Deadline Day

Get ready for some action

Good morning! Get ready for an active day. Whether it’s in one newsletter or two, you’ll have full reaction from me on both the 3pm trade deadline AND tonight’s game in the next 24-48 hours.

As a reminder, I’ll be going live on the KFS YouTube channel at 2pm or whenever the Knicks make a trade, whichever comes first.

(Shameless plug: if you’re not already subscribed to the channel, please do so!)

Game Night

TONIGHT: Mavs at Knicks, 7:30 pm, TNT

Injury Report: If you want to be optimistic, Jalen Brunson’s “questionable” designation is a good sign for tonight. If you want to be pessimistic, you’ll recall that OG Anunoby started out with the same injury status almost two weeks ago, and he’s about to miss his sixth straight game.

Except now there’s a twist, as Anunoby - ruled out a full day before the game for the second time in a row, along with Quentin Grimes, Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson - is now listed as having “bone spur irritation” in his elbow.

Far be it from me to opine on such an injury, but thankfully pro sports injury expert Jeff Stotts did so on his blog. The entire piece is worth a read, but here’s the relevant portion regarding where OG likely stands:

“While bone spurs in the elbow are less common in the NBA, the repetitive motion of shooting a basketball can lead to the development of osteophyte(s) in the joint. Once the bone spur is present, conservative treatment can be utilized to address the accompanying symptoms connected to the issue. Athletes can play with the problem but often require routine maintenance and may report functional limitation. As a result, removing the problematic osteophyte via surgery is often utilized as the best long-term course of treatment. In the NBA, a majority of elbow debridements are carried out in the offseason to allow the time lost to be minimized.

He goes on to note that while in-season surgeries aren’t common, they have been carried out with varying recovery times. According to Stotts, Joe Johnson returned after 19 days while former Knick Bill Walker missed 53 days.

Perhaps most encouraging, Stotts noted that because “Anunoby does not have a history of elbow problems…a return in the near future seems plausible.” He adds:

“It is likely New York uses the next few days and the impending All-Star break to continue their current course of treatment with Anunoby in hopes of controlling his symptoms enough so that he can return to action. Surgery could be an option at some point down the road but it sounds like it is not currently being considered.”

For the Mavs, both Luka and Kyrie are probable, Dante Exum and Dereck Lively II are out, and Maxi Kleber is questionable.

Halftime Zoom: There likely WON’T be a halftime zoom tonight (blame all these Thursday games), but keep an eye on the Substack chat just in case. I’ll message everyone there if I can swing it. If so, here’s the usual link.

What to watch for: Donte DiVincenzo gunning for Wilt’s all time scoring record, perhaps?

Even if Brunson plays, the Knicks will be underdogs, but they’d at least have a fighting chance. Without him, it’s tough to imagine them having enough to beat a Mavs team that remains a bear when at full throttle.

Merch!

Before we get to our last pre-deadline batch of news and rumors, we’re FINALLY making KFS hats available for sale:

You can get them in either light or dark (just click which one you want) and don’t forget to use the promo code!

OK, enough of that. Let’s get to a very busy day of news and rumors, all to set us up for what promises to be an active day ahead…