2020-2021 NY Knicks

1st preseason game is tomorrow (Friday) at 7PM. Weird to see the team without any Summer League games to get a look at the young guys first.
 
Knicks waive Skal Labissiere. Apparently, this gives us his G League rights.

1st preseason game starts in a little under 2 hours.
 
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Just read that Knicks project to have most cap space in 2021 offseason with over 60 million. Will we have anyone worth spending it on who wants to come here? I guess no point in worrying about it now.
 

KingCharles34

All Star
^
We really need to show something this year and i believe we can definitely attract free agents. If Thibs can get the players to defend well and compete hard every game, the record we finish with isnt the most important thing

What im scared of is will we sign the right player? Last thing we need is another player approaching the end of their prime or coming off a major injury
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Thibs on DSJ

?He?s been very aggressive. I think each day. He?s gotten better and better. That?s what we?re asking him to do ? to run his team, keep us organized, take advantage of what you?re strengths are, your ability to get downhill, force people to collapse, and then make the right play,? Thibodeau said. ?He can score the ball. He?s shooting the ball pretty well right now. But he?s making good plays also.?

Knox and MItch also getting praise... We shall see soon enough...

Where is the DSJ mention above at? He did not perform in the 2 preseason games!

After the 2nd preseason game .. DSJ & Knox would've been CUT (Fired or traded for a future 2nd round pick) by any winning NBA head coach. But Thibs knew the reckless performance the Knicks team played last night were all his Fault & Blame.
Thibs coaching really needed Butlers creative performance in Minnesota to win games.

Old man Thibs & his new coaching-staff actually did nothing to improve Fiz/Miller type of LOSER coaching for the Knicks. The Thibs Knicks first preseason game win was an accident by two Lottery teams. Coach Casey 14 man rotation prove Casey is the better coach than Thibs.
The Knicks played two preseason game without any chemistry, or offensive-plays in any of the lineups Thibs put on the court.
The Lottery Pistons coach Casey ran a defensive-zone that almost beat the Thibs poor coached Knicks by 20 points last night.
Coach Thibs non-movement of the ball on offense, and NO Picks for any player moving without the ball made the Knicks players miss over 60% of their shots last night to a zone defense, plus made DSJ look like a BUST PG that does not belong on a NBA court. And Knox & Bullock foolishness to score throwing-up a 1-6 & 2-8 shooting night, instead of pass, and run to pick for their teammate was an absurd performance from the two shooting a (3-14 night).
This is a preseason without any rookie summer-ball .....
Thibs did not have one offensive play written up for any of the young-core players (or rookies) in two preseason game. However .. the 30 plus minute Randle & Barrett combine for taking 28 shots, 10 reb, 7 assist, and 10 turnovers in the 2nd preseason game. To show us Knicks fans a repeat of last season two Ball-Hogging Knicks performance that dominated the ball for 30 plus minute .... Randle & RJ ball-domination last season gave us a 21-45 season.
We are DOOMED for another consecutive LOSER season.
As if owner Dolan is betting on every Knicks opponent to win in the 2020-21 season.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
^
We really need to show something this year and i believe we can definitely attract free agents. If Thibs can get the players to defend well and compete hard every game, the record we finish with isnt the most important thing

What im scared of is will we sign the right player? Last thing we need is another player approaching the end of their prime or coming off a major injury

If Rose & Thibs had any CLOUT in the FA market it would've happen already before the start of the 2020-21 season. Rose/Perry/Thibs are all NBA LOSERS today !!!
 

mafra

Legend
DSJ is beyond atrocious. He?s barely a D-league player. How anybody thought it was a smart decision to trade for that trash is something Congress needs to investigate. What was Mills thinking?

Like you said, smart orgs cut their losses. NYK are trying to showcase him for a trade, instead of preparing somebody more viable for the season. What a waste of minutes that could be used to get IQ up to speed.

At this point... I would cut him and be done with it.

?Dennis Smith does not see the floor,? said one NBA scout who witnessed both games. ?He?s probably not a true point guard.?

Another NBA scout who watched both games was unimpressed with both Smith and 2018 lottery pick Kevin Knox, who is struggling with his outside shot.

?Dennis just looks awful as a player and teammate,? the scout said. ?He has zero feel. You question his vision.?

As for Knox, the moment they took Toppin... Knox is a goner. You now have 2 inefficient offensively inclined PFs that like to play on the perimeter, and who can?t defend.
 
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mafra

Legend
The Knicks have waived Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.

He was always considered a long-shot to make the regular-season roster. There shouldn't be a huge market for MKG with his glaring lack of offense.

Rotoworld
 

tiger0330

Legend
Never got to see MKG at all in the preseason due to illness from what I heard, so it was a real long shot for him to make the team. He better be picked up off the waiver wire otherwise his career as an NBA player may be over.
 

mafra

Legend
NY Post

During his unemployment after his Minnesota stint, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau visited MIT?s famous Sloan Analytics Conference, led by former Rockets/current Sixers GM Daryl Morey.

Thibodeau, who worked under Morey in Houston, has embraced the world of analytics despite his old-school reputation. A fastidious preparer, the 62-year-old coach regards the analytic of net efficiency as his most important barometer ? combining the critical offensive stat with the critical defensive stat into one number.

The theorem combines a team?s points per 100 possessions, minus the opponent?s points per possession. In their 3-1 preseason, the Knicks finished fifth in net efficiency.

?Analytics has given us a lot of information,?? Thibodeau said. ?We?re always looking at the numbers and refer to our eyes, observation and what the coaches are talking about and the numbers will either confirm those things that you?re thinking or give you pause to rethink things.

?When you think about it, the net efficiency is probably the biggest thing because you want to be strong on both sides of the ball,?? Thibodeau added. ?So you?re striving to be a top-10 team in points per possession offensively and points per possession defensively.??


Knicks president Leon Rose bolstered the analytics department with hires of Sean MacLean, a Wharton product who was a treasury analyst for Capital One Bank, and Kelsey Roberts, who worked with the Pacers.

Other analytic formulas Thibodeau is attuned to is rebounding percentages, turnover efficiency and sabermetrics on the type of shots at which the team excels.

Analyzing preseason numbers ? four games against two bottom-dwelling teams ? is not always the best indicator. The Pistons and Cavaliers are expected to be watching the lottery pingpong balls bounce this spring. The Cavaliers didn?t play their top players, including Kevin Love.

?That?s exactly what it is ? preseason,?? Thibodeau said. ?Teams are experimenting with a lot of different things and not playing their whole roster like a regular-season game. So it?s a whole different level you have to go to in the regular season. We have to understand that. What we?re locked into is our daily improvement and be ready for Indiana when it opens up.

?You?re 0-0 now,?? Thibodeau added.

The first group practice wasn?t until Dec. 6.

?It?s been basically two weeks,?? Thibodeau said. ?It comes up fast. It?s how quickly can we all adapt. Defensively we made some good strides, but we?ll be tested in a lot of different ways as you move forward. Indiana is a very tough team, particularly at home. We?ll have to be ready to play for 48 minutes.??

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost...-strategy-to-drive-knicks-with-analytics/amp/

Is this why Thibs has shifted RJ to more of a SF role...?

I feel like our roster is finally in good hands, with this new regime. We shall see...

I still think Obi was a bad fit with Randle, Knox, and RJ.... but, I understand BPA... and they did snag IQ, who has shocked us all.

If MRob and Knox emerge as consistent contributors in their third year, and RJ takes that step forward.. and if IQ is a meteor... this could be a surprising campaign.
 

KingCharles34

All Star
I like that article about coacb Thibs. Im not a huge analytics fan mainly because some rely on it exclusively but thats obviously not the case with Thibs

Thibs is a workaholic. He comes from New Britain Connecticut, a city i live only 15 minutes away from. A source told me that he turned down marriage to be a head coach with the Bulls. He is married to his work and focuses on the smallest of details

Hes also not narrow minded. Hes capable of changing his ways as we saw Popovich do with the Spurs when they were getting older and the league was changing

These past few years I've been saying some of our players would be more developed on other teams. Its great to know that we have a great and knowledgeable teacher coaching the team now who will strive to get the most out of everyone

Sent from my SM-A115AZ using Tapatalk
 

mafra

Legend
?I don?t think I?m missing out on anything,? Toppin said of the pandemic. ?I?m in a position where people pray to be in and I prayed to be in. I wouldn?t change this for the world. When I say basketball is really all I do every single day, I come to the gym, come home. By the time I come home, I don?t want to do anything. I just want to eat and go to sleep. I?m in the gym multiple hours working on my game to be great.?
 

The Dragon

Benchwarmer
This year is the only time in the last (I don't remember how long) where we SEE a real change in the offence and defense of the team, you can feel it in most of the positions.... with the old coaches you used to hear their nice statements only, but nothing got translated on the court..... it feels different this time with Thibs
 

mafra

Legend
I am interested to see how the team responds to tonight?s test in CLE. Cavs are 3-0, we are playing 3rd game in 4 days, wrapped around Hollidays.

Drummond and Love... Sexton and Garland....

Typical Knicks would waltz into CLE riding hi bc of the big win against Bucs, and then get blown out by 39..

Let?s see what a Thibbs team does tonight.
 

mafra

Legend
"I also think he has a pretty good understanding of his teammates and what their strengths are," Thibodeau said. "And he's playing unselfishly and that's probably the biggest thing. He's shooting the ball a lot better also. That's opened up other things for us."

We detailed some of Randle's early-season shooting and passing numbers here. Those numbers probably aren't possible if Randle hadn't committed to training so vigorously in the offseason.

"I dropped a little bit of weight, but the biggest thing was just pushing myself just to run every day and just challenging myself in that way," Randle said. "I had great trainers back home. Continuous talk to Thibs, everybody, we were on the same page going into camp. I just wanted to lead by example in that way coming in in great shape."

Randle said that the Knicks' new leadership under team president Leon Rose challenged him to enter 2020-21 a better player after his subpar first season in New York.

"Obviously, I'm going to put that pressure on myself as well to challenge myself and get better every year," Randle said. "Last year was a great learning experience for me. But this year I'm coming back a better player and come back in great shape. And that's just part of the culture we're building -- guys that are going to come out and fight and compete every day, top to bottom. Not just the coaches -- front offices, everybody. We're competing and not backing down from anybody. That's just the culture we try to create and compete every night."
 

mafra

Legend
?I think Thibs, from the start of training camp, just did a great job of just implementing his system of how we want to play,?? Randle said. ?We don?t have to second-guess where we?re going to be on the floor. We have great spacing and if the defense is collapsing, I can depend on whoever it is to cut or to be in the right spacing and just make the easy play. We?re all just trying to make the easy play, the right play, and play for each other unselfishly.??

Randle is averaging 24.8 points, 10.5 rebounds and 7.5 assists while his 3-point marksmanship has been much improved (69.2 percent).

The Post has reported Thibodeau watched a ton of film of last season?s club and noticed most of the players didn?t have a strong feel for when to shoot and when to pass.

?He?s really been teaching, from Day 1, getting to the basket, making the right reads and kicking out,?? Kevin Knox said. ?You got a layup or dunk, you finish but if the defense collapses, make the right read and share the game. That?s why a lot of guys are getting open shots.??

Astoundingly, through four games, the Knicks lead the NBA in 3-point shooting (45.9 percent) and 3-point defense. They have held opponents to 24.4 percent, including two excellent deep-shooting teams in the Bucks and Cavs.

The Knicks move the ball and chase down shooters on defense.

?Coach demands for every player to go out and play the right way,?? Bullock said. ?I think he let that be known from Day 1 in camp that we?re not going to force shots. We?re going to share the ball, As long as you?re playing hard on offense, on defense, moving the ball, every player on this team is going to get a chance.?

It just might be a Happy New Year for Thibodeau?s Knicks.

NY Post
 

mafra

Legend
After 1/12th of this season...

The Knicks have come to a 3-3 record while facing the 4-2 Pacers twice, the 5-1 Sixers, the 3-3 Bucks, and the 4-2 Cavs.

72 divided by 6 equals 12

The Knicks had just completed an impressive victory over the Indiana Pacers, an opponent most project as a top-4 in the Eastern Conference. Tom Thibodeau was doing his post-game Zoom session with the media and he finished with a mic-drop about Mitchell Robinson.

?You guys haven?t seen it yet,? Thibodeau said, ?but it?s coming.?

Under Thibodeau, Robinson?s play is still sporadic but the improvement and discipline is also evident. It?s only six games, but he?s averaging more minutes (27.8) and fewer fouls (3.2). He has yet to commit more than four fouls in any game, whereas last season Robinson was called for at least five fouls in about ? of his appearances.

?Let?s talk about Mitch,? the coach said. ?He?s just, every day he?s growing and growing and growing. The way he?s working, studying, preparing for the games. you could see his confidence grow. He?s making multiple effort plays. He?s a hard guy to score over. And he?s really the anchor of the defense back there. And offensively there?s a lot of room for him to grow. He?s putting a lot of time in.?

Bondy at NYDN

Randle, RJ, Mitch, Burke and Rivers, IQ... let?s go!
 
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