martin wrote:nycericanguy wrote:another great thing is we are seeing Brunson turning into a high volume and efficient 3pt shooter, which was one of the slight knocks on him. He's elite in the midrange but being able to hit 3's and hit them at a high clip really adds to his game and takes some of the load off him. He works really hard for those mid range shots sometimes and takes a lot of contact.
Can't wait for the midrange to actually come back for him. Strange how much he is missing but maybe it's the vibes RJ is enjoying too much
agreed. when Randle and Brunson get it going,combined with the scehedule easing and RJ coming back this team can really go on a tear.
SergioNYK wrote:LivingLegend wrote:Rookie wrote:LivingLegend wrote:Gus with….- the BIG RAGU
and
- the BRUNSON BURNER
The one about Hart was gold too, da” heck did he say? All Heart?
Missed that one.
I think it was 'Lion Heart'
loved that
Hart and DDV have bought such great energy to this team, those guys just go all out and are all over the court. didn't know DDV was such a good rebounder. Thibs clearly values extra possessions and its working.
nycericanguy wrote:SergioNYK wrote:LivingLegend wrote:Rookie wrote:LivingLegend wrote:Gus with….- the BIG RAGU
and
- the BRUNSON BURNER
The one about Hart was gold too, da” heck did he say? All Heart?
Missed that one.
I think it was 'Lion Heart'
loved that
Hart and DDV have bought such great energy to this team, those guys just go all out and are all over the court. didn't know DDV was such a good rebounder. Thibs clearly values extra possessions and its working.
The cuts that DDV makes.... *chefs kiss*
Is it weird to say that iHart has been great and yet I feel underwhelmed? Want to see more offense from him.
martin wrote:Is it weird to say that iHart has been great and yet I feel underwhelmed? Want to see more offense from him.
Dude has poor touch, and cement-like hands. Love his grit, but I cringe when he tries to get the rock into the hoop. Reminds me of Dudley in that regard.
Moonangie wrote:martin wrote:Is it weird to say that iHart has been great and yet I feel underwhelmed? Want to see more offense from him.
Dude has poor touch, and cement-like hands. Love his grit, but I cringe when he tries to get the rock into the hoop. Reminds me of Dudley in that regard.
Shades of Dudley. Yeah I can see that.
Just thought he was be more polished. Or something.
martin wrote:Is it weird to say that iHart has been great and yet I feel underwhelmed? Want to see more offense from him.
Nope. Your a knick fan. We see the negative and we get mad.
Its in our dna.
Randle gets all those assists and we shrug. He was a UFA and there were reasons of doubt. He has done nothing but improve but has his warts.
Its why he is not a max salary.
OMG, he lobbed a pass down to Mitch. It was not a good play but they attempted it!!
His ally oop to Mitch was awesome! Point forward and making better plays as season goes on.
and he dunking in traffic with a snarl. The ankle is feeling much better. He played thru it and toughed it out.
Give the man props.
RJ, some want to see him do more. Be faster. Be Kobe?
I'm not here to say "I told you so", I'll repeat what I said last year: "Tighten up incrementally and the stats will be better". No Hollywood movie magic moment were he breaks out for 46 vs. Miami. Oh shit, he did that. Ok, he needs to do it every night? LOL
He has been inconsistent and earned the doubt most have for him. Im rooting like hell for him!!! The headaches are worrisome. Maybe its the knee? Dammit!!!!
We are programed to not believe.
IHart? He is a hustle guy and passes. He seems to be trying to score more and did have a silly looking jump hook.
I hope we can keep him. Love him on the team in his role.
Our MVP? Mitch. The steals and deflections are making a difference this year. his hands are better and he is not fouling. He also boxes out a lot allowing for others to get rebounds.
So does Josh.
So does DDV.
Its why our small unit does so well.
Great game. We have struggled big time without RJ, so my biggest positive take is that it's good to see the starting unit and the team overall perform without RJ in the starting lineup. Hart in the starting lineup has been really bad going back to the playoffs. Seems they are figuring out how to play with him in there for RJ, and seems we might need to be doing that a bit.
Mitch had some huge plays down the stretch. Tapping that ball out of the chaotic wrestling match and then tapping it over to Randle who swung it to Brunson for the 3 was the play of the game. He also had a steal and huge block down the stretch right around the time Hahn said "now the Knicks are gonna have to get a couple consecutive stops" as we were trying to climb out of the 7 point hole. Mitch delivered the goods.
martin wrote:Is it weird to say that iHart has been great and yet I feel underwhelmed? Want to see more offense from him.
He had a pretty good night scoring yesterday. He is finishing a bit stronger, but his touch in the lane leaves something to be desired. The floaters/hooks. That said if he was good on offense he'd be on of the best 2 way centers in the league.
Yesterday was as good an illustration as any at how much better Mitch has gotten defensively-
1) no fouls
2) For the last 3-4 years, we have gotten smoked by Trae alley oops to Capela. I think they hit one yesterday. Capela was a virtual non-entity in this game. Btw Capela only had 3 total rebounds yesterday.
3) He doesn't try to block everything anymore but still creates havoc contesting shots and has begun to create turnovers with Steals. His positioning and anticipation is top notch right now
4) One of the reasons why his rebounding is so dominant right now is his ability to secure the ball. He got his hands on a lot of rebounds last year but didn't always grab them/played a lot of volleyball. This year he is gathering and creating more meaningful second possessions to my eye.
I think we are also seeing it in his conditioning. He is not wearing down/tiring and his range has been excellent.
VDesai wrote:martin wrote:Is it weird to say that iHart has been great and yet I feel underwhelmed? Want to see more offense from him.
He had a pretty good night scoring yesterday. He is finishing a bit stronger, but his touch in the lane leaves something to be desired. The floaters/hooks. That said if he was good on offense he'd be on of the best 2 way centers in the league.
It's not too much to ask, is it?
I wonder if we can trade for Jalon Johnson young combo forward for the bench.
Alpha1971 wrote:I wonder if we can trade for Jalon Johnson young combo forward for the bench.
I think they want to keep Johnson and move Hunter, but I think Hunter is cost prohibitive for us right now.
blkexec wrote:Grimes is playing his way out of the starting unit. His recent barrage of 3s helps, along side DDV TOs and missed layups. I always thought is DDV had a similar Josh hart impact, it would be hard to not start him.But DDV hasn’t looked great and there’s really nobody else besides IQ that Thibs would start. And I believe Thibs like IQ in the roll hes in now. And maybe with grimes, he rather keep his confidence up by starting him, but finishing with IQ.
If RJ is back, would love to see how RJ and hart looks in that starting unit replacing grines. OR maybe EF gets his starting roll back from the person that sent him to the bench originally.
Grimes is greatly underappreciated. He is not a finished product and does not get to touch the ball much at all because he plays with the starters but he brings invaluable things that especially this team needs.
martin wrote:
Randle's touch pass to iHart for the and1 was a great one too. Randle's best NBA role is most likely going to be a 3rd option triple double type. 18-11-5 kind of player.
Clean wrote:blkexec wrote:Grimes is playing his way out of the starting unit. His recent barrage of 3s helps, along side DDV TOs and missed layups. I always thought is DDV had a similar Josh hart impact, it would be hard to not start him.But DDV hasn’t looked great and there’s really nobody else besides IQ that Thibs would start. And I believe Thibs like IQ in the roll hes in now. And maybe with grimes, he rather keep his confidence up by starting him, but finishing with IQ.
If RJ is back, would love to see how RJ and hart looks in that starting unit replacing grines. OR maybe EF gets his starting roll back from the person that sent him to the bench originally.
Grimes is greatly underappreciated. He is not a finished product and does not get to touch the ball much at all because he plays with the starters but he brings invaluable things that especially this team needs.
Grimes seems to be an impact player even when the eye test looks like he's just blowing open shots and layups. When he was put into the starting lineup last year it changed the course of this team dramatically. Him and Mitch is a formidable defensive duo.
