00:00The Knicks are closing out their West Coast road trip with a back-to-back in Sacramento
00:04and San Francisco, and those goes down Wednesday and Thursday night.
00:09So let's talk all things Knicks with our New York Post sports columnist, Mike Vaccaro.
00:13Mike, thanks for hopping on with this.
00:16I got to start by talking about the little engine that could, aka Josh Hart.
00:20I feel like he's everything a Knicks fan wants in one of his players.
00:25Tough, reliable, he's kind of weird, does the dirty work.
00:29I mean, I think I can go on and on about this guy.
00:31You've covered this team for a long time now.
00:34What does Josh Hart mean to this franchise and this team?
00:38And are there any players or a player that reminds you of him in terms of not being a star,
00:46but his role is just as important or even more important than some of the stars?
00:52Yeah, he's the connective tissue of the team, Brandon.
00:55There's no question about that.
00:56You know, you hear it all the time about basketball players.
00:59Sometimes they make other players better.
01:03And in his case, it's absolutely the greatest gift he brings to the team.
01:08You know, when he's on the floor, Jalen Brunson doesn't have to bring the ball up the floor every time.
01:13He can shoulder leadership responsibilities.
01:16O.G. Ananobi doesn't have to guard everybody.
01:18You know, the extra set of hands.
01:19And there's just an energy and a swagger that he brings that isn't reflective necessarily in the score sheet,
01:25even though he's kind of a triple-double specialist.
01:28But he's not going to, you know, knock you out with his lockdown defense or his eye-popping shooting.
01:34He does a lot of things very well and more to the point.
01:38Other guys on the floor are better off when he's out there.
01:41You know, a lot of people talk about Bill Bradley on the old Knicks being that kind of a player.
01:47I think on the Knicks in the 90s, that was like a Charles Oakley, you know,
01:52who wasn't going to lead the league in rebounding or scoring, but was on the floor.
01:56Everybody else seemed to be a little bit better.
02:00Anthony Mason had a little bit of that in him also.
02:01And so I think that's really what you get with Josh.
02:06I mean, they're just, you know, sometimes it's hard to put your finger on exactly why they're better.
02:11I just know they're better when he's on the floor.
02:15Connective tissue, cardiac muscle, this dude is all heart, plays with all heart.
02:19But on the flip side, there are a lot of Knicks fans who continue to question Carl Anthony Towns and his dominance.
02:28I think he's having one of the worst shooting seasons in his career.
02:32One game he's hot, the next he's not.
02:35And he's not even out there.
02:37We've seen Mike Brown keep him on the bench in some clutch moments to ride other hot hands.
02:43So is Cat the number two that you feel as though can help Jalen Brunson and this team win a championship?
02:51Look, we've seen it enough to know that it's in there.
02:54I think we all know that he's had a little bit of a longer adjustment period to Mike Brown and the way Mike Brown does things than other guys on the team have, certainly more than he wanted.
03:06I just think that, look, I mean, we're still at the halfway mark of this season.
03:10And this is a guy who's a career, you know, 24 and 12 guy.
03:14And usually about a 40 percent shooter from three, always over 50 percent overall.
03:20And those numbers are down.
03:22I think it's got a lot to do with sometimes he gets in his own head.
03:25And I just think he has to figure out what makes him comfortable.
03:28I actually think Josh Hart's greatest asset is what he gives to Cat because he kind of clears space under the boards.
03:36He knows how to get guys the ball in the right positions.
03:42And for Cat, you know, a lot of times he relies too much on being 30 feet in the basket.
03:48And sometimes he takes those long threes.
03:50But often he starts his drive out there and that gives the entire defense time to adjust to him.
03:55And so that's the reason why he always winds up collecting two and three offensive fouls every game.
04:00You know, I think, you know, Josh Hart is the kind of guy who inspires movement.
04:04And look, Cat's greatest hidden skill is he's a tremendous passer.
04:09And when Josh is on the floor, the rest of the players tend to move without the ball as well.
04:16And when that happens, Cat usually finds them.
04:18So, you know, I do think that, look, this guy has already had a lot of important moments as a Nick.
04:26I know how frustrating he is because we know how good he is.
04:30And, you know, I think the things that frustrates you aren't when he shoots four for 20.
04:34It's when he only gets four shots like he did against the Pistons last week.
04:37And those tend to stand out because those games tend to not go well for the Knicks.
04:43Trade deadline, February 5th, a couple of weeks away.
04:47This team looks like they're getting themselves out of that midseason funk right now.
04:51Is there a position or a role that you feel like Mike Brown and Leon Rose need to address before at the trade deadline?
05:00And who would that be?
05:01Well, you know, for a while we thought it would be back a point guard.
05:06But with McBride healthy, he's definitely a more than passable backup.
05:13Obviously, Tyler Kolick has had his moments and they can always call on him again if need be.
05:17The thing that I would like is another big, you know, Yabaselli, I was I was really high on that signing.
05:26I saw what he did last year with the Sixers.
05:28More notably, I saw what he did with France in the 2024 Olympics.
05:34I think he I thought he was going to be a fantastic addition.
05:38He hasn't been.
05:38He had a really good game the other night and that was helpful.
05:44But if the Knicks could upgrade that position at all, that would probably be what they would want to do.
05:50And look, the honest situation.
05:52I mean, I just thought if the Knicks were treading water right now.
05:57Yeah, maybe you want to try something radical.
05:59But I think this team still is finding itself and you can see when it's playing well that it can play with anybody.
06:05It can beat anybody.
06:06Giannis has calf problems now and that would really give me kind of the heebie-jeebies because half calf injuries so often lead to other things like Achilles injuries.
06:17And look, I mean, you know, James Dolan mentioned this last week.
06:20You know, you got to give somebody up.
06:22And in Kat's case, in Giannis' case, you're talking about minimum Kat and OG Ananobi.
06:30And do you really want to give those two players away?
06:33OG to me is the second most important player on the team, regardless of how you, you know, measure it, whether it's best player behind Brunson or most essential player behind Hart.
06:42And I wouldn't want to give part ways with him.
06:45So I'd be very surprised if you get a major thing like that.
06:50I've been surprised before, but I don't think that's going to happen.
06:53Yeah, all eyes are going to be on that trade deadline on February 5th.
06:57Mike, this was awesome, man.
06:59Thank you for taking the time out of your day.
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