Could have lost by 50 and we couldn't be upset. No team can win without 5 of their best players that includes two All-Stars.
I'm concerned. Especially with Brunson. Immediately thought of Daniel Jones (I know different sport) when I saw it was his neck. Clearly a product of him getting knocked around and taking charges every game. Fingers crossed it's nothing serious. They all need to be smart and don't force it. Even if it means we drop in the standings. Priority needs to be to be as healthy as possible for the playoffs. Seeding won't matter if we're injured.
Must say Zion is impressive. Amazing what he can do at his size. He'd be a top 10 player if he ever took his profession seriously.
Considering how many key players are out, have been out. Knicks have been hanging around good teams, at full strength, longer than you would think. I think it speaks to the team's mental toughness more than anything. Didnt have JB, our closer.
Burks was awful last night at every position he played. As others have mentioned, doesnt look like he has the same elevation, burst. Looked slower than he has the previous games. He should be trending in the other direction.
Still believe its too early to say Burks is washed. Burks does damage when the defense is paying attention to the star players. He's a crafty vet, I know that expression gets used a lot. Im still betting on Burks helping in the playoffs, unless father time has won. We'll see.
You can start to see where Thibs is leaning. Burks is playing himself out of the rotation, Deuce is getting more of the important mins than him. Deuce probably cracks playoff the rotation as Brunson's short minute backup. Bogs with all of his warts seems to be more trusted by Thibs and he seems to be getting a longer leash. Probably because we need the front court scoring without Randle, but I think Thibs views him as a more valuable piece to get figured out. Still hard to see how Hart / Bogs / Precious / Mitch all work themselves into the rotation but I think the answer is that they all won't.
Bogs is a 20ppg player. His leash is long when the bench is thin.
Precious creating is not his game was evident last night. It was necessary as was DDV volume.
Nalod wrote:Bogs is a 20ppg player. His leash is long when the bench is thin.
Precious creating is not his game was evident last night. It was necessary as was DDV volume.
Yeah - Precious needs to take up whatever space is being given to him and get to/near the basket where he seems to be able to get to the line. He’s explosive off pick/dive and makes good decisions (mostly) passing off the catch but Thibs keeps putting him in corner. Sims on most nights is equivalent of “a warm body”.
Nalod wrote:Bogs is a 20ppg player. His leash is long when the bench is thin.
Precious creating is not his game was evident last night. It was necessary as was DDV volume.
Agreed I guess my point was that Burks is a capable scorer also but his leash was yanked quickly the last two games. I think Thibs is more focused on optimizing Bogs and is starting to see Burks as "situational".
DLeethal wrote:You can start to see where Thibs is leaning. Burks is playing himself out of the rotation, Deuce is getting more of the important mins than him. Deuce probably cracks playoff the rotation as Brunson's short minute backup. Bogs with all of his warts seems to be more trusted by Thibs and he seems to be getting a longer leash. Probably because we need the front court scoring without Randle, but I think Thibs views him as a more valuable piece to get figured out. Still hard to see how Hart / Bogs / Precious / Mitch all work themselves into the rotation but I think the answer is that they all won't.
They could but Burks and Mcbride would need to be sacrificed. DDV would need to line up more at PG. Hart more at SG.
Brunson 33mins, DDV 15mins
DDV 13mins, Hart 28mins, Bojan 7mins
OG 35mins, Bojan 13mins
Randle 33mins, Precious 15mins
IHart 28mins, Mitch 20mins
Juggling Bojan, Precious, Mcbride, Burks, DDV, Hart line up will most likely come down to matchups. Thibs wanna go smaller with more outside shooting than Mcbride &/or Burks may get the nod with Bojan sliding more toward SF/PF. Thibs wants go to big than Precious will get the nod with Bojan sliding more toward SF/SG.
Bojan will get his 20mins per game. Precious, Mcbride, Burks will be more of a fluctuation. Need defense to stop a run when the 2nd unit is in. Or the offense is getting stagnant.
What I didn't like about last night and some of the other games where we've played without Brunson/Randle is that we seem to resort to launching more 3's and less high quality 3's - i.e. more contested/stepback 3's. We haven't hit at a good rate. I think when you are undermanned you have to take the game to your opponent and catch them off guard. That said I guess we just didn't have enough guys that could drive to the basket last night. THe only one who did was Josh Hart, who has been pretty effective lately, but aside from that I think we stood along the perimeter too much.
The only thing thats good about this horrible stretch of injuries is that Hary appears to have found his game again.
