Game Thread: New York Knicks @ Sacramento Kings 1/22/2021 10:00 pm [Game #17]

[mafra]

I’ve counted 2 games we would’ve won had we selected Halliburton. Knicks would be at least 10-7.

I can’t say there’s 1 game we won bc we took Obi Toppin.

Just an awful choice. Halliburton looks like a 12 year pro... rotation guy. Toppin is a gimmick.

If this was your first shot at watching Halliburton, then know he’s being doing this all season for SAC. Fox and Halliburton a force in the future.

All my anger from draft night resurfaced watching Halliburton school our guards.

[Broadway]

I’ve counted 2 games we would’ve won had we selected Halliburton. Knicks would be at least 10-7.

I can’t say there’s 1 game we won bc we took Obi Toppin.

Just an awful choice. Halliburton looks like a 12 year pro... rotation guy. Toppin is a gimmick.

If this was your first shot at watching Halliburton, then know he’s being doing this all season for SAC. Fox and Halliburton a force in the future.

All my anger from draft night resurfaced watching Halliburton school our guards.

Kid looks like he's going to be good but Topps would be so much better if we had a pg the caliber of Fox

[mafra]

Kid looks like he's going to be good but Topps would be so much better if we had a pg the caliber of Fox

Wasn’t Toppin the most NBA ready prospect? The most offensively gifted player? Sure, if we had a stud PG serving him freebies at the rim...

But how does that spacing work with MRob?

Halliburton plays with second unit, and doesn’t need Fox to set him up... and he’s so good and smooth he closes most games.

Toppin was an awful pick based on roster we have and on his talent. Halliburton was clearly the better player, played a position we needed.

Not many 24 year old Dayton players take the NBA by storm. Knicks wanted to win the headlines, so they took this kid. Thankfully, somebody with sense talked Rose out of trading up for Toppin. That would’ve made me go nuclear.

Here’s a telling stat: Toppin has 2 offensive rebounds all season.

I’m telling you, Obi won’t be getting a second contract for the Knicks. If they are smart, they use him in a deal ASAP before his value plummets like Frank, DSJ, and Knox.

What does Toppin do well? Jump? He can pass and he’s coachable and a good kid. I’ll give him that...

RJ is afforded time bc he’s 20. Should we wait until Toppin is 29? Trade him....

[Broadway]

Wasn’t Toppin the most NBA ready prospect? The most offensively gifted player? Sure, if we had a stud PG serving him freebies at the rim...

But how does that spacing work with MRob?

Halliburton plays with second unit, and doesn’t need Fox to set him up... and he’s so good and smooth he closes most games.

Toppin was an awful pick based on roster we have and on his talent. Halliburton was clearly the better player, played a position we needed.

Not many 24 year old Dayton players take the NBA by storm. Knicks wanted to win the headlines, so they took this kid. Thankfully, somebody with sense talked Rose out of trading up for Toppin. That would’ve made me go nuclear.

I’m telling you, Obi won’t be getting a second contract for the Knicks. If they are smart, they use him in a deal ASAP before his value plummets like Frank, DSJ, and Knox.

What does Toppin do well? Jump? He can pass and he’s coachable and a good kid. I’ll give him that...

RJ is afforded time bc he’s 20. Should we wait until Toppin is 29? Trade him....

Maybe so but the kid plays nearly 30min/gm so he's out there with Fox for stretches and gets to play with other vets with established games. Topps plays with primarily a bench unit limited minutes. Hal may be better now and later but he and RJ have some similarity so not sure how it works either in a patty cake system of Payton and Randle. If you notice Payton rarely likes to find RJ out there, pretty sure Hal ain't getting much playing with that BUM

Topps was billed as an Amare' Lite or say the 2nd coming of Jordan Hill...lol. With that being said Amare' played the majority of his career with a spoon feeding point guard(Nash). Can we please get a REAL pg?

[Kiyaman]

I know the Knicks team were performing sleepy-like tonight, we played 4 games in 6 days.
Yep, we were out of energy tonight.
I know this is Burks 2nd game back from injury, but I didn’t like Burks hesitant performance on the second unit lineup .. he holds the ball way to long, and kept getting his shot blocked all night. Fake sometime !!!

[mafra]

You see, this is what irks me... You knew it was coming, bc the sentiment has been simmering for weeks. Obi has basically played a few quality minutes in the season’s first quarter leg.... he missed like 10 games, has been a non-factor for the most part.

Tonight was his chance to step up. Pre-game talked about how this team needed the second unit tonight, all 10 to play well, if the Knicks would push the win streak to 4 games.

Meanwhile, Halliburton has shined all year....

Obi could’ve silenced the critics with a solid game. Instead, we get another dud. 6 points.

The kid doesn’t play have that fire in his hearth... no sir. When does he ever go into berserker mode?

So, brace yourselves... 48 hours of “KNicks blew draft again.”

Knox, IQ, Tobin, Burks, Noel did nada to help. They were going up against 4 stiffs. Unfortunately, Halliburton was also on the court and he almost outscores them all.

Obi had 6 points and Halliburton had 4 blocks. They both had 5 boards. But Halliburton closed the game and Obi did nothing to contribute to the win.

This sums it up....


Alan Hahn
@alanhahn
·
9m
Haliburton's potential has to be raising some anxiety within the #Knicks. He already looks comfortable at this level while Obi looks like he's learning a new language.

[KNICKS MOB]

I'm not buying this kids hype like you guys are.

Before the season started the Kings were looked at as a better team than us, yet with Haliburton they have a worse record than us so far.

Also Obi was a better prospect than Tyrese in the draft. And the reason we picked him up was because Randle underperformed last season and we were looking to replace him.

Once Obi gets the same number of minutes Haliburton gets, then you'll see that we picked the right guy.

[mafra]

Maybe so but the kid plays nearly 30min/gm so he's out there with Fox for stretches and gets to play with other vets with established games. Topps plays with primarily a bench unit limited minutes. Hal may be better now and later but he and RJ have some similarity so not sure how it works either in a patty cake system of Payton and Randle. If you notice Payton rarely likes to find RJ out there, pretty sure Hal ain't getting much playing with that BUM

Topps was billed as an Amare' Lite or say the 2nd coming of Jordan Hill...lol. With that being said Amare' played the majority of his career with a spoon feeding point guard(Nash). Can we please get a REAL pg?

We desperately need a real PG, and I am dangling Toppin to get a Lavine or something. Enough of this nonsense.

Toppin enters NBA at nearly 23 years of age and is barely 6”9 while Amare was out of HS and a tall 6”10

[mafra]

I'm not buying this kids hype like you guys are.

Before the season started the Kings were looked at as a better team than us, yet with Haliburton they have a worse record than us so far.

Also Obi was a better prospect than Tyrese in the draft. And the reason we picked him up was because Randle underperformed last season and we were looking to replace him.

Once Obi gets the same number of minutes Haliburton gets, then you'll see that we picked the right guy.

I hope you’re right. I Don’t see it with Thibbs coaching, so he’ll just be like what Knox is now when he’s turning 24 next March. That’s why you take a G, bc it forces Thibbs to play him (think IQ) bc we don’t have much back court talent.

Maybe he needs minutes or he needs time to get comfortable. I just see another random guy out there when he plays... nothing flashes that gets me excited. His 3 shoot looks awful, with its high arc. His defense is putrid, he doesn’t attack the glass, he makes bad decisions a and his handle is suspect.

I pray in 2 years he’s a star. I wouldn’t bet the house on it... I don’t want to make it sound like TH is the next MJ. He’s Ok. Has potential, and I would’ve been happy if we walked away with a Halliburton-Quickly backcourt.

I’m hard on Obi bc I’m jaded. After we took Mark Jax and Silky Rod Strickland our draft has been a series of disasters and calamities for 33 years. I have no capacity for hope anymore.

The last first rounder we signed to a second contract was Charlie Ward, who won the Heisman.

I’ve just watched 5 lottery picks come and go with a n RJ left....

If I am making decisions, I’m not drafting a mid-major prospect from Dayton, who’ll turn 23 his rookie season. Dayton recruited me! How good are they?

[htr10]

I can easily see how a front office called fall in love with Toppin. Haliburton certainly looks like he would have been the better pick at the moment. I think both guys will end up being good though. I don’t think Obi will be a bust.

[htr10]

Another thing is if we knew that we had a late 1st round gem with Quickley, maybe that’s why you pass on Haliburton for a front court player. Toppin plus Quickley will be better than Haliburton and a lot of the front court options that would have been available late in the 1st round.

[htr10]

On the flip side, the 5th guy to build around with MRob, Randle, RJ, and Quickley makes more sense if it was Haliburton than Toppin given positional fit, so I don’t know.

[mafra]

The Knicks had one winning streak of three games or longer in 2018.

The Knicks had one winning streak of three games or longer in 2019.

The Knicks had one winning streak of three games or longer in 2020

The Knicks have already had two separate 3-game winning streaks this month

Tommy Beer

[htr10]

After taking a closer look at Halliburton’s stats and his comments about haunting the sleep of teams who passed on him, he certainly is getting a lot of hype for a guy who is averaging 11 points and 4.9 assists in 28 minutes per game. Guy has yet to have a 20 point game.

Obi would be averaging 20 points and 10 boards under Thibs if we didn’t have Randle and Toppin was getting 28 minutes per game. Bank on it.

[Kiyaman]

You see, this is what irks me... You knew it was coming, bc the sentiment has been simmering for weeks. Obi has basically played a few quality minutes in the season’s first quarter leg.... he missed like 10 games, has been a non-factor for the most part.

Tonight was his chance to step up. Pre-game talked about how this team needed the second unit tonight, all 10 to play well, if the Knicks would push the win streak to 4 games.

Meanwhile, Halliburton has shined all year....

Obi could’ve silenced the critics with a solid game. Instead, we get another dud. 6 points.

The kid doesn’t play have that fire in his hearth... no sir. When does he ever go into berserker mode?

So, brace yourselves... 48 hours of “KNicks blew draft again.”

Knox, IQ, Tobin, Burks, Noel did nada to help. They were going up against 4 stiffs. Unfortunately, Halliburton was also on the court and he almost outscores them all.

Obi had 6 points and Halliburton had 4 blocks. They both had 5 boards. But Halliburton closed the game and Obi did nothing to contribute to the win.

This sums it up....


Alan Hahn
@alanhahn
·
9m
Haliburton's potential has to be raising some anxiety within the #Knicks. He already looks comfortable at this level while Obi looks like he's learning a new language.

Mafra .. Slow-down on the Haliburton was a better pick than Obi .. Haliburton's raw b.ball IQ has showed in his few NBA games to be 10 times better than DSJ, Barrett, Burks, Knox, and Bullocks. If the Knicks would have drafted Haliburton & Quickley they would have notice immediately in two practices there's no place on the Knicks team for DSJ & RJ Barrett's individual performance at the guard spot.
Last night, the Knicks loss the game from players holding the ball to long, or dribbling the ball to long, to give Sac Town guards & SF enough time to set up their defense to force the Knicks to shoot before the shot clock buzzer.
Obi was lucky to get a touch of the ball last night the way Randle, Barrett, Payton, and Burks kept holding the ball and forcing up the majority of their 60 shots last night.
Payton & Burks combine for 16 pts on 6 - 26 shooting. Recall rookie Haliburton blocked 4 of our guards shots.
Haliburton's performance will keep improving as long as he keep practicing alongside of teammates Fox, Hield, Barnes, and Bjelica. We could never say that bout any of our young guards, and the sorry FA players we sign each offseason.
Have you notice last night our trio players Payton, Barrett, and Randle has the Knicks offense still running One-on-One plays for 30 minute every game ???