3toheadmelo wrote:Chanel Bomber wrote:3toheadmelo wrote:You’re giving him way too much of a pass and you’re trying to change a narrative about him that simply isn’t true. His defense at the 5 has been well documented over the years on how it limits his team from translating into winning basketball.
His defensive rating in the post season every year at the 5 is god awful. And he was only a net positive the post season he played at the 4
And this year he’s actually been the worst defender by far against the top teams, which is why we’re 0-10 against contenders.
Comparing sengun to KAT isn’t really comparable. Sengun took a massive leap on defense and he’s actually making opponents shoot -4.7% worse at the rim with a DFG% of 58% less than 5 feet at the rim. KAT on the other hand is making opponents shoot 2% better at the rim with an atrocious DFG% of 65% less than 5 feet at the rim. So while sengun isn’t an elite defender, he’s still miles ahead of KAT as a rim protector and he can switch much better.
You’re saying I’m going to the “extreme” but he is literally the worst defending 5 in the league. How can you ignore all of that data and still suggest he’s not holding us back when he’s at the 5? Like why do you think the Timberwolves paid a premium for Rudy Gobert?
If we trade KAT for KD I’m putting Mitch back as a starter for our rim protection.
If relying on Mitch at the 5 is a good option, why not keep Towns and play him at the 4 then?
None of those stats above say he's not a winning player. We won 50+ games with him at the 5. That's a lot of winning, even if it didn't translate against the top 3 teams. You're acting as if the Knicks had an awful season and were in the play-in tournament battling for their lives.
I mean it's clear you just don't want him on the team regardless at this point.
He’s never made it out the first round when he was at the 5, and those stats I just gave you showed you exactly why. It’s also why we’re 0-10 against the top 3 seeds. Boston specifically targeted him in every game. And that’s why you have no rebuttal for any of it.
It’s clear you like KAT a lot to the point you’re willing to look past the decade of evidence we have of him being a losing player at the 5 because you like him so much as a player. So this is going nowhere.
Those Timberwolves teams just lacked talent before they traded all their assets for Gobert.. Jimmy played through injury in 2018. Edwards was a sophomore in 2022. Those other teams had Andrew Wiggins and D'Angelo Russell as their second or third best players. They were horrible.
Again, you can make the case that you can't contend with him playing the 5. But when you say he's not a winner when we just finished the season with our best record since 2013, I think you're losing the plot a bit.
I like KAT but I'm not particularly a fan and I always understood his weakness on defense. But you made it very clear when the Knicks traded for him that you didn't like him being on the team, and you've been posting about him pretty much every day since, and I think everybody here sees that you're extremely biased on the topic.
I agree that KAT's not a good defender at the 5, but I also see that he's an All-Star starter, in all likelihood to be voted an All-NBA player, and the impact metrics suggest he's not only a net positive but also our best player this season. So, no, I don't think the fact that I disagree with the notion that he's "not a winning player" shows I'm particularly biased on the topic. We all are to a degree, but I think most people would agree you've shown an extreme bias against KAT, even if some of your arguments are perfectly reasonable.
