The Heartbreak is Real

...but it's going to get better.

Oct 26, 2019

The Knicks lost Friday night, 113-109, in Brooklyn.

If you’re someone who loves this team and likes to look for bright spots, you can take solace in the fact that the Knicks’ four best players were all homegrown talents - three foundational pieces (yes, Mitch was that impactful on defense despite the fouls) and a post-draft afterthought who’s making it impossible to take him off the court.

If you’re someone who has reveled in bashing New York’s offseason - one in which they signed several veterans who are ostensibly blocking the way of said youth - you can take solace in the fact that the Knicks’ four best players were all homegrown talents, and their highest profile signing was their worst.

(I’m not counting Dennis Smith Jr. as a player, because clearly, we have a Face/Off situation where James Dolan has body switched himself with DSJ in yet another act of torture for Knicks fans. That is the only explanation for how putrid he has been.)

The truth? As always, it lies somewhere in between. We can’t know how much the early stellar play of RJ Barrett, the sweet, sweet shooting of Kevin Knox, or the apparent on-court growth of Allonzo Trier (now with some passing!) has to do with the fact that there are actual, real NBA veterans on this roster. Maybe a lot, maybe a little. Either way, through two games, it’s clear that there is something interesting happening, even if there are so many moving parts that we can’t yet get a handle on yet.

How long will it take David Fizdale to figure those moving parts out? Your guess is as good as mine, but for now, I think through four fake games and two real ones, we’ve learned at least a couple of things:

(The regular postgame format we’ve been doing will return on Monday. We’ll be sure to get something out for Friday/Saturday games, but it might be of the quick and dirty variety, like here. Which, you know…sometimes quick and dirty is quite fun ;)

RJ Barrett is really good. That’s it. That’s the analysis. Regardless of what else happens this season, if he a) keeps this up and b) continues to love being a Knick, you almost have to consider this season a success regardless of what else happens.
I have an opinion on what the rotation should be. Trier or Ellington need to be in the starting lineup. Their shooting is too valuable for one of them not to be in there. After the dud on Wednesday, the RJ/Trier combo actually worked well last night, so I’m leaning towards that. Dennis Smith Jr. is not in Kansas anymore and the coaching staff doesn’t yet trust Frank to provide enough on offense to justify his defense (and as much as I want to blame them for that, I’m not sure I can, at least not right now). Bobby Portis is the wildcard, because he’s been quite bad, but also isn’t this bad and his shooting will come around and be valuable. So let’s say RJ, Mook, Randle and Mitch as starters with either Zo or Wayne, whichever of those two doesn’t start comes off the bench, with Payton alongside, as well as Knox, Taj, and until further notice, Bobby. That said…
I think Payton continues getting starts. Maybe it’s just one, maybe more. But he wasn’t terrible last night, and he’s steady. Gut feeling here.
Kevin Knox is looking not only like the best shooter on the team, but is maybe becoming one of the best shooters in the league. Will he keep up his current 87.5 percent from deep all year long? Ehhhh….50/50 chance. But the stroke is pure, his release is consistent, and his height makes his shot really hard to guard::
Posting and Toasting @ptknicksblog
Kevin Knox's 3 ball is wet this year. Knicks within 8
1:40 AM ∙ Oct 26, 2019
32Likes8Retweets
His potential ability as a shot creator is what got him drafted ninth overall, but at this point the priority has to be getting him more consistently passable on defense. We saw some signs in the second half, and given how much he’s grown from last year to now, I say he gets there this year. Still, having him go up against backups is probably the wiser play at the moment. Besides…
Randle, Morris and RJ are going to start all year, or until Morris gets traded, barring something nuts. Fizdale knows that the best version of this team comes with Randle and Morris playing a lot and being the best (read: more unselfish) versions of themselves. Hasn’t happened so far. It’s also Game Two. Give it time.
On that note…

Trust, and the Process

by Jonathan Macri

As Knick fans wake up this morning still drunk from the tantalization of what almost was in their sort-of-home-opener Friday night, I’d like to share a bit of personal news.

Yesterday morning, I was officially awarded a Certificate of Completion of Probation by my Principal; aka, I got tenure. This is my fifth year teaching, which means I’ve now lasted longer in the classroom than I did in the courtroom. If I’m still there a year from now (and judging by the current state of the sports journalism industry, I will be!), I’ll have made it longer than half the teachers who work in urban settings in this country.

This isn’t surprising, because teaching is really, really hard, but not in the ways you think it’s going to be really, really hard, which is part of why it’s really, really hard.

The act of teaching, actually, is quite simple. There’s a million good lesson plans available on the internet, and the kids, by and large, are good kids. They want to learn. Teachers want to teach. Given those basic tenets, the system should work.

Of course, in case you haven’t heard, the whole institution is only getting worse, and a lot of that has to do with teacher burnout. The reason teachers burn out isn’t because they aren’t prepared for tough days and noisy classrooms, but because struggling learners often manifest themselves in ways you wouldn’t expect.

For me, when I first walked into a classroom as a special education teacher, I expected to spend a lot of my time sitting with kids, one on one or in small groups, and working through the tedious task of imparting knowledge upon young minds who had more trouble learning or retaining information that others.

That’s been part of my job, but not nearly as big a part as standing with a smile on my face as some kid or another basically tells me to go fuck myself, even if it’s not in as many words (although it has certainly been in as many words on occasion). That’s what teaching really is: having the people you’re trying to help tell you to go fuck yourself, and realizing it’s coming from a place of frustration, not of disdain.

But of course most teachers don’t see it this way. They see the kid they’re trying to work with sneak a look at their phone, or roll their eyes, or make fart noises the moment they look away, or chuck a pencil at the board three feet from their head (all of this has happened to me in the last week).

I thought about this last night when I was on Knicks Fan TV listening to callers voice their frustrations about a Knicks team that was up three in the fourth and couldn’t find a way to score even one point in the last 3:41.

Continue Reading…