PG: Knicks vs. Celtics: At least that 3rd quarter was encouraging...

[3toheadmelo]

Read on Twitter

They gutted that for Bridges.

You have your thoughts on which position KAT should be playing and that's a fair basketball discussion.

But we traded two vets and just one protected pick for KAT. Despite some of his deficiencies, I think 90% of people would agree he's an upgrade over Randle and Divo.

The Mikal trade and the KAT trade are not the same, and lumping them together is a mistake imo.

It's the Mikal trade that effs us. Because we lost the flexibility to either trade for a superstar or hit reset as needed. The return on investment is SO weak.

Even he’s sitting here saying we should trade towns for Giannis which is an acknowledgement that an all star starter still has a ton of value. What is Minnesota getting for Randle if anything? Even if we ultimately don’t win with him he’s an asset.

Mikal probably has some trade value too but it can’t be anything in the same galaxy of what we paid. We are likely holding Brooklyn’s bags on that for the next 6 years

Also where is this “abundance of young talent” lol

Ban twitter posts

I'm only running with the Giannis idea because marc stein was the one who said we want to trade KAT for giannis

We had Grimes, Donte who are young and can give us the same production as mikal.

Ban r0b for selling us on broken kentucky goods!

[Chanel Bomber]

The Knicks are still one of the 5 best teams in the NBA. But I think it's undeniable they're a tier below Boston, Cleveland and OKC. In a series, I suspect they would also probably lose against Denver and LA.

I think the one big issue is not necessarily that KAT isn't a rim protector and a weak defender in a vacuum. It doesn't help, but his impact on the game is still hugely positive, so that can't be the one explanation.

To me issue #1 is the fact that our defense has not one but two glaring weak points: KAT's lack of rim protection, and even more damaging Brunson being one of the worst defenders in the NBA.

We collectively accept it and give Brunson a pass because he's small, but it doesn't change the reality that he's a complete liability on defense - much worse than KAT. And this puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the defense. Especially against teams like Boston or OKC, against whom you can't hide on any opposing offensive player.

Issue #2 is that OG and particularly Mikal haven't been as good as advertised on defense. They haven't provided the team with All-NBA level defense. And they needed to in order to offset the deficiencies of KAT and Brunson. That hasn't happened, and I consider that disappointing considering the investment the Knicks made on these two players.

[mpharris36]

I have to ask about Mikal's use on offense.

What's his role in this system? What plays are called for him?

Do people just want him to go rip the ball out of brunson hands. He's pretty reliant on someone passing him the ball since we rarely use him as the on ball shot creator.

It would be nice if we utilized his strengths. Run him off some pin down screens like DET did with Rip Hamilton. Mikals cooks in that mid range area.

Maybe should try to get him going early.

To many times he goes 5-6 possessions without even touching the ball especially early in the game.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

The sad thing about him is that he plays so timidly. He is afraid to go to the rim. Would rather shoot a fadeaway jumper on a fast break. Maybe he should watch some Josh hart film. It’s frustrating how soft he plays at times.

He's shooting a career low from the freethrow line, I think he avoids contact because he doesn't think he can make them.

Well not only that he is shooting 1.1 attempts a game which is also a career low. Guess how many attempts he had tonight? 0

74.2% isn’t THAT bad. He’s not Mitchell Robinson. That can’t be what it is. I’m still saying he is afraid of contact

All the minutes played and he’s had 62 free throws ALL SEASON

I think he's afraid of contact because he's not confident he's going to make them. He's not bad at the line in the grand scheme of things, but going from 85% for your career to sub 75% has to mess with your mind a bit. He was under 70% for most of the season too.

[3toheadmelo]

They gutted that for Bridges.

You have your thoughts on which position KAT should be playing and that's a fair basketball discussion.

But we traded two vets and just one protected pick for KAT. Despite some of his deficiencies, I think 90% of people would agree he's an upgrade over Randle and Divo.

The Mikal trade and the KAT trade are not the same, and lumping them together is a mistake imo.

It's the Mikal trade that effs us. Because we lost the flexibility to either trade for a superstar or hit reset as needed. The return on investment is SO weak.

KAT is a beast on offense but he's been a massive liability against the elite teams. I'm losing confidence in him. Randle is actually trending right now on twitter and people saying we should've kept him but forget about that. I just don't know how we can win with KAT when he's been a no show against the elite teams, and they keep targeting him on switches, pick and rolls, nowhere to be found closing out or protecting the rim. He looks clueless out there. And he struggles scoring on teams that put smaller players on him. I am just hoping we can at least mitigate his bad defense with another big. Problem is that we don't really have a reliable one since Mitch is hurt and Huk might not be ready.

Mikal's trade def hurts us more, no disagreement there. We gave up way too much value for him.

You pay too much attention to Twitter bro

KAT is a better player than Randle.

Randle is also a weak defender, and was a weak defender for us after the 2020-21 season. Defense isn't really an argument against the trade.

This isn't to say KAT doesn't have flaws because he does.

KAT at the 5 hurts us way more defensively than Randle at the 4. I don't really see how anyone can debate against that. We've seen at first hand. We were able to be a top 10 defense with Randle. We're like at the bottom of the league with KAT at the 5.

[Guano]

@nodope
Come joing my mountain militia

[NoDopeOnSundays]

I have to ask about Mikal's use on offense.

What's his role in this system? What plays are called for him?

Do people just want him to go rip the ball out of brunson hands. He's pretty reliant on someone passing him the ball since we rarely use him as the on ball shot creator.

It would be nice if we utilized his strengths. Run him off some pin down screens like DET did with Rip Hamilton. Mikals cooks in that mid range area.

Maybe should try to get him going early.

To many times he goes 5-6 possessions without even touching the ball especially early in the game.

He was at 27.3% and 23.7% play frequency as the PnR ball handler with the Nets, he's down to 9.5% with us.

He's posting up entirely too much with us as well.

[Chanel Bomber]

KAT is a beast on offense but he's been a massive liability against the elite teams. I'm losing confidence in him. Randle is actually trending right now on twitter and people saying we should've kept him but forget about that. I just don't know how we can win with KAT when he's been a no show against the elite teams, and they keep targeting him on switches, pick and rolls, nowhere to be found closing out or protecting the rim. He looks clueless out there. And he struggles scoring on teams that put smaller players on him. I am just hoping we can at least mitigate his bad defense with another big. Problem is that we don't really have a reliable one since Mitch is hurt and Huk might not be ready.

Mikal's trade def hurts us more, no disagreement there. We gave up way too much value for him.

You pay too much attention to Twitter bro

KAT is a better player than Randle.

Randle is also a weak defender, and was a weak defender for us after the 2020-21 season. Defense isn't really an argument against the trade.

This isn't to say KAT doesn't have flaws because he does.

KAT at the 5 hurts us way more defensively than Randle at the 4. I don't really see how anyone can debate against that. We've seen at first hand. We were able to be a top 10 defense with Randle. We're like at the bottom of the league with KAT at the 5.

You're entitled to your opinion about KAT's best position.

But not making the trade would not have brought iHart back, and wouldn't have made Mitch recover faster. And they were the ones anchoring our defense, not Randle.

Without either iHart or Mitch, our defense would have been just as bad with Randle as it is now.

[robillionaire]

They gutted that for Bridges.

You have your thoughts on which position KAT should be playing and that's a fair basketball discussion.

But we traded two vets and just one protected pick for KAT. Despite some of his deficiencies, I think 90% of people would agree he's an upgrade over Randle and Divo.

The Mikal trade and the KAT trade are not the same, and lumping them together is a mistake imo.

It's the Mikal trade that effs us. Because we lost the flexibility to either trade for a superstar or hit reset as needed. The return on investment is SO weak.

Even he’s sitting here saying we should trade towns for Giannis which is an acknowledgement that an all star starter still has a ton of value. What is Minnesota getting for Randle if anything? Even if we ultimately don’t win with him he’s an asset.

Mikal probably has some trade value too but it can’t be anything in the same galaxy of what we paid. We are likely holding Brooklyn’s bags on that for the next 6 years

Also where is this “abundance of young talent” lol

Ban twitter posts

I'm only running with the Giannis idea because marc stein was the one who said we want to trade KAT for giannis

We had Grimes, Donte who are young and can give us the same production as mikal.

Ban r0b for selling us on broken kentucky goods!

We traded grimes before last season was over so that doesn’t count. But in hindsight that was also a bad trade

Mitch and OG for Giannis works let’s go

[mpharris36]

I have to ask about Mikal's use on offense.

What's his role in this system? What plays are called for him?

Do people just want him to go rip the ball out of brunson hands. He's pretty reliant on someone passing him the ball since we rarely use him as the on ball shot creator.

It would be nice if we utilized his strengths. Run him off some pin down screens like DET did with Rip Hamilton. Mikals cooks in that mid range area.

Maybe should try to get him going early.

To many times he goes 5-6 possessions without even touching the ball especially early in the game.

He was at 27.3% and 23.7% play frequency as the PnR ball handler with the Nets, he's down to 9.5% with us.

He's posting up entirely too much with us as well.

I know people are complaining but what the solution here. His usage is down. And even the spots he's getting the ball is in not EFF options like post ups.

We could run him more on ball and have brunson some off ball since he's pretty EFF in catch and shoot as well.

Or use Mikal off ball in some screens. Too many times his first few shot are 3's just like OG. And they are too and far between. Tough to get into a rhythm.

We certainly should run more scripted plays. The system just is too much freelance.

[3toheadmelo]

You pay too much attention to Twitter bro

KAT is a better player than Randle.

Randle is also a weak defender, and was a weak defender for us after the 2020-21 season. Defense isn't really an argument against the trade.

This isn't to say KAT doesn't have flaws because he does.

KAT at the 5 hurts us way more defensively than Randle at the 4. I don't really see how anyone can debate against that. We've seen at first hand. We were able to be a top 10 defense with Randle. We're like at the bottom of the league with KAT at the 5.

You're entitled to your opinion about KAT's best position.

But not making the trade would not have brought iHart back, and wouldn't have made Mitch recover faster. And they were the ones anchoring our defense, not Randle.

Without either iHart or Mitch, our defense would have been just as bad with Randle as it is now.

Idk, it sounded like the Knicks were trying to get a big man before they moved Randle. We likely would have somoene else at the 5.

Either way it isn't about randle anymore, it's about kat. He's been unplayable against the top contenders. That's our issue now, not randle.

[The KnicksFix]

Even he’s sitting here saying we should trade towns for Giannis which is an acknowledgement that an all star starter still has a ton of value. What is Minnesota getting for Randle if anything? Even if we ultimately don’t win with him he’s an asset.

Mikal probably has some trade value too but it can’t be anything in the same galaxy of what we paid. We are likely holding Brooklyn’s bags on that for the next 6 years

Also where is this “abundance of young talent” lol

Ban twitter posts

I'm only running with the Giannis idea because marc stein was the one who said we want to trade KAT for giannis

We had Grimes, Donte who are young and can give us the same production as mikal.

Ban r0b for selling us on broken kentucky goods!

We traded grimes before last season was over so that doesn’t count. But in hindsight that was also a bad trade

Mitch and OG for Giannis works let’s go

I mean I’d do it
But i dont think Milwaukee would lmao

[NoDopeOnSundays]

@nodope
Come joing my mountain militia

[Enzo954]

They gutted that for Bridges.

You have your thoughts on which position KAT should be playing and that's a fair basketball discussion.

But we traded two vets and just one protected pick for KAT. Despite some of his deficiencies, I think 90% of people would agree he's an upgrade over Randle and Divo.

The Mikal trade and the KAT trade are not the same, and lumping them together is a mistake imo.

It's the Mikal trade that effs us. Because we lost the flexibility to either trade for a superstar or hit reset as needed. The return on investment is SO weak.

KAT is a beast on offense but he's been a massive liability against the elite teams. I'm losing confidence in him. Randle is actually trending right now on twitter and people saying we should've kept him but forget about that. I just don't know how we can win with KAT when he's been a no show against the elite teams, and they keep targeting him on switches, pick and rolls, nowhere to be found closing out or protecting the rim. He looks clueless out there. And he struggles scoring on teams that put smaller players on him. I am just hoping we can at least mitigate his bad defense with another big. Problem is that we don't really have a reliable one since Mitch is hurt and Huk might not be ready.

Mikal's trade def hurts us more, no disagreement there. We gave up way too much value for him.

You pay too much attention to Twitter bro

KAT is a better player than Randle.

Randle is also a weak defender, and was a weak defender for us after the 2020-21 season. Defense isn't really an argument against the trade. This isn't to say KAT doesn't have flaws because he does.

Exactly. It's just constantly trash Kat, then trash Kat, then trash Kat, then trash Bridges, then trash Kat. Rinse cycle repeat.

[robillionaire]

Don’t let melo off the hook for precious. Wanted to draft him. 15 mins 0-2 0 pts. Dude blows

[rajajackal]

trade brunson and mikal for trae young

[3toheadmelo]

Even he’s sitting here saying we should trade towns for Giannis which is an acknowledgement that an all star starter still has a ton of value. What is Minnesota getting for Randle if anything? Even if we ultimately don’t win with him he’s an asset.

Mikal probably has some trade value too but it can’t be anything in the same galaxy of what we paid. We are likely holding Brooklyn’s bags on that for the next 6 years

Also where is this “abundance of young talent” lol

Ban twitter posts

I'm only running with the Giannis idea because marc stein was the one who said we want to trade KAT for giannis

We had Grimes, Donte who are young and can give us the same production as mikal.

Ban r0b for selling us on broken kentucky goods!

We traded grimes before last season was over so that doesn’t count. But in hindsight that was also a bad trade

Mitch and OG for Giannis works let’s go

Mikal and KAT for Giannis seems even better

[3toheadmelo]

@nodope
Come joing my mountain militia

Guan0 trying to set you up like he did to chanel. Don't fall for it bredren!

[Chanel Bomber]

KAT at the 5 hurts us way more defensively than Randle at the 4. I don't really see how anyone can debate against that. We've seen at first hand. We were able to be a top 10 defense with Randle. We're like at the bottom of the league with KAT at the 5.

You're entitled to your opinion about KAT's best position.

But not making the trade would not have brought iHart back, and wouldn't have made Mitch recover faster. And they were the ones anchoring our defense, not Randle.

Without either iHart or Mitch, our defense would have been just as bad with Randle as it is now.

Idk, it sounded like the Knicks were trying to get a big man before they moved Randle. We likely would have somoene else at the 5.

Either way it isn't about randle anymore, it's about kat. He's been unplayable against the top contenders. That's our issue now, not randle.

You're the one who posted a tweet that criticized the trade

Whatever move they would have made for a 5 then, they could have made after the trade.

[3toheadmelo]

Don’t let melo off the hook for precious. Wanted to draft him. 15 mins 0-2 0 pts. Dude blows

That's more mins than Knox has played in the nba in the past 2 years