Hawks (5) @ Knicks (4) - Playoffs Round 1 - Game 1 - SUNDAY May 23 - 7:00pm

[AusKnicksTape]

Anyone listen to the recent 'Locked on Knicks' podcast with Berman?

I know it's Berman - but still - had some interesting things to say.

please summarize

Found it interesting to hear him say that he thought the writing was on the wall for Elfrid and that he felt Frank was far more popular and supported in the locker room. Thought that any agent-related reasons as to why Elfrid may have been starting reg season wouldn't mean sh*t to Thibs come playoffs.

Everyone other than Randle and Barrett on the table for a trade in off season (really only Quickley is the surprise there if true). Sticking to his thoughts on Lillard being a possibility.

I suppose the Frank chatter surprised me most. I remember reading somewhere that maybe behind closed doors Frank thought (and acted) as though he was far better than he actually is and that maybe they rubbed people the wrong way.

[Clyde_Style]

Anyone listen to the recent 'Locked on Knicks' podcast with Berman?

I know it's Berman - but still - had some interesting things to say.

please summarize

Found it interesting to hear him say that he thought the writing was on the wall for Elfrid and that he felt Frank was far more popular and supported in the locker room. Thought that any agent-related reasons as to why Elfrid may have been starting reg season wouldn't mean sh*t to Thibs come playoffs.

Everyone other than Randle and Barrett on the table for a trade in off season (really only Quickley is the surprise there if true). Sticking to his thoughts on Lillard being a possibility.

Thanks. Sounds like some speculation here that Thibs may not handle Payton the same once in the playoffs

[AusKnicksTape]

please summarize

Found it interesting to hear him say that he thought the writing was on the wall for Elfrid and that he felt Frank was far more popular and supported in the locker room. Thought that any agent-related reasons as to why Elfrid may have been starting reg season wouldn't mean sh*t to Thibs come playoffs.

Everyone other than Randle and Barrett on the table for a trade in off season (really only Quickley is the surprise there if true). Sticking to his thoughts on Lillard being a possibility.

Thanks. Sounds like some speculation here that Thibs may not handle Payton the same once in the playoffs

And look I suppose that's what we've all been thinking but I guess for someone covering the team every single day it was reassuring to know that even they think it's a possibility.

I would have assumed Berman to come on and say something along the lines of "it's not happening - here's why, etc etc". But to come out and say Frank more popular in the locker room and that Elfrid is legitimately at an all time low - thought interesting.

[cgf]

...so we believe Berman when he hypes Frank, interesting...

[Clyde_Style]

Found it interesting to hear him say that he thought the writing was on the wall for Elfrid and that he felt Frank was far more popular and supported in the locker room. Thought that any agent-related reasons as to why Elfrid may have been starting reg season wouldn't mean sh*t to Thibs come playoffs.

Everyone other than Randle and Barrett on the table for a trade in off season (really only Quickley is the surprise there if true). Sticking to his thoughts on Lillard being a possibility.

Thanks. Sounds like some speculation here that Thibs may not handle Payton the same once in the playoffs

And look I suppose that's what we've all been thinking but I guess for someone covering the team every single day it was reassuring to know that even they think it's a possibility.

I would have assumed Berman to come on and say something along the lines of "it's not happening - here's why, etc etc". But to come out and say Frank more popular in the locker room and that Elfrid is legitimately at an all time low - thought interesting.

for some reason this flashed me back to two weird anecdotes heard this season: one was that supposedly Fizdale thought RJ wouldn't succeed because he thought he was a lazy prima donna more interested in fame and the city life or something to that effect. And the other one was that Frank was lazy and unpopular in the locker room, but I forget who that rumor was attributed to. Both are BS of course, but it's good to hear otherwise about Frank from someone on the beat

[blueNorange]

woodson was on the michael kay show today, said nothing but great things about the knicks, randle, and rj.

said this was the most fun he had in his entire time coaching because the entire team bought in and you rarely see it, even austin rivers and dsj, they're both gone but never pouted about not playing.

he praised randle's work ethic, saying he put a lot of the work in.

[AusKnicksTape]

...so we believe Berman when he hypes Frank, interesting...

I did say 'I know it's Berman'.

I also said it was interesting to hear. I didn't say I took it as gospel. He could have easilly hyped Frank without specifically saying, multiple times, that Frank was more popular and had more support within the locker room.

[cgf]

...so we believe Berman when he hypes Frank, interesting...

I did say 'I know it's Berman'.

I also said it was interesting to hear. I didn't say I took it as gospel.

You're good, I was just teasing Clyde

[blueNorange]

...so we believe Berman when he hypes Frank, interesting...

no but you can connect the dots, payton's has average 19 mpg since the all star game and the last 10 games seems like it was around 10.

season is over, playoffs are a different breed, thibs will play his main guys 40+, payton playing poorly, and thibs mentioning he's discussing having frank play a role.

for thibs sake, you don't start payton because the 15k will chew him up and in a playoff game i don't want the knicks booed, i want the hawks booed.

also payton sucks but he's a person, don't have him get booed by 15k ... don't set him up to fail.

[Spot31]

Read on Twitter

Barclays will definitely sell out every game within minutes when the Orange & Blue face them in the ECF.

[stuporman]

I don't like that nearly everyone is picking the Knicks...I prefer the doubted underdog role because if the Knicks lose a tough series these 'experts' will use their wrong predictions as a reason to criticize the Knicks.

This is a great point. First time in a long time that the Knicks are not the 'underdog'. It's going to be interesting to see how they handle this new position as the favorite.

I think I saw the Hawks are 27-11 under McMillan. Too much overconfidence in this thread. The Hawks are a dangerous team. And when you have a player like Trae Young who can light it up at any moment, that adds a different dynamic to the series.

Pressure is on the Knicks to win game 1. Hawks have nothing to lose. They know if they could steal one game in NY, they'll take back home court advantage. We CANNOT lose game 1.

The Hawks are playing with house money despite what Vegas says. All the pressure is on NY and Tom but we got this.

The Knicks are playing with house money, too, this is all gravy now. The pressure that will be on the Knicks the rest of the way is from their coach and themselves.

[Clyde_Style]

...so we believe Berman when he hypes Frank, interesting...

I did say 'I know it's Berman'.

I also said it was interesting to hear. I didn't say I took it as gospel.

You're good, I was just teasing Clyde

[Clyde_Style]

[stuporman]

I don't believe Berman, he's a BSer who tries to create the story not report it.

[stuporman]

As far as scoring 20 there are players who are every gamers and ones that are any gamers.

The Nets have 3 every gamers, three different guys who can score 20 every single game outside of rare instances they will get at least 20. They each average 20ppg and this makes them a tough team to beat.

The Knicks have 1 every gamer in Randle and so do the Hawks in Young. The Knicks have another 5 any gamers, those are guys that can give you 20 in any game, not every game, so they are any gamers.

The Hawks also have alot of any gamers, like 6 guys that can get 20 in any game. This is a battle of two teams that have just one guy that scores 20 every game and then to see who has more any gamers show up.

The team that has the 1 every gamer and 2 other any gamers who score 20 will likely win, maybe a even 3 others in one or two games in the series.

The team that can limit the other any gamers better has a better chance to win. Will the Knicks defense deny the Hawks any gamers and will the Knicks any gamers go cold?

[prophet_of_rage]

Anyone listen to the recent 'Locked on Knicks' podcast with Berman?

I know it's Berman - but still - had some interesting things to say.

please summarize

Found it interesting to hear him say that he thought the writing was on the wall for Elfrid and that he felt Frank was far more popular and supported in the locker room. Thought that any agent-related reasons as to why Elfrid may have been starting reg season wouldn't mean sh*t to Thibs come playoffs.

Everyone other than Randle and Barrett on the table for a trade in off season (really only Quickley is the surprise there if true). Sticking to his thoughts on Lillard being a possibility.

I suppose the Frank chatter surprised me most. I remember reading somewhere that maybe behind closed doors Frank thought (and acted) as though he was far better than he actually is and that maybe they rubbed people the wrong way.

That was a few years ago when Frank blew off summer league to go home. I don't think Frank has made any waves since?

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[prophet_of_rage]

...so we believe Berman when he hypes Frank, interesting...

You know how it goes. But this is the same pot stirring he always does.

Sent from my SM-N970W using Tapatalk

[prophet_of_rage]

https://nypost.com/2021/05/20/knicks-struggling-guard-elfrid-payton-confident-for-nba-playoffs/

This is ... welp.

Either this is terrific brinksmanship or Thibs really really don't give a ****.

I can't see how you demote a guy and then make him a playoff Lazarus?

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[thebuzzardman]

Thanks. Sounds like some speculation here that Thibs may not handle Payton the same once in the playoffs

And look I suppose that's what we've all been thinking but I guess for someone covering the team every single day it was reassuring to know that even they think it's a possibility.

I would have assumed Berman to come on and say something along the lines of "it's not happening - here's why, etc etc". But to come out and say Frank more popular in the locker room and that Elfrid is legitimately at an all time low - thought interesting.

for some reason this flashed me back to two weird anecdotes heard this season: one was that supposedly Fizdale thought RJ wouldn't succeed because he thought he was a lazy prima donna more interested in fame and the city life or something to that effect. And the other one was that Frank was lazy and unpopular in the locker room, but I forget who that rumor was attributed to. Both are BS of course, but it's good to hear otherwise about Frank from someone on the beat

Pretty sure both were from Berman articles. And now this is from a Berman article.

Berman is sh*t stirring, as usual.

[thebuzzardman]

Also, it's going to be pretty amusing when the game thread is locked and another needs to be created before the tipoff of game 1