2025 NBA PLAYOFFS East First Round: #3 New York Knicks vs #6 Detroit Pistons (Series tied 1-1)

[jasonxxx102]

I get that Detroit is this feel good story, and people are overrating them because of it but this should be fairly easy for the Knicks. I put Knicks in 6 since Det is pretty scrappy.

Knicks have more talent, more depth, a better coach, and the best player.

[zeebneeb]

I get that Detroit is this feel good story, and people are overrating them because of it but this should be fairly easy for the Knicks. I put Knicks in 6 since Det is pretty scrappy.

Knicks have more talent, more depth, a better coach, and the best player.

I am also picking the Knicks, but everything you just said is debatable.

Knicks have more mature talent.(Duren 21 Ausar 22 Holland 19 Cade 23 & Ivey 23 although not applicable here)Coaching is debatable. Both have major issues. Best player is absolutely debatable. The Pistons also have much better depth then the Knicks. Pistons have the 6th highest scoring bench in the league(40.2ppg led by arguably the leagues best three-point shooter this season, and Stewart with the best at the rim defensive FG% since 2015), whilst the Knicks is dead last.(21.7ppg)

Experience is going to play a massive role in this series, and thats what will be the Pistons undoing.

[jasonxxx102]

I get that Detroit is this feel good story, and people are overrating them because of it but this should be fairly easy for the Knicks. I put Knicks in 6 since Det is pretty scrappy.

Knicks have more talent, more depth, a better coach, and the best player.

I am also picking the Knicks, but everything you just said is debatable.

Knicks have more mature talent.(Duren 21 Ausar 22 Holland 19 Cade 23 & Ivey 23 although not applicable here)Coaching is debatable. Both have major issues. Best player is absolutely debatable. The Pistons also have much better depth then the Knicks. Pistons have the 6th highest scoring bench in the league(40.2ppg led by arguably the leagues best three-point shooter this season, and Stewart with the best at the rim defensive FG% since 2015), whilst the Knicks is dead last.(21.7ppg)

Experience is going to play a massive role in this series, and thats what will be the Pistons undoing.

KAT, Brunson, OG, Mikal, Hart better than everyone on the Detroit roster not named Cade. The depth is not even remotely close. Knicks have 5 of the 6 best players in the series easily.

Best player is definitely debatable.

Coaching isn't close for me, I've seen far too much JB in the playoffs.

[soxperry]

Yeah this is over in 5, maybe less. Sorry Detroit. Knicks are too good. Its a long road to the top and yall just left the garage. Personally, i think it would have been better for yall to suck for one more year and get another lottery guy, but i look forward to seeing how it all develops.

[cgf]

In 2023, Donovan Mitchell was the best player in the series.

In 2024, Joel Embiid was the best player in the series.

Now in 2025, Cade Cunningham is the best player in the series.

Gotta go out there and prove them wrong again, Jalen Brunson.

It's like clockwork, every year people forget that Jalen is that dude in the playoffs and every year he shows them what's what

[cgf]

i don’t know how to feel

Same. I think NY is the better team but Detroit has been playing a lot better this calendar year.

Tough series.

This is the last playoff series with Thibs as the head coach.

Knicks eliminated in first round ==> Thibs fired.
Knicks get slaughtered by Boston ==> Thibs fired.
Knicks lose a very close series against Boston ==> Not sure.
Knicks make to the ECF ==> He's fine.

All I can say was he drove me bonkos when he was running starters in the Atlanta game last week.

I know some Knicks fans wanted to drop to 4 to get Cleveland in round two, but if Thibs started sitting starters, Indy passed us, and we didn't make the ECFs or beyond, then not only would Thibs be gone but Dolan might go full Dolan and fire everybody. And that terrifies me. We got lucky with this management team, will we get lucky with their successors if Jimmy fires everyone and handles it himself?

[Stannis]

This will be a dog fight. And I honestly would not be surprised if the Pistons pull it off.

[cgf]

KATs softness is going to be exposed in this series.

I disagree completely, and think this is the series that tricks people into thinking KAT is what his stats say he is.

I don't like KAT, and don't believe you can win with him as your 1st or 2nd option. He's soft, and gets thrown off his game way too much, and tries too hard in big moments which result in the sloppy Jaulen Brown level turnovers.

But this is exactly the type of series where he will play well. While the pistons big men are tough guys, love both of them, neither one is a real offensive threat, neither have size to match him, and neither are going to clamp him on defense. Kat on the offensive end is going to get whatever he wants from the midrange, and the post, and is going to have stretches during this series where he just looks unstoppable.

I can see it now, Kat shooting over Stew in the middy, and hitting turnaround fades over Tobias, and then coming here and seeing threads like "KAT is the truth!"

I expect KAT to look like an ANBA guy this series, feasting against a young team in the pnr game, and then getting completely exposed in close games next series.

I know Horford was out and Brown was hobbled, but the "just put Tatum on him" strategy to frustrate KAT seemed to fizzle out the last time we played each other...and he abused Green, another crafty vet who has tradition given him fits, when we played GSW. Towns has made a lot of big boy plays this year and kept fighting at times when he easily could've quit.

Of course, you could light us up from 3 too much to keep up, even with Brunson & Towns both clicking and us controlling the boards...just saying that I wouldn't be so sure that Karl will disappear to make it easy on you.

[JujitsuFlip]

I get that Detroit is this feel good story, and people are overrating them because of it but this should be fairly easy for the Knicks. I put Knicks in 6 since Det is pretty scrappy.

Knicks have more talent, more depth, a better coach, and the best player.

I am also picking the Knicks, but everything you just said is debatable.

Knicks have more mature talent.(Duren 21 Ausar 22 Holland 19 Cade 23 & Ivey 23 although not applicable here)Coaching is debatable. Both have major issues. Best player is absolutely debatable. The Pistons also have much better depth then the Knicks. Pistons have the 6th highest scoring bench in the league(40.2ppg led by arguably the leagues best three-point shooter this season, and Stewart with the best at the rim defensive FG% since 2015), whilst the Knicks is dead last.(21.7ppg)

Experience is going to play a massive role in this series, and thats what will be the Pistons undoing.

KAT, Brunson, OG, Mikal, Hart better than everyone on the Detroit roster not named Cade. The depth is not even remotely close. Knicks have 5 of the 6 best players in the series easily.

Best player is definitely debatable.

Coaching isn't close for me, I've seen far too much JB in the playoffs.

lol same

[cgf]

I am also picking the Knicks, but everything you just said is debatable.

Knicks have more mature talent.(Duren 21 Ausar 22 Holland 19 Cade 23 & Ivey 23 although not applicable here)Coaching is debatable. Both have major issues. Best player is absolutely debatable. The Pistons also have much better depth then the Knicks. Pistons have the 6th highest scoring bench in the league(40.2ppg led by arguably the leagues best three-point shooter this season, and Stewart with the best at the rim defensive FG% since 2015), whilst the Knicks is dead last.(21.7ppg)

Experience is going to play a massive role in this series, and thats what will be the Pistons undoing.

KAT, Brunson, OG, Mikal, Hart better than everyone on the Detroit roster not named Cade. The depth is not even remotely close. Knicks have 5 of the 6 best players in the series easily.

Best player is definitely debatable.

Coaching isn't close for me, I've seen far too much JB in the playoffs.

lol same

Though, barring injuries, we should still take care of them pretty handily and I do expect Thibs to once again outcoach Bickerstaff. The JB you watched also never finished the season top 10 in bench minutes. Coaches develop the same way players do. Not saying he's suddenly some offensive wizard, but he's clearly made some adjustments to his rotations. So it seems silly to assume that it would be impossible for him to have made other adjustments as well.

[facothomas22]

This series on paper should easily favor the Knicks. Josh Hart will be on Cade Cummingham for a huge portion of the game and I could Cade struggling with efficiency. He will still get his ether way, but it may be tougher than usual for him. OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges should easily outmatch any output from the any of the Pistons wings and forwards. The KAT VS Duren matchup will be interesting. Jalen Duren has looked better on defense, but he still has his bad moments the on that side of the ball. KAT is known for his defensive struggles, but maybe not as much of cone as what people believed. Jalen Brunson has look a bit different in the 4 games since he came back from injury, but I think the rust will eventually fade and he play like his usual offensive superstar self as the series goes on.The Pistons best chance of making this a real series or even winning the series is taking advantage of Jalen Brunson still being a bit rusty early and make life difficult for KAT. Also Ausar Thompson is also going to need to play lockdown defense vs Mikal Bridges/OG Anunoby and significantly slow them down. Ron Hollard should get some playing time in order to take some of the defensive pressure off of Thompson. Overall I think the Knicks should win this series in 5 or 6 games, but some uncertain variable that could make this more of a series or this series ends up being a sweep in favor of the Knicks.

[JXL]

Everything that everyone has said (cgf, zeebneeb, even JujitsuFlip) has a relevant point to this series, but no one I believe has touched on the biggest one:

How does Thibs game plan his defense vs. Cade Cunningham?

Obvious answer would be just putting OG on him and wreak havoc, but it's not that easy, and I don't have a reasonable explanation on how, so if someone else can answer it, that's appreciated.

[cgf]

Everything that everyone has said (cgf, zeebneeb, even JujitsuFlip) has a relevant point to this series, but no one I believe has touched on the biggest one:

How does Thibs game plan his defense vs. Cade Cunningham?

Obvious answer would be just putting OG on him and wreak havoc, but it's not that easy, and I don't have a reasonable explanation on how, so if someone else can answer it, that's appreciated.

As always with thibs, depends on what works and what a specific game requires.

If Cade is working Mikal but we're locking everyone else up and lighting them up at the other end, then you just ride it out with Cade putting up video game #s in a losing effort. If they are throwing our offense off while Cade is killing Mikal, then he's likely to see a lot more of OG and maybe even dual big lineups so Mitch can lock down the paint to let everyone else be more aggressive on the perimeter.

People act like Thibs has this strict dogma that he never abandons, but his only dogma is winning. He may think that protecting the paint is more important to winning than some of us, but if something is working he won't abandon it just because it's not working his way and he's not afraid to try "un-Thibs-y" things when "his way" isn't working.

But my guess would be he starts with Mikal on Cade so OG can roam and sees how things go. I'm sure cade will see plenty of McBride & Hart as well as our two higher profile wingstoppers.

[JXL]

Everything that everyone has said (cgf, zeebneeb, even JujitsuFlip) has a relevant point to this series, but no one I believe has touched on the biggest one:

How does Thibs game plan his defense vs. Cade Cunningham?

Obvious answer would be just putting OG on him and wreak havoc, but it's not that easy, and I don't have a reasonable explanation on how, so if someone else can answer it, that's appreciated.

As always with thibs, depends on what works and what a specific game requires.

If Cade is working Mikal but we're locking everyone else up and lighting them up at the other end, then you just ride it out with Cade putting up video game #s in a losing effort. If they are throwing our offense off while Cade is killing Mikal, then he's likely to see a lot more of OG and maybe even dual big lineups so Mitch can lock down the paint to let everyone else be more aggressive on the perimeter.

People act like Thibs has this strict dogma that he never abandons, but his only dogma is winning. He may think that protecting the paint is more important to winning than some of us, but if something is working he won't abandon it just because it's not working his way and he's not afraid to try "un-Thibs-y" things when "his way" isn't working.

But my guess would be he starts with Mikal on Cade so OG can roam and sees how things go. I'm sure cade will see plenty of McBride & Hart as well as our two higher profile wingstoppers.

But then it's gonna be on them to play up on him and make him a passer, and have him prone to turning it over, which he is prone to do.

Those last games against Detroit, did Mikal or Hart even make him work for those buckets? No.

[Lemmie_live]

KATs softness is going to be exposed in this series.

Kat softness and lack of paint defense was exposed way before this playoff matchup. Since Mitch is back, Kat can focus more on the perimeter which he isn’t as terrible defending.

[Lemmie_live]

Pistons lead regular season series, 3-1.

I think it's worth pointing out, there was no KAT or Robinson in the December 7th game.

No Robinson the January 13th game.

There was no Robinson, OG, or Hart in the April 10th game.

Pistons now are going to be going against a fully healthy Knicks squad, at least to start the series.

Going to be glorious watching you explain how bad JB is - after we knock out NY.

Cade is the best player in the East. The whole world will know now.

Did Giannis retire or something??

[LFGK]

Everything that everyone has said (cgf, zeebneeb, even JujitsuFlip) has a relevant point to this series, but no one I believe has touched on the biggest one:

How does Thibs game plan his defense vs. Cade Cunningham?

Obvious answer would be just putting OG on him and wreak havoc, but it's not that easy, and I don't have a reasonable explanation on how, so if someone else can answer it, that's appreciated.

As always with thibs, depends on what works and what a specific game requires.

If Cade is working Mikal but we're locking everyone else up and lighting them up at the other end, then you just ride it out with Cade putting up video game #s in a losing effort. If they are throwing our offense off while Cade is killing Mikal, then he's likely to see a lot more of OG and maybe even dual big lineups so Mitch can lock down the paint to let everyone else be more aggressive on the perimeter.

People act like Thibs has this strict dogma that he never abandons, but his only dogma is winning. He may think that protecting the paint is more important to winning than some of us, but if something is working he won't abandon it just because it's not working his way and he's not afraid to try "un-Thibs-y" things when "his way" isn't working.

But my guess would be he starts with Mikal on Cade so OG can roam and sees how things go. I'm sure cade will see plenty of McBride & Hart as well as our two higher profile wingstoppers.

how dare you speak somewhat positively of coach? I been told all season that he sucks and holding the team back.

[JujitsuFlip]

KAT, Brunson, OG, Mikal, Hart better than everyone on the Detroit roster not named Cade. The depth is not even remotely close. Knicks have 5 of the 6 best players in the series easily.

Best player is definitely debatable.

Coaching isn't close for me, I've seen far too much JB in the playoffs.

lol same

Though, barring injuries, we should still take care of them pretty handily and I do expect Thibs to once again outcoach Bickerstaff. The JB you watched also never finished the season top 10 in bench minutes. Coaches develop the same way players do. Not saying he's suddenly some offensive wizard, but he's clearly made some adjustments to his rotations. So it seems silly to assume that it would be impossible for him to have made other adjustments as well.

I mean i don't like either team, so if jb somehow figured out how to be a competent post season coach then I'll just laugh that the Pistons eliminated the Knicks lol

However, I'm unwilling to bet anything on jb's post season coaching ability.

[scrabbarista]

Doing my all-time rankings again, and Towns is at an inflection point for his career. He's 29.

I have him at 139th this morning, but he's next to guys like Bernard King, Mitch Richmond, Tyson Chandler, and Mookie Blaylock. He's obviously more talented than these guys (King excepted) and will zoom past them, but how high can he go? Can he push into the top 75 before he hangs up his sneakers? Higher? The Playoffs is where reputations are made. Has he matured into a true 1b, the kind of player who can occasionally be a 1a in the highest pressure situations? Or will he fade like the wallflower he too often was in Minnesota? It's time to find out...

[LFGK]

Doing my all-time rankings again, and Towns is at an inflection point for his career. He's 29.

I have him at 139th this morning, but he's next to guys like Bernard King, Mitch Richmond, Tyson Chandler, and Mookie Blaylock. He's obviously more talented than these guys (King excepted) and will zoom past them, but how high can he go? Can he push into the top 75 before he hangs up his sneakers? Higher? The Playoffs is where reputations are made. Has he matured into a true 1b, thr kind of player who can occasionally be a 1a in the highest pressure situations? Or will he fade like the wallflower he too often was in Minnesota? It's time to find out...

I mean its abundantly clear he's much more physical in NY then he was in MIN. Kids very talented and defense is even alright when playing next to Mitch.