- 6 minutes ago
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:16what's up everybody welcome back to another edition of new york got game it's your boy
00:19dexter henry with my guy brian fonseca we're coming to you after the knicks had a beat down
00:25of the bulls at the garden on wednesday night the knicks have now won four out of their last five
00:30games this afternoon three start they are four and four they're back at 500 do you remember
00:37not too long ago people were panicking they'll panic again at some point you know what i mean
00:42like it is what it is it's a long regular season it does feel like they're kind of just coasting
00:46through the regular season right now admittedly um do you want to explain to people why we're
00:50so differently dressed today uh yeah i mean people see this they're like it's not people
00:55haven't seen me in a suit because you watch obviously but usually on these thursdays i'm
01:00really casually dressed but i have some play-by-play duties after this so i actually had a tie on
01:05i
01:05took that off and our technical director sam looked at me like i had two heads because i had a
01:09tie on
01:10and she hadn't seen me with the tie but here i am that's why we're very and i tend to
01:13not wear a suit
01:14when we do this so you tend to not wear a suit period i've never seen you in a suit
01:18that's not
01:19true yes it is one of my i will see you in a suit of some form next year for
01:24sure that's guaranteed
01:25true yeah but no you used to do for what one of my first jobs when we worked together you
01:31know
01:31oh yeah yeah yeah yeah i wasn't the biggest fan of it but like i understood the job was the
01:38job
01:38i was gonna say i don't it wasn't really like this they kind of they didn't make you put on
01:43a full
01:43suit it's like a jacket no yeah yeah and yeah and i bought a couple suits because you know you're
01:49like
01:49you're you're younger you're early in your career you're more impressionable and you think and you
01:52think that it matters and stuff but like i have suits last time i wore one what when did my
01:58brother
01:59get married 2023 that's the last time you put on a suit i don't think i've put one on since
02:05i've
02:05definitely put on a blazer since but i don't i haven't put on a full i've i've done the blazer
02:09with jeans and you know all white kicks i've done that since yeah yeah look i might put i might
02:14put
02:14a blazer on for the holiday party we'll see i doubt it but we'll see you're gonna have to get
02:19a picture
02:20people don't understand you're gonna have to get a picture look i can dress well i just i just don't
02:24suits are not suits are not the most i'm not saying that you dress poorly that's not the really
02:27suits is just not the most comfortable for me okay i like a suit this this might be the only
02:32time
02:32you see me in a college shirt here for this episode play by play duties um shout out to shout
02:37out to manhattan so yeah so the knicks demolished the bulls 135 to 105 welcome sight for many people
02:43watching this i would imagine finally if you're a nick fan you're like hey they played a complete
02:47game straight through now against the bulls against the bulls but the competition matters yeah
02:52worst point differential in the nba chicago yeah by the way i think they've given up at least a hundred
02:56like twenty something points every game yeah the net rating is like minus 17 nicks had 84 points in the
03:02first half i'm gonna explain to people i was at another event and i did not go to the garden
03:08for
03:08work so i was going uh to a suite courtesy of somebody i know who invited me to suite and
03:14i was
03:15with one of my co-workers here we were at another event and we got to the spot right we
03:20get to the
03:20spot the co-worker my our good friend jenna limicelli shout out to john so we leave we're not far
03:27from the
03:27garden we leave right at tip-off we see nicks are up like i think it was like four three
03:31or something whatever and i walk into the suite and it's like right towards the end of the first
03:37quarter and they've got 40 points i'm like what because i hadn't been paying attention we hopped
03:41on the train we walked and i'm like damn so it's a tough one for tiago splitter this year tough
03:48tough
03:48one not his fault though bulls don't look good yeah here's my thing caleb wilson does all right but
03:52i'm not saying the fans should be you know you went from oh and three to four and four they've
03:58won
03:58four out of the last five i'm not saying you should be overjoyed they look completely back
04:02and forth i don't think we're going to say that at all here on this show that's what i'm saying
04:05but
04:06what we will say is what do you think has changed in that time and what do you think actually
04:12looks
04:12sustainable because that's the big thing going forward what's changed and what's actually
04:16sustainable and if something has changed because my thing is always level of competition
04:22and we saw a decent effort against brooklyn you want to call it that like a little dicey for
04:28too long and then they ended up pulling away late and in chicago they had a complete game but part
04:34of
04:34that to me is just like okay you're you're taking care of your food you're doing what you should do
04:38to be honest against a team of this quality no disrespect to the bulls they just haven't been
04:43great this year uh mantas was zealous hasn't popped josh kitty's looking so on and so forth
04:49if this were to happen against cleveland saturday you know two days from when we're talking about
04:53this then that's a little bit of a different story because cleveland's had mostly you know good
04:57regular season so far um you have yeah you know what i mean but and but you know two losses
05:04to the
05:04thunder they had a bad loss to philly early on but they've looked okay um and the knicks have looked
05:10better as of late i think the their best game this year by far is the pistons game because that's
05:15the
05:15one where you you circled on the calendar you haven't beaten detroit in a regular season in a
05:20long time yeah down 13 after one right yeah it looked very very dicey um i'm jose alvarado i
05:28think missed that game also uh obviously jaylen durham wasn't there although jaylen durham wasn't
05:32there for any of the three games you lost to them by double digits last year so you know for
05:36you to
05:37overcome that stave off a little bit of a comeback at the end too where it looked like oh detroit
05:42you know
05:42they brought this within basically single digits and you know i think that was probably the the sign
05:48where and that was coming off the oh and three start where it was like okay you need to show
05:52something so that this doesn't get a little too far but now it feels like they've mostly righted
05:57the ship they're taking care of business they did lose to philly again i think philly has done great
06:02so far i also wonder if they're peaking a little early but we'll see what happens with with healthy
06:08right with the two cleveland games and then you have that road trip coming up that is going to be
06:12you
06:12know maybe haliburn's back we'll see but you do have toronto back-to-back times in minnesota uh so
06:17things can get a little interesting there we're gonna get to that to the end of the show where
06:20we look look ahead a little bit at what's coming up next for the next guy do agree look for
06:25me when
06:26you talk about what's changed they make shots they're starting to make yeah honestly yeah like
06:31sometimes it's not really that deep the knicks were really struggling with making shots i talked
06:35about this early in the week with stefan bondi and we talked about you know how they're struggling
06:40in the mid-range they're struggling at the rim you know their three-point percentage it's been
06:45varied some players like landry shaman was shooting the ball really well look the captain um started
06:50hitting some shots he set the tone and and and we'll get to him in a second but i think
06:54a lot of
06:55this comes down to shot making the knicks offense was better you know when we talked after the own three
06:58start when i had vinnie goodwill on the show the knicks were if you're looking at the nba stats and
07:03not cleaning the glass which i love to look at they were dead last in offense right and it wasn't
07:08looking
07:08good now they're closer up to middle of the pack things are looking a bit better the thing for me
07:14that i've liked throughout this that i think matters a ton the defense hasn't fallen off and
07:19sometimes i know we talk about this a lot in football when the defense is ahead of the offense
07:24me personally i like that if the defense is good the defense is still very connected
07:28you know they held the bulls to 105 they held the nets the other day on monday to 90 points
07:33in that comeback the defense has still been strong philly in both of the losses right you know 106
07:39and 98 there's a world in which had the knicks maybe done some of the little things like we were
07:43talking about during the oh and three stretch taking care of the ball making some shots down
07:48the stretch they normally make getting their free throws you could be looking at this team
07:53probably sitting at i don't know he's six six and two yeah you could be talking about that yeah
08:00you get one of the philly games and then and maybe you actually take that orlando game or the
08:05boston game really because it looked like they were late and then tatum just hit two amazing shots
08:11yeah i i this is why i personally was not that worried when they were oh and three i saw
08:17it as
08:17shots are just aren't falling there's things they can fix there are fixable issues yeah i still think
08:22there still are some issues that i'm concerned about i was gonna say yeah but there were fixable
08:27issues they could fix so i'm not surprised they're back at four and four i think it's good that
08:32they've sort of righted the ship i think the offensive continuity has looked better you're seeing
08:36more guys move you saw that again it was the balls but you're seeing guys move you see cutting
08:41we'll get to some of that later but you're seeing some good things that i think should be encouraging
08:45for knicks fans where you don't have to be like oh my god what's going on with this team
08:48i think they're going to be okay we had said that when they were oh and three i still think
08:53that
08:53they're four and four i agree with brian you still want to see them do it against some
08:58higher level competition yeah and they will be tested with that coming up soon we'll get to that
09:02later in the show but yeah i think for now what's changed going from oh and three to four and
09:06four is
09:07just a little bit of comfortability maybe knocking off some of that championship rush and they finally
09:11started hitting some shots yep 50 43 from three that'll do it that'll do it for you can't be mad
09:18at
09:18that who got game all right we are going to talk about who got game this week and for the
09:27second
09:27week in a row brian and i we agree on the same person i don't think it was it was
09:32that deep we
09:32tried i tried not to but like there's really just one choice for this there's one choice and it's
09:37jalen brunson man yeah it's jalen brunson when you look at what he did particularly against the bulls
09:4322 in the first quarter and listen the captain needed to find his shot he needed to find the
09:48confidence i think what i like seeing in that first quarter sure he hit a bunch of threes but
09:53i like that he was able to get to his mid-range game the floater was working the midi pull
09:57-up was
09:57working you were seeing him feel like he was really in his bag rhythm shots rhythm shots again it's the
10:03bulls it's the bulls yeah we're gonna keep saying it you still have to start building confidence
10:07somewhere right and and that's what i like to see from him in that and i think that when you're
10:12seeing this from jalen brunson where jalen brunson had been struggling again was i personally worried
10:19about him no right but do you feel like with this once he's starting to find his rhythm that the
10:25rest
10:25of the offense can find his rhythm yes because you want him to be able to set the tone like
10:30that and
10:30also it's like you just want to see if you're the knicks and if you're a knick fan you just
10:35want to
10:35see jalen brunson hit shots especially since that hasn't been the case this year so far for the most
10:40part you just want to see him hit these makeable shots these shots that he's you know and i wonder
10:45like you know we don't know the impact of the wrist injury i'm sure he's never going to admit
10:49whether it's like significantly bothering him or not that's something too where it's like you're
10:53playing off of the surgery now he did spend a bunch of the offseason you know other than the
10:58appearances and stuff which you know he earned was just healing the wrist and not being able to you
11:03know do probably as much as he would in a customary offseason so maybe it just takes longer to
11:07shake off the rust like it wouldn't be surprising to me if he just sort of plummets again a little
11:12bit for a couple games and then comes back up and it's still a little inconsistent for a month
11:15like maybe he really hits it into gear once we get to christmas or something like that or maybe he's
11:20just back now and he just all of a sudden has his rhythm but yeah you want your best player
11:24to make
11:25those makeable shots because part of the knicks being the champions last year and having that secret
11:30sauce on the fourth quarter was hey jalen brunson can get to any spot on the floor which we saw
11:35yesterday and be able to hit this shot from here from this elbow this pull up three from the top
11:40of the key do all these different things and being able to just hit those shots like that's really the
11:45antidote for a lot of this so to see him do that even though it's against the bulls which we
11:49keep
11:49saying like it is encouraging because you you just wanted to see that hey this can still happen
11:54consistently you know what i liked that he showed against the bulls in that 22 points of his 33 in
11:59the
12:00first quarter for me it was something that we talked about in the offseason particularly when we were going to
12:04this season and we said knicks can't play with their food the bulls were food they came in as food
12:09the knicks did not play with it jalen brunson set the tone so it was i like seeing that from
12:14him not
12:15just getting in rhythm but also setting the tone and saying yo we need this to be an easy night
12:20i don't
12:20think there was a starter that played over 30 minutes if i remember correctly from last night you
12:24are correct and as a matter of fact he's the only one that played well over 25 minutes he played
12:2928
12:29right yeah everyone else was 25 and under and i like you know i like it listen love it if
12:34you get
12:34nine pacom dottier minutes then you know you've done your job yeah yeah and it was good and listen
12:41you got to see some other you got him doing that and josh hart was out but you got other
12:45guys involved
12:46you got mohammedia warra you got dalton connect who we'll get to in a second you got um you got
12:52to see
12:52some decent minutes from both cola play 10 and alvarado 12 yep and so you got to see what james
12:58wiseman got minutes wiseman yeah so you got to see this these are games when the knicks take care of
13:03their business and their leader does what he's supposed to do where it allows mike brown to see
13:08more from some guys that he wants to see allows him to experiment a little bit more i you know
13:12i think
13:13all that stuff matters so for me it was why jalen brunson gets the who got game award this week
13:18if you
13:19want to call it that or why we're recognizing him is yes offensive efficiency looked good he also
13:23played decently well in the brooklyn game at 19 points on 6 of 16 shooting but you know i think
13:29for him to have this kind of offensive explosion set the tone put that game to bed early for his
13:34team
13:34i think that mattered a lot yeah and i really was i really was impressed with that now to get
13:40to
13:40something we'll definitely hit on later in episode do you want to see that carry against better
13:45competition yeah um obviously with some of the teams that are coming up and i'm sure jalen brunson
13:50will be up to the challenge but you make a good point about the wrist i think that's still something
13:54to talk about with brunson throughout the season and not just poo poo it and put it to the side
13:58different it's surgery like surgery yeah i know this from this year you're always still adjusting
14:03and trying to come back and you're not just 100 overnight there's been surgery there's been clips
14:08circulating where like fans have posted you know just him like kind of shaking his wrist in the
14:12middle of a game like i've seen some of that so yeah i'd be curious to know if that's affecting
14:17him
14:17at all uh even even mentally because you know at the end of the day and this is something that
14:21we've
14:21talked about in the offseason leading up to it is like you're going to take a lot of contact still
14:25because he draws a lot of contact he gets to the free throw line a lot he draws a lot
14:29of fouls
14:30and a lot of this is just guys just smacking down at your hand because you're left-handed dominant
14:34you're dribbling the basketball you know what i mean and like that can have an impact on you too
14:40because that could be added wear and tear to something that's post-surgery so yeah some
14:45something to keep an eye on but jalen brunson very impressive uh short stint for him this week
14:50in the two games 33 point explosion against the bulls definitely a good look he gets
14:54the nod for who got game this week game recognize game
15:02all right time for game recognize game the players that we watched it might be a little bit under the
15:08radar doesn't get a lot of the shine but we're going to give them some shine this week we had
15:13two different players last week ryan i have two different players this week um very interesting
15:17brian's choice is somebody who uh made his nick debut on wednesday night and again it's the bulls
15:27but looked kind of good and that's your boy dalton connect you saw what you wanted to see
15:32nicks uh two-way nicks two-way uh 17th overall pick in 2024 uh right ahead of tristan da silva
15:41who
15:41the nicks saw not too long ago right behind jared mccain uh who's now with the thunder made a very
15:47good impression right away with the lakers and then quickly fell out of the rotation also got traded but
15:52the trade got rescinded so a little bit of a topsy-turvy time in la but in new york uh
15:58so far so good
15:59that one game again one game one game but we're gonna look at some film around what brian found
16:04good with his boy dalton connect in this one uh let's let's look at what he did i mean he
16:10started
16:10off with a uh a pretty impressive play um in this one yeah so he finishes the game with 10
16:17points and
16:17seven rebounds uh shoots you know 67 from the field which is obviously very very efficient um two
16:24or four from three this is all in 16 minutes so he plays well here okay so here's connect bottom
16:29of
16:29the screen uh with guys who play very often so with the most important nicks obviously on the team
16:36brunson towns oh gee yeah yeah yeah yeah second quarter this is connect getting a shot with the
16:42real lineup which i think is smart by mike brown it's like all right let me see what you do
16:46with
16:47you know this like these guys the essential guys some of the essential guys on the team so here's connect
16:52here's jaylen brunson night first of all great crossover manipulating the screen usage here watch
16:59connect move without the ball at the bottom of the screen as landry shamit relocates to the corner
17:07so they're switching here we go little confusion here norman powell has to be the last line of defense
17:14which is great for the knicks and here's shamit wide open good look great look and connect was open
17:22too so because connect was open well this is what you should do instead of just worrying about you
17:29know potentially getting back in transition if you can get this offensive rebound and you're up by so
17:33much who cares yeah look at this see this is what mike brown was talking about when he said people
17:40think
17:41because he's white he's just a shooter but if you saw him in college if you saw him in college
17:46especially at tennessee like not even half of his shots were from three a bunch of them were but not
17:50even half of them you can put the ball on the floor we'll see that later and he can do
17:53this yeah and
17:54he can do this this is a great great following the shot here good pass great shot and this is
18:01even a
18:02better look obviously crashing a glass here nobody boxing him out and this is what this is what will get
18:07you in the rotation yes it's not just shooting it's plays like these that's the point because
18:11the coaching staff is going to look at this play and say you did a little things you recognize the
18:14situation yep you saw the space you crashed the boards you then got the rebound and the putback
18:20put it in and the crowd was hyped off of that of course when that happened they were they went
18:23crazy
18:24because i think a lot of the crowd thought that he was just a shooter as well too and then
18:27they had to
18:28realize nah man don't connect can do some other things we don't have to stereotype people like this
18:32yeah but um yes i agree with you 110 that that is what is it seems like a very small
18:39thing but it
18:39makes a coach be able to even say hey can i trust you in a five minute spurt yeah can
18:43i trust you to
18:43make good basketball plays just here on the offensive end where you're not going to mess things up yeah
18:48and now we look at the second play here so this is also in the second quarter it's the same
18:53lineup
18:54we're ending the second quarter here nick still have a massive massive lead here's connect at the
18:57bottom of the screen once again uh he's going to be brought into the action more closely
19:01here uh jalen brunson gets rid of it and this is with patrick williams guarding him basically at
19:07half court so connect here has a chance to create a shot with 10 seconds left this is just it
19:12feels
19:13like just mike brown just testing let me just let me just see what he can do we're up 30
19:16it's the
19:17bulls i was looking at this at the game and i'm like i want to see what he can do
19:20yeah so here we go
19:21don't connect create a shot now okay a little bit of a push some guys get away with that including
19:28prominently one of his own teammates but this is the nba a little bit of a push off here but
19:34create
19:35some separation they want to call the crowd ooze and oz bang all right under control rolls and fired
19:42it was a really good shot if you can get away with it then it is what it is but
19:49the more get away
19:50it is not a crime the more important thing the more important thing is that once again he actually
19:56like you get a good shot off early in the shot clock too because what you really want here
20:01is if you notice is eight seconds left or six seconds left on the shot clock this late when you
20:07want to it can basically be a one possession scenario and look ignore the fact that they have
20:12a massive lead but you want a chance to rebound the basketball too you know you don't always want
20:16to just wait to the last second and you have car anthony towns there with caleb wilson so you have
20:21a good shot but this is just a great play just creating offense from don connect so you saw multiple
20:26dimensions there you saw the rebounding the attacking again first impression people want to
20:31wear their best stuff on the first day of school but it's it's encouraging it's what you wanted to see
20:36from a two-way guy if you're mike brown so here's a question for me though the when you look
20:40at this
20:40because everybody will be hyped about what they saw here with dalton connect but do you think he
20:45actually has an opportunity to carve out a real role in this team especially with the way mike
20:49brown has been experimenting with different lineups so if healthy it'll be tough but this is not how
20:55the nba works now like everyone's getting hurt josh hart part of why he played josh hart didn't play
21:00in the game that's a good point um so this is just something that's going to keep happening and jose
21:05alvarado's obviously struggled with the ankle they're going to find time to rest guys like no one's
21:09going to play 82 games it looks like except for mikhail bridges and i just think that when you're
21:15trying to get through a season like yeah he's going to have an opportunity we saw this last year
21:19tyler kolik had an opportunity to really make an impression he was instrumental in that nba cup
21:24championship run he was instrumental in some other big moments but then when it came time for it like
21:29hey they went and got jose alvarado and ultimately he helped you win a championship like he helped you
21:33in critical moments during the playoffs and especially during those finals but everyone's going to get
21:38like not maybe not every single player but but like a lot of guys are going to get opportunities
21:43here and the way nba teams are utilizing two-way players and those two-way spots now yeah you have
21:48to get something out of them otherwise the turnover could be very quick i'm also going to add that why
21:52you also want to see if you can get stuff out of guys or if you do want to end
21:56up signing them to an
21:57actual contract trade possibilities yes if the knicks are going to make a move which i think they should
22:02to upgrade backup center but that is a story that we will get to even deeper on the show but
22:07you you need
22:07looks at guys that could either you can say okay if we make a move and we're doing a two
22:12-for-one deal
22:12yeah for say do we still have guys that we think can be on the roster and contribute so this
22:18is why
22:18it's important to get a look at somebody like uh dalton connect i think that's why it is so important
22:23and also for him you're playing for your career now you were kind of a bust as a first round
22:29pick
22:30you didn't get your contract obviously renewed uh you didn't make it to the fourth year team option
22:35to then get an extension like none of that you're a two-way guy already three years into your career
22:39so now this is the point where you're playing for your career and if he does well if he gets
22:44an
22:44opportunity does well whatever maybe there's a three-year extension down the line that is probably
22:48going to be more team friendly but some financial security there like you can actually carve out a
22:53role where you're paid like hey this can be a 10th 11th man maybe even a ninth man if things
22:58break
22:58right like that could be actually a very good outcome for his career and this is seemingly a very good
23:03spot
23:03for him too yeah we also talk about how the knicks need more size and if he even becomes like
23:07again
23:08we're not a wing we're talking about him being a reasonable rotation player i'd say anyway even if
23:13you said between an eighth to 10th man if he becomes that that is still a win and it's a
23:18good find if
23:18you're leon rose and the knicks it's good business so you know he's 25 he's 25 years old it's good
23:24to
23:25see nice first start it is the bulls but he did do some good things in that game okay my
23:30person for game
23:31recognizes game this week was somebody you just talked about tyler kolek now kolek was the first
23:39point guard off the bench against the bulls he played more than alvarado and mike brown has said
23:47that he's going to kind of mix and match mike brown has also said everybody on the bench is fighting
23:50for minutes i like that it's also the bulls i i don't know if he would have done that against
23:55you know and the ankle and everything but but yes kolek has played well this season and five
24:02assists five assists in this game no turnovers kolek has played well as you said his assist
24:07percentage is according to cleaning the glass 51.7 yeah six and a half percent turnover percentage
24:13that's elite ridiculous you know who else doesn't turn over the ball as much too jalen brunson who's
24:17been doing a good job i should have mentioned that earlier when we talked about his offensive play
24:21despite not shooting well he's also not turned the ball over well and then the on-off numbers
24:25for tyler kolek according to cleaning the glass plus 12.6 so the next offense is really humming when
24:32he is on the court as opposed to when he's off it now you can see that now do you
24:36lose something
24:37defensively and i'm gonna get to that because i have a question for you uh about that because we
24:40know you love defense as you should and sometimes i think defense is undervalued but i want us to take
24:45a
24:45look at the video with with kolek here because what i want people to look at and where i think
24:51it's important with kolek right you can look at the assist percentage you can look at the turnover rate
24:55and you can look at the fact that he had five assists no turnovers he had a game earlier issue
24:59with nine assists and no turnovers and all that's good but what i'm seeing from him that's better to
25:03me than i've seen from him in the past is how's he moving without the ball when he doesn't have
25:08the
25:08ball in his hand and then how does that really help the next offense so we'll take a look at
25:12this play
25:12right here you see kolek right there at the top uh of the of your screen here and we're gonna
25:18let
25:18it play and kolek with the ball and he gives it up right so now now he cuts here cat's
25:24got him we
25:24know how good of a passer cat is cat's always looking always looking this matters too because
25:29kolek knows that cat's always going to be looking yep he knows that he's always going to be looking
25:34and i think other players right now in the knicks the reason this works so well it's not that
25:38kolek's just a gifted passerby they also know yo if i move kolek might get me the ball too yeah
25:44now this is not this is not some traditional point guard where kolek's dribbling the ball at the top
25:49he's moving around setting a player he came up pick and roll he just came off of a screen behind
25:53towns cut to the basket in the middle of the paint he's now got a decision he can shoot but
25:58we know what
25:58his best we know what his best skill is okay and he looks and people have to respect it because
26:03he's
26:03looking off to mohammediawara at at the uh break and he looks him off and he drops a beautiful dime
26:11right there to jordan clarkson who's been fantastic in the minutes he's clarkson in the dunker spot
26:16spot right playing like a big all season but he's been he's been highly efficient wherever you've
26:21wherever you've put him right and this play works though to me so much because of kolek's movement
26:27without the ball cat's willingness to pass the ball but even when call it got it you're talking about
26:31one dribble one dribble look off and he dishes to jordan clarkson it's an impressive play and so
26:38we see that as play number one let's look at play number two because you're gonna see kolek again now
26:44he's got the ball to start this possession here okay this is against the nets yeah and this matters
26:49too and why i wanted to talk about this first play against the bulls and the nets mike brown went
26:55with
26:55him pretty much to start the fourth quarter and there was a point when i'm watching this game like oh
26:59are you even bringing back jalen brunson it was a close game at that close game and mike brown
27:03rode with him because the offense was humming so well with him on the court and this is going to
27:09be another situation where kolek gives up the ball you can see him give up to josh hart here and
27:15this
27:15also matters because of the next personnel they've got other willing passers it is not just tyler
27:19kolek there are other willing passers here too so we're gonna watch we're gonna see tyler kolek give up
27:25the ball now watch kolek without the ball look at that number one that's a beautiful screen set by
27:30cat right to clip the defender now kolek is wide open all alone and listen you'd like to see kolek
27:38look for a shot a little bit more but if he moves and he gets open shots like this this
27:43is just
27:43beautiful look at the defense like they all they all turn their heads here look at mo mo vogner is
27:49the funniest one he turns his head like yo wait a minute and i also want to say why this
27:56is a good
27:57play too because now this is this is about wrinkles we talked about this so much through the playoffs
28:03all the teams know when you have cat in the pinch post oh man we got to watch we don't
28:09know who's
28:09cutting you saw a lot of things off the weak side but this came off the strong side where kolek
28:15makes
28:16the back cut on this and this is before cat even gets the ball so this is a wrinkle to
28:21the things we
28:21saw in the playoffs before cat even touches the ball kolek is slipping behind him on the screen it's a
28:26great screen again by cat and he's wide open cat didn't even have to touch the ball yeah to make
28:33that play work i mean and tyler didn't even look the ball in he's turning away already by the time
28:37he
28:38gets the ball right it's a great pass from josh hart it's it's a great play design because everybody
28:42was focused on cat yeah and wondering well what if he gets the ball in the pinch post what's he
28:46gonna do who's the passer that they didn't even look at kolek so kolek's and you have seen this a
28:51lot from landry sham its off ball movement has been amazing this year but tyler kolek also is able to
28:56create offense because of how he's moving off the ball and that's why i'm recognizing his game he could
29:01talk about the assist but the way he's moving off the ball right now it's it's good and it's going
29:06to
29:06generate even better offense for the knicks now here's my question to you yeah because we got to
29:12talk a little about a defense i think people are going to look at kolek and his ability to what
29:18the things i'm just talking about his ability to run the second unit and i guess what i'm asking is
29:23do you think there's a better fit for what mike brown wants in terms of his point guard running the
29:28second unit is it kolek or is it alvarado we know who's the better defensive player yes jose alvarado
29:34which mike brown really cares about or is it or is this a situation of you're going to do a
29:39little
29:39mix and match it depends on the team depends on the situation do you think that's best for the
29:43knicks or is it best that they say hey let's stick let's stick with one start one not starting point
29:48guard one backup point guard we know who it is it's interesting i think i think it depends on the
29:53matchup like you need to see how kolek does more consistently against some of these better teams
29:58because i think you'll lean on alvarado who's you know hasn't been shooting the ball
30:01uh well but he's been defending well so far this season um and even per 100 possessions like
30:08his assist numbers are you know one of the among the best on the team just kolek is damn near
30:13tripled
30:14him because of where he's at right now um as a matter of fact i think kolek leads the league
30:18right
30:18now in assists per 100 possessions at 21 which is a ridiculous number to sustain so the office has
30:24been really good i'm i would probably still lean jose alvarado but tyler kolek is developing
30:30he's earned i didn't expect you to go against your people he's he's earned well i was i was pro
30:36them
30:36trading for him for the reasons we saw and and both of us were yeah yeah and it also like
30:41you know who
30:42can get it done when it matters right so and i think but tyler kolek has earned minutes based on
30:48how
30:48he's running the point guard position even though he hasn't been shooting the ball well but both of
30:52these guys move without the ball well and i think i mean honestly if one of them was like six
30:57three you'd
30:57want to play both of them at the same time but the issue is you kind of can't because you
31:01also
31:01have deuce landry if they were to move i'm not advocating for this but if they were to move deuce
31:07that for like a for like a wing or a backup center or something like that probably a backup center
31:12then the conversation would be okay so is kolek and alvarado too small in the backcourt together but
31:18i think that's a combination you would probably see more often if deuce wasn't there it's just the
31:23issue is like how can you play all three of them plus landry shamit small guards plus landry shamit
31:27consistently which is something i've been talking about as it relates to the bench not to mention
31:30you're also playing jordan clarkson as kind of like a four at times uh given some of the things
31:37he has to do on the floor you know we haven't seen moldy a while a ton this year it's
31:40just been 29
31:41minutes um although he was a candidate for game recognized game too because i thought the minutes
31:45against the bulls were good but to me in in games that matter i would still lean jose for the
31:49time
31:49being but i think kolek also warrants like i i understand the platoon the backup platoon if you
31:55want to call it that and i'd want to see more minutes of both of them together just see what
31:58it looks like but i don't know how sustainable mike brown thinks that is yeah i'm intrigued to
32:03see how mike brown plays this and then you know it's funny i think we'll learn that about over the
32:09next couple of games in this stretch it'll be interesting against cleveland and whatnot yeah i think
32:13i think we'll see about how that goes so we will see how this plays out but there you go
32:17dalton connect and tyler kolek those are our players for game recognized game who got next
32:27okay now it's who's got next now we look at what is coming up next for the knicks interesting
32:34schedule cleveland cavaliers on saturday rematch of the eastern conference finals too many rematches
32:41so far this year too many rematches early yeah like you don't like the next schedule no i'm just
32:45it's not even the knicks schedule though they played philly and chicago already twice but there's
32:49been other like it's just okc and cleveland already done they played each other there's another t there's
32:55another series that is already done um i think charlotte's played brooklyn twice at this point
33:00it's just there's a lot of rematches already but yeah knicks are getting cleveland and then cleveland
33:05again four days later next wednesday and then cleveland again two weeks after so cleveland three
33:10times and then cleveland again the month after so like we'll be done with the cabs before the new
33:15six six weeks basically yeah that's that's that's a lot um yeah so as ryan just mentioned they play
33:22the calves on saturday that in cleveland then they've got the bucks uh at home on tuesday
33:30um bucks one of the worst teams in the league and then they have the calves on a back-to
33:33-back at home
33:34next wednesday and then we'll probably be talking about that thursday and then yeah then looking
33:38ahead we'll talk about that on thursday and we'll be also previewing the road trip on friday which
33:43starts with a road trip in naptown against the pacers nba cup game next friday uh myself and brian
33:48will be here in the studio for that john chastrzemski will be our guest y'all should be uh maybe
33:53haliburton is back he's supposed to get re-evaluated in i think another few days or a week or so
33:57it's going to be interesting to see who's there for that who's there to play in this matchup
34:01i think for me brian um when i when i look at this schedule it's a little bit of what
34:07we talked about
34:08where it said hey we need to see what they can do in this against some better competition obviously
34:12matchups against cleveland you feel like it's a stretch where you would like it if you can go
34:16you'd love it if you go three and oh but you can go two and one you got to 500
34:20stay above 500
34:21hopefully you never have to talk about the next below 500 for the rest of the season i i i
34:25hope that's the
34:26that's the case um we'll see the thing for me is when you look at these matchups right now look
34:33at
34:33what the knicks have done they've won four out of five games as we've talked about guys
34:37their fourth in defensive efficiency yeah according to cleaning the glass their third in offensive
34:42rebounding something that should not be understated and i think that's helped them a lot through their
34:47offensive struggles despite and you could only imagine if they were shooting the ball better
34:50and having the offensive rebounding rate they would have their offense would be a lot better but
34:54we saw some progress against the bulls on on wednesday um the things you're still seeing
35:00struggles with offensively is finishing around the basket that's where they're not making their
35:04shots at a high rate like they were last year so with cleveland twice and milwaukee coming up
35:10which of those trends are you interested in seeing potentially turn around right or or is
35:18sustainable i should say which one of those trends you think could be sustainable
35:21in what we've seen that appears to be a knicks turnaround the uh the shooting is probably the
35:27main thing because that's the that's the thing that's really fluctuated this year and then
35:31um the rebounding too because cleveland obviously like you have jared allen you have evan mobley
35:38still have thomas bryant even uh payton wass has been out with a hamstring injury a couple games
35:43we'll see if he's gonna play um and jared allen did uh injure himself in the last okc game injured
35:50his knee and exited uh so so yeah so we'll also have to see with that i mean this is
35:55the case with
35:56everybody right should be noted cleveland will be on the second of a back-to-back when the knicks go
36:01there so cleveland has a cup game on friday the knicks do not because they have the cup game after
36:06with indiana cleveland is going to play philadelphia on november 6th that friday uh which is obviously
36:12a game they want to get up for because they blew the first sixers game um yeah in philly there's
36:19going to be at home then after that they have the knicks on the second of a back-to-back
36:22so um i guess
36:24this is why the schedule makers did it this way because the knicks when they see cleveland at home
36:28again on wednesday they're they're on the second of back-to-back and cleveland will not be because in
36:34between that they have uh charlotte so it's knicks day off hornets on the road day off and then knicks
36:41uh and then miami after that actually so nicks don't play with their food against milwaukee it
36:45might not feel like the second night of a back-to-back so it feels like kind of a benchmark
36:48stretch early on for both of these two teams because you get the team who you saw in the eastern
36:55conference finals last year but to me it's like okay are you hitting the shots are you getting to the
37:01shots against against cleveland who's obviously you know not the best defense in the league but
37:06a better defense in chicago of their 20th in defense now but they're they're gonna finish higher than
37:10that they'll be a top maybe top 15 defense they need peyton watson back who will help who should
37:15help in that department hamstring issue for him yeah yeah that's just ongoing he's on my fantasy uh
37:20injured list right now you know so i think i think that's it and then the rebounding especially if
37:25jared allen's there like you know how does it how do they compete can andre drummond sort of spark the
37:30bench from that regard um and then i also am looking at what we just talked about with the
37:34point guard sort of battle if you want to talk about that with jose alvarado with tyler coleck and
37:38how how they're used against in those yeah yeah and if mike brown decides like if they sit josh hard
37:43again because they have a back-to-back coming up do you actually deploy hey we'll do coleck and alvarado
37:49at the same time with you know deuce because sham it's in the starting lineup and then you figure out
37:54you know from there or or are you giving don't connect a little bit more burn are you giving
37:59mohammedia war a little more burn and that could be interesting multiple of those things could be
38:02true at the same time yeah so okay those are some good things to watch i think you're right i
38:06think
38:06for me it's that how in terms of what what would make me say that's sustainable that they've turned
38:12the corner completely because i think a lot of people are still going to say ah they're four and
38:15four i need to see more and i think you're not wrong for feeling that way at all whatsoever yeah
38:19um i would agree with you but i think that i want to see hey is the offense still humming
38:25is the shot making still there are you seeing the same level of cutting that you saw at the
38:29end of the brooklyn game throughout most of the chicago game on the passing the christmas is that
38:35there um and you know also just getting a win on the road especially the cleveland with getting
38:40another good win on the road would be good too just early on in the season going to cleveland
38:44they're on the second night of a back-to-back they'll be playing philly the night before can you go
38:48get
38:48a win on the road there that's meaningful especially coming off some good vibes this week and
38:53make it a 3-0 week so i really want to see that is there some diversity in terms of
38:58how they're
38:58scoring their points are they finally um you know getting better at finishing at the rim and their
39:04mid-range shots just that's kind of the things i want to see in the next couple of games and
39:07then
39:07also can the defensive intensity stay where it is because they've been really good to talk to
39:10them about being fourth in defensive efficiency the next defense has been really good um and again i would
39:17rather the defense be where it is and the offense come along as the season continues i would then
39:22the other way around i'd always rather have the defense ahead um because i think the defensive
39:27habits are really good and this team knows how to communicate well defensively so we'll see how
39:32they do in these next couple of games interesting stretch two games against cleveland one against
39:38milwaukee before the next time brian and i record so we'll see how they do uh any predictions for how
39:43you
39:43think they'll do in the stretch i will say they'll go two and one they'll beat milwaukee and they'll
39:48split the calves games so we'll go with that i'm gonna say the same uh i think if you can
39:53go three
39:54and i i think if you if you get that road game this is how i'll say this i'll go
39:59two and one but if you
40:00get that road game against cleveland three and o's on the table and then you even though you're on the
40:05second of a back and then you handle milwaukee the way you handle the balls so you don't play with
40:10your food then i think three and oh is very possible yeah i weirdly think they actually win
40:16the like they they actually win against each other on the road the knicks because of the back-to-back
40:21spots you know so you like you like the knicks on saturday and the calves next wednesday yeah yeah
40:26just just because of the back-to-backs but we'll see who's healthy by that point too all right we'll
40:31see let us know what you think how you feeling about the knicks turnaround they've won four of the
40:35last five games what do you think they're going to do on this little not road trip it's a little
40:39three-game stretch coming up going to cleveland and two at home before they do have a five-game road
40:43trip that'll be very interesting four-game road trip yeah we will talk about that road trip next
40:48week that's a very very interesting road trip i believe it's at indiana two games in toronto
40:53and then they are at minnesota yeah correct weird travel uh given that you get a couple days one one
41:00day in between each game of rest so you have uh two of those in the same city so not
41:05that's true
41:05not that terrible yeah um but yeah it's so it's going to be interesting stretch coming up that's
41:09going to do it for this edition of new york got game you guys will probably not see me in
41:14a suit
41:14college shirt or maybe a tie again for a while next time we're going to try to get brian to
41:18put
41:18on a suit yeah yeah that'll be the bit that'll be the bit i'll wear the suit next week brian's
41:23got
41:24the brian's got the suit um all right we are rolling along in november uh we'll be back with more
41:30new york got game coverage coming your way for the great brian fonseca i'm dexter hermy we'll catch
41:35you next time on new york got game peace and thanks for watching new york got game
Comments