The 2021 New York Knicks: Leon's Friends & Co.

[ehh]

Re: The 2021 New York Knicks: Leon's Friends & Co.

It boggles my mind that the team I root for hasn't had a truly great PG since Walt Frazier. I liked Mark Jackson but he wasn't on Clyde's level.

Seeing some people on Twitter saying IQ "gives them Charlie Ward vibes" and meaning it as a compliment is hilarious to see. Knicks fans have no idea what it's like to have a great point guard.

[bigeastbumrush]

Re: The 2021 New York Knicks: Leon's Friends & Co.

Who would have thought about the outstanding impact of Kenny Payne?

He’s leaves UK and they proceed to wet the bed with first round talent on the team.

And his prior relationships are definitely helping Knox’s confidence.

I’m not happy about what appears to be a UK-to-Knicks pipeline. But I am hoping we are the beneficiary of another wrongly used player under Calipari like the trajectory of Jamal Murray, De’AaronFox and Tyler Herro.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: The 2021 New York Knicks: Leon's Friends & Co.

So one game in it is clear that Elfrid Payton is the worst player in the history of basketball. Dude doesn’t even look at RJ coming off a perfect first half. Randle played much better with him off the floor as well. Hopefully IQ isn’t down for too long.

Did they use our pick to draft a 22 year old PF with a questionable shot and try to turn him into Ryan Anderson? This dude was just camped in the corner. Side note, does he look like he has a hunchback when he’s playing is or that just me?

[jb12780]

Re: The 2021 New York Knicks: Leon's Friends & Co.

IQs injury was rather unfortunate. Elf needs to go. I believe Frank is gone after this season.

That’s all I got for now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ehh]

Re: The 2021 New York Knicks: Leon's Friends & Co.

So one game in it is clear that Elfrid Payton is the worst player in the history of basketball. Dude doesn’t even look at RJ coming off a perfect first half. Randle played much better with him off the floor as well. Hopefully IQ isn’t down for too long.

Did they use our pick to draft a 22 year old PF with a questionable shot and try to turn him into Ryan Anderson? This dude was just camped in the corner. Side note, does he look like he has a hunchback when he’s playing is or that just me?

This is why I've been so incensed that they brought back Payton. I don't care if he's a stop-gap vet on a cheap deal, he is horrendous for this team. Thibs has to see this and pull him from the rotation. He can't shoot, he doesn't put pressure on the defense, he's an average defender, as you said he doesn't understand the flow of the game and feed the hot hand. We hear all the coach-speak that "we're going to play the guys who give us the best chance to win"...wake up, man. Payton is not that guy.

Re: Toppin, I called this before we drafted him and I've been saying it ever since: the way this year's team is constructed you can't expect much from Obi. We don't have the pieces to get the most out of him. On the other hand, it's good that he's given the green light from deep. He has to become a reliable 3PT shooter. Let the kid fire away. That is the player he has to become to be worth his salt in today's NBA: a big who can shoot threes, attack closeouts, and make some nice passes. We don't want him taking more than half of his FGA from beyond the arc but I think Thibs will take care of that. He can pass the ball for a big man so hopefully we get him more playmaking opportunities. The Randle/Toppin frontcourt wasn't as awful as I expected, though it was bad defensively.

What a night for Barrett. His best as a pro. Dude has to be so frustrated playing on this dumpy team. 20 points on 8/8 shooting in the first half and he doesn't get his first shot in the 3rd until 8:24.

Sucks that IQ got hurt. It was telling that Thibs brought in Burks to run the point over Frank and DSJ right after the injury. It's safe to say that unless either guy really steps up that their time here is nearing an end.

Randle is going to Randle but Thibs gets some credit already for reeling him in a bit. He's going to make some stupid plays every game, and we better not think of re-signing him, but he should be far less infuriating to watch this year. It's amazing what happens when you have a coach who holds players accountable.

I really dislike Sabonis. Dude pushes off with his forearm all the time and then Randle does the same thing one time on the other end and the refs call an offensive foul.

[bigeastbumrush]

Re: The 2021 New York Knicks: Leon's Friends & Co.

Man. I’m so disappointed in Mitch. For all of his off-season videos and talk..he doesn’t even look at the basket unless he’s right underneath it.

We won’t be able to do anything if we’re just a bunch of wings with no threat down low besides Randle barreling to the basket.

Mitch has to develop a 12-15 foot jumper/move. Every screen he’s rolling to the basket and with our inept starting PG who can’t shoot, all the defense has to do is clog the lane and Mitch becomes irrelevant.

Frank is a goner. Hopefully he latches onto a bench role somewhere they can make him a defensive specialist only.

[Jeffx]

Re: The 2021 New York Knicks: Leon's Friends & Co.

Elfrid Payton.....smdh

[bigeastbumrush]

Re: The 2021 New York Knicks: Leon's Friends & Co.

Elfrid Payton.....smdh

The most inefficient PG in the league.

[ehh]

Re: The 2021 New York Knicks: Leon's Friends & Co.

No Obi and no Quickley make this team even more difficult to watch.

Tough night for RJ, Simmons is probably the worst matchup in the league for him. Bigger, stronger, and quicker.

Sitting here with Burks as our game-closing PG is a special place in basketball hell that no NBA team should have to be in.

It's not much, but you can tell the staff is getting through to Knox a bit as a floor spacer. When he puts the ball on the floor he isn't recklessly and blindly driving to the hoop, he's actually reading the floor and looking to make skip passes and smarter plays. While our drafting hasn't been good the last 5-6 years I think it highlights just how terrible our player development has been. That isn't rocket science.

Again, Randle is a fraction of how frustrating to watch as he was last year. Payton is by far the more infuriating player this year.

Just like with Frank and Knox, you doubt or wonder if Mitch will ever make the jump.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: The 2021 New York Knicks: Leon's Friends & Co.

I feel like I’ve seen a lot of positive plays out of inbound plays.

[ehh]

Re: The 2021 New York Knicks: Leon's Friends & Co.

Thibs is without a doubt the best coach we've had since JVG. Not that the bar is very high, but it goes to show just how terrible and soft our recent coaches have been.

[ehh]

Re: The 2021 New York Knicks: Leon's Friends & Co.

Thibs deserves some COY votes based solely on what he's done with Randle.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: The 2021 New York Knicks: Leon's Friends & Co.

He’s in the MSG post game presser now and Vork asked him what has led to the passing and 3 point shots and he basically said he can be more confident in general because the system does a better job of setting guys up in the right spots, so he knows where guys are as opposed to just everyone running around. Seems to have a really good attitude about everything, I always wonder how guys react to being the guy the fans blame everything on but he’s unfazed.

[ehh]

Re: The 2021 New York Knicks: Leon's Friends & Co.

I'm sure he's as happy as anyone that Thibs is here. Players hear the noise from fans, he was aware of how disliked he was. It'd be one hell of a redemption story. We still stink but at least we're reasonably enjoyable to watch. What an upset.

Toppin >>>>>> Haliburton

And it’s not even close.

This is probably going to age poorly, but we shall see! Haliburton looks great. I'll give Obi time though, but there's no way it's not even close.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: The 2021 New York Knicks: Leon's Friends & Co.

Hopefully IQ and Toppin can get back soon, I’d like to see Randle playing like this with IQ out there to space the floor.

What do you guys see as the plan for Randle? I see there are already people who’ve been bamboozled into wanting to extend him, I’d like to see if we can get a pick for him at the deadline if he keeps this up. We already have the Dallas pick so we could then maybe package that and the new one to move back into the lottery. A lot of this is contingent on what Toppin turns out to be.