Moving Forward
The Knicks looked like a real team on Saturday night. Should we care?
In this newsletter:
Knicks / Pacers Analysis (by Jonathan Macri)
“The Fight that Got Fiz Fired” (by Jonathan Macri)
New Podcast Updates
News & Notes
Knicks History: Bill Bradley debuts
Let me take the first opportunity to answer my own question from above:
Yes, we should care.
The Knicks went through yet another spin in the Ultra Deluxe Package Media Lambasting Car Wash over the weekend. They did - or didn’t do, as it were - a lot of the type of stuff that has come to define this organization over the last 20 years, as much as or more than their play on the court.
(In no particular order: letting their coach guide practice and meet with reporters before firing him, seemingly not informing the team in unison about their decision, failing to thank Fiz in the press release that relieved him of his duties, passing on a press conference that a front office will usually hold following such moves, and finally, releasing a “mea culpa” thank you to Fiz, along with Fizdale’s own thank you, late on Sunday night)
You may be embarrassed, you may be furious, you may be happy, or you may not care in the least. In the end though, we are all still fans. Whether you believe in your core that this franchise is hopeless until it removes the current power structure (or, more likely, the person who creates that power structure removes himself and sells the team), as fans, good basketball is always more pleasant than bad basketball. Even the tankiest of tank commanders should want to see progress, if for no other reason than that it’s good for the young guys on this team, some of whom might actually be decent and worth keeping around.
We were reminded of that on Saturday night, when the Knicks played if not their best game of the season, the one that made the most sense. Aside from a handful of Bad Julius possessions (he was better than you realize, as we’ll get to in a bit) and a few defensive breakdowns, the Knicks played like the team we hoped we’d see all year long. It was refreshing.
Let’s get to some categories:
One Big Thing
This feels sustainable
Full disclosure: I’ve uttered this word in reference to this Knicks team already after a few of their better games under Fizdale this year.
Full disclosure # 2: If “sustainable” morphs into “several young players getting marginalized in favor of guys who won’t be here for long,” it means nothing.
With those two caveats, the Knicks gave an effort for Mike Miller on Saturday night that felt repeatable. Unlike some of their earlier wins (those happened? This year? Get outa’ here…) supported by Bobby Portis’ crazy eyes and massive but unlikely Marcus Morris late triples, the Knicks didn’t do anything Saturday night you’d define as out of the ordinary.
Did they give the type of effort you' can usually bank during the first game with a new coach. A thousand percent yes. Will it continue? Probably not, but stranger things have happened.
From a play-calling and execution standpoint though, they succeeded with normal, run-of-the-mill basketball stuff that felt revolutionary simply because we haven’t seen it here. Tom Piccolo highlighted several such plays, which you can catch on his Twitter feed (can we get the best Knicks analyst out there over 1000 followers? Please?) and I want to highlight a few here:
If you don’t know what “Hammer” action is, welcome to the wonderful world of 29 other fan bases. They get to see basic shit like this all the time, and wouldn’t you know it, it often works.
To be clear, they’ve attempted to run this action (and many other modern actions) before Saturday, but when you don’t have everyone on the same page and guys aren’t screening like they mean it (although Randle’s, per usual, leaves a bit to be desired here), it amounts to the common drudgery we’ve seen. Whether it’s because players have more faith in Mike Miller’s game plan or simply that they decided to try now is almost immaterial. It happened a lot, and needs to keep happening.
The other thing we saw a ton of on Saturday was pick and roll. Miller made an effort to get more spacing on the court, and seemed to give Damyean Dotson - probably their best rotation shooter, if he could ever get consistent enough looks - an instruction to do his best Klay Thompson impersonation and be in shooting form before he even caught the ball. He only went 2-for-8 from deep, but those numbers will improve.
His presence opened up the floor though, and good things happened as a result:
Finally, on defense, we saw much less high trapping and more of a traditional drop coverage on the pick and roll. It was far from perfect:
By and large though, it worked. The Pacers took a ton of midrangers throughout this game, and were hitting a bunch of them in the first half - even more so than usual. Those are the type of looks this defense is designed to give up, and the Pacers were probably better equipped to handle it than anyone. According to Cleaning the Glass, Indiana hits a higher frequency of mid-range shots than anyone, and they take more than all but two teams.
The question now becomes how much more (or less) effective will this defense be against teams who live and die by the deep ball. Overall, the Knicks 3-point defense was solid if unspectacular on Saturday, allowing Indy to shoot 43 percent but on only 28 shots.
I went back and watched all of these threes, and you could count on one hand the number of wide-open, Knick-running-helplessly-with-arms-flailing type possessions we’ve become accustomed to of late. This is good.
That said, one aspect of their defense did stick out for the wrong reasons…
Doghouse (not Dawghouse)
Kevin, Kevin, Kevin…what are gonna’ do with you man…
Out of the Pacers’ 12 made threes, four were a result of Kevin Knox simply being an incredibly poor individual defender. Three times he couldn’t get around a basic screen, and once he was beat so badly to the corner that he had to jump full speed to try and defend the shot, only to barrel into his man. Of course the shot still went in. That four point play was arguably the difference in the game.
His foot speed on the perimeter just absolutely sucks. There’s no way to sugar coat it. Can it get better? Of course, but like many have suggested, playing him at the four is probably step one, and right now, the Knicks have a few folks for that spot.
On the bright side, if he can just improve this singular aspect of his game, he goes from borderline unplayable to a useful piece (he was, after all, 2-of-4 from deep and 3-of-6 overall)
Made Me Smile
Early on in Saturday’s game, I sent out the following #OldTakesExposed gem:
Randle, of course, finished 6-for-18, including 1-for-9 in the second half. And you know what? It was one of his best games of the season.
I went back and watched every one of his shooting possessions (he also had three dimes to only one turnover). For context, of those 12 missed shots, three came on plays where he grabbed an offensive board and (correctly) went right back up for a shot attempt. Two other shots were blocked - one on a 0-dribble attempt that saw him get the ball right under the basket and (again, correctly) go right up, and the other on a 3-dribble north/south drive which was swatted but saw the Knicks retain possession. He also took a wide open corner three that clanked, but that he has to shoot if it’s there.
Overall, we saw far more Good Julius than Bad. Randle had five attempts where he took two or fewer dribbles and if he moved at all, it was in the north/south manner from the top of the key towards the basket. Wouldn’t you know it, he made all five shots.
On the downside, he had four attempts that came after some east/west movement (including one with four dribbles and one with six), and shockingly missed all four.
He was better. He still has farther to go before becoming the weapon he’s capable of being.
Stat of the Night
9
That’s how many shot attempts Mitchell Robinson had on Saturday, which (somewhat amazingly) tied his season high. He made six, and also grabbed seven boards in 25 minutes, and chipped in three blocks and two steals. This stat line shouldn’t be an anomaly for the best (only?) mismatch the Knicks are able to put on the floor on any given night; it should be the baseline.
Mike Miller apparently knows this, and was sure to put Mitch on the floor in situations he could be successful in. Some of those minutes even came with Randle, which is a partnership that is still a work in progress, but signs of improvement were present.
More, please.
Final thought
This hasn’t been a banner weekend for the organization. The tomfoolery that went on, even if it doesn’t bother you personally, is undeniably bad for the image of an organization that already has the worst image in the NBA. It’s all a bad look, and while we’ll never know how much this stuff matters to players (both those already here and those who might someday think of coming), it certainly can’t help.
That said, winning (and to a lesser extent, basic competence) really does cure all. There will likely be more shenanigans (probably involving Mills and Perry, neither of whom I’m 100% certain is employed at the present moment) but if the team can sustain this level of play for the rest of the year and the young players keep showing signs, it’s something at least worth being happy about.
And really, as Knicks fans, that’s never something we should take for granted.
Player Spotlight
So the Knicks now sit with a record of 4-19. Oof.
Miracles happen every day, but in all likelihood, we’re about to enter a new stretch of the season…one where watching this team will continue to take on the feel of looking for individual signs of progress rather than rooting for some fantastical playoff charge that was never going to occur.
Trust me friends: it can get draining. In other news, we’re now coming up on one month with PredictionStrike as the official sponsor of this newsletter, and given that games may now leave a bit to be desired from an interest standpoint, I thought I’d introduce a section in here to help that.
In Player Spotlight, I’ll highlight one or two players from an upcoming game and discuss why they might present a good investment opportunity (remember, if you haven’t yet signed up, use code KFS for $10 of free investment funds). With Portland coming up on Tuesday night, who better to start with than our old friend Carmelo Anthony.
Melo has now played 10 games for Portland - the same number that he saw with the Rockets last year. When he debuted, his stock price was trading at $3.02. After reaching a high of $5.23, he’s now settled in at $5.13. On the surface, he’s the same offensive player he was the last two years in OKC and Houston: shooting a hair over 40 percent from the field. He’s been better from deep but worse on two’s, and his eFG% is actually lower than with the Rockets, down to 45.6 % from 49.2 %.
He’s also doing other stuff. He’s averaging over a steal per game and a dime and a half a night (it doesn’t sound like much, but it’s three times higher than last season, when he basically shot it every time he touched it). Portland is only 4-6 with him in the lineup , but they’ve been better with him on the floor than with him off.
His 4-for-18 showing against the Thunder last night notwithstanding, if the rust continues to come off, maybe the best is yet to come. And really, what could be more fun than owning stock in a man who helped pioneer the idea of athletes as brands unto themselves?
And now, here’s something even more ridiculous than the Knicks themselves. If you haven’t yet seen Marriage Story, probably best to skip this next section ‘till you do. Or just skip it entirely. It is utterly absurd and nothing more than me being unable to sleep on a Saturday morning.
The Fight That Got Fiz Fired
by Jonathan Macri (and Noah Baumbach)
Much was made of the fact that on Friday morning, David Fizdale was allowed to conduct practice and meet with the media before unceremoniously being fired via a two sentence press release mere hours later. No cursory pleasantries. No “We thank him for his service.”
Nothing.
It was odd, even for the Knicks. Sure, video footage of Fiz dapping up the team’s brass at practice has been interpreted different ways – did he know? were they being coy? – but the lack of a press conference since the dismissal has only made the situation more confusing. What was once the happiest of marriages had seemingly dissolved into nothingness right before our very eyes.
You want answers? We’ve got them.
Thanks to some exclusive, behind the scenes audio obtained by Knicks Film School, we now know the truth behind what went down in the bowels of the Knicks practice facility during the late afternoon hours of Saturday, December 7, 2019.
(The following is presented without edit)
Steve Mills: Hey
David Fizdale: Hey…where’s Scott?
He’s with Jim, at band practice.
Want something to drink? I have unfiltered water, beer, and some juice boxes.
I’ll take a juice box. You don’t have anything on the walls?
I don’t have anything to put on them except for pictures of me and Mud from last year, which are being framed.
I can give you some stuff, until you get some things. How about that great picture from your introductory press conference?
Aren’t you in that one?
I guess…I mean, you can cut me out…
Podcast Alert!
Double pod morning to ya! Jeremy and I appeared with Shwin and Drew on the P&T show (part two - on the KFS feed - will be dropping tomorrow)…
…and from Saturday, JB and I broke down the Fiz firing from all angles:
News & Notes
compiled by Michael Schatz (@mschatz99)
It’s probably a pipe dream, but boy is it a good one: Becky Hammon might be interested in coaching the Knicks.
Ian Begley reported that the Knicks may look to improve their roster, but keep in mind, the situation has gone from hopeful to dire so quickly that this type of notion may already be moot.
Stef Bondy reports that MSG is pushing a narrative that Fiz wanted out.
Finally, Marc Berman speculates that Elfrid Payton may soon start and that David Fizdale is at peace. Good for him.
On This Date: Bill Bradley makes NBA Debut
by Vivek Dadhania (@vdadhania)
Bill “Dollar Bill” Bradley made his NBA debut on this date in a matchup against the Detroit Pistons. Coincidentally, his first NBA game was in Madison Square Garden. Despite the fact that the Knicks lost 124-121, Bradley played 20 minutes and scored 8 points, grabbed 5 rebounds, and dished 2 assists.
That’s it…see everyone tomorrow!