Brunson’s minutes have ticked up a little bit since the Cup, but they’ve also been more willing to let guys sit out for rest. Which Thibs would basically never do for anybody but Mitch last year.

Team does need a backup point guard who can handle the ball a bit more, but in general they’re finding a lot more out of the rest of the rotation.

They wouldn’t have missed games if Thibs was still the coach! Thibs would have Hart match right back up to the scorers table after spraining his ankle

The Knicks were playing the top of their rotation way more last year than this year, so the absence of Mitch loomed larger.

This Knicks team is only concerned with the playoffs. This whole thing is not really relevant. If they do terrible in the playoffs you can take a victory lap then.

Shabazz Muhammad erasure

i also loved kevin martin

Nah I’ve seen the script. TJ McConnell is gonna will Indiana into the play-in and Nesmith will average 32/3/5 to send NY home in 6

Atlanta you say…:)

The Knicks lost last year because they didn’t spend enough of the season trying to see what they have from the full depth of their roster and Thibs tried to flip it on a dime with his back against the wall. Then Brunson’s legs just weren’t there to get them over the finish line come the biggest games against the Pacers.

Maximizing the depth is the most important part of this season. They know what they can get from the top of the rotation and from Brunson in crunch time, but you gotta get there. And get there effectively.

A whopping two for two.

100% meaningless

Yabusele and Dadiet are the main ones they’re searching around for, looking to get guys on the margin.

I think they just mainly need a shot in the arm, not a completely team shifting trade. They’ve made a bunch of trades like that over the years. D Rose, Josh Hart, OG all gave them that mid-season boost they needed. Think they need another one.

First, I would argue that any conversation that is trying to compare the Knicks record 1 to 1 with last year is inherently flawed. Their biggest win of the year did not count for the record.

Second, I think your question is simplifying things too much. If Mitch played 8 games with the way that the rotations are built this year, would we still be 25-15? Probably not. But the reason we were able to withstand without Mitch last year to the extent we did is because we were playing Hart, Mikal, and OG 45 minutes a night. We’re throwing Kolek out there and maybe he fucks up a little bit or maybe he doesn’t, but while he’s doing that Brunson is sitting.

Last year we needed a 44 minute 55 point game from Brunson to beat the 5-23 Wizards. Needed an incredible game from him to beat a shit team. We needed a great game from him and a game winner to beat the 6-20 Pacers. But this year against that bad team, we got to rest Hart, KAT, and Mitch and Brunson only played 34 minutes. That is much more ideal for the long term goals of winning a championship. Even if it means dropping games that Thibs would have scratched and clawed for with his top guys. There are games this year that we’ve dropped that Thibs would have won, but there are also games we’ve won that Thibs would have dropped. Mitch not being there on this team would be worse than Mitch not being there for last year’s team, because last year’s team was putting way more stress on themselves every game trying to win no matter what.

The Pistons are both a better team than the Knicks and a terrible match-up for the Knicks.

I could see the Knicks getting upset by a few teams currently ranked below them, including:

• Cleveland is an obvious high upset potential team if they can get their shit together. And they have a lot of time to get their shit together.
• Boston could make noise against NYK with or without Tatum. Their biggest issue against the Knicks last year was an inability to do anything but play ISO ball and shoot 3s, but Mazzula has successfully added many more wrinkles into their offense this year. It’s hard to believe that they’d just stick with the same shallow offense that led to their NYK loss last year after all the progress they’ve made w/ integrating new actions this season.

We’ll also have to see how the trade deadline changes the landscape in the East and (god forbid) which teams see major injuries before the playoffs.

The 2023 CBA is fully upon us; the East is particularly wide open this year.; and it’s god damn January 15th.

Despite the inclination of NBA fans to predict playoff outcomes way before the playoffs start, nothing in the East is ‘likey’ other than identifying a few obvious lottery teams.

Pistons, Celtics I would argue can beat them even rn and I could make an argument for all of the Raptors, Magic, Sixers, Cavs and Heat

Tatum is going to come back for Boston sooner rather than later at this point. I believe he’s expected back in February or March, so basically within the next month or two.