LivingLegend wrote:This Mikal Bridges guy is starting to look like he belongs in the league --- seems like a pretty good player.Loved how easy offense came for Jalen (at least early) -- love that we are continuing to find Mikal/OG for open and some easy buckets.
Kat is frustrating because clearly most skilled guy on court but he gets caught up in all kinds of little distracting stuff -- with 100% focus he'd probably be avg. 35/15 on 60/50/90 shooting 
. And he still goes for 25 and 13.
Can't stand Moritz Wagner -- always waiting for him to hurt our guys like Embid.
On the Precious.Mitch returns. Noted on a show I listened to earlier - that Knicks have made 2 mid-season BIG time trades past few years (Josh/OG). Keeps me wondering if we are scouring the league for specific talent we want to add to the roster. Still feels like bench needs creation/scoring.
I honestly think it's already here and they are happy with it.
1) Establish new starting line up (going well being #1 in the league)
2) Get quality help so we can start reducing winter minutes. I think that comes in Precious/Shamat/Mitch
I like how things are panning out. Precious will cut into OG's minutes and that's important. If we can go into the playoffs with healthy OG/KAT backed up by Precious/Mitch I think we are in great shape to compete for a chip.
We are thin at PG. After Brunson/Payne it's McBride (really a SG) and he's got tendinitis in his knee 
Tyler needs time
MaTT4281 wrote:Sorry I doubted the trade. I'm on the KAT wagon.
This and the Kat pass were very fun.
Kat has so much left in his bag he hasn't even showed - that is 1st time I believe we've seen the beautiful Ewing like baseline fadeaway.
Remember watching Kat at Kentucky and Calipari was particularly TOUGH on Kat -- demanding he get on the block and take it strong to the hole. Cal may have done Kat more favor than Kat realizes because he has such a bag in the post....want to see it more. Kat's drives while nice scare the hell out of me as he crashes into floor and the basket base under the hoop - also worry about hand injuries hitting the floor.
Just want Kat to keep his feet on floor and kill people with set shot, post game and passing BUT the drives are hard to defend.
martin wrote:
LivingLegend wrote:This Mikal Bridges guy is starting to look like he belongs in the league --- seems like a pretty good player.Loved how easy offense came for Jalen (at least early) -- love that we are continuing to find Mikal/OG for open and some easy buckets.
Kat is frustrating because clearly most skilled guy on court but he gets caught up in all kinds of little distracting stuff -- with 100% focus he'd probably be avg. 35/15 on 60/50/90 shooting . And he still goes for 25 and 13.
Can't stand Moritz Wagner -- always waiting for him to hurt our guys like Embid.
On the Precious.Mitch returns. Noted on a show I listened to earlier - that Knicks have made 2 mid-season BIG time trades past few years (Josh/OG). Keeps me wondering if we are scouring the league for specific talent we want to add to the roster. Still feels like bench needs creation/scoring.
He had me worried there with some of his play but man when he is going like that we really become hard to defend for a defense.
When Mikal is moving and knocking down fadeaways and movement 3's my vision blurs and he starts looking like KD.
Clean wrote:
One thing that always happens unless one of them have an of night is everyone eats in this offense. After every game every one of the starters and McBbride has good points.
ZERO ball stopping, zero agendas, unselfishness oozing thru the screen - just attacking the D, sharing the ball and making the right play.
Clean wrote:One thing I am noticing is you can't know a player well enough if they don't play for your team. I have seen KAT play plenty of times but I had no idea I would love having him this much more than Randle. He is not soft. He rebounds extremely well. He might be a better passer than iHart. He is super efficient. If his defensive issues are not as big as I was led to believe. He is not nearly as good on D as iHart but way better than advertised. I would take his D over Randles any day of the week.
I have been pleasantly surprised too, didn't know much about his game.
I think there are 2 areas where I think the Knicks are really concentrating on with KAT. Turnovers and setting picks, both traits that iHart REALLY improved on over his time with Knicks. The PnR when KAT sets a solid pick will be a game over thing when he is with Brunson. I think the TO thing might even just be not committing so many offensive fouls, they want him throwing the passes any time he sees an open man or cutter.
LivingLegend wrote:MaTT4281 wrote:Sorry I doubted the trade. I'm on the KAT wagon.
This and the Kat pass were very fun.
Kat has so much left in his bag he hasn't even showed - that is 1st time I believe we've seen the beautiful Ewing like baseline fadeaway.
Remember watching Kat at Kentucky and Calipari was particularly TOUGH on Kat -- demanding he get on the block and take it strong to the hole. Cal may have done Kat more favor than Kat realizes because he has such a bag in the post....want to see it more. Kat's drives while nice scare the hell out of me as he crashes into floor and the basket base under the hoop - also worry about hand injuries hitting the floor.
Just want Kat to keep his feet on floor and kill people with set shot, post game and passing BUT the drives are hard to defend.
It's a little unnerving. Dude starts at the 3pt line, puts it on the floor and goes to the rack like a TRAIN. He's HUGE and literally cant be stopped. Every time he hits the ground I moan (not the good Thibs kind)
These past 2 wins have been so much fun and relaxing! Nothing better than watching a blowout win! No stress or anxiety! Total team and statement win! Thibs has them boys ready for blood from the start and it all starts with the Captain! Brunson is doing such a great job at the beginning of these games setting the tone and getting his teammates open looks.
And this game pretty much cemented us as an elite offensive team. Orlando came in with the best rated defense in pretty much every category and we shredded them. Magic only allows about 102 ppg and we had that at the end of the third! Most impressive to me was our response to their physicality. Especially KAT against Mo Wagner. KAT has been the farthest thing from soft since coming here. He is actually a very physical player! Like he welcomes it! Great trade by Leon! So wished that between the legs wrap around pass to Mikal dropped!
Mikal was great again. Loved his energy on defense and aggressiveness on offense. Great pass from Hart for that buzzer beating 3 to end the half. Hart with another triple double. Leads the league in FG% from '2' and is the only player at 6'4" which is crazy. Glad to see OG's 3pt shot back after missing everything last few games. Loved how Brunson attacked in the 3rd and didn't allow them to make a run.
Deuce and Payne off the bench has been such a blessing and luxury. Both come in and provide that energy you are looking for and they def speed up the pace.
Great win! I honestly don't care much for that cup but it's competition so let's just get it!
Clean wrote:Thibs is kind of genius for this move. Look at the 42 second mark of the video the whole paint is empty and it allows for Brunson to cut with no one to stop him. Thibs having Hart handle the ball more makes the defenders play up on him more when teams usually have their bigs play on Hart so they can play back and clog the paint. This has also done wonders for his ast numbers. Thibs is not known for his adjustments but I really like this one since he really wants to stick with this starting lineup. So he developed a counter to centers playing on Hart.
Good points and I'd add that if you have Brunson/OG/Mikal/Kat surrounding Josh teams have to respect that he will find them - lane is open and if Josh gets downhill he's tough to stop at rim while also keeping the threat of kickouts.
I noticed and like that Thibs has started to sub out Kat and Josh together or in other words having them play together.
Kat spaces the lane for Josh and Josh is always looking for Kat - also the pick and drive or pop-out works well with them.
I don't like when Thibs plays Sims/Josh together - that seems to negate spacing to me but I do like Josh with Kat.
Clean wrote:One thing I am noticing is you can't know a player well enough if they don't play for your team. I have seen KAT play plenty of times but I had no idea I would love having him this much more than Randle. He is not soft. He rebounds extremely well. He might be a better passer than iHart. He is super efficient. If his defensive issues are not as big as I was led to believe. He is not nearly as good on D as iHart but way better than advertised. I would take his D over Randles any day of the week.
Yes on all of this - SO TALENTED and he is typically in the right spots on D, making the right adjustments. Sometimes he loses focus I think because he gets bored BUT we've seen zero issues with just not giving effort or sulking pointed at teammates.
Biggest thing is super high efficiency with super quick decision making and he rarely misses the open guy - again SO TALENTED.
martin wrote:VDesai wrote:Brunson quietly impressive - ran off 11 points in about 4 mins to start the 2nd half. Ran the lead up to 30 and didnt need to play the 4th at all.
You know what, I like that. When Brunson quietly takes over, that’s gold. And when he is doing more dishing to begin with, with the threat of scoring, that helps out the team so much and gets going.
YES!!!
I'd knocked Jalen early in the year for too much ball dominance and missing teammates but lately he is balancing scoring / passing and overall decision making perfectly.
I feel like last night when he attacked and was aggressive early it was just perfect for the situation without many or any bad decisions.
Clean wrote:Thibs is kind of genius for this move. Look at the 42 second mark of the video the whole paint is empty and it allows for Brunson to cut with no one to stop him. Thibs having Hart handle the ball more makes the defenders play up on him more when teams usually have their bigs play on Hart so they can play back and clog the paint. This has also done wonders for his ast numbers. Thibs is not known for his adjustments but I really like this one since he really wants to stick with this starting lineup. So he developed a counter to centers playing on Hart.
Spot. On.
I had been thinking that Hart would be better off bench and I'll Ix-nay that one, he has been the perfect compliment to the starting lineup, especially if some of the offense flows thru him. Mini-me iHart of sorts with the passing, rebounding, defense, and such.
blkexec wrote:I love the spacing, but if Mitch was healthy to start the season, I think Thibs would’ve started big Mitch. If so the spacing or paint would not be that open. And Kat would have less room to drive and make those layups. So Mitch injury to me is the key to this open flow offense. What happens when precious and Mitch is back? I’m not worried about precious. He actually shoots 3s. I’m worried about Mitch and how Thibs injects a non shooter into this high octane offense.
Will Mitch ever start again for the Knicks?
This is like Knicks PSD, let's imagine everything wrong
Clean wrote:Clean wrote:Thibs is kind of genius for this move. Look at the 42 second mark of the video the whole paint is empty and it allows for Brunson to cut with no one to stop him. Thibs having Hart handle the ball more makes the defenders play up on him more when teams usually have their bigs play on Hart so they can play back and clog the paint. This has also done wonders for his ast numbers. Thibs is not known for his adjustments but I really like this one since he really wants to stick with this starting lineup. So he developed a counter to centers playing on Hart.
OK, now that I am more awake I took a pic of it. Bro! look how open that paint is!
Clive! With Norm from Cheers entrance vibes
fishmike wrote:LivingLegend wrote:This Mikal Bridges guy is starting to look like he belongs in the league --- seems like a pretty good player.Loved how easy offense came for Jalen (at least early) -- love that we are continuing to find Mikal/OG for open and some easy buckets.
Kat is frustrating because clearly most skilled guy on court but he gets caught up in all kinds of little distracting stuff -- with 100% focus he'd probably be avg. 35/15 on 60/50/90 shooting . And he still goes for 25 and 13.
Can't stand Moritz Wagner -- always waiting for him to hurt our guys like Embid.
On the Precious.Mitch returns. Noted on a show I listened to earlier - that Knicks have made 2 mid-season BIG time trades past few years (Josh/OG). Keeps me wondering if we are scouring the league for specific talent we want to add to the roster. Still feels like bench needs creation/scoring.
I honestly think it's already here and they are happy with it.
1) Establish new starting line up (going well being #1 in the league)
2) Get quality help so we can start reducing winter minutes. I think that comes in Precious/Shamat/MitchI like how things are panning out. Precious will cut into OG's minutes and that's important. If we can go into the playoffs with healthy OG/KAT backed up by Precious/Mitch I think we are in great shape to compete for a chip.
We are thin at PG. After Brunson/Payne it's McBride (really a SG) and he's got tendinitis in his knee
Tyler needs time
You may be right but I still think we need 1 more legit veteran that can add multiple things - if we have championship goals we'll have to get thru Uber talented teams like Celtics, Cavs, Mavs, OKC...etc. Particularly would like 1 more LEGIT defender to throw at other teams especially if an OG is injured or in foul trouble....someone that can step in and compete at a high level.
I may be wrong -- lets see -- but I'll be keeping my ears open for potential rumors.
NOTE: He didn't score last night and he ended up a -13 but I watched all of Marcus Smarts minutes last night vs Dallas. He played outstanding D on both Luka/Kyrie -- while guarded by Smart a few times Luka just moved off the ball because Smart was sitting in his shorts. Also showed nice passing --- he's an example of another vet we could bring in and someone we could throw defensively at guys like Tatum/Brown/White/Holiday/Garland/Mitchell etc. Not a perfect player but a playoff gamer that defends like an animal.
martin wrote:Clean wrote:One thing I am noticing is you can't know a player well enough if they don't play for your team. I have seen KAT play plenty of times but I had no idea I would love having him this much more than Randle. He is not soft. He rebounds extremely well. He might be a better passer than iHart. He is super efficient. If his defensive issues are not as big as I was led to believe. He is not nearly as good on D as iHart but way better than advertised. I would take his D over Randles any day of the week.
I have been pleasantly surprised too, didn't know much about his game.
I think there are 2 areas where I think the Knicks are really concentrating on with KAT. Turnovers and setting picks, both traits that iHart REALLY improved on over his time with Knicks. The PnR when KAT sets a solid pick will be a game over thing when he is with Brunson. I think the TO thing might even just be not committing so many offensive fouls, they want him throwing the passes any time he sees an open man or cutter.
I think half of his offensive fouls are for shielding off on his drives when he doesn't need to -- also think refs allow a ton of contact on Kat where other guys get a finger touch and whistle blows.
fishmike wrote:LivingLegend wrote:MaTT4281 wrote:Sorry I doubted the trade. I'm on the KAT wagon.
This and the Kat pass were very fun.
Kat has so much left in his bag he hasn't even showed - that is 1st time I believe we've seen the beautiful Ewing like baseline fadeaway.
Remember watching Kat at Kentucky and Calipari was particularly TOUGH on Kat -- demanding he get on the block and take it strong to the hole. Cal may have done Kat more favor than Kat realizes because he has such a bag in the post....want to see it more. Kat's drives while nice scare the hell out of me as he crashes into floor and the basket base under the hoop - also worry about hand injuries hitting the floor.
Just want Kat to keep his feet on floor and kill people with set shot, post game and passing BUT the drives are hard to defend.
It's a little unnerving. Dude starts at the 3pt line, puts it on the floor and goes to the rack like a TRAIN. He's HUGE and literally cant be stopped. Every time he hits the ground I moan (not the good Thibs kind)
Yep - scary. I keep waiting for NBA to move the baskets bases back even further because guys hit those every game with their heads/necks.
Kats got like size 19 feet to so keep waiting for him to sprain his ankle on someones foot on those drives BUT seems this has been his game for 10 years now - not changing.
Clean wrote:One thing I am noticing is you can't know a player well enough if they don't play for your team. I have seen KAT play plenty of times but I had no idea I would love having him this much more than Randle. He is not soft. He rebounds extremely well. He might be a better passer than iHart. He is super efficient. If his defensive issues are not as big as I was led to believe. He is not nearly as good on D as iHart but way better than advertised. I would take his D over Randles any day of the week.
Second this! I was terrified we were getting Dominican Bargnani but KAT has put all those soft talks to rest. He is def not soft! You can't rebound like he does and play that physically in the paint if you are soft. KAT has been way better than I ever expected.
They should honestly make this NBA Cup thing a lot longer. Like dedicate more games to it and have the knock off games and final at the All-Star break.
LivingLegend wrote:fishmike wrote:LivingLegend wrote:This Mikal Bridges guy is starting to look like he belongs in the league --- seems like a pretty good player.Loved how easy offense came for Jalen (at least early) -- love that we are continuing to find Mikal/OG for open and some easy buckets.
Kat is frustrating because clearly most skilled guy on court but he gets caught up in all kinds of little distracting stuff -- with 100% focus he'd probably be avg. 35/15 on 60/50/90 shooting . And he still goes for 25 and 13.
Can't stand Moritz Wagner -- always waiting for him to hurt our guys like Embid.
On the Precious.Mitch returns. Noted on a show I listened to earlier - that Knicks have made 2 mid-season BIG time trades past few years (Josh/OG). Keeps me wondering if we are scouring the league for specific talent we want to add to the roster. Still feels like bench needs creation/scoring.
I honestly think it's already here and they are happy with it.
1) Establish new starting line up (going well being #1 in the league)
2) Get quality help so we can start reducing winter minutes. I think that comes in Precious/Shamat/MitchI like how things are panning out. Precious will cut into OG's minutes and that's important. If we can go into the playoffs with healthy OG/KAT backed up by Precious/Mitch I think we are in great shape to compete for a chip.
We are thin at PG. After Brunson/Payne it's McBride (really a SG) and he's got tendinitis in his knee
Tyler needs time
You may be right but I still think we need 1 more legit veteran that can add multiple things - if we have championship goals we'll have to get thru Uber talented teams like Celtics, Cavs, Mavs, OKC...etc. Particularly would like 1 more LEGIT defender to throw at other teams especially if an OG is injured or in foul trouble....someone that can step in and compete at a high level.
I may be wrong -- lets see -- but I'll be keeping my ears open for potential rumors.
NOTE: He didn't score last night and he ended up a -13 but I watched all of Marcus Smarts minutes last night vs Dallas. He played outstanding D on both Luka/Kyrie -- while guarded by Smart a few times Luka just moved off the ball because Smart was sitting in his shorts. Also showed nice passing --- he's an example of another vet we could bring in and someone we could throw defensively at guys like Tatum/Brown/White/Holiday/Garland/Mitchell etc. Not a perfect player but a playoff gamer that defends like an animal.
I'm of the opinion that the Knicks have one more move to go. Maybe it doesn't happen until off season, but it'll happen IMHO. It's why I'm a dead ass broken record on Herb Jones.
Kat is unstoppable freight train hitting the paint. Its unfair how good he is on drives at his size.
The wing depth is my biggest concern. Still worried about OG missing time. If Precious works well as backup 4/5 it will be interesting to see what happens with Mitch. Sims has to improve offensively, but he has really come around on D
