Official NBA General Discussion 2024-25 V2.0

[Madvillainy2004]

We really traded Pascal and got Ingram lmao

I'm sick to my stomach man. Traded a pure dawg, top 3 Raptor ever, Champion, do it all point forward.

Now we pinning our hopes on a skinny career loser

We're really pinning our hopes on an oft-injured career loser lol I'm gonna watch and I want this team to be good next year but damn it's tough.

[Brinbe]

Not like Michael Malone runs a deep bench either but I guess he is good at utilising skilled bigs with questionable defense so maybe there's a fit there. Knicks kinda are setup like Nuggets East in a way. Plus Malone being a NYC-born and raised guy, I can see the fit there.

[Madvillainy2004]

We really traded Pascal and got Ingram lmao

I'm sick to my stomach man. Traded a pure dawg, top 3 Raptor ever, Champion, do it all point forward.

Now we pinning our hopes on a skinny career loser

Pascal made his believer like myself even more proud but BI is a vastly superior talent and is 3 years younger.

Don't get me wrong I expected great things when we started 23/24 with OG-Barnes-Pascal-Yak! Great things, I mean how Bad is Darko?!

Talent wise/age wise, we are back to 23/24 expecting great things but Darko is still the coach.

Finals OKC - Pacers when it could have Minnesota vs New York with all the back stories and a true star in the Finals in Ant...oh welll

Vastly superior? I think they're pretty much the same player with Pascal having a finishing/defense/rebounding edge and Ingram having a shooting/passing edge. Durability is always been Ingrams biggest problem tho and idk about hitching our team to a guy that missed this many games.

[TrustFundBaby]

We really traded Pascal and got Ingram lmao

I'm sick to my stomach man. Traded a pure dawg, top 3 Raptor ever, Champion, do it all point forward.

Now we pinning our hopes on a skinny career loser

Pascal made his believer like myself even more proud but BI is a vastly superior talent and is 3 years younger.

Don't get me wrong I expected great things when we started 23/24 with OG-Barnes-Pascal-Yak! Great things, I mean how Bad is Darko?!

Talent wise/age wise, we are back to 23/24 expecting great things but Darko is still the coach.

Finals OKC - Pacers when it could have Minnesota vs New York with all the back stories and a true star in the Finals in Ant...oh welll

Disagree Ingram is more talented. Maybe mid-range scoring and very slight edge in passing, and Siakam is right there with him in those areas.

I have siakam everywhere else. Siakam better inside, in post, on the drive, handle, all aspects of defence, clutch proven champion.

[ash_k]

I'm sick to my stomach man. Traded a pure dawg, top 3 Raptor ever, Champion, do it all point forward.

Now we pinning our hopes on a skinny career loser

Pascal made his believer like myself even more proud but BI is a vastly superior talent and is 3 years younger.

Don't get me wrong I expected great things when we started 23/24 with OG-Barnes-Pascal-Yak! Great things, I mean how Bad is Darko?!

Talent wise/age wise, we are back to 23/24 expecting great things but Darko is still the coach.

Finals OKC - Pacers when it could have Minnesota vs New York with all the back stories and a true star in the Finals in Ant...oh welll

Vastly superior? I think they're pretty much the same player with Pascal having a finishing/defense/rebounding edge and Ingram having a shooting/passing edge. Durability is always been Ingrams biggest problem tho and idk about hitching our team to a guy that missed this many games.

Yes, durability is THE concern. But they are certainly not the same and again 3 years younger! He is vastly superior.
Talent-wise, we essentially traded for an injury-prone version of Jayson Tatum.

[Madvillainy2004]

I'm sick to my stomach man. Traded a pure dawg, top 3 Raptor ever, Champion, do it all point forward.

Now we pinning our hopes on a skinny career loser

Pascal made his believer like myself even more proud but BI is a vastly superior talent and is 3 years younger.

Don't get me wrong I expected great things when we started 23/24 with OG-Barnes-Pascal-Yak! Great things, I mean how Bad is Darko?!

Talent wise/age wise, we are back to 23/24 expecting great things but Darko is still the coach.

Finals OKC - Pacers when it could have Minnesota vs New York with all the back stories and a true star in the Finals in Ant...oh welll

Disagree Ingram is more talented. Maybe mid-range scoring and very slight edge in passing, and Siakam is right there with him in those areas.

I have siakam everywhere else. Siakam better inside, in post, on the drive, handle, all aspects of defence, clutch proven champion.

The durability is the biggest one for me, I know we told Ingram to sit out but in general he's never been healthy and to be where we wanna be were gonna need 65+ games out of him and idk if we get that.

[MiamiSPX]

"We have the best starting lineup in the league"
"Our bench doesn't matter because of how good our starters are"
"We have the 2 best defenders in the league that can shut anyone down"

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

[ash_k]

I'm sick to my stomach man. Traded a pure dawg, top 3 Raptor ever, Champion, do it all point forward.

Now we pinning our hopes on a skinny career loser

Pascal made his believer like myself even more proud but BI is a vastly superior talent and is 3 years younger.

Don't get me wrong I expected great things when we started 23/24 with OG-Barnes-Pascal-Yak! Great things, I mean how Bad is Darko?!

Talent wise/age wise, we are back to 23/24 expecting great things but Darko is still the coach.

Finals OKC - Pacers when it could have Minnesota vs New York with all the back stories and a true star in the Finals in Ant...oh welll

Disagree Ingram is more talented. Maybe mid-range scoring and very slight edge in passing, and Siakam is right there with him in those areas.

I have siakam everywhere else. Siakam better inside, in post, on the drive, handle, all aspects of defence, clutch proven champion.

You have watched Siakam from up close game after game, years after years.
Well, we are just about to go through the BI experience (durability aside) all together and you could re-assess.

[ash_k]

Had a few tonight but man. **** anyone on this board who acts like people were crazy for thinking Pascal/OG/Barnes/FVV has potential to be something.

I would have understood those non-believers had we actually not seen those players under the most pressurized situations performed at a very high-level.
Without 'exhausting all options', no management in their right mind would have traded two players that performed in NBA Finals closing game (Pascal went 10-17 26pts in 46mins?!, FVV 22pts) then OG showed some clutch gene in Cleveland early in his career ..then Barnes would have been the first rookie since Magic Freaking Johnson to do a triple-double in his first playoff game , had it not been for clumsy/Dirty player Embiid.

Then folks wonder why so many of us along with the Vice Chairman firmly believed in FVV/OG/Barnes/Pascal with Nurse. I just wish the Pacers had not pulled out the Turner trade ..Imagine FVV|OG|Barnes|Pascal|Turner!

[Tripod]

i know knicks fans hate thibs but imho, thibs is maximizing the knicks output.

He's maximizing the 7 players he plays. Their bench isn't perfect but he could use it better. Plus he doesn't have a good offense, it's all disjointed and iso heavy.

If he was coaching the Pacers roster, or the Cavs regular season, they wouldn't be nearly as good. He wouldn't use bench guys like Carlisle tonight, or Atkinson all season.

I keep saying Achiuwa could really help them if Tibs played him.

Adds rebounding and defense to let others get a bit more rest.

But NY's biggest issue is how much they rely on Brunson to create. The pressure Indy puts on him all game is crazy and NY can't do the same to Haliburton because they are always tired.

7 guys over 25 mins, Payne with 9. Playing 7.5 guys vs Indy just isn't enough. Meanwhile Indy plays 11 guys...10 of them over 8 mins. Bridges playing 45 mins is just nuts.

Sometimes less is more and Tibs has not figured that out.

[TorontoBarneys]

I've noticed that the Knicks fanbase on here is every bit as neurotic as ours is.

[TrustFundBaby]

Had a few tonight but man. **** anyone on this board who acts like people were crazy for thinking Pascal/OG/Barnes/FVV has potential to be something.

Needed a star creator with shooting and some depth. Scottie didn’t pan out. Gary Trent definitely didn’t pan out. Ugh.

Norm for GTJ was the beginning of the end IMO. Norm this season was getting All Star talks as he was keeping LAC afloat along Harden/Zubac. If you look at his numbers thought it is around what he was doing for us in Tampa. Meanwhile, GTJ signed for the minimum with MIL and is a complete scrub.

We traded a borderline all star for a guy who turned out to be Vet min caliber. Jumping in the lottery and grabbing Barnes forced the FO's hand afterwards but I am pretty confident now we overeacted in 2021 IMO. Its not a coincidence our old core are all key players on good teams now.

Now we have to delude ourselves into thinking IQ/RJ/Ingram are gonna do anything next to Scottie.

[sidsid]

There's also coaching diff happening in this series.

If I was an owner I'd be too involved here because I'd go into Thibs office today and ask him a simple question: who is starting game 3?

And if Mitch isn't in his answer with one of Hart, or if he's really bold, KAT on the bench, I'd fire him on the spot. Only way to save your season.

[ash_k]

This Norm for GTJ thing has been revisionist history.

Reminder, even for Norm: At that time, he was massively outperforming his projected contract,being our leading scorer for the last 2 or 3 months before the trade, outperforming "Franchise player" Pascal, starting to look-like the Franchise player himself thus Masai had to make a decision with the free-agency pending.

As a Rap, with the way he was going Norm would have gotten a higher contract than both he and GTJ eventually got. That trade took a lot of his earning potential away that season.

So when I even hear Norm say "I would have accepted that GTJ-contract" (cmon man, no discount especially signing for a Canadian team?! and you know it). Like his Agent would have accepted below market value . (Had he stayed a Raptor)

Masai's decision, Going with a younger player with potential in GTJ and It did look great at first (averaged 20pts in his last 4 playoffs games against the sixers if I recall correctly) and then Darko's awful coaching made him expandable

[NinjaBro]

Anybody got some good recommendations for some good Knicks podcasts to listen to for some post game fun? Been listening to Knicks TV and Knicks film school to soak it all in and I'm loving it. Knicks fans actually have a podcast called "Long Suffering" and "Shattered Hope" lol.

[WaltFrazier]

i know knicks fans hate thibs but imho, thibs is maximizing the knicks output.

He's maximizing the 7 players he plays. Their bench isn't perfect but he could use it better. Plus he doesn't have a good offense, it's all disjointed and iso heavy.

If he was coaching the Pacers roster, or the Cavs regular season, they wouldn't be nearly as good. He wouldn't use bench guys like Carlisle tonight, or Atkinson all season.

I keep saying Achiuwa could really help them if Tibs played him.

Adds rebounding and defense to let others get a bit more rest.

But NY's biggest issue is how much they rely on Brunson to create. The pressure Indy puts on him all game is crazy and NY can't do the same to Haliburton because they are always tired.

7 guys over 25 mins, Payne with 9. Playing 7.5 guys vs Indy just isn't enough. Meanwhile Indy plays 11 guys...10 of them over 8 mins. Bridges playing 45 mins is just nuts.

Sometimes less is more and Tibs has not figured that out.

Yeah Precious could at least come in and play some defense in short stints. Trouble is if they have any two of Hart, Robinson and Precious together on court the spacing is bad. The starting lineup already struggles enough just from one defender being able to leave Hart alone and clog the paint.

[WaltFrazier]

The Knicks are too emotional. KAT, Robinson, Hart and Payne (lol) are too hyped up IMO. Meanwhile Siakam and the Pacers are just going about their business. Siakam had about 25 opportunities to showboat but didn't. Score, turn around, let's get back on D. Love it. KAT is taunting the Pacers bench in the 2nd quarter while up 3 lol. I've watched him enough to know that's his thing to amp himself up but man, let's get serious.

I know they're friends but Siakam took that OG assignment personally and roasted him quite a few times. He was incredible.

I may be in the minority but when I watch Hart play, I am reminded of what Westbrook said about Beverley. That snarl and those emphatic rebounds don't fool me. He goes long stretches out there where he doesn't really do anything at all. As your 1st or 2nd guy off the bench? SIgn me up. But as a starter, playing big minutes on a team that fancies itself a contender? That's a no from me.

Knicks are not winning 4 of 5 against these Pacers.

Pascal hit a couple or three turnaround jumpers over OGs contest. But most of his points came after they screened OG to get him off Pascal, or in transition. The poster Oakley Dokley here used to post stats on OG and other defenders when they were the actual primary defender on an opponent for each basket. I'd like to see that from this game.

I've watched all season almost every game. You're right about Hart. He's this amazing rebounder for 6'4, but his defense isn't what it needs to be, and his lack of a three point shot restricts the halfcourt offense a lot

[WaltFrazier]

There's also coaching diff happening in this series.

If I was an owner I'd be too involved here because I'd go into Thibs office today and ask him a simple question: who is starting game 3?

And if Mitch isn't in his answer with one of Hart, or if he's really bold, KAT on the bench, I'd fire him on the spot. Only way to save your season.

Probably not the owner but the GM for sure. Leon Rose or others in the front office don't seem to have a relationship where they would tell Thibs what to do. And tbf I guess he has brought the team to a level of respectability. But the next step has to be a new coach imo. They can probably only make tweaks to the roster but sometimes a new coach can unlock a roster's potential just with a new offense and new rotations. Like Atkinson with Cavs this year, playoff collapse notwithstanding

[DreamTeam09]

"We have the best starting lineup in the league"
"Our bench doesn't matter because of how good our starters are"
"We have the 2 best defenders in the league that can shut anyone down"

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

So is the Knicks hype real or not? To me none of these teams are scary, Knicks Indy, even Boston, once you match up well with your opponent, it's about hunting mismatches and capitalizing. I thought the Cavs had the best team or a team that could be scary, but welp.
We do need a veteran bench player that actually plays

[Raptorfan2012]

"We have the best starting lineup in the league"
"Our bench doesn't matter because of how good our starters are"
"We have the 2 best defenders in the league that can shut anyone down"

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

So is the Knicks hype real or not? To me none of these teams are scary, Knicks Indy, even Boston, once you match up well with your opponent, it's about hunting mismatches and capitalizing. I thought the Cavs had the best team or a team that could be scary, but welp.
We do need a veteran bench player that actually plays

Agreed, none of teams in the East right now are scary; certainly not dynasty contenders. If we are serious with making the playoffs, just need to sign a solid vet or two to lead our bench.