GT: Knicks vs Pistons GAME 1 4/19/25 @ 6 PM on ESPN

[sol537]

Will the Knicks get Pist-On in this game or will we be the ones doing the Pist-ing?

[Wildcat]

I would be shocked, but it would be most welcomed, to be sure.

Mitch
KAT
OG
Bridges
Brunson

Bench: Hart (28 mins), Deuce (18 mins), Shamet (16 mins)

8-man rotation. Our best 8 guys right now. Precious and Payne purely situational. Hart as the back-up PG a la Ben Simmons.

Knicks in 5.

I want that starting lineup, too, but there's no size depth from the bench. You're force to play a 9-man rotation.

Not really... Mitch can get to 32 mins per game and KAT can get to 37 mins and you always keep one of them on the floor at all times. So KAT plays without Mitch for 16 minutes or so and those are during Hart's minutes. Plenty of teams don't use a traditional big off the bench.

These guys are all "6 FT, 4 IN".

I legitimately can't think of any team that doesn't have a backup big. And Thibs isn't exactly well known for staggering lineups.

[HarthorneWingo]

Looks like we've found our next coach

AI coach > Thibs

ppl gon call for CoachGPT's head when cade roasts his switching targets in the midrange and post.

I'll be ready for AI Clyde after he retires.

[nykballa2k4]

my biggest concern with the drop/shell is that in its ideal form it requires really complex and difficult (dare i say unrealistic) closeouts to defend the three in today's game. and some of those rotation completions are so unrealistic it looks like a concession.

This is like, kind of the whole issue

If you're gonna run a defense the way Thibs is, you need all 5 guys to be perfectly in sync at all times

And we're not. It's largely on the coach, Thibs has not adjusted to the fact that teams now have 4 or even 5 shooters on court, we're still trying to rotate as if there's only 1 or 2 real threats from 3 off the drive. Plus, all the crazy minutes we've played leads to guys getting tired which leads to little concentration slips, little mistakes which pile up over the season

In theory, you could run what Thibs wants. But in practice, it is unrealistic

Also, I just gotta say, at this point in his career Mitch is just not that guy any more. His rookie/sophomore years, before the injuries and the bulking up, maybe. But now he's lost so much of his athleticism, he's noticeably much slower. And he hasn't been a good rim protector the past 2 seasons (70% dFG both years)

With that being said, it shouldn't hurt us too bad this series. Their only good shooter comes off the bench, Duren is a complete non-shooter, and Ausar Thompson is almost a non-factor from 3 too.

It's really strange to see a coach be so blind to such an obvious issue.
The winning really does hide a lot of clear flaws.

The additional bit is that since Thibs usually coaches the regular season like it's playoffs, we don't have a dial to turn up whereas other teams do.
If the refs let both sides play more physical who does that help more?

[epics2002]

Will the Knicks get Pist-On in this game or will we be the ones doing the Pist-ing?

Foruntaely, Tobias Harris is a zero in the playoffs expect him to suck like he does every year. Cade scares me though

[Jeff Van Gully]

my biggest concern with the drop/shell is that in its ideal form it requires really complex and difficult (dare i say unrealistic) closeouts to defend the three in today's game. and some of those rotation completions are so unrealistic it looks like a concession.

This is like, kind of the whole issue

If you're gonna run a defense the way Thibs is, you need all 5 guys to be perfectly in sync at all times

And we're not. It's largely on the coach, Thibs has not adjusted to the fact that teams now have 4 or even 5 shooters on court, we're still trying to rotate as if there's only 1 or 2 real threats from 3 off the drive. Plus, all the crazy minutes we've played leads to guys getting tired which leads to little concentration slips, little mistakes which pile up over the season

In theory, you could run what Thibs wants. But in practice, it is unrealistic

Also, I just gotta say, at this point in his career Mitch is just not that guy any more. His rookie/sophomore years, before the injuries and the bulking up, maybe. But now he's lost so much of his athleticism, he's noticeably much slower. And he hasn't been a good rim protector the past 2 seasons (70% dFG both years)

With that being said, it shouldn't hurt us too bad this series. Their only good shooter comes off the bench, Duren is a complete non-shooter, and Ausar Thompson is almost a non-factor from 3 too.

It's really strange to see a coach be so blind to such an obvious issue.
The winning really does hide a lot of clear flaws.

The additional bit is that since Thibs usually coaches the regular season like it's playoffs, we don't have a dial to turn up whereas other teams do.
If the refs let both sides play more physical who does that help more?

the winning. you said it yourself. winning is more fun than disliking the how is fun.

and this team definitely prioritized health and recovery down the stretch. winning games early gave them a luxury to do so. of course they competed, but they weren't going kamikaze in march and april. the goal appeared to be getting and staying whole with the 3 seed pretty secure for a while.

[Clyde_Style]

Thibs is going to leverage the success we had in the final regular season game and rest the starters for the Celtics series

[spree8]

This is like, kind of the whole issue

If you're gonna run a defense the way Thibs is, you need all 5 guys to be perfectly in sync at all times

And we're not. It's largely on the coach, Thibs has not adjusted to the fact that teams now have 4 or even 5 shooters on court, we're still trying to rotate as if there's only 1 or 2 real threats from 3 off the drive. Plus, all the crazy minutes we've played leads to guys getting tired which leads to little concentration slips, little mistakes which pile up over the season

In theory, you could run what Thibs wants. But in practice, it is unrealistic

Also, I just gotta say, at this point in his career Mitch is just not that guy any more. His rookie/sophomore years, before the injuries and the bulking up, maybe. But now he's lost so much of his athleticism, he's noticeably much slower. And he hasn't been a good rim protector the past 2 seasons (70% dFG both years)

With that being said, it shouldn't hurt us too bad this series. Their only good shooter comes off the bench, Duren is a complete non-shooter, and Ausar Thompson is almost a non-factor from 3 too.

It's really strange to see a coach be so blind to such an obvious issue.
The winning really does hide a lot of clear flaws.

The additional bit is that since Thibs usually coaches the regular season like it's playoffs, we don't have a dial to turn up whereas other teams do.
If the refs let both sides play more physical who does that help more?

the winning. you said it yourself. winning is more fun than disliking the how is fun.

and this team definitely prioritized health and recovery down the stretch. winning games early gave them a luxury to do so. of course they competed, but they weren't going kamikaze in march and april. the goal appeared to be getting and staying whole with the 3 seed pretty secure for a while.

I think the problem is knowing they aren’t winning against top competition because of those coaching issues. Even during wins against lesser teams you can see it’s not championship caliber basketball in today’s league. That’s what makes the wins so bitter sweet.

[Kidknick!]

Will Thibs value defending 3pt shooting? Will he deploy and utilize his roster in ways that DON'T hamstring the offense in favor of size that can't score?


Will the team respond to the Pistons physical play?

This a scary series where the silver lining of losing it will be a Thibs removal as HC.

[nykballa2k4]

This is like, kind of the whole issue

If you're gonna run a defense the way Thibs is, you need all 5 guys to be perfectly in sync at all times

And we're not. It's largely on the coach, Thibs has not adjusted to the fact that teams now have 4 or even 5 shooters on court, we're still trying to rotate as if there's only 1 or 2 real threats from 3 off the drive. Plus, all the crazy minutes we've played leads to guys getting tired which leads to little concentration slips, little mistakes which pile up over the season

In theory, you could run what Thibs wants. But in practice, it is unrealistic

Also, I just gotta say, at this point in his career Mitch is just not that guy any more. His rookie/sophomore years, before the injuries and the bulking up, maybe. But now he's lost so much of his athleticism, he's noticeably much slower. And he hasn't been a good rim protector the past 2 seasons (70% dFG both years)

With that being said, it shouldn't hurt us too bad this series. Their only good shooter comes off the bench, Duren is a complete non-shooter, and Ausar Thompson is almost a non-factor from 3 too.

It's really strange to see a coach be so blind to such an obvious issue.
The winning really does hide a lot of clear flaws.

The additional bit is that since Thibs usually coaches the regular season like it's playoffs, we don't have a dial to turn up whereas other teams do.
If the refs let both sides play more physical who does that help more?

the winning. you said it yourself. winning is more fun than disliking the how is fun.

and this team definitely prioritized health and recovery down the stretch. winning games early gave them a luxury to do so. of course they competed, but they weren't going kamikaze in march and april. the goal appeared to be getting and staying whole with the 3 seed pretty secure for a while.

It's a lost cause at this point, but the smarter thing to do would have been to address some of our weaknesses and build depth. Losing Sims and getting Tucker doesn't help us protect the paint and win the rebounding battles...

[nykballa2k4]

It's really strange to see a coach be so blind to such an obvious issue.
The winning really does hide a lot of clear flaws.

The additional bit is that since Thibs usually coaches the regular season like it's playoffs, we don't have a dial to turn up whereas other teams do.
If the refs let both sides play more physical who does that help more?

the winning. you said it yourself. winning is more fun than disliking the how is fun.

and this team definitely prioritized health and recovery down the stretch. winning games early gave them a luxury to do so. of course they competed, but they weren't going kamikaze in march and april. the goal appeared to be getting and staying whole with the 3 seed pretty secure for a while.

I think the problem is knowing they aren’t winning against top competition because of those coaching issues. Even during wins against lesser teams you can see it’s not championship caliber basketball in today’s league. That’s what makes the wins so bitter sweet.

It always feels like we work so much harder to make shots and get stops.

[offense]

pistons are good but we should win in 6 games.

[8516knicks]

Time to win this chip!!! Lets unite everyone.

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Woah! Mello with the super post!!!

[8516knicks]

pistons are good but we should win in 6 games.

Feels like 6; Pistons are the new 76ers.

[NiceLikeChrist]

my biggest concern with the drop/shell is that in its ideal form it requires really complex and difficult (dare i say unrealistic) closeouts to defend the three in today's game. and some of those rotation completions are so unrealistic it looks like a concession.

This is like, kind of the whole issue

If you're gonna run a defense the way Thibs is, you need all 5 guys to be perfectly in sync at all times

And we're not. It's largely on the coach, Thibs has not adjusted to the fact that teams now have 4 or even 5 shooters on court, we're still trying to rotate as if there's only 1 or 2 real threats from 3 off the drive. Plus, all the crazy minutes we've played leads to guys getting tired which leads to little concentration slips, little mistakes which pile up over the season

In theory, you could run what Thibs wants. But in practice, it is unrealistic

Also, I just gotta say, at this point in his career Mitch is just not that guy any more. His rookie/sophomore years, before the injuries and the bulking up, maybe. But now he's lost so much of his athleticism, he's noticeably much slower. And he hasn't been a good rim protector the past 2 seasons (70% dFG both years)

With that being said, it shouldn't hurt us too bad this series. Their only good shooter comes off the bench, Duren is a complete non-shooter, and Ausar Thompson is almost a non-factor from 3 too.

It's really strange to see a coach be so blind to such an obvious issue.
The winning really does hide a lot of clear flaws.

The additional bit is that since Thibs usually coaches the regular season like it's playoffs, we don't have a dial to turn up whereas other teams do.
If the refs let both sides play more physical who does that help more?

Last year physicality was heavily in our favor because we had guys like Randle and iHart who weren’t afraid of throwing their weight around

This year more physicality benefits the other team because in most matchups we have the softer players and more easily rattled players

Physicality bothers Brunson a lot as well and the more physical they allow his defender to be can heavily impact his game

[Besart19]

If Randle wasnt the laziest sportsman on earth and iHart wasnt afraid of Mitch taking his starting spot (with that the chance of even bigger paycheck in 2025-2026) we wouldnt have these issues

Hart / Mitch / Hukporti
Randle / Hart / Achiuwa
OG / Grimes / Dadiet
Donte / Deuce / McCullar
Brunson / Payne / Kolek

And 7 more picks in the stock

[DaGawd]

ngl my enthusiasm for these playoffs are pretty low considering what this team showed us against elite comp this year.. i hope we can flip a switch

[LFGK]

This is like, kind of the whole issue

If you're gonna run a defense the way Thibs is, you need all 5 guys to be perfectly in sync at all times

And we're not. It's largely on the coach, Thibs has not adjusted to the fact that teams now have 4 or even 5 shooters on court, we're still trying to rotate as if there's only 1 or 2 real threats from 3 off the drive. Plus, all the crazy minutes we've played leads to guys getting tired which leads to little concentration slips, little mistakes which pile up over the season

In theory, you could run what Thibs wants. But in practice, it is unrealistic

Also, I just gotta say, at this point in his career Mitch is just not that guy any more. His rookie/sophomore years, before the injuries and the bulking up, maybe. But now he's lost so much of his athleticism, he's noticeably much slower. And he hasn't been a good rim protector the past 2 seasons (70% dFG both years)

With that being said, it shouldn't hurt us too bad this series. Their only good shooter comes off the bench, Duren is a complete non-shooter, and Ausar Thompson is almost a non-factor from 3 too.

It's really strange to see a coach be so blind to such an obvious issue.
The winning really does hide a lot of clear flaws.

The additional bit is that since Thibs usually coaches the regular season like it's playoffs, we don't have a dial to turn up whereas other teams do.
If the refs let both sides play more physical who does that help more?

Last year physicality was heavily in our favor because we had guys like Randle and iHart who weren’t afraid of throwing their weight around

This year more physicality benefits the other team because in most matchups we have the softer players and more easily rattled players

Physicality bothers Brunson a lot as well and the more physical they allow his defender to be can heavily impact his game

disagree with this, pacers tried it all series last year and he cooked them. Knicks in 5

[3toheadmelo]

ngl my enthusiasm for these playoffs are pretty low considering what this team showed us against elite comp this year.. i hope we can flip a switch

Same, I’m hoping we look different in the playoffs

[3toheadmelo]

Malik Beasley talking spicy about KAT. Ima need KAT to average 25/12 against them.

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