If you could have written an almost perfect scenario for last night's game, it would have looked very much like last night! When the trade was made, I wasn't thrilled with it because I believed that KAT was soft (this generation's Charles Smith), based on the limited amount of Timber Wolves games I had watched. How wrong was I? Last night, he entered an emotional situation & let it play out perfectly. While JR kept throwing up shots early, taking his teammates completely out of their offense, KAT took his time, kept his emotions in check & proceeded to have another career game! (He's had more than a few of these, hasn't he?) Precious' entry into the starting lineup paid dividends (13 points, 10 rebounds), as he helped combat a big Timber Wolves lineup. (Hopefully ,all is well with Josh & his family. A good sign was that Josh was on Twitter during the game!) The best stat of the night was that the Knicks outrebounded the Timber Wolves 57-37 & won the offensive rebound battle 16-6! Now, onto New Orleans to face an injury ravaged Pelican squad! Let's continue to play our game & not play down to the level of the opponent. (something we've been guilty of recently!)
I was thrilled to see the rebounding margin. It's been among their biggest issues on defense IMO, so to see them come out and dominate the glass against a huge team was so encouraging.
Although Precious was one of the few plus minus minuses last night this was one of the few games where the defenders got to mostly play their natural positions. I think the big beneficiary was Mikal getting to play D against a shooting guard and not a Pg
Don’t want to overreact to one game, but this performance felt important in a lot of ways. As Chris mentioned above, Mikal is bringing some much-needed swag to this team, and I think that’s significant from an identity perspective. Perhaps most important — and I hate to use this term — but the Knicks *bullied* the Wolves into submission in the second quarter. It was the kind of aggressive, take-no-prisoners run we’ve been waiting for. Rarely do we see such beautiful basketball combined with overwhelming grit. That version of the Knicks has me most excited about their prospects moving forward.
Next to the Atlanta Cup game and the opening night game against the Celtics, this is the one I wanted the Knicks to win more than any other game this season.
I knew if the Knicks lost, we’d be subject to every Tom, Dick and Harry writing about how Minnesota won the trade, that Towns sucks and it would be “lol Knicks” for awhile.
Also, I wanted the Knicks to win it for Towns himself. He seems like such a good person, and I know he wanted this one badly, and I was rooting for him to be rewarded.
One other thing. I never understand how the Knicks, playing in the nation’s #1 market, and with fans all over the county never seem to win the NBA all-star voting. Let’s all vote regularly (you can vote once a day) for our guys. https://www.nba.com/allstar/2025.
Brunson and Towns should definitely start and I think OG should too!
Unfortunately OG has been so objectively bad on the offensive end since his 40 point game against Denver that he probably won’t make the all star game, let alone start.
I don't know what happened after the Atlanta game, but I absolutely love the swagger Mikal's been playing with the past couple of games. That's the guy I wanted to trade for.
Julius totally played like a scorned ex trying to prove a point. And the Knicks seemed more than happy to be with KAT.
I couldn't have been more wrong about KAT. I was vehemently against trading for him. I was all for extending Julius. I've really enjoyed watching KAT play this year. I was very impressed by the way he played within himself last night. Everything we did last night felt organic.
Hey Jon, on vacation traveling in Argentina so I wasn’t able to see this game. Was really looking forward to reading today’s newsletter and you did not disappoint! I think this ranks among the best you’ve written. Thanks for the great work!
For about a 5 minute stretch to start the 3rd quarter the offense stalled cause it felt like they were matchup hunting again which to me is the only way to stop this offense - them doing it to themselves. Thankfully that didn't last very long, the ball started moving and it was game over.
Not mentioned at all in here so far, and maybe you got to it on the post-game at some point but man, is it sad watching Donte out there. Dude just looks miserable on the court - this trade really did rip his heart out huh?
My fantasy is that the Knicks figure out a way to re-acquire Donte in this off-season. His best basketball was playing with The Captain as his point guard (see NCAA tournament) and thus I think he is worth more to the Knicks than to another team.
What a great game! When it all comes together like that against a good team, it’s hard not to imagine what this team could look like come Spring. Few thoughts:
- Love what I’m seeing from Mikal. My favorite thing that he does is cut hard to a spot in the midrange and immediately turn and bury the fadeaway. Does anyone else in the NBA C&S from the elbow like this lol? Giving me Rip Hamilton flashbacks. (Nostalgia aside, he’s so hard to guard bc he’s happy to cut and shoot from anywhere.)
- Poor Randle. Was cooking and then got OG’d. Maybe next time, Jules.
- Wanted to shout out Precious + bench — thought everyone gave really great minutes. Precious in the starting lineup was interesting — is this something Thibs should consider? A lot of talk post-game was how it moves OG back to his natural position (as well as giving us insane length), plus it makes keeping Mitch make more sense. Payne, Deuce, Hart, Mitch (or a traded big if health becomes an issue) off the bench. Thoughts?
(I know it’s one game, but I really liked what I saw. Precious doing goggles after diming Bridges might’ve been my favorite non-KAT moment of the game. He’s got some skills that I think the offense could still thrive.)
I feel bad reading that comment about Mikal cutting hard into space because RJ tried it but was always running into a forrest and now they have all this space. Oh well.
Also, I lol'd at "he got OG'd". Gonna steal that one from you.
I think there's too much offensive drop off with Precious, but I could be wrong. Give me DFS in that spot instead. Im sure the Nets are just dying to help us out some more.
I think DFS will definitely be dealt but the Knicks no longer have the assets to overpay for one of the Nets’ players. Regardless, he’d be great on the Knicks!
The vision from the summer (and training camp eve) moves came into focus last night. And Brunson didn’t even have his A game. But I loved the way he ran the squad, setting up Mikal and KAT for success. You’re a better man than me, Jon, because I was looking at my ex (Randle lol) and feeling very glad we had moved on. Early in the game when he took over the Minnesota offense I was cheering him on. “Yes, Julius, keep shooting and ignoring the top ten player on your own team!” Good stuff last night. Deuce and Cam Payne really played great. Precious looked good after a rough start on Randle. This, like the Denver game, felt like a glimpse of what the ceiling can be. Hopefully we can start seeing it more often. I think we will - Mikal and KAT are getting comfortable out there.
The offense that can explode out of nowhere for massive scoring runs showed up again last night. As usual, the team rode it to the finish line, and it completely killed off our opponent in multiple ways. It's a powerful weapon on its own, but when paired with a functional and effective defense… it’s truly something to behold.
Speaking of defense: it’s almost as if people should have been more patient with both the defense and Mikal. They needed time, and time is what we should continue to give them, because the progress has been both clear and undeniable from the start of the season until now!
Finally, the Knicks have beaten the Suns, Wolves, and Nuggets (all on the road) by a combined 69 points. Pretty good.
Patience...what a concept! And I love the way you put it...as long as the defense can be a force for a stretch or 2 every game, that might just be enough given what our offense can do
Couple of observations- Precious size and switch ability makes our defense solid and he generally 'stays home' rather than gamble. I felt bad for Donte who looked lost and seemed to be ignored by the other Timberwolves on offense. Lastly, Knicks are 4th in defense the last 10 games- I think we may be on our way!
I thought Wally brought up a good point in the postgame in that a benefit of starting Precious is that it slides OG down to the 3 and suddenly you have a long starting lineup. I’m not sure Precious is the answer but it makes you wonder if instead of using a 5 to play alongside KAT at the 4, you find a viable 4 for the starting lineup. Isaiah Stewart? His defensive metrics are excellent, although as you’ve noted, he’s not really the three-point threat that he’s sometimes made out to be. Hart could still find a lot of minutes behind OG, Mikal and at the 4. That trade would presumably involve Mitch, but a bench of Payne, Deuce, Hart and Precious is pretty impressive.
I love coming on here and seeing everyone enjoy the win. No mention of the C word anywhere in the comments. Just fans appreciating the evolution and development of the team!
It’s great seeing a better version of the team. While there will certainly be continued bumps in the road ahead as the pieces learn to fit, the vision of the future is pretty damn good. It’s interesting that last January’s home victory over the Wolves, put us all over the moon as to that team’s possibilities. This team’s upside seems higher now.
We can only hope the injury bug stays clear. This is getting exciting.
Agree the upside is higher. Now they just need to be consistent.
And thank you so much Martin. I've made more of an effort to appreciate my lot in life as I've gotten older, but I know I could be a lot better. Happy holidays.
But take a look at the second to last image in this newsletter. Take a look at Ant pointing to 3 wide open shooters as JR has dribbled himself into a double-team. I don't want to rub it in (I was actually rooting for Randle and Donte to have good nights -- OAKAAK!) but I can't express what a relief it is to have Randle's bad habits be someone else's problem. Great guy and TONS of talent, but not our problem anymore.
If you could have written an almost perfect scenario for last night's game, it would have looked very much like last night! When the trade was made, I wasn't thrilled with it because I believed that KAT was soft (this generation's Charles Smith), based on the limited amount of Timber Wolves games I had watched. How wrong was I? Last night, he entered an emotional situation & let it play out perfectly. While JR kept throwing up shots early, taking his teammates completely out of their offense, KAT took his time, kept his emotions in check & proceeded to have another career game! (He's had more than a few of these, hasn't he?) Precious' entry into the starting lineup paid dividends (13 points, 10 rebounds), as he helped combat a big Timber Wolves lineup. (Hopefully ,all is well with Josh & his family. A good sign was that Josh was on Twitter during the game!) The best stat of the night was that the Knicks outrebounded the Timber Wolves 57-37 & won the offensive rebound battle 16-6! Now, onto New Orleans to face an injury ravaged Pelican squad! Let's continue to play our game & not play down to the level of the opponent. (something we've been guilty of recently!)
I was thrilled to see the rebounding margin. It's been among their biggest issues on defense IMO, so to see them come out and dominate the glass against a huge team was so encouraging.
Although Precious was one of the few plus minus minuses last night this was one of the few games where the defenders got to mostly play their natural positions. I think the big beneficiary was Mikal getting to play D against a shooting guard and not a Pg
Same here, Bill. I invoked the name Charles Smith as well. So glad to be wrong
NGL. I had to Google Charles Smith. I blame PTSD
Don’t want to overreact to one game, but this performance felt important in a lot of ways. As Chris mentioned above, Mikal is bringing some much-needed swag to this team, and I think that’s significant from an identity perspective. Perhaps most important — and I hate to use this term — but the Knicks *bullied* the Wolves into submission in the second quarter. It was the kind of aggressive, take-no-prisoners run we’ve been waiting for. Rarely do we see such beautiful basketball combined with overwhelming grit. That version of the Knicks has me most excited about their prospects moving forward.
Hey, take it from a teacher...when bullying happens, it should be called out, and that was absolutely some bully stuff!
Next to the Atlanta Cup game and the opening night game against the Celtics, this is the one I wanted the Knicks to win more than any other game this season.
I knew if the Knicks lost, we’d be subject to every Tom, Dick and Harry writing about how Minnesota won the trade, that Towns sucks and it would be “lol Knicks” for awhile.
Also, I wanted the Knicks to win it for Towns himself. He seems like such a good person, and I know he wanted this one badly, and I was rooting for him to be rewarded.
One other thing. I never understand how the Knicks, playing in the nation’s #1 market, and with fans all over the county never seem to win the NBA all-star voting. Let’s all vote regularly (you can vote once a day) for our guys. https://www.nba.com/allstar/2025.
Brunson and Towns should definitely start and I think OG should too!
Brunson and Towns will, I'd guess. OG I'm hoping gets some support but I think it will be an uphill battle for him to make the team
Unfortunately OG has been so objectively bad on the offensive end since his 40 point game against Denver that he probably won’t make the all star game, let alone start.
I don't know what happened after the Atlanta game, but I absolutely love the swagger Mikal's been playing with the past couple of games. That's the guy I wanted to trade for.
Julius totally played like a scorned ex trying to prove a point. And the Knicks seemed more than happy to be with KAT.
I couldn't have been more wrong about KAT. I was vehemently against trading for him. I was all for extending Julius. I've really enjoyed watching KAT play this year. I was very impressed by the way he played within himself last night. Everything we did last night felt organic.
It's like he's a different guy. Amazing stuff.
Hey Jon, on vacation traveling in Argentina so I wasn’t able to see this game. Was really looking forward to reading today’s newsletter and you did not disappoint! I think this ranks among the best you’ve written. Thanks for the great work!
Man thank you so much Neil. Hope your travels are going well! Would love to get to Argentina some day.
It’s fantastic!
For about a 5 minute stretch to start the 3rd quarter the offense stalled cause it felt like they were matchup hunting again which to me is the only way to stop this offense - them doing it to themselves. Thankfully that didn't last very long, the ball started moving and it was game over.
Not mentioned at all in here so far, and maybe you got to it on the post-game at some point but man, is it sad watching Donte out there. Dude just looks miserable on the court - this trade really did rip his heart out huh?
I could not BELIEVE he was out there with the scrubs to close the game. Sad.
I thought Finch was being cruel to Donte. How embarrassing was that for Finch to do that in front of Donte’s former teammates?
My fantasy is that the Knicks figure out a way to re-acquire Donte in this off-season. His best basketball was playing with The Captain as his point guard (see NCAA tournament) and thus I think he is worth more to the Knicks than to another team.
What a great game! When it all comes together like that against a good team, it’s hard not to imagine what this team could look like come Spring. Few thoughts:
- Love what I’m seeing from Mikal. My favorite thing that he does is cut hard to a spot in the midrange and immediately turn and bury the fadeaway. Does anyone else in the NBA C&S from the elbow like this lol? Giving me Rip Hamilton flashbacks. (Nostalgia aside, he’s so hard to guard bc he’s happy to cut and shoot from anywhere.)
- Poor Randle. Was cooking and then got OG’d. Maybe next time, Jules.
- Wanted to shout out Precious + bench — thought everyone gave really great minutes. Precious in the starting lineup was interesting — is this something Thibs should consider? A lot of talk post-game was how it moves OG back to his natural position (as well as giving us insane length), plus it makes keeping Mitch make more sense. Payne, Deuce, Hart, Mitch (or a traded big if health becomes an issue) off the bench. Thoughts?
(I know it’s one game, but I really liked what I saw. Precious doing goggles after diming Bridges might’ve been my favorite non-KAT moment of the game. He’s got some skills that I think the offense could still thrive.)
I feel bad reading that comment about Mikal cutting hard into space because RJ tried it but was always running into a forrest and now they have all this space. Oh well.
Also, I lol'd at "he got OG'd". Gonna steal that one from you.
I think there's too much offensive drop off with Precious, but I could be wrong. Give me DFS in that spot instead. Im sure the Nets are just dying to help us out some more.
I think DFS will definitely be dealt but the Knicks no longer have the assets to overpay for one of the Nets’ players. Regardless, he’d be great on the Knicks!
The vision from the summer (and training camp eve) moves came into focus last night. And Brunson didn’t even have his A game. But I loved the way he ran the squad, setting up Mikal and KAT for success. You’re a better man than me, Jon, because I was looking at my ex (Randle lol) and feeling very glad we had moved on. Early in the game when he took over the Minnesota offense I was cheering him on. “Yes, Julius, keep shooting and ignoring the top ten player on your own team!” Good stuff last night. Deuce and Cam Payne really played great. Precious looked good after a rough start on Randle. This, like the Denver game, felt like a glimpse of what the ceiling can be. Hopefully we can start seeing it more often. I think we will - Mikal and KAT are getting comfortable out there.
The offense that can explode out of nowhere for massive scoring runs showed up again last night. As usual, the team rode it to the finish line, and it completely killed off our opponent in multiple ways. It's a powerful weapon on its own, but when paired with a functional and effective defense… it’s truly something to behold.
Speaking of defense: it’s almost as if people should have been more patient with both the defense and Mikal. They needed time, and time is what we should continue to give them, because the progress has been both clear and undeniable from the start of the season until now!
Finally, the Knicks have beaten the Suns, Wolves, and Nuggets (all on the road) by a combined 69 points. Pretty good.
Patience...what a concept! And I love the way you put it...as long as the defense can be a force for a stretch or 2 every game, that might just be enough given what our offense can do
It's the two steps forward one step back that drives folks wild instead of a step forward everyday daily improvement mantra that Thibs preaches
Great game
Fantastic to see we can with with Jalen not having a great game
I'm not sure I've seen a 32 points on 12 shots level of efficiency before like KAT showed last night
Even played the end of bench guys. Literally nothing to complain about today.
Not unnoticed by Thibs- Payne was a plus 26 in 6 1st half minutes.
Couple of observations- Precious size and switch ability makes our defense solid and he generally 'stays home' rather than gamble. I felt bad for Donte who looked lost and seemed to be ignored by the other Timberwolves on offense. Lastly, Knicks are 4th in defense the last 10 games- I think we may be on our way!
Borderline top 10 offense since opening night.
And I also like Precious' size/switchability on D, it's just a matter of making him something other than a complete afterthought on offense
I thought Wally brought up a good point in the postgame in that a benefit of starting Precious is that it slides OG down to the 3 and suddenly you have a long starting lineup. I’m not sure Precious is the answer but it makes you wonder if instead of using a 5 to play alongside KAT at the 4, you find a viable 4 for the starting lineup. Isaiah Stewart? His defensive metrics are excellent, although as you’ve noted, he’s not really the three-point threat that he’s sometimes made out to be. Hart could still find a lot of minutes behind OG, Mikal and at the 4. That trade would presumably involve Mitch, but a bench of Payne, Deuce, Hart and Precious is pretty impressive.
Also Mikal got to play against a SG instead of a PG. both were in their more natural positions.
If Precious can develop a three point shot ATB and at the corners, that will be a lot of fun
I love coming on here and seeing everyone enjoy the win. No mention of the C word anywhere in the comments. Just fans appreciating the evolution and development of the team!
Same. Although I have no earthly clue what C word you speak of.
Which ones? Cheeks, Clank, Carmelo, Clutchless, Chaotic, Cam, Clyde, Cash, Choklyn, Curry, Caruso?
It’s great seeing a better version of the team. While there will certainly be continued bumps in the road ahead as the pieces learn to fit, the vision of the future is pretty damn good. It’s interesting that last January’s home victory over the Wolves, put us all over the moon as to that team’s possibilities. This team’s upside seems higher now.
We can only hope the injury bug stays clear. This is getting exciting.
PS, you are a lucky young man Mr Macri.
Agree the upside is higher. Now they just need to be consistent.
And thank you so much Martin. I've made more of an effort to appreciate my lot in life as I've gotten older, but I know I could be a lot better. Happy holidays.
During your bartending days, was your name "Julius Randle"?
Ha. No. But when I used to DJ, one of my managers gave me the nickname Johnny Jams and it stuck for quite some time.
There was no part of that that wasn't fun!
But take a look at the second to last image in this newsletter. Take a look at Ant pointing to 3 wide open shooters as JR has dribbled himself into a double-team. I don't want to rub it in (I was actually rooting for Randle and Donte to have good nights -- OAKAAK!) but I can't express what a relief it is to have Randle's bad habits be someone else's problem. Great guy and TONS of talent, but not our problem anymore.