00:15Another preseason game for the New York Knicks or as my guy Stefan Bondy likes to call it another scrimmage,
00:21right?
00:22Friendly. Friendly. You can do that for the soccer fans out there as well too.
00:25Knicks losing to the Timberwolves, 122-104. They drop to 0-3 in preseason if you care about that.
00:32Steph, I have a feeling that you probably do not care about that at all whatsoever.
00:36But in this game, when you looked at it, the starters played. Mike Brown wasn't happy with the defensive effort
00:41for the starters.
00:41But Jalen Brunson, got to talk about him. Jalen Brunson looked pretty good. Looks like he's almost in regular season
00:46form.
00:47Yeah, he was aggressive. He was doing Jalen Brunson things when he gets in the paint, using that footwork.
00:52Only shot one for four from deep, but still had 22 points, I believe.
00:56So, yeah, I mean, that's a good effort from him. The starters lost their minutes because Ann Edwards went off.
01:02Ann Edwards was great.
01:04One thing I did think was interesting is after the game, Mike Brown said he's basically trying to simplify the
01:10offense
01:11to make themselves more predictable and make it so that it's the other team's defense has an easier time
01:18and he wants to see his own players break through that defense.
01:23So, you know, I think Mike Brown is toying with a bunch of things right now.
01:27They're, like you said, they're 0-3, but it's preseason.
01:31It's preseason. That's what the preseason is for.
01:33One of the things that I noticed in the preseason, and I'm sure you've seen it,
01:36we were down in Philadelphia last week, Andre Drummond had three blocks.
01:39He also had three blocks tonight.
01:41Rim protection looking a little bit better.
01:43What do you make of what we've seen from Andre Drummond defensively thus far here in the preseason?
01:47Yeah, pretty good.
01:48You know, I think he's still, when you project him moving forward,
01:51he's still not as good of a defender or rim protector as Mitchell Robinson, but that's expected.
01:57So if he's giving you the kind of stuff that you're seeing in preseason,
02:00the Knicks are going to be in pretty good shape.
02:02Yeah, you'll see that.
02:02And after the game, I had a chance to ask Mike Brown about what he thought about Andre Drummond
02:07and his defensive ability thus far, and he talked a lot about communication when it came to him.
02:12I tell you, you know, the blocks are great, you know, but I'm not a huge shot-blocking guy.
02:21His communication right now is unbelievable.
02:24Like he, you know, usually your big is the one that sees everything out in front,
02:29and so he's usually your quarterback of your defense.
02:33A lot of bigs aren't great talkers, though.
02:37Like, like, like, Draymond's one of the best in the league.
02:40I mean, he, if you ever go to watch him, sits back in the back,
02:44and he just tells everybody what's going on and what to do.
02:46And I thought Andre's communication tonight was, and it's been good, but tonight it was off the charts.
02:53It was off the charts.
02:54And, you know, the blocks are good.
02:57Him defending the pick-and-roll the right way, being big, being up to top.
03:00There are a lot of good things that he did.
03:02But just watching him, but more important, listening to him, man, that got me really excited.
03:11All right, a guy we've talked a little bit about, I guess, here,
03:14and maybe not enough in the preseason is Pakom Dottier.
03:16So some more minutes tonight, had seven points, hit a couple threes in the first half.
03:21Where are the knicks with him right now, and what have you liked or maybe not liked
03:25that you've seen from him in the preseason?
03:27Well, this was his best game by far.
03:28I mean, he struggled not only during previous preseason games, but in summer league.
03:32He didn't look very good.
03:33With him, it's important that he hits that three-point shot.
03:36He has not been able to hit that consistent three throughout his brief NBA career,
03:41but he did hit two trays tonight.
03:43I think he was two for three.
03:45The deal with Pakom is he has a team option on his contract that needs to be picked up by
03:52Halloween.
03:52Yeah.
03:53The Knicks will not be picking that up.
03:55It's over $5 million that we know they're counting their money.
03:58That's not something they're going to want on their books,
04:00which means Pakom Dadieh is also going to be potentially on the trade market
04:07because the Knicks could try to unload salary to sign another player.
04:11They have a bunch of non-guaranteed guys that are working out now.
04:14So, Pakom is somebody I'm keeping an eye on moving forward in preseason and beyond.
04:19Yeah, something to definitely keep an eye on.
04:20There are other guys to keep an eye on.
04:22The guys who were signed to non-standard contracts.
04:25We saw four of them get more minutes tonight, Ochai Abadje, Drew Eubanks,
04:31Tony Bradley, and Kevin McCullough Jr.
04:33Of the four of them, did anyone impress you?
04:35Bradley, five for five, ten points in seven minutes.
04:39That's pretty efficient, right?
04:40Yeah, it's pretty efficient.
04:41None of them got much burn.
04:43Mike Brown went with his starters for about 22 minutes total each,
04:48and then he went with his first reserves after that.
04:51And the guys that you're talking about, the non-guarantees,
04:53got a little bit of playing time, a little cameos.
04:56But of the ones you mentioned, Tony Bradley, to me, was the most impressive.
05:01And keep in mind, guys like James Wiseman did not play today
05:04because Mike Brown is mixing and matching in terms of which games he's going to use those guys.
05:09Is it still Wiseman as a frontrunner for that final spot?
05:13That's what I heard a while ago, and nothing that I've seen on the court would change that
05:20or anything like that.
05:21But keep in mind, tomorrow the Knicks have a back-to-back.
05:52Yes.
05:53He's supposed to play.
05:54He's supposed to make his victory.
05:55There you go.
05:56Knicks here's watching the opposition.
05:57There you go.
05:58You know what?
05:58He's going to be a problem in the division.
06:00So, you know, how does Kawhi look?
06:03I'm going to be looking at that more than anything.
06:05But in terms of the Knicks, listen, we know about that fight for that last roster spot.
06:10We know that if guys like Bruce Brown can really impress, then maybe compel a trade,
06:15trade a guy like Bacom Dottier or Miles McBride to free up a roster spot.
06:19So, those are the things that's really at stake for the remainder of the preseason.
06:25All right.
06:25There you go.
06:25Some things to watch in that penultimate preseason game.
06:29I like the alliteration there.
06:30I like to try to throw that in whenever I can.
06:31We'll see what the Knicks do.
06:33They have two more preseason games left.
06:35And then it's on to the real games.
06:37Thank God.
06:37Yeah, I know.
06:38We're happy for that.
06:39Let's get it over with.
06:40The scrimmages.
06:40Scrimmage is done.
06:41No more scrimmages.
06:42We're glad to get those over with.
06:43That's going to do it from here at Madison Square Garden for New York.
06:46That is our fantastic beat writer, Stefan Bondi.
06:48I'm Dexter Henry.
06:49We'll catch you next time.
06:52And thanks for watching New York Got Game.
06:55Boom shakalaka.
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