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00:15the new york knicks they spent the last couple of weeks looking okay they had a 1.17 games in
00:21a row
00:21but then came losses to the charlotte hornets and the oklahoma city thunder on sunday one that a lot
00:27of people thought was going to be a big test that the knicks didn't pass on sunday as sga did
00:32the men
00:32in the end but right now the knicks they didn't have the answer in that game on sunday and the
00:37question is not if the knicks are good because we know that they are good but the question is more
00:42are they built for playoff basketball or are there still cracks that this team can have other teams
00:48try to exploit in a seven game series so we're gonna break it all down this week we're gonna do
00:52one of the best in the game my good friend you see her on the msg networks as an analyst
00:57also
00:58knicks radio analyst with the team and you see her on espn doing some analyst work also can't forget
01:05this out co-host 7 p.m brooklyn check out with my guys kaz and miro and everybody there it's
01:11the
01:11great monica mcnutt joining me now monica how you doing sis i'm fantastic thank you for having me
01:16that's thank you for that um benevolent introduction guest co-host when i get to pull up with my guys
01:21the last episode was pretty funny you know what i have to i gotta make sure i always put
01:25everything that everybody does you know when you wear multiple hats like we do we gotta make sure
01:29that that that that's all out there but monica we're here to talk some knicks and i appreciate
01:33your time um let's start with the big picture here with with this group when you watch this team
01:38right now do you see a group that's built for playoff basketball or one that still has some
01:44regular season habits that they still need to work out what do you see with this next team right
01:47now i think you see shades of both if you will dexter right like there are moments where you're
01:52like wow this offense is legit and wow this defense also is formidable and then there are certainly
01:58other moments where you're incredibly frustrated with the flow of it all and sort of the commitment
02:03um i thought you mentioned the two losses that they're coming off of most recently i take nothing
02:07away from the win streak right i shouldn't say take nothing away i give them the credit that is due
02:12for
02:12the win streak but i'm not necessarily jumping up and down like this is a team that's supposed to be
02:16a
02:16contender so it's like when we were kids and we did something that we thought were worthy of
02:20praise and our parents were like that's what you're supposed to do right and so i acknowledged
02:24that new york would have been on fire had they dropped the games considering a bunch of those
02:27teams weren't trying to win but i also couldn't get but so excited about that because as you look
02:32at the schedule there were a lot of soft teams in that matchup and that's what you expected of
02:36this team i think more disappointing than the oklahoma city thunder showing for me was the matchup
02:42versus the charlotte hornets i mean that was a team that's young fast on the come up your veteran
02:49and your seniority is supposed to help you lead the way and i just thought the nicks laid an egg
02:54in that one altogether yeah they were not good in that game on friday against the hornets and then
02:58thunder i wanted to ask you about those games because now with the two losses they've still won
03:02seven out of the nine games there's a world in which you can look at that and say that's good
03:06but
03:06i'm with you they did what they were supposed to do against the competition that they faced
03:11they had won seven in a row before those two losses but when you look at those two games that
03:14you just mentioned how much of those when you look at them was it just some fans might want to
03:19say
03:19it's just an off night or how much of it was that those losses expose real concerns that we can
03:25have
03:25about this team in the postseason
03:31the thunder matchup played out as i had anticipated if they were to lose i had scenarios in my mind
03:38that
03:38would mean this is a winning performance this probably is a performance that's not going to
03:42get it done and when you look at what happened in oklahoma city sga shot 16 free throws alone and
03:47the nicks shot 17 as a team right so i think that team deserves its respect for who they have
03:52been on
03:52both sides of the basketball all season and basically for two seasons now right uh it's funny i was
03:58exchanging some texts with some friends that also cover the team closely and the concept of foul
04:03merchant being outperformed because you know folks argue whether jaylen brunson and sga come for
04:08fouls it worked for sga it did not work as well for jaylen brunson who i didn't even see take
04:13as many
04:14two point shots feet in the paint opportunities as i think we're accustomed to see him seeing
04:18he had to settle for threes and he had some difficult ones in that basketball game but i thought the
04:22presence of the thunder as a defensive team showed up the charlotte one was befuddling because it just
04:27looked like a team that was disinterested and not prepared uh yes that team plays fast yes they play with
04:32a
04:32bunch of energy do i think that they are that much better than the knicks no styles do make fights
04:36though and as i look at it the team for this team has shown some of its least performances this
04:42year
04:42you talk about them being over five i believe between the thunder and the detroit pistons if you
04:48can be physical or if you can be fast it seems to be a formula to really make the knicks
04:52uncomfortable
04:53and get them off balance yeah that's what we've seen so far this year and fans are definitely
04:58zeroing in on that when you think about what travels the most in the postseason
05:02monica when you think about defense execution half court offense which area do you trust the
05:07most with this knicks team right now or is there one you don't trust is there one at all that
05:11you
05:12trust with this team that you say hey look at this next team right now this will travel well for
05:15them
05:15when you get to the postseason
05:20what do i trust the most as we go to the postseason
05:25can it be a person yeah but i mean i think it's glaring when it's not a thing for the
05:30team but if
05:31it's a person yeah go ahead please don't yeah i agree with you that it is glaring i think i
05:36trust
05:37jaylen brexton in that he has been experienced and he usually finds a way even if he starts off slow
05:44in a series the nature of a series is to give him the tape and the opportunity to see how
05:47guys are
05:48covering him i think he can find his way um you know dexter the reality of it is for this
05:54team they
05:55have been so closely tied to their three-point shooting performance yeah that it's hard for me
06:00to say that flat out i just trust the offense the only easy buckets that have begun begun to emerge
06:05consistently were over that soft stretch and a lot of them had to do with mitchell robinson being able
06:09to go out for lobs and finish at the rim but you saw versus the thunder if he has to
06:13make a move in
06:14terms of putting the ball on the floor or absorb contact at the rim it your percentage is false right
06:19and i'm not taking anything away from him because i think mitchell's done a really good job of
06:22blossoming this year and becoming someone that you can rely on for those who's averaging i think
06:26eight points over that seven game stretch right you knew you could count on him for rebounds but
06:31if he can help you get some of those easy baskets that have been hard to come by this year
06:35i think
06:35that's a good thing um but i just the swing of the pendulum based on this team's three-point
06:42shooting concerns me about their offense because not only does it literally translate to points but i
06:47also think mentally it messes with their defense and then you're kind of in a world of
06:51trouble so as i'm looking at the standings i think last night before i went to be looking at it
06:56i
06:56think atlanta's in that sixth spot the raptors could easily fall into that sixth spot i think
07:00there's a world where philly could get to it personally selfishly i was hoping for miami
07:03which is i honestly for basketball reasons i shouldn't be hoping for miami but to spend the
07:07time in miami wouldn't have been bad um i'm curious about this new look atlanta hawks team
07:14i think i'm the other two matchups i think are favorable for the knicks but after the first round
07:19it's going to get really interesting it is and you know last week on the show we went through a
07:25bunch of first round matchups which will be most favorable for the knicks and you can go a bunch
07:28of different ways i want to get back to the word trust that i just brought up to you again
07:32because
07:33you said you trust jalen brunson and i would agree with you that's the person you can trust
07:37because there's not really a thing you could trust on this team right now but come playoff time
07:42you know this covering basketball i know this as well the game slows down we know the game slows
07:46down you get less possessions who do you trust on this team if there is somebody monica to
07:52consistently create quality offense outside of jalen brunson because right now he's the guy you
07:57trust but who else can create that quality consistent offense outside of jb on this team right now that
08:02you for them for themselves or for others yeah i'll say i'll even say right now for themselves because
08:08that because that would help but if you want to talk about for others too i'm not sure you can
08:13trust
08:13that either yeah yeah that's why i am i'm like i don't know different conversation yeah i think
08:16the numbers tell me that i can trust carl anthony town so it's been a double double machine okay the
08:21numbers tell me that and more times than not i can see that right i can see that as a
08:27formula in
08:28particular i think he's had some really good games against the rockers this season if that's how
08:31things line up um but i it's the numbers also suggest that i should be a little bit more confident
08:37right as a two-way guy as a presence um but it is to me dexter as we have watched
08:45you and i both
08:46cover basketball cover the nba
08:50the playoffs will slow down the easy baskets get harder and so to go into the playoffs already kind
08:58of scratching your head about where the easy ones come from you're only signing up for an incense day
09:02at the office so to speak and so the spray we saw this at over the course course trip in
09:08particular
09:09like teams are preparing to sit on those corner threes and picking those steals off right and so i
09:15think some of the things that we came to know about this team as does happen in the playoffs and
09:21so i'm
09:21not knocking the system but they've already shown where they are susceptible to smart defenses
09:29yeah we have seen that that kind of brings me to the cat point here monica because you mentioned
09:34him right when you look at the numbers he's a guy you would trust to be that secondary creator in
09:40terms
09:40of offense for himself but there's been a lot of talk about how he fits into this offense and this
09:45equation from the fan base right is he being maximized as a scorer is he getting the right kind
09:50of touches that's a lot of what you're hearing right now so i'm going to ask that to you is
09:54cat being
09:55maximized the right way as a scorer is he getting the right kind of touches and if not who's responsible
10:01for that is that coaching is that on the player well how do you see it with cat right now
10:05now
10:06so you set up my role so eloquently as the mixed radio analyst so i'm going to toe the line
10:11a little
10:11bit here i do not think he's being used properly i do not think that it is the sole responsibility
10:16of
10:17the token staff okay right i think there are both parties all parties because there's more than one
10:22coach i think a lot of folks are responsible in how we got here um cat is a five-time
10:29all-star
10:29might have been six i don't know if that includes this year he's an all-nba player he is a
10:34functioning
10:35adult and a high-level scorer the dynamics of coach player at every level have to be massaged
10:42in the same breath mike brown has had many a stop before he got here and i said this early
10:49in the season
10:49this was a light renovation and not a demo to mike brown's credit and i know he and cat have
10:55had to
10:56talk throughout the course of the season and the entire staff and brainstorm and they have worked to
11:00get to a place that is effective for both sides
11:05i don't know though dexter if the answer was just to run what they ran last year
11:13but i will also acknowledge that as i'm watching this team as much as things change they say the
11:17same and the formula has been typically if jaylen brunson has having a good game if carl anthony towns
11:23gives you a double double the chips fall where they may after that og ananobi has had some games where
11:28he's been surprisingly effective but that seems to be the formula and we're starting to see more
11:35sort of iso ball cats not really diving and ducking the way we've seen fours in former systems that
11:44mike brown has led he does not look like demonta sabonis that's for sure um but you see him getting
11:49the ball in spots his three started to fall better after the post after the all-star break
11:53um i like when he's aggressive and attacking the rim
11:58and that's all i got yeah and i'm the fans are gonna say well dex and monica we didn't see
12:04that
12:04last night against okc okay you're right except for the right in the fourth quarter we saw it until
12:09he came out for 20 seconds 30 seconds whatever that was yeah we didn't see that mike brown said
12:16we're gonna have this more egalitarian more open offense um you're setting me up beautifully and where
12:22i wanted to go next because the offense was supposed to be a certain way i agree with you
12:27we've seen it revert back to more uh comfortable ways i will say as as of late right but when
12:34you
12:34look at this the next team i'm going to use the word variety here monica do they have enough
12:37offensive variety whether that's pick and roll post off ball action that can keep elite defenses
12:44in a playoff series guessing do they have enough right now are you looking at it like hey this is
12:49the offense is just too predictable right now how do you see the way they're playing right now
12:54the variety is limited and i think the margin for error is limited with this group in part because of
13:00that i mean we talked about it and this this problem is not necessarily new because there weren't
13:05really a number of creators that you could look to other than jaylen brunson last year as well
13:09i mean camera vane had a few games where he was able to get some things going but like some
13:14of the
13:14same issues from last season that was so successful have persisted so for me as i'm watching the
13:19thing that i'm leaning on is this group has experience and they know how to buckle down
13:23when the postseason comes you can xo to death but sometimes it's about your jims and joes right and
13:29then there are sometimes where it's just about your will just about your ability to stay together and
13:34weather a storm and i don't want to seem nebulous because you're right we could point to a lot of
13:38basketball things that you have to understand and you have questions about going to this postseason
13:42but the other reason that we play the game is that it's not actually won on paper
13:45right is this team flawed for sure but does this team also have experience and has their
13:50course stay together you got a head coach that has been a part of championship runs you got a team
13:54that did something special last year and probably i'm not probably and wants to go back into the
13:59season with the opportunity to do something special again is the path easy no but here we are and the
14:04team's not going to change in the next month so let's figure out the best way to put this team
14:08in the most likely position to be successful yeah it's not it's not going to change in the next couple
14:13of weeks that that is that is not gonna happen at all now speaking of change monica a lot of
14:19talk
14:19among the fan base about potentially making changes to the starting lineup i i tend to think that
14:25people listen to me listen to me yes please go ahead let let this be put on the record when
14:30monica
14:30talks about the names yes i'll never take josh hart out of the starting lineup i just won't do it
14:34so
14:35here i was even going to ask you about the starting lineup because i think people pay way too much
14:39attention about the starting lineup i was just setting it up i think people pay way too much attention
14:42to start lineup i'm gonna ask you about the closing lineup that's what i'm gonna ask you
14:45what do you think is the knicks best closing five right now as they head into the playoffs does that
14:50include josh hart if he's hitting five threes like he did in okc absolutely more times than not i'm
14:57gonna go for i'm gonna have josh hart on the floor because there's a grit about him and we used
15:01the
15:01word trust earlier there's a trust that jaylen brunson has with him right so more times than not i'm
15:06gonna put josh hart on the floor could there be unique game to game scenarios yeah but to me
15:14as of late what we've seen in the season and landry shaman i know he's still out dealing with
15:17a knee injury but landry shaman is imposing potentially the toss-up between whether you
15:22need offense or defense makes a difference on whether you got mitchell robertson or probably
15:26out there most often right and then your wing is going to be og and ob jaylen brunson josh hart
15:33in
15:33my mind no mikhail bridges there
15:38based on what's been effective as of late i think landry shaman has brought more energy
15:42i would i would and i and i listen and that's not out no that's not shade landry shaman has
15:47been out
15:49and bridges has found his way a little bit better as far as scoring and then the team took the
15:53two
15:53losses that nobody looked great but we have seen one you talked about again going back to that word
15:58trust when landry shaman was healthy he has mike brown's trust and you can see it right and you can
16:06see it um what i can't think ah man the games are running together but prior to the injury at
16:12home in
16:13the garden shaman draws two uh illegal screen calls because of the way that he fights over screens right
16:20like i just think he does a number of intensible things that are worthy of being acknowledged
16:24yeah no i i would agree with that and i like i like i also like the fact that with
16:28your closing five
16:29you're willing to mix and match depending on the situation i don't think it has to be this
16:33this one thing you can mix and match it doesn't have to be 100 but more
16:37when you when we get to closing time
16:43if there's a team for defense and there's a team for offense and that's just the way it is
16:46and the way it has been that's not new yeah now you talked about defense we saw recently you know
16:53go through that seven game winning streak the knicks had a 27 game sample side where they were
16:56the best defensive team in the league granted they did play some lower echelon competition but there
17:01was some good competition in there spurs were in there nuggets were in there do you believe this
17:06knicks defense is real that we've seen from them since january do you think it's real and can you do
17:12think you can hold up against elite playoff offenses i was incredibly critical of that same concept
17:20i'm like this is inflated because of these stats yeah i'm up in the full niche what i do think
17:25is
17:26real is them understanding the communication that's required and what it looks like to be in
17:32position to play their best defense right i do buy that do i think that they necessarily are top
17:38five defense if you take those teams that were sub 500 or trying to get the lottery out of that
17:42no but that's how numbers work right i think they've done a good job of giving more effort
17:47i think they've done a good job of scheming so what is more effective to the personnel that they have
17:51i think oj adenovia should be all nba i really do i think ledgy shaman has been great on the
17:56defensive side of the basketball i even think we've had moments where cat has been really good on
17:59defensive side of basketball just for the ability to stay on the floor and not get into foul trouble
18:03jaylen bruston nobody is going to herald him as a defender but one thing you can't take away on that
18:08side is the effort that he's going to give right and josh hard i think is still a little
18:12under celebrated in terms of his versatility at that position but you will see him picking up
18:15assignments that are often designated for oj adenovia when he's not on the floor or they've
18:20got a switch yeah we saw that on sunday he picked up sga a couple of times had some good
18:24defense on
18:25him sga hit some sga shots that's what's going to happen there i was going to say that that's an
18:29mvp though so like let's not make that our right it's not like josh hard failed there right like we
18:34understand what it is a couple more things for you monica we saw deuce mcbride we saw him return
18:39against okc and then he goes out with the injury don't want to speculate but appear to be a groin
18:44injury for him uh two-part question here i guess one how big of a blow would that be if
18:49the knicks
18:50are without mcbride to start the playoffs that number one and then two because he's such a huge part
18:56of this bench do you trust this bench to give consistent positive minutes in the playoff series
19:01in a way that we didn't trust the bench as much last year do you trust the bench more this
19:06year
19:07i do trust the bench more this year particularly because lander shannon is there and brody parkson
19:11since the utah game has emerged as someone who's garnered some trust from mike brown um i think
19:18mitchell robertson is having again i use the word blossom when it comes to him because i think he's
19:21having a really good year on both sides of the floor uh so i do trust the bench more and
19:26i think part
19:27of that has just been instilled over the course of this season because mike has been vocal about
19:32believing to throw guys in just to keep guys ready right i think mo deal war has given you
19:36some good minutes now those might shrink because he is so young and the playoffs are such a different
19:40animal but you never know he could also have a sort of career night so i do trust the bench
19:44more
19:44as we move into the playoffs the mcbride piece of that question though dexter i hate to see him go
19:50down i mean he's worked so hard to get back and so hopefully it's not anything that's going to cause
19:53him to miss extended time but we'll see but that's not just about bench productivity that's you know
19:58another defender another ball handler like i was like oh the alvarado mcbride minute in spurts
20:04yesterday like we didn't even get a chance to really see what that looks like so that is a
20:07multifaceted loss yeah it really is a tough one so you kind of hit on this before a little bit
20:13monica when you look at how the knicks stack up in the east and particularly i'm talking about the
20:17top of the east because we looked at the bottom of the east and who they might face in the
20:20first round
20:21but what do you think is the biggest gap that the knicks still have to close with the rest of
20:26the
20:26teams at the top of the east so i'm talking about the celtics talking about the pistons
20:29before they get to the playoffs what's the biggest gap they have to close here
20:35okay again my i apologize for my nebulous answers basketball people i don't think that this one is
20:41actually nebulous i think folks that have watched this team know exactly what i mean i think the gap
20:45is force i just think the gap is the force with which boston detroit plays with like consistently
20:57on both sides of the ball they're gonna make you feel them and i don't know if it's a byproduct
21:02of
21:02the offense that the knicks run i don't know if you feel them and you've been alongside for this run
21:09over the last three years of being a team that's in the playoffs and has high expectations like
21:13two years ago the identity the commentary was the score gonna be low but they're gonna play hard
21:19yep i don't hear that about this group now that we're in a position where they're really being
21:24talked about as a contender um and even last year's team compared to this group i thought there was more
21:29force about last year's group that's interesting because i always hear people bring up two years ago
21:35not last year's group but i kind of understand what you're saying with that because we saw that grit
21:40come up in the playoffs we saw it when the pistons punch him in the mouth in the first round
21:43we saw
21:44it in the first two games against the celtics i think it's fair to question it because we've seen
21:48teams punch him in the mouth this year monica and the knicks kind of be like no moss right like
21:53it
21:53hasn't necessarily looked that way i guess that brings me to my final thing for you because i think this
21:57is
21:57the thing people really want to know right right now today monica are the knicks a true contender to
22:05come out of the east or do you view them as still a step below that contender ranking where do
22:11you
22:11have the knicks right now today are are they a true contender or not now you think but all my
22:16jobs
22:17i'm gonna get on here and say they're not and those are my boys hey listen sometimes people like to
22:22be
22:22spicy i don't know listen i'm telling you what i will say decision go ahead this this is what i
22:28will
22:28say of that group is the talent there yes is the margin of error small yes right um if they
22:37play
22:37outstanding basketball on both ends of the floor are they better than detroit as good as boston yes
22:43but how often do you score 100 and you test up a basketball game and so that is where i
22:47have pause
22:48right the margin for error for them is just not the same as i think the teams that are ahead
22:53of
22:53them now statistically standing without k detroit's margin has shrunk tremendously but when you look
23:00at boston i mean it's actually we were both there last season there was no way they have was supposed
23:04to do what they did last season based on the regular season record versus boston based on how
23:09those games looked through for three quarters and three quarters and three quarters of a quarter like
23:15they weren't supposed to be doing what they did last year but again that was a demonstration of
23:19force i don't know that this group has the same level of force do i think the knicks are contender
23:25yeah because they got to be you got guys on that squad that have won jaylen brunson um josh hart
23:30michael bridges like they have won and so there's winner dna in there is winning easy absolutely not
23:35do they have a limited margin of error this season absolutely limited margin of error is definitely what the
23:42knicks have we'll see how they are built for the playoffs they got a couple weeks before that i'm
23:45with monica on this not a lot is changing we've kind of seen who this team is it's just can
23:50they
23:51tweak some things before they get to the finish line of the playoffs and then on to the postseason
23:55we'll see how that goes that is the great monica minuck check her out on msg network check her out
24:00on
24:00the knicks radio network as well she does a fantastic job there you can catch her on espn and 7
24:05p.m in
24:05brooklyn doing a fantastic job there monica my sister i appreciate you for giving me some time this has been
24:11a long
24:11time coming i'm glad we got to do it um and i will say i'll see you soon but i'm
24:15resting my achilles
24:16so it'll be a while but i will catch up with you soon for sure please recover well my guy
24:20and thank
24:21you for your patience with me i was a little delayed at my facial appointment with my girl
24:25asia at august leo aesthetics if anybody's looking for a facialist shout out shout out to asia because
24:30you can see monica's skin is glowing right here and monica and i talked about this before you got to
24:35make sure you come on camera looking good we're not out here trying to look bad at all so you
24:38know you know
24:39you know how it is i know how you do sis i always appreciate you and uh thank you again
24:43for joining
24:43me on new york god game appreciate you appreciate it and thanks for watching new york god game
24:51boob shakalaka
24:52you
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