Game thread: New York Knicks vs Toronto Raptors 4/10/2022 7:00pm [Game #82]

[htr10]

IQ grabs the rebound and now has a triple double. 34 points, 10 boards, and 12 assists.

[htr10]

Completely meaningless game to end the season, but a fun watch with absolutely massive games from Obi and IQ and Knicks close out season with a home win.

[mafra]

42 for Obi; 34 point triple double for IQ

[htr10]

Knicks finish with 37 - 45 record.

Knicks with 12th worst record in the NBA. If New Orleans wins tonight, Knicks will finish with tie for 11th worst record.

But, what’s interesting is that both New Orleans and San Antonio, who have a worse record than the Knicks, are going to make the play-in. If either of them succeeds in climbing out of the 9th or 10th seed in the West and makes the playoffs, then Knicks could move up another spot in worst record seedings.

[htr10]

Fans have their gripes with Tom Thibodeau, but through tonight’s win his overall record as Knicks head coach through 2 seasons is 78 - 76, above 0.500.

Thibodeau and Woodson are only 2 Knicks head coaches in last 20 years (since JVG) to have above 0.500 records as Knicks coach (13 head coaches in those 20 years).

Obviously another losing season next year for Thibodeau will take him out of that category.

[mafra]

As bad as this year was, still second best season last decade. That’s sad.

Yeah, Knicks probably picking 12th out of 14 teams in a 10 player draft. And when 13 or 14 jump up, we’ll be picking at the very back end of the lottery.

I think It’s wrong to have bubble teams lose and draft ahead of non bubble teams….

NO had 6% odds to land Zion when NBA rigged the lottery… er… when lottery balls bounced in their favor.

Knicks should have a 1% or 2% chance to
Jump up… but keep rare to draft in the 12-13 range.

[mafra]

Rose finally speaks… Sat with Mike Breen. I didn’t listen to all…

But if he wasn’t asked about not replacing Rose and if he regrets that… then GTFOOH.

Season was lost bc GM never addressed PG. That’s why they missed playoffs. If he wasn’t asked that… then entire interview BS

[mafra]

Toppin on the Knicks' work ethic:

"Having a brother like Quickley, he's at the gym at 2 o'clock in the morning working out sometimes and he'll call me and be like 'yo bro, I need you to come to the gym with me'"

[mafra]

I do agree with this tweet tho


Andrew Bank
@AndrewBank
37-45 in a loaded East with nightmare Randle, Rose, Noel, and Kemba seasons is deeply frustrating but far from embarrassing. When you're the New York Knicks, consecutive "far from embarrassing" seasons = progress.

[Kiyaman]

OBI TOPPIN & IMMANUEL QUICKLEY CAREER-NIGHT
Leads to a Knicks 104-95 WIN over Raptors !!!

Immanuel Quickley has tied his career-high of 10 rebounds and has his second career triple-double:
34 points
12 assists
10 rebounds

And BIG Obi Toppin having his 5th consecutive 20 pt game .. Tonite ..
42 points (another career high)
10 rebounds
1 Block
Giving our 14 rebounding Rookie Sims help on the glass tonight !!!

Having MitchRob, Sims, Obi, and Cam hitting the glass next season will be a winner in the East.
Next season do we Knicks fans want to watch another 40 minute half-court offense Randle dribbling the ball up-court?
Or watch the 6 second or less Quickley & Toppin offense?
The Knicks FO Perry did draft two future good rotation centers for the Knicks in MitchRob & Sims.

[htr10]

New Orleans lost. Knicks finish with 12th worst record in NBA. Believe it or not, Knicks would have been 9th seed and made the play-in with their record in the West. Instead, we end up the 11th seed and a full 6 games out of the play-in in the East.

Balance of power between the conferences does seem different now than a few years ago where a 37 - 45 record would have gotten you an 8th seed in a weak East.

[mafra]

OBI TOPPIN & IMMANUEL QUICKLEY CAREER-NIGHT
Leads to a Knicks 104-95 WIN over Raptors !!!

Immanuel Quickley has tied his career-high of 10 rebounds and has his second career triple-double:
34 points
12 assists
10 rebounds

And BIG Obi Toppin having his 5th consecutive 20 pt game .. Tonite ..
42 points (another career high)
10 rebounds
1 Block
Giving our 14 rebounding Rookie Sims help on the glass tonight !!!

Having MitchRob, Sims, Obi, and Cam hitting the glass next season will be a winner in the East.
Next season do we Knicks fans want to watch another 40 minute half-court offense Randle dribbling the ball up-court?
Or watch the 6 second or less Quickley & Toppin offense?
The Knicks FO Perry did draft two future good rotation centers for the Knicks in MitchRob & Sims.

Good to see you ain’t mad at Thibbs for playing Obi and IQ 40+ minutes.

They gotta dump Randle…. At all costs.

But, if you hear Leon Rose… Randle isn’t going anywhere:

“Look, Julius is a passionate player,” Rose said Sunday. “He’s a person who last year everything went right. This year things didn’t go right,” Rose said in a serious understatement. Cherry-picked or not, Rose pointed out that Randle was one of three players in the NBA to average 20 points, 10 boards and five assists. (Randle finished his second season in New York at 20.1 points, 5.1 assists, and 9.9 rebounds.)
“Things happened on the court, we saw some emotion coming out, saw some things happening,” Rose said of the numerous bizarre incidents that marked Randle’s season. “I think it affected his play at times. He felt remorseful for some of those things as he expressed to the fans in his letter he sent,” he said, referring to an Instagram apology that Randle made after telling Knicks fans “f--k you” with a thumbs down.
Rose blamed Randle’s significantly worse shooting — 41.1% from 3 last year, 30.8% this year — on teams playing defense on him, not a good sign for the future.
“The 3-point shot just didn’t go like last year, and you had teams keying on him more this year. At the end he made some adjustments, he carried the burden. I was proud of the fact he did fight through it.”
Rose also shot down trade rumors, saying that Randle told him personally he wants to stay. “Julius loves it here in New York, wants to be in New York,” he said.

[mafra]

Let’s not forget that TOR rested it’s studs. Just like WAS….

Don’t take what happens late March Early April seriously, just like Sept baseball.

We’ll see next Oct/Nov if this “means” anything for IQ and Obi. Their poor play for large stretch of season, albeit with no assistance from Thibbs rotation, is one of the reasons Knicks missed playoffs.

They’ve played well since ASG. Let’s hope this means something for their future.

But, let’s not act that these are 2 of the more exciting young players in the sport. They might not even make the top 25 list (or top 50 players under 26)

[Broadway]

I do agree with this tweet tho


Andrew Bank
@AndrewBank
37-45 in a loaded East with nightmare Randle, Rose, Noel, and Kemba seasons is deeply frustrating but far from embarrassing. When you're the New York Knicks, consecutive "far from embarrassing" seasons = progress.

Not me the standard will never be silver linings. Obi and IQ deserved better and I’ve been advocates for them their entire time here to be given larger roles

I just peeped a thread on Twitter of Sixers fans morbid fear of Doc Rivers coaching style and would you know their concerns are echos from Knicks fans…guess which two coaches have history together?

Sixers have the Raptors in the playoffs and I guarantee you Nick Nurse is going to make Doc Rivers sweat more than the players on the court in that series

Terrible yr for this franchise which should have built on top of last yr’s success, instead we’ll have Mid Lottery Pick and a bunch of questions remaining on what to do with our existing roster yet alone what could be added to it to make it better heading into the summer

[mafra]

Rose tried to sell optimism to Knicks fans, pointing out they had been a world-beating 11-11 since the All-Star break. When Breen asked if there was anything to take with a grain of salt considering many NBA teams are either tanking or resting at the end of the schedule, Rose said that was generally true, but not in the case of the Knicks’ opponents.
“We look at it like — a lot of games have mattered because of the play-in situation, because a lot of teams have played right up until the end, when you look at who we played against, and whether the games were meaningful,” he said. “We want our guys coming in and competing every night. I mean, that’s one of Thibs’ mantras, and that’s the way we approached it.”
Rose said his long-term plan was working, alluding to the Knicks’ ability to fit a star under the cap if one finally actually chose MSG. He again cherry-picked convenient stats, saying the Knicks have “13 draft picks” and “nine players 24 or younger.”
“We have to build one block at a time, be patient. We feel like we’re set up, you know, really well as far as like, we’ve got 13 draft picks over the next three drafts, four first-round picks,” he said. “With regard to opportunities that may come along, we’re very flexible…we want to show patience, we want to show prudence in making those decisions and continuing to develop what we have.”