The Knicks Get Thunderstruck: Is It Time To Start Immanuel Quickley And Bench RJ Barrett?

The Knicks Get Thunderstruck: Is It Time To Start Immanuel Quickley And Bench RJ Barrett?

Welcome in to locked on Knicks Alex Wolf and Gavin Shaw here and a little bit of a Christmas hangover for the Knicks they lose 129 to 120 to the Oklahoma City Thunder the turnover battle and the Fast Break battle and all in all just a really scary young team kind of swung

This one Oklahoma City’s way we’re going to talk about it next on lock on Knicks you are locked on Nicks your daily New York Knicks podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day all right welcome in to lockon Nicks this episode is brought to you by prize

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Places I’m Alex Wolf I’m editorinchief of Nick site the Strickland which you find at the strict. land and he is Gavin Shaw your favorite play-by-play broadcasters favorite play-by-play broadcaster and your New York Knicks lost this game 129 to 120 to the Oklahoma City Thunders starting a new

Road trip feels like the other one just ended Gavin but Nick’s back on the road again on the road again just can’t wait to get all that uh just can’t wait to get home again they’re gonna have a lot more home games in the second half of

The Season which will be nice but uh Gavin I thought this was a pretty tough one this was a pretty tough matchup for the Knicks like this Thunder team is not particularly long and they actually play quite small but this is a team that could just shoot the lights out uh and

They really did that against the Knicks on top of the fact that they just have a ton of athletes and a ton of tough shot makers and somehow their average age is only like 22 years old uh I don’t understand how this team exists and is so good at this particular stage but

They’re kind of all taking a leap at once and they kind of just took a leap right over the Knicks in this game by and large yeah look they’re they’re they’re absurdly talented top 10 offense top 10 defense um their metricks I haven’t looked in a while that might

Even be better than that 20 and N I think that’s about the fourth best record in basketball maybe the third best record in basketball right now like they’re they’re legit like we have enough of a sample size to say um if if you don’t want to go so far as to

Consider them legitimate NBA championship contenders given that I’m pretty sure no one other than Davis Berton on their team has won a playoff Series in their career like I’m I’m open to hearing that but they are really freaking good and the Knicks bore the brunt of it in a game where they were

Dominated in in the turnover battle that is the number that was emphasized in the broadcast all night the number that stood out to me all night the Knicks had 18 of them Oklahoma City had four um that that’s that’s the game right there like it’s I think I think it’s almost as

Simple as that like you could look at the fact that Shay gilis Alexander and Jaylen Williams absolutely cook them for a combined 72 points and we can get into that as much as you want but despite it the Knicks offense is playing so well right now Alex they still would have had

A chance to win but hard to survive when Jaylen Brunson in Fairly sloppy game by his standards has five turnovers RJ Barrett has five turnovers including a truly back breaking play that was the same exact one when they had the four-on-one fast break against the Bucks where he just blindly runs into someone

On a fast break he can’t be doing that RJ um Julius Randle sloppy in the first half cleaned it up a bit in the second half but had moments of real laziness including one that kind of was was the dagger for OKC where he was arguing called didn’t get back on defense Jaylen

Williams in turn h a wide open three to give the Thunder a 116 to 106 lead that they would never relinquish the Knicks had moments of of of real valiance that’s not a word they were ve they were very Valiant in this game at points um

They tied it up at 81 after trailing by 17 in the first half they fought they clawed IQ was awesome Hart was awesome but Alex again hard to overcome that big of a turnover differential on the road against one of the best teams in the NBA

At the end of the day it’s as simple as that yeah I really gota I mean we should probably get into the the Nicks specific talk a little more soon but like I got a shout out too man like this the the like Big Three that OKC is trotting out there

Right now of SGA holgren and Jaylen Williams is really scary man like yeah like Jaylen Williams when I was watching him play I was like this is like if like at least the way he played in this game I understand you know he’s still still young so he’s still working things out

But the way that he was able to play in this game I was like wow this is pretty much if you took jayen Brunson made him a few years younger and much larger of a human being and he could have been a Nick Alex and he could have been a Nick

If they had not made those moves last year you know but it’s not and they probably wouldn’t wouldn’t have taken him we should supposedly they were kind of interested in him though that’s forgot about that yeah there was there was interest there but they have apparently not enough interest

Actually pull the trigger there um so yeah the tough stuff Walt parin is shaking his fist at the sky after this game um but yeah he was he was crazy SGA is just a nonsensically good basketball player and CH hren man for as much as been made about wemi this year like chat

Hren is a real spectacle to watch too he’s just like a little bit shorter so he’s only like normal seven footer proportions but I mean his handle is fantastic he’s just ah man this okay see I’m quite jealous it’s a very very talented team and this is considering they didn’t even play like

Some of their other like usane Jang I believe is injured for them right now or is he just straight up not playing with them I don’t know he was in the rotation so I assume he’s hurt but yeah either way I mean that’s another guy that they

Invested a a good pick in and all a sudden like crazy team there um anyway yeah I agree with you with the Knicks like it was it came down to the turnovers like the the early part of the game you know Randall only finished with three turnovers on the books but I

Thought that he was focusing a little too hard on try like this looked on paper like a matchup that he should have been able to dominate and like get inside and and you know really assert his will but he did do more of that in the second half which I appreciated but

In the first half he seemed a little too concerned with getting his own shots up and that led to like double teams triple teams that was leading to you know kind of sloppy possessions uh because he was just holding on to it for too long

Trying to figure out what to do and OKC was crashing and even if they’re not the tallest longest team they’re very fast and and they have like they clearly Target wingspans and stuff because they can get hands all over the place poke the ball out I mean RJ Barrett turned it

Over five times as well Jaylen Brunson turn it over five times it’s just it’s not a recipe for Success if you’re having that many balls poked away from you and you’re not doing it to the other team either which OKC to their credit played an extremely crisp game on the

Other end and just had a a formula to beat the Knicks basically which was get inside kick it out Swing Swing Swing every single player on this team can shoot a three so they’re screwed and that was it and and that was kind of the story of the game ultimately but it a

Tough one for the Knicks but a really bad matchup you know sort of like that we say that the the Toronto Raptors are always sort of a bad matchup for the Knicks because they’re super lengthy and you know can bother them on the inside and stuff like that this Thunder team I

Think was a bad match up for the Knicks because the Knicks like to slow it down a decent amount and those times when they did slow it down OKC just swarmed them and they were too fast and too handsy for the kns to overcome yeah they

They they basically made a bet that they were going to go small when Chad was off the floor and and Julius and and hardenstein couldn’t hurt them enough to make them pay for that and ultimately they won that bet um and essentially what they’re prioritizing doing that is

Saying we are always GNA have a wide open paint for whether it was Jaylen Williams or whether it was Shay gild Alexander to go and attack and if the paint’s wide open and you don’t have great perimeter Defenders which the Knicks just don’t like those guys are

Going to end up with something like 36 points and I know it was a career-high for Jaylen Williams but it tells you and we’re going to get into this a little bit more in the third segment we talk about if the Knicks are going to need some lineup changes whether or not this

Is a fatal flaw for the Knicks against um great teams and particularly great offenses spoiler alert I think it is because they they just have no chance guarding one-on-one in the perimeter if they can’t station a shop blocker right at The Rim when chat’s out there obviously you have to respect him when

Chad wasn’t out there they literally just went like five wide they were playing kenri Williams who’s what is he like 66 67 like Jaylen Brunson was posting up at one point it didn’t look like there was a huge hyp difference there um and in the first half they did

Such a good job sending doubles at Julius Randle it’s it’s been the formula since the Hawk series and Julius at times made really good decisions like I wrote down in my notes like first two times he double teams he made smart quick passes I think both of them either

Led to buckets or free throws or open shots for the Knicks and then he had a few turnovers in a row in the second half for the most part he was better and the Knicks offense looked they scored 120 points in this game that that really

Wasn’t the issue it was just what Mark dagnold essentially gambled on was that the Knicks would just have zero chance at stopping the thunder on the other end and the Knicks would stop themselves enough that it just wouldn’t matter and when you have 18 turnovers that is

Exactly what happened uh Alex I I wna get into um a little bit more on Julius Randall some great stuff I thought from Emanuel quickley and Josh hard in terms of carrying the Knicks back into this game but first I I need I need to know

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Continuing to talk through this this game again 129 to 120 it I honestly feel like the the final score betrays just how not close this game was down the stretch like the Knicks did manage to tie it like you said 8181 but things really fell apart down the stretch of

This one um and you know maybe the guy to focus in on with that is Julius Randall uh like on paper had a pretty solid game right like 25 points nine boards two assists uh three turnovers which you know again is not that high although it felt like it was more I mean

You and I when we when we were like getting ready to record we were like only had three like it felt like more uh just based off how things went but as you mentioned especially in the second half he seemed to get switch into ref complaining mode you know maybe it’s

Just being up against a younger team like that you figure like well I’m gonna get lots of calls this game and he certainly got I mean he shot 13 free throws in this game so it’s not like he got no calls uh he was he was earning them he was getting inside particularly

In the second half I thought he did a better job of reading the doubles and triples a little better too and getting the ball moving when he had to but also did zero in a little too hard on just trying to get in to the to the hoop once

Or twice and I don’t know I thought it was a very mixed bag effort from him but what was your sort of takeaway uh as far as Julius is concerned in this one I I gu I guess the same thing it was kind of what I was getting at last

Segment where he just wasn’t quite decisive enough in the first half and I think it’s it’s sometimes easy to put that all on Julius like The Cutting has to be there when he’s double team like guys have to make themselves available and it’s not just on Julius to to make a

Brilliant read every single time so it’s multifaceted um but I I just thought like as well as he played offensively like there were there’s some meat left on the bone just because they were so small and I think Julius has the ability to pretty much single-handedly force

Teams out of that and and it just it it feels a little bit more Awkward than it should feel in year five of him here and again that’s not totally on Julius I I just sort of think it’s the roster but I also think it’s on tibs and just getting

To the right lineups around him like I really liked in the second quarter when it was IQ Grimes Hart Randle and iHeart because I think that’s a group that can have a lot of success around Randall because you’re you’re pairing with guys who are good Cutters who can make quick

Decisions for the most part can hit threes um and it’s a little bit harder when the starters are out there and RJ’s kind of a non-shooter to do that and Oklahoma City over and over and over again when they were having those double teams like they were helping off of RJ

Barrett and they were leaving RJ Barrett open and RJ who played like if if I can transition into him a little bit like an awesome second quarter in this game like I wow blew me away what he was doing offensively like the sheer force he was

Playing with like the one play where he had the inside spin move into the hesi to draw the foul like like he was just like aggressive in a way that you rarely see from him play after play after play and he was making great decisions off it

Really good passes and then the second half that just that just sort of went away and it’s kind of it’s kind of been the story of RJ these last two games and and for honestly like since he came back from the injury where he’s not he’s not putting complete games together Alex and

He’s having great quarters um and sometimes great halves but it’s it’s almost never a great like complete game for him and you have to include in his grade on the night the fact that again Jaylen Williams went off for a career high and as I noted before that that

Isn’t all on RJ Barrett right like there are different plays where there are different guys matched up with it it’s the fact that you don’t have Mitchell Robinson in terms of Rim protection it’s the fact that with how Oklahoma s’s playing you don’t even have a center at

The Rim most times and that makes it really hard to guard but Jaylen Williams cooked him 13 of 17 five of five from three and again just just not enough from Barrett in the second half of this game yeah I I was gonna compliment RJ’s second quarter too I mean that was like

It was reminiscent of how he played in the first quarter the other day against Milwaukee where he was just giving them everything they needed was getting into the basket you know was finishing through contact you know he had like one sort of ugly Miss on like

What was kind of a bunny around the rim but other than that but hardenstein had a really nice little tap in off of that uh but other than that I mean I thought that he was manipulating the defense well he was you know getting in he was

Drawing some contact even if he wasn’t getting a call every single time but things were looking kind of up and I was like especially after the first quarter he looked terrible I was like okay maybe this is just one of those games where he kind of turns it on the second half like

That was the staple last year most of the time was second half RJ you know like you get get in that third quarter fourth quarter and that’s when that’s when the magic happens with him and instead it just didn’t I mean he just didn’t have it again which is really

Disappointing to see that he shot I think it was four of 10 his previous two games which say whatever you will about the the first of the two Milwaukee games but at least even if it was garbage time at least some threes finally started falling and he was up to like 40% again

And then to come back and hit one of seven and this game and just look back to just like he’s overthinking it again I don’t know I don’t know what it is with his three-point shot this year that it’s gone from absolutely nuclear for the first like 15 games of the Season

Before the migraines to now just like it looks like he’s completely overthought it all over again um but yeah I wasn’t I wasn’t in love with how he played in the second half I did think you know part of the Jaylen Williams thing it’s tough to

Put it all on RJ because you know it was a tough match up like that guy clearly was just going to have a career night but there were some times where you know maybe if you stuck a little closer to him he wouldn’t have gone five of five

From three uh which would have been helpful or maybe if you would have been more prepared for the the lean in on you which I understand jayen Williams has like bulked up a lot like he is a very very strongl looking guy but RJ’s no slash in that department either so you

Know being more prepared to take that kind of space clearing shoulder and contesting those mid-range shots a little more like like like Williams really eight in the mid-range too um I think maybe a little more could have been done in that regard so yeah was not

My favorite RJ game either and both he and Randall was like I mean Randall I think you can maybe excuse it a little more because at least the final stats looked a little better you know at the end uh even if there were some moments that don’t get on the stat sheet that

Kind of Doom the Knicks on a few different possessions but um RJ it’s like the It test and the stat she both didn’t really line up so kind of just got to see better out of both those guys in a game like this yeah um I’m I’m in

Total agreement and and two guys who um I would say almost unlike what was I don’t even know how much we want to talk about because I don’t have a ton to say about him but relatively nondescript night for Jaylen Brunson outside of a couple of great plays and a couple of

Really bad turnovers like Emanuel quickley and Josh Hart were pretty clearly the Knicks two best players in this one I want to get into that next um but first Alex I want to tell everyone about our buddies over at prize pick so you might be at home asking what

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NBA for a first deposit match up to $100 prize picks daily fantasy sports Made Easy all right so we we a lot of negative in in in the first part I I think if we want to we want to go positive the remarkable part of this

Game is that it was a career night for Jaylen Williams it was uh well we’ve been using this word a lot lately but again it’s applicable like a typically virtuoso performance for Shay gildas Alexander me 36 points in 36 minutes eight eight assists seven rebounds two

Steals two blocks I know in the modern NBA we take crazy stat lines for granted and clearly like numbers are Juiced maybe maybe in like like 10 years ago that’s more like a 28 five and five it was he was totally Unstoppable he’s he’s he’s an absolutely sick player I don’t

Even think the Knicks defended him particularly poorly it is just really really hard to keep him away from the line his absurd touch he’s a monster Chad holgren uh 22 points five rebounds ridiculous Rim protection four blocks altered a bunch of other ones I honestly thought hardenstein played good defense

On him it didn’t matter why am I reiterating once again how good the Thunder are well while people groan and listen um it’s because with that turnover differential with those guys going off the Knicks were in this game in the fourth quarter and it was pretty much single-handedly because of Emanuel

Quickley and Josh Hart you have to start with quickly um 25 minutes 22 points I mean let’s like let let’s just go over the game log for a second with Emanuel quickly what he’s been doing recently had 20 points in 29 minutes against the Lakers had 19 in 24 minutes against the

Nets sucked the first Bucks game and then came back 20 points in 22 minutes and then 22 and 25 tonight I mean he’s been on nearly Point per minute track four of the last five games for the Knicks and tonight was another shining example of that um stretch in the fourth quarter he

H a huge three like blew by a close out like would that ended in like a stumbling assist to Isaiah hardenstein then took advantage of a Josh Hart offensive rebound to beat his guy hit a floater he he’s just so unbalance right now Alex I think at times when you see

Him searching for a shot he starts kind of leaning into it and almost just like trying to a rhythm and almost shoot it as if he were on a heater and kind of trick his brain into that like right now like he’s just stable he’s calm he’s confident he’s getting more minutes next

To Jaylen Brunson which I think gets him into a rhythm because he’s getting open threes instead of having to create everything himself but even in the fourth quarter when he was on the floor like it’s not as easy as it looks for Brunson where Brunson can catch the ball

And just in two seconds be right at the rim and be finishing with I it’s really meticulous and at times I thought he was holding the ball too long but the Knicks kept getting good shots out of it whether it was for him or for someone

Else on the team like he he had a really really nice showing this fourth quarter and um I kind of hope the Knicks start him going forward I I know hot take for me I’ve been saying it uh all offseason I’ve been saying it for years at

Different times but he’s just again very clearly one of your three best players and honestly I don’t think they can afford to go without his defense against the best teams in the league yeah it’s really funny because as you were as you were getting to the end of singing his

Praises for this uh for this game which I fully agree with all of it I mean I just think I think he looks like one of the most confident in himself guys on this team right now outside of like Jaylen Brunson and maybe Julius Randle

To a fault but like I mean I think that I think IQ is just playing as good a basketball as he’s ever played right now and yet is getting fewer minutes than he was getting this time last year which is kind of bizarre to me like Breen even

Pointed out on the broadcast like Quickly’s averaging five less minutes per game this year than last year that is insane like the fact that that a guy on the on the third year of his rookie deal was the runner up for six man of the year and probably should have won it

And then comes in the next year and gets less playing time it just doesn’t really compute with me and so I’m with you I think you know this is a good opportunity to sort of jump into our our final discussion that we want to have

Here on the show of like is it time to maybe consider a lineup change I think it is and I think you got to find a way to get quickly in that starting lineup and like that might make tibs a little uncomfortable and it might you know go

Against his sensibilities of having like his little one forone match for every single player uh on the court where he always wants to have like oh for Brunson you have you have quickly that’s like a one toone match that way you could bring quickly Off the Bench and maybe you play

Some minutes with them together but like you know no matter what one of those guys should be on the floor at all times I don’t know if he understands that if he starts both of them that can still happen that you could still just time it

Out in a way that one of them is on the floor at any given time and that they just start and close halves together and then in the middle you sort of you know say Okay quickly you’re going to play the whole first quarter Bronson

Will be one of our first first Subs when quickly goes out early second quarter or at the end of the first quarter then Brunson comes back in so on and so forth this doesn’t seem like rocket signs to me I don’t I don’t totally understand why it would be completely untenable to

To play those two together but I think you have to I mean I think you’re you’re not just leaving defense on the table and you’re not just leaving scoring on the table you’re leaving both like he’s he’s clearly been one of the most impactful players if not at least from

An advanced metrics perspective every single one of them says he’s the most impactful player on the Knicks right now pretty much like I don’t know how you’re not finding more minutes for this guy I don’t know how you’re not starting him it just seems like antithetical to progress to

Be continually like keeping this guy’s minutes capped at like 20 to 25 minutes per game when there’s some of the best 20 to 25 minutes you’re getting out of any given player like like for example only two players in this game ended with a positive plus minus uh Grimes was a a

Neutral in 11 minutes at zero but quickly was a plus two hardenstein was a plus four that’s it like those are the only two guys that were that were a a positive in this game in the plus minus category which is a a broken stat a

Little bit to some degree you know it’s not perfect but I feel like pretty well encapsulates the impact that both guys had in this game um can go ahead throw something out there real quick Alex so my my proposed lineup here would be Brunson quickley Hart Randall Isaiah

Hardenstein fifth most used Nicks lineup this season they played 176 possessions this year compared to the um current starting lineup uh still they played they played a little bit more than the current starting lineup the current starting lineup this year which is Brunson D chenzo Barrett Randle Isaiah hardenstein uh Point differential of

Minus .5 per 100 possessions which is is not bad right that’s I mean it’s not it’s not good it’s like a 38th percentile lineup in the NBA my proposed starting lineup which has played a little bit more plus 33.5 points per 100 possessions that is a 97th percentile lineup in the NBA they

Score absurdly well they defend exceptionally well um it and and this isn’t new last year I I said it like the lineups with Brunson and quickley played some of the best offense in basketball and played fantastic like top five level defense and that continued into the playoffs even though it flipped in terms

Of whether they were great on offense or defense my point is like we have a large sample size now of quickly and Brunson not only works it dominates and yet Tom Fido just refuses to go to it because it feels uncomfortable with him and no he

Does not refuse to go to it down the stretch and I I I hear him when he says it doesn’t matter who starts it matters who finishes I’m going to throw a crazy thing out there Alex I think both things matter a lot at I think the Knicks can

Compete better against the best teams in the league with a manual quickly on the floor and I think on some level Tom Tibido knows that because that’s how he finishes games he just has to get it through his head that that’s how he should be starting games yeah it’s very

Reminiscent of there’s a couple moments I can think of in recent memory under the t under uh the Knicks with tibs for example being forced by Jericho Sims getting injured to finally just start Isaiah hartstein and put your best player on the floor to start the games after Mitchell Robinson got hurt it

Doesn’t seem like rocket signs to me to do that and yet the Knicks were throwing out a lineup with Jericho Sims starting that honestly just was not jelling that well together and was not working because it like Sims you’re putting him with a less good defensive unit that was

Requiring a lot of help from Mitchell Robinson and he himself is not that great on defense and tibs was still though just like yeah but hartenstein plays better with the bench so he’s got to come in with the bench and it just made zero sense uh and then it also it

Boggles the mind that he’s this reluctant to play quickly with Brunson like at least to start games considering he spent so much time with like he recognized early on in 2020 to 21 that Derrick Rose and Emanuel quickley were a really great combo and that quickly

Could play off Ball but also bring the ball up a little bit you know this is back in the is quickly or point guard era obviously which now I think we can definitively say like yeah he he 100% is he just is more than that you know he’s

A combo guard in the truest sense of the word and like but he would go to that lineup consistently and granted that was his dynamic duo Off the Bench but he at least acknowledged that those two played really well together and tried to get them as much time on the floor together

As possible it just seems like with the Brunson and quickly thing it’s like he’s begrudgingly giving them X number of minutes even though tibs loves to site like oh the net ratings and this that the other it’s those times where you look at it and you say like are you even

Looking at the net ratings because if you were you would see that these two guys have like probably the best net rating of any Twan unit on your team and of most teams in the NBA and yet you’re going to it as little as possible it

Doesn’t make any sense you know so I’m totally with you dude like this game was kind of proof positive too of like if you don’t start good you put yourself in a position to not end good you know like if you come out there and you’re kind of

Flat and you get torched by you know a really good young team like the Thunder chances are like that team is hungry and they’re good and they’re one of the best teams in the NBA right now like they’re not gonna let you back so you can’t you

Can’t come out there soft right away you can’t come out with without that with anything but your best lineup um so even if they ultimately kept R.J out there which may would not be my favorite move like at least moving quickly in the starting lineup I feel like has to

Happen but there is a world where I could see like what you said you know moving Josh hartt in the starting lineup too like just say screw it screw egos screw contracts let’s just do what’s best for basketball and then allow dvan chenzo and RJ and uh Grimes to come off

The bench and H become the new synergized bench unit uh I there’s a chance where that would maybe work for all parties involved it would just be a matter of like is everyone willing to put aside their pride and that starts with tibs with his pride first off yeah

Yeah and I I think I think Josh Hart is essential to making that work because his energy his versatility defensively and we saw especially tonight against the team that like like if teams try to go small against the Knicks like Hart can Feast like he he

Can hold his own on defense and those are the types of teams like he’s GNA have those Coast to Coast for rays against like it’s a little bit harder against the bucks with all their size all their athleticism the Thunder like that’s totally plausible and he did that

Over and over again tonight whether he was scoring whether he was assisting like it was a really solid effort from him and I I think he he rounds out that duo of quickly and Brunson really nicely and you have real size and real physicality um with Randall and

Hartenstein at the big spots I don’t know about you Alex I think that that’s pretty much all I have to say on this game that in in some ways was a a miserable experience in some ways a tantalizing experience because I think it showed again against legit top five

Team in basketball what the Knicks can be and what the Knicks can do even without Mitchell Robinson if they just get their best lineups out there yep I I’m totally with you I don’t have too much more to say either I think it’s just a matter of there’s got to be some

Better adjustments made you know the Knicks it’s we said in after the Christmas game like you know statement win they finally broke through they finally beat one of the best teams in the league but now they figure out how to do that consistently if they want to

Find that next year and again you know like you just said it’s it’s going to be hard to totally find what your best self can be if you’re not doing it with one of your best best players missing which like whatever people want to say about

Oh can’t he’s zero on offense blah blah blah like he was one of the most important players on this team for the time that he was on the floor this year and he’s like sorely sorely missed right now so it’s tough to totally say like they’re gonna be able to find the best

Version of themselves this year and become a true like Contender esque team uh this year but if they want to continue at least being in the ball game they got to start finding the ways to put the best players in the best combinations that they have out there as

Much as possible and I think that that’s that’s a failure on tibs right now to do that and we saw that in this game where the times when excuse me the times when the best combinations were out there they played better and the times when they weren’t was when they fell apart

And ultimately lost the game at the beginning and at the end so uh anyway we’ll be back with uh more great content for you guys we’re probably gonna do a a double recap on Monday uh where we’re going to break down the two games over the weekend I think we’re going to do

New Year’s resolution ions early in that case so we’re going to release New Year’s resolutions before the new year just because the way that the games are staggered it would make kind of difficult for us to do at any time other than that before uh the end of the year

So we’re going to release that on Friday for you guys uh and uh we have plenty of great stuff coming up next week and Beyond of course uh here for you guys five days a week so thank you all for listening and we’ll talk to you soon peace out everybody oh

The Oklahoma City Thunder are young and incredibly talented and we’re a little jealous. Let’s start there.

And yet…this was a winnable game for the Knicks that was doomed by an inability for the starting lineups to get stops against yet another elite offense and an inability to get out of there own way turning the ball over time after time.

Alex Wolfe and Gavin Schall team up to tell you who to blame and the changes that could be made to the starting lineup to patch up those issues and more.

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