New York's Death Lineup

Enough talk about roster changes. How can the Knicks make the most of what they have?

Good morning! We had several busy news days since the last newsletter, so let’s cover all that first and then get to today’s topic: New York’s version of the “Death Lineup.”

Before any of that though, I want to give a quick shoutout to my buddy Ernie Parada, the designer of the original KFS logo and the artist behind several pieces of KFS merch over the years. He has some new designs that just went up on Etsy, including this gem:

If you’d like to order one for yourself, click here.

News & Notes

🏀 Team USA successfully defended their gold medal win from 2020 and again took top honors in Paris, upending Team France 98-87. Steph Curry hit four 3-pointers in the final three minutes to secure the victory, with one more outlandish than the last. LeBron James won tournament MVP.

Speaking of France…

🏀 Mathias Lessort, whose rights the Knicks have controlled for the last four years, had himself a nice tournament as the Franch sixth man. According to Ian Begley, the Knicks considered Lessort as a possible backup big man option earlier in the offseason, “but the player and team were unable to find common ground” when New York made inquiries about his availability. Considering he plays for the defending EuroLeague champs and is a two-time 1st Team All-EuroLeague honoree, it’s not surprising he wasn’t in a rush to come to the states.

🏀 Jalen Brunson was introduced as team captain in an extended ceremony on Thursday that featured a video tribute narrated by Patrick Ewing and a congratulatory message from several other notable captains in New York sports history, including Derek Jeter, Eli Manning, Michael Strahan, David Wright, Mark Messier, and of course, Clyde. He also got a video congrats from his teammates who couldn’t be in attendance. OG’s segment needs to be seen to be believed.

Afterwards, Brunson took questions from the media that mostly focused on the thought process behind his recently signed extension. Said Brunson:

“I knew if I did this, it would give us a lot of flexibility and help put us in a position to win. I know a lot of people don’t agree with it and think it’s not smart from an individual standpoint, but I know that I’m comfortable here. This is home for me.”

He added that he was “completely comfortable” with the decision and that securing an extension now also made sense because “anything could happen in a year.” Brunson said his injured wrist is doing fine.

As for the funniest moment of the shindig, this one took the cake…

…although this was a close runner up:

The vibes, as they say, are immaculate. All that’s left to do is go out and win some ball games.

🏀 The Knicks found out their Christmas Day opponent, and it’ll be a 7'4" alien who has been allowed to play basketball.

Ho, ho, ho.

Per Shams, the Spurs will visit MSG to kick off the NBA’s five-game Christmas Day slate. It’ll be followed by Wolves / Mavs, Sixers / Celtics, Lakers / Warriors and Nuggets / Suns.

🏀 According to Woj, the San Antonio Spurs are hiring Knicks player development coach Scott King to be the head coach of their G League outfit. Steve Popper noted that King had been mentioned as a possible future NBA head coach. He was also responsible for deciding whether to challenge questionable calls, with a pretty spectacular success rate. He’ll be missed.

🏀 Ian Begley dropped a couple of tidbits in his latest report, confirming that Tom Thibodeau’s extension is indeed for three years and $30 million, and that a Julius Randle extension still isn’t “at the forefront” for either Randle or the team.

New York's Death Lineup

Today’s question comes to us from Jesse, and it’s a juicy one:

Not that this is Thibs’ style, but what’s our “Death Lineup”? Julius, OG, Mikal, Donte, and JB bring a lot of great positional shooting and the ability to keep the ball swinging.

The notion of a true Knicks “Death Lineup” (which is really just NBA code for “best five-man unit without a traditional center) first entered my brain on the day the front office acquired OG Anunoby, because in Anunoby, Thibs finally had a non-center who he could trust to guard the restricted area, at least in short stints.