Nalod wrote:BlueKnickers wrote:Nalod wrote:Cowherd is stating the obvious. Nick Wright conters well. They are both correct actually. Its not an either or.
I have read posters here say for knicks to win a chip KAT has to be the top guy.
Wright says for this to all work the team has to be constructed "perfectly". Perhaps the last time we saw that without a HOF super star was Larry Browns pistons. They do state the obvious given OKC, Spurs, Detroit with cade, and Celtics finished with better records. Denver got healthy, finished with winning 11 in row and has the Jokic guy!
Knicks have yet to show this proficiency. But they could, and they in the conversation.
That Athletic poll of 147 players they do every year? They have yet to predict it correct. Not one third of the league responded to it.
It all gets sorted out on the court, not the court of opinion!
Brunson is arguably the best closer in the business
KAT should still be the featured player in our offense
Both statements can be true
You can leverage both of them
I think Cowherd's point rang true last night.
I also credit ATL for locking down the one of the best closers in the game last night.
We are knick fans and while there is no defending what happend because, well, it happend, we don't credit the team that defended the knicks who went cold.
IN defense of Brown, he went with Brunson and his starters in the end who shit the bed. But its what gets you there more times than not.
If we "all see this coming" why are we all freaked out and hating on the team so fast? This team needed a player friendly coach. Malone is not that guy. Might as well have kept Thibs for that kind of personality. Giannis is 4-5 year older now? Can't replicate the past.
Im not calling out anyone specifically. Our fans are in pain.
BlueKnickers had a good point about Brunson/Kat and it rang true.
My take on Deuce is Brown is still playing him into shape for the long run. We need him right. The game was in hand.
Shamet is not shooting well these days and his fall last night might be an issue. GTA was a spark in first half for 2 min and could not get it going again. Love the guy. But......
Not sure why OG is being called out, he manhandled Johnson most of the night. He is their best player. CJ did get tired. Brunson can't guard him. Snyder did a great job getting Brunson in trouble. ATL also started rebounding better.
KAT? He got cold from the outside then he panicked a bit with some drives. He was a beast in the paint and offensive boards.
It was all going swimming well!
Really what happend? Bad 5 min to close it out. All night ATL kept clawing back. They are a good team. Well coached. We played into their game plan. They executed. We did not.
Announcers said we had a time out but is that not correct? Mikal had a good look for the last shot. Sad ending. Painful actually!
When this team plays well it is in spite of themselves.
This roster is not truly a "team"
It is a collection of loose parts, some of which are really neat-o, but they rarely work together in harmonious fashion.
Yes, ATL is well coached. On paper, we should be better, but at this point ATL is a better "TEAM"
We're just a hodge podge of mismatched talents. The reason any of the current games get close is due to that talent, but we're losing games because we play like a bunch of freelancers taking turns to ISO. You cannot go far in the playoffs the way this team is behaving.
If this squad had an identity we'd know what it is by now. They don't have one. I have never seen a team that lacks an identity make it to the finals, even if they got outclassed in the championship round. We got to the ECF and then whiffed last year. That's as far as this current roster could get is win two rounds due to random bursts of talent overcoming their lack of consistency.
However, they look worse this first round than they did against the Pistons last year and they had to scratch their way to win that series in 6. I don't see anything about this squad that indicates an imminent sense of urgency or cohesion. They lack anything that resembles a spark. They are sh!t to root for, because half of every game, win or lose, I want to tear my eyes out watching how dysfunctional this group is.
Also, that starting unit looks soulless out there. They don't show any unity or passion or excitement about playing together. They look like they are sick of each other. It is getting embarrassing to watch how detached they are with each other.
