Can someone explain why Brunson is so good?

[Luv those Knicks]

Hes the Paul Pierce of PGs lol

How about Larry Bird?



I think Brunson's secret for success is that he's really smart. He's always thinking about how to get the best outcome from each situation, and "thinking" might not be the right word for it, he does it intuitively. He's really smart.

[donkki]

Hes the Paul Pierce of PGs lol

How about Larry Bird?



I think Brunson's secret for success is that he's really smart. He's always thinking about how to get the best outcome from each situation, and "thinking" might not be the right word for it, he does it intuitively. He's really smart.

Smart sure, but dare I even say genius?

[Tor_Raps]

Hes the Paul Pierce of PGs lol

How about Larry Bird?



I think Brunson's secret for success is that he's really smart. He's always thinking about how to get the best outcome from each situation, and "thinking" might not be the right word for it, he does it intuitively. He's really smart.

Smart sure, but dare I even say genius?

Not going there for Brunson... can't just be tossing top 10 GOAT comparisons around like that lol.

[cgf]

That's how in injuries work yeh.

Well a third of our team is injured / out
So what’s the excuse ? That we are playing easier teams?
I thought Miami lost to Philly
Isn’t Philly therefore the tougher team?
And Butler played in that play in game as well…

Injuries to people who matter.

Watching you double down has been pretty great

[cgf]

Injuries to people who matter.

Not very bright?

I wouldn't be that harsh on Randle, it's more he's not that good.

This is why you west coast fans shouldn't speak too much if you want to trick people into thinking you've got a clue.

Randle isn't very bright, but he's damn good at basketball. So you managed to get both halves of your joke wrong, which is impressive in a way...

[deneem4]

Thibs

[One_and_Done]

Well a third of our team is injured / out
So what’s the excuse ? That we are playing easier teams?
I thought Miami lost to Philly
Isn’t Philly therefore the tougher team?
And Butler played in that play in game as well…

Injuries to people who matter.

Watching you double down has been pretty great

Randle's a pretty good RS player.

[cgf]

Injuries to people who matter.

Watching you double down has been pretty great

Randle's a pretty good RS player.

Warmer.

[shi-woo]

Brunson is essentially early HOU James Harden, except he plays in this era, so he already has the elite shooting down, and because of his size he actually developed the midrange game.

Like James, Jalen has developed his hesitation moveset to an elite level, right now only Luka and Donovan are on his level in that regard. He gets the defender on his hip, and depending on how he feels their weight will go into his actions. They put a body into him and he draws the foul (this is what's making all of us mad, just like early Harden ), bounces off for the middy, or takes it to the hole with the defender a step behind. They try to cut his angle or drop, and he's pulling up or passing out where he will reset, and do it all over again

For all the hate Thibs gets, and being known as only a defensive coach, he has this Knicks team running a ton of off ball action, and a lot of the time Jalen is able to break his man down as his team mates are breaking the defense of the opposing team, and you're seeing him take advantage of this action a ton. Defense is always either late, sloppy, or conceding the shot to his open team mates. Dante has been feasting off of these actions all year, and Hart and Isaiah are getting offensive boards like crazy because of it.

I'm honestly surprised more people don't give him the Harden comp really, their games are eerily similar. Brunson just uses the midrange shot, but all the moves are the same

[Luv those Knicks]

How about Larry Bird?



I think Brunson's secret for success is that he's really smart. He's always thinking about how to get the best outcome from each situation, and "thinking" might not be the right word for it, he does it intuitively. He's really smart.

Smart sure, but dare I even say genius?

Not going there for Brunson... can't just be tossing top 10 GOAT comparisons around like that lol.

Fair enough. Bird was perhaps unique in what he pulled off.

[LaLover11]

Donte and Hart and OG

[NY2k1]

Injuries to people who matter.

Not very bright?

I wouldn't be that harsh on Randle, it's more he's not that good.

Lol, an all-star who put up 24/9/5 this season before getting injured isn't that good?

Your credibility just got shot—not that you had much of it to begin with, but..

[NY2k1]

Injuries to people who matter.

Watching you double down has been pretty great

Randle's a pretty good RS player.

I love how you claim Randle isn't a good playoff player when he had to deal with being the only threat against Atlanta a few years back and thus, was easy to just double/triple team him knowing the other players wouldn't be able to do anything. And last year, dealt with an ankle injury in the playoffs.

I wish Randle was healthy this year going into the playoffs, he would have likely shut up a lot of his playoff haters (including you).

[NoStatsGuy]

Watching you double down has been pretty great

Randle's a pretty good RS player.

I love how you claim Randle isn't a good playoff player when he had to deal with being the only threat against Atlanta a few years back and thus, was easy to just double/triple team him knowing the other players wouldn't be able to do anything. And last year, dealt with an ankle injury in the playoffs.

I wish Randle was healthy this year going into the playoffs, he would have likely shut up a lot of his playoff haters (including you).

the year before randle also played hurt. i just wanan mention it because the people here seem to forget and just jump on that narrative.

randle played hurt in his only two playoff runs in his career. but yea, hes a playoff loser. go ahead and run with it, haters gonna keep yapping anyway

[tsherkin]

Not very bright?

I wouldn't be that harsh on Randle, it's more he's not that good.

This is why you west coast fans shouldn't speak too much if you want to trick people into thinking you've got a clue.

Randle isn't very bright, but he's damn good at basketball. So you managed to get both halves of your joke wrong, which is impressive in a way...

Not very bright?

I wouldn't be that harsh on Randle, it's more he's not that good.

Lol, an all-star who put up 24/9/5 this season before getting injured isn't that good?

Your credibility just got shot—not that you had much of it to begin with, but..

Randle. Tough to evaluate. His seasonal numbers for half a year were rough. Good volume output, very weak efficiency, sort of customary for him. Not the ideal volume scorer as a result. He had a very interesting December and then a decent (if unremarkable) January and then he was done and we never got to see if he was going to ride that wave forward or not. He also started out way rougher than usual, which sort of underrepresented his actual ability over October and November, to be fair. Kinda bleh in the middle, good long 2, weak from 3, below average in the RA, good on his post shots that didn't end at the rim. Above average at drawing fouls; non-elite, but some of that was also coming from rep/team type stuff, he didn't have the refs on his side, so to speak. But he was a .360+ FTr guy for the second straight year. He was a 58.1% TS guy last year, and likely would have been at least that this year had he remained healthy. He was showing some signs, playing well within the offense, passing well, working well with Brunson. Didn't really get to see how he'd mesh with OG and the team's improved spacing much, and that would have also made a difference.

So I don't know about "not that good." He's not a tier one guy, but he was showing signs of strong contribution and good fit. I'd be careful overcrediting his raw volume like NY2k1 did, but at the same time, he does need a little love. Yeah, he's not a first-class superstar, but not every team has those and he was doing pretty well.

[cgf]

Randle's a pretty good RS player.

I love how you claim Randle isn't a good playoff player when he had to deal with being the only threat against Atlanta a few years back and thus, was easy to just double/triple team him knowing the other players wouldn't be able to do anything. And last year, dealt with an ankle injury in the playoffs.

I wish Randle was healthy this year going into the playoffs, he would have likely shut up a lot of his playoff haters (including you).

the year before randle also played hurt. i just wanan mention it because the people here seem to forget and just jump on that narrative.

randle played hurt in his only two playoff runs in his career. but yea, hes a playoff loser. go ahead and run with it, haters gonna keep yapping anyway

I don't mention it because it wasn't as serious so I feel like bringing it up detracts from the seriousness of his injury last spring, which required surgery as soon as the season was over.

He would've struggled against Atlanta even if he was 100% healthy because we couldn't punish them for selling out to stop Julius the way we punished Philly for selling out to stop Jalen in games 1 & 2...or the way we would have punished teams last spring if Ju wasn't injured & teams defended him the way the Hawks had.

Randle does need to prove himself in the playoffs still, but he has yet to prove that he can't be a great #2 in the playoffs when healthy either; he was playing the best basketball of his career between game 7 of this season & getting hurt; and even banged up he made a big impact for us last spring.

[Luv those Knicks]

Watching you double down has been pretty great

Randle's a pretty good RS player.

I love how you claim Randle isn't a good playoff player when he had to deal with being the only threat against Atlanta a few years back and thus, was easy to just double/triple team him knowing the other players wouldn't be able to do anything. And last year, dealt with an ankle injury in the playoffs.

I wish Randle was healthy this year going into the playoffs, he would have likely shut up a lot of his playoff haters (including you).

I agree. It's too soon to judge Randle as a playoff player. He was fine against Miami last year. 18 pts, 10 rebs, though he shot 9 for 31 from 3, which isn't great. He was bad against Cleveland and Atlanta, but I don't believe 10 games defines a player.

Interestingly, RJ Barrett, who struggled as a Knick most of his career and much of this season, stepped up in the playoffs last year. He also looked better for Toronto than he looked for us. Maybe being allowed to be the lefty on the team helped him with that. I don't know.

The 2021 Knicks were playing Reggie Bullock, Taj Gibson & Nerlens Noel rotation minutes. It was a weirdly built team.

If you want to call the Cleveland series last year a bad series for Randle, I'm OK with that, but it was only 5 games. He's got a bad 3 pt percentage in the playoffs, but that could be a combination of playoff jitters and playoff defense. I'd have loved to have seen what he could have contributed this year.

[cgf]

Randle's a pretty good RS player.

I love how you claim Randle isn't a good playoff player when he had to deal with being the only threat against Atlanta a few years back and thus, was easy to just double/triple team him knowing the other players wouldn't be able to do anything. And last year, dealt with an ankle injury in the playoffs.

I wish Randle was healthy this year going into the playoffs, he would have likely shut up a lot of his playoff haters (including you).

I agree. It's too soon to judge Randle as a playoff player. He was fine against Miami last year. 18 pts, 10 rebs, though he shot 9 for 31 from 3, which isn't great. He was bad against Cleveland and Atlanta, but I don't believe 10 games defines a player.

Interestingly, RJ Barrett, who struggled as a Knick most of his career and much of this season, stepped up in the playoffs last year. He also looked better for Toronto than he looked for us. Maybe being allowed to be the lefty on the team helped him with that. I don't know.

The 2021 Knicks were playing Reggie Bullock, Taj Gibson & Nerlens Noel rotation minutes. It was a weirdly built team.

If you want to call the Cleveland series last year a bad series for Randle, I'm OK with that, but it was only 5 games. He's got a bad 3 pt percentage in the playoffs, but that could be a combination of playoff jitters and playoff defense. I'd have loved to have seen what he could have contributed this year.

Eh his TS against Miami was still just 53%. We were objectively better with him on the court than without him because he has very good vision & he pulled Mobley & Bam out of the paint, even hobbled...which created a lot more room for Brunson & Barrett to drive into...but Juju was still very inefficient in the Heat series because of that ankle.

[Luv those Knicks]

I love how you claim Randle isn't a good playoff player when he had to deal with being the only threat against Atlanta a few years back and thus, was easy to just double/triple team him knowing the other players wouldn't be able to do anything. And last year, dealt with an ankle injury in the playoffs.

I wish Randle was healthy this year going into the playoffs, he would have likely shut up a lot of his playoff haters (including you).

I agree. It's too soon to judge Randle as a playoff player. He was fine against Miami last year. 18 pts, 10 rebs, though he shot 9 for 31 from 3, which isn't great. He was bad against Cleveland and Atlanta, but I don't believe 10 games defines a player.

Interestingly, RJ Barrett, who struggled as a Knick most of his career and much of this season, stepped up in the playoffs last year. He also looked better for Toronto than he looked for us. Maybe being allowed to be the lefty on the team helped him with that. I don't know.

The 2021 Knicks were playing Reggie Bullock, Taj Gibson & Nerlens Noel rotation minutes. It was a weirdly built team.

If you want to call the Cleveland series last year a bad series for Randle, I'm OK with that, but it was only 5 games. He's got a bad 3 pt percentage in the playoffs, but that could be a combination of playoff jitters and playoff defense. I'd have loved to have seen what he could have contributed this year.

Eh his TS against Miami was still just 53%. We were objectively better with him on the court than without him because he has very good vision & he pulled Mobley & Bam out of the paint, even hobbled...which created a lot more room for Brunson & Barrett to drive into...but Juju was still very inefficient in the Heat series because of that ankle.

Yes, but it was a very physical series. With BamBam Adebayo playing football with him and the refs let the series be physical.

He shot bad from 3 - I mentioned that, 9 for 31, but he was fine from 2, and I'm not going to call it a bad series. He's never been a high efficiency player. His skillset, ideally, is a 2nd option who demands the other team's top interior defender cover him, and a guy who can draw the defense out to the 3 pt line, because he can hit those at least enough to not be left open and who can hit an open teammate for an assist and be an above average rebounder. He's more useful than his low efficiency indicates.

When he was the #1 option, he often tried to do too much. With Brunson, he's much more useful.


and . . . also, you're right. His ankle probably didn't help. Brunson can hit 3s on a bad foot, but not everyone can.

[OnlyTheTruth]

Reminds me of the run IT4 had with the Celtics