That summer when we didn’t get DM and for the entire season that pursued, all we heard about was “from national media” we we don’t have DM so it doesn’t matter but if you actually watched our games we were all realizing that JB was so so so legit. Playoff came and same agenda… we didn’t have Dm…. How that end up? It’s funny to look back at it now and how quickly people forget that was the mainstream opinion. Brunson was a revelation and game after game he just kept showing us all that he was something we had never seen before. He took control of the team even though Randle thought it was his but very quickly we all knew this was JB team. ….. what a time and what a feeling. Thank you Macri, Andrew and all you guys! Have always respected your opinions and analysis. Been following KFS since Jeff ran it. And I lived out in Thailand this entire time. Cheers guys. Let’s get to the past this round and then you never f’ing know.
Hey Sam, just had to say thanks for being such a long time follower! Definitely been a journey since the days of the Ron Baker videos lol. Would like to think we're making Jeff proud now.
Anyone else notice Brunson did not get a single MVP vote while Cade and Jalen Brown got some 1st to 3rd Place votes and DM got a single 5th Place vote.
I know it’s a regular season award, but I honestly believe the level of motivation for teams playing the Knicks (even tanking teams like the Pacers) and playing in MSG hurt the Knick win total limiting Brunson attention.
Knicks in 6 (or another Sweep if we can shake off the rust Tuesday in MSG)
It will be a war with Knicks winning in seven games. Too many people look at James Harden as a sieve and the ball dominate Mitchell as a flawed superstar but the Cavs have seasoned playoff performers and can light it up when necessary.
Tonight’s game is a must and Thursday’s game a near must. Protect home court at all costs.
Pistons: Not ready for prime time. When they won game 6 I thought that THEY thought they had it in the bag. That’s why I’m not surprised Cleveland beat them. The Pistons don’t understand playoff basketball.
The Cavs never really have either, but they may have finally figured something out, so the Knicks will have to be on their toes.
3 years ago, I saw the Knicks and Cavs as the two young rising teams in the East. I remember being a little disappointed that the Knicks drew them in round 1 because, while I wanted to beat the Cavs, I also wanted the Cavs and the Knicks to knock off more established teams and have a showdown later in the playoffs.
Well the Cavs have been playoff droppers in the intervening years, so much so that I actually feel bad for them. So, good for them that they’ve finally made the ECF, though they’ve barely got by two underwhelming teams. They have won two game 7s, which is more than I can say about this Knicks team!
I’m sure they would love to get revenge for 3 years ago and punch an unlikely ticket to the finals. Unfortunately they ran into us, and we simply cannot be allowing that.
The Cavs are probably feeling good and confident and that counts for something. They have a lot of talented guys, and continuity. I don’t think the Knicks will sweep them, but barring multiple major injuries I think the Knicks will handle them.
We all remember how nauseating it was that we did not get Donovan MITCHELL but quite frankly if you had asked me in January whom I wanted to play between these two it clearly would've been Cleveland. If I was a Cleveland fan I would be as nauseated of the prospect of playing a consistent Knick team as we were nauseated last month when we couldn't figure out which end was up on certain nights. We have figured it out. When I say we ; we are the collective nation including BROWN who has now put together the team that we can win the eastern conference and even to win the finals. I didn't watch the whole game last night but watching all the other games of Cleveland Detroit I would be scared out of my pants of the knick consistency. So the mantra for us is simply this. Consistency ; play our own game and we will beat them handily. Play Stupid and we lose.
As my friend Arthur reminds me as to why I watch every single giant game number. My response is always because it's Sunday. How do I not watch the Giants. It's a religion of misery.
Until you said you were Mets fan I used to like you. Just kidding. We're all part of the Knicks and I was at the Buckner game rooting for them. Anyone but the Red Sox
I watched the Buckner game on October 25th from Hawaii where I had stopped on my way to Australia in order to watch Giants Redskins on October 27. That also happened to be game 7 of the World Series and I will lose some respect for you if you did not focus on the Giants instead. joe Morris had a particularly good game.
I don't think there are any mysteries to this series. The Knicks-for-Clicks Industrial Complex will tell us that Mobley has found a new dimension to his game, that Donovan Mitchell has grown as a player, that Jarrett Allen is a problem, that Max Strus is going to destroy them from three, and that the Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers were not a fair comparison or an adequate test for the Orange and Blue (after proclaiming Hawks in 6 or Sixers in 6).
Our boys know what they need to do. They need to be focused, they need to be on point. They need to play defense on a string, and not sag off the three point shooters. They need to play flexibly, with ball and player movement on offense, because you can have an off shooting night, but shooting variance on backdoor dunks tends to be pretty low.
They need to be ruthless. They need to be relentless. Then we don't need to worry about Brunson being a savior in the fourth quarter, because the third team will be mopping up during garbage time. We know that one team can keep the Knicks out of the NBA Finals, and that team is the New York Knicks. The dark princes of inconsistency in the 2025-2026 season need to stay locked in, not play with their food or just assume that they own the Cavs, mind their p's and q's, and play with each other and for each other.
They have shown us they can do this eight times. We need eight more. I know of no better way to jinx this team than to predict a sweep or gentleman's sweep, but we all know what's possible. #62WinsDown8ToGo #70Wins #YesTheNBACupFinalCounts #LFGK
I think the key part of the series will be how we handle Mobley guarding KAT and Allen roaming off Hart. In the last game we played against them, KAT only took 5 shots and that is not an accident. Presumably they will need to have Harden on OG so that's a matchup you need to poke at with off-ball actions as much as possible to get OG the ball deep in the paint.
I do think this should be a heavy double bigs series for us though. If the Cavs are going to look to keep Mobley on KAT, we should be able to punish them on the glass with 2 centers, also pretty comfortable with KAT guarding Mobley with Mitch on the backline.
Ultimately we are bigger than the Cavs and they have no one for Brunson (with all due respect to Dean Wade guarding him well hwre and there). We should win this series.
I think Allen might be a little too slow for KAT who also has a size advantage, could be a little too overmatched guarding the Brunson/KAT two man game. I'm sure we might see it if things start going badly for the Cavs though
I was reading the game and post-game threads on the r/NBA reddit and have decided the internet was a mistake. Pack it up eveyone. Every comment was awful... including the infiltrating Knicks fans!
Having watched the entirety of the pistons, Cavs series. I can’t say either played well. They played hard, that might be worrisome to me. But , if the Knicks meet there effort we should handle Cleveland. As if they were called the Hawks, or 76er’s.
Can we take 10 seconds to laugh at the Detroit Pistons?
Now that that's out of the way... I know we like to joke about the Cavs playoff track record and "The lights were brighter than expected." But I have to give them a ton of credit for winning that series the way they did. The last thing I expected was Cleveland of all teams winning two on the road, including a 30-point blowout in a Game 7, to get to the ECF. I didn't think they had that in them. That was impressive.
I wanted Cleveland to win for a few reasons (home court for us, no Ausar on Jalen), but I know better than to think they're just gonna be pushovers. It's gonna take more than the MSG lights to win this series. And I know if we play our game, we will. Game 1 last year has to be eating at our guys. They just got a gift from the basketball gods to atone for that. Home court in the ECF for the second year in a row. Don't mess it up this time.
I didn’t watch the watch along so I don’t know if GMAC laughed at Detroit during the game. But I saw he tweeted the Letter of the Day song with #DetroitBasketball. That made me smile
Well, this didn't go as I expected, but it was what I wanted. I wanted the Cavs for a variety of reasons, starting with the rust vs. rest argument. Getting the opportunity to start the series at MSG, in front of the greatest fans in the world, should wipe out any mental rust they might have had. Watching Harden dribble aimlessly throughout the game, brought a smile to my face. I said before, the Cavs are a worse team since they added him. Keeping the ball in his hands & not Mitchell's is always a plus. They looked strong against a Pistons team that forgot to show up in a Game #7, but their inconsistencies throughout that series have been their only consistency. I don't expect to see the Game #7 Cavs against the Knicks. And, we have a team in the Cavs that has problems hitting their foul shots. They shot 64% (28-44) last night & were consistently bad throughout the series. They only had 11 turnovers last night, but TOs were a major problem for them throughout the series. Even Mitchell was inconsistent throughout the series. As long as the Knicks continue to play close to the level they have been, I see the Knicks taking this series in 5, 6 the most! Root for those Spurs tonight! AlwaysKnicks/ForeverNewYork
Don finally leaning into being a playmaker was huge. He was beating his man off the dribble consistently, getting into the paint and dishing to his bigs who looked phenomenal. Definitely looked like a different team last night that, if they continue to play that way, might be much tougher than we thought. Tmrw will be a weird game after so much time off for us and almost none for them. Let’s hope we come out with the requisite energy to make up for last years Game 1 and look like the much fresher team
Bench advantage —> Knicks. Like how well we match up with the bench.
How do you feel about Hart on Mitchell and Bridges on Harden? Or is Mitchell a little too quick with his first move for Hart? I worry about Harden foul baiting on Hart…
All in all, we are in the drivers seat here. Bring the same physicality and focus from R2 and we should be good. Excited to dive into the matchup and finally get back to playing basketball !!
We were discussing those very matchups last night, and Benjy made a good point about Hart's strength being good to throw at Mitchell, and Mikal on Harden because he never fouls.
It’s kinda simple for me. It feels like James Harden is gonna be guarding OG for much of the series, if only by process of elimination. If OG is playing anything close to how he played offensively pre-injury, we should be able to win. That said, OG may not have the clear driving lanes he’s had for much of the playoffs.
That summer when we didn’t get DM and for the entire season that pursued, all we heard about was “from national media” we we don’t have DM so it doesn’t matter but if you actually watched our games we were all realizing that JB was so so so legit. Playoff came and same agenda… we didn’t have Dm…. How that end up? It’s funny to look back at it now and how quickly people forget that was the mainstream opinion. Brunson was a revelation and game after game he just kept showing us all that he was something we had never seen before. He took control of the team even though Randle thought it was his but very quickly we all knew this was JB team. ….. what a time and what a feeling. Thank you Macri, Andrew and all you guys! Have always respected your opinions and analysis. Been following KFS since Jeff ran it. And I lived out in Thailand this entire time. Cheers guys. Let’s get to the past this round and then you never f’ing know.
Hey Sam, just had to say thanks for being such a long time follower! Definitely been a journey since the days of the Ron Baker videos lol. Would like to think we're making Jeff proud now.
The thing is, at the time, Brunson already had a track record of besting Mitchell IN THE PLAYOFFS!
Anyone else notice Brunson did not get a single MVP vote while Cade and Jalen Brown got some 1st to 3rd Place votes and DM got a single 5th Place vote.
I know it’s a regular season award, but I honestly believe the level of motivation for teams playing the Knicks (even tanking teams like the Pacers) and playing in MSG hurt the Knick win total limiting Brunson attention.
Knicks in 6 (or another Sweep if we can shake off the rust Tuesday in MSG)
Go NY, Go NY, Go
🏀🏀🏀
It will be a war with Knicks winning in seven games. Too many people look at James Harden as a sieve and the ball dominate Mitchell as a flawed superstar but the Cavs have seasoned playoff performers and can light it up when necessary.
Tonight’s game is a must and Thursday’s game a near must. Protect home court at all costs.
CAN. NOT. WAIT! Knicks in 5.
Pistons: Not ready for prime time. When they won game 6 I thought that THEY thought they had it in the bag. That’s why I’m not surprised Cleveland beat them. The Pistons don’t understand playoff basketball.
The Cavs never really have either, but they may have finally figured something out, so the Knicks will have to be on their toes.
3 years ago, I saw the Knicks and Cavs as the two young rising teams in the East. I remember being a little disappointed that the Knicks drew them in round 1 because, while I wanted to beat the Cavs, I also wanted the Cavs and the Knicks to knock off more established teams and have a showdown later in the playoffs.
Well the Cavs have been playoff droppers in the intervening years, so much so that I actually feel bad for them. So, good for them that they’ve finally made the ECF, though they’ve barely got by two underwhelming teams. They have won two game 7s, which is more than I can say about this Knicks team!
I’m sure they would love to get revenge for 3 years ago and punch an unlikely ticket to the finals. Unfortunately they ran into us, and we simply cannot be allowing that.
The Cavs are probably feeling good and confident and that counts for something. They have a lot of talented guys, and continuity. I don’t think the Knicks will sweep them, but barring multiple major injuries I think the Knicks will handle them.
We all remember how nauseating it was that we did not get Donovan MITCHELL but quite frankly if you had asked me in January whom I wanted to play between these two it clearly would've been Cleveland. If I was a Cleveland fan I would be as nauseated of the prospect of playing a consistent Knick team as we were nauseated last month when we couldn't figure out which end was up on certain nights. We have figured it out. When I say we ; we are the collective nation including BROWN who has now put together the team that we can win the eastern conference and even to win the finals. I didn't watch the whole game last night but watching all the other games of Cleveland Detroit I would be scared out of my pants of the knick consistency. So the mantra for us is simply this. Consistency ; play our own game and we will beat them handily. Play Stupid and we lose.
I was relieved we didn’t get Mitchell because I think it would have been a mistake to give up all those assets for him.
We ended up using those assets to get OG and Mikal. And the scoring guard we have is more consistent and more clutch.
I like Mitchell - he’s a Met fan and a good dude. Knicks dodged a bullet though.
As my friend Arthur reminds me as to why I watch every single giant game number. My response is always because it's Sunday. How do I not watch the Giants. It's a religion of misery.
Until you said you were Mets fan I used to like you. Just kidding. We're all part of the Knicks and I was at the Buckner game rooting for them. Anyone but the Red Sox
I watched the Buckner game on October 25th from Hawaii where I had stopped on my way to Australia in order to watch Giants Redskins on October 27. That also happened to be game 7 of the World Series and I will lose some respect for you if you did not focus on the Giants instead. joe Morris had a particularly good game.
I don't think there are any mysteries to this series. The Knicks-for-Clicks Industrial Complex will tell us that Mobley has found a new dimension to his game, that Donovan Mitchell has grown as a player, that Jarrett Allen is a problem, that Max Strus is going to destroy them from three, and that the Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers were not a fair comparison or an adequate test for the Orange and Blue (after proclaiming Hawks in 6 or Sixers in 6).
Our boys know what they need to do. They need to be focused, they need to be on point. They need to play defense on a string, and not sag off the three point shooters. They need to play flexibly, with ball and player movement on offense, because you can have an off shooting night, but shooting variance on backdoor dunks tends to be pretty low.
They need to be ruthless. They need to be relentless. Then we don't need to worry about Brunson being a savior in the fourth quarter, because the third team will be mopping up during garbage time. We know that one team can keep the Knicks out of the NBA Finals, and that team is the New York Knicks. The dark princes of inconsistency in the 2025-2026 season need to stay locked in, not play with their food or just assume that they own the Cavs, mind their p's and q's, and play with each other and for each other.
They have shown us they can do this eight times. We need eight more. I know of no better way to jinx this team than to predict a sweep or gentleman's sweep, but we all know what's possible. #62WinsDown8ToGo #70Wins #YesTheNBACupFinalCounts #LFGK
I think the key part of the series will be how we handle Mobley guarding KAT and Allen roaming off Hart. In the last game we played against them, KAT only took 5 shots and that is not an accident. Presumably they will need to have Harden on OG so that's a matchup you need to poke at with off-ball actions as much as possible to get OG the ball deep in the paint.
I do think this should be a heavy double bigs series for us though. If the Cavs are going to look to keep Mobley on KAT, we should be able to punish them on the glass with 2 centers, also pretty comfortable with KAT guarding Mobley with Mitch on the backline.
Ultimately we are bigger than the Cavs and they have no one for Brunson (with all due respect to Dean Wade guarding him well hwre and there). We should win this series.
Am I crazy to think Cleveland should put Allen on KAT to let Mobley muck up off-ball actions?
I think Allen might be a little too slow for KAT who also has a size advantage, could be a little too overmatched guarding the Brunson/KAT two man game. I'm sure we might see it if things start going badly for the Cavs though
I was reading the game and post-game threads on the r/NBA reddit and have decided the internet was a mistake. Pack it up eveyone. Every comment was awful... including the infiltrating Knicks fans!
The problem with the Internet is that it’s made by people
Having watched the entirety of the pistons, Cavs series. I can’t say either played well. They played hard, that might be worrisome to me. But , if the Knicks meet there effort we should handle Cleveland. As if they were called the Hawks, or 76er’s.
IDK that the Cavs played hard all the time. SOme of the time. But smart? Even less.
Can we take 10 seconds to laugh at the Detroit Pistons?
Now that that's out of the way... I know we like to joke about the Cavs playoff track record and "The lights were brighter than expected." But I have to give them a ton of credit for winning that series the way they did. The last thing I expected was Cleveland of all teams winning two on the road, including a 30-point blowout in a Game 7, to get to the ECF. I didn't think they had that in them. That was impressive.
I wanted Cleveland to win for a few reasons (home court for us, no Ausar on Jalen), but I know better than to think they're just gonna be pushovers. It's gonna take more than the MSG lights to win this series. And I know if we play our game, we will. Game 1 last year has to be eating at our guys. They just got a gift from the basketball gods to atone for that. Home court in the ECF for the second year in a row. Don't mess it up this time.
Out of curiosity, did we get GMAC to laugh at the Pistons during the hatewatch? Because even though we didn't play them, I could use one of those.
he came on afterwards to do exactly that :)
I didn’t watch the watch along so I don’t know if GMAC laughed at Detroit during the game. But I saw he tweeted the Letter of the Day song with #DetroitBasketball. That made me smile
He did during the second half watchalong, starting at about 49:55. https://www.youtube.com/live/bItaMpGoRnQ?si=eC5-GPmVFidy0nTF&t=2995 Gives me life.
Well, this didn't go as I expected, but it was what I wanted. I wanted the Cavs for a variety of reasons, starting with the rust vs. rest argument. Getting the opportunity to start the series at MSG, in front of the greatest fans in the world, should wipe out any mental rust they might have had. Watching Harden dribble aimlessly throughout the game, brought a smile to my face. I said before, the Cavs are a worse team since they added him. Keeping the ball in his hands & not Mitchell's is always a plus. They looked strong against a Pistons team that forgot to show up in a Game #7, but their inconsistencies throughout that series have been their only consistency. I don't expect to see the Game #7 Cavs against the Knicks. And, we have a team in the Cavs that has problems hitting their foul shots. They shot 64% (28-44) last night & were consistently bad throughout the series. They only had 11 turnovers last night, but TOs were a major problem for them throughout the series. Even Mitchell was inconsistent throughout the series. As long as the Knicks continue to play close to the level they have been, I see the Knicks taking this series in 5, 6 the most! Root for those Spurs tonight! AlwaysKnicks/ForeverNewYork
Don finally leaning into being a playmaker was huge. He was beating his man off the dribble consistently, getting into the paint and dishing to his bigs who looked phenomenal. Definitely looked like a different team last night that, if they continue to play that way, might be much tougher than we thought. Tmrw will be a weird game after so much time off for us and almost none for them. Let’s hope we come out with the requisite energy to make up for last years Game 1 and look like the much fresher team
It’s finally time Jon. Let’s enjoy the rest of this ride!!
Jonathan a great newsletter and a clear understanding of team players. It means
Lots of anxiety for sure! LGK
thanks!
Bench advantage —> Knicks. Like how well we match up with the bench.
How do you feel about Hart on Mitchell and Bridges on Harden? Or is Mitchell a little too quick with his first move for Hart? I worry about Harden foul baiting on Hart…
All in all, we are in the drivers seat here. Bring the same physicality and focus from R2 and we should be good. Excited to dive into the matchup and finally get back to playing basketball !!
We were discussing those very matchups last night, and Benjy made a good point about Hart's strength being good to throw at Mitchell, and Mikal on Harden because he never fouls.
I like OG on Harden, Mikal on Mitchell and Hart on Mobley
It’s kinda simple for me. It feels like James Harden is gonna be guarding OG for much of the series, if only by process of elimination. If OG is playing anything close to how he played offensively pre-injury, we should be able to win. That said, OG may not have the clear driving lanes he’s had for much of the playoffs.
I think you’re right, Lee. OG will be met at the basket by Allen and Mobley so it won’t be easy like it was against the Hawks and the 76ers.