last season he was a beast.too tall for small guards. too quick for power fowards get to the rim whenever and is the only player capable of stopping greek

[cam24thomas]

Sorry for bringing up Nets so much everybody, I know this is a Knicks thread so I won't mention Nets or BS again

idk how he is this year but last season he was a beast.too tall for small guards. too quick for power fowards get to the rim whenever and is the only player capable of stopping greek

This season Ben had a 22 point game vs. Memphis, on 11-13 shooting, so he's still capable of scoring big, but he feels obligated to give KD and Kyrie the ball, so I don't think he'll attempt enough shots/dunks to score big this season. But if they trade Kyrie then Ben will be able to score a lot more, plus he'll have the ball in his hands more.

[Dirk]

Sorry for bringing up Nets so much, I know this is a Knicks thread so I won't mention Nets or BS again

Don't mention Ben's stats from NBA2K either.

[iLLmatic860]

Sorry for bringing up Nets so much everybody, I know this is a Knicks thread so I won't mention Nets or BS again

idk how he is this year but last season he was a beast.too tall for small guards. too quick for power fowards get to the rim whenever and is the only player capable of stopping greek

This season Ben had a 22 point game vs. Memphis, on 11-13 shooting, so he's still capable of scoring big, but he feels obligated to give KD and Kyrie the ball, so I don't think he'll attempt enough shots/dunks to score big this season. But if they trade Kyrie then Ben will be able to score a lot more, plus he'll have the ball in his hands more.

I was talking about 2k22 lol..Havent used him much

But I dont think he cares to score. Hes happy being a playmaking defender

[RHODEY]

They play defense, strong young talent, not bogged down with bloated contracts, and have all their draft capital. They have like the best foundation to build on lol, what's to hate on?

That Grimes kid looking like a real gem.

Respect, you are an unbiased Raptor fan.

[cgf]

They play defense, strong young talent, not bogged down with bloated contracts, and have all their draft capital. They have like the best foundation to build on lol, what's to hate on?

That Grimes kid looking like a real gem.

I'm very happy with where we are now...+4 on FRPs with Randle (28) & Brunson (26) being the only rotation players over 24yo; Julius being our only player making top-10 money at his position, and he's just barely in at #10 for PFs...but we lack the kind of bluechip / franchise piece that you need to win big in this league.

We do have a lot of different pieces that could be traded for one of those, if a title-caliber #1-option hits the trade market over the next few years...but until we can trade for that Booker / Zion / Tatum / Luka, the roster has a firm ceiling. Especially with the pressure from ownership not to tank.

[ItsDanger]

Haven't watched Knicks on national TV in a long time, but the crew seemed disappointed the Knicks won.

[R-DAWG]

35% through the season and the Knicks are 5 games over .500

The Knicks have a relatively easy schedule for the next 17 games - I think it's realistic that they go 11-6 over that stretch, brining them to a record of 29-19 entering the hard part of the schedule. At that point, if they can round out the season playing .450 ball, they should be at 45 wins and in the 6th seed.

Lots of 2021 Knicks vibes with Jalen Brunson being a more durable version of what Derrick Rose meant to that team, Grimes and McBride replacing Bullock and Payton, and Julius Randle looking more like the 2021 version than the 2022 version.

[Pointgod]

I was skeptical and still am, but good for the Knicks. Nice to see them have some success, although I get shades of the Knicks team from two years ago that got blown out by the Hawks in the playoffs. But hey they deserve credit for making the playoffs in the first place.

[Johnny Bball]

https://sports.yahoo.com/msg-uses-facial-recognition-to-kick-out-attorney-whose-firm-is-in-litigation-with-james-dolans-company-173048452.html

This is bad karma

They said my firm was on the attorney exclusion list and escorted me out,” Conlon told the New York Post. “I was caught off-guard — I just complied with what they asked me to do and I left my daughter inside the venue with her troops. I had driven multiple people in my car so I couldn’t leave to go home."

Conlon was forced to wait outside while her 9-year-old daughter’s Girl Scout troop watched the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

[Scalabrine]

Thibodeaus Teams usually break down at some point of the season. It aint even Midseason yet. I would pump the brakes a bit

Can you be more detailed about this?

He's one of the most winningest coaches in NBA history.

Thibs is one of the winningest coaches in NBA history? That's a bit of an overstatement. Thibs has been successful, but let's be reasonable.

One of the biggest Thibs criticisms is that he plays his starters heavy minutes, and they can tend to wear down. Having said that, Randle is 28, Brunson is 26, Barrett is 22 and Robinson is 24. So it's still a very young team when you mix in the rest of the rotation with Grimes (22), McBride (22), Toppin (24) and Hartenstein (24).

Look, the narrative would be different if you replace one of the top 3 with a 2nd-3rd year guy on a rookie scale deal performing at the same level with untapped upside. But it doesn't change the fact that this is still a young team, even if it's high floor/low ceiling treadmill status.

You know, I thought he was actually higher than he is, last season bumped him down a few notches, but he still has the 28th highest winning percentage in NBA history for coaches that have coached more than 3 seasons. Thats pretty damn good when you consider the amount of coaches there have been in the NBA's history.

And I agree with you that this core is not a contender. What the Knicks truly need right now is to just at least be competent and good. Get some excitement going around the team and the fanbase. Build an identity. Build some trust in the front office around the league. It's been decades of incompetence at this point. Making the playoffs with one of the youngest rotations in the league +11 future firsts, and some tradable contracts, is a totally fine place to be for this franchise. The amount of negativity around what theyre doing right now in this thread is kind of insane, especially the Thibs slander. His entire tenure here is the most competitive and together we've been in a long long time. We have an identity. I don't remember having a 3 year stretch of competence and a single voice leading with a consistent message since Jeff Van Gundy was our coach way back when I was in High School...that was a LOOONG time ago in NBA years.

[Scalabrine]

I was skeptical and still am, but good for the Knicks. Nice to see them have some success, although I get shades of the Knicks team from two years ago that got blown out by the Hawks in the playoffs. But hey they deserve credit for making the playoffs in the first place.

The shades are because we are a very similar style team. That was only 2 years ago after all. We're still a defense first team thats gonna be near the top of the league in rebounding, points allowed in the paint, free throw attempts, as Zach Lowe put it, "all of the power stats".

The difference is that our offense isn't 100% reliant on Julius Randle doing everything anymore. Brunson has been just as good if not better offensively and during this particular stretch he's been elite in both PnR and ISO possessions. Brunson is replacing Elfrid Payton in the lineup from that year btw. RJ is stronger and has more experience. Mitch Robinson is a legit lob threat and one of the best offensive rebounders in the league. Unlike Stonehands Noel who was the starter that postseason, you can't just completely ignore him on offense. Grimes knows how to put the ball on the floor and is actually a very good passer. He replaced Reggie Bullock who was a solid defensive player (so is Grimes) but you pretty much run him off the 3 point line and he's useless.

There are more ways to score than just ISO Randle and let him find the best shot. Which was obviously totally shut down when the Hawks just triple teamed him every possession. Last year we tried to combat that by adding offensive threats like Kemba and Fournier, but they just sank our defense and it muddled up the offense with too much your turn, my turn.

TLDR: Still an elite defense, but now a multi-dimensional offense.