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00:13what's up everybody we're back for another edition of new york got game three straight wins
00:17back above 500 are the knicks and i've got a better question for everybody than simply are
00:22the knicks back question is what's actually changed jalen brunson carl t towns they combined
00:28for 60 points and saturday's win in cleveland but how much of this turnaround can the knicks build on
00:33and which questions still need answers so with milwaukee up next at the garden followed by a
00:39rematch with cleveland on wednesday the host of the orange and blue bloods podcast also a host on wfan
00:44it's my guy you see him right there ej stewart he joins me this week to break it all down
00:49ej what's
00:49going on my guy what's happening dex always happy to talk nixon's definitely better when they're on
00:55a little winning streak here five out of six love it look it's true three game winning streak five
00:59out of six i don't know about i know you weren't because i know you weren't worried when they were
01:04oh and three but you know you saw it out there there are people who were concerned it's listen in
01:10some
01:11ways i'm happy i'm happy that those people still exist like because to me like it's almost like
01:16through knicks fans have they gotten soft after winning a championship and nothing matters and
01:20there are some folks that are still on the championship pod to be honest i like that there
01:24were people that were still critical i like that people were still concerned and it shows that
01:27nicks fans never changed so that nicks fans are still a different breed so in many ways it was
01:31actually a little comforting that during the over the three stretch i think jayla brunson kind of said
01:35that he kind of wanted the new york media to get after him because how poorly they were playing
01:38like i i kind of like that like kind of got back to business when it came to uh sky
01:43falling for some
01:44fans i don't all put some you know what it's a good point i hadn't considered sometimes we need that
01:49balance right we need that balance like i i thought the championship would change things for people
01:53and it might be like all right i'm gonna calm down a bit we're playing this year with kind of
01:56free
01:56money and the you know the new yorkers were like nah nah no no no no this we're gonna still
02:02be on you
02:03if you're not playing well which is good accountability is always good i'm always here yeah so i'm never
02:07not here for that but as you mentioned ej nixon won three straight you're back above 500 when you look
02:13at how they're playing recently what's the biggest difference from the team that we saw
02:17at the start of the season to what we're seeing right now
02:21i mean the offense looks like it's now a back to being kind of at full gear like we saw
02:27early in
02:27the season mike brown mentioned it a ton that he felt like the team was you know playing through mud
02:32and they looked slow and josh hart mentioned after the philly game which is in part of this five or
02:37six
02:37game trust be mentioned that they may be able to go fatigue the offense just didn't look smooth
02:41um what we saw them doing with all that off ball action with you know congee towns at the high
02:46post
02:46and them trying to get opportunities for brunt and opportunities for ogi newbie just didn't look
02:51crisp didn't look smooth nothing looked right about the offense and now what you're seeing now making
02:56shots helps a ton but what you're seeing i think is a crisper offense um the knicks getting into their
03:01sets getting into things that they want and they're operating not at the playoff or championship level but at a
03:06much higher level than they had earlier in the season when it felt like every possession was a grind for
03:11them
03:11which is surprising given how much offensive talent is on this team right and yeah no the offense has
03:16looked a lot better and still there's still a long way to go they give me better at shot making
03:20i still
03:20think there's a lot they left on the table we'll get to that a little bit later but we saw
03:24jalen brunson
03:25we saw crunchy towns they combined for 60 points in cleveland what did that game show you about how you
03:31think the two of those can bring out the best in each other right now well to me like it
03:37was huge
03:38to see coffee towns really you know show that once again he could still be a dominant scorer like we've
03:42seen the evolution of his game on the defensive side of the ball we've seen his evolution again as a
03:47passer and as a hub for the offense but remember coffee's house came here to score that that's why
03:52they traded for him they wanted him to be that pick and pop threat to open up things for brunson
03:56and
03:57we've seen jalen get off to some of these slow starts for somebody that had been such a great
04:00first quarter scorer for the majority of his entire next career he's been getting off a lot of slow
04:05starts so the sea coffee towns take ownership early you know in cleveland and just really take
04:09it to cleveland allow jalen to get back into the game and that's how you complement each other a
04:13star you know some days or some quarters or some halves one of you might not have it can the
04:19other
04:19guy step up in a pinch and then when it's closing time once jalen brunson after that you know bad
04:23first quarter second quarter he was jalen brunson again once you get the closing time now you know
04:27jalen brunson's in rhythm and he's not someone that's been you know hunting for it uh maybe trailing
04:32or chasing a score because nicks are behind because he's struggling so the fact that you got
04:36to those guys who are two supernovas on that often side of the ball at their positions it just it
04:41puts
04:42a lot of it puts a lot less pressure on either of them to have to carry the offense when
04:46the other
04:46one's struggling so as you're thinking as you were talking about that in them complimenting each other
04:52ej it had me thinking you know about jalen brunson and carlty towns are they are they the best duo
04:58in the east yeah one of the or are we do we not talk them out enough it's like one
05:03of the best
05:04offensive duos at least in basketball no i mean i think you make a case they're one they're the best
05:08duo on the nba like i think you know there were a couple i saw earlier you know during the
05:12offseason
05:12there were a couple of of websites and stuff cps's of the world i forget who had one but they
05:17did a
05:18rating of the top duos in the nba and i think they had jalen brunson and cat one or two
05:23and that's
05:24where they belong i mean again when you think about uh one just how different players they are
05:30right like one guy is your starting point guard who is you know running the offense but also your
05:35most dangerous scorer and the other guy uh can score in the post can score from three um also is
05:41now
05:43unlocked as this incredible passer there's just so much versatility in those guys's games and i don't
05:48know why they don't probably get talked about enough as being a tandem i think some of it may be
05:52a lot of the media press around the whole you know villanova tandem and the villanova three and
05:59then the starting five kind of being this like one unit that's really a unit i think in many ways
06:03people think about this nick squad and they don't they even think about jalen brunson as you know
06:08the king of new york or they think of the entire five as this cohesive unit that is in some
06:14ways
06:14greater than the sum of the parts but at the same time again when you think about what coffee towns
06:19has done this season he's had it to me a phenomenal season when you talk about the guys on this
06:24team
06:24that maybe aren't shooting the ball as well or aren't playing as well you can't put carly towns
06:28in that list he's had a phenomenal start to the season on both sides of the court and you see
06:33how
06:33he's playing and then you know jalen brunson uh he's gonna get it going he's gonna get back to being
06:37the same old jalen brunson we are accustomed to it's very hard for other teams to stop those guys
06:42they're playing at a high level so i think they did really right at the top yeah i'd have to
06:46i was
06:46just thinking about it and i was like yeah they got to be right at the top and i agree
06:49with you
06:49about cat he's having himself up at least the season that you can start talking i know it's
06:53early it's nine games but yeah he's probably in a conversation for first team all nba right now
06:58we'll see how it plays out for the rest of the way but he's he's up there he's been one
07:01of the best
07:02players in basketball uh i want to talk about defense real quick here ej because the next day held
07:06cleveland to 97 points they've held several teams this season to 100 points or less when you
07:11evaluate their defense during this winning streak what do you trust the most and what do you still
07:16need to see against different opponents as the next move forward yeah i mean i just trust that
07:23they they know what they want to do with their system and their rotations i don't see a defense
07:27that makes a lot of really bad mistakes you know i i went crazy during the first game of the
07:32season
07:33with why they were blitzing maxi so far off in the paint i still i'm assuming from the from the
07:37arc
07:38on the screens i still don't know why they were doing that but outside of that game even the game
07:42that they've lost i didn't feel like you were seeing you know major defensive lapses like really
07:47the philly games are the one game to think about really their defense is really sharp um they compete
07:52on that end and i think that's been actually one of the really encouraging signs about what's
07:57happened with this season is even while the offense has not necessarily been up to snuff for the majority
08:02of the season their defense really hasn't dipped at all um i think the chicago game that they won
08:07in chicago was probably the only really like to me truly disappointing defensive effort and they won
08:12that so i i look at where where they've been defensively and i'm actually really encouraged by what
08:18we've seen and i think that it shows whatever you think about how to play on the opposite side of
08:23the ball that that championship medal is still there yeah no defensively knicks have been really
08:27really good in fact even last week uh my colleague stephan bonnie was talking about hey the defense is
08:32ahead of the offense right now for me personally if you're looking at a team rooting for a team
08:36that's what you want to see you want to see that their defense is still there the offense can come
08:40and
08:40will come no doubt so winning we know this it can quiet a lot of questions around the team and
08:47the
08:47next they're five and four at the time of us recording this but what's the biggest knicks concern
08:51that these three wins in a row haven't answered for you is there still a concern that you have when
08:56you
08:56look at this team i don't know if it's a concern but it's something that hasn't been answered and
09:02it's just because of the nature of the team right now how they stand is that the starting lineup has
09:07not played all that well together this year um they're about 35th in percentile when it comes to
09:12plus minus their offensive numbers are abysmal and because josh hart hasn't played you know in these
09:18games that they've won of late those numbers haven't improved so you know landry shannon's been in the
09:22starting lineup he's done a tremendous job they've been throwing different guys in the lineup and
09:25um the knicks are playing better and i don't think this is a i've been one of those guys at
09:30times that
09:31have been like take josh hart out of the starting lineup i don't think this is that i think josh
09:34hart actually is one of the guys that has played well this year even though the shots haven't fallen
09:37um i just think it's been a nature of what landry shannon brings to the table and he always plays
09:42well with those starters and that starting unit that was the backbone of that playoff run in that
09:47championship run they haven't played at a super high level do i think they won't no i mean i think
09:54they'll be fine but it will be nice to me to see them consistently you know put together you know
10:00multiple quarters of them playing at a high level you know we've seen spurts where they played okay
10:04but again you look at their numbers uh in terms of efficiency in terms of again uh plus minus and
10:09just in terms of uh the knicks most efficient lineups it's been kind of one of their worst this
10:15year which is is disappointing and what the only silver lining in that is that we've seen this in the
10:21past we saw this tom tibble we actually saw this mike brown a little bit last year where in the
10:25regular season it was a situation where they weren't necessarily their best lineup but in the
10:29playoffs it was a whole different story so maybe that would be the case this year but you would have
10:32thought that given how they finished last year they would have wrote some momentum with how they
10:36played together as an unit and we haven't seen that quite yet yeah we haven't seen it quite yet
10:40still early so you know can't go too crazy but this kind of brings me to the next point because
10:46i've been i've you know i've said this on the show i've loved how mike brown handled the team in
10:52terms of rotations and playing guys and mixing matching and just experimenting during the regular
10:57season so what do you think what is this stretch it's i'll even stretch it beyond the three games
11:01five out of the last six six games yeah you've seen from the knicks what is this stretch told
11:04you about mike brown's rotations and what roles you more comfortable with and which decisions
11:09would you still question in his rotation because he's made some changes we've seen tyler
11:14colic play yeah recently we've seen dalton connect with josh hart being out play a little bit too we've
11:18seen milkel bridges when he's struggling shooting the ball sit on the bench you talked about landry
11:22shaman starting for josh hart but what are you liking or maybe not liking with mike brown's rotations
11:28well i think one of the things that's been eye-opening is is for me i'm always trying to test
11:32the bs
11:33meter on coach speak in media so when i hear mike brown say you know every you know spot in
11:40the bench
11:41rotation is basically up for grabs how real is that because last year it seemed like jordan
11:47clarkson had played himself out of that rotation and it was justified given how he had been playing
11:53and moe diarara had played himself into that rotation and then a playoff time came and it was
11:57clarkson and it didn't really seem there was no real uh you know reasoning or didn't seem to uh make
12:04sense given what we had seen from the majority of the second half of the season clarkson started to play
12:07towards the end of the regular season all of a sudden he was then back in the rotation so is
12:12this
12:12real like you know tyler colic right now is the second string point guard even though jose alvarado
12:17is available like is tyler colic does he really have a shot at being the backup point guard come
12:22playoff time or is this a deal where um this is maybe giving tyler colic a real look uh maybe
12:28you know
12:29letting him showcase himself they want to put him in a deal to maybe get some center help
12:33or is this situation where he can actually overtake jose alvarado for that spot mike brown has said
12:39and again that's where the bs media comes in that any person on that bench is fighting for minutes
12:45it's just it's so it's so unlike i know maybe i still got tib's scar tissue but it's so unlike
12:50what
12:51we've seen from how the knicks have operated for so long that it's still weird to see and still hard
12:56to believe but if he's a man of his word it's going to be hard to take tyler colic out
13:01of the lineup
13:01because of how well he's dishing the rock right now well so here's what i'll say today ej i hear
13:06you on the tip scar tissue i hear you i and real uh impact has been made yeah exactly i
13:14don't want
13:14to call it trauma because that feels like it's a little bit too much but there's been some real
13:17impact off of that right and i think that the one thing i will say mike brown is i think
13:23you're right
13:23to question whether it's real or not for the reasons you pose right whether is it showcasing
13:28somebody we even saw mohammed diawar i think he had 14 minutes against cleveland the other night
13:32um after not having played much this year but we've seen him in the last two games
13:37yep i think he really does mix and match but i don't think the part of what you're talking about
13:44is unreal either i think he also or i think not just him i think organizationally
13:50they want to get looks at guys and it could be for future things and this i'm gonna i'm gonna
13:55throw
13:55in something you because you mentioned you mentioned this and you said could it be showcasing
13:59the tyler colec to look to upgrade a position later you mentioned backup center i should have i should
14:04have told you i was going to ask you this but i'm not but i didn't but here we go
14:07where are you on the
14:09next backup center because the last time you and i talked um we talked a little bit about that but
14:15where are you on the backup center for the are you again it's nine games i'm not asking you to
14:21be
14:21comfortable this thing can be figured out in the next couple of months but when you look at the
14:26next backup center situation with andre drummond do you think it are you feeling comfortable for now
14:32is what i'm asking comfortable i mean i i'll put it this way i feel as comfortable as you know
14:40going to
14:41you know like my my mom's friend's like apartment with all the plastic on the furniture and like
14:50it's is it comfortable it's it's fine and i'm used to being there it's my mom's friend right so like
14:57it's like there's a comfort in that i'm used to being in this home would i prefer to not be
15:01in on
15:02the old couch that has the old plastic on it probably not but i'll be okay it's a weird analogy
15:08but that's the only thing i can think of thinking about andre drummond because like to me like
15:13he's doing something that is very important is that the knicks are still an elite offensive
15:17rebounding team they just pounded uh cleveland offensive glass in that win and he's he's the
15:22reason like he's a man cat too but like he's a big reason why and that is the knicks in
15:28many ways
15:29that's going to be some of their road map to getting back to being an elite offensive team
15:32so i i'm okay so like for that reason i'm okay like okay he's giving something to the team
15:38i do think he's become offensively a little bit of a wild card that is a little concerning like you
15:44don't know where the ball is going when he's shooting floaters or shots around the basket
15:47i've never seen as many air balls for like floaters and layups in in a short time that drummond has
15:53um and he's clearly lost a little bit of a step so offensively because he's trying to do things too
16:00like mitchell robinson just wouldn't try to do some of the stuff that he's trying to do and it's not
16:03going so well so i i don't love what he's giving them offensively i think mike brown's been right
16:08when he is not giving the right effort to sit him and be like hey listen you're not one of
16:11these
16:12championship guys like those guys if they lack effort or whatever like you know maybe you know
16:17we'll give them a little more rope like you are here to play hard for 10 15 minutes and you
16:22give us
16:22two or three steps in a row we're not giving it we're going to go to somebody else i like
16:25that he
16:26set that tone with drum even though he's a veteran but i think i'm comfortable in the sense that
16:30there's a place for him to be very important in this team with a skill set that he has already
16:35displayed now can he play smarter can he take better shots and can he finish better around the
16:40basket are questions that i don't know the answers to i'll feel more comfortable when i have a bit
16:45more of a um a sample size of what i'm going to get from him for this season no that's
16:50fair i think
16:51i think that's fair in terms of evaluating it but i did like your analogy and it made me wonder
16:55when's the last time you sat on somebody's sofa that had plastic on it it's been a long time for
16:59me
16:59i mean you want to talk about you want to talk about trauma uh that feels like uh i actually
17:03had a i actually had a friend who's who's family but we never really sat in that room that had
17:08like
17:08i've been in houses like that too yeah we know nobody ever went in that room though yeah but like
17:13when i was a kid though like i had like it was something that's like i probably was like seven
17:16or
17:16eight years old and it was always like uh yeah yeah what are you gonna do yeah you know it's
17:23just like
17:23all right this is what we're doing it's fine that's kind of how i feel about drumming it's like all
17:28right
17:28this is what we're doing i liked it i liked it because it took me back to childhood and i'm
17:33not
17:33gonna say who the person is but a family member who had plastic on the couch all the time and
17:38uh
17:38there you had to sit in that room there was no other place to go so yeah yeah yeah when
17:44you're in
17:44those places yeah then it's like this is all you got but it's okay you know if you're there for
17:49a
17:49couple hours it's fine now if you had to stay for an entire afternoon or an entire day or a
17:55couple
17:55days you were staying overnight that's where you're like which is maybe what the knicks are
17:59going to be dealing with with drumming because they he's with them all season unless they decide
18:03to move him or something so um so that's that's that's the that's the dilemma with them is can
18:08they trust him and it's early i think he knows also it's early right so some of this stuff i
18:14think
18:14he's maybe getting out of the system is can he get to playing that championship caliber ball
18:18that is expected now when you put on that next uniform which is crazy to say but it's true like
18:22there's a standard here that's been established and i think he's learning uh really quickly that
18:27mike brown's not playing around and that's why i think you've seen him uh you know some of those
18:32you know ufos as clide said we've seen but what you haven't seen is a lack of effort the last
18:36week
18:36you've seen him attacking that class and being a force in the middle so if he can do that i
18:40can live
18:41with the ufos that that's that's fair the office of rebound away has been good i guess the moral of
18:45all
18:45this is uh take the plastic off your sofa that that's that's the moral yeah man come on it's
18:492026 yeah we got we got we got to move off of that yeah it can't be doing that anyway
18:53all right uh
18:55nicks have milwaukee on tuesday so when you look at that matchup i know it's not a sexy one what
18:59would
18:59make you feel that the progress we've seen over the last couple of games is continuing beyond them
19:05just getting another win which i think most people expect them to do but what would look like
19:09progress for you here again against milwaukee on tuesday yeah i mean i i i want to see them have
19:17another you know resounding dominant win kind of like they had against cleveland like they had
19:21against uh chicago like in these games look a lot more like the next team we saw in the playoff
19:26run
19:26than the team we saw for much of the season like milwaukee is abysmal uh taylor jenkins is already
19:31having a tough time like just coming up with rotations getting guys to play hard like it has not been
19:36a good
19:37look over there and it's a bad spot because you can't really tank anymore given the new lottery
19:40rules so milwaukee's kind of reeling there's an opportunity for the knicks to continue to get right
19:45so i'd love to see them pummel this team but i'd also want to see you know mikhail bridges finally
19:50get out of the shooting slump i mean he has been like borderline unwatchable for much of the season
19:55and like i get it long or short summer i guess for the knicks and a lot of celebrating i
20:02would like to
20:02see him start to like you know come off the float and join the rest of the team and get
20:07right right
20:08because like it's a regular season now like okay a couple weeks i can understand like the fact that
20:13he still can't get out of his own way and it's bizarre like the one thing about it is at
20:21least
20:21we've seen a defensive i thought his defense in cleveland i thought was really good we just got them
20:25on the floor but i mean he's got to start making some shots like enough is enough and again he's
20:31got
20:31he's got to get off the float and join his teammates in this title defense i feel like right
20:35now he's still uh you know at the parade right now yo i like that get off the float that's
20:40what
20:40you need to see look he did hit that big dagger shot i'll say i was gonna say big shot
20:44dagger shot
20:45against cleveland i wonder if that's able to get him going as we move forward all right last thing
20:49for me ej i'm gonna give you this i'm gonna give you a sentence with a couple of blanks that
20:54i want
20:54you to try to fill in or finish here okay i'm more confident in these knicks now because blank
21:00but i'm not ready to say blank finish that sentence for me if you can
21:08i am more confident in these knicks because jalen brunson looks like jalen brunson again
21:13and what was the last what was the second part again but i'm not ready to say
21:17blank but okay but i'm not but i'm not ready to say a that this team will keep pace with
21:26philly
21:26and boston for the top of the east right now um i they're playing really well it looks like to
21:33me
21:33like those teams are playing different seasons like the knicks i don't think are running going
21:39for the number one seed i think that they are pacing themselves similar to how they played last year
21:44where it feels to me like boston and cleveland excuse me boston and philly are like they they want that
21:50number one seed they want that home court advantage i think the knicks feel like they can beat anybody on
21:55the road so it doesn't matter i don't love that like i i think that's playing with fire i think
22:00you can have a game seven at master square garden that's important i think having a game one at
22:04master square garden was a big reason why they won the eastern finals in such easy fashion because
22:08they came back in game one at home when you know cleveland looked shook in the fourth quarter in
22:13overtime like so i wonder with just how those teams have just gotten quick out the gates and just
22:17how those especially boston and how they attack the regular season will the knicks be up for that
22:23fight in terms of keeping pace or will they try to do what they've been doing which is testing out
22:27rotations testing out lineups and just you know working on getting better and peaking at the right
22:33time and maybe that's all that matters but there is some cost to that if that does happen so that
22:38would be the one thing i'd say i'm not ready to say yet not that they can't it's not that
22:42they
22:42won't right it's just have i seen enough in this five to six games for us to say okay they
22:47will be
22:47able to then keep pace for those teams i know because i think what we saw last year that there's
22:50going to be peaks and valleys for this season as they continue to tinker and especially the team
22:55now that already has a title uh there will be inevitable boredom with this regular season again
23:00once they kind of you know go through this uh mini hot streak they're on right now yeah that's why
23:05if
23:05you're a fan i think it'd be nice if they can get a little hotter put together a longer stretch
23:10because you know there's going to be another valley and there'll probably be another peak and another
23:13valley because it's the regular season look i would say this to your point i think that
23:20they can still finish the top four seed and i think if they do that's fine
23:23yeah um i don't think there's anybody in the east that makes me say that they couldn't beat them if
23:28they had to go on the road um so i'm not surprised that boston taking it maybe a little more
23:33seriously
23:33or philly to that degree philly i'm going to put a little caveat in that let's see how healthy they
23:38are
23:38when that while they're going this hold this going this hard excuse me as they move on through the
23:44season so we'll see the knicks actually pacing themselves might work in their favor but i hear
23:50you you still don't want to lose that edge and that hunger to try to have home court you know
23:55you
23:55don't want to play with you play with your fear too much right you know so it's well yeah yeah
23:59go
24:00ahead well i'll also say what i'll say to say too is i also think one thing i'm not i'm
24:04not ready to
24:04say that the knicks should also just give coffee time to playing check because i've seen a little bit of
24:08that too that like based on what we've seen from how well he has played that they should just pay
24:13him whatever and to me that that can't be more prisoner of the moment like this is november
24:19this is november he's playing great he's playing at an all nba level i totally agree and i gave him
24:24all his praises and he deserves it he seems like a just a different more mature guy than he's been
24:29at any point in his career but i there what we're seeing in this first month doesn't negate
24:36any of the concerns you would have paying a center who's 35 years old close to 60 million dollars a
24:43year like to me like these are two different conversations like how well he's playing is
24:47great i don't think this like it at least it shouldn't i don't think it means that the knicks
24:51didn't say okay you know what never mind what our stance was we should just pay him whatever he wants
24:55now what is the number he wants still is the question mark that we're going to continue to talk
25:01about like i've thought that four years to tell him where between 225 and 240 should be good for
25:06both parties um it's unclear whether or not like cat would take that so if if he's gonna turn this
25:13season to a proven year uh i don't know if just based on what i've seen yet uh just because
25:19of the
25:19first month because again he's got to play a whole season that's what i've seen now so okay you know
25:22what never mind let's just give him you know the full max or 260 million dollars and just call it
25:28a day
25:28like i think if the knicks uh are trying to stay under that second apron then that's going to be
25:33almost impossible giving cat that kind of money yeah i and it's funny i don't know this i don't i
25:38don't think he from what we hear i don't think he wants the full max i know you weren't saying
25:42that
25:42but the point you made which is you know he's in his early 30s now um this is year 11
25:48for him
25:50and you're thinking about what it's going to cost to pay him at 35 and how that fits in with
25:54the
25:54long-term uh part of his this deal and how this team just trying to sustainably have more shots
26:00to win it i've been saying this before the team as you see it is not going to be around
26:05in the same
26:06iteration forever and might wake up sadly to say sooner rather than later that's just how it is
26:12in nba right now but yeah i think it's a good point cat's gonna i don't know what that point
26:17is for you
26:17ej where you might end the season where you might say oh i've seen enough of him playing at this
26:22level
26:23that i'm confident to give and i'm not going to say the full max but in the range that you
26:26were
26:26talking about the 225 to 240 i believe you had said yeah i don't know at what point in the
26:32season
26:32if it's closer to all-star break you still seem playing this level where you're like can we get
26:35something done in that range i do think that's fair to say but yeah we'll see you got to see
26:40more you
26:41can't look all the everything that we've talked about you can't go crazy over nine games you just
26:46yeah on either end of the spectrum like there still is more to see there's still more you want to
26:51see
26:51the knicks build on there's some good things over the last three games there's some good stuff
26:54over the last six games but come on we've both been watching basketball long enough i mean dex i
26:59always i always say dex when we do these shows uh to start a season and whether it's knicks or
27:04any
27:04sport the whole uh it's early like if you did a drinking game for your listeners like they would be
27:10passed out in the corner somewhere maybe on some uh some plastics uh for sure because yeah because i
27:16mean the phrase well it's early but it's just something you could say almost every sentence
27:22every segment when you're talking about these teams and what's happening with this team so far
27:26but i i it has been really reassuring that they have you know really turned it around because
27:32you know you start 0-3 and you lose the way they did you kind of just wonder okay like
27:38how many of
27:39these games are they going to let go before like it does become a concern and the fact that they've
27:44been able to really nip it in the bud pretty quickly is a good sign and also it feels like
27:48again not even close to their top form like you know the offense is still slowly coming together
27:52defense has been good but you just know mikhail bridge is eventually going to make shots and you
27:57know jalen brunson is eventually going to you know continue to be jalen brunson like i think sometimes
28:02you know watching luca put up you know these insane numbers and wendy put up these like you know
28:08historic numbers and you saw jalen struggling sometimes for me it was a little like man i want to see
28:14you know our guy you know also have these big nights and you see him struggling and when we
28:18know he's on that level because we saw we did in the finals um but like the reality is like
28:24again he's
28:25running a different race the knicks are running a different race than a lot of these other teams
28:28who in many ways are trying to they're proving around is right now the next proving rounds in april
28:32manager perfectly said perfectly said can't overreact to all this stuff everyone check out my guy
28:38ej stewart on the fan also hosting the orange and blue buzz podcast he does a fantastic job there ej
28:44you know i always appreciate you coming on new york got game thank you bro oh man this is awesome
28:48man invite me anytime you want i'll be here all right time for this week's dex's clipboard the
28:55knicks they've won three straight the back of a 500 as we talked about ej but here's something that
29:00caught my attention according to cleaning the glass they're 25th in shooting efficiency and 12th in
29:05offense so you might be asking yourself how does that work seems like the math ain't math in here
29:10well my read on this one is that second chances are helping keep this offensive flow that shooting
29:16measure that accounts for efficiency that we're talking about is effective field goal percentage
29:20which accounts for the extra value of three pointers new york they're at 51.5 and through nine
29:26games cleaning the glass has the knicks second in offensive rebounding rate at 35.7 they finished
29:33seventh last season in that category and as you know offensive rebounds gives you another chance to
29:38score before the other team gets the ball and right now i think that's an important part of their
29:43margin for error and how they've been able to overcome inefficient shooting early this season so
29:48let's look at saturday's win in cleveland the knicks had an effective field goal percentage of 50
29:52cavaliers they were actually higher at 52.4 now in that game new york's offensive rebounding rate
29:59it was 41.8 another important thing for the knicks was that they also kept their turnover rate
30:05to 11.2 and they finished with an offensive rating of 122.5 that's an efficient offensive night without
30:14great shooting and in my opinion that's the value of giving yourself another shot and taking care of
30:20the chances you already have here's another pattern in these nine games four times the knicks
30:27offensive rebounding rate has topped 40 they won all four of those games they're one in four in the
30:32other games when they haven't topped 40 sure nine games is a small sample size but that's something
30:38worth us tracking as we get deeper into the season which brings us to andre drumming his individual
30:44offensive rebounding rate on missed field goals is 19.4 that's in the 99th percentile among big men
30:51in the nba and the knicks team offensive rebounding rate is 13.3 percentage points higher with him on
30:58the floor than him off the floor now that covers just 118 minutes and those lineup results also depend
31:05on who's playing with him and also against him however my takeaway here is that his work on the glass
31:11deserves a place in our evaluation of the backup center position as ej and i were talking about
31:16especially since i believe this is the position that the knicks will strongly look at when it comes
31:21to potentially upgrading this roster at the trade deadline on another note here is the knicks and
31:29what they've been doing they've been doing the damn thing on defense they currently rank sixth in
31:33defensive efficiency so when we look at it all the rebounding and defense are giving them some
31:39breathing room while the shooting remains uneven right now the next question for the knicks is what
31:45happens when an opponent keeps them off the offensive glass can they generate enough quality looks on
31:51that first chance because as valuable as second chances are the knicks they would love to need fewer
31:57of them all right that's gonna do it for this week's episode of new york got games special thanks to
32:03the
32:04wonderful team here at the new york post for editor antonio olivares nicole producer nick federico
32:09associate producer jeff stansbury and technical director ryan wakowski i'm dexter henry
32:15and we will catch you next time on new york got game and thanks for watching new york got game
32:23boobashakalaka