5 games in: Biggest early surprises with KAT and Bridges so far

[Wildcat]

I thought Bridges would be more aggressive on offense. Still very early with time to gel but I thought of him as our bonafide third option competing for 2nd.

That's an incredibly odd take when your 1st and 2nd scoring options are JB and KAT. Even if Randle was still here, Bridges would be the third option.

Yeah well I think of him and what we gave up to get him higher than your typical 90s two stars system with your third option being at the Detlef Shremp level. He was Brooklyns best player. Id like to imagine he has it in him that we could classify it a big 3. He had a 26ppg season. That's really what I'm saying. And either this offense ain't finding him or he himself is resigned to act like he's the same player from Phoenix. But 5 draft picks sortve dictate we need more from him

Respect on the Detlef reference. But Detlef capped out at 19 PPG and he was actually the 2nd leading scorer at that time. Once Kemp came into his own, Detlef as a third option was basically a 17 PPG guy. We're more or less there on a Bridges playing on a team with chemistry issues. Picks given up won't be equivalent to production. You're not going to get a 20 PPG guy. JB too high usage for that. That's why Jordan had himself and Pipen as the only 20 PPG guys on that team.

[Chanel Bomber]

Bridges being a liability on defense. I didn't necessarily expect him to be a dominant defensive force but I thought he would at least elevate our defense. So far, he has looked soft, and even disinterested at times.

KAT contributing on the offensive glass. It's of course a byproduct of playing the 5 in Thibs's system but he has been solid on the offensive boards. The elite offensive efficiency and lack of rim protection don't come as a surprise.

[knicks94]

Everytime Knicks Real Gm gets excited over an offseason move I just know that move will be an absolute failure. I noticed this trend right after we acquired Kevin Seraphin.

[sol537]

Conclusion so far: KAT at the 5 defensively is not the answer and we can't win a chip with him playing any or many minutes at the defensive 5. Rim protection is non-existent. If we switch to a switch-heavy defense, we can survive some minutes with him at the defensive 5 I suppose but not extended minutes. The 5-out dream is dead. Playing KAT at the 4 might be our best path forward... like the Minny approach. Hart, Bridges, and OG will have their defensive impact increase when Precious/Mitch are back and patrolling the paint. The question is... can we still compete with BOS/OKC without 5-out? I'm not sure...

[spree2kawhi]

Conclusion so far: KAT at the 5 defensively is not the answer and we can't win a chip with him playing any or many minutes at the defensive 5. Rim protection is non-existent. If we switch to a switch-heavy defense, we can survive some minutes with him at the defensive 5 I suppose but not extended minutes. The 5-out dream is dead. Playing KAT at the 4 might be our best path forward... like the Minny approach. Hart, Bridges, and OG will have their defensive impact increase when Precious/Mitch are back and patrolling the paint. The question is... can we still compete with BOS/OKC without 5-out? I'm not sure...

I don’t agree. While I’d start Achiuwa next to Towns instead of Hart, I’m convinced Towns should play regular minutes at center. This team will start winning eventually and y’all need to relax. I’m afraid we may not win against Milwaukee either, but we don’t have Achiuwa and Robinson in the lineup, so let’s not act like that doesn’t matter.

[BowlRips]

Conclusion so far: KAT at the 5 defensively is not the answer and we can't win a chip with him playing any or many minutes at the defensive 5. Rim protection is non-existent. If we switch to a switch-heavy defense, we can survive some minutes with him at the defensive 5 I suppose but not extended minutes. The 5-out dream is dead. Playing KAT at the 4 might be our best path forward... like the Minny approach. Hart, Bridges, and OG will have their defensive impact increase when Precious/Mitch are back and patrolling the paint. The question is... can we still compete with BOS/OKC without 5-out? I'm not sure...

LOL dead.
We are 6 games in. Not considering any time for the team to gel both offensively and defensively makes no sense, considering the the massive changes the roster went through.

The whole point of KAT is that he gives you the flexibility to play the 4 or the 5 depending on matchups and circumstance. And I think what the Knicks valued was their ability to match up and be flexible in the playoffs for it.

I don't think it was or is anyone's expectation within the front office that KAT would function entirely as a Center. There was always the assumption that at some point Mitch or Precious would be next to him at some point depending on matchup.

He can and will stay play 16-24 mins a night at Center and maybe more.

[spree2kawhi]

Conclusion so far: KAT at the 5 defensively is not the answer and we can't win a chip with him playing any or many minutes at the defensive 5. Rim protection is non-existent. If we switch to a switch-heavy defense, we can survive some minutes with him at the defensive 5 I suppose but not extended minutes. The 5-out dream is dead. Playing KAT at the 4 might be our best path forward... like the Minny approach. Hart, Bridges, and OG will have their defensive impact increase when Precious/Mitch are back and patrolling the paint. The question is... can we still compete with BOS/OKC without 5-out? I'm not sure...

LOL dead.
We are 6 games in. Not considering any time for the team to gel both offensively and defensively makes no sense, considering the the massive changes the roster went through.

The whole point of KAT is that he gives you the flexibility to play the 4 or the 5 depending on matchups and circumstance. And I think what the Knicks valued was their ability to match up and be flexible in the playoffs for it.

I don't think it was or is anyone's expectation within the front office that KAT would function entirely as a Center. There was always the assumption that at some point Mitch or Precious would be next to him at some point depending on matchup.

He can and will stay play 16-24 mins a night at Center and maybe more.

100%. Folks need to relax.

[Buttah304]

If you look deep into the 23/24 Knicks Data and filter it by 2 player combinations who shared the court for over 100min, Randle & Sims had the worst defensive rating at 125.5

So again, any idea that Sims could have held down the fort at the 5 for a few months while Mitch rehabs isn’t grounded in reality. What makes matters worse is when you paired him with Randle at the 4.

We’ll always be breaking down this trade which is excellent - that’s why I love posting here. But I really feel that a major part of the allure of getting KAT is that he could interchangeably play the 4 or 5 if you have the healthy pieces in place to do it. We’re only through 7 games here.

[GettinitDone]

I'm actually glad we face adversity at the beginning, not at the end/ near playoffs...

Most/ almost all championship teams face adversity at some point in their seasons. Overcome together and that's how camaraderie is built

[prophet_of_rage]

Conclusion so far: KAT at the 5 defensively is not the answer and we can't win a chip with him playing any or many minutes at the defensive 5. Rim protection is non-existent. If we switch to a switch-heavy defense, we can survive some minutes with him at the defensive 5 I suppose but not extended minutes. The 5-out dream is dead. Playing KAT at the 4 might be our best path forward... like the Minny approach. Hart, Bridges, and OG will have their defensive impact increase when Precious/Mitch are back and patrolling the paint. The question is... can we still compete with BOS/OKC without 5-out? I'm not sure...

What magic do you think 5 out is? It isn't an unbeatable offensive set.

Sent from my SM-S9080 using RealGM mobile app

[sol537]

Conclusion so far: KAT at the 5 defensively is not the answer and we can't win a chip with him playing any or many minutes at the defensive 5. Rim protection is non-existent. If we switch to a switch-heavy defense, we can survive some minutes with him at the defensive 5 I suppose but not extended minutes. The 5-out dream is dead. Playing KAT at the 4 might be our best path forward... like the Minny approach. Hart, Bridges, and OG will have their defensive impact increase when Precious/Mitch are back and patrolling the paint. The question is... can we still compete with BOS/OKC without 5-out? I'm not sure...

I don’t agree. While I’d start Achiuwa next to Towns instead of Hart, I’m convinced Towns should play regular minutes at center. This team will start winning eventually and y’all need to relax. I’m afraid we may not win against Milwaukee either, but we don’t have Achiuwa and Robinson in the lineup, so let’s not act like that doesn’t matter.

KAT's defense is unbelievably bad in drop coverage and as a rim protector. No team can consistently win in the playoffs or against decent opponents with KAT as your last line of defense. And we're not even taking advantage of the 5-out offense (yet) so it seems like a waste to have KAT play full time 5. Opportunistically here and there... sure. Against certain teams, maybe. Most nights... doesn't seem to be sustainable IMO.

[spree2kawhi]

Everytime Knicks Real Gm gets excited over an offseason move I just know that move will be an absolute failure. I noticed this trend right after we acquired Kevin Seraphin.

But this has clearly been a very good trade. You will want to complain about the defense, but Randle is currently proving to be even worse defensively. If you can only value a trade for the perfect player, then let me tell you that Jokic isn’t athletic or a good defender, Giannis can’t shoot, Doncic is slow and even worse on defense, Curry can’t guard anybody either, LeBron can’t shoot, and Kobe… unfortunately…

Towns has been playing like an MVP. He has already outplayed the best version Randle has ever been here simply because of quick decision making, ball movement and efficient scoring without dominating the ball. And if you cannot appreciate that, then I assume you haven’t played ball yourself.

[LookToShoot]

Conclusion so far: KAT at the 5 defensively is not the answer and we can't win a chip with him playing any or many minutes at the defensive 5. Rim protection is non-existent. If we switch to a switch-heavy defense, we can survive some minutes with him at the defensive 5 I suppose but not extended minutes. The 5-out dream is dead. Playing KAT at the 4 might be our best path forward... like the Minny approach. Hart, Bridges, and OG will have their defensive impact increase when Precious/Mitch are back and patrolling the paint. The question is... can we still compete with BOS/OKC without 5-out? I'm not sure...

If you have really good perimeter defense, rim protection isn’t that important. Bridges has to be better, he wasn’t brought here to be a scorer. He got spoiled in Brooklyn.

[thebuzzardman]

Surprised Bridges a below average defender

[KnixinSix]

Conclusion so far: KAT at the 5 defensively is not the answer and we can't win a chip with him playing any or many minutes at the defensive 5. Rim protection is non-existent. If we switch to a switch-heavy defense, we can survive some minutes with him at the defensive 5 I suppose but not extended minutes. The 5-out dream is dead. Playing KAT at the 4 might be our best path forward... like the Minny approach. Hart, Bridges, and OG will have their defensive impact increase when Precious/Mitch are back and patrolling the paint. The question is... can we still compete with BOS/OKC without 5-out? I'm not sure...

If you have really good perimeter defense, rim protection isn’t that important. Bridges has to be better, he wasn’t brought here to be a scorer. He got spoiled in Brooklyn.

I think Bridges consistency on D will come. He just needs to settle in

[R-DAWG]

Mikal Bridges isn’t a shooting guard. He doesn’t have the handles to be a secondary ball handler. He’s a small forward.

Based on what we have seen so far he’s been the 4th option guy from Phoenix, not the elite scorer he was in Brooklyn for 6 weeks a few year ago.

Had we not mortgaged the future for him none of this would matter. Now, since we did, this trade is looking like the starting point of the next disastrous decade of Knicks basketball.

It’s not that Bridges has been bad. Bridges has been Bridges. Not his fault, but the residual effects both short term and long term of making the trade have been a disaster so far.

[Nazrmohamed]

That's an incredibly odd take when your 1st and 2nd scoring options are JB and KAT. Even if Randle was still here, Bridges would be the third option.

Yeah well I think of him and what we gave up to get him higher than your typical 90s two stars system with your third option being at the Detlef Shremp level. He was Brooklyns best player. Id like to imagine he has it in him that we could classify it a big 3. He had a 26ppg season. That's really what I'm saying. And either this offense ain't finding him or he himself is resigned to act like he's the same player from Phoenix. But 5 draft picks sortve dictate we need more from him

Respect on the Detlef reference. But Detlef capped out at 19 PPG and he was actually the 2nd leading scorer at that time. Once Kemp came into his own, Detlef as a third option was basically a 17 PPG guy. We're more or less there on a Bridges playing on a team with chemistry issues. Picks given up won't be equivalent to production. You're not going to get a 20 PPG guy. JB too high usage for that. That's why Jordan had himself and Pipen as the only 20 PPG guys on that team.

Well then that speaks to what I said about us finding him. Maybe Jalens usage is too high. I know Jalen is a good player but perhaps. Just perhaps we have overrated his ability to......not to carry a team because he has. Just remember so has Julius. It was a job to be filled and it got filled. Look, I'm not trying to diminish guys, but rather to say that we got talent now. We don't have to overload Jalen with duties, we don't have to over use KAT and we sure don't have to be resigned to utilize Bridges as some role player. I wouldn't mind if when the dust settled he was actually at 18pts. It's just the vibe, as you said chemistry and the coaching. Thibs coaches like he can't look past 2 main guys and 3 role players. Whether it be in a bigger lineup or a wide open offense. Shoot, in an open offense it should actually be easier to get a third guy involved at a high level but Bridges has to perform too. A d you're right, he's never gonna truly live up to 5 picks but consider Paul George. Hurt right now but you know if he was healthy his mindset would be domination. It's not a horrible thing that Bridges is a team player but even so to my original point. He's gotta get more aggressive.

[3toheadmelo]

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[Dubious Handles]

KAT is bad defensively at the 5 sure, but that wasnt the plan at all. In small bursts, it should be fine. Need a reliable defensive 5 next to him, someone like Mitch..... he's been a pleasant surprise imo.

Bridges however not his fault, but imagine having that stockpile of picks with Giannis available on the low-key

[R-DAWG]

Conclusion so far: KAT at the 5 defensively is not the answer and we can't win a chip with him playing any or many minutes at the defensive 5. Rim protection is non-existent. If we switch to a switch-heavy defense, we can survive some minutes with him at the defensive 5 I suppose but not extended minutes. The 5-out dream is dead. Playing KAT at the 4 might be our best path forward... like the Minny approach. Hart, Bridges, and OG will have their defensive impact increase when Precious/Mitch are back and patrolling the paint. The question is... can we still compete with BOS/OKC without 5-out? I'm not sure...

LOL dead.
We are 6 games in. Not considering any time for the team to gel both offensively and defensively makes no sense, considering the the massive changes the roster went through.

The whole point of KAT is that he gives you the flexibility to play the 4 or the 5 depending on matchups and circumstance. And I think what the Knicks valued was their ability to match up and be flexible in the playoffs for it.

I don't think it was or is anyone's expectation within the front office that KAT would function entirely as a Center. There was always the assumption that at some point Mitch or Precious would be next to him at some point depending on matchup.

He can and will stay play 16-24 mins a night at Center and maybe more.

I think our team needs Mitchell Robinson/Duce McBride to be what Shane Battier/Udonis Hasslem were with the Lebron Heat. Switch up the starting lineup depending on matchups. If you recall, Bosh was similar to KAT that he was an offensive big who they found a way to get away with at C. The OP might be correct that Towns as the full time C isn't ideal, but a world where he gets half his minutes there works.