pg: the dirt cake game

[KnicksGadfly]

Brunson ain't resting on his laurels. The man is gunning for a max contract soon. He was also a champion in college and a 2nd round pick who built himself to this point in a league where he's kinda undersized and regularly looks for opportunities to take charges. This is not the type of guy who rests on his laurels.

[robillionaire]

We are 5-10 in the last 15 games. And had to cheat against the pistons to not be 4-11.

I miss Randle

[Knicksfan1992]

It almost never works out that you can avoid the shoulder surgery. It’s gonna be about can he play through pain until the summer and then get it

Yeah basically...You also have to hope he doesn't re-dislocate it when he comes back because he's at a much higher risk for that. If he does it again, then he's almost assuredly going to get the surgery and end the season at that point... Fuqqin Jaime Jaquez smh.

The positives are:

It's not his legs like last year so his mobility shouldn't be too effected.
Not his shooting arm so less worry about his already streaky jumper being effected.

Negatives:

As a guy who relies a ton on his physical advantages is he going to be able to play with the same force knowing every time he takes a bump it may hurt?
As a left handed driver mostly Julius relies on his opposite side to create space. Is he going to be able to create that same amount of space with a bum shoulder?

But honestly even the threat of Julius will help everyone out a ton. Knicks just don't have much playmaking on the roster. The injury shouldn't effect Randle's vision and passing ability too much.

[FrozenEnvelope]

Felt like a 1995 Cavs game.

Give Philly credit, they played hard and defended really well. Oubre is underrated. We'll beat them tomorrow.

[sol537]

Looks like 4th or 5th seed would be our ceiling this regular season due to all the injuries and 6th or 7th is possible as well depending how much further we slide.

Honestly, out of those 4 positions, I'd prefer the 6th seed the most. Probably get Cleveland in round 1... then Milwaukee... then Boston... if we keep advancing, of course.

Might be our "most ideal" road.

[Knicksfan1992]

As for the actual game... I don't usually chit on coaches too much but I thought this was one of Thibs worst coached games in a while.

From the jump it was clear Philly wasn't going to guard Precious at all. Ending the game with him at the 4 especially since Philly's only big on the floor was Paul Reed was a spacing disaster... On a night where scoring was at a premium I thought Bojan should have 100% closed the game especially since he had shot the ball decently given what the game flow was like even if the rest of his game was sloppy last night.

Also riding Hart for 40 minutes plus again when he couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat was disastrous IMO.

I just think Thibs played into Philly's hands by trying to outmuscle them at the end with IHart/Precious/Hart out there. They wanted it to be a physical grind out game and Thibs let them have it that way. Knicks have enough offensive firepower to outscore them at the end. Sixers were trying to give us that game and we couldn't take it. Instead he put too much responsibility in Brunson's and Donte's hands on an off night and it burned us.

On to the next as they say and these nights happen over the course of 82 but this was a very disappointing loss and a win we really could have used with the schedule coming up.

[MrDollarBills]

Yeah the spacing in that last group was not optimal. I love Precious, but OG needs to get his ass back asap.

[sol537]

At this point, just waive Burks to save Thibs from himself... McBride and Shake can handle those minutes.

[stuporman]

Thibs missed the opportunity for Shake revenge game, that was the only hope and he blew it.

[FrozenEnvelope]

Looks like 4th or 5th seed would be our ceiling this regular season due to all the injuries and 6th or 7th is possible as well depending how much further we slide.

Honestly, out of those 4 positions, I'd prefer the 6th seed the most. Probably get Cleveland in round 1... then Milwaukee... then Boston... if we keep advancing, of course.

Might be our "most ideal" road.

Avoid Miami and delay Boston should be the strategy.

[sol537]

Looks like 4th or 5th seed would be our ceiling this regular season due to all the injuries and 6th or 7th is possible as well depending how much further we slide.

Honestly, out of those 4 positions, I'd prefer the 6th seed the most. Probably get Cleveland in round 1... then Milwaukee... then Boston... if we keep advancing, of course.

Might be our "most ideal" road.

Avoid Miami and delay Boston should be the strategy.

Sure, although if we can't get past Miami then we have no shot at the title anyway (ie teams like Boston, Denver, etc.)

[Jalen Bluntson]

I was drunk before the game even started. Went out and had more drinks and missed the entire game!

[moocow007]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

?s=46&t=W09F6FrMDfp5_y1gKYgF1g

ian begley just trying to cover all his bases. thibs said randle is going to travel with the team which is a good sign

Read on Twitter

And yet folks still want to vilify him.

[moocow007]

I was drunk before the game even started. Went out and had more drinks and missed the entire game!

Do that until OG and Randle return. Then it'll be like all the sucking never happened.

[Spot31]

Felt like a 1995 Cavs game.

Give Philly credit, they played hard and defended really well. Oubre is underrated. We'll beat them tomorrow.

The Czar Mike Fratello

[3toheadmelo]

Read on Twitter

can we sit out Hartenstein for like 5 games? he is playing banged up for a month it seems like.

people think it means you don't like his game to say this, but he is better suited to a role as a power-reserve. sadly we don't have much of a choice at the moment

when he is healthy though, i am not sure how mitch has an better argument to starting over ihart. ihart at full strength actually helps our offense and defensively he is very good. our offense is worse with mitch

[god shammgod]

can we sit out Hartenstein for like 5 games? he is playing banged up for a month it seems like.

people think it means you don't like his game to say this, but he is better suited to a role as a power-reserve. sadly we don't have much of a choice at the moment

when he is healthy though, i am not sure how mitch has an better argument to starting over ihart. ihart at full strength actually helps our offense and defensively he is very good. our offense is worse with mitch

the offense hardly changed when mitch got hurt but the defense went to the bottom of the league. wrong attack fatty mcfattenstein!!!!!!!!!

[JayTWill]

As for the actual game... I don't usually chit on coaches too much but I thought this was one of Thibs worst coached games in a while.

From the jump it was clear Philly wasn't going to guard Precious at all. Ending the game with him at the 4 especially since Philly's only big on the floor was Paul Reed was a spacing disaster... On a night where scoring was at a premium I thought Bojan should have 100% closed the game especially since he had shot the ball decently given what the game flow was like even if the rest of his game was sloppy last night.

Also riding Hart for 40 minutes plus again when he couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat was disastrous IMO.

I just think Thibs played into Philly's hands by trying to outmuscle them at the end with IHart/Precious/Hart out there. They wanted it to be a physical grind out game and Thibs let them have it that way. Knicks have enough offensive firepower to outscore them at the end. Sixers were trying to give us that game and we couldn't take it. Instead he put too much responsibility in Brunson's and Donte's hands on an off night and it burned us.

On to the next as they say and these nights happen over the course of 82 but this was a very disappointing loss and a win we really could have used with the schedule coming up.

I blame Thibs for his crappy offensive schemes and sometimes his minutes distribution but I don't think any lineup could have won the game with how terrible the top guys played and all the injuries. I'm not sure if swapping Bojan for Precious would have changed anything. Bojan had one of the best shooting percentages for the night but the team got killed in his minutes in the first half.

In the second half he had a pretty long 8 minute stretch mostly in the 4th quarter. For half that stretch he, Brunson and DDV were on the floor together with either Sims or Precious at the 5 and the team only scored 2 points in those 4 minutes. 2 bigs or 1 big, nothing was working offensively.

[rajajackal]

can we sit out Hartenstein for like 5 games? he is playing banged up for a month it seems like.

people think it means you don't like his game to say this, but he is better suited to a role as a power-reserve. sadly we don't have much of a choice at the moment

when he is healthy though, i am not sure how mitch has an better argument to starting over ihart. ihart at full strength actually helps our offense and defensively he is very good. our offense is worse with mitch

the offense really started to click when we swapped rj for og. when we have og and randle back on the floor, i'm not sure how much the offense would suffer, or it'd offset the value of mitch's presence down low. i'd like to see before demoting the guy who's held us down longer than anyone else on the roster

[3toheadmelo]

people think it means you don't like his game to say this, but he is better suited to a role as a power-reserve. sadly we don't have much of a choice at the moment

when he is healthy though, i am not sure how mitch has an better argument to starting over ihart. ihart at full strength actually helps our offense and defensively he is very good. our offense is worse with mitch

the offense hardly changed when mitch got hurt but the defense went to the bottom of the league. wrong attack fatty mcfattenstein!!!!!!!!!

i'll let my laywer handle this thank you very much!

[
We started playing better opponents, and even before that our defense had been pretty much ass against good teams, we gave up 116 pts to a KD-Beal less Suns team and were rolled by the Wolves. Our offense against good teams was pitiful with Mitch as well, which is never really brought up for whatever reason.

Most importantly, 10% of the cap for a guy that regularly misses around 40% of the season? That's not money well spent.