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NiceLikeChrist wrote:Thibs is gonna thibs and not switch but if you watch the screens it's only mikal who ends up devasted by them. Pacome gets back in front, OG slips through, even kolek can get over. Mikal is playing catch up defense from behind every single time and it blows my mind

That’s true and I noticed it from day one, but it is also only one half of the problem. The other is the resulting dribble penetration or roll action. Here it is easy to fault Bridges for allowing it, but denying it will always be difficult. You have to be able to counter it with physical presence near the rim and while KAT is 7‘0 he cannot and will not be everywhere, especially if he was part of the pnr. Here, having Achiuwa or Robinson would help tremendously. Hart, in contrast, can only do very little on those rotations.

This also doesn’t mean that Bridges is a bad defender. He does have those long arms and will defend passing lanes or close out even from this situation, having fallen behind on the pick and roll.

mpharris36 wrote:historically we have never played well in Utah...never been an easy place for us to play.

Out of 44 games the Knicks have played in Utah, they have lost 30 of them.

The Knicks are likely to lose in Utah 70 percent of the time.

Also, I'm not giving up on Mikal Bridges.

In the 6 games leading up to this Jazz game, he was averaging 18/5/4 on 52% from the field. The 31% from three is not great, but he has been ridiculously good from mid-range.

Jazz game was a dud, but he should bounce back.

Btw, what's up with this...

ctorres wrote:

mpharris36 wrote:historically we have never played well in Utah...never been an easy place for us to play.

Out of 44 games the Knicks have played in Utah, they have lost 30 of them.

The Knicks are likely to lose in Utah 70 percent of the time.

Also, I'm not giving up on Mikal Bridges.

In the 6 games leading up to this Jazz game, he was averaging 18/5/4 on 52% from the field. The 31% from three is not great, but he has been ridiculously good from mid-range.

Jazz game was a dud, but he should bounce back.

Btw, what's up with this...

Read on Twitter

Found that odd as well, but there’s no way we can get Kessler without giving up Mitch + picks (we have none)
Or deuce

I watched this game again, this time only watching Utah’s offensive possessions. On EVERY SINGLE PLAY that a 3 was banged on us, we went UNDER or did not switch PERIOD. The defensive player getting picked, whether it be OG, Kolek, Brunson, Bridges or Hart, they were picked off every single time, with the no peel switch or switch period from the man guarding the one setting the pick. This is maddening to watch, i slowed it down and played each play 0.5x speed, only to see Thibs’ repeated drop coverage. It’s one thing to know the drop coverage is there, but its another thing when you just refuse to adjust. I know thibs isn’t going to switch, BUT WTF IS THE POINT OF HAVING THE BEST WINGS IF YOU DON’T LET THEM SWITCH AND DEFEND AND HELP ON EACH DEFENSIVE PLAY.

This coach is ass and we will never go anywhere with him. For some defensive guru, where your whole system is predicated on defense, and you finally have the versatile wing defenders to switch, USE THEM. How many f’n more games are we gonna watch Mikal get abused on pick after pick especially at the point of attack, without giving him some help with a switch on defense you asshat?

OG continuing to do his best impression of Kawhi Leonard

Last 8 games
36.6 mpg
21.1 ppg
55.2% fg's on 14.5 fga/g
42.0 3pt fg's on 6.3 3ga/g
83.3% ft's on 3.0 fta/g
6.3 rpg
1.3 apg
1.5 spg
0.8 bpg

If the Knicks were the 1st or 2nd best team in the East, OG would make the all-star team.

The KnicksFix wrote:Found that odd as well, but there’s no way we can get Kessler without giving up Mitch + picks (we have none)
Or deuce

Watch us trade Mitch and Deuce for Kessler and Jordan Clarkson.

finished the games. tough one..
KAT and Brunson probably were due for off-nights.
when the threes aren't falling, Utah is a very very rough place to play imo with the altitude and the multiple 7footers protecting the basket.
We just didn't have it from the beginning..

Good thing we do not play Utah in the playoffs. They'd smoke us in 4 games.

oh and we are now 16 games into the season. at what point are you gonna tell Bridges to stop shooting threens unless they are wide open in the corner?

Reign23 wrote:oh and we are now 16 games into the season. at what point are you gonna tell Bridges to stop shooting threens unless they are wide open in the corner?

Bridges is a fcken bum, I’m sorry to say it, his shots above the break is a guaranteed miss, and doesn’t play defense with an urgency. This team is friggin doomed. Fck it.

You’re losing to the hawks, the bulls, and now the jazz. You’re not a contender, and trades are incoming if they dont play above .500

Reign23 wrote:oh and we are now 16 games into the season. at what point are you gonna tell Bridges to stop shooting threens unless they are wide open in the corner?

I'm looking at shot charts now.

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/mikal-bridges-shot-chart

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/og-anunoby-shot-chart

The "above the break" three is destroying Mikal's shooting percentage, he sucks from all three areas. He is solid from the corner 3's, the paint, and mid range.

OG is strong everywhere he shoots from EXCEPT the right corner 3 (27.3% on 11 attempts), which is the ONLY area that Mikal shoots a very high percentage for his threes (51.7% on 29 attempts). However, to be fair to OG, 11 attempts isn't that much of a sample size, but it is where he attempts his least amount of threes.

Is it too early in the season to tell Mikal to quit trying to shoot above the break threes? Can he improve on them over the course of the season and get good at them by playoff time? The above the break three is the only glaring weakness in Mikal's offensive game.

If you took out all of Mikal's attempts from half court and the top of the key (where he is 1 for 13 according to NBA.com), Mikal would be shooting a respectable 33.7% from three instead of 30.4% overall.

3toheadmelo wrote:

What did you think of the bridges trade? Im curious
I know what you thought of the kat trade

ctorres wrote:

Reign23 wrote:oh and we are now 16 games into the season. at what point are you gonna tell Bridges to stop shooting threens unless they are wide open in the corner?

I'm looking at shot charts now.

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/mikal-bridges-shot-chart

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/og-anunoby-shot-chart

The "above the break" three is destroying Mikal's shooting percentage, he sucks from all three areas. He is solid from the corner 3's, the paint, and mid range.

OG is strong everywhere he shoots from EXCEPT the right corner 3 (27.3% on 11 attempts), which is the ONLY area that Mikal shoots a very high percentage for his threes (51.7% on 29 attempts). However, to be fair to OG, 11 attempts isn't that much of a sample size, but it is where he attempts his least amount of threes.

Is it too early in the season to tell Mikal to quit trying to shoot above the break threes? Can he improve on them over the course of the season and get good at them by playoff time? The above the break three is the only glaring weakness in Mikal's offensive game.

If you took out all of Mikal's attempts from half court and the top of the key (where he is 1 for 13 according to NBA.com), Mikal would be shooting a respectable 33.7% from three instead of 30.4% overall.

He shot 3/15 today tho, and 1/7 from 3. He doesn’t look great offensively, but defensively there are many times he just looks lost.

The KnicksFix wrote:You’re losing to the hawks, the bulls, and now the jazz. You’re not a contender, and trades are incoming if they dont play above .500

There is some legitimacy to what mpharris36 said on page 3

Knicks really can't win in Utah

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/knicks-record-in-utah-the-last-46-seasons

From 1983 to 1990, Knicks lost 7 of 8 times in Utah. The one time the Knicks won was with Bernard King, but they lost with him too.

From 1993 to 2001, Knicks lost 8 times in a row in Utah. That's literally every great Patrick Ewing team the Knicks had.

Didn't watch but just by reading the thread I'm seeing a common theme from this board

When we win: Yeah we can beat anyone in the league with our new team!!!

When we lose: Fire Thibs!!!



At some point people are gonna realize that this isn't a coach problem. You traded for a wing that hasn't played defense in years and a really bad defensive C. So expect us to be trash defensively and be hovering around .500 for most of the year. We need to be extremely good on offense every night to offset any deficiency we have on defense to be a championship contender which I don't see happening realistically.

Shout out to OG though. Thank you leon for fleecing Toronto!

The KnicksFix wrote:He shot 3/15 today tho, and 1/7 from 3. He doesn’t look great offensively, but defensively there are many times he just looks lost.

Against the Jazz he sucked, but he was pretty solid in the 6 games leading up to the Jazz game.

Let's see how he does the next couple of games. I really want to give Mikal the benefit of the doubt. The 3/15 and 1/7 might have been a fluke.

iLLSonChandla wrote:Trade Bridges for Ingram

Should've traded for Ingram in the first place. If Mikal isn't gonna play defense then we should've went all out on a wing that can score on all 3 levels and playmake. Overpaid for Bridges like he was on Ingram's level smh.