After last night’s loss I was pissed!! Anyone who I was texting with shared the same sentiment, over the same factors. There isn’t a Knicks fan in the world today who isn’t equally as pissed or more, especially the ones who spend thousands on tickets last night.
No one expected the Knicks to sweep. I wasn’t upset that the Knicks lost per se, this isn’t about dropping Game 2. That would be petty. What has me fired up is how they lost. The way that they lost could’ve been predicted based on several recurring factors that have taken place for several seasons. The moment that the game ended, I pulled up the box score and the reasons were glaring. The deeper I dug, the more frustrated I got. Honestly, even if I hadn’t watched a second of the game, the numbers alone painted a clear enough picture to tell the story of why they lost. And let’s not make this about the refs right now.
The Knicks are beyond fortunate not to be heading into Detroit down 0-2. Let’s call it what it is: the Pistons let Game 1 slip through their fingers in the fourth quarter. Had they held on, the narrative this morning would be even worse coming out of the Knicks camp. Of the five of the first eight quarters played this series, it’s the Pistons, not the Knicks, who have outscored, outworked, and outright outplayed their opponent on the road. As the series shifts to Detroit, things are only going to get harder for the Knicks in one of the loudest arenas in the NBA.
Let me start my rant with the obvious: the lack of depth playing through the Knicks rotation. This falls squarely on Tom Thibodeau and it doesn’t have to be this way. They have players on the bench who are very capable of providing extremely meaningful minutes to the team while giving the starters a breather. By the end of the game last night the Knicks starting five looked worn out! It’s the same old story as last year, and if the Knicks come up short in this series, it could very well be the reason Thibs isn’t back on the sidelines next season. This frustration isn’t limited to just the fans; it’s echoed by media members and NBA insiders alike. His refusal to adjust, and to adapt to scenarios mid-game, remains his biggest flaw as a coach.
Last night was a perfect example. You can’t expect to beat a team that features arguably the best player from either roster when your bench gets outplayed 75 minutes to 42. You can’t win when you’re outscored 35–8 off the bench. That’s on Thibs. If the issue is a lack of personnel, then that blame shifts to Leon Rose and the front office. But as it stands, the failure to maximize what depth exists is a coaching problem, and it’s becoming impossible to ignore.
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When I saw Josh Hart go down after landing on his left elbow from a hard foul that left him grimacing in agony, there is no reason that Thibs didn’t have somebody ready to enter the game after his free throws, the first of which barely hit the front of the rim. Hart was clearly in serious pain. Even if it were just precautionary, he should’ve came out of the game at the very next whistle. The trainer could have taken a looked at it, ice it up, and then go back out once they confirmed he was okay. Even if he did tell Thibs not to take him out, which was never confirmed, after seeing how he shot that first free throw while grimacing, it would have been the right coaching decision to make.
This serves as the perfect segue into why Hart shouldn’t have been on the court for as long as he was to begin with.
Let’s further break down last night’s loss by some numbers. The Knicks were out-rebounded 48–34, and their best rebounder and defensive anchor, Mitchell Robinson, spent over half the game on the bench. In his place, Josh Hart logged heavy minutes, finished with just 10 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. A somewhat decent line for a regular season game, but under these circumstances, his 40 minutes were rather wasted on the opportunity to boost the Knicks defense through Mitchell Robinson who also finished with 7 rebounds, in 20 minutes. As valuable as Hart has been over the past two seasons, he should be coming off the bench in this series.
Cade Cunningham, Detroit’s 6’7” point guard, not only presents a significant size mismatch for Jalen Brunson on both ends of the court, but he out-rebounded every Knick who played last night. So did Jalen Duren and Tobias Harris. In fact, not one Knick cracked double digits in boards, (where did you go KAT?) while the Pistons had three players hit that mark. If New York can’t keep Detroit’s point guard out of the paint, they don’t stand a chance boxing out the likes of Cunningham, Jalen Duren, and Tobias Harris.
Only two Knicks finished with a positive plus-minus last night, and Mitchell Robinson was one of them. That alone should tell you all you need to know. At 6’4”, Josh Hart simply isn’t the right player to be soaking up Robinson’s minutes in this series. As gritty and versatile as Hart is, he does not give the Knicks the offensive spark the Knicks, nor is he the interior presence Robinson brings on the defensive end that the Knicks need to win this series.
If Robinson starts and takes even 10 of Hart’s minutes, then Hart could still get plenty of time off the bench and serve at three different positions as others get breathers, and the defense significantly improves. This move would change everything for the Knicks through the remainder of the series. I’ve always loved Hart. He has been nothing but incredible for the Knicks over the past two seasons, but this is just a bad matchup for him, and a much better matchup for Robinson who was injured during the majority of the games that Hart shined for the Knicks.
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If there is a debate over whether Hart should come off the bench over Mikal Bridges, that’s a different conversation entirely, and one that comes with some politics. The Knicks didn’t trade five first-round picks during the offseason just to bring Bridges off the bench. That’s not a question anyone within the organization wants to field from the media. Even after his brutal performance which consisted of going 3-11 from three last night, and not making one field goal throughout the entire 4th quarter is an embarrassment. It’s not just an embarrassment on Bridges, but in my opinion goes much deeper as a reflection on the Knicks management for giving up five first round picks for him, ultimately trading years of young talent for a player they didn’t need. The ‘Nova Knicks was a nice concept, but someone hit the panic button at the last second and we never even got to see it come to fruition.
Before the trade their was a debate of how Thibs would manage the starting 5 with the Nova Knicks, OG and Randle. We all would have loved to see it. I truly believe the Knicks would have been a better team had they not made the trade, but nevertheless, Thibs never had to answer that question and ultimately Bridges took over the two spot from Donte DiVincenzo. We’re all still waiting for him to come close to matching DDV’s production from beyond the arc in just one game at least. Granted, DDV doesn’t bring the same defensive upside, but the Knicks had a formula that worked last year. With Hartenstein and Robinson anchoring the paint, DiVincenzo had the freedom to be a knockdown shooter. Since tweaking his form, Bridges hasn’t been the same, and the results are showing when it matters most.
Aside from one buzzer beating three toward the end of the season Bridges has not been the player the Knicks thought they were getting when they completed that trade. If the Knicks were to try to trade him this off-season they wouldn’t even get back two firsts.
As I reflect on this roster, the losses of Donte DiVincenzo, Julius Randle, and Isaiah Hartenstein continue to sting. Karl-Anthony Towns was undoubtedly the headline name in the Knicks T-Wolves trade, but he was never going to replace what Randle and DDV brought to the table, and the 2 for 1 trade only thinned out even further an already thin rotation.
The next part of my rant really gets my blood bubbling. The self-proclaimed “greatest shooting big man of all time” put up just 10 points and 6 rebounds last night. He was a complete non-factor last night. Like Hart, Kat’s performance over 33 minutes, could have been swapped out here and there to give additional time Robinson. The supposed second-best player on the court had a mediocre line for a role player. As far as his marksman shooting? The “greatest shooting big man of all time” missed both of his three point attempts.
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It wasn’t just his offensive output that’s a problem, but so is KAT’s weak defense. Last season, the Knicks could afford to play their wings tight on the perimeter because Hartenstein and Mitch were waiting at the rim to clean the glass and give opposing players the business in the paint. With Towns out there, it’s a different story. He might as well be parked at the opposite three-point line while opponents walk into uncontested layups. When Mitch is on the floor, the defense tightens. When it’s Hart and/or KAT manning the middle, the defense unravels. If the Knicks had the vision to play Mitch at the five and shift KAT to the four, it could reshape the team’s identity on both ends of the floor. But right now, that potential for a “Twin Tower” dynamic duo is being wasted as Robinson continues to watch from the bench in favor of the 6’4” Hart who is outsized, out-matched, and appears to be completely worn-out at the power forward position.
No team is ever going to have five players who are elite at everything. But last season, the Knicks came close to maximizing all of their pieces through the roles they played. On most nights, they had the best shooter on the floor in Donte DiVincenzo. They had the best point guard in Jalen Brunson. And when healthy, OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson were often the best defenders on either team.
This season? That shooting is gone. The defense has regressed. Karl-Anthony Towns, for all his accolades, rarely looks like the best center on the court. The rebounding has been flat-out unacceptable. And Thibodeau’s continued refusal to adjust in real time is giving the Pistons a blueprint to exploit every weakness.
It’s this simple for Thibs: ADAPT OR DIE.
I said last week during the roundball that I would be the pessimist of the group and stated that the Pistons were the one team the Knicks did not want to face in the first round, and we are seeing why. They are not the better team. They do not have better players. They do not have the depth.
If the Knicks win this series, it’d not be because they were the better team. After watching the last two games, the only way the Knicks beat the Pistons is if they figure out a way to utilize their playoff experience and somehow outsmart the inexperienced Pistons… who aren’t looking too inexperienced.