PG: Knicks vs Raps- 12/9/24

[robillionaire]

Not worth talking about the empty stat padder with no accolades and a negative 2 BPM on the 2nd worst team in the east. If there’s a traded Knicks draft pick worth talking about it’s THJ. The Pistons are playing well, they beat us, and his advanced stats are much better than RJ. If I had to take one back it would be THJ

[Chanel Bomber]

RJ still has negative impact on winning per EPM. That's mainly because his defense is consistently awful, and even his improvement on offense doesn't offset that.

He plays like a prince on defense, as if it’s beneath him to run back in transition, provide help in the paint or take a charge. He leaves it to the peasants on the team. StarJ has a bigger fish to fry - he needs to keep his energy for offense because he has a prophecy of fulfill.

It's a shame because he has the tools to become at least average on defense, as he showed in his sophomore year. So it’s really an effort and mindset issue.

His offense is trending upwards, which is nice to see, but he'll never have a positive impact on winning if his defense doesn't improve. It's abhorrently terrible for a wing player.

OG is a much more impactful player even of he tries to do much less. Unlike RJ, he does the dirty work, and he doesn't hijack the offense for raw production.

One of the two fits the cultural heritage of the Knicks, and the other doesn't. I'm glad the one who does is on our team, and the other is gone.

[rajajackal]

No team will ever win a title with RJ as a number 1 or 2 option.

I say good riddance!

the thing is his best output is as a ball dominant #1 option, but he isn't good enough at that to lead you to the promised land doing so. once you make him #2 or #3 the team as a whole is forced to suffer for it. he has gotten better at what he does in his new situation, but i do not come away from this game convinced he's any better for winning than when we traded him

[Reign23]

man do I enjoy the anti-RJ posts. He is so good now, that the "SEE he sucks" posts come when he hangs an efficient 30 on one of the best perimeter defenders in the league while playing with a bunch of 2nd and 3rd stringers never change guys!

So good he did all this in the clutch. Never change guys!

In the last 2:51 of the 4th quarter, RJ

1. Turned the ball over
2. Shot an airball 3 from the right corner, and
3. Closed out late on KATS’s 3 from the left wing to put the Knicks up 113-108 with 6.3 in the game.

well... dragging those g-league dudes for 40 minutes might be exhausting. there is no "clutch" without him

[NoDopeOnSundays]

Guess who?

Which player is an assassin and which player is just a$$?




Guys here actually spent months bashing KAT and trying to convince us that Randle is better.




Some folks don't know basketball at all; just groupies.

There's nothing Randle does better than KAT, even his assists are basic just drive and kicks where he jumps in the air to pass. KAT is a better passer just watching him make reads and hit guys on the move is something Randle could never do.

[Capn'O]

Knick Legends RJ and Randle helped transition the franchise from a poor one to a good one.

In sacrificing them to the Wolves and Raptors of the world, we became a great one.

Thanks for everything. Now Deuces.

Spoiler:

[Iron Mantis]

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Anyone who was complicit in promoting this heretical belief must be held accountable before the good people of this land!!

Come forth and confess your sins and purify yourselves.

Perhaps the basketball gods may show us favor by repealing the stench and the curse from this team which prevents Mikal from finding his 2-way star mojo, KAT from getting a star whistle, and the Knicks from playing great perimeter defense.

[dakomish23]

Read on Twitter

?s=61

Players averaging 23 /5 /5

Giannis Antetokounmpo
Nikola Jokić
LaMelo Ball
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Luka Dončić
Jayson Tatum
De'Aaron Fox
Franz Wagner
Tyler Herro
Cade Cunningham
LeBron James
Stephen Curry

And....

RJ Barrett

The kid won. Proved his haters wrong. Got em panic-posting.

Who GAF about his haters? These same folks were sucking him off or just disappeared when he was our 2nd best player in the 2023 playoffs. Both parties are better off for the trade and it helped us get closer to a ring, which is all I care about

[Reign23]

Achiuwa over Sims is such a revelation btw.

[Reign23]

Players averaging 23 /5 /5

Giannis Antetokounmpo
Nikola Jokić
LaMelo Ball
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Luka Dončić
Jayson Tatum
De'Aaron Fox
Franz Wagner
Tyler Herro
Cade Cunningham
LeBron James
Stephen Curry

And....

RJ Barrett

The kid won. Proved his haters wrong. Got em panic-posting.

Who GAF about his haters? These same folks were sucking him off or just disappeared when he was our 2nd best player in the 2023 playoffs. Both parties are better off for the trade and it helped us get closer to a ring, which is all I care about

preach, brother.

[Capn'O]

From RJ - in this game we saw all the things we loved from him and the things that pissed us off in one package. Raptors have him playing much more in transition and quick actions in the halfcourt, which plays to his strengths. He looked dominant getting to the cup and made some nifty passes out of his drives in both scenarios. However, he was lame on defense and when the game tightened and became more of a halfcourt matchup he wasn't as effective, even blowing a late game drive that would have knotted it up.

In conclusion,

[Guano]

man do I enjoy the anti-RJ posts. He is so good now, that the "SEE he sucks" posts come when he hangs an efficient 30 on one of the best perimeter defenders in the league while playing with a bunch of 2nd and 3rd stringers never change guys!

So good he did all this in the clutch. Never change guys!

In the last 2:51 of the 4th quarter, RJ

1. Turned the ball over
2. Shot an airball 3 from the right corner, and
3. Closed out late on KATS’s 3 from the left wing to put the Knicks up 113-108 with 6.3 in the game.

well... dragging those g-league dudes for 40 minutes might be exhausting. there is no "clutch" without him

This is Dick slander!

[3toheadmelo]

In the last 2:51 of the 4th quarter, RJ

1. Turned the ball over
2. Shot an airball 3 from the right corner, and
3. Closed out late on KATS’s 3 from the left wing to put the Knicks up 113-108 with 6.3 in the game.

Waking up knowing that RJ isn’t a Knick and how we were right about him. We know ball!

Yes we do!

Doesn’t it feel so good being right about a toxic losing stat padder???

[3toheadmelo]

man do I enjoy the anti-RJ posts. He is so good now, that the "SEE he sucks" posts come when he hangs an efficient 30 on one of the best perimeter defenders in the league while playing with a bunch of 2nd and 3rd stringers never change guys!

So good he did all this in the clutch. Never change guys!

In the last 2:51 of the 4th quarter, RJ

1. Turned the ball over
2. Shot an airball 3 from the right corner, and
3. Closed out late on KATS’s 3 from the left wing to put the Knicks up 113-108 with 6.3 in the game.

That rj pack still hitting!

[stuporman]

15-9 which puts them 8th best in the league with the number 1 offense. IMO they are still not completely there and we are about 1/3 of the way into the season but they have definitely surpassed my expectations thus far. I thought we would be .500 till January.

The concept '.500 till new year's day' is based on that Thib's Knicks teams have been around .500 until new year's day when they tend to surge later in the season as that particular season's roster jels and becomes more consistent. I have been saying it repeatedly through the beginning of the season to give some context to it.

The fact that this group is ahead of that pace while still not playing up to their potential consistently shows something. Excetly what I'm not going to say but I can speculate that once the 'new year's day' threshold passes we may get a fuller picture of what they can be.

There's going to be inconsistent stretches and performances earlier in the season if Thib's past Knicks teams are any indication that get ironed out and they grow in cohesiveness on both ends of the court as they season goes along. This is what history tells us but time will tell what this team does.

Well a lot of that is from making a trade around New Year’s Day like trading for Rose, Josh Hart, or OG not because the team grew in cohesiveness. (We also tried this with scam in 2022 but it didn’t work out)

I don’t think we need one as badly this time since we are already a pretty solid team but we’ve done something 4 years in a row now. Personally I expect a Mitch trade

Every effing season is the evidence, not your rationalization about why you think it applies or doesn't based on selective reasoning. Every year it's the same thing, it takes awhile for his teams to get it together. Just because a couple of those years a 'super glue guy' was added mid season doesn't change that it happens...every. effing. season.

Of course, Rose was traded for in Dec, OG in Jan and Hart in Feb yet even though it's different months they showed up it's almost the exact same time table of the positive progression of the team's playing. So again, evidence shows one thing and it's not your reasoning. Did they contribute to it? Yea, sure, definitely some of it but not all because it's been happening every. effing. season.

EVERY. EFFING. SEASON. ...but sure, means nothing at all.

[SelbyCobra]

From RJ - in this game we saw all the things we loved from him and the things that pissed us off in one package. Raptors have him playing much more in transition and quick actions in the halfcourt, which plays to his strengths. He looked dominant getting to the cup and made some nifty passes out of his drives in both scenarios. However, he was lame on defense and when the game tightened and became more of a halfcourt matchup he wasn't as effective, even blowing a late game drive that would have knotted it up.

In conclusion,

I mean, I realize the spammed RJ/Randle stuff in every thread is 90% trolling, but it's kind of fun now that they're gone because they are really of the same order. Both are high volume, inefficient scorers on the whole, who can look like cornerstones for short moments in time if you squint just right, but whose lows are calamitous. Yes, there are clear differences - RJ clearly has a better team attitude, Julius clearly has more physical talent - but what they bring to the table in terms of how they produce relative to their peers is the same.

[3toheadmelo]

RJ still has negative impact on winning per EPM. That's mainly because his defense is consistently awful, and even his improvement on offense doesn't offset that.

He plays like a prince on defense, as if it’s beneath him to run back in transition, provide help in the paint or take a charge. He leaves it to the peasants on the team. StarJ has a bigger fish to fry - he needs to keep his energy for offense because he has a prophecy of fulfill.

It's a shame because he has the tools to become at least average on defense, as he showed in his sophomore year. So it’s really an effort and mindset issue.

His offense is trending upwards, which is nice to see, but he'll never have a positive impact on winning if his defense doesn't improve. It's abhorrently terrible for a wing player.

OG is a much more impactful player even of he tries to do much less. Unlike RJ, he does the dirty work, and he doesn't hijack the offense for raw production.

One of the two fits the cultural heritage of the Knicks, and the other doesn't. I'm glad the one who does is on our team, and the other is gone.

We won

[NYKinMIA]

this place is becoming unbearable with all the superfluous shyt about former players.

life is too short to be this fixated on stupidity. or on who knows ball, and who sucks them.

[3toheadmelo]

Not worth talking about the empty stat padder with no accolades and a negative 2 BPM on the 2nd worst team in the east. If there’s a traded Knicks draft pick worth talking about it’s THJ. The Pistons are playing well, they beat us, and his advanced stats are much better than RJ. If I had to take one back it would be THJ

RJ stinks so bad that THJ is better than him in 2024

[Capn'O]

From RJ - in this game we saw all the things we loved from him and the things that pissed us off in one package. Raptors have him playing much more in transition and quick actions in the halfcourt, which plays to his strengths. He looked dominant getting to the cup and made some nifty passes out of his drives in both scenarios. However, he was lame on defense and when the game tightened and became more of a halfcourt matchup he wasn't as effective, even blowing a late game drive that would have knotted it up.

In conclusion,

I mean, I realize the spammed RJ/Randle stuff in every thread is 90% trolling, but it's kind of fun now that they're gone because they are really of the same order. Both are high volume, inefficient scorers on the whole, who can look like cornerstones for short moments in time if you squint just right, but whose lows are calamitous. Yes, there are clear differences - RJ clearly has a better team attitude, Julius clearly has more physical talent - but what they bring to the table in terms of how they produce relative to their peers is the same.

Totally, just not... everywhere. I have a bit more tolerance when we actually play the Raps/Wolves since it's at least tangentially on topic. Your characterizations of both players are spot on. From those not participating in it, the fight over whose ex is hotter is a lame one and this is the dominant sentiment:

this place is becoming unbearable with all the superfluous shyt about former players.

life is too short to be this fixated on stupidity. or on who knows ball, and who sucks them.

We get similar PMs all the time.

(Not to pick on you AT ALL SC but this seemed like a serious post to respond in earnest to.)