00:00Well, the Knicks are not going to go undefeated in the preseason.
00:03They fall to the Wizards 120-103 here at Madison Square Garden.
00:07I'm Dexter Henry, Stephan Bondi.
00:08Stephan, I think you're a little bummed that the Knicks are not undefeated in the preseason, right?
00:11Heartbroken.
00:12Heartbroken. Just a heartbreaker.
00:13They will not go undefeated.
00:15They have their first loss here tonight.
00:17But this was a game where we saw the starters not play in this one.
00:21We saw the reserves play.
00:22So it was a good opportunity for the reserves to get a chance to show what they could do.
00:25But they didn't look so good, right?
00:27No, definitely not in the first half.
00:30They gave them 75 points.
00:31And defensively, it was a rough go-about.
00:34I mean, the Washington Wizards, who obviously are not a very good team,
00:37they were sitting some of their guys as well.
00:39They had just a glut of open three-pointers, and they buried them.
00:43Now, I will say that the third stringers, when they did come in in the second half,
00:47they played better.
00:49But if you're looking at the second stringers, the guys who started the game,
00:52I thought Pacom Dottier really struggled.
00:54He continues to show that he's more of a project, still only 20 years old.
00:59And Gershon Yabaselli, who played center, I thought also didn't play as well as he could have.
01:06Now, granted, he was not expecting to play center.
01:09Ariel Hoekporty was supposed to take that spot as a starter, but he was ill.
01:13So Gershon stepped in there, and I think the Knicks were outscored by 33 points in his minutes.
01:19Yeah, not good.
01:20There were a lot of players with minus, minus the entire starting five was at least minus 21.
01:25So not a good night for the Knicks reserves who started here today.
01:28Now, when you see this, Steph, and this opportunity for the reserves to play,
01:32I think a lot of fans are going to look at the final roster spot here.
01:35And obviously, we're talking about Malcolm Brogdon, Landry Shammott didn't play due to illness.
01:39You could probably throw Garrison Matthews' name in there as well.
01:42We saw Matthews.
01:43We saw Brogdon play tonight.
01:45What are you hearing about who is the inside track for that final guaranteed roster spot?
01:49Yeah, so I don't have anything new other than what I've been hearing all along
01:53and from the beginning of this, which is that Malcolm Brogdon, a guy with his resume,
01:59a guy of his stature, he doesn't sign here unless he's not guaranteed,
02:04but has been told he's going to have a really good shot of making this team.
02:08So I do expect him to be on the final roster.
02:12Now, Landry Shammott also can claim a stake in the roster spot,
02:18but the Knicks would have to make a trade to create an open spot to make that happen.
02:23And listen, Garrison Matthews, I just got finished talking to him in the locker room.
02:26He told me he was told he has a real shot of making this,
02:30that he has a chance of making this team.
02:32So that is what it was communicated to him.
02:34He signed an Exhibit 10 deal, but he said that there's no shot that he'd play in the G League.
02:39He wouldn't do that.
02:40Oh, doesn't want to play in the G League.
02:41Let me ask you this, because we've seen Brogdon play well.
02:44He looks like that steady hand.
02:45He's that other playmaker for the Knicks.
02:47We've seen Shammott show some pretty good defense.
02:49And then with Matthews, we've seen the shooting.
02:52This is a guy who could shoot really well.
02:54He shot very well from downtown in his career.
02:57What do the Knicks need most?
02:58Is it the playmaking of Brogdon?
02:59Is it the defense of Shammott with a bit of the shooting?
03:02Or maybe the sharpshooting of Matthews?
03:04What do you think they need most?
03:05I think when you look at the roster composition, you need another ball handler,
03:08which is why I lean towards Brogdon.
03:10And I think that unless you think Tyler Colick is ready, and Tyler actually had a pretty good second half.
03:15He played well.
03:16I think he boosted the team.
03:18Unless you think Tyler Colick is ready, you do need another backup point guard, and that's where Malcolm Brogdon fits in.
03:23All right, so let's get to Tyler Colick.
03:24I want to talk about Tyler Colick and Pacom Dodie before we close here, because they're the two young players for the Knicks that got a lot of extended minutes tonight.
03:32We saw Tyler Colick team high, 20 points.
03:35He also has six dimes, no turnovers, shot 7 of 13 from the field.
03:39Dodie hit his first two threes here, 8.6 rebounds.
03:43What did you make of what we saw from both of them tonight, and do you think any of them can contribute to this Knicks roster this season?
03:49I don't think either of them will be in the rotation, unless barring injuries, but like I said, Tyler did have a good second half here.
03:57I thought he brought some energy.
03:58Pacom still struggles defensively.
04:00I think he gets lost in the schemes that they're trying to do, and we saw that again today.
04:06Mike Brown highlighted that as well.
04:07The thing about Pacom that Tyler doesn't have his size and athletic potential in terms of if you look at him and his wing potential and his wingspan and everything that you want from an NBA player, physically Pacom Dodie has that.
04:24But he's still only 20 years old, and he's working through some things in terms of learning the game.
04:30Yeah, we will see what happens with both of those Knicks.
04:33These young players with Knicks, they lose this preseason game, 120-103.
04:38Scissors, we've got one more to go before the regular season starts.
04:41That will be on Friday.
04:42There's a game against Charlotte.
04:43Steph Bondy, the great Knicks beat writer, will be there, so I will talk more to you then.
Be the first to comment