PG: KNICKS Knock-Out Embiid's 76ers

[thebuzzardman]

Ten games in. 5 & 5. I know we're a Playoff team but not sure where we fall on the mediocre-to-really-good scale. Well short of last February right now, for sure.

8th or 9th seed

[stuporman]

How can a guy who has a full foot and at least 75lbs on another player bounce off him like he ran into a wall...dude literally jumped to the ground and the refs reward that faking fool. That was some surreal isht.

[KnixinSix]

Morning thoughts.

1.The assistant coach who is in charge of replays needs a raise. Great call by him last night challenging that KAT foul that was overturned!

2.Is Jared McCain related to someone at TNT? Jesus Christ they were knobbing the kid every chance they got!

3.Brunson will be fine. He finished strong last night with 10 points in the 4th. I am starting to wonder if his hand is not fully healed cause the jumper looks a bit off but I also see him thinking too much out there. But he'll be aight. He's Jalen **** Brunson. Mr. I averaged 40 ppg in the playoffs.

4.Sims is giving us some nice minutes as of late with good defense, easy dunks and offensive rebounds. Which is all we need from him.

5.We outscored Philly 33-24 in the 4th and outrebounded them 48-40 which are great signs.

6.The same asshats that trash Brunson and Thibs will also turn on KAT and OG the first chance they get. You guys and gals are an embarrassment to the fan base and if I could somehow ban you from this fandom, I would!

7. I really hate and despise Embiid! There is a lot of Alonzo Mourning in that fool.

To me, here are the 4 main things holding us back from maximizing our immense potential as a team. And all have medium to high percentages of getting worked out prior to the all-star break:

1. Brunson finding his game. As the point guard/floor general with 4 of 5 new starters this takes some time. He also may as you mention, be dealing with some sort of injury.

2. Chemistry and system adjustments (team continuing to gel together). We have been killing Thibs a bit and some may be justified but some of it also is him figuring out what he can and can't do with this group of players. It will probably take some more time so don't be surprised if there is still some more up and down in the next 10-15 games or so. Also right or wrong, he loves his drop coverage and was trying to see just how much he can rely on it. He is quickly figuring out he needs to rely much more on switching and using KAT more as a hedging and blitzing guy and help defender (vs drop back pure rim protection). With that said, He can re-introduce it or mix it in more when Precious and/or Mitch come back. Which brings us the point #3.

3. The need for an elite rim protector. While some games we will be able to get away with playing KAT major minutes at the 5 (like last night with a clearly rusty Embiid) there will be others that high level rim protection will be a big need for us defensively. We all know Thibs loves his drop coverage and when we have an elite rim protector out there couple with some wing defenders, it works phenomenally.

4. Increased Depth. Related to 3. Depth will immediately be better when Precious comes back. And he will be a big step up in rim protection vs Sims. Now Precious is not Mitch Robinson here but it will help. Also the new guys aren't getting played enough and/or have been hurt. Thibs seemed to make an effort to put some of them in and we got Payne back. Once Mitch and Precious return we will have a pretty decent bench with depth that THibs trusts as well.

Bottomline:
I am very bullish on the team because we clearly see signs that KAT ,Bridges, OG and Hart all look really good offensively and have flashes defensively when utilized the right ways. McBride also looks great off the bench. It's likely going to come together soon especially when Precious and then Mitch return.

[Fat Kat]

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[KnixinSix]

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Love Anunoby even though I don't see a ton of explosion to his game and he gets blocked or stripped a lot on drives to the hoop. But he is certainly maximizing his potential offensively. And defensively there is few better (if any).

[stuporman]

So half of the Knicks big 2 and primary ball handler has been inconsistent at best so far this season yet they are still one of the top offenses in the league? Interesting development.

[Capn'O]

Couple of good statistical signs:

- Last night's win moved us from 23rd to 19th in defensive rating. IIRC we were 29th a week ago. That side is coming together more.
- We're third in the conference and 8th in the NBA in SRS. When we're good, we're very very good despite only having a .500 record.

So right now we're inconsistent but trending towards being a very good team.

[Capn'O]

Game has opened up for OG and Hart with all the attention on Brunson/Towns/Bridges. Hart gets room to handle and initiate more and OG gets to roam around until he's open.

[mpharris36]

Couple of good statistical signs:

- Last night's win moved us from 23rd to 19th in defensive rating. That side is coming together more.
- We're third in the conference and 8th in the NBA in SRS. When we're good, we're very very good despite only having a .500 record.

So right now we're inconsistent but trending towards being a very good team.

we got reinforcements coming as well (defensively) and we should continue to get better as the team continues to gel

[mpharris36]

Couple of good statistical signs:

- Last night's win moved us from 23rd to 19th in defensive rating. That side is coming together more.
- We're third in the conference and 8th in the NBA in SRS. When we're good, we're very very good despite only having a .500 record.

So right now we're inconsistent but trending towards being a very good team.

OG and Hart are such good cutters...with the attention the other 3 give that unit OG and Hart find ways to get points by just being active and cutting.

I think Hart has the best 2pt % in the NBA right now...so many layups.

[Calinks]

Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst trying to slander The Big Murder KAT is nasty work and they should be shamed for it.

90% allowed at the rim my ass. I'm honestly pissed off about that. People just lie for anything nowadays

Yea, having watched every game, I feel like that stat is a bit misleading. Yes Towns has been bad as the anchor but a portion of that is not all on him. The Knicks in general have been bad in the drop, the perimeter guys have broken down consistently and that puts KAT in no win situations a lot of the time. Even the greatest defensive center of the last decade, Gobert, gets absolutely roasted when the perimeter guys don't do their job, no one can clean every possession up.

I still think Towns is terrible in drop and it shouldn't be the primary defense but it could be a lot better as is if everyone gets connected, they aren't and a lot of those stats are falling directly on Towns because he's the last line of defense, its like any time someone else fails, he has to hold the L if he cant clean it up, it makes him look worse than he is stat wise (and yes, I am not saying he has been good, just not helplessly abysmal like Windhorst was low-key painting it out to be).

[Chanel Bomber]

The team is still a work in progress but there are some positive signs that signal we may be better than what our 5-5 record suggests.

Through 10 games:

- The team has a +4.9 net rating (7th in the NBA). We had the same net rating at the close of last season (+7.1 post-OG).
- The team has +4.1 point differential (7the in the NBA). Our point differential last year was +4.6 (+6.6 post-OG).

There are obvious issues, but if Mikal can find his 3-point shot, and we show more adaptability in our defensive coverages, the team should be headed in the right direction, especially as guys start to come back.

However, we need to start finding some consistency game to game.

Interestingly, Brunson currently has the second-highest offensive EPM in the NBA behind Jokic, yet we all know that he has another gear in him that he hasn't reached. He's also taking 3 fewer shots per game than last year (in only 1 fewer mpg), so despite some of the grievances on his playmaking, he has been giving up shots to accommodate his teammates.

[NYKinMIA]

the debate on whether KAT is soft or not...

[Fury]

Couple of good statistical signs:

- Last night's win moved us from 23rd to 19th in defensive rating. That side is coming together more.
- We're third in the conference and 8th in the NBA in SRS. When we're good, we're very very good despite only having a .500 record.

So right now we're inconsistent but trending towards being a very good team.

OG and Hart are such good cutters...with the attention the other 3 give that unit OG and Hart find ways to get points by just being active and cutting.

I think Hart has the best 2pt % in the NBA right now...so many layups.

We should bring back Doug McDermott

[DaGawd]

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Love Anunoby even though I don't see a ton of explosion to his game and he gets blocked or stripped a lot on drives to the hoop. But he is certainly maximizing his potential offensively. And defensively there is few better (if any).

he’s plenty explosive in the open court, dude dunks everything inside of 5 feet. the strips have more to do with just not operating well in crowds

[Context]

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Update post:

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Such a nasty game by Hart....He's without a doubt the "Hart" of this team.

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Did we post an OG post?

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[Context]

Now thats nasty work by the fans with over 4 minutes left; this game was on TNT

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