What is up, fellow thermonuclear a Eppers. I am at Damp Valley coming
at you with some good old fashioned, really crappy MBA content before we get
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really do put a lot of work into covering the league as thoroughly and as
unseriously yet seriously as possible. For this I want to talk about my MVP
ladder. I do that every two weeks for Bleacher Reports. I'm gonna go
through it. I will maybe stop doing it once it becomes relevant, but
early on there are shifts at the top. This is only our second one.
We're not even a month into the season, and I think a lot
of things have changed. You can go back and check out the first one
that I did two weeks ago. Again, these are done on a biweekly
basis. Right now, I want to remind us all though, that I
do have a set of criteria where I understand that the MVP criteria is subjective.
I don't wait record as much. I'm looking at players who are most
impactful, but I'm also trying to separate, oh, do they actually just
play on necessarily shitty teams and they're able to ease uplift shitty teams? Because
that's not necessarily a hard baseline to stick with. That's not to say that
net rating swings aren't impressive. It's just that if you know if in the
Warriors case, let you steph the bench has been by and large awful.
He has propped up this team and is really good. He's on this ladder
on make it clear, But how much do we wait that and that's what
I struggle with the most. You can let me know what you think in
the comments are on Twitter, get at me on our discord, join our
discord channel. The link to that is in the YouTube and the podcast descript
shown. But yeah, let's get into this. Throw it up on the
screen for anyone who's following along on YouTube. Get to my You know,
I blow through the top, I mean number six through ten. I have
a tie at number ten right now in the honorable mentions department. I have
Kevin Rant and Joel Embi. They were both previously unranked in the last MVP
Ladder, and Beat is averaging forty points, five point three assists, two
point eight blocks, and sixteen point five free throw attempts per game since rejoining
the Philadelphia seventy six ers rotation four games ago. He hasn't played enough to
be placed any higher than this, but his case will continue to strengthen while
James Harden his sidelined, especially if he's putting up these mind melting numbers.
Durant, meanwhile, is just on fire. He is shooting and scoring and
passing and defending his butt off, and the Brooklyn Nets look like an actual
basketball team. Following Kyrie Irving's suspension. I would keep my eyes on Katie's
MVP stock too. He could look either they're doing it without Kyrie Irving,
in which case he gets the narrative boot and vow he's doing it without Kyrie
and what is Ben Simmons right now? Or Kyrie does eventually come back after
he finishes, you know, his laundry to do list after being suspended for
promoting the anti Semitic documentary. We don't know when he's gonna come back,
but if he comes back, he'll be a distraction. And if Katie can
lead the nets through this and prevent them from blowing up. I have my
doubts, but Durant is balling out right now. I would say everything about
him is stood out, but the defense in particular some of the help rim
protection. He's been really good. So those two are tied at number ten.
I didn't want to choose Nikolaokis comes in at number nine. For me.
I think people will campaign to put him higher. I do as who
I think should win the award, not who I think is going to win
the award. I don't think Yokich we finished in the top ten. Maybe
he's not gonna win the award because voter fatigue is a thing, right,
wrong, It's a thing. Whatever. The Nuggets are starting to look dominant,
though their schedule has something to do with it. They're beating the Thunder
and the Lakers. They beat the Spurs, But he owns the highest net
rating swing in the league. That is a testament to some wonky bench returns.
But it's also wild because some of the bench lineups have been good and
Yokich has just visibly deemphasized his scoring and three point shooting. Not shooting the
three ball well, not shooting it as often, just not as aggressive as
a score. I think there's probably value in that. Let's get these other
guys reps so they can figure it out and be ready for the playoffs.
You also have Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. Coming back from their injury,
so you're trying to integrate them, working with KCP to get his chemistry
down. Having Aaron Gordon's score within the flow of the offense, giving the
ball to Bones, not necessarily playing a ton alongside Yoki rolls. It's other
players, so there are other players that have the ball are operating as play
finishers. That doesn't dilute his case. I just want to make that clear.
But I'm splitting hairs here. We're four weeks into the season or whatever
it is. This is a tough field to crack. Jokis was eighth last
time around. John Morant comes in at eighth. He was four last time
around, falling four spots. Not unprecedent at this time of year. It's
also not a big deal. The Grizzlies do spit spot fire when Morant is
on the floor, But over the past two weeks since I last did this,
he's shooting under thirty one percent from three and sub sixty seven percent from
the foul line. That's just something to monitor here. And also during this
stretch, guess who leads the Grizzlies in scoring, Desmond Bane, not John
mart That's not really a demerit against him. I just thought that was a
fun fact. Long lived Desmond Bain Devin Bookers at number seven. He was
previously ranked fifth. There's nothing he's done to warrant dropping down two spots.
It's just that the field in front of him is huge. You have,
but look at the Suns and they're coming off this loss to the heat,
they did almost win scoring regression from Chris Paul an injury to Chris Paul heal
injury, Cameron Johnson knee injury, out for a while, Still no Jay
Crowder, borderline vanishing acts at times from DeAndre Ayton, and yet the Sons
are just this regular season machine. Booker is the primary reason why. He
is that steadying force on both both on and off the ball, who scales
to so many different lineups and offensive approaches that I'm at the point where quantifying
his impact is just impossible for me. Almost a good start, though he
ranks third in plus minus for the season. Under the circumstances, that's pretty
damn impressive. That wraps up my honorable mentions. There is no sixth because
I have a tie for fifth place. It is Steph Curry and Shay Gilgist
Alexander. I think this might surprise some people, and I don't think that
it should. The response that I'm expecting to get is, oh, Steph
and Shay both play for sub five hundred basketball teams right now. It's true,
but wins aren't a player stat. Choosing between Steph and SGA when it
came down to it was hard, so I say didn't, and I can't
bring myself to care that the Golden State Warriors are comfortably below five hundred and
combusting on defense, or that the Oklhoma City Thunder ended their four game losing
streak by beating the shorthanded Toronto Raptors and the sad sorry direction list Nicks who
might talk about in a few minutes. Both step and SGA are only responsible
for what's happening when they're on the floor and their teams are winning those minutes.
Let's look at steph. Golden State is a plus seven point nine points
per one hundred possessions when Curry plays. That's a twenty seven point two point
increase over its differential when he's not on the court. It helps that he's
playing within a killer starting five. It also helps his case, that statistical
case right there. It's not a good thing for the war Is, want
to make that clear, but it's helped this net rating swing. That the
bench is absolutely terrible, that doesn't make his job any easier. Curry up
lifts everyone around him just by virtue of existing. He needs neither the ball
nor actual numbers to break defenses, and yet he's got the numbers anyway,
thirty two point eight point six point five assists while finding nylon on sixty four
point eight percent of his twos and forty three point four percent of his eleven
point nine three point attempts per game. I need to fan myself off.
That's a lot of three point attempts, putting Curry any higher though than fifth.
For me, it feels a little off. Over seventy percent of his
possessions have come alongside Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins the Warriors, the other two
best players. I would say, if you want to argue for Jordan Poole,
I would I would say absolutely not playing a little bit better lately,
but not as good as those two. So and then the bench just being
so bad it unnecessarily exacerbates step and Steph's importance. If the Warriors were,
you know, like nine and three right now, in spite of that bench
and this, it was sort of the same story than, Yes, Steph
case is stronger. I guess they would have to win the win minutes by
more when he's on the court. I'm just saying it didn't necessarily have to
be like this. The Warriors chose to stack the deck with youngsters who are
either they're not gonna play like Alah James Wiseman and then in which case they're
taking up a spot on your or they are going to play. I'll also
James Wiseman previously and struggle and hurt you. I don't know how that should
you know affects Steph Curry's case. He's in the top five. For me,
that's a compliment. SGA. Meanwhile, thirty one point one points,
five point seven assists, two point one steals in one point five blocks per
game on mine melting efficiency of his own. Among everyone two attempt at least
thirty five pull up jumpers this year, only Steph and KD have a higher
effective a field goal percentage. SGA is shooting seventy three percent at the rim
and fifty one point seven percent on step back jumpers. This all comes,
by the way, on what can only be described as end all usage.
Out of two hundred and seventy three players to appear in at least ten games,
Luka Danchich is the only one with a higher share of unassisted buckets through
it all. Meanwhile, SGA has kicked it into high gear on defense end
the Thunder have outscored opponents by thirty three points when he plays. In total,
that's one point more than the Dallas Mavericks of out paced opponents by with
Luca himself on the court. Again, these are not perfect comps, but
I would argue when you look at the Mavericks on paper and their second and
third and fourth best players just having Christian Wood, Spencer, Dinwoodie, Dorian
Finney Smith, I don't know how close the Thunder come to rivaling that direct
supporting cast as shallow as the Mavericks are. Lu Dort is great. Josh
Kiddy will show flashes Poku like dude, He's been amazing of late everything,
just even just like blocking a crap ton of shots. I mean, it's
not he was a novelty at one point, and he is a favorite of
this podcast because this game is just so quirky looking. He's a good player
now. So I'm not trying to discredit what the Thunder have going for them,
But like you look at the supporting cast. Everyone thought, okay,
see was tanking Shay being able to lead them to not just respectability, but
decided the net positive point differential when he's on the court. That's impressive.
And I think it's worth being fifth. We can get into lay later in
the season seeing how far below they might be below five hundred. They're closer
to five hundred than the Dubs right now, and a bunch of other teams
for that matter, So I'm not getting, like I said, two caught
up in the record. Steph was previously ranked sixth, by the Way,
and Shay was previously ranked seventh. Donovan Mitchell comes in at number four for
me. His previous ranking was two. He drops two spots from last time
through no fault of his own. The top five landscape is just a gauntlet
of megastar power. Mitchell missed two games because of an ankle issue over the
past two weeks, and he had a couple of shaky performances from beyond the
arc that set the stage for this teenc weens dip. Is it splitting year
invisible sized tears? Hell fucking yes? Do I hate myself? App so
freaking lutely That's how it goes atop this early season mountain. Overall, though,
Mitchell just continues to slay defenses from basically everywhere. The share of his
shots coming at the rim is at its highest since twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen,
A pretty substantial feat given some of the lineups in which he works.
When you're talking about he has two or three non shooters on the court with
him, more disarming, he's dropping in seventy five percent of those looks at
the basket. That's a logic liquefying number. Even by early season standards,
exactly one player is a better high valu high volume excuse me, off the
bounce three point shooter flamethrower right now. By the way, Mitchell is shooting
forty point seven percent off the dribble triples on more than five attempts per game.
The only player with a higher success rate on those looks with that volume
Steph Curry himself. Everyone should be to me, in my opinion, impressed
with how Mitchell has handled playing in a new environment. Some of the timing
and placement of his passes can get weird, but his turnover rate has not
exploded, and he's averaging as many assists per thirty six minutes as he did
over the past two seasons while going with his career high scoring rate per thirty
six minutes. Darius Garland is back had that fifty point explosion on Sunday night.
His return will diminish Cleveland's reliance on Mitchell. That's actually a good thing.
Mitchell's averaging over thirty nine minutes per game for the season. That Ken
and will and must come down. Whether they'll pullback alongside Garland will adversely impact
Mitchell's MVP case. That remains to be seen. It hasn't yet. It
also doesn't matter and it will continue not to matter as long as the Cavs
look like contenders with him, because that's what they still are in my book.
They've had rocky performances, lost to some pretty good teams, had that
heartbreaker against the Oh my god, the Warriors the other night, just really
shoot drawn blanks. There they are in the probably the second tier of contenders.
Still for me, that is the more important factor. But it will
be interesting to see if Garland and that dynamic impacts Mitchell's case at all,
just because when you have so many good players, I do think it's easier
to dilute in MVP case three. For me, this one look, before
I even get to it, this hurt, and I want to make it
clear he's not gonna stay here, and it's it's wild to me that number
three is going to be considered an insult, but it's the honest. He
was number one last time, and there's exactly one number that prevented him from
being number one again. Three left knees soornis cost him three of the Milwaukee
Bucks his previous four games. Entering Monday night, he now ranks outside the
top one hundred and fifteen minutes played quality over quantity. It's early, blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah, but the margins are just razor thin so
early into the season, other players, including the two to come, are
providing profoundly impactful performances across larger samples. That counts for something to me again,
And as I reiterated, it doesn't mean Yannest will be here forever.
He won't. He was my MVP pick for the year, by the way,
and I would still pick him to win it. It's just in the
meantime when you don't have the sample I have to I just have to make
this change in the spirit of everything. But you dig into the numbers and
it's like, well, is this still sort of hopeless? If Jannie is
going to stay healthy the rest of the way, he's averaging thirty one point
eight points, twelve point two rebounds, five point three assists, one point
one steals, and one point four blocks while downing fifty nine point four percent
of his two and deleting entire possessions from existence on defense. Both on and
away from the ball, opponents are shooting fifty percent against him at the rim.
That's one of the seven stingiest marks allowed amongst seventy eight players to contest
as many close range attempts as Jannis so far. I do think there's an
over indulgence from the perimeter, and that's probably the sole non availability knock against
Yannis right now. Should almost one third of his looks be coming from mid
range if he's shooting twenty five percent from there, perhaps not. I'm a
big advocate though, of there's value in the volume. The same goes for
his pull up threes, which he's not really hitting at a high clip himself.
They keep defenses on tilt. Also, sub thirty percent from mid range
is low for Yiannis, so that will come up. Also, Also,
none of this matters. He's a dominant anomaly even when he's not hitting hitting
those shots. Number two, This is Look, it's a it's a majacolpa.
Here. Number two is Jason Tatum. He was unranked in the last
MVP ladder. I look, talk about your big, bloated, inexcusable missus.
I left him off. I too heavily waited what happened in the Boston
Celtics lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Chicago Bulls, along with Jason tatums
slumping efficiency on off the dribble jumpers. I was wrong, and I'm sorry.
I'm correcting it here. I'm not over correcting it here, though,
he came pretty darn close to topping the whole ladder for me, his numbers
induced rule. He's averaging thirty two point three points and four point one assist
per game on sixty five point three percent true shooting while getting to the foul
line at a career eye clip. His pull up jumper, as I already
mentioned, it continues to miss the mark, but he's somehow converting eighty percent
of his looks at the basket while getting to the line of ton That is
definitely going to offset any sort of perimeter wonkiness. It also helps that I
think Boston has streamlined a lot of his three point attempts, more of those
are assisted than last year, and he is banging in those. With that
said, Boston has increased its reliance on Tatum over the past couple of weeks.
He has responded by reminding us all that, yeah, the playmaking leap
is real. His potential assist up during this stretch, and he's never been
more unpredictable or on target as a live dribble passer. Even just over the
shoulder kickouts, those have been fantastic from him as well. I also look
at it this way, no other player, almost no other player, is
as important to his team at both ends of the floor. There's Yannis,
maybe Shay at this point, and that's probably it. It feels like the
Celtics have Tatum checking harder assignments. He remains disruptive away from the ball,
and he's turning blocks from behind into an art form that Tatum, by the
way, is doing so much too. Damn near everything with a left wrist
injury makes zero sense. Sure, his MVP credentials maybe hard pressed to fend
off Jannis and a certain someone who's coming up over the course of a season.
But if he recaptures any of that off the dribble jump shooting mojo.
I think we're looking at the most complete player in the NBA, which then
is going to significantly bump up his MVP credentials. So he's at number two.
Sorry for leaving him off the first time. I do not think number
one is going to come as a surprise for anyone. It's Luca don Chich
And what's interesting, I'm sure many people had him number one from the start.
I had him number three last time. The extent, and this for
listeners of this podcast, who are you know? Religious listeners want to again,
I love you all, but this is gonna sound repetitive. The extent
to which Dallas is relying on Luca is staggering, and it's also historical.
Two other players have posted a higher usage rate twenty sixteen seventeen Russell Westbrook in
twenty eight twenty nineteen James Harden. Even more absurd, almost ninety one percent
of Dontess's made buckets have now gone on assisted. Among every player to average
at least fifteen minutes and appear in five or more games, his ninety point
seven percent mark would be the largest share of unassisted field goals made in the
NBA's tracking database, which goes all the way back to ninety six ninety seven,
and based off where are those numbers were trending, I would argue it
might be the highest share in NBA history. I don't know enough about the
history of the game how it was in like, you know, the sixties,
and I don't think it would be in like that in the seventies,
but the eighties maybe. But as we were getting into the early twenty nineties,
the people who led the league in the share of unassisted field goals made
were in like the seventy percent range. Now, let's be clear, all
consuming usage doesn't automatically translate to substance. There will be those who argue Dontchets
cannot play any other way, that he has to be an unprecedented focal point.
Maybe there's validity to that stance, but we wouldn't know. The mass
have never armed the offense enough to explore just placing Donchez from the ball left
untouched. This roster isn't built to make that shift. Now. Either Spencer,
Dimity, and Christian would combine to open additional offensive doorways, but Dallas
has opted so far against playing all three together. And here's the other thing.
For me, Donchitch is wrecking worlds playing this way. His thirty four
point three points per game lead the league and come on sixty point nine percent
footing inside the arc, including about a fifty percent clip from mid range.
His sub thirty percent success rate from beyond the arc will rankle people, and
it did for me last time. It played a part in holding him back
to that third spot. Since that first MVP ladder, though, he's shooting
thirty five point six percent entrees while still getting to the foul line more than
I can count. I also think that his eight point one assist per game
don't do his passing justice. He is third in potential assists per game at
sixteen point three, so Dallas is connecting on fewer than fifty percent of his
assist opportunities. I would say there's a lot they could go into that.
Or are they getting grenades at the end of the shot clock. Are they
just not taking high quality looks but only hard and Tyrese Halibert and have generated
more potential assists per game. That's a big deal. And I had people
in the YouTube comments saying that done isn't a good passer. If you have
a problem with the ball dominance, fine. Dontech is not a perfect player,
but could we not pretend that he's not a transcendent passer. Conventional wisdom
does suggest that he can't keep this up because we've never seen anything like this.
He's looked tired in certain games too. But the all done everything model
is working. The master eighth in net rating despite being just two games over
five hundred. And if there's anyone who can sustain this unreal usage, it's
the twenty three year old who has never been on a Dallas team equipped to
saddle him with anything other than unreal usage. That's where I'm landed with my
MVP ladder, just to recap, and we'll do the reverse order so that
the ties were computing. I've done at one, Jason Tatum at two,
Janni's attend to Kumbo at three, Donovan Mitchell at four, Steph and Sga
are tied for fifth, so we jumped to seventh. That is going to
be Devin Booker. Eight was John Morant, nine is nicolea Yokich and a
tie for tenth for me right now, Joel Embiid and Kevin Durant, who's
your MVP. Let me know you can get at me on Twitter. The
socials are in the YouTube and podcast description. Let's talk some New York Knicks,
shall we. I have already noted that I think the Nicks should fire
TIBs. I do stand by that, but it's really time to talk about
their overarching direction. And this was something I thought about a lot after their
loss to Oklahoma City on Sunday. Most NBA teams have a discernible direction.
These directions aren't always urgent. Think about Orlando or successful think about Brooklyn.
Some are reflected in singular players. You can think about Dallas. A few
you have to squint to see, like Chicago, but you can in fact
see them. Others are complicated by surprise stop Utah or disappointment Minnesota, but
they're nevertheless visible. Scattered throughout the league, though, are a handful of
organizations without concrete course. The Knicks are one of them, if not leading
that aimless charge. This has been semi clear for longer than many will care
to admit. It is painfully obvious now on the heels of another telltale loss,
this one one forty five to one thirty five Sunday defeat at the hands
the Oklahoma City Thunder that evoked a fusive booze from the Madison Square Garden crowd,
and justifiably so. In many ways. This ended up being the quintessential
Knicks loss, a conflux of everything that remains wrong, both fixable and absolute,
with a nod to their Jechal and Hide extremes. They opened with a
forty eight point first quarter on twenty of thirty one shooting. Nine different players
scored in the first twelve minutes. New York led by as many as thirteen
over the next two quarters, though the Thunder out score the next by twenty
eight. Shankillin took center absolutely roasted New York's defense. He scored twenty one
of his thirty seven points in the third alone. Oklahoma City ranked hellfire from
three, going thirteen of eighteen, which is over seventy two percent on its
triples across those two quarters. That's not bad for a team that entered the
game twenty fifth and point scored per possession and twenty ninth of thirty teams in
three point accuracy. One loss is not typically all revealing. Letdowns happen over
the length of an eighty two game regular season inexplicably blown leads in all but
this Knicks loss, like many others, featured many of the same issues that
have plagued them all year end. In seasons past, New York's defense has
allowed teams to bomb away from deep without much resistance since this season specifically,
tipped off closeouts on these threes range from half assed to non existent for long
stretches, and the primary offenders are exactly who you think they are. Just
I'll leave it there. Only the Timberwolves and Toronto Raptors allow a larger share
of opponent shots to come as completely uncontested threes. The Knicks ranked twenty seventh
overall in the frequency with which they surrender long range attempts, and they don't
counteract this volume that they forfeit with the detectable identity elsewhere. They limit looks
at the rim, but when you watch them, that does feel like a
function of offenses not needing to venture inside the arc for quality shots. The
Knicks don't force turnovers or effectively as the defensive glass. They're twenty sixth in
forcing turnovers and twenty fifth in defensive rebounding. That defensive rebounding issue is new
that doesn't make it any less damning. Julius Randall right now is the only
Knicks big who averages at an above average rate on the defensive glass. That
was a terrible way of saying it, but he's the only Nick big who
places better than the thirty eight percent high in defensive rebounding. Think about that.
That's not good. Oklahoma City, going back to that game, did
not win the fast break battle on Sunday. It was a fourteen to fourteen
stalemate. That's something of a minor miracle because the Knicks rank inside the bottom
five of both transition frequency and points allowed per possession. They are dead last
in points allowed per possession after committing a turnover. That's according to in Predictable,
the first few stats were from cleaning the glass. Sitting a hair below
five hundred fewer than fifteen games in the season shouldn't be the end of the
world. But this also presumes that the Knicks are built to be better,
that their biggest obstacles are coaching, injuries or work in progress chemistry. Coaching
comes closest to being the answer here. Like I said, I already called
for the next to fire TIBs. After there it was a November second loss
to the Atlanta Hawks. People with let's say, clearly vested interests in this
situation weren't thrilled about it. I stand by it. My issues with Tibbs
are neither original nor specific to this season. Stubborn roster mismanagement has been his
default, even dating back to his Coach in the Year campaign in twenty twenty
twenty one, and it was on full display in the Thunder Games. Specifically,
RJ. Barrett picked up his fourth foul with nine minutes fifty eight seconds
left in the third quarter. Timms then proceeded to sub him out for Evan
Fournier. RJ. Barrett never saw the floor again. When when Tims was
asked about this after the game, his response predictably lacked substance. He said,
we just got behind by so much that we were just looking for and
that group that was in there after Barrett subbed out gave us a little bit
of a spark, so that's what we went with. That's asinine logic.
Fournier has played most of this season like he deeply wants the Knicks to land
Victor Woman Yama. In no world is he the answer over Barrett. Never
mind, that Fournier went over three during his fourteen ish second half minutes.
He was a he was a plus I think six during that span. But
whatever, Barrett is no worse than the second most important player to this organization.
When you're looking at on the court stuff, it's Jon Brunson and then
him, and that like that's like you're hoping RJ. Barrett Popps. You're
hoping Jon Brunson continues to play as well as he has. You don't rope
RJ to the bench for the chance to maybe, possibly, if you're lucky,
potentially win a November matinee against the thunder spelling Barrett for foul trouble.
I get it, But that's also debatable in itself, and you could also
point to him not having the best season. His performances are littered with drives
to the basket that have unplanned or unknown destinations, and he's been frustratingly inconsistent
on defense. He was two of ten when Tims pulled the plug on Sunday.
Still, his play over the previous seven games, when he was averaging
twenty one point five points while shooting fifty three percent on twos and forty three
percent from three warranted benefit of the doubt two Tims's credit, he did at
least dust off Quentin Grimes to chase around Shay. Oh no, wait,
he didn't. That's right, because Grimes is situational, because his conditioning isn't
up to stuff, because he suffered a left foot injury that's largely kept him
out of the rotation, and because the Knicks are clearly too good, clearly
too good to give him reps outside garbage time. And also though, because
Grimes might still be injured based off things that we've heard, in which case,
why is he situational? Not just out? Transparency has never been the
Knicks' preferred mode of operation, so I reckonny that Grimes's status might be above
Tips's pay grade. The continued lack of invention behind lineups and rotations is not
Remember when he actually played Randall and Obi Toppin together for ten glorious minutes against
the Sixers, and how the Knicks were a plus fourteen during that stretch and
how they came from behind the beat the Sixers that game. That duo has
logged dirty two total minutes since and didn't play against the Thunder. I don't
care about the plus minus the two are twenty eight since that Sixers game.
It's heavily skewed by their November November fifth loss to the Celtics. The sample
overall, though, is just too small to be deemed conclusive one way or
the other. It's on tips to make it conclusive. Mitchell Robinson's out with
a knee injury. Thoroughly explore the fucking pairing for crying out loud, especially
if it ensures Toppin never winds up logging fewer than eight minutes in a game
like he did against the Thunder on Sunday. Yes, I want to make
it clear Toppin's core time has been up during Robinson's absence. That doesn't make
this excusable, so that Tims needs to be criticized for not implementing different lineups
or changes elsewhere. Top and Randall remaining breaking case or emergency that receives the
most attention, but nearly ninety percent of Barrett's possessions still come alongside Randall.
That's a problem, and heaven forbid Tims play more than two of his perimeter
youngsters at a time. The Strickland had this very interesting tweet that said,
if you're like me. You probably saw Cam Reddish and Emmanuel quickly defending their
asses off Amiss the chaos, and thought, what would the two of them
look like next to RJ? How could they help him? The trio of
Iq, Reddish and RJ has played four minutes together the entire season. Think
about that. That's the end of the tweet. This ship matters because self
discovery matters. The Knicks are not title contenders right now, They're not even
a playing team. Developing kids and plumbing unproven lineups should be at the top
of their to do list. And yet I will say, while Tims deserves
plenty of the blame, the front office of Leon Rose and his primary decision
makers have not done nearly enough to justify keeping their jobs. Maybe they have
a problem with the way Tibbs coaches the roster. They're also the ones who
assembled it, who rushed to extend Julius Randall after his outlier twenty twenty one
campaign, who gave Evan Fourier three guaranteed years, and who, most recently
and worst of all, continue to give Tibbs a depth chart that allows him
to overindulge his commitment to veterans and rigidity that he disguises his continuity. Armchair
idiots like myself can call for Tibbs's job, and look, if we're being
honest, we know this ends with him losing it. Ian Begley went on
SNY and said that thibodeaus seat is warm, and Ian Begley's is plugged into
the New York Knicks as any one person could be. If he also said,
does per sn why if you have another few of those games on the
upcoming road trip where the Knicks look just terrible, I think there's going to
be a big change made, whether it's Thibodeaux or something else. Tibbs is
not the only problem. He probably isn't even the Knicks' biggest problem. Another
coach could take over and prioritize development or functional flexibility, and that's not going
to rescue the Knicks from the carefully crafted, vague position they're in now.
Jalen Brunson is their best player. Think about that. He's really good.
But you can only go so far as a team when your best player is
maybe a top fifty guy. That's why New York is biding its time to
trade for a superstar, is what people are gonna say, and sham Sharania
just said it. He noted during an appearance on FanDuel TV. Executives around
the league believe that the Knicks are kind of hoarding their first round picks,
just waiting for that next mega star to become available. This theory, though
a titillating headline, is just making fine powder out of a record already broken
down into smithereens. Acquiring a star has supposedly been this front office's plan all
along. They then proceeded to not acquire Donovan Mitchell, a star who wanted
to play in New York. Whether mortgaging the farm for him was the right
call is a separate matter. The Knicks were literally one first round pick away
or a Quentin Grimes away for making it happen, according to Sharrania, In
reality, they're probably better off. The Cleveland Cavaliers were actually one trade away
from imminent, if not instant, title contention. The Knicks were not,
and draining their asset pool could have locked them into just a glitzier looking bubble
of mediocrity that they're drifting within now. But what does that say about New
York that it was prepared to give up so much just to Chase early playoff
exits. I guess is that that Mitchell was the first of multiple stars.
Good luck with that. The superstar trade market, as we've talked about a
lot around these parts, isn't conducive to acquiring more than one anymore. Landing
Mitchell and Rudy Gobert drained draft pick Cachets in Cleveland and Minnesota, respectively.
Ideally, you want at least one star or a future star in place before
you go all in on another. The Knicks don't have that player. They
don't. Barrett is the closest they get to a blue chip cornerstone, and
he's apparently not a lock to play over Evan for Jay when Tips is searching
for life, it is here to me where New York differs from so many
other not good teams. Oklahoma City has its timeline with Shaye Gilgert, Alexander,
Josh Giddy, the injured Jet Homegrin. The Houston Rockets have their timeline
with Jalen Green, Jabari Smith Jr. Alpery, and Shane Goud. The
Magic have Theirs Pallo Bank, Carol Franz, Wagner, Jalen Suggs, Wendell
Carter Jr. The Detroit Pistons have theirs Kay Cunningham, Jane and Ivey,
Jalen Durhan, so on and so forth. It doesn't matter whether you believe
in the long term viability of these young cores. The fact is they and
the possibility they bring exist, and their teams are built around optimizing and prioritizing
their development. The Knicks front office hasn't done that for their young guys.
Worse, they haven't put the team in a position to even find that pull
star prospect. Skirting in actual rebuild, while questionable, this is someone who
wants the Knicks to actually do an overhaul recognize that that they won't it that
idea though. Skirting build does not without merit when you're in the star acquisition
game. But the Knicks don't appear married to that either. Mitchell alone would
not have altered them into contention, but there are maybe five players in the
league who would, and none of them are on the verge of getting dealt.
Meanwhile, the Knicks themselves seem to know they won't stumble into star arrivals
during free agency. Red carpet names aren't leaving the open market anymore, and
we sure as hell know new York's front office hasn't amassed all those first rounders
to draft and develop. Much of this could be forgiven if the Knicks were
at least invested in fully coherently exploring the hand they have now they're not.
We wouldn't be here together as a family discussing another meltdown that wanted for rhyme
and reason. If they were is New York rebuilding? Are they open to
it? Are they devoted to the superstar chase? Are they worried about re
entering the top six of the East first and figuring out the rest later?
Do they aspire to have a charlotte esque monopoly on the nine through eleven seeds?
These are based sick questions, and the inability for New York to answer
them is equal parts maddening and long standing. Fundamental directions are mirrored in how
a franchise is built and managed. Built by Leon Rose, managed by Tom
Thibodeau. These Nicks are the spinning image of an organization that hasn't the faintest
idea of what it's doing or where it's going until next time. I'll leave
you with the shout out to the one, the only, the indelible a
former nick who could have turned everything and anything around Frank Nilikina