I’m back after another two weeks. No real excuse, as I just got lazy, but I’m back to give all my calm and thorough thoughts on the New York Knickerbockers. And what a time it is to come back and talk about the Knicks. Jalen Brunson just had the best game of his career. Brunson hit a 50 burger right in the Suns face. It felt good seeing that after their pathetic performance against the Jazz. Brunson gives me so much hope that even after a crappy performance the game prior, I know he has my back. He’s going to go out there the next game and make up for all the mistakes and have himself a game. Brunson got a lot of love after the game. Kevin Durant said Brunson can make the Hall of Fame if he keeps playing like this. I love seeing a legend like KD saying stuff about the face of our franchise, but the best part of the night for me was Julius Randle trolling Giannis and the Bucks.
After a great night, it’s going to be hard to talk about the bad things, but as the title says, the Knicks still have their problems. Losing Mitchell Robinson for two months is a massive blow to this team. The obvious is the Knicks will miss him on the defensive end as they are allowing 123 PPG in the last three games without Mitchell. That’s up 15 points, but what we are going to miss the most is the offensive rebounding. Robinson’s offensive rebounding was so clutch this season, giving us an extra possession. We will see more and more these next few months how it affects the offense because the Knicks need those extra possessions. The Knicks don’t have the best offense in the league, so those O-boards were so clutch by Mitch.
The only positive of Mitchell Robinson’s injury is the return of Taj Gibson. It’s not the most significant positive, but I love Taj Gibson. Taj Gibson is a veteran player who will always grind and make the extra play. Gibson is a perfect guy to bring back to this team, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see him play legit minutes. If Jericho Sims isn’t traded, he will likely be moved to the end of the bench so Thibs can play his guy. I might sound crazy for wanting Taj to get minutes over Sims, but I have more confidence in Gibson. Gibson knows the Thibs system and is a better player on the floor because he won’t clog the paint like Sims would. Taj won’t be shooting many threes but is better playing on the perimeter than Sims.
The last thing I want to discuss is the Knicks starting shooting guard spot. It seems like whoever gets the starting spot doesn’t get the ball. After Quinten Grimes got moved to the bench for Donte DiVincenzo, Grimes play has improved, and Donte has done very little. In the four games since Donte became the starter, he’s had one really good game and three games where he did nothing offensively. And in two of those games, he shot the ball less than four times. It seems like the starting SG spot will never get the ball. The trio of Randle, Brunson, and Barrett will get the primary load, and the SG just waits in the corner and hopes he gets the ball passed to him.
Weekly Grades:
Knicks: B-
Jalen Brunson: A
Julius Randle: A-
RJ Barrett: B-
Mitchell Robinson: C
Quinten Grimes: B
Immanuel Quickley: B
Donte DiVincenzo: B-
Josh Hart: B+
Isaiah Hartenstein: B+
Jericho Sims: C+
Now, let’s see what the Knicks have up next for the coming week.
The Knicks are on the back end of a back-to-back as they play a much-improved Clippers team since we beat them a few weeks ago. The Clippers are 11-7 and are undefeated in December (6-0). This is a better Clippers team, and the Knicks need to bring their A-game if they want to win. They don’t need Brunson to score 50 points again but have the Knicks three best players to show up and have a good game. After that, they stay in LA to play the Lakers for the first time this season on Monday. Personally, I need the Knicks to demolish the Lakers. There’s way too much discourse on Twitter saying the Knicks messed up by not playing Cam Reddish. Cam Reddish was a bum on the Knicks. He did nothing for us, and the Knicks got better when they traded him for Josh Hart. It’s a stupid narrative people use to farm engagement on Twitter. Finally, the Knicks are back in New York, but not at home. They play the Nets on Wednesday as the Knicks continue to show they are the kings of New York. The Nets don’t worry me at all, and it should be an easy win.
Until next time, let’s go Knicks!
SmallDog Sports 
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