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00:15what's good everybody welcome back to another edition of new york got game the first new york
00:19got game for the month of april we are finally here in april that means the playoffs are really
00:24close should be a good month it's my birthday month your boy dexter henry here alongside brian
00:30fonseca here doing this thing remotely while we still recover from this achilles surgery here in
00:37the knicks at the time of recording this we're recording this before they play the memphis
00:40grizzlies on wednesday night knicks have lost three games in a row i can get into the memphis
00:45grizzlies game and how that's a get right game and they need to win and josh hart called it a
00:49must win
00:50and all that stuff they better win that's what i'll say but we know what a lot of you guys
00:57want
00:57to talk about which is why does it look like the mix are heading in the wrong direction right now
01:03why do things not look good they've lost three in a row again at the time of us recording this
01:08vibes are not good it's crazy because they've lost three in a row and they just finished a 10-6
01:12month
01:12and if you talk to some people it seems like the sky's falling now i understand why they've lost
01:18some good competition brian you didn't like maybe how things looked against oklahoma city i personally
01:22wasn't that bothered by that game the houston game no defensive effort to start that game that was
01:28terrible okay but i i want to talk about something that has been prominent among the knicks media
01:38content creators fans talking about it on social media there's a lot of talk about car anthony towns
01:44and how he should be used in this knicks offense brian i had monica mcnutt the great monica mcnutt
01:51on the show the other day i asked her about it she said look she doesn't think cat is being
01:55utilized
01:56right but she gave the answer that i 100 agree with a lot of times the discourse i've been hearing
02:02is
02:02this is on one person this is on mike brown he needs to just get cat the ball and be
02:09better and
02:09all the stuff and it's not it's not that simple right it's there's a lot of factors involved here
02:15and i think when we do not we because i'm not doing it but when some people lazily just put
02:20it to one
02:20person or the coach because it's the easy scapegoat i have to question are you watching these games
02:25or have you watched car the towns in the process of this over time that's that's my question brian
02:31there's specifically a lot of talk about yo you just got to give cat more post-ups
02:40and i push back on that do we is this really about cat getting the ball more because cat took
02:47a lot of
02:48shots against houston how did that end up oh newsflash the problem in that game had nothing to do with
02:53offense it was defense which i think a good amount of times some fans tend to ignore and i don't
03:01understand why there are two sides of the game cat got cat led the team shots right he had what
03:10he
03:10was 7 to 17 7 to 17 yep okay got up shots they fed him the ball in the third
03:17quarter nick still can
03:18get stops what does that have to do with them stopping uses nothing there's a lot of theory
03:24that if you get cat the ball more if you feature him more if you run the offense through him
03:29that the makes we get better but is that true does the data really tell you that right i brian
03:38i say no
03:39and i think it would actually make the knicks offense a lot worse than what it is it would make
03:44it more stagnant teams are asking for cat to just back down in the post so everybody else could just
03:49stand around they want you to do that so there's no movement we know that's not what mike brown wants
03:54to do because he talked about it at the start of the season that's not the kind of offense that
03:57he's
03:57wanted look i i gotta keep it a buck with people and brian i want to hear what you have
04:02to say
04:04post-up basketball is nice this ain't the 90s man there's a lot more spacing out there
04:09you gotta have movement and it's cat the player that you would want to then be posting up
04:16guys we've talked about this on the show this year turnover rate high we'll get to those numbers
04:23offensive fouls high leads the league in that is that somebody you trust to then give the ball
04:31in the post and bang and think that he won't turn the ball over if you were coaching and you
04:37looked
04:37at the data would you do that nah because y'all be trying to keep your job you don't want
04:42to get
04:42fired so no i when you look at the data i just think simplifying it to saying cat needs more
04:51post
04:51touches are there ways you can involve him more in the offense sure not saying that but when we
04:56reduce this to just just getting more touches in the post nah man it ain't about that brian your thoughts
05:03we're gonna look at some numbers momentarily all i'm gonna say is beforehand they play the memphis
05:10grizzlies after the time we're recording this so if cat has 40 and 18 and 4 i don't care because
05:19people watching this probably can't name three memphis grizzlies starters right now at least from
05:24their last starting lineup um and it's not going to change the point right like i don't think i don't
05:29think a get right spot with memphis ultimately is going to be what tilts this conversation if
05:37you're looking at it objectively but like i gotta be honest with you i'm deep deep in these streets
05:44in terms of knowing i know dudes who play overseas i don't do to play in and by overseas i
05:51don't mean
05:51just europe but i know dudes who are playing professionally in south america there is one
05:56starter in memphis's most recent started five that i'm not that familiar with who is on a legitimate
06:01deal and i'm going to let the people try to figure that out because they probably haven't heard of any
06:06of these starters other than cedric howard and maybe gg jackson so i gave you two right there um
06:12there's so many anonymous dudes on this team so i don't really care what happens in this game coming
06:16up okay cat i don't i don't understand this narrative like there's been just a lot of narratives and i
06:21hate
06:21the word narrative but we have to use it i don't understand like now now it's it's time for the
06:27cat
06:27narrative to take a turn where everyone and their mother is arguing that the reason the knicks haven't
06:34hit their ceiling consistently is because of the way cat's been featured in the offense when this has
06:40been a problem during his career even in minnesota where fans and reporters would be like hey
06:46why isn't cat more involved in the offense maybe it's just a cat issue okay so you want to see
06:52more
06:52post-ups yeah i yeah dude in year 11 who is in his early 30s now like maybe is who
06:59he is like also
07:00could be maybe declining a little bit like after all the the years of being an nba player and the
07:06contact and the pace and space and like it wear and tear just overall let's get to some of the
07:10numbers
07:12do you want the raw counting stats do you want specifically the post-up stats do you want the
07:17like what do you want what do you want specifically i want the people are asking for post-ups let's
07:22give them the specific post-up stats let's give it to them so cat's post-up frequency at the time
07:28we're talking about this is just 12.4 percent so they're not posting up with him a ton to give
07:34you
07:34context joel and bead which makes sense because he is joel and bead and nicole jokic is right behind
07:41him uh in terms of post-up frequency much much higher much much higher um than uh nicole jokic
07:50as a matter of fact they lead in possessions per game where nicole jokic is getting 5.7 possessions
07:55post-up possessions per game nicole jokic at 5.4 frequency is actually zach edie at number one at 32
08:01.8
08:01which it makes sense because what else are you going to do with zach edie if not post him up
08:05because he's nine feet tall so car anthony towns is around 12 other players that post up as frequently
08:12as car anthony towns or in that same vicinity pascal siakam who's tied with him bam at a bio who's
08:19slightly under john collins who's slightly under aaron gordon slightly over lebron james at 13.2
08:25so guys who are versatile offensively for the most part and do other things like cat does
08:32so cats is not being used as a post-up big that much so people want that number to go
08:36up
08:36he averages 2.3 post-ups per game he averages 0.88 post-up points per possession
08:44like when he's posting up 0.8 post uh points per possession i don't if people don't really
08:52understand like how bad that is it's not sniffing the top 50 in the nba and by the way if
09:00you really
09:01think post-up basketball is still matter by the way he's actually closer to 100 not even not in the
09:05top 50 he's closer to 100 other guys who have 0.88 post-up points per possession jalen brunson
09:14significantly smaller player guise santos wow pj washington
09:23players that are slightly better in terms of post-up points per possession this year
09:27granted with much less frequency assar thompson now with more of a frequency yusuf nurkic 0.91
09:35who does this victor wimbanyama 0.92 nick klaxon 0.92 and he's not he's like barely in the top
09:44100
09:44of post-up points per possession but for people who think post-ups still matter a ton the leader
09:49in post-up points per possession this year is ryan kalkbrenner at 1.7 ryan kalkbrenner just got
09:55benched who's a rookie who gets playing time for the charlotte hornets whose team was turned around
10:02when they benched ryan kalkbrenner to start musa diabate because they needed a defensive identity
10:09we'll get back to defense a little bit later he's the best or most effective post-up big in the
10:15league
10:15he's in the 100th percentile it's it's him like he's the guy who gets the most point up post-up
10:21points per possession it's a little bit of a tongue twister his effective field goal percentage
10:26post-ups best in the league 88.9 goga patase 83.3 column or boils 80 like these are the
10:33guys who
10:33are leading the league kelden johnson you'll see them up there it's not a be-all end-all solution
10:40for nba teams so if you want to put cat in the post more he also probably shouldn't lead the
10:49league in
10:49offensive fouls and that's another place we should head to because we talked about this all year you
10:54said it like he leads league in and offensive fouls we should stick there he has 63 offensive fouls this
10:59year so it's almost a foul per game second you want to know who that is how close are they
11:06that's the
11:07key for me okay the pro the player is jalen brown okay 36 offensive fouls so he has 27 more
11:16offensive
11:17fouls than jalen brown so how is this correlated because if your post-ups aren't that effective
11:24why are you going to post up more because chances are you're going to offensively foul the person
11:31who is guarding you by the way fourth in most offensive fouls in the nba this year dayron sharp
11:37at 31 so cat has at least double at least double the amount of offensive fouls of everybody else in
11:46the
11:46nba except for two players jalen brown who is 36 and jaron jackson jr who is 34 he is 63
11:54so so glad we looked all this data i want to say this courtesy of synergy some of you guys
12:01are going
12:01to say ah this is nerding out y'all just looking at the numbers no we've always said this on
12:06the show
12:07we use data we do film or we do film here what our eyes see we've seen the offensive fouls
12:14y'all seen it
12:14too y'all seen all the offensive fouls so i'm going to also put this question out to those that
12:21want this for cat to have more post-ups do you think that mike brown doesn't also have this data
12:28what makes you think he doesn't also have access to this data if brian and i can look this up
12:33easily
12:33and find this and he sees the guy and works at him in the system every day
12:39you look at his numbers points per possession in terms of post-ups is 0.88 so less than a
12:45point
12:45per possession and he leads the league in offensive fouls the chance of you even getting a point on
12:50there now some of you guys are going to bring up oh well cat gets hacked and he doesn't get
12:55called
12:55cats actually one of the best in the league in terms of drawing fouls he he is 10th in the
12:59nba as
13:00shooting fouls drawn he's drawn 202 shooting fouls this year that's 10th most in the nba and he's also
13:05seventh in most and ones generated now look he gets calls i don't want to belabor this because
13:11we talked about it before do refs sometimes miss calls on him absolutely sure but he does get to
13:15the line a huge amount the problem is he hurts you and other possessions causing turnovers where he has
13:23the offensive fouls sometimes it happens on post-ups sometimes it happens when he gets the ball 30 feet
13:28away from the basket and he drives clunkily and we and it's a whole adventure we all have seen the
13:32adventure this isn't here to rag on cat this is here to explain why when you watch the games and
13:39you look at the data you can understand why mike brown's like yo i don't want to do that
13:44i understand it like why you want to do it because the chances of it resulting in a positive possession
13:50for you is it good this also was in a year where cat is shooting his lowest effective field goal
13:57percentage in his career he's had a down year shooting the ball that's been documented many
14:01times according to cleaning the glass 54.8 effective field goal shooting percentage that's in the 40th
14:07percentile okay he's shooting 61 according to cleaning the glass at the rim that is in the 22nd percentile
14:15for a center that's really low
14:20not good right all these things we've seen over the course of the season we've used the word trust
14:28many times in the show and talking about it what i'm saying is when you look at the eye test
14:32and you
14:32look at the numbers i can understand why mike brown doesn't necessarily trust him in those spots
14:38because those possessions generally do not end up positively for the knicks right no no coach is trying
14:45to run plays that like oh we only we don't get a point per possession off this like you're not
14:50trying to do that that often especially cat's also shooting 50 uh from the field well no he's shooting
14:5750 on post-ups this year people will hear that and be like oh 50 like that that's a decent
15:03field goal
15:03percentage well it's like 75th in the nba more or less because it's from the post and if you're
15:12proficient in the post and you're scoring in the post again ryan kalkbrenner leads the nba and field
15:17goal percentage of post-ups right the the hornets are not out here running post-ups for ryan kalkbrenner
15:23because they'd rather the ball or the play rather be decided by labello ball conca nipple brandon miller
15:31kobe white now shit grant williams from three you know particularly like there are others other things you could do
15:38and then yokich has a lot of post-ups relative to other players in the nba in over five per
15:45game
15:45post-ups per game joel and bead yeah no because those guys are very good pass very good and great
15:50passing big men right that's the other thing very good passers alprin shangun is third most most
15:56post-up possessions in the nba 4.8 very good passer yannis do we even need to say it we
16:02did episodes on
16:03whether or not the knicks should trade for him all season long and then zach edie again nine foot six
16:07like he's fifth in the nba in post-ups possesses possesses per game because also what else you're
16:12going to do with him size wise then you go on down the list like it just makes sense so
16:16like the reason
16:17they're not posting them up it's not like some conspiracy theory it's just that it hasn't worked
16:24you haven't gotten results from it and other teams are like yo go ahead because you know what happens
16:29when you post up cat talk about it nobody else is moving everyone is standing and watching and then
16:35no one's in the rhythm offensively they ran a post up for him early on yesterday amid their run and
16:40then houston was up 22 to 5 or whatever it was anyway and you had tari easton scoring 10 straight
16:45points who hasn't been playing that well offensively for weeks yeah like in theory i understand what you
16:51guys are saying give him feed him in the post it'll get him going or it'll get him two offensive
16:56fouls
16:56then you gotta put him on the bench and then you don't have him as a weapon now would i
16:59like to
17:00see cat shooting some more threes than he's done this year yeah the confidence in his shot has come
17:04and gone people all say the post-ups will get a shot going maybe basketball is not like that anymore
17:11man yeah and i think we look you and i like this like we come from yeah but the game
17:17has evolved and
17:17there's more spacing and you have to evolve with how you're seeing the game and how you're adjusting
17:21and coaching the game and being tactically so if you're asking for the same stuff to be done 20 years
17:25ago
17:26i personally think that's foolish it's too fast it's too fast now yeah i think it's foolish the
17:31game is too fast teams are already putting athletic forwards on cat in the post they're like yo beat
17:37us like that we saw drew holiday on cat right because the bet that people are willing to make
17:43is that he's either going to turn the ball over or do something reckless you don't think the other
17:47teams have this data too they know this we have a lot of film it's april we have a lot
17:53of film
17:54right now so when people try to simplify it to this one thing it irks me because it's so lazy
17:59and
18:00they blame mike brown like mike brown doesn't know now look is it on mike brown and monica and i
18:04were
18:04talking about this to utilize him better and find different ways not just simplifying it to the post
18:08if you want to tell me hey mike brown could get him off for more action maybe some more pick
18:13and
18:13roll action with him and jalen brunton granted the numbers for that have not been that great this year
18:16we can get to that in a second fine you could tell me that but if you're just like he
18:21needs more
18:21touches in the post what are we talking about and i would also ask people why do you believe that
18:29what games or stretches of games or data which would tell you oh hey that really works there
18:34what's the game because i could tell you plenty of games where cat was playing well in the flow of
18:39the offense recently the denver game in denver the san antonio game at the garden the second time they
18:45beat them we could talk about the nba cup game i could talk about plenty of games where cat played
18:49well and he didn't have a lot of post touches now i can tell you games where they got him
18:54involved
18:54against some smaller teams the houston comeback i thought he played well in that game working shots inside
18:59and out at the garden i was there for that 18 point comeback that's fine there's different ways
19:04to utilize cat we don't have to be lazy and reduce it to just giving him post touches right we
19:10don't we
19:11don't have to do that now sorry brian go ahead you want to say something yeah and and we should
19:16we
19:16should talk about just overall scoring because the other thing and again look this is not so dissolve
19:22mike brown either because there are there are things he can be doing better as well um before people
19:28come in and they'll probably say this anyway that we're mike brown apologists like i want to be no
19:32mike brown could do a lot of things better i don't give a shit like
19:37like i ain't here i ain't here to cape for these coaches but i see what he's seeing is the
19:42point so
19:43let's talk about shots a little bit because people want cat to get more shots so we'll take it off
19:48of
19:48just the post-ups when cat shoots at least 14 times in a game this year the dicks are 19
19:55and 18.
19:55for the people who think that getting him more involved is like a direct correlation and we'll
20:01we'll we'll get to what the quote-unquote solution will be in a sec 14 times this year 14 times
20:08or
20:08more he's they're 19 and 18 when he shoots 14 times or more in games this year so yeah mid
20:15when he has
20:1612 or fewer points they're nine and two now i'm not saying less cat means better because that's an
20:22oversimplification but i'm saying more cat doesn't necessarily mean better because we have enough
20:28to sort of back that up there when he has 25 points or more they're 12 and 4 however there's
20:366 and 4
20:37when it's non-tanking teams because three of those games are against brooklyn two against with the
20:43wizards and one against chicago so six and four in competitive games or against competitive teams
20:49rather when he has 25 points or more and also reboundings because i found this interesting
20:54just from a rebounds perspective i would have thought hey if cat had more rebounds like that
20:59could mean better things but also it can come because like josh hart has been out mitchell robinson
21:04obviously doesn't play back-to-back to this missed time this year when he has 17 or more rebounds
21:08with three and five which tells you hey they desperately need the rebounding and sometimes it's just not
21:14enough and then when he has fewer than 10 rebounds they're eight and eight so i don't think there's a
21:21cat better nick's better direct solution here like it's like if he's just a lot better like all your
21:28problems are solved i think this comes back to because we have i have these similar numbers i have
21:34similar things on og on mikhail and jaylen brunson we can get to but the overall point that we're going
21:39to
21:39outline here is and y'all don't want to hear this but it's going to come back to defense because
21:44since
21:45that oklahoma city lost the first one at the garden in which they played well and we talked about how
21:49well they played they're 13th in defense so the defense has actually dropped back down after it
21:54went up to like five six seven whatever it was at its height and the defense is back down to
21:5913 on
22:00this run where they're 10 and 6 and mostly beating bad teams and their net rating is a little bit
22:04inflated because of those blowout wins and they're still 10th in that rating during that stretch
22:08but for this team to be cooking it's not ever going to be one thing because you don't have a
22:16top five player who's just going to carry you you need other guys to be clicking this team is not
22:23built
22:23for just one person to be the superstar and then everyone else to feed off of them you need a
22:28lot
22:28of things to go well because that's how you built your team you built your team with talent and also
22:33depth and guys like mitchell robinson getting rebounds as part of your identity jaylen brunson
22:39being the career being able to create cat being multi-faceted offensively mikhail bridges being a
22:43high level two-way player which he hasn't been og and ob being a high level two-way player which
22:48he
22:48has been more often than mikhail bridges has this year uh deuce mcbride being positive off your back
22:53like you need all these things to click and you need your defense to be good enough it's not just
22:57feed cat more than all your problems are solved it's never going to be that and when the knicks
23:02have won games and looked really good against really good competition it's because those things
23:07have happened right the role players have stepped up it clicks it just clicks the mitchell robinson
23:13experience has been amazing the cat experience has been amazing like cats having a down shooting
23:18here sometimes it's just about making your shots and not making shots in terms of offense however i'm
23:22with brian on this and i've been saying this all year long it's the thing that has me feeling
23:27better about the knicks now despite this three-game losing streak than i did in january because in
23:32january defense was trash we did a whole show about why they were trash at that point and we focused
23:38heavily top 20 on the defense the defense has been better even though it slipped a little bit to 13
23:43as
23:43brian just mentioned since the first oklahoma city loss i'm still more encouraged by the process of
23:49the defense as opposed to where it was early in the season but all i seem to people talk about
23:54a lot
23:55is offense and i think they can't see the forest from the trees you're missing the point
24:00like if you can't get stops if you think the problem in the houston game
24:05was offense you lost they had no intensity on defense to start that game the knicks actually played
24:12pretty good defense against oklahoma city in both of the games they played them this year oklahoma
24:16city just out executed them down the stretch they have to your point a top five player they have
24:21an mvp a guy who might win back-to-back mvps and back-to-back titles and it's a master
24:25in the mid
24:25range yeah i know some of y'all gonna be like oh he gets all the foul calls and all
24:29this other stuff
24:30all the elite players get foul calls whatever like that gets a lot of foul calls yeah 10th in the
24:35nba
24:36drawing fouls yeah we don't have to do that chase first i think but that kind of makes you i
24:41want to move
24:42to what you just said because we didn't want this to be a whole thing on cat but more about
24:48where the knicks are why they might be heading in the wrong direction or it appears that at this
24:52point and i think the other thing what you said when you talked about the role players playing
24:56well brian and all that stuff and i talked to monica about this other day i said monica who do
25:02you trust besides jalen brunson to create on this team she struggled nobody it should be mikhail
25:11should be they've been good in games when he's racked up five or more assists and we saw a lot
25:16of that from him early in the season something i liked you know it was taking jalen brunson off the
25:20ball mikhail was running things with the second unit he was getting to spots looking for guys we
25:26haven't seen that as much his assist numbers have been down it's kind of ironic because it's one of
25:32the it's one of the criticisms the pistons got where it's like without cade how can they create
25:36offense and they're like 11 and 4 in games that kate has sat by the way but how can they
25:41create
25:41offense i guess dennis jenkins is their other creator and he's low-keeping good in that role
25:49you know and it's not to shade cat because we're talking about like a creator from the perimeter
25:54cat can do multiple like he's versatile offensively obviously he can shoot despite what the post-up
26:02numbers suggest he can do that although you don't want him doing that a ton um he can score multiple
26:07levels he can get to the free throw line so on and so forth but in terms of creating offense
26:13from a guard standpoint that's what mikhail bridges is supposed to be doing um yeah the knicks and and
26:20if you don't have a second guy that's going to hurt you in the playoff yes it's gonna hurt the
26:25offense
26:25and it's gonna hurt the efficiency of how good your offense can be i think if the knicks had a
26:30secondary
26:30shot creator they can consistently trust that would help out cat these things are all connected it's
26:36not just about throwing the ball in the poster cat they had another guy now jordan clarkson who's
26:42played pretty well as of late actually on both sides of the ball gotta give him credit he's played
26:46pretty well he's back and has changed his whole season around can he give you some of that secondary
26:52shot creation off the bench hopefully in the playoffs i hope so can he be your dennis jenkins
26:58that's but but they need that so much right now because right now when you look at them you're like
27:03they don't have that yeah they don't have the guy that you trust to do this consistently so many so
27:08much of the talk is jalen brunson does too much he's shooting too much too much of the offensive
27:12responsibilities on him and i agree but who who's gonna help him right and boston has both jays and
27:20also pain pritchard can get you a shot he can get you a fucking good one but that's the thing
27:25if you go
27:26through the contenders that we want to call they've got multiple guys that can get you a shot
27:30right now the only guy you really feel good about is jalen brunson that's a big part of the problem
27:36right brunson needs the other guys to help him if og can help a little bit in that and not
27:42turn over
27:42the ball if mikhail could help a little bit in that and i want to be honest i think mikhail
27:47in this
27:48whole equation and this point about them lacking a secondary shot creator i think he's way more of the
27:53problem there's a whole bunch of problems but i think he's way more of the problem here
27:57and what's wrong with them on the offensive side right because he's not bringing you the value that
28:03you would have thought with that if he was doing that it would help out you know another thing when
28:09you how you get easier shots getting to the line we've i won't go into it we talked about how
28:13he
28:13doesn't do that right so these are all things you have to look at in the offense to say
28:19this is why sometimes like brian said when everything is going well the offense can look
28:23real dope everything is clicking but when it's not and it's too stagnant because there's not a
28:29secondary shot creator or you're worrying about forcing it into the post and it being a turnover
28:33or possessions are halted momentum is halted those are huge parts of the problem remember how we talked
28:40about mikhail bridges free thurabian um 0.100 last year which is really low it's 0.097 it's worse
28:53um yeah because i want to i want to like shot creation isn't just about even getting the shots up
28:57correct and i want to get to that i just want to bring it to it's about either finding guys
29:01sometimes
29:01too okay you can create shots for others or can you get easier points for yourself to help win
29:06possessions basketball is about winning possessions you still win possessions when you get to the
29:11free throw line right so if you have a secondary shot creator who even if he gets to the line
29:16four times a game right even if that's jordan clarkson let's say jordan clarkson in playoffs
29:20gets the line four times a game that's huge for the knicks that's huge for them off their bench
29:25right because you know who's going to sometimes get to the line mitchell robinson
29:28but is he going to hit those and help you win those possessions nope because we know that's an
29:32adventure who else beside brunson can get to the line and get you easy points the knicks sometimes
29:38when you look at the offense when it's really overworked they're not getting easy points some
29:41of you guys thinking well the easy points are in the post no when you look at the numbers with
29:46cat
29:46the points for possession and posting up it's not easy clearly you know and people wouldn't think this
29:51but you know what's a way more effective play and that they don't do this a lot for obvious reasons
29:56but you know you know who is uh tied i'm gonna i'm gonna give you two guesses there are two
30:02players
30:02tied for the for leading the league in a points per possession on isolations at 1.75 one of them
30:09is a nick
30:10carol brunson josh hart that's hard that's interesting the other one is cam thomas
30:18not in the league who's not even in the league um colisex in third actually jose alvarado's fourth
30:24well i i think this is only his pelicans tenure though i think that's only counting his pelicans
30:28not counting his next stats yeah because it's listing it that way
30:35look the secondary shot creation is huge on this too here's the other thing just to get back to
30:41something else we talked about and then i'll get some mikhail after that yeah actually no go go back
30:48to mikhail we'll get to this last thing that i'll mention in terms of why it looks like they could
30:52be
30:52trending the wrong way and why there might be some concern but go go to mikhail first because
30:56that ties into the shot creation
31:00i like that you mentioned shot creation is not just about points because that's important so
31:06when mikhail bridges scores 20 or more points which has only happened 15 times a season as we're
31:12recording this believe it or not there's seven and eight there's seven and eight in those games now
31:18we'll continue when he takes 15 or more shots in the game they're nine and ten which is interesting
31:25too because i think we all think he should shoot more than you know four times against the houston
31:31rockets but nine and ten again doesn't mean the correlation is not always causation or however that
31:38works uh when he takes when he takes less than 10 shots in the game the 13 and six when
31:43he scores less
31:43than 10 points in the game there's seven and six but this is the key this is the important piece
31:48of
31:48shot creating and this this is one where it swings so far in that direction where it's like it has
31:54to
31:54there has to be some sort of correlation here and you wanted me to look this up and i did
31:59when mikhail bridges has five or more assists in a game the knicks are 23 and six
32:08by the way the only other metric i could find that's like similar there's two others no one other
32:14really when og ananobi scores 20 or more points which has happened 24 times this year more than
32:24mikhail bridges by a good amount the knicks are 20 and four so when you're getting that production from
32:31og ananobi you tend to get the playmaking from mikhail bridges and if both those things happen
32:39then guys are able to feed off of that you know what i mean and it also probably means that
32:44the
32:44defense is playing well guys are in rhythm so on and so forth um i i think this is important
32:49here
32:49because i think it is when we look at games and og is playing really well offensively that means you
32:54know you're getting a high level two-way player because he's always bringing it defensively no matter what
32:59yo it's important the og stat i would have guessed he's 16 games there's 16 games over 500 when he
33:05scores 20 points or more i would have guessed it would have been somewhere in the 12 to 13 range
33:1015 and 4 when he takes 15 or more shots also so aggressive og who does not love the defense
33:15is good
33:16it doesn't shock me brian that when their best two-way player has a really good offensive game correct
33:22that they'll be better that doesn't shock me i also see how that can really set up bridges
33:27where i would i would love i could think of some of the games off the top of my head
33:30where og played
33:31well and those games also bridges played well and the ball was moving well and there was a good flow
33:35to the offense in the way mike brown wants to play look we have seen this team be good i'll
33:42get to
33:42this in a second about the team being good when we wrap on this but the last thing i want
33:46to say is
33:47why i think this team brian looks to be trending the right way recently the defense has been
33:53inconsistent and you kind of touched upon that with where they've been since the first oklahoma
33:57city loss so when you look at the last couple which is a month basically a month sample size
34:00charlotte the defensive effort was not there to start the game the defensive effort was there
34:05against oklahoma city i will not say anything about the next defense in that game both times
34:09yeah both times houston absolutely not utah wasn't there and then you know they kind of
34:1518 19 in that game and then utah just punted we're like we'll give you the game
34:20we're trying to you you're not going to be able to win officially in the playoffs against better
34:27teams better offices and defenses if you don't bring it on the defensive side of the ball i say
34:32this all the time shots are going to come and go they're going to be there's going to be a
34:35game
34:35in the playoffs so nicks don't shoot well they're gonna shoot around 40 percent the good teams that
34:40win those games because they get stops they lock in they force turnovers sometimes in those games
34:46when the threes aren't falling can they get some easy buckets something that we just talked about
34:50this team can struggle to do with some times when this team is going well they're getting turnovers
34:54they're getting buckets in transition think about all the good wins they had think about those nba cup
34:58games think about the san antonio game of the garden think about the start to the san antonio game on
35:03new year's eve in san antonio before they you know collapse in the second half first half to get in
35:09transition out getting easy easy buckets you know there wasn't a lot of in that game post-ups for cat
35:15wasn't a lot of that you like this team has cannot take games off on defense they have to
35:23be consistent we saw a stretch where the defense process has been better they've got to get back
35:27to that over these final after we record this five games of the season they got to get back to
35:33this i
35:34don't know if this team can flip a switch this team has been mattingly inconsistent
35:42we've been saying it all year fans are frustrated i understand why
35:48but we also know the talent is there we've seen some talent we've seen highs the highs have been
35:53really good the valleys like we saw in january that was low we've seen it but if they are able
36:03to
36:03diversify their offense a little bit more get some secondary shot creation and improve things
36:08defensively things we've seen them do at times this year so it's not like i'm like you can't be like
36:15yo dex we haven't seen this at all this season oh no you've seen it you haven't seen it consistently
36:21and that's a fair point but you've seen it now is that going to work in the playoffs can they
36:25just flick
36:25the switch and i don't like that as a recipe to go into into playoffs and just think you're going
36:31to
36:31flip the switch not the way i would go about it and so i understand the cause for concern is
36:35real
36:37but this is why this conversation is so frustrating this is why we're still having this conversation
36:42about stuff but i think what we have to do as a basketball loving community is not be so reductive
36:49with things when we watch the games and analyze it it's not just one coaching switch you just do this
36:55mike brown there's this next team is flawed they got flaws we've been saying this all season long
37:02this is not a perfect team and i just also want to say this to everybody brian and i were
37:07talking about
37:07this earlier today a lot of these other teams that are contenders they got flaws too their fan bases
37:13are sitting here be like oh yeah what are we gonna do the calves just lost to the lakers the
37:17other night
37:17the celtics dropped one to the hawks right there's been stuff the knicks can still get the two seed
37:25there's still a lot of things in play denver they've fallen in the west houston
37:30i think it's an important point because like yeah people people just kind of look at this and
37:35i do think if we're being honest with ourselves some of you guys just watch the knicks maybe you'll
37:41watch the league loosely you may only have time for the knicks and that's okay yo that's fine as two
37:46people who watch the rest of the league i'm telling you other fan bases are annoyed too maybe not the
37:53spurs as much maybe not the thunder as much although they're they're developing a little bit of a complex
37:57because people just don't like their team as much and the the the love affair is over with the group
38:02interviews and such and people demonize the shape for getting foul calls but like lakers fans weren't
38:09pumping their chest all year until now that they've gotten some wins they're starting to feel themselves but
38:15they also have some angst about the defense nuggets fans nuggets fans are done with their team's
38:20defense like they're they're they don't they're on twitter freaking out i've been talking to my guy
38:24matt more about this like it's been it's been kind of unsettling over there at minnesota they don't
38:30know what to do because they're kind of like a version of the knicks who i don't think are as
38:35good
38:35necessarily although anthony edwards you could argue is better than everyone on the knicks but still
38:40minnesota has their flaws as well houston's had an offensive problem for however long
38:44at this point and even their defenses look disconnected at times they haven't been awesome
38:50and then you look over at the east obviously with the pistons it's it's kind of gravy for them but
38:55k
38:55cunningham's now in limbo and you don't really know how that situation is going to materialize boston
38:59got tatum back they have their title but they want to win another one and they're not uh thrilled with
39:06every single element like there's there's some things that probably need work but they're probably
39:09a little bit more happy uh and then cleveland there's a lot of angst in that fan base because
39:13how how much longer is this going to last and what happens if this team loses in round two or
39:18round one
39:18like a lot of fan bases are annoyed by the way can i throw one more cat thing at you
39:22because i just
39:23looked this up up coming back to cat he has 0.88 points per possession on post up right as
39:32a picking
39:33as the as a as the role guy in the pick and roll 1.3 so maybe figure out
39:44how to get him touches as a roller which by the way 1.3 is not elite but still aaron
39:52gordon aaron gordon
39:52aaron gordon gets 1.7 you know what i mean like not on a ton of frequency but still
39:59mitchell robinson is a really good role man statistically but like like there are it doesn't
40:05have to be just post-ups is the point right they haven't even figured out like even we still haven't
40:10seen like how often have we seen brunson and cat together like in actions but it's not that simple
40:17either because that's a little bit too predictable which is why all these other things have to go well
40:21because if teams are just like well brunson and cat like they know how to guard that already
40:25you know and then more diversity in your offense right and then you what you try to do is attack
40:30them on the other end which is going to happen in the playoffs so look they can get to the
40:33finals
40:34or they can lose in the semi-finals or they can lose in the conference finals i don't know but
40:38i
40:38kind of feel the same way about this team now as i felt the majority of the year they have
40:42the talent
40:43and the ability both ways to make it to the finals they could also lose in the second round because
40:49you're likely going to see boston or detroit in the second round series which is going to be very
40:54tough you're capable of beating either of those teams in the series even even with what you've
40:59shown in the detroit matchups this year it's going to be tough either way so we're kind of right back
41:05where we were even last year except i'm a little more optimistic about this team this time around
41:10because it doesn't feel like the gulf is what it was last year in the regular season with cleveland
41:15and boston and them and then they beat boston anyway i agree like like i said this team is
41:25inconsistent it is what it is i think what you got to hope for now as a nick fan the
41:31last couple of
41:32games hasn't looked great it hasn't looked like they're trending in the right direction
41:36they've got five games where they could do something will it matter i don't know i think
41:41it depends who they beat in those games how they play do they win the division do they get the
41:45two
41:46seed we'll see i i think what you got to hope for at this point if you're a nick fan
41:52is play well
41:54build some more good habits before the playoffs stay healthy that's it that's it the last three games
42:01before us recording this not been good i get why you're frustrated but there's so much more to the issues
42:11that are going on with this team than just currently towns and his touches in the post
42:19excuse me i'm gonna deal with my allergies and coughing there's so much more than just that with
42:24him and it is the other things you mentioned is the defense being brought consistently it is him
42:29lacking a secondary shot creator can those things be figured out between now and the playoffs we'll see
42:35i don't know we'll see there is still some time it's late i hear you if you don't want to
42:41buy it i i'm
42:42not telling you to brian saying i can see this going a variety of different ways i would say the
42:46same
42:46thing too the talent is there though the talent is there now is the cohesion there to come together to
42:55get
42:55that done that's what we will see but we'll find out also the game plan and look in plan too
43:02i think
43:03what mike ground has done well last thing i'll say before we wrap you've seen a lot of different guys
43:08play he's prepared guys for a lot of different situations i've been saying all season i think
43:12that's going to matter in the playoffs i think that's going to matter in the playoffs we'll see
43:19but we've got about five games to go between now and the playoffs i understand they didn't look
43:23good at the end of march they still finished march 10 and 6. they still got some games to go
43:26they're going to win 50 games they're going to playoffs for the fourth straight year
43:30the sky's not falling it's it's it's not falling not yet it's not falling it may but it falls when
43:37it falls you'll know we'll know yeah we'll know for sure but that's going to do it for this episode
43:41of new york got game that is brian fonseca we hope you enjoyed this one let us know what you
43:46think the knicks need to fix and in the comments don't just say offense fix on offense and defense
43:51how do you think they can get better how can the offense get better how can the defense get better
43:57who should be that secondary shot creator talk to us about all of that also send us your question
44:02and comments i'm sure we will do a mailbag before the playoffs um but we will see how these final
44:07five
44:07games go we are now in the home stretch here on new york got game he's brian fonseca i'm dexter
44:11henry
44:12we'll catch you next time on another edition of new york got game
44:17and thanks for watching new york got game
44:20boob shakalaka
44:21you
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