Marc and Jay talk about the losing streak, players that should get more or less time, getting to the bottom of what is going on with this team, much more
Author: Jay
Heat, Mavs, Improvement?
Heat, Mavs, Improvement?
The Knicks moved to 19-21 this season after an encouraging win over the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday.
Prior to the Dallas game, the Knicks threw away what would’ve been a great confidence boosting win in Miami, who’s victory was largely predicated on their willingness to shoot threes, and the Knicks’ reluctance to do the same.
The 107-103 loss in overtime to the Heat was a reminder for Knicks fans that despite a
promising start to the season, there is room for improvement on multiple fronts for the
team going forward. Much has been made over the improved defense and effort that passes the eye test when watching the team, but statistically, the game-plans have to
improve if the Knicks want to reach even the 8th seed in the playoff race this year.
Miami attempted 42 threes on Friday, but the Knicks only managed 13 attempts – this
disparity further highlighted by the fact that the Knicks didn’t make a single 3 pointer until the 3rd quarter. Of course, attempting a low number of threes would be excusable if the team was having an off night – there’s no use chucking threes just for the sake of it. However, the Knicks hit 5 threes on Friday, shooting a good 38.5% as opposed to the Heat who shot 28.5% (12/42).
We all know that the Knicks have struggled mightily in defending the 3 point line this
season, in fact, it’s probably the most frustrating part of watching the team so far. Given that for the most part the effort on defense has been great, the Knicks’ players are doing themselves a disservice by giving them up.
A more detailed study of the Heat game, undertaken by reddit user /u/zounderk1te (1) , shows that the team suffers from multiple individual errors when on defense; this is compounded by the fact that the team has to constantly help on defense to contain opposition players who are allowed to drive to the rim far too easily.
Despite KP’s recent ‘tired’ comments, there is a real case for him moving to the 5 once he can hang physically with NBA big men down low. KP frequently doesn’t contest 3 pointers when guarding stretch 4’s, and there’s no doubt he’s best defensively as a rim protector, closer to the basket.
Anyone who has watched the Knicks this year will tell you that the team appears to flat out refuse to box out sometimes, instead ball watching and allowing easy offensive rebounds as well as long rebounds which lead to easy threes for the other team. Truthfully, it’s hard to say whether this is solely a coaching issue, or because of the inexperience of the team’s young players, but regardless it’s killing the Knicks especially down the stretch in close games.
The New York Knicks Podcast – Episode 407: Beasley, McDermott, or O’Quinn
Marc and Jay talk about the Knicks lack of three point shooting, Beasley, the Knicks lineups, Porzingis is tired, 10 minutes with a die hard fan, and much more
The New York Knicks Podcast – Episode 406: January Optimism
Marc and Jay are back, we talk about possible moves for the trade deadline, different rotations, covering the 3 point line, 10 minutes with a die hard Knicks fan, and more
The New York Knicks Podcast – Episode 405: Let the Good Times Roll
Marc and Jay talk about the last 3 games, how we feel about the roster, who we’d like to see stick around next season, how to build for the future, 10 minutes with a die hard Knicks fan, and much more
2017/18 New York Knicks Player Power Rankings – Week 9
| Rank | Player | Comments | Last weeks Rank |
| 1 | Porzingis, Kristaps | Please don’t be injured, please don’t be injured, please don’t be injured, please don’t be injured. | 3 |
| 2 | Kanter, Enes | The fact that Kanter is a double-double machine and McDermott is a solid bench player while Melo is averaging career lows in just about every category makes me feel so much better about this trade than I did a few months ago. | 2 |
| 3 | Lee, Courtney | Lee has had some monster games lately. Definitely picking up scoring void Hardaway left when he went down. | 1 |
| 4 | McDermott, Doug | McDermott was a big reason that all of the starters had a negative +/- while all the bench players had a positive +/- against the Hawks. | 7 |
| 5 | Beasley, Michael | If Beasley keeps playing like this it’s definitely going to effect the odds on Knicks making the playoffs. | 5 |
| 6 | Ntilikina, Frank | Up and down season, which is normal for a 19 year old PG. This week was a very up week. | 11 |
| 7 | Jack, Jarrett | Jack had a similar week to last week. He’s only moving down because so many Knicks had an even better week. | 4 |
| 8 | Thomas, Lance | Thomas has moved into the starting lineup and hasn’t looked too bad. No apology coming. | 8 |
| 9 | O’Quinn, Kyle | O’Quinn hasn’t been getting many minutes lately but he’s definitely been making the most of them. | 9 |
| 10 | Hardaway Jr., Tim | The Knicks have been winning, but they are going to need Timmy to get healthy soon. A ton of away games in January and against much better competition. | 6 |
| 11 | Baker, Ron | Baker came back and has looked like a 4M a year player. Take that however you want. | 13 |
| 12 | Dotson, Damyean | Looks like Baker took Dotsons minutes. Not sure how I feel about that. I don’t think I feel great about it. | 10 |
| 13 | Hernangomez, Willy | Willy better figure out defense and fast or he’s going to be out of the NBA in a year or two. | 12 |
| 14 | Sessions, Ramon | Since Jack is the Knicks veteran PG presense what value does Sessions bring? | 14 |
| 15 | Noah, Joakim | Parsons is averaging over 12 PPG this month, making Noah the official worst contract in the NBA. | 15 |
2017/18 Knicks Roster Power Rankings – Week 8
| Four games since the last rankings. 2 and 2 which is pretty amazing considering Porzingis and Hardaway each missed three games. | |||
| Rank | Player | Comments | Last weeks Rank |
| 1 | Lee, Courtney | Someone needed to step up when Porzingis and Hardaway were out and it looks like Lee was more than happy to take on that roll. Great week for Lee. | 3 |
| 2 | Kanter, Enes | Three double-doubles this week for Kanter. It’s so nice having someone down low who is able to grab seemingly every rebound. | 6 |
| 3 | Porzingis, Kristaps | Beasley did better than expected when starting in place of Porzingis, but I think we can all say thank god Porzingis is back. | 2 |
| 4 | Jack, Jarrett | Jack has definitely been this seasons most pleasant surprise. I guarantee that in the beginning of the season there weren’t too many NBA betting sites that had Jack averaging over 6 assists per game. | 4 |
| 5 | Beasley, Michael | Beasley backed up his words with a surprisingly good week. Color me impressed. | 8 |
| 6 | Hardaway Jr., Tim | Of course as soon as Hardaway starts looking great he gets injured. Knicks really need his scoring. They averaged just under 99 points a game in the three games THJ missed this week. | 1 |
| 7 | McDermott, Doug | McDermott hit 14 shots this week and only 3 of them were threes. Weird. | 7 |
| 8 | Thomas, Lance | The bench has been very mediocre lately. Not terrible, but no one has stood out either. Lance leads the ‘meh mob’. | 10 |
| 9 | O’Quinn, Kyle | KOQ did almost nothing on the court this week but I still love his energy. | 5 |
| 10 | Dotson, Damyean | Dotson got to start a couple games this week and even grabbed 7 boards on Monday. Progress. | 11 |
| 11 | Ntilikina, Frank | Frank had me really excited a few weeks ago. Lately….not so much. | 9 |
| 12 | Hernangomez, Willy | Willy played one game this week where he didn’t look like trash, tying his season long record. | 14 |
| 13 | Baker, Ron | Baker is back. Hooray? | 13 |
| 14 | Sessions, Ramon | We had a Ramon sighting this week. Rad. | 15 |
| 15 | Noah, Joakim | To everyone who got mad at me for criticizing the Noah contract: apology line starts on the left. | 12 |
The New York Knicks Podcast – Episode 404: We’re Back
Sorry for the audio, my computer broke and the new one won’t cooperate so the audio is horrible. We try and recap everything we missed since we last recorded.
Recap of Loss to Magic by Declan Ryan
(Note, we apologize to Declan for getting this very well written recap up late. We would also post a recap of last night’s loss to the Pacers but that would be NSFW)
Knicks lose at home to Magic, 105-100
With Tim Hardaway Jr. and Kristaps Porzingis out through injury, the Knicks (11-11)
fell to the visiting Orlando Magic (10-14) 105-100 in what was an uninspiring 48
minutes of NBA basketball.
Sunday’s loss sees the Knicks having won only 1 of their last 5 games, the only win
in that stretch coming against the Whiteside-less Heat on Wednesday. The absence
of both THJ and KP made a seemingly perfect opportunity for Frank Ntilikina to be
green-lit for sizeable minutes, yet as the game progressed it became obvious that
Jeff Hornacek had other ideas.
Immediately shifting the blame to the foul disparity in his post-game interview,
Hornacek failed to justify why at 8.55 in the 4 th he decided to bench Ntilikina for
Ramon Sessions’ first and only minutes of the game – not bringing the French rookie
back onto the court until the game was almost over with 25 seconds left to play.
Sessions immediately missed a wide open 3 pointer and had a -5 in his 4 minutes of
action. This substitution left the Knicks with a lineup of Sessions, Baker, Lee,
Beasley and KOQ playing important clutch minutes, where Ntilikina could have
instead been gaining invaluable experience in a game where despite foul trouble
early, he was being productive offensively.
Notwithstanding the 4 th however, the Knicks will rue their ineptitude in the 1 st where
they were down by as many as 17 points. Jarrett Jack and Enes Kanter were most
noticeable with their self-destruct style of defense allowing the Magic to enter the
paint like a hot knife through butter. On the surface Kanter’s 18 points and 16
rebounds seem more than serviceable for the Knicks most talented starter on
Sunday, but he allowed the Magic’s Nikola Vucevic to have 34 points and 12
rebounds, offering a stark reminder of perhaps why Kanter won’t be the long-term
answer at the 5 position for the Knicks – Vucevic had his number all game.
Unfortunately for rookie Damyean Dotson his first career start was met with great
effort but poor execution as he ended the afternoon with 2 points on 1-3 shooting, 1
rebound, 0 assists and with the worst +/- of any Knicks player with a -16 for the
game. Michael Beasley had a nice 21 points but made numerous poor decisions
especially in the 4 th that ultimately cost the Knicks, going 1-3 with a foul and a
turnover in the final 5 minutes.
2017/18 Knicks Roster Power Rankings – Week 7
| The holidays got in the way so this raking will cover two weeks and 6 games. Unfortunately 4 of those games are losses and injuries are finally playing a factor. | |||
| Rank | Player | Comments | Last weeks Rank |
| 1 | Hardaway Jr., Tim | Well I didn’t see this coming. Hardaway has kicked it up a couple notches since last rankings. He’s still inconsistent but in addition to scoring he’s been rebounding and assisting at an impressive rate. | 3 |
| 2 | Porzingis, Kristaps | Porzingis shot has still been way off since it came out that his elbow has been injured. Still he’s been averaging over 20ppg and is still the prohibitive favorite among the most improved players 1/4 through the season. | 1 |
| 3 | Lee, Courtney | Other than the first Raptors game Lee has played well. On a team of inconsistent players the consistency has been appreciated. | 2 |
| 4 | Jack, Jarrett | Jack had a 14 assist game this week. It was in a loss to the Hawks, but still. | 6 |
| 5 | O’Quinn, Kyle | O’Quinn isn’t the best player but man is he fun to watch. Gotta love his energy. | 8 |
| 6 | Kanter, Enes | The Knicks have a lot of big guys but not a lot of good ones. This was really apparent when Kanter went down. Bonus points for trolling LeBron. | 5 |
| 7 | McDermott, Doug | Can’t put all the blame on McDermott but his +/- this week raises all the eyebrows. | 7 |
| 8 | Beasley, Michael | Beasley had 24 points at the half against the Rockets. In the 2nd half he showed why so many teams gave up on him. He didn’t even cross half court on a couple defensive stints. | 11 |
| 9 | Ntilikina, Frank | Frank had a rough couple weeks. He’s looked out of his element lately. Coach seems to notice too, his minutes are way down. | 4 |
| 10 | Thomas, Lance | Meh | 9 |
| 11 | Dotson, Damyean | Didn’t get to see much of Damyean lately. | 10 |
| 12 | Noah, Joakim | 3 minutes in the last 2 weeks. Noah is going to get run in Westchester this week, that’s the way to slowly bring him back. I like it. | 12 |
| 13 | Baker, Ron | Baker is also playing in Westchester this week. If you’re doing the math that’s over $20 million in salary playing in Westchester instead of MSG. | 14 |
| 14 | Hernangomez, Willy | Willy has been so bad I went from ‘the Knicks have too many big men’ to ‘I wonder what Luke Kornet is up to?’ | 13 |
| 15 | Sessions, Ramon | Nothing to see here. | 15 |
The New York Knicks Podcast 