Jon, I can't thank you enough for your hard work and tireless efforts all season long. In all aspects of KFS, you not only lead the ship, you helped calibrate the mood. No matter how upset you might get, no matter how bad things got with the team, you would always try to reach out and find a positive, sometimes in a sea of negatives. You defended the coach against the pervasive and ultimately useless calls from fans to fire him, which the obviously were never going to do this year. Luckily for you, Thibs, and anyone sharing your point of view, Hashtag using, keyboard warriors don't and will never dictate to any Front office what there moves should be.
That's not to say he hasn't earned a fair share of criticism for the season, he certainly has. Which brings me to my 2nd point. Most of, not all, but most of the halftime Zoom participants are the best, least reactionary Knicks fans that you'll find anywhere. So if you are reading this, cheers to you guys. Whether you hated Thibs, hated Randle, etc etc, the Zoom crowd/i.e Newsletter crowd, was the the most articulate, most nuanced, and most fun bunch of Knicks fans I've met. Diverse opinions, but 99.9% nice and respectful folks. I think that also speaks to those who actually read, and read more than Twitter/Reddit sized chunks of text. A more intellectual crowd for sure. Shout out to Ray, Kevin, Shawn, George, Dean, and the rest of the Zoom regulars, you guys made this season way more fun than it would've been otherwise. I feel fortunate and grateful to know you all.
Lastly, while these articles were great last season, but I feel as though this season your writing has reached new peaks,and new depths, and I'm sincerely grateful to get to see another artist improving their craft, and I think you should be proud of all your hard work. Thank you for everything Jon, let's hope for a productive off-season! LGK
The amount of spin and damage control the MSG announcers were doing in last nights game was annoying. One statement during the broadcast was basically, fans are wrong to complain about Randle blocking Toppin's chances to play. Clyde argued that they can play together, which was nonsense as we just watched a whole season where that didn't happen.
Jon, I've just gone into isolation due to COVID rules in Australia. The Knicks game was on at 9am this morning. It was a real boost. Going to be a boring week but knowing Obi and IQ have so much in the tank for next year and beyond is super exciting. Thanks for another terrific year of newsletters 🧡💙 #giddyup
First, I will echo those who talk about the great work you did this year.
Second, the one thing this roster lacks is someone who can create offense when defenses clamp down. That is one reason we lost so often in the fourth quarter. The prior year, we had Rose and Randle. This year, a less effective Randle and a not very efficient RJ.
As much of a joy as it was to watch Obi and IQ over the last ten or so games, I don't think they fit that mold (IQ's stinkers in the last stretch came against teams with something to play for--Brooklyn for example).
The roster is deep in quality at every position (except center if we do not resign Mitch) so it almost does not matter which position that creator plays (even Center as Denver and Philadelphia demonstrate). But they continue to need someone with the gravity to move the defense so that the Obis and IQs can take advantage.
If they trade IQ or Toppin, I will be done with this team. They need to be playing 30 minutes a game, one way or the other. The reality is that Thibs and Randal can’t stay - their codependency is a real detriment. One or the other needs to go
Thank goodness the season is over. And I say that not just because of their poor record, or how disappointing this year was coming a really fun season last year. No, I say that because Thibs was maybe the most frustrating coach I’ve watched in my Knicks-rooting history. The man had two sets of rules, one for Randle and one for the rest of the league; he sat players who absolutely deserved more time in Quickley and Obi; and he gave little to no shot to Grimes but when he finally put him in, Grimes proved he belonged and then completely ignoring what appeared to be a young player needing minutes to an older player, playing out of position and this was even past the point of the games meaning anything.
I have three desires for this upcoming offseason, not in any order of priority:
1. Fire Thibs. He has proven to be too rigid in his thinking, and almost took pleasure in playing the older players more than the young even when it made zero sense.
2. For the love of all that is good in this world, trade Randle. Put aside his war with the fans, or his miserable body language, he was a very bad basketball player and one who, turned his anger at playing poorly against Knick fans.
3. Damn, get a real PG. Quickley can play it in spots but his role should be the instant energy off the bench playing both the #1 and #2 slots. Go get Brunson. He is the perfect team oriented, low ego, solid player who could be sixth-man of the year.
What happens in this off-season will define the Rose/WWW administration and will likely be the their last shot at remaining in their jobs.
Jon, I can't thank you enough for your hard work and tireless efforts all season long. In all aspects of KFS, you not only lead the ship, you helped calibrate the mood. No matter how upset you might get, no matter how bad things got with the team, you would always try to reach out and find a positive, sometimes in a sea of negatives. You defended the coach against the pervasive and ultimately useless calls from fans to fire him, which the obviously were never going to do this year. Luckily for you, Thibs, and anyone sharing your point of view, Hashtag using, keyboard warriors don't and will never dictate to any Front office what there moves should be.
That's not to say he hasn't earned a fair share of criticism for the season, he certainly has. Which brings me to my 2nd point. Most of, not all, but most of the halftime Zoom participants are the best, least reactionary Knicks fans that you'll find anywhere. So if you are reading this, cheers to you guys. Whether you hated Thibs, hated Randle, etc etc, the Zoom crowd/i.e Newsletter crowd, was the the most articulate, most nuanced, and most fun bunch of Knicks fans I've met. Diverse opinions, but 99.9% nice and respectful folks. I think that also speaks to those who actually read, and read more than Twitter/Reddit sized chunks of text. A more intellectual crowd for sure. Shout out to Ray, Kevin, Shawn, George, Dean, and the rest of the Zoom regulars, you guys made this season way more fun than it would've been otherwise. I feel fortunate and grateful to know you all.
Lastly, while these articles were great last season, but I feel as though this season your writing has reached new peaks,and new depths, and I'm sincerely grateful to get to see another artist improving their craft, and I think you should be proud of all your hard work. Thank you for everything Jon, let's hope for a productive off-season! LGK
The amount of spin and damage control the MSG announcers were doing in last nights game was annoying. One statement during the broadcast was basically, fans are wrong to complain about Randle blocking Toppin's chances to play. Clyde argued that they can play together, which was nonsense as we just watched a whole season where that didn't happen.
Jon, I've just gone into isolation due to COVID rules in Australia. The Knicks game was on at 9am this morning. It was a real boost. Going to be a boring week but knowing Obi and IQ have so much in the tank for next year and beyond is super exciting. Thanks for another terrific year of newsletters 🧡💙 #giddyup
Thank you so much for your hard work, insights and great sense of humor- a must for Knick fans.
First, I will echo those who talk about the great work you did this year.
Second, the one thing this roster lacks is someone who can create offense when defenses clamp down. That is one reason we lost so often in the fourth quarter. The prior year, we had Rose and Randle. This year, a less effective Randle and a not very efficient RJ.
As much of a joy as it was to watch Obi and IQ over the last ten or so games, I don't think they fit that mold (IQ's stinkers in the last stretch came against teams with something to play for--Brooklyn for example).
The roster is deep in quality at every position (except center if we do not resign Mitch) so it almost does not matter which position that creator plays (even Center as Denver and Philadelphia demonstrate). But they continue to need someone with the gravity to move the defense so that the Obis and IQs can take advantage.
Just wanted to say thanks to you and everyone involved for all the great content this year.
You make the season much more enjoyable as a fan
If they trade IQ or Toppin, I will be done with this team. They need to be playing 30 minutes a game, one way or the other. The reality is that Thibs and Randal can’t stay - their codependency is a real detriment. One or the other needs to go
Thank goodness the season is over. And I say that not just because of their poor record, or how disappointing this year was coming a really fun season last year. No, I say that because Thibs was maybe the most frustrating coach I’ve watched in my Knicks-rooting history. The man had two sets of rules, one for Randle and one for the rest of the league; he sat players who absolutely deserved more time in Quickley and Obi; and he gave little to no shot to Grimes but when he finally put him in, Grimes proved he belonged and then completely ignoring what appeared to be a young player needing minutes to an older player, playing out of position and this was even past the point of the games meaning anything.
I have three desires for this upcoming offseason, not in any order of priority:
1. Fire Thibs. He has proven to be too rigid in his thinking, and almost took pleasure in playing the older players more than the young even when it made zero sense.
2. For the love of all that is good in this world, trade Randle. Put aside his war with the fans, or his miserable body language, he was a very bad basketball player and one who, turned his anger at playing poorly against Knick fans.
3. Damn, get a real PG. Quickley can play it in spots but his role should be the instant energy off the bench playing both the #1 and #2 slots. Go get Brunson. He is the perfect team oriented, low ego, solid player who could be sixth-man of the year.
What happens in this off-season will define the Rose/WWW administration and will likely be the their last shot at remaining in their jobs.