PG: Knicks vs. Bulls: We Win in the MUD!!!

[sol537]

The only way is to be super efficient offensively as a team. It’s the only thing that can offset the defense. We have to be rolling offensively the way we were around December. Hard to sustain that though, things have stalled a bit, guys are standing around more the ball is not really moving, shots are not falling. Floor spacing also isn’t that good especially without OG. It’s hard to sustain that level of play for a long period of time so you do need defense as a backbone. We just don’t have that right now

This will be a decent defensive team if the whole team is healthy at the same time which may or may not ever happen. OG is essential though as he’s the glue that holds it all together. Mitch will shore up the bench and even Hukporti looks like he could be serviceable for a few minutes here and there if towns is getting killed. Also McBride has missed a ton of time last night was really the first time in a while he looked like himself and he’s a good defensive pest at the guard position. Precious did ok last night. We will be ok.

I’m not too worried about the overall team as much as I think the main issue will be with the more elite teams hunting the weakest links possession after possession which will cause breakdowns defensively all over the place. That’s what sol was also mentioning as far as the difficulty in needing to cover for both KAT and Brunson. Having 1 guy as a liability is manageable but two is a lot tougher to cover for. Boston already showed us that they will hunt them and the breakdowns will occur. The only thing we can do is counter offense. Having defensive specialists won’t really help much. We will need to score more and do it efficiently

It would be better to get the defense and offense both humming.

I think the way to do it might be to insert Mitch into the starting line-up if he looks 100% ready to go while moving Hart to the bench.

Mitch, KAT, OG, Bridges, and Brunson is similar to what the Wolves were trotting out defensively, albeit a tad bit worse potentially. And that squad, with Hart, Precious, and Deuce off the bench is arguably better offensively than the Wolves were last season and the Wolves made it all the way to the WCF... some food for thought...

The line-up above gives us: Plus rim protection with the starters, superior rebounding, three plus defenders in Mitch/OG/Mikal surrounding KAT/JB (Hart is not a plus defender), and then it bolsters our bench balance with three solid energy guys off the bench in Precious, Hart, Deuce.

The Hart starting experiment should end.

[HEZI]

This will be a decent defensive team if the whole team is healthy at the same time which may or may not ever happen. OG is essential though as he’s the glue that holds it all together. Mitch will shore up the bench and even Hukporti looks like he could be serviceable for a few minutes here and there if towns is getting killed. Also McBride has missed a ton of time last night was really the first time in a while he looked like himself and he’s a good defensive pest at the guard position. Precious did ok last night. We will be ok.

I’m not too worried about the overall team as much as I think the main issue will be with the more elite teams hunting the weakest links possession after possession which will cause breakdowns defensively all over the place. That’s what sol was also mentioning as far as the difficulty in needing to cover for both KAT and Brunson. Having 1 guy as a liability is manageable but two is a lot tougher to cover for. Boston already showed us that they will hunt them and the breakdowns will occur. The only thing we can do is counter offense. Having defensive specialists won’t really help much. We will need to score more and do it efficiently

It would be better to get the defense and offense both humming.

I think the way to do it might be to insert Mitch into the starting line-up if he looks 100% ready to go while moving Hart to the bench.

Mitch, KAT, OG, Bridges, and Brunson is similar to what the Wolves were trotting out defensively, albeit a tad bit worse potentially. And that squad, with Hart, Precious, and Deuce off the bench is arguably better offensively than the Wolves were last season and the Wolves made it all the way to the WCF... some food for thought...

The line-up above gives us: Plus rim protection with the starters, superior rebounding, three plus defenders in Mitch/OG/Mikal surrounding KAT/JB (Hart is not a plus defender), and then it bolsters our bench balance with three solid energy guys off the bench in Precious, Hart, Deuce.

The Hart starting experiment should end.

I think having rim protection for Brunson is essential. The issue with that is that it basically puts KAT in a spot up shooting role at the 4 and he can’t take advantage of other bigs guarding him and Robinson can’t take advantage of anybody offensively since he’s a non factor on that end and will just stay in the dunkers spot. Another thing is it makes our DHO plays even more predictable since everybody knows Robinson will never look to score. This will compromise the offense. We can experiment but I don’t see it being successful. A rim protecting stretch 5 would be more ideal but we don’t have one and they aren’t easy to get.

[dakomish23]

what does giddey have against the knicks...he a bum vs everyone else

and he's like a 20 pt triple double lock vs us every game.

He’s been doing this since his rookie season

[Luv those Knicks]

I’m not too worried about the overall team as much as I think the main issue will be with the more elite teams hunting the weakest links possession after possession which will cause breakdowns defensively all over the place. That’s what sol was also mentioning as far as the difficulty in needing to cover for both KAT and Brunson. Having 1 guy as a liability is manageable but two is a lot tougher to cover for. Boston already showed us that they will hunt them and the breakdowns will occur. The only thing we can do is counter offense. Having defensive specialists won’t really help much. We will need to score more and do it efficiently

It would be better to get the defense and offense both humming.

I think the way to do it might be to insert Mitch into the starting line-up if he looks 100% ready to go while moving Hart to the bench.

Mitch, KAT, OG, Bridges, and Brunson is similar to what the Wolves were trotting out defensively, albeit a tad bit worse potentially. And that squad, with Hart, Precious, and Deuce off the bench is arguably better offensively than the Wolves were last season and the Wolves made it all the way to the WCF... some food for thought...

The line-up above gives us: Plus rim protection with the starters, superior rebounding, three plus defenders in Mitch/OG/Mikal surrounding KAT/JB (Hart is not a plus defender), and then it bolsters our bench balance with three solid energy guys off the bench in Precious, Hart, Deuce.

The Hart starting experiment should end.

I think having rim protection for Brunson is essential. The issue with that is that it basically puts KAT in a spot up shooting role at the 4 and he can’t take advantage of other bigs guarding him and Robinson can’t take advantage of anybody offensively since he’s a non factor on that end and will just stay in the dunkers spot. Another thing is it makes our DHO plays even more predictable since everybody knows Robinson will never look to score. This will compromise the offense. We can experiment but I don’t see it being successful. A rim protecting stretch 5 would be more ideal but we don’t have one and they aren’t easy to get.

Mitch should help our defense, but I agree with you. It'll take some tinkering to figure out the best way to set up the team. The best teams in the NBA today are 8 or 9 skill-players deep and the Knicks aren't close to that.

In other news, and this may have already been posted, but it seems the refs helped NY win this one.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/nba-admits-major-mistake-in-knicks-vs-bulls/ar-AA1zxQAn?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ACTS&cvid=e4347b2a061b4919a36f7bb4625b943c&ei=12

[Jalen Bluntson]

You're not talking to someone who reads the Daily News to form his opinion. You're not talking to someone who thinks we will win it all this season. You're talking to someone who has watched 90% of the games this year and who knows what the biggest weakness of this team is.

That doesn't negate the fact that we are a top 4 team in the league. That doesn't mean we can't improve with everyone healthy. That doesn't guarantee we can't get hot at the right time and make a run to the finals.

Like I said, ATL has beaten the best teams in the league multiple times. They are in the play in and not even .500 team. So that destroys the idea that a more talented team can't win against them. It's just nonsense.

Do we need better coaching? Absolutely. Do we need to see how the team performs with Mitch in the lineup? Uhh...yeah. Would we need to make the playoffs fully healthy for us to have a chance to win it all? Absolutely. Until those things happen...or not...no one can honestly predict how far this team goes. No one.

It's ridiculous to read how bad a top 4 team in the league is every single day. You're literally in here talking to me like I shouldn't be happy or have any hope at all that we can win. We have plenty of talent. We have to see if that talent can put it together in the next few months. Period. Did I say we will win it all? Not once. Am I confident we will win it all? Not yet but, that's why I am looking forward to seeing what happens next.

I'm not the one in here coming to conclusions with absolute certainty. I'm the one with a wait and see approach even though I do not think the HC can ever get us to the finals. Anything is possible. That's the truth of it all. I could be dead wrong about Thibs. I'm willing to admit that. Everyone else is acting like they are dead right about things that they can't possibly know yet. There's a huge difference. If they(not you) feel like that, then stop watching and go away. What's the point?

Great perspective JB. In total agreement.

I'm just trying to be a realist. We can rehash the HC flaws and watch his lawyers come in here and defend him using zero facts if we choose. I'm not that stupid. What we can't do or, more to the point shouldn't do, is act as if we know what the future holds. Opinions on things are cool. People just need to realize that opinions aren't facts... (except when I'm giving them! )... And the future is uncertain.

Perfect example would be last year's finals run by Boston. Every team they played was either without their best players or their best players were injured for the playoffs. They faced Indiana because we were injured and I think Haliburton was dealing with injuries too.

Anything is possible. Period.

Well....almost anything's isp possible but, not this. This is not on that list of anything possible. Matter of fact, I was hacked. I didn't even post this.