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00:16what's up everybody welcome back to another edition of new york got game dexter henry
00:20ryan fonseca we are done with summer summer is over you see it's hoodie season if you're
00:26watching this you can see it's hoodie season i have pants on not shorts i wore a hoodie in today
00:30that almost said like you didn't have anything on i'm glad that you have pants on in the studio
00:34that would make sense for you to have pants no but usually i've had shorts during the summer
00:39i work out my legs you know what i'm saying like people know yeah yeah but now now you know
00:44it
00:44happened fast last week i was still we still had like shorts and t-shirts on and then this week
00:49like
00:49the winds are 20 miles an hour i got a hoodie on pants like it's crazy it's just ridiculous fall
00:54fall came quick life comes at you fast fall came at you fast yes uh so it's very interesting
00:59season training but that also means we're just already a couple of days away from the start of
01:03training camp speaking of coming at you fast so season camp too fast for the defending champs
01:08defending the title is going to come at them fast and we're going to talk about a lot about that
01:13today and what we're going to do are talk about the five most important things that the knicks need
01:19to do in order to repeat we're going to talk about that before we get to that real quick because
01:24i
01:25didn't get a chance to talk with my guy brian about this we talked a little bit about this over
01:28the phone
01:29yesterday but the news coming out that there's some stagnation in the contract talks between carl anthony
01:36towns and the knicks are you concerned at all or you kind of like me where it's like yeah man
01:43this is
01:43business at this time of year and something is going to get done eventually i can't tell you when but
01:46something will get done i found timing interesting i know you did also they did i talked about this
01:52yesterday with step yeah and when we look at reports we always have to consider who benefits
01:56from this that was more beneficial for cat's team to have that out there than the knicks especially
02:02given the details of hey the knicks would like this to happen for less than the max which we already
02:07knew we we assumed that but we knew that pretty much and with cat and this is why we outlined
02:13this
02:14go back a few weeks i don't remember exactly when it was it may have been earlier in august or
02:18later
02:18july but we went on a deep dive about how this can play out what cat's representation could be looking
02:25for and taking less is relative to what if it's less than the max then it could be a little
02:32bit less
02:32and still be a lot of money but if it's less than what cat's been used to that's where it
02:36gets difficult
02:37because cat has been a better player since the trade has become more valuable since the knicks got him
02:44has become a champion since the knicks got him and are you going to look at him and say hey
02:48take
02:48less money just to keep this thing together and if your cat this is your last time to cash out
02:53so i
02:53know there's going to be fans who say hey take 40 even though he can get 60 right now like
02:58if you
02:59opt in 60 plus but hey just take 40 million dollars you know be grateful and all these different things
03:04and then dog whistles and what have you but the reality is he's become a more valuable player this is
03:10the last chance to cash in probably on this type of a deal this type of a big contract so
03:15i think that if you're cat and we said this even last week or the week before you want to
03:20get a
03:20deal done now you don't want to have to play this out it gets weird uh and you know that
03:25jalen brunson
03:26is going to get his money og and nobody's going to get his money the knicks also have to get
03:30this
03:30done or get clarity on the situation at least so they can figure out what to do with josh hart
03:34yep so i think there's a lot of interesting elements to this but i totally get it from
03:39team cat's side being like hey we want to make sure that some element of pressure is put on here
03:45so that makes a lot of sense to me from a business standpoint i do think if i had to
03:50guess i would
03:50i'd be surprised if they don't come to terms i don't know what those terms would be cat cat has
03:55to get his money though he's earned it i i would be surprised if it doesn't if it doesn't happen
03:59either
03:59i thought the point that me and steph talked about which is a really interesting one is that when you
04:04look and steph made this point when you look at cat last year and how he played when he and
04:10this
04:10was reported that he was struggling with the rumors of being traded right this is talk about nicks
04:14possibly honest and then when that was done with he played so much better he was relaxed and then
04:21the point you made about value i think that's a very interesting one and a good one in that value
04:27is what matters here and for for those of y'all out there that want to say oh well he's
04:32comfortable
04:33he's a champion you know being in new york and being a champion is worth more than getting more
04:37money here's the thing and i always talk about labor and how it is in work and this is labor
04:44and
04:45why none of us should ever be against anybody trying to get the most money they can
04:49right especially in a situation where when you're a professional athlete you can do what you love
04:56at a high level for a limited amount of time i'm never going to be against people not getting the
05:01most they can now their salary cap rules and trying to keep the stuff together and there'll be some
05:05give and take and you'll see who wants what and how much they want it on both sides but to
05:10sit there
05:10and just say ah man he should take 20 million dollars less i'm like okay that's easy for you to
05:14say
05:15because it's not your money right right if it was your money you had the limited time as an athlete
05:20to play at a high level i guarantee most of y'all would not be saying that and i think
05:24the people that
05:24say that are being very disingenuous and probably not to say all y'all some of y'all are probably
05:30lying i don't i don't necessarily believe believe all that and again it's easy to count other people's
05:35money when it is not yours so i think we should just all keep that in mind and ask yourself
05:40if
05:41you're saying that why are you kind of pro the billionaires and not the millionaires word and and
05:46if i'm cat like i just got married a month ago i'll be damned if i'm taking a pay cut
05:50after that
05:51weddings are expensive like and not saying that i know we're not saying that like he's gonna be
05:56struggling or anything like for real people we get that but again we look at the money that these
06:03sports teams make and the knicks make or any other sports team in the business period dollars in the
06:08business is we say when things for them it's business on their side as well it's business for
06:11the players too and they have a right to cash in just the same way these billionaire owners do as
06:16well within the salary cap structure that exists in certain sports so yeah i'm never going to be
06:20against that i think when you're dismissive to just say ah he should just take this and take less
06:25i i think it's just a little bit of not understanding the limitations of what professional
06:30athletes have to do with their time their money their body to stay at a high level and only do
06:35it
06:35for a short period of time so you know that's my thoughts on that we'll see how that all plays
06:39out but
06:40let us get into the top five things that the knicks need to do in order to repeat this year
06:46and i want
06:46to say this there's something clear and obvious at the top that is the most important thing that
06:52the knicks have to do we're going to go from the bottom to the top but the most important thing
06:55obviously people is health if the knicks are not healthy or they do not have some of the similar
07:02health luck that they did last year because that matters a ton in teams winning championships i don't
07:08care who the team is you need some luck in terms of staying healthy your best player staying healthy and
07:13being ready when the time comes that matters the most nothing trumps health like health is
07:19undoubtedly number one so just so people know someone said this we took that out of this
07:23conversation because we think it's kind of obvious that health is number one so we want to look at five
07:28other things that the knicks must do in order to repeat right so health is understood nothing is going
07:34to trump help health it is the number one reason for sure but for the purposes of this exercise
07:42we decided to remove health because i think all of you out there understand that health is important
07:48okay now that we've said that brian and i we came up with a list and we rank these coming
07:55in at number five
07:58we're going to talk about defense and i know sometimes we like to ignore defense and act like
08:03it's not not us to be clear i do not yeah you know a lot of people focus on putting
08:08the ball in the
08:08basket we will get to offense we'll get to certain things specifically in offense but defense for me if
08:14the knicks are going to defend this title and try to go back to back they have to remain a
08:20top 10 defense
08:21they have to play defense the way they did post january until the time they won the title they
08:28finished seventh in defense last year brian allowing 112.3 points per 100 possessions right that was
08:35better than what we saw from them the year before also first in the playoffs in defense which is
08:40most important yeah did it when it counted yeah 113.3 and that was 13th back into the 24-25
08:48season so
08:48he moved up six spots defensively and when you think about last year the defensive struggles they
08:52had on in about the midpoint of the season in january when everybody was shook when he went two or
08:57nine
08:57and hopefully people have learned it's a long season you can't make adjustments you saw the defense look
09:03very shaky right january 20th onward because that's the date that is post the martin luther king day
09:11beat down that they suffered at the hand of the mavericks that was a couple days after that
09:16wow they their defensive rating from that point onward this was was 108.2 okay 182 point
09:26points per 100 possessions yeah you want the playoff number i guess you can bring up the playoff number
09:33104.9 which is the best in the playoffs by almost two points spurs were 106.7 behind them elite
09:40they played now are they going to play 104.9 and why that matters is you're playing against the
09:46best teams in the playoffs offensively and defensively but their defense was holding up
09:50against other elite offenses right including the spurs were a really good offensive team
09:53we saw them do this also helps when you beat teams by a million points yeah when you're when
09:58you're closing like again not playing with their food which they did play with their food during the
10:02regular season we'll get to that soon we'll get to that soon yeah um you also you also like just
10:09interior point points paint points in the paint 43.4 great points per game in the paint that was
10:15the third fewest in the nba now let's also take a note on that it helps when you got mitchell
10:21robinson yes that helped a ton yes but this also was done with mitchell robinson playing every
10:26other game basically and they still were able to have those numbers a little more they play 60
10:31was a 60 60 60 games yeah just not playing back to back through every three three and every four
10:37games he's basically on average and their defense in the interior is really damn good right now some
10:44people may look at it and say okay dex and brian what about the perimeter defense and like sure you
10:49saw opponents shooting 36 percent from three but like three point variants can be crazy you can
10:56have guys shoot well on contested shots guys getting wide open looks i thought their three
11:00point defense got cleaned up towards the end of the season i thought that was a huge part of the
11:04it was a problem in the beginning it was a problem in the beginning and we talked about allowing way
11:07too many corner threes open corner threes and we talk about it with bondi where he would point out
11:13like yo they're going to landry sham it as more of the perimeter stopper than mikhail bridges in a lot
11:17of instances in late game situations right and this was like the first half of the season roughly
11:22yeah so listen we saw we saw the exact way this team could look good and have a top 10
11:31defense
11:31they did it and how good they played from january 20th on and then as you said into the playoffs
11:36when
11:36you're playing elite teams or supposed elite teams they destroy teams yeah and this is it the defense
11:43has to be good we know what the numbers are you have to be a top 11 12 inch defense
11:48to have a shot to
11:49win the championship if you're getting anywhere as the knicks were knocking on the top five is it
11:55possible they could be a better defensive team this year i'm gonna say i probably would assume
11:59there'll be a little bit of slippage without mitchell robinson and some of the things you lack in the
12:04rim protection more coming on that later people we will get to that but do i still think they can
12:09be
12:09a top 10 defense yes i think if they can finish somewhere between 7 and 10 and they're still trending
12:16the right way as they go towards the playoffs yet it can still this is huge in terms of them
12:20defending the title so a couple things i think cohesion helps i think i think that i mean i know
12:27mitchell robinson's not going to be back but same starting five not every team is going to have that
12:31luxury championship winning starting five now so there's a familiarity with how to get it done
12:37with each other they figured out how to mitigate brunson and cat being attacked finding different ways to
12:44cover for them and with both of them actually competing like cat especially during the playoffs
12:48as we talked about part of that elite defensive rating best defensive rating in the playoffs was cat
12:54was cat just being serviceable and then being outright good at times during the playoffs which
12:59we saw the the turn in the hawk series that's really where it started and then from that point
13:04forward we were talking about him during the first two games of the finals where we were uh doing the
13:09the live shows we were talking about him outplaying victor wambanyama on both ends of the floor
13:13those first couple games when wamby didn't really have it going he was being inefficient before the
13:17spurs ended up winning game three uh but the knicks obviously ended up winning the championship
13:21anyway uh but carl at the towns was playing really well um in general and defensively he was really
13:27bringing it so i think them finding solutions with brunson and cat on the floor is really important
13:32because that's something that can translate and then on coming off the bench you're gonna have jose
13:37alvarado for the full season now that's gonna help you defensively coming off the bench
13:41because he wasn't there until the trade deadline last year so you're gonna have him he'll be
13:46competing do some bride could obviously defend i know he's smaller and i don't think he had like
13:50the best defensive season of his career last season uh but him landry sham it like you have guys who
13:57can get after it the real question is going to be one coming off the bench just with the bench
14:01specifically because we'll take it off the starters for now because starters i think are proven enough
14:05to where maybe this conversation doesn't have to include them as much and we know what the issues
14:10can be like if teams figure out more creative ways to attack brunson and cat when they're on the floor
14:16at the same time now or one or the other if it's just one of them then okay it is
14:19what it is and we'll
14:20talk about that but as it pertains to the bench specifically because this has been a big topic of
14:24conversation in in the comment sections of some of our episodes where we've talked to fans about their
14:29bench concerns something that the bench is going to be terrible something that the bench is going to be
14:33great something that it won't matter because of the starters and what have you but two things that
14:38i have about the bench is one the size and how teams sort of navigate that so you have jose
14:44alvarado
14:45deuce mcbride landry sham it that is not a big three guard lineup so to speak i'm taller than six
14:53four
14:53combined with the fact that you're probably going to stagger in towns with that group a decent amount or
15:00we'll see one of mo d or or procone dottie i i would assume d or but we'll see how
15:05training camp goes
15:09more than that later yeah and then and to be clear all those three guys probably won't be out there
15:14at
15:14the same time all the time mikhail will be out there for like sham it or josh hart will be
15:18staggering
15:18for for deuce mcbride or whatever sure brunson will be there with alvarado at times and then andre drummond
15:24which we'll get to later so we won't talk about that now but the defense coming off the bench is
15:31going to be interesting as i feel like a decent amount of teams have gotten deeper now so that's
15:35what i'm looking out for but to your point i think top 10 defense is is what i would expect
15:40every
15:41championship team basically ever has been top 11 outside of the nuggets with yokich and the second
15:48lakers team the second lakers 3p team with shaq and kobe except both those both those teams have a
15:53couple things things in common the nuggets were trending defensively well towards the end of the
15:58season the lakers missed shaq for a good portion of that second 3p and then their defense started
16:04you know getting better and also they each had the best player in the world at the time that is
16:08a good
16:08point that helps the best player in the world who by the way in both instances seven feet tall that
16:14helps shaq seven feet plus you know it's a different hurdle that you have to overcome there i would not
16:20overcome i would i would absolutely agree so that's it number five can the knicks remain
16:24a top 10 defense if they do that this is key to them returning to the championship to the finals
16:30and
16:30hopefully repeating coming in for us at number four this is a brian fonseca special attention to
16:36the knicks do not play with your food now if you've watched the show and you particularly watch this
16:42during the postseason towards the end of the season brian was on this before the postseason started
16:48he said the one thing that he liked about the knicks was their net rating in the fourth quarter
16:52they had the best fourth quarter net rating by far entire league by far they finished first in fourth
16:58quarter net rating at plus 11.7 points right it's record in clutch situations gotta look this up for
17:06the knicks 21 and 13 with a plus 20 and a half clutch rating that was third in the nba
17:13that was a
17:13regular season this is regular season stats yeah not postseason yeah because the playoffs it'll be
17:17even stupid like that was right that was just a regular season i'm giving but the regular season
17:21is where they had they again they were best fourth quarter margin team by over a point on average right
17:27like over a point more than everybody else like there was a wide gap between them and cleveland who
17:32was in second place second place and so people like okay regular season i i we like to sometimes use
17:38the term flip a switch or not flip a switch when it comes to things in sports and i don't
17:43believe in
17:43that i do believe in building good habits i do believe you can switch habits in the season which
17:48is why you work on things and the knicks defense as we just talked about is an example of that
17:52but
17:52one of the things for me is they had some comebacks during the regular season that maybe should not
17:56have made the postseason as shocking they had the confidence as you kept saying yeah that they could
18:01close yeah all this time when the more you close the more confident you'll be even if you are down
18:07you know one that comes to mind that there's a game in february they were down eight i was at
18:10this game
18:10houston 18 against houston they come back to mike brown's credit in that game he goes with a very
18:16small lineup landry shammett was on the floor jose alvarado also with jalen brunson he closed with
18:22that and i believe og and ob and cat like that was the closing line by the way like he
18:26did in game four
18:27of the nba finals the greatest comeback that we've ever seen like like mike brown's obviously a big part
18:33of this but yeah just being able to be adaptable in that way i think i think the fourth quarter's
18:38told us a
18:39lot because in that game yep against houston we were just talking about they allowed 91 points in
18:44the first three quarters it was terrible against a houston all over a lot yeah against a houston
18:48office that was not very good like like for for the talent level that they had they really i mean
18:53they missed fred van vliet obviously all season long he'll be back this year we'll see how that
18:57goes their offense should be a little bit better but for all the talent that they have offensively with
19:02operation goon amen thompson kevin durant in particular they were not a very good offense and the
19:08knicks were getting decimated those first three quarters and and it looked like it was over like
19:13they they were they were a great fourth quarter team at the time but they didn't have all these
19:18comebacks and this to your point was like oh wait a minute they're they're they're they could be this
19:23team where they this is their i think you said it after like this is their dna like they just
19:28come
19:28back like they're always in games no matter what they outscored them 33 to 15 that was maybe as we're
19:34talking about at the turning point of the season in some regard because before that the noise was
19:39getting out there there was a bit wishy-washy it wasn't that long after i think the trade deadline
19:43was like a month prior or a week prior or so because this was on february 21st two weeks two
19:49weeks prior two weeks after all the yannis rumors and cat rumors and whatever and what are they going
19:54to do and and then this happens and they ended up winning 108 106 like to allow 91 points in
19:59the first
19:59three quarters of a game against a not great offense and to not allow them to reach 110 yes
20:04spoke volumes and this also if i remember correctly i don't think i'm misspeaking here this was after
20:09that terrible detroit loss that they had at the garden following the all-star break whether the
20:16first game back was the track i think i'm right about that their first game back was against detroit
20:21and i think this game was yes correct was it the next game after that yes it's the exact game
20:25after
20:25that right it was saturday yeah they came back from the break yep they lost to detroit 126 to 111
20:31we were here with tarika foster bradsby a good friend it was the third ass whooping and and and
20:36people were just like they can't keep doing this with the pistons whatever whatever like it was bad
20:41right and then they end up with this comeback win against the houston rockets after so and okay and so
20:47to me where patterns matter brian and we saw this because you know look getting down by double digits
20:58and having these comebacks and mix had these great comebacks is great they were six and two
21:02in games in the playoffs where they trail by double digits right and it came back and like two of
21:08the
21:08comebacks were crazy i've re-watched i have not re-watched and i might do this this week before the
21:12season starts i've not re-watched a 29 point comeback again but i do need to do that but what
21:17i did do
21:17early to surprise you haven't i yeah i have not i'm stunned that's enough a whole like the whole
21:22thing but what i have re-watched is i did re-watch the comeback against cleveland maybe about six seven
21:27weeks game one game one and i watched that comeback and one of the things that always will stick out
21:33to
21:33me about that when i re-watch it you know because we're here we're doing a live show and we're
21:37reacting
21:37to things in real time but i was like yo michael bridge's defense was good oh man his defense was
21:45good like he put the clamps on james harden and everyone he was so good that was probably as good
21:53defense as i saw mikhail bridges play who had some very good defensive moments throughout this postseason
21:58but he was good in that yeah now when i mentioned the six and two record being down double digits
22:03and coming back that includes folks all four of their victories in the nba finals all four of the
22:09victories in the nba finals they were down double digits that which is just when you think about
22:14that it's crazy insane the reason i bring this up the reason and by that point they all felt kind
22:21of
22:21inevitable right and we get it they were down 29 against the spurs 20 in the fourth quarter entering
22:26late game execution which brian was harping on before the playoffs matters right and to some degree
22:37their late game execution became a strength which is i think the point we're making when you saw the
22:42best fourth quarter net rating in the league throughout the season it became a strength
22:46something they could rely on but here's the but well you say you can't play with your food when you
22:52keep going down double digits you're playing with fire it's exhausting it can be exhausting too just
22:57draining you don't want to play with that substantial risk right you don't want to keep
23:02going that yes you got the medal you want to be a good fourth quarter team you're in tight situations
23:07i
23:07just mentioned the knicks numbers in clutch situations and how good they were in that now
23:11some of that you're going to have to come back there's going to be comebacks through the year
23:14the knicks are not going to play 82 games or through the playoffs and never go down and never not
23:18have to
23:18come back you want to have yourself in situations where you know how to win in a variety of kind
23:24of
23:25ways now to brian's point about continuity here because you've been through the fire because you've done
23:33certain things and had these different comebacks it's going to give you a confidence but you don't
23:37be so confident that you're arrogant to the point where you're like ah we'll start playing later we'll
23:42start playing later teams teams will eventually like i don't know to what degree you can catch on to
23:47that but at some point you would think they can't keep getting away with this for another season it
23:52felt this way it felt this way during the playoffs so it was like yo can they keep getting away
23:56with
23:56this and they did i mean but let me tell you guys there might be the day we might be
24:01sitting here
24:01watching the game together and it could be in the regular season it could be the post season and
24:05the knicks will go down 30 and they might it'll be ring night it'll be 30 they'll go down 30
24:10and win
24:10and then they'll enter the fourth quarter down 21 so just a point more than it was in game four
24:16against san antonio and they'll come back and somebody's going to be like and i'm not going to
24:20say that they're wrong they'll be like see ain't no deficit they can come back from right there's no
24:24like what can you say at that point i don't believe that i'm not saying i would rock with that
24:29but i
24:30understand where the confidence will come from right that's all i'm saying yeah i get off the
24:35title i get it i get it but the point we're making is you don't want to play with your
24:38food too much
24:39you want to have that championship dna you want to have the strong execution in the fourth quarter i
24:43do not think this team is going to get rattled if they're in tight situations in the fourth quarter
24:47right i think that's important i think that can be a championship strength but you don't want to
24:51find yourself in situations where you have to keep coming back from large deficits yeah you know
24:54it'll be nice time or two in the playoffs which we did see to be something in the playoffs and
24:57the
25:00guys it is nice when you have a nice win you just cruise to victory like you saw in game
25:04four
25:04at cleveland or games three and four well pick a philly game really except for game two you could
25:08feel that way about that five and six in atlanta five six in atlanta that was something else yeah
25:13well you should do i think five was blood also in atlanta it was yeah the last one at the
25:17garden
25:17that was in the garden game five against atlanta yeah yeah yeah you're right you're right you're right
25:21you're right so there you have that all right so that was number four don't play with your food
25:26knicks you don't want to do that too much you don't want to go to the well too much number
25:30three
25:31this is going to be a fascinating one for next fans and this has to do with oh boy can
25:36the team
25:36get a little deeper because brian's been talking about depth can the team get a little deeper to me
25:41and i think we agree we agree on this because we talked about this can become daddy or mohammedia
25:48are become a consistent rotation piece now why do i personally think this is necessary
25:55because of something brian said earlier the knicks need more size off the bench
26:02they need more size of the bench now you might look at this and say dex
26:06why would i trust become daddy i just talked about this a couple weeks ago with my guy e.j
26:10stewart from
26:11the orange and blue bloods podcast he was on with me what what face should i have
26:14the pacom daddy could be a rotation player and brian is now staring at me being like
26:19what is dexter going to come up with for me to believe that he is a consistent rotation player i
26:24have nothing i don't have anything to say for that we haven't seen anything to believe that i i hope
26:33he can and there's talk maybe he's a trade piece here we talked about this in a recent episode we
26:39talked about what the next we talked last week sorry we talked about it what the next can do with
26:43the players they signed to the exhibit during the summer we talked about pacom daddy a ton
26:47also because look it's it's now or never man it's now or never yes yes it is now or never
26:54for him
26:55fans i think the smart fans that have looked at this are going to say well what's his development
26:59been like in the g league what development would be my response would be fair some people are going to
27:07say well why can't he get off the bench why can't he get an opportunity fair questions somebody else
27:13might point to me said well mike brown and the culture staff trusted muhammad diawara more than
27:18they did him last year that would also be correct i don't necessarily have an argument for that in fact
27:24if i was a betting man on this i would bet the diawara is the piece that has a better
27:31shot and because of
27:33what we've seen from his development that we actually have seen this guy shot 37 from three
27:37last year this is the guy that played in uh just over 60 games last year right so you saw
27:42some of
27:43the trust from the coaching staff will we like to see him make a leap this year and ej and
27:47i talked
27:47about this am i concerned about what i saw from him in summer league and he did have the issue
27:51with
27:51his with his finger no but i think the thing for me is you need somebody to take some of
27:57the stress
27:57off of your wings particularly og ananobi now og ananobi's minutes did go down last year they
28:03declined from 36.6 to 33.2 a game something i think that was very good by mike brown and
28:07i loved how
28:08mike brown has been saying it all last year i loved how he managed the team i thought it mattered
28:11in
28:11the playoffs there was some injury management too because he did get hurt at one point and missed some
28:16time true and that that happens too yeah but last year under mike brown no nick averaged more than 35
28:21minutes a game okay which you and i when we did our episode we probably gonna do this again this
28:26year
28:26where we go through the lineup in minutes and we become minutes police as you guys might like
28:30we'll probably do that there i just think from what we've seen from diawara he has a stronger
28:34foundation based on last year one year which is a shame to that he's been a better player so far
28:40i was trying a nice way you're not trying to say a nice way i'm trying not to also because
28:45i think
28:46like diawara like he's just better than dottie has been that said um and i don't want to over
28:54index on summer league especially at two game sample size in summer league much different role
28:59from odor who um didn't really have a point guard out there with him for a sustainable period of time
29:05and was the feature guy uh by design because it's like hey well somebody's gotta do it here create
29:12some offense we gave you a contract that's the key there too which i'll get back to in a second
29:16and uh he shot seven percent from the field in those two games seven seven percent now here's the
29:22the the key for me here modi awara has a contract extension in place and a a cheap one at
29:32that like
29:34a cheap one at that like we've talked about the dottie contract situation which is very important and
29:41i think that october 11th excuse me october 31st you could you could argue that factors into this
29:46more than anything else but mo de awara is getting 2.6 million this year 2.75 next year about
29:542.9 the
29:55year after which is non-guaranteed yeah on the first two only the first two years again right when
30:01non-guaranteed uh becomes guaranteed on january 10th 2029 my birthday that year and then he has a team
30:09option for 3 million in 29 30 where he'll be 25 24 years old so his team option four seasons
30:18from now
30:20is 3 million pacom daddy's team option next year is north of 5 million like this might be a done
30:27deal
30:28now sometimes it's a numbers game yeah it might be a done and on top of that in one year
30:33he's shown you
30:35more than pacom daddy has in two seasons like i don't mean to be down on pacom daddy like this
30:40but
30:42typically when the way teams use the g league is hey this is how we want you to play at
30:48the next level
30:49this is how teams use like teams in the nba use g league like they want you to play in
30:54a way that
30:55we're going to functionally play you at the next level from a from a from a role standpoint they
31:01understand like like someone like pacom daddy is a former first round pick you're gonna you should
31:05dominate the g league so it's not even like from a usage standpoint but if you look at the three
31:11point numbers for pacom daddy in the g league more than half of his shots are coming from three
31:16and he's never been a knockdown shooter at any level in his career of basketball like he profiles as
31:21someone who could be a good shooter but he hasn't been throughout his career yet you want him to be
31:27a
31:27three and d guy because of his size his defensive capabilities and because the form looks good as
31:32we've talked about like there's not an issue seemingly with the release or anything like that
31:36he can get open from the corner he knows how to cut move without the ball he just doesn't make
31:40the shot
31:41and even with that even with averaging 23 game points a game in the g league last year
31:46what's he shooting from three 32 yep on nine attempts on nine attempts that's that's the volume's there
31:52but you you got to be over league average and he's not over 34 that's not gonna get it done
31:57the just because of the contract alone daddy has to be significantly better than mo diowara in camp
32:04i think to really carve out a role because i don't think they're going to take that option for next
32:08year because why would you why would you commit you're you're in a money crunch now with the cat contract
32:13we'll see what happens with josh hart and then you know you got to pay og ananobi and jalen brunson
32:18later on down the line we don't know what's going to happen with deuce mcbride you just gave
32:21out these other extensions like in what world are you giving daddy a that last year of his deal
32:27that's not to say you can't keep them at a lesser number but if you're declining the option
32:32he's the trade piece at that point yeah i think that's the more likely thing still to happen for
32:38this team and just to be very clear when i talk about becoming a consistent rotation piece i you
32:43know i think what we mean here is can this be somebody gives you 10 to 15 salomon it's off
32:47the bench
32:48you can trust 20 in an injury pinch in an injury pinch yeah that's and you trust keyword being
32:52trust last year i'm a big actions person last year mike brown showed me he trusted muhammad diawar
33:01trust for com dadi i haven't really seen it yeah i haven't really seen it all right let's move on
33:08to
33:09number two and this is probably i think one that brian and i are going to have a very good
33:14conversation about
33:17one of the things that we saw in the playoffs folks and i think people loved was mike brown's ability
33:26to make adjustments but particularly offensively this is where we're going to get to the offense
33:30to diversify the offense to allow carthy towns to be the hub of the offense and i think what we
33:38know
33:38as sports fans and journalists i think what we know here is every year it doesn't matter the sport
33:46you might have your identity you can do what you do teams are going to make adjustments then you got
33:52to counter then you got to counter back it is always a game teams are going to be adjusting you're
33:56going
33:56to be adjusting you can't just keep running the same stuff and think nobody's going to adjust and try
34:01to stop your stuff so the knicks made an adjustment we saw them run the offense to cat how does
34:06the
34:06offense become more diverse that's the thing mike brown has to further diversify this offense more
34:13than we saw now there were he tried to do some things and there were changes last year the knicks
34:18did shoot more threes last year than they had done the year before they shot just over 38 threes the
34:24game
34:24was over 34 the year before so that's a little bit diverse they made more threes than they did the
34:29year
34:29before it's like 14 three made threes a game right so you saw a little bit of that they shot
34:33a better
34:34percentage they shot 37 they hit 37 percent of threes over there um and their assists were it's
34:39kind of about the same they were about 27 a game assist a game that you saw from there that's
34:44not
34:44the real thing that i also want to look at when it comes to diversity diversity because with the knicks
34:50we knew that they were such a brunson heavy team in terms of usage and reliance upon brunson what happened
34:56with going through cat ryan was okay that showed you they didn't have to be as reliant as him to
35:02generate
35:02and create the offense and that did wonders for them because they became less predictable yeah
35:08and that's what you want in the nba all the time or i think in in any sports is is
35:13really what you
35:13want so the knicks their efficiency right there was a gap to me between him being on the court and
35:23off
35:24the court and i was looking at this and you know i love cleaning the glass and i was looking
35:31at my stats
35:32425 last year tips the knicks were to add 2.3 more points per 100 possessions with brunson on the
35:39floor
35:40versus off the floor last year 6.6 more points per 100 possessions with brunson on the floor versus off
35:50the floor right so it it widened the gap for the knicks in terms of how efficient their offense was
35:56with him on and off the floor some other things that i think um people should look at here too
36:03is
36:03that they had an effective field goal percentage with one of their best offensive players it was
36:07higher with him on the floor 2.2 percentage points higher their turnover rate was lower with him on
36:12the floor so you know you got i'm not saying there's no value to brunson on the floor obviously there
36:16is
36:17he's a steadying presence there for sure they were fourth in the regular season in offensive efficiency
36:23right um also in terms of one thing i think everybody should also look at that happened in
36:27the playoffs with them in terms of offensive diversity and we talked about this a lot with
36:31michael bridges in the regular season they got to the line in their free throw rate which is free
36:38throws per 100 field goal attempts it was 19 in the regular season playoffs 23.2 that was six in
36:44the
36:44playoffs so they got to the line more it means you're getting more efficient they're getting more shots at
36:48the line that helps you get points up also allows you to set your defense blah blah blah blah
36:52is all good here's the thing this is nothing bad but when you look at the playoff lineup totals which
36:59the playoffs is what you're training to what's going to matter a little bit more the offensive
37:04rating with brunson on the floor 124 off the floor 116.6 here's the here's the interesting stat
37:11and this is what shows the cat impact that i'd love to talk about right the next defense was also
37:17better with brunson off the floor but that's also not shocking considering his size it's kind of a
37:21given it's kind of a given yeah the next net rating though with brunson off the floor the net
37:26rating what do you think their net rating was with brunson on the floor in the playoffs
37:32i think i looked at this so yeah yeah you could have just lied to the people
37:37you could have been like i don't want to do that all right but brunson this is gonna look at
37:42this
37:42so it's plus 16.7 right yeah in off the floor the next net rating was actually better which tells
37:49you
37:49the offense found the level of being able to diversify and actually get others involved and
37:55it didn't drop off it actually got better it was plus 17.5 yeah and i don't think people there
37:59are some
37:59people that i don't think would be that surprised by that there's i think more people would but i think
38:04there's some people who because the offense becomes less predictable you have to move the ball around
38:10now you know with brunson off the floor and typically like if brunson's off the floor that
38:16means the lineup across from you probably isn't as good you know what i mean like you're probably not
38:20seeing like the best players on the other side either agreed yeah what i will say though is i do
38:25think it gives those other guys more confidence in the ability of the way the knicks were able to
38:30execute in the playoffs with brunson off the floor is what i'll say this is where during the
38:35regular season a mo diawara would come in and like you now you can develop like can you actually and
38:41i think that's what the summer league was for and what we saw in pockets of last year like
38:45can you actually lead a second unit because the second unit going back to that landry shamit
38:52deuce bryde jose alvarado like and andre drummond you don't have a wing
38:57amongst any of those guys and you don't have a wing creator really amongst any of those guys
39:01landry sham is not a shot creator to surprise not really a shot creator jose alvarado is he can
39:07create a shot but he's not a shot creator necessarily that's sometimes where jordan clarkson has some
39:11value you know right right and it's but mo diawara is six foot nine if he can do some of
39:16that or just
39:17even if he's getting the shots that he got it's huge yeah that's where playing the point i'm making is
39:23when you look at that plus 17.5 net rating with brunson off the floor in playoffs it's not saying
39:28that the knicks don't need brunson to just be very clear that's not what i'm saying what i'm saying is
39:33it should make fans and the coaching staff want to try to develop more situations that can build
39:42more confidence for the players in secondary creation now to brian's point it'd be nicer and
39:48be easier if you have some other guys that can help do some shot creation for you nick's kind of
39:54lacking on that in the bench but what happens if some of the development comes from mo diawara where
39:58you can put the ball on the floor and maybe do something that's now a game changer for that
40:02matter right it's a game changer because now you've diversified there's another guy to put the ball on
40:07the floor is it having michael bridges run a little bit more the second unit and putting the ball in
40:11his hands a little bit more than we saw last year those are things that are also possible to
40:16diversify a little bit more it just looks different people are going to start to get ready for the cat
40:21as the hub i'm not saying they're gonna be able to stop it the knicks can still move but teams
40:24are
40:24going to be readier for that so what's the wrinkle to that and the main thing for me is
40:30like i don't care if mike brown gets everything right the thing i admire about him most is that he's
40:36willing to try new things like in life period it's difficult to keep trying new things over and over and
40:42over again you know what i mean take it from somebody who can be like a creature of habit
40:47or you know like you know what i mean like it's not always the easiest to branch out and try
40:53different
40:53things right um so i i think with with mike brown i have confidence that they'll find new solutions or
41:01at least try to like they won't always get it right they might fall on their face at some point
41:06maybe they
41:06lose in the second round of the playoffs and they can't defend their title in the finals it is what
41:10it is
41:10but i think that they'll figure out different ways to tinker with the offense as they go um the
41:17resources that he has i mean he has a lot of the same guys you don't have mitchell robinson now
41:20you
41:21have to figure out the bench but like i think they're going to figure out whether it's i mean
41:26cat at the hub in a regular season we'll see how teams adapt to that does he actually put the
41:31ball
41:31moldy or his hands coming off the bench does he have deuce mcbride try to create a little bit more
41:35offense if he's capable of doing that at the end at a high nba level at this point um you
41:40know how
41:41much is he going to experiment with maybe jalen brunson and jose alvarado as a closing lineup or
41:46having them together at points of the game with like an og and an obi there for the size and
41:50defense
41:50and the wing defense and maybe you have mikhail bridges out there too you know like i think there's
41:55enough there on his resume from last season and he won a title but there's enough there on his resume
42:01from last season to show a level of experimentation that i didn't see with tom thibodeau like there's
42:08no other way to put it there's no other way to put it i like tom thibodeau legitimately like i
42:12think
42:13he's a really good coach but i do think that they kind of outgrew what he provided and there are
42:19teams
42:19i think tom thibodeau will be great at coaching in the nba right now like like a charlotte or in
42:25orlando
42:25or something like that and get them to the next level but i think with mike brown and what he's
42:30shown
42:31that's the most important thing for me it's like they have a coach who's willing to try different
42:35things and players who evidently are willing to listen players who have been open-minded or have
42:40in the case of what we heard with cat has been forceful in terms of like hey like let's try
42:46this
42:46like actually coming up with different ideas so i think there's enough agreeability i don't know if
42:52that's a word but i think there's enough agreeability in that room to to figure out how to diversify the
42:58offense further to your yeah i think if they do that it's just going to take them to another level
43:02and because they had to your point they have a situation last year where really the inflection
43:08point of the playoffs of cat coming to mike brown after game three and saying exactly right let's do
43:12this and mike brown not having an ego which is the big thing that right there yeah okay let's do
43:16this
43:16let me listen that's what to me good leadership and i think if he did that why would he not
43:21try to
43:22diversify the offense right here as they try to defend the title i think there will be wrinkles
43:26and i think we will see more wrinkles okay the last thing we've kind of talked about this we've
43:32we've honestly beat this one like a drum but so i'm not going to be that so long on this
43:35but i think
43:37you know both of us here we think at some point the knicks are going to have to upgrade the
43:41backup
43:41center position that is not shade towards andre drummond maybe maybe maybe maybe like andre drummond
43:47might be i think i will say it again there's definitely people amongst uh knicks fans who
43:52who watch the show yeah and a very high like andre drummond is going to be this and that and
43:56i'm like
43:56you know what i'm not saying definitively i know what he is or isn't going to be i think he'll
44:00be
44:00motivated to play here i do think that i have some concerns defensively after what i saw in the
44:05playoffs that i think are legit and here's the thing i think the knicks did too and that's why the
44:10knicks
44:10went out and gave an offer sheet to musa sisse i do actions matter trade rumors for um
44:20who we've talked about yeah actions matter and i do not think that that just came out of nowhere
44:26i think they were also trying to get you know a good player in on some good value young center
44:30they
44:30could mold and maybe eventually get to a long-term contract so i think it tells you a little bit
44:35about
44:35how they feel about andre drummond um in my thing look i'm not going to go too much into this
44:41andre drummond's rim protection has declined over the years he's still a very damn good rebounder
44:48um he is not the offensive rebounder that mitchell robinson was uh and nobody is in the league so i
44:55understand that the thing you know when andre drummond he is generally available i think that it's good
45:01but some people like brian love the fact that he's shooting three-pointers right now i'm saying
45:05that tongue-in-cheek yeah sarcastically yeah if you if you see an episode a few years a few years
45:10a few weeks ago i don't care about his corner three at all but it does not matter to me
45:15at all my thing
45:16is i think they're gonna have to keep an eye on this it's it's there's a world in which you
45:23look at
45:23this position of the backup five as being the most consequential position to the season
45:30he has a lot of pressure on him right and surely or not he does and yeah and i think
45:34when me and
45:35ej did an episode about nicks who were facing the most pressure this season he was number three
45:38on both of our lists we did the top three and he was number three for both of us who
45:42were the top
45:42two uh both of us had deuce mcgride as number one and ej had mohamed diawar too and i had
45:51pakom dadi as two okay so that that that's what the list was but we both we had the same
45:56number
45:56one and number three with that being said
46:02if the we'll know how confident the knicks are around this and we're not confident y'all are
46:07fans because you'll be letting us know how you feel you don't feel about these players as you guys
46:11always do and we'll see but i think it's a position you have to get right the knicks had a
46:15security
46:16blanket with mitchell robinson they knew what they got out of him when keyword when healthy they knew that
46:21what you were going to get out of him with healthy i've always said it is fitting that the last
46:25time
46:25mitche robinson touched the ball as nick was getting an offensive rebound that sealed the
46:29championship i think it's absolutely fitting of that he gave you the defense he gave you the
46:34rebounding unfortunately he's no longer here you're going to need competent backup center play
46:39to get through the playoffs and you're going to need that on the defensive end because if teams think
46:46they can attack or if cat gets in foul trouble just think about the finals guys when cat got in
46:51foul
46:51trouble you okay when mitch came in and had to guard wendy a little bit or did you were fine
46:55with
46:56that are you comfortable with andre drummond we'll see maybe andre drummond has the best
47:00defensive seeds in his career i hope so i hope that happens the nick fan hopes that happens i don't
47:06think the knicks are that confident that's why they looked at the moussa cse that's why you've heard
47:10the eve's me see rumors i think they will be looking to upgrade i think they will need to upgrade
47:15it's either and i should have been fair on this what we're saying is the number one thing is the
47:20nicks have to either upgrade the backup center position or andre drummond has to shine if andre
47:25drummond shines defensively great foul money you're good if andre drummond struggles the defensively
47:33that is the knicks are going to have to upgrade that position because if they don't i do think that's
47:37a problem you have until february with this and your time and then from there you'll see and i think
47:44even if he's good and holds down the spot they'll probably get somebody else to fortify that spot maybe
47:49they have a two-way between now and then i don't know what's going to happen um if cat gets
47:54injured
47:55which obviously knock on wood you don't want that to happen but then that that puts a magnifying glass
48:01on this like tenfold and what have you um we've talked about this a ton so i'm not gonna go
48:06too long
48:06on it but big shoes to fill i know mitchell robinson was imperfect and played limited minutes the last
48:14few seasons but he did play 60 games last year 60 and that's the most that he's basically played since
48:22the 21 22 season which was the second year of tom thibodeau if i'm not mistaken um which is
48:29significant and he played 20 minutes a game during the regular season where we weren't sure if it was
48:33uh more than maybe 15 to 18 minutes he ended up playing 20 minutes a game there were a bunch
48:38of starts in there as well because they did experiment with that um he started 16 games last
48:42year 100 german last year played about the same amount of minutes about the same amount of games
48:4763 games 25 starts to 16 starts 19 and a half minutes per game and you guys saw in the
48:53playoffs
48:53it was an adventure defensively now they can't play the guys that andre drummond played against in
49:00the playoffs because that's them that's the knicks right but at the same time that that's just going
49:05to be something that and teams are going to do this like teams know with mitchell robinson not there
49:09whoever the center is on this roster the other teams are going to attack them whether it's car
49:14anthony towns whether it's andre drummond so this is a spot that is going to be monitored very closely
49:19i do agree that he's one of the top three knicks with the most pressure this season i think that
49:24there's an argument for one or two um but there's a world where he turns back the clock he rebounds
49:29really well he's serviceable defensively he can score around the basket and is great and he holds
49:35down the spot and that's really what you want you want him to be able to play in the playoffs
49:38so
49:38we'll see i'm not sleeping on the idea that they'll add another center because they've tried to do that
49:43already frankly they've been trying to do that and they probably will revisit that knowing how this
49:48front office operates and how responsible they've been in terms of team building um and i think
49:54if it looks bad early you will start to hear things before christmas because that's when a lot of the
50:02league is going to be trade eligible december 15th and then january 15th are dates then obviously the
50:07trade that lines in early february so this is something that you'll really hear a lot about
50:11between then between that december 15th period and the trade deadline and that's when the knicks are
50:17going to have to need an answer uh barring a cat injury where you what do you do at that
50:22point
50:22right that's so listen this is again i i think the defense can be a concern um it's the rim
50:31protection
50:31for me that's number one when you look at shots that opponents took within six feet against men's
50:37robinson 53 shooting there yeah cat 57 okay andre drummond 67 while his field goal percentage like on
50:51the offensive end was 47 of the worst of his career so his finishing ability i mean part part of
50:57that is
50:58also he's just shooting more threes yeah which again i've talked about this i'll just read 90 last
51:03year yeah he shot 93s last year i'll just reiterate again i do not care about the corner threes at
51:09all
51:09i just don't because like other teams are going to be like okay well if andre german wants to shoot
51:13corner threes like that means landry sham is not shooting that means deuce isn't shooting that means
51:18brunson's not shooting that means mikhail's not shooting og's not shooting cast not shooting
51:22so like knock yourself out if you want to shoot 10 threes okay you want to shoot 15 threes okay
51:28like
51:29that's what that's why to me it's not it's not a consequential shot it's not a shot that matters
51:32it's a win for the defense right right if you're he's he whatever the lineup is he's probably going
51:38to be the fifth option regardless of if he's if he if he's in the top 10 guys on this
51:43team
51:43he's going to be the fifth option in any lineup offensively because he's the 10th option out of
51:48all those guys so if he's going to be the fifth option and he's shooting a corner three you're like
51:53great if you're the other team that's why that's to me it doesn't matter you got it if you can
51:58rebound
51:59well and protect the rim better than he did last year it's a huge bonuses for the nicks um those
52:05room protection numbers are not good 51 uh he shot 51 on twos last year 51.4 on two so
52:11actually that's
52:12still the lowest of his career we'll see so we'll see if he's better new environment back home in new
52:16york second one might be might be engaged in that so we will see all right those are our top
52:21five things
52:22we believe the nicks need to do in order to repeat championship watch is about to be on like i
52:28said
52:28we got media day on monday training camp opens on tuesday right back at it you know the nicks
52:34coverage never stops on this show on new york our game we do not stop we keep bringing it to
52:38you all
52:39the time let us know do you like our top five is there something we missed other than the health
52:42which
52:42we said is obviously there's nothing more important than that but is there something else that you think the
52:47nicks must absolutely do in your book for them to defend the title this year we'd love to hear it
52:53let us know in the comments hit that like button hit that subscribe button for your guys that's going
52:58to do it for this edition of new york got game for my guy brian fonseca i'm dexter hammer catch
53:03you
53:04next time on another edition of new york got game peace
53:10and thanks for watching new york got game
53:18new york got game
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