PG: The Tyler Kolek Game

[Jalen Bluntson]

I just read that Kolek had the most assists in a half for the Knicks since 2007. Impressive!

He also made a useless historical stat line. No player in NBA history ever had 7ast 3stl +15 in the second quarter. Something weird like that. Also... doesn't Brunson have a 17 assist game this year? He had to get at least 7-8 assists in a half twice in that game. Something isn't adding up.

When Kolek takes Brunson's job away from him you might have to change your name back to AreWeThereYet.

Nah, Jalen was a safe player name to pick. Dude is an all star and the best PG I have had the pleasure of rooting for here. I will proudly rock his name/avi from here out. He carried us out of hell on his back the last 2+ seasons!

[ScienceOfLosing]

You said "I saw the second half condensed and almost every time I saw (who I thought was) Cam handling the ball and Kolek in the corner, again and again" Nothing like that happened except in your head. This must be one of those insane posts nodope and clyde loves

As a rare Mudiay-truther I hope he does well wherever he goes. He's not a starter, but can handle the ball and get buckets off the bench. He was in a tough spot with fans because we all wanted the other point guards to outplay him but they barely could at times and then all got hurt.

Imagine spending the entire thread criticizing people for liking what they saw in Kolek, harping on "Fraaaaannnnnnnnnk" when you're a Mudiay stan. Have some shame.

Mudiay would have been Michael Jordan but Fizdale did not develop him properly, always benched him when he made a mistake, started DSJ over him, lied to his face about fixing him. Fizdale also stopped Knox from becoming KD

I'm starting to get the hang of your posting style!

Nice short video. Didn’t realize Kolek had the most assists in a half in 18 years!
Some nice commentary.

Watch on YouTube

[Jalen Bluntson]

Imagine spending the entire thread criticizing people for liking what they saw in Kolek, harping on "Fraaaaannnnnnnnnk" when you're a Mudiay stan. Have some shame.

Mudiay would have been Michael Jordan but Fizdale did not develop him properly, always benched him when he made a mistake, started DSJ over him, lied to his face about fixing him. Fizdale also stopped Knox from becoming KD

I'm starting to get the hang of your posting style!

Nice short video. Didn’t realize Kolek had the most assists in a half in 18 years!
Some nice commentary.

Watch on YouTube

Most assists by a rookie in 18 years. He passed the great Mardy Collins! Impressive nonetheless. Hoping to see a lot more from this kid.

[robillionaire]

Deuce is out for a couple of games. We're going to see the same rotation as we did the last game. Shamet has to be playing himself out of the rotation, right? ... right?

Mikal specifically asked for Shamet by name to play more

Kolek is going to get some minutes with Brunson and now McBride out and maybe also down the stretch if we can rest players. But he’s not sniffing the court in the playoffs and is will remain behind Brunson MvBride Payne Shamet on the depth chart at least for this season.

While that is certainly true, the interesting aspect of this will be to find out at what level Kolek can perform. One point of contention towards Thibs throughout the season has been his lack of bench development. If Thibs is right and the bench simply lacked quality and the rookies weren't playable, then we should now witness Payne outplaying Kolek by some margin at least. If they are on the same level, let alone Kolek outplaying him, then that would raise some further difficult questions towards Thibs.....

Note: In 64games Payne had a single 8assist game and a single 9assist game (against Utah playing 36 minutes as a starter).....

Here’s something funny. 3 years ago Payne, (along with Mikal and Shamet) all started for the Suns. They beat the Knicks and Payne had 17 pts and 16 ast which is still his career high. And that team finished #1 in the west.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/202203040PHO.html?__hstc=205977932.ccd7a852b658135e8ef5a89adb918522.1731467654772.1742697501156.1742834700978.47&__hssc=205977932.2.1742834700978&__hsfp=1232071131

Anyway Kolek had 8 assists but at the end of the day he is still a rookie while Payne is a 10 year vet who has contributed to good teams in the past and has 13 rounds of playoff experience including playing in multiple conference finals the nba finals, and perhaps more importantly is long time friends and teammates with the guy we just traded the next decade for. And they wouldn't want to bench him and stop him from getting his next payday and
it gets us a bad reputation or makes Mikal sad. So there will be politics involved on top of that. Kolek has plenty of time under contract to learn the ropes.

So I think while it’s exciting for the future that Kolek tossed some nice passes and I look forward to watching his next outing I think we should probably accept that Payne is locked into that backup role for the rest of the year no matter what statlines Kolek throws up these next couple weeks. Again, barring injuries to a minimum of two of the 4 players. That could easily happen though(as it already has) so stay ready kid

[Gravy]

Imagine spending the entire thread criticizing people for liking what they saw in Kolek, harping on "Fraaaaannnnnnnnnk" when you're a Mudiay stan. Have some shame.

Mudiay would have been Michael Jordan but Fizdale did not develop him properly, always benched him when he made a mistake, started DSJ over him, lied to his face about fixing him. Fizdale also stopped Knox from becoming KD

I'm starting to get the hang of your posting style!

Nice short video. Didn’t realize Kolek had the most assists in a half in 18 years!
Some nice commentary.

Watch on YouTube

Weird clickbait title- the Knicks drafted Kolek. I dont get how the player they drafted had a good game and that proved them wrong lol.

Anyway, Cam said nice things about him too

Read on Twitter

[HopelessKnick]

Mikal specifically asked for Shamet by name to play more

Kolek is going to get some minutes with Brunson and now McBride out and maybe also down the stretch if we can rest players. But he’s not sniffing the court in the playoffs and is will remain behind Brunson MvBride Payne Shamet on the depth chart at least for this season.

While that is certainly true, the interesting aspect of this will be to find out at what level Kolek can perform. One point of contention towards Thibs throughout the season has been his lack of bench development. If Thibs is right and the bench simply lacked quality and the rookies weren't playable, then we should now witness Payne outplaying Kolek by some margin at least. If they are on the same level, let alone Kolek outplaying him, then that would raise some further difficult questions towards Thibs.....

Note: In 64games Payne had a single 8assist game and a single 9assist game (against Utah playing 36 minutes as a starter).....

Here’s something funny. 3 years ago Payne, (along with Mikal and Shamet) all started for the Suns. They beat the Knicks and Payne had 17 pts and 16 ast which is still his career high. And that team finished #1 in the west.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/202203040PHO.html?__hstc=205977932.ccd7a852b658135e8ef5a89adb918522.1731467654772.1742697501156.1742834700978.47&__hssc=205977932.2.1742834700978&__hsfp=1232071131

Anyway Kolek had 8 assists but at the end of the day he is still a rookie while Payne is a 10 year vet who has contributed to good teams in the past and has 13 rounds of playoff experience including playing in multiple conference finals the nba finals, and perhaps more importantly is long time friends and teammates with the guy we just traded the next decade for. And they wouldn't want to bench him and stop him from getting his next payday and
it gets us a bad reputation or makes Mikal sad. So there will be politics involved on top of that. Kolek has plenty of time under contract to learn the ropes.

So I think while it’s exciting for the future that Kolek tossed some nice passes and I look forward to watching his next outing I think we should probably accept that Payne is locked into that backup role for the rest of the year no matter what statlines Kolek throws up these next couple weeks. Again, barring injuries to a minimum of two of the 4 players. That could easily happen though(as it already has) so stay ready kid

I think what many criticize is his lack of playing time despite Deuce missing multiple games earlier in the season and after JB went down. Brunson averages like 35minutes a game while Deuce plays like 25min.....any time either of them misses games, there should automatically be 15minutes available for Kolek. Keep in mind Shamet missed like the first 3 months of the season as well. Really there is no excuse for Kolek having played so litte when literally all our backcourt guys except Payne missed some major time. But for the time being I'll reserve some judgment....but am eager to find out what Kolek can do the upcoming games....

Also keep in mind that over the course of the season we had Bridges and Hart averaging the most minutes per game in the entire league (OG at 6th and JB at 20)...so there was definitely the rational to give Kolek some PT to ease the load....like have Kolek play 12 minutes so you can decrease Bridges/Hart/OGs minutes by like 4 each so they remain fresher.

[HopelessKnick]

Imagine spending the entire thread criticizing people for liking what they saw in Kolek, harping on "Fraaaaannnnnnnnnk" when you're a Mudiay stan. Have some shame.

Mudiay would have been Michael Jordan but Fizdale did not develop him properly, always benched him when he made a mistake, started DSJ over him, lied to his face about fixing him. Fizdale also stopped Knox from becoming KD

I'm starting to get the hang of your posting style!

Nice short video. Didn’t realize Kolek had the most assists in a half in 18 years!
Some nice commentary.

Watch on YouTube

Everything the guy in the video says is like 200% common sense...it is truly baffling.

[Jalen Bluntson]

While that is certainly true, the interesting aspect of this will be to find out at what level Kolek can perform. One point of contention towards Thibs throughout the season has been his lack of bench development. If Thibs is right and the bench simply lacked quality and the rookies weren't playable, then we should now witness Payne outplaying Kolek by some margin at least. If they are on the same level, let alone Kolek outplaying him, then that would raise some further difficult questions towards Thibs.....

Note: In 64games Payne had a single 8assist game and a single 9assist game (against Utah playing 36 minutes as a starter).....

Here’s something funny. 3 years ago Payne, (along with Mikal and Shamet) all started for the Suns. They beat the Knicks and Payne had 17 pts and 16 ast which is still his career high. And that team finished #1 in the west.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/202203040PHO.html?__hstc=205977932.ccd7a852b658135e8ef5a89adb918522.1731467654772.1742697501156.1742834700978.47&__hssc=205977932.2.1742834700978&__hsfp=1232071131

Anyway Kolek had 8 assists but at the end of the day he is still a rookie while Payne is a 10 year vet who has contributed to good teams in the past and has 13 rounds of playoff experience including playing in multiple conference finals the nba finals, and perhaps more importantly is long time friends and teammates with the guy we just traded the next decade for. And they wouldn't want to bench him and stop him from getting his next payday and
it gets us a bad reputation or makes Mikal sad. So there will be politics involved on top of that. Kolek has plenty of time under contract to learn the ropes.

So I think while it’s exciting for the future that Kolek tossed some nice passes and I look forward to watching his next outing I think we should probably accept that Payne is locked into that backup role for the rest of the year no matter what statlines Kolek throws up these next couple weeks. Again, barring injuries to a minimum of two of the 4 players. That could easily happen though(as it already has) so stay ready kid

I think what many criticize is his lack of playing time despite Deuce missing multiple games earlier in the season and after JB went down. Brunson averages like 35minutes a game while Deuce plays like 25min.....any time either of them misses games, there should automatically be 15minutes available for Kolek. Keep in mind Shamet missed like the first 3 months of the season as well. Really there is no excuse for Kolek having played so litte when literally all our backcourt guys except Payne missed some major time. But for the time being I'll reserve some judgment....but am eager to find out what Kolek can do the upcoming games....

Payne missed 6-7 games early on. Shamet missed months at the same time. Deuce missed 10-15 games in there. There were plenty of opportunities to play the kid. Thibs chose to ride his starters instead. Go figure.

It's good to see positive impact from Kolek. Hopefully he grows from this and earns his way into the rotation. I am getting tired of typing about Thibs honestly. I am trying to just root for the team in spite of my issues with the orc faced penguin.

[robillionaire]

While that is certainly true, the interesting aspect of this will be to find out at what level Kolek can perform. One point of contention towards Thibs throughout the season has been his lack of bench development. If Thibs is right and the bench simply lacked quality and the rookies weren't playable, then we should now witness Payne outplaying Kolek by some margin at least. If they are on the same level, let alone Kolek outplaying him, then that would raise some further difficult questions towards Thibs.....

Note: In 64games Payne had a single 8assist game and a single 9assist game (against Utah playing 36 minutes as a starter).....

Here’s something funny. 3 years ago Payne, (along with Mikal and Shamet) all started for the Suns. They beat the Knicks and Payne had 17 pts and 16 ast which is still his career high. And that team finished #1 in the west.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/202203040PHO.html?__hstc=205977932.ccd7a852b658135e8ef5a89adb918522.1731467654772.1742697501156.1742834700978.47&__hssc=205977932.2.1742834700978&__hsfp=1232071131

Anyway Kolek had 8 assists but at the end of the day he is still a rookie while Payne is a 10 year vet who has contributed to good teams in the past and has 13 rounds of playoff experience including playing in multiple conference finals the nba finals, and perhaps more importantly is long time friends and teammates with the guy we just traded the next decade for. And they wouldn't want to bench him and stop him from getting his next payday and
it gets us a bad reputation or makes Mikal sad. So there will be politics involved on top of that. Kolek has plenty of time under contract to learn the ropes.

So I think while it’s exciting for the future that Kolek tossed some nice passes and I look forward to watching his next outing I think we should probably accept that Payne is locked into that backup role for the rest of the year no matter what statlines Kolek throws up these next couple weeks. Again, barring injuries to a minimum of two of the 4 players. That could easily happen though(as it already has) so stay ready kid

I think what many criticize is his lack of playing time despite Deuce missing multiple games earlier in the season and after JB went down. Brunson averages like 35minutes a game while Deuce plays like 25min.....any time either of them misses games, there should automatically be 15minutes available for Kolek. Keep in mind Shamet missed like the first 3 months of the season as well. Really there is no excuse for Kolek having played so litte when literally all our backcourt guys except Payne missed some major time. But for the time being I'll reserve some judgment....but am eager to find out what Kolek can do the upcoming games....

The top problem by estimate is that we have had too many close games and don’t have the talent level to blow teams out regularly. And rarely get blown out either. Our margin for error to win games has been painfully slim.

Bad teams can play all their rookies. Good teams that play in a lot of blowouts have a lot of opportunities. But we are in that tight spot where we want to be contender, we are likely winning 50 games again. Yet, we aren’t talented enough as the top shelf teams to have teams blown out by the 3rd quarter so we can have a whole 4th for a development chance. We even let the wizards back into it.

But that’s ok. We have had guys come through here and play limited in year one and then mold into decent players. We have also had guys we played a ton in year 1 who never amounted to anything. So one way or another I’m a believer that the cream rises to the top and the real talent will find a way to shine through and I trust our system will separate the wheat from the chaff. And the good pieces will get there when ready and become rotation players like McBride or valuable trade chips like IQ

[Iron Mantis]

Mudiay would have been Michael Jordan but Fizdale did not develop him properly, always benched him when he made a mistake, started DSJ over him, lied to his face about fixing him. Fizdale also stopped Knox from becoming KD

I'm starting to get the hang of your posting style!

Nice short video. Didn’t realize Kolek had the most assists in a half in 18 years!
Some nice commentary.

Watch on YouTube

Everything the guy in the video says is like 200% common sense...it is truly baffling.

It's common sense that Kolek should play, unless you're a part of that sketchy underground folk music band: Orc and the Thibslobbers.

"If you say Kolek should get minutes, it means you think he's the Knicks' savior and you believe he's the next Steve Nash"

[thebuzzardman]

Guess what

[robillionaire]

Here’s something funny. 3 years ago Payne, (along with Mikal and Shamet) all started for the Suns. They beat the Knicks and Payne had 17 pts and 16 ast which is still his career high. And that team finished #1 in the west.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/202203040PHO.html?__hstc=205977932.ccd7a852b658135e8ef5a89adb918522.1731467654772.1742697501156.1742834700978.47&__hssc=205977932.2.1742834700978&__hsfp=1232071131

Anyway Kolek had 8 assists but at the end of the day he is still a rookie while Payne is a 10 year vet who has contributed to good teams in the past and has 13 rounds of playoff experience including playing in multiple conference finals the nba finals, and perhaps more importantly is long time friends and teammates with the guy we just traded the next decade for. And they wouldn't want to bench him and stop him from getting his next payday and
it gets us a bad reputation or makes Mikal sad. So there will be politics involved on top of that. Kolek has plenty of time under contract to learn the ropes.

So I think while it’s exciting for the future that Kolek tossed some nice passes and I look forward to watching his next outing I think we should probably accept that Payne is locked into that backup role for the rest of the year no matter what statlines Kolek throws up these next couple weeks. Again, barring injuries to a minimum of two of the 4 players. That could easily happen though(as it already has) so stay ready kid

I think what many criticize is his lack of playing time despite Deuce missing multiple games earlier in the season and after JB went down. Brunson averages like 35minutes a game while Deuce plays like 25min.....any time either of them misses games, there should automatically be 15minutes available for Kolek. Keep in mind Shamet missed like the first 3 months of the season as well. Really there is no excuse for Kolek having played so litte when literally all our backcourt guys except Payne missed some major time. But for the time being I'll reserve some judgment....but am eager to find out what Kolek can do the upcoming games....

Payne missed 6-7 games early on. Shamet missed months at the same time. Deuce missed 10-15 games in there. There were plenty of opportunities to play the kid. Thibs chose to ride his starters instead. Go figure.

It's good to see positive impact from Kolek. Hopefully he grows from this and earns his way into the rotation. I am getting tired of typing about Thibs honestly. I am trying to just root for the team in spite of my issues with the orc faced penguin.

I checked the box score of the 6 games that both Payne and Shamet missed. With Brunson and Deuce healthy. And Kolek did in fact play in all 6 games. Although the minutes were pretty limited. He played 17 mins in one of them. But there was one game he only played a minute of garbage time so maybe could have been used more in that one. But they went with a bigger lineup.

If Payne is out, they will play Brunson/Mikal Deuce/Shamet
If Shamet is out, they will play Brunson/Mikal Payne/Deuce
If Brunson is out, we saw they will play Deuce/Mikal Payne/Shamet.

There was a game against Utah that both Brunson and Deuce missed. Payne started with Kolek/Shamet off the bench and we won. Now we are seeing that again with the last game.

So there’s some sort of method to the madness and in that method we need 2 players injured for him to crack the rotation

[robillionaire]

One takeaway I have from all this is that McBride shouldn’t be starting especially not at PG. He is ok backup PG and maybe better as a backup off the ball. But I haven’t enjoyed how the team plays when he’s had opportunities to start at PG over the past couple years. Maybe Thibs made a mistake and should have started Payne and had Deuce off the bench in the past several games.

[HopelessKnick]

Here’s something funny. 3 years ago Payne, (along with Mikal and Shamet) all started for the Suns. They beat the Knicks and Payne had 17 pts and 16 ast which is still his career high. And that team finished #1 in the west.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/202203040PHO.html?__hstc=205977932.ccd7a852b658135e8ef5a89adb918522.1731467654772.1742697501156.1742834700978.47&__hssc=205977932.2.1742834700978&__hsfp=1232071131

Anyway Kolek had 8 assists but at the end of the day he is still a rookie while Payne is a 10 year vet who has contributed to good teams in the past and has 13 rounds of playoff experience including playing in multiple conference finals the nba finals, and perhaps more importantly is long time friends and teammates with the guy we just traded the next decade for. And they wouldn't want to bench him and stop him from getting his next payday and
it gets us a bad reputation or makes Mikal sad. So there will be politics involved on top of that. Kolek has plenty of time under contract to learn the ropes.

So I think while it’s exciting for the future that Kolek tossed some nice passes and I look forward to watching his next outing I think we should probably accept that Payne is locked into that backup role for the rest of the year no matter what statlines Kolek throws up these next couple weeks. Again, barring injuries to a minimum of two of the 4 players. That could easily happen though(as it already has) so stay ready kid

I think what many criticize is his lack of playing time despite Deuce missing multiple games earlier in the season and after JB went down. Brunson averages like 35minutes a game while Deuce plays like 25min.....any time either of them misses games, there should automatically be 15minutes available for Kolek. Keep in mind Shamet missed like the first 3 months of the season as well. Really there is no excuse for Kolek having played so litte when literally all our backcourt guys except Payne missed some major time. But for the time being I'll reserve some judgment....but am eager to find out what Kolek can do the upcoming games....

The top problem by estimate is that we have had too many close games and don’t have the talent level to blow teams out regularly. And rarely get blown out either. Our margin for error to win games has been painfully slim.

Bad teams can play all their rookies. Good teams that play in a lot of blowouts have a lot of opportunities. But we are in that tight spot where we want to be contender, we are likely winning 50 games again. Yet, we aren’t talented enough as the top shelf teams to have teams blown out by the 3rd quarter so we can have a whole 4th for a development chance. We even let the wizards back into it.

But that’s ok. We have had guys come through here and play limited in year one and then mold into decent players. We have also had guys we played a ton in year 1 who never amounted to anything. So one way or another I’m a believer that the cream rises to the top and the real talent will find a way to shine through and I trust our system will separate the wheat from the chaff. And the good pieces will get there when ready and become rotation players like McBride or valuable trade chips like IQ

I would be willing to lend more credence to that argument if there was at least some attempt early on in the season to establish a sensible rotation. Early on when Precious, Mitch and Shamet were out longterm, we were playing essentially a 7 man rotation where like all our starters were among the league leaders in minutes. Literally, almost no matter how good your starters may be, this is not a winning formula and one does not have to be Greg Popovich to see that. Even if you are not convinced as a coach that your guys from 9-15 on the roster are good, for the sake of the starters you have to give it at least a solid try. Just going to a 7 man rotation basically from the get go is a blatant mistake---in the modern NBA that type of **** is not going to bring you late season success.
And then the other problem with the argument is this: At one point the Knicks were like 4th or 5th in point differential at like +6....so literally if your argument was valid then every team from +6 to like -5 or so would have had a similar problem. Only the top 3 teams and bottom 8 teams would have had grounds to play their rookies by your argument but in reality many in between teams regularly play 9-10 guys....most coaches know you can't get away with that short of a rotation in November. And really, this is nothing new...it is something Thibs has been criticized for on every team he was employed as a HC.

[HopelessKnick]

One takeaway I have from all this is that McBride shouldn’t be starting especially not at PG. He is ok backup PG and maybe better as a backup off the ball. But I haven’t enjoyed how the team plays when he’s had opportunities to start at PG over the past couple years. Maybe Thibs made a mistake and should have started Payne and had Deuce off the bench in the past several games.

And to add a final point...very rarely do teams have the luxury that the Knicks had the past week where we were like on an island by ourselves in the standings...he had every opportunity to play the rooks a bit with no harm in the standings...but in typical Thibs fashion he chose to milk the starters and we still came up with back to back losses to pitiful teams. Typical losing formula.

Thibs may talk and act tough but he is really coaching from a point of fear. He does not trust anybody that is not already an established player in the league, he is too afraid to mix it up and give guys a chance and he is too scared to try new things. He essentially is going by the 80s/90s playbook and is afraid to gamble a bit on the odd November game by giving unestablished players a chance. He milks his trusted guys until they fall apart later in the season. Coaching scared---not going to win ultimately.

[Jalen Bluntson]

I think what many criticize is his lack of playing time despite Deuce missing multiple games earlier in the season and after JB went down. Brunson averages like 35minutes a game while Deuce plays like 25min.....any time either of them misses games, there should automatically be 15minutes available for Kolek. Keep in mind Shamet missed like the first 3 months of the season as well. Really there is no excuse for Kolek having played so litte when literally all our backcourt guys except Payne missed some major time. But for the time being I'll reserve some judgment....but am eager to find out what Kolek can do the upcoming games....

Payne missed 6-7 games early on. Shamet missed months at the same time. Deuce missed 10-15 games in there. There were plenty of opportunities to play the kid. Thibs chose to ride his starters instead. Go figure.

It's good to see positive impact from Kolek. Hopefully he grows from this and earns his way into the rotation. I am getting tired of typing about Thibs honestly. I am trying to just root for the team in spite of my issues with the orc faced penguin.

I checked the box score of the 6 games that both Payne and Shamet missed. With Brunson and Deuce healthy. And Kolek did in fact play in all 6 games. Although the minutes were pretty limited. He played 17 mins in one of them. But there was one game he only played a minute of garbage time so maybe could have been used more in that one. But they went with a bigger lineup.

If Payne is out, they will play Brunson/Mikal Deuce/Shamet
If Shamet is out, they will play Brunson/Mikal Payne/Deuce
If Brunson is out, we saw they will play Deuce/Mikal Payne/Shamet.

There was a game against Utah that both Brunson and Deuce missed. Payne started with Kolek/Shamet off the bench and we won. Now we are seeing that again with the last game.

So there’s some sort of method to the madness and in that method we need 2 players injured for him to crack the rotation

It's not just about injuries. Payne/Deuce/Shamet have all had bad games. Our bench needed a spark. Thibs did nothing but play the starters more as usual. Rinse and repeat. I'm over discussing it. It's a simple fact that Thibs is terrible at utilizing his bench. The numbers all support it. The eye test supports it. We have all witnessed it.

[robillionaire]

I think what many criticize is his lack of playing time despite Deuce missing multiple games earlier in the season and after JB went down. Brunson averages like 35minutes a game while Deuce plays like 25min.....any time either of them misses games, there should automatically be 15minutes available for Kolek. Keep in mind Shamet missed like the first 3 months of the season as well. Really there is no excuse for Kolek having played so litte when literally all our backcourt guys except Payne missed some major time. But for the time being I'll reserve some judgment....but am eager to find out what Kolek can do the upcoming games....

The top problem by estimate is that we have had too many close games and don’t have the talent level to blow teams out regularly. And rarely get blown out either. Our margin for error to win games has been painfully slim.

Bad teams can play all their rookies. Good teams that play in a lot of blowouts have a lot of opportunities. But we are in that tight spot where we want to be contender, we are likely winning 50 games again. Yet, we aren’t talented enough as the top shelf teams to have teams blown out by the 3rd quarter so we can have a whole 4th for a development chance. We even let the wizards back into it.

But that’s ok. We have had guys come through here and play limited in year one and then mold into decent players. We have also had guys we played a ton in year 1 who never amounted to anything. So one way or another I’m a believer that the cream rises to the top and the real talent will find a way to shine through and I trust our system will separate the wheat from the chaff. And the good pieces will get there when ready and become rotation players like McBride or valuable trade chips like IQ

I would be willing to lend more credence to that argument if there was at least some attempt early on in the season to establish a sensible rotation. Early on when Precious, Mitch and Shamet were out longterm, we were playing essentially a 7 man rotation where like all our starters were among the league leaders in minutes. Literally, almost no matter how good your starters may be, this is not a winning formula and one does not have to be Greg Popovich to see that. Even if you are not convinced as a coach that your guys from 9-15 on the roster are good, for the sake of the starters you have to give it at least a solid try. Just going to a 7 man rotation basically from the get go is a blatant mistake---in the modern NBA that type of **** is not going to bring you late season success.
And then the other problem with the argument is this: At one point the Knicks were like 4th or 5th in point differential at like +6....so literally if your argument was valid then every team from +6 to like -5 or so would have had a similar problem. Only the top 3 teams and bottom 8 teams would have had grounds to play their rookies by your argument but in reality many in between teams regularly play 9-10 guys....most coaches know you can't get away with that short of a rotation in November. And really, this is nothing new...it is something Thibs has been criticized for on every team he was employed as a HC.

I didn’t like that either but my only argument in favor of it is that we had a lot of turnover in the offseason and are fielding essentially a new team with towns and mikal(plus OG barely even got a quarter of a season) and a different strategy with 5 out so it may be good to get starters a lot of minutes used to playing together in year 1 in that instance. Well that and a chunk of the already putrid depth that we had got itself injured in the preseason. Usually he does play a 10 man rotation the first part of the year and then shortens the rotation. But we didn’t really get that this year

[robillionaire]

Payne missed 6-7 games early on. Shamet missed months at the same time. Deuce missed 10-15 games in there. There were plenty of opportunities to play the kid. Thibs chose to ride his starters instead. Go figure.

It's good to see positive impact from Kolek. Hopefully he grows from this and earns his way into the rotation. I am getting tired of typing about Thibs honestly. I am trying to just root for the team in spite of my issues with the orc faced penguin.

I checked the box score of the 6 games that both Payne and Shamet missed. With Brunson and Deuce healthy. And Kolek did in fact play in all 6 games. Although the minutes were pretty limited. He played 17 mins in one of them. But there was one game he only played a minute of garbage time so maybe could have been used more in that one. But they went with a bigger lineup.

If Payne is out, they will play Brunson/Mikal Deuce/Shamet
If Shamet is out, they will play Brunson/Mikal Payne/Deuce
If Brunson is out, we saw they will play Deuce/Mikal Payne/Shamet.

There was a game against Utah that both Brunson and Deuce missed. Payne started with Kolek/Shamet off the bench and we won. Now we are seeing that again with the last game.

So there’s some sort of method to the madness and in that method we need 2 players injured for him to crack the rotation

I'm over discussing it.

[Jalen Bluntson]

I checked the box score of the 6 games that both Payne and Shamet missed. With Brunson and Deuce healthy. And Kolek did in fact play in all 6 games. Although the minutes were pretty limited. He played 17 mins in one of them. But there was one game he only played a minute of garbage time so maybe could have been used more in that one. But they went with a bigger lineup.

If Payne is out, they will play Brunson/Mikal Deuce/Shamet
If Shamet is out, they will play Brunson/Mikal Payne/Deuce
If Brunson is out, we saw they will play Deuce/Mikal Payne/Shamet.

There was a game against Utah that both Brunson and Deuce missed. Payne started with Kolek/Shamet off the bench and we won. Now we are seeing that again with the last game.

So there’s some sort of method to the madness and in that method we need 2 players injured for him to crack the rotation

I'm over discussing it.

There is nothing else to say besides Thibs sucks.

[BKlutch]

This just in. Thibs still sucks

When he first took over, I really liked Thibs. He had (a little) more hair, and he wasn't Fiz or Horney or... But now, the relationship seems to have changed, and I'm looking around at other coaches. I feel like maybe we need to steal a coach away from a good team, because my true love, Kenny Atkinson, married the Cavs.

As much as we long for a change, we don't want to have a relationship with another wrong coach. We need a coach who can take us to the next level. In basketsexual life, winning a chip is the ballgasm we deserve!