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Episode 80: “OG Anunoby & The Knicks Head West” Transcript

by | Mar 22, 2024 | Blog

The Knicks Take Podcast

OG Anunoby & The Knicks Head West | Episode 80

[00:00:00]

Intro

Jah So Focused: The Knicks Take Podcast. Knicks fans, yo, what’s good? It’s your boy Jah So Focused.

French: I’m French, the bro host, and we would like to welcome you to the show. The Knicks Take Podcast. This is episode 80.

Jah So Focused: It is episode 80. We got 80 episodes and things. This is, this is episode 80. And this is a podcast where we bring you the biggest Knicks news of the week.

French: It’s a weekly podcast, but also make sure to follow us on our Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter slash X. By searching for the Knick take.

Jah So Focused: Also, make sure you check out our website where we get the merchandise, the blogging, the videos, the po, everything from the Knick take. You can find it at [00:01:00] knickstake.com.

French: And lastly, if you love what you hear, please subscribe to us on whatever platform you’re watching or listening to us on. Hit that thumbs up button and notification bell if you’re watching on YouTube. But most importantly, share this with any Knicks fans who might enjoy the show. And now the show. Now the show

The Rundown

Jah So Focused: French, how are you, sir? How have you, how’s your work, how’s your week been?

French: It’s the first week with the Knicks. Did not impact what [00:02:00] happened with my day to day schedule. Oh, okay. Look at

Jah So Focused: you. Look he was ready for it I was I have wanted to let you finish your sentence cuz I was about to say this is the last time I’m doing this

French: But go ahead.

This is the return of the 70 day 70 degree days in New York City I didn’t even know that. You feel me? So I got to enjoy a nice weather outside It was more than 1 70 degree day. No, it was it was only one but it felt like 70 every day Anytime is 60 or 70. So very good You It wasn’t snowing. It was sunny outside.

Everybody was coming outside. You know, you know how it is in New York when it’s like that, but I had a really good week. What about you?

Jah So Focused: Um, I don’t know if I would say it was a really good week. It was all right. It was cool. Nothing exciting happened. Um, I did enjoy the weather though. The weather was really nice to be outside and, um, Yeah, outside of that though, it’s just kind of ho hum, you know what I mean?

Ho hum day. There were some other things that were ho hum this week in regards to the No, [00:03:00] no, no, no, don’t, don’t, don’t. First of all, don’t get choked out and don’t get make me get choked out.

Jah So Focused: Um, no, I was trying to say something else in, uh, Knickslandia was ho hum this week. And we’ll talk about that later in the episode.

Uh, as we normally do, we’re going to cover the games that happened this week. We had two games against the Philadelphia 76ers in the garden, and we finished off the week playing off again, playing, playing against, uh, The Portland Trailblazers. And we’ll also go into the upcoming games next week. There’s a lot of, uh, important stretch of games.

We’re getting to the end now where we’re, we’re, we’re a month away from the end of the season before the playoffs. And, you know, seating has been kind of interesting. Knicks, Knicks are still in fourth in the Eastern Conference. Um, Orlando Magic at the last time I checked, they were fifth and the Knicks and.

The Knicks have [00:04:00] gained a little bit of separation away from the six seed, which You know, depending on how you feel, you might have wanted them to get to the sixth seed if they cannot get to the three seed, I still think that they, I think it’s going to be way too difficult. Cleveland’s schedule is going to be too easy for the Knicks to catch up, even, even if they’re missing, um, you know, key players like Donovan Mitchell, but, um, We’ll see what’s going to happen in these next few weeks, these upcoming games, if the Knicks can go on a winning streak, that’ll be important for them.

French: I’m never rooting for them to drop, I ain’t gonna lie. I want them to get to that third seed. I actually got it. Ma, just to mute the TV real quick, I got a bet going on with one of my mans that I said the Knicks is going to be a top three seed, so. I’m hoping that they get that because I think Cleveland could definitely lose a few of these games that they got coming up and The Knicks are gonna get start getting healthy.

And once we get healthy, we [00:05:00] could we liable to go on another streak 10 the season

Jah So Focused: I’m I am Obviously my preference would be for them to be the three seed as well I’m just saying that if they can’t be the three seed I might want them to be in the sixth seed. I don’t want them to be in that four or five.

Not that I’m scared of whoever’s going to be matched up against them, but more so, um, I’d like to, I’d like for Boston to go up against A couple of teams before they go up against the Knicks. If the Knicks make it to the conference finals, you know what I would want to see as I was writing out what I would, uh, have as my dream playoff seating scenario.

I know this is a little off topic Knicks fans, but don’t worry. We’re going to get right back to it in a second. Um, this is probably going to be a shorter episode. I was thinking, okay, wouldn’t it be dope if Boston played Miami as the 1 8? I was thinking that too. And then I said, wouldn’t it be dope. If the Knicks played the Cavs, Cavs is a 3 C and the Knicks were a 6 C.

Wouldn’t it be dope if, if Milwaukee played against the Indiana Pacers in the first [00:06:00] round? Like, I was looking at it, I was like, You could have every single round of the Eastern Conference, uh, played. Playoffs be like a really dope matchup. Um, Philly versus Orlando. Um, but I don’t, that’s definitely not going to play out.

I looked at it. I was like, yeah, that’s really unrealistic. Philly’s doesn’t have NBA. They’re probably going to be, they’re probably going to drop down, you know, Indiana is too. You know, crazy. I think the Knicks are going to win too many games, but that would be nice to see. It would have been nice to see if that’s the way that it could have played out.

I

French: mean, uh, Cleveland could drop the four and the Knicks could drop the five and we could play them again. Like there’s still other ways that these teams could still match up. It doesn’t have to be exactly in that same seating that you said, but

Jah So Focused: that’s true. Yeah. I just don’t want the Knicks to be the four or five, but.

I feel you.

Knicks vs Philadelphia 76ers Game 1 Review

Jah So Focused: Anyway, let’s get to the, uh, previous games week starting off against the Philadelphia 76ers.

French: So like my [00:07:00] brother said, there were three games this week, but in reality, there were only two cause the Knicks didn’t show up for this one. They came out pretty sluggish and rusty. The Sixers played some inspiring defense, um, and they came out looking like they just weren’t ready to lose another game to the Knicks.

They lost already three so far this season, if I’m not mistaken, right? They got blown out twice at home, and I believe we beat them already once at home? Or is this our fourth game, or is this the third game?

Jah So Focused: That would have been the third game,

French: yeah. So, they came to, um, New York, wanted to return the favor.

Uh, Jalen Brunson struggled much throughout this game. Um, It was a pretty nip and tuck battle the whole way, but the Knicks couldn’t close this game out. Um, the Sixers came and got a victory on the Knicks home floor. Stinky performance is going to be forgotten about in the long run. The Knicks lose this game 79 to 73.

I don’t really have any huge takeaways from this game. It just seemed like the Knicks knew that they were the much [00:08:00] better team and they just came out looking, expecting to just dominate. They shot a lot of threes. Um, And they kind of just got blindsided by the Sixers. I had a

Jah So Focused: different, I had a different, um, outlook on that game.

It was a ugly game. Yeah. I don’t even think you could, I don’t even think I could say like the Knicks didn’t come out ready to play. Like if they, usually when they don’t come out ready to play, usually in the second half you see them turn it around and you’re like, all right, that’s the Knicks I remember.

Yeah. And. I think the whole game, I was like, okay, they’re doing some Knicks things, and then they would throw the shot up, and the shot would hit the side of the rim, or it would hit the backboard, or it would miss everything completely, and it was just kind of like, I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know what’s going on.

Like the Sixers is playing good defense. But when you got Dante DiVincenzo and Jim [00:09:00] Brunson shooting threes and they’re, you know, lightly contested. I’m like, Oh, that’s a shot that normally would go in and it hits the side of the, of the rim. Like, I don’t know. How many times have you seen their shots hit the side of the rim?

Just kind of like boink. And it’s like, that was the ugliest shot I’ve seen you shoot all year. So.

French: They didn’t have their legs for this game, it seemed like.

Jah So Focused: I don’t even know if that was legs. I just I don’t even know what to call it. Like if legs usually means that it’s going to be short, like, you know, so some of these shots didn’t even didn’t look like they had any shot of going in, whether whether they shot a little harder, whether they jumped higher.

It was like, no, you just aimed that poorly. I had no chance of going in, even if, you know, you had the right amount of arc. So I don’t know. I just don’t know what to make of this one. Like, and I was trying to just make sure that we were correct and not giving out, uh, false information about the head [00:10:00] to head for this season as far as how many games the, um, Knicks and Sixers have played so far.

But

French: this is their first win, like regardless, this, they, they haven’t beaten us all year and they came out and played like they was trying to get at least one victory. They didn’t want to get swept by the Knicks.

Knicks vs Philadelphia 76ers Game 2 Review

Jah So Focused: Yeah, this was their only win, their only win, uh, because they also played again. Um, on March 12th against the Knicks and lost that one to the Knicks.

French: Yep. Uh, return of OG Anunoby.

Jah So Focused: Important thing to note from that first game with the Philadelphia 76ers. That was the third straight game where the Knicks held their opposing team to under 80 points. First time that that had been done in about 12 years. And this would be another game where the I’m sorry, that wasn’t the first, that was the second one.

This is the third game where the Knicks held the team to under 80 points. This last game against the Philadelphia 76ers. Knicks won this game [00:11:00] 106 79 in a complete, uh, reverse of the game that they played on Sunday. Literally. Like, the Knicks came out and they were hitting their shots. Yeah. OG Anunoby as you just said, returned.

In this game, his first game back since Ja, the last game in January that they played against the Miami Heat. And he looked good. He looked like he was, he, he was conditioned, he was ready to play. He was playing defense, he was hitting shots, hitting layups. Um, a great game from og, a good game from Jalen Brunson

French: and, um, and, and an outstanding game from Josh Hart.

He had 20 points. 19 rebounds, 10 assists, and he has a plus 32. Dante DiVincenzo was a plus 32, um, both team highs. OG imprint on his game, first game back, even though he might not have had like the [00:12:00] win to keep up with everybody. He didn’t look like it at all. He looked like he just was in the rotation from the minute he stepped on the floor to the minute he stepped off.

He played 29 minutes this game. He missed a few threes, but he was, he was locked in.

Jah So Focused: I want to reiterate something that I’ve said before. I’ve been very hard on Josh Hart this season because There were a lot of games at the first half of this season before the trade where he was getting praise or whatever.

And some games he played and he deserved that praise. 100%. I’m not trying, like, I was never trying to 100 percent crap on Josh Hart. But there were a lot of games where I watched Josh Hart and I was like, yo, this is not, you are playing like you played against, uh, played in the Miami Heat. Playoff series, which was a complete different game than you played before that.

You were one of our most reliable players. We don’t need you to score double [00:13:00] digits. We don’t need you to, to, to be out there playing like an all star, right? What we, what we need you to do is the little things and occasionally rebound. And there were a lot of games where you would see four points, zero assists, one rebound, like three turnovers.

And he would have a positive plus minus and people would talk positively about him. And I was just like, yo, he, he ain’t doing nothing out there where he’s playing. His plus minus looks so good because of who he’s on the court with. And he’s not helping them be better. I’m watching the game. He’s not doing anything to make the team better and he’s benefiting from it.

And. He can do more. We’re going to need him to do more because if he plays like this in the playoffs, we are going to lose again.

French: Yeah, but he knew he wasn’t playing well and he spoke on it.

Jah So Focused: And I was happy to hear him speak on it. And I was, and I’m even happier to [00:14:00] see him not play the way that I’m used to seeing him play.

See him play better than he’s ever played before. Triple doubles. This was, this was his, I believe this was his fourth triple double of the, of the season and Not many, not many players in Knicks history have done it.

French: And his first triple double ever came this season as well.

Jah So Focused: Correct. And Julius Randle is the only other player on this team to have four triple doubles in a season.

Not even Jalen Brunson has done that. I believe there’s only what, three, four other Knicks in Knicks history to have, have four or more triple doubles in a season. So this is really historic stuff from Josh Hart, from a guy who is a role player. Like he’s not a star. He’s not going to be on an all star team.

He’s not a superstar, but he’s doing superstar level things, which is the reason why we brought him. Not to [00:15:00] put up superstar stats, but to be the superstar in his role that he can be. And. Between him and OG Anunoby, like these are the, these are the pieces that you need on if we’re going to make this conference championship and even championship run.

These are the guys that you need behind your star, all star level players to make that deep run.

OG Anunoby and a discussion about Role Players

French: I know this is supposed to be a short episode, but you, um, just like, well, sparked a thought that I want to ask you.

Um, I was going to ask who, Would you consider the best role player in the NBA? Oh, that’s a good question. Because that’s the, you, that’s a real superstar in their role. The best role player in the NBA. One that every team would need, would love to have on their team. Fits in. [00:16:00] Wouldn’t that be Josh Hart?

Jah So Focused: It would be either him or OG.

French: I don’t know if I consider OG a role player. No, OG is definitely better than a role player.

Jah So Focused: OG is a, OG is a role player. OG is a role player because he’s another guy who you’re not going to put, you’re not going to ask him, yo, put the team on your shoulders. You’re not going to be the main guy. He’s not going to be the second guy.

Um, he may not even be the third guy. He’s a role player. Um, he’s limited. He’s limited. He’s limited in what he can do. He’s not, you know, Like Jalen Brunson right now, he’s playing loads better than he was the year before.

Even the year before last year, OG like, OG can’t do that. What Jalen Brunson was doing as a, as the guy behind Luka Doncic. You can’t ask OG to do those kinds of things. Can’t ask OG to lead a playoff team. for two games when your best player is [00:17:00] hurt to a win or two in the playoffs. Yeah, but

French: that’s all offensively.

I feel like the impact that OG has is probably

Jah So Focused: like my homeboy said

French: from the impact that Jalen Brunson had in Dallas.

Jah So Focused: Like my homeboy said yesterday to me in an argument that we had. You got to put the ball in the basket. That’s the name of the game.

French: Yeah, but defense wins championships.

Jah So Focused: Correct. But it doesn’t win games.

French: Luka Doncic is there. And I, so hold on. I don’t mean, this is supposed to be a short episode. Yeah. It’s still going to be a short episode. Like if you was to put OG on that Dallas team instead of Brunson with Luka Doncic, I feel like they can still make it to the conference finals. Maybe the only caveat is because Luka was injured in that first season.

I mean, first, uh, first round series and they needed Jalen Brunson to drop 41 to win game two. Um,

Jah So Focused: Who knows if that, if, if they, who knows if they win that series, if Jalen Brunson doesn’t do what he does, [00:18:00] if he’s not there at all, who knows who they probably don’t. And that’s, that’s the thing. I see what you’re saying.

You put OG next to Luka Doncic and you can do great things. You could say that. And that’s why OG is a superstar in his role as a role player, because just like Josh Hart, you put him on any team, um, And he’s helping that team win.

French: So let me, I got it. But the

Jah So Focused: goal of the game is to put the ball in the basket.

You need to have scorers in order to win. That’s important as defense is, as important as defense is. You have to be good offensively too.

French: I was thinking. We need like guidelines for what a role player is. I mean, but this is probably going to be a conversation we’re going to have to talk about in another episode. In the next episode, probably. Just cause it’s spur of the moment [00:19:00] now.

Jah So Focused: Basically, you have your, you have your stars, you have your starters, and you have your role players.

And some starters are role players, and some starters are stars.

OG Anunoby is a starter who’s a role player. He is the best role playing starter in the league. Probably. Maybe. Possibly. I got to think about it. This is a question you sprung up on me and I didn’t have a chance to think about it.

French: And I’m thinking to myself like a role player. I feel like if we’re going to use guidelines, I feel like a role player cannot be a top three best player on the team.

Top four best player on the team.

Jah So Focused: OG doesn’t have to be a top three or four best player on the team. He doesn’t, but he doesn’t have to be like, if he is he don’t qualify. It depends on the, the, the team that you’re putting him on. You could put him on the team and he’s the fifth best starter on that team.

There’s not [00:20:00] many teams. If he, if he is. If you put him on Phoenix. Is, is definitely winning the championship.

French: You put him on Phoenix, where would you place him at? It would be, um,

Jah So Focused: hmm. He would be three. It would be three because I think Bradley Beal is not, is not, you know, of that ilk. If you put him on, if you put him on the Clippers, what number would he be?

Three. Over. Paul George. Really? Yeah. I don’t know if I agree with you there. Why not? Because Paul George can man, can maintain a load offensively and he’s still a damn good defender in his own right. He may not be as good a defender as OG Anunoby, but you can ask him to do a lot more things on the court.

But, you know, I don’t know. Overall than OG Anunoby. So I would still have, uh, OG four. Yeah. And you, and you could probably add one more player to that Clippers team. And if, no matter what you do, if you add OG Anunoby to that team, he’ll be five. But anyway, we getting kind of sidetracked here.

French: Um, [00:21:00] I was going to say, um, who impacts the game more to you, OG or Paul George?

Paul George.

Jah So Focused: But anyway, getting sidetracked here, main point that we’re trying to make here is that the Knicks have a ton of players that any team, any team would love to have. I was listening to a podcast the other day where they were saying, yeah, uh, oh, it was, uh, I think it was for the Milwaukee Bucks.

Was it the Milwaukee Bucks? No, it was the Portland Trailblazers. And they were like, yeah, when we had Dame, we were trying to, we had Josh Hart. We were trying to get OG Anunoby these are guys that we wanted and you have them all. All the guys that we were trying to get. We was trying to get them years ago.

And you got them. And that just goes to show how great this front office has been for this team. [00:22:00] And how amazing, uh, this, this front office has been for this team. And the majority of their moves outside of maybe, you know, a couple, you know, especially one where we got some Pistons players, um, have been good outside of those moves.

And, um, speaking of Pistons players, um, you know, uh, we had, yeah. Bojan Bogdanovich playing this game and, um, if I recall correctly, hold on, let me check my notes, uh, yeah, Bojan had zero points in 22 minutes, um, thoughts?

French: It was a blowout win, we didn’t need it, so it doesn’t matter.

Jah So Focused: Keep shooting that bail, keep shooting that bail.

French: But, but, speaking of shooting Josh Hart. I’ve been liking the streak that he’s been on. He’s been shooting a lot of threes. Even though he, he was only once for six this game. When’s the last time you’ve seen Josh Hart shooting six threes? He’s, he’s getting more confidence in his jump shot. That’s what we need.

I think, um, I can’t recall like how long this stretch has been [00:23:00] on, but that step back jump shot against Cleveland, in Cleveland to win, uh, to, to win the game. To seal the game. Seal it. Yep. That he’s just been playing with a different level of intensity, playing with a different level of confidence. And that’s another big takeaway that I take away from this game.

Knicks at Portland Trailblazers Review

French: Um, and speaking of the Portland podcast that you was listening to and Josh Hart and all them guys being on the, on the team. I’m pretty certain that you would listen to that podcast because the very next game, the Portland Trailblazers hosted the Knicks. Um, 10 p. m. at the Moda Center and yeah, the Knicks for the most part of this game were in control.

Jah So Focused: It was

French: a little shaky in the first half. It was shaky in the first half. Portland had a little lead in the first quarter. And it’s like, are we really struggling with these guys that we can’t even really name? It was, they had, they missed like four of their top scorers on their team. DeAndre Eight was the main option.

And [00:24:00] they were missing. They had their, uh, Shaden Sharp Scoot Henderson. Yeah.

Jah So Focused: Shanen Sharp, Malcolm Brockton, Jeremy Grant. Mm-Hmm. , Anthony Simons. These are all pretty much, except for Malcolm Brockton, they were all starters. Mm-Hmm. . Um, yeah, they had aan, they had Scoot, uh, Chris Murray played. Oh, okay. I like the

French: Banton kid he was in, uh, Banton was playing very well in Toronto.

He’s nice. But, um,

Jah So Focused: yeah, not, not the, not the start that you would have expected, uh, when playing against the, one of the worst teams in the, in the Western Conference, but. You know, also what I learned in that, um, podcast was they’re still scrappy. Even with them missing their guys, this Portland team is still scrappy.

This Portland team will still make it closer. And you’ll leave you like, why, why are they, why are they still in this? Can you put them away? Can you blow them out by 20 so we can turn the TV off?

French: They want a spot. That’s what it

Jah So Focused: is. That’s exactly what this game was. [00:25:00] Um, I said ho hum earlier, you know, who had a ho hum game?

This was the most ho hum 45 point game that you, that you can encounter in the NBA, uh, from Jalen Brunson, who went 14 for 30, missed eight of his threes, hit two, and went 15 for 17 from the free throw line. Chauncey Billups after, at the end of the game was like, Yeah, we couldn’t stop Jalen Brunson, he’s fouling all our guys out.

He putting us all in foul trouble. Like I, I don’t know what to do. I mean, we don’t know what to do with this guy. Uh, you know, negative part was that he had five turnovers in this game. But Jalen Brunson, yeah. Um, superstar, ano another thing from this game that has been talked about, and we still don’t have full updates on this, uh, OG Anunoby appear to have heard his.

French: [00:26:00] Uh, I wouldn’t say he hurt it. He says that it’s been like bothering him, which was to be expected from the medical staff. He was, he was doing a lot of

Jah So Focused: facial expressions in this game. And he was playing hard at the game. He was like, yeah, I’m definitely going to, you know, I don’t see no reason why I’m going to miss this game. This next game that’s coming up. And, uh, yesterday the Knicks announced that he is questionable for the upcoming game. So we don’t have any updates on this podcast.

You guys will know by the time that you see this episode, what, whatever happened as far as the elbow goes for OG Anunoby. He still had a decent game, still scored 12 points, had his highest rebound, uh, stat of the season with nine, uh, nine rebounds in this game. Two steals. Had a, had a, had a, had a reverse dunk.

Yeah. That, you know, I’m, one of my supervisors was like, yo, you seen that duck from OG Anunoby? Um, [00:27:00] outside of that, um, Deuce McBride came in, he played very well, came in the game in the second quarter, did not come out of the game in the second quarter, uh, was part of a three guard lineup with Jalen Brunson and Dante DiVincenzo that really, Made this game go from, okay, why are we still, why are we losing?

Slash, why is this a close game? To, all right, this is the Knicks team that I remember. Yeah, that’s right. Let’s go. Let’s get, let’s get them out of here. Um, Josh Hart, man, seven points, 15 rebounds. I didn’t, we didn’t talk about how he almost had a 20, 20, 10 game either.

French: Yeah, we didn’t. Uh, and he had five offensive rebounds this game too, like.

He, anytime Deuce McBride or Josh Hart go to Portland, it just seems like they feel so much more comfortable there and he, [00:28:00] he, yeah, he, he’s definitely playing, he’s playing with his, his, his head. I don’t even know what the word I’m trying to say, but he’s, he’s going crazy. Yeah. I didn’t know where you going

Jah So Focused: with that, but , uh,

French: yeah.

All right. Um, just had his own fire. I was trying to think of something.

Jah So Focused: interesting, uh, development in this game. Mm-Hmm. Boy and Bogdanovich played 13 minutes. Mm-Hmm. , Alec Burkes played four minutes. Yeah. They

French: both struggled.

Jah So Focused: Precious Chua played 24 and Deuce McBride played 21. I’m gonna try and. There’s a lot of things that I have that I’m trying to get out to you guys on the website.

But, um, if you have any Alec Burks stock still, and you have not sold it by now, please do so. Don’t go down with the ship. If there was, if this was, if you had like Fidelity and there was, you know, you could buy [00:29:00] stock on players. If you hold, still holding on to that Alec Birkstock, you going, you, you going to go bankrupt.

I’m just telling you right now. Cause he is not, he is not going to play any minutes when we’re fully healthy. The way

French: he play, I don’t like how he’s been playing. It seemed like he’s premeditated on everything that he does. Uh, he keeps dribbling into mid range shots, even if he’s contested. And then like, he’s just not playing within the offense.

He’s forcing. Every look that he gets, and then whenever he does get a good look, and if it doesn’t go in, it just adds on to, like, the frustration. So, uh, I feel like he needs to just figure it out, um, within himself, because he’s not, he’s just not playing smart basketball. And that’s not how Alec Briggs plays.

It’s too late for that. But, we, I still don’t want to, like, critique this trade in a, in a, in a super negative way, because, We haven’t really seen them with the rotation yet. I want to see these guys playing [00:30:00] within the rotation with the guys that’s going to be healthy with the guys that’s actually going to be competing.

Jah So Focused: How many times do I have to explain

French: this to you? I know what you’re saying. I get what you’re saying. They’re not going to be playing, but they’re not going to be

Jah So Focused: completely healthy. Do you think that when we get, we have, we played, Six, seven, eight, a nine man rotation. And we’re still missing two players.

You think when we get those two players back that we’re going to now, all of a sudden run an 11 man rotation? Are we

French: getting those two players back all at once? It doesn’t matter. It does matter. Cause when’s the last time everyone’s been completely healthy. Guys are going to be playing. If guys come back, I’m pretty certain other guys are going to fall out.

And when those guys fall out, And you have Alec Burk stepping in, you have Bogdanovich stepping in. You want to be able to see what you can get from them with the guys that actually are the starters in the team, with the guys that are going to be the most important players. When they’re playing together with them, when you see Alec Burk’s playing off of Julius Randle, he’s going to be more comfortable, he’s going to hit more shots.

When you see Bogdanovich spotting up in the corner and Julius [00:31:00] Randle’s drawing a double team, they’re going to look much better. Right now, when they’re the main scoring options off the bench, they’re not going to look as good as You’re

Jah So Focused: saying a lot of. When, when you see this,

French: if we have the opportunity,

Jah So Focused: do you know the only way that we would be able to see Alec Burks playing next to Julius Randle is if Deuce McBride is not playing?

Why? Oh, I’m sorry. I’m going to repeat the amount of minutes that Alec Burks played against the Portland Trailblazers for, against Portland. In important games. Do you think those four minutes are still gonna go to

French: Alec Berks? Is it possible that another player like Josh Hart could St uh, could set a game out and Alec Berks is playing?

You don’t think Alec Berks could step in in, in those moments to play 15, 20 minutes, 25 minutes, come out? If Josh Hart was to sit a game out with it, or if he was to get hurt, Why are you, why are you, what? I’m saying, hypothetically speaking, it’s [00:32:00] not just Deuce McBride. Anybody can fall out of the rotation and we can rely on Alec

Jah So Focused: Burks for minutes.

No one’s falling out of the rotation except Alec Burks. Alec Burks will play if somebody When I

French: say fall out of the rotation, I’m talking about injury or something going on where they’re not playing. We’re not

Jah So Focused: talking about injuries right now. We’re at the end of the That’s what we traded them for. Yes, and they failed.

Both of them, right? Both of them has failed. Alec Burks can’t play in the second half. You know what that means? Pretty soon he’s not going to be able to play in the first half either because he doesn’t, he’s not trusted. Right? And this is Tom Thibodeau who’s playing him four minutes. It’s not like we got a different coach or whatever.

Tom Thibodeau played this man over Emmanuel quickly as a starting point guard. And now, We have him trying to play him at the backup point guard, and he still can’t get minutes because he’s playing so bad. Come on now. Like I understand positivity, but you can’t be positive through ignorance. Like you have to, you have to look at [00:33:00] what it is that we’re seeing here.

And I’m, this is not to say like you’re You know, wrong for saying some of the things that you’re saying, you’re 100 percent right. Maybe if this, if these players were on this team to start the season and we had a lot of season left, you, we could shoot them this kind of bail. We brought them here before the all star break to help us not only in the playoffs, but also to help us during this stretch when our guys were out.

And through this entire stretch, they have not done that, which means the spot in the playoffs. That they were supposed to, you know, just walk right into. It’s not guaranteed anymore. It’s not. If Deuce McBride is playing better than Alec Burks. And Precious Achua is playing better than Bojan Bogdanovich.

Why should they play when Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson and OG Anunoby come back? And OG Anunoby’s back and we’re seeing [00:34:00] their minutes are down. Thirteen minutes for Bojan. Four for Alec Burks. It’s not They have to show something that they haven’t showed in the games that they have played. I’m going to count it out now, because you did ask me how many games have they played?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Yeah. We almost had 15 games

French: and their roles in these games are not the same role.

Jah So Focused: Their roles are going to be the same. They ain’t going to start. They’re going to be coming off the bench. Playing with different players. Thank you for watching. The. Alec Burks, Bojan Bogdanovich, and Quentin Grimes Trade Podcast.

Yeah. As we do this almost every week. But, come on man, like, this is a kind of an open and shut case. At this point, you have to hope for the things that we can’t hope for in order for this trade to, you know, I’m not saying it’s going to be a bad trade because Quentin Grimes hasn’t played well [00:35:00] outside of the game against the Knicks.

And he hasn’t played a lot of the games outside of the game against the Knicks. Against the Knicks, but to say that this was a good trade like probably inconsequential at the end of the day So we’ll see anyway to be determined. No, we’ve already determined it. Anyway, so that was the Portland Trailblazers game We are not gonna have a Knicks topic of the week this week We’ll save something for next week to talk about in depth.

Hopefully You know, we won’t run long for that one

Knicks at Sacramento Kings Preview

Jah So Focused: But we let’s get into the upcoming games starting off against The Sacramento Kings, that game will be today after we finish recording this podcast, that will be in Sacramento at 10 o’clock tonight. Surely, some of us will be sleeping by the time the game starts.

French: Definitely be sleeping by halftime.

Jah So Focused: I may, I personally may have to watch this game as a repeat. [00:36:00] Maybe, we’ll see. I’ll probably be up for this game watching. But, um, Sacramento, one of the better teams in the Western Conference. They are not the Portland Trailblazers at the very least.

French: They’re not as good as they were last year.

I think, I don’t know what’s, what’s up with them this year, but I don’t, I don’t really like the Kings as much as, I did last year. I think we could definitely take them. They have one

Jah So Focused: more, uh, excuse me, one less win than the New York Knicks. Uh, they are currently sixth in the West. Um,

I want to say it all depends on OG Anunoby, but I, since we don’t have that, I’m just going to say OG Anunoby’s going to play and the Knicks are going to win.

French: What say you? I say The Knicks have too many guys compared to the Sacramento Kings. Although we’re down Julius Randle and they have Sabonis, I think, um, Hartenstein can kind of [00:37:00] negate some of the things that Sabonis does well.

He’s still a star player, so he’s gonna still do his numbers, but I think, um, Hartenstein’s gonna be able to shore up the paint. OG’s gonna be able to play some incredible help defense. Brunson’s gonna be able to match everything that De’Aaron Fox gives, so I think I say the Knicks are going to go into Sacramento and leave with a victory.

Um, ESPN has them with a 63 percentage, uh, and a matchup predictor to win this game. So, yeah, I’m rolling with the Knicks for this one. Um, you got them too, right? Yes, I

Jah So Focused: did say that I have, I have the Knicks winning this one. Um, I haven’t been able to check out the injury report like I usually do before the game.

But it does look like their main guys are gonna be playing.

French: Trey Lyles is out. Um, Kevin Huerter is a game time decision. Okay. OG’s game time decision.

Jah So Focused: Yes, as we already, [00:38:00] as we already reported. So, yeah. All right. Uh, what’s the

Knicks at Golden State Warriors Preview

French: game is going to be the Knicks going to Golden State to face off against the Warriors again.

Um, if you remember, they played recently at the Garden where the Knicks lost. Um, they struggled in that first quarter to get a bucket and made a comeback and really couldn’t really get the win after that. But I think this time around. The Knicks are going to be far more cohesive. They’re going to have, um, OG for this game for sure.

If they don’t have him for Sacramento, and I think he’s going to be the difference maker in this game, I think, uh, the Knicks are going to be on the three game winning streak. What do you say? Four game winning streak, actually, since they just beat Portland. Or five, sorry. I think I’m on the two game winning streak right now.

Shelly and then Portland, and then they’re going to beat Sacramento and now Golden State. Right. So four. Yeah. I don’t know how I graduated y’all. They just give the diplomas [00:39:00] out. They give them the diplomas out. All right. So,

Jah So Focused: um, currently, Steph Curry is questionable for today’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers, as is Draymond Green.

ESPN has Steph listed as out, whereas Draymond is listed as day to day. That’s going to be key. Um, obviously if those guys are out against the Knicks and the Knicks come up, you know, and show up against Golden State, Knicks will win. Um, if they’re there, it’s going to be a tough game. It’s also going to be dependent on OG.

OG is just too important to this team. I understand Jalen Brunson is our best player. We, you know, without him, we probably don’t really win games. But OG is almost as vital, if not as vital as Jalen Brunson. Yeah, for sure.

Knicks at Denver Nuggets Preview

Jah So Focused: Um, and then finally, we’re going to go up against the defending champion, Denver Nuggets in Denver.

That game will [00:40:00] be, um, At 9 o’clock, that will be the earliest game out of these games. That’s crazy.

French: 9 p. m. That’s what happens when they go on the West Coast. Every game is gonna be 10 o’clock, 9. 30. Like, come on, man. We sleeping on the East Coast.

Jah So Focused: I don’t know why they do this. I mean, I guess I do. I guess they’re trying to be fair, quote unquote.

But, um, I don’t feel good about this game.

French: Why not? We beat Denver. Three straight

Jah So Focused: games in a row. Last time we beat Denver, we beat them by a lot. We also had Julius and we don’t have him for this game. Yeah. I think, I think we, it’s safe to say we won’t have him for this game against Denver. So yeah, I, I don’t see, I don’t see us pulling him out by 30 plus if we win this game and I don’t need, I, I, I just find it difficult for me to [00:41:00] say that we’ll win this game.

Had I, I didn’t say, think we were going to win the game last time either. So, you know, that you could take my prediction with a grain of salt, but I just think that it’s going to be too much. Denver remembered what happened last time. They’re not going to come out with the same type of energy they’re playing at home.

It’s not at the end of a, of a road stretch for them. Um, Yeah, Denver’s going to win this one. What do you think?

French: I think the Knicks have had Denver’s numbers since last season. Um, even without Julius Randle, we can still beat them. I think OG had probably his most significant impact on any game this season against Denver this year.

Right. Um, I think he’s going to replicate that again in Denver this time around. I think Jalen Brunson is going to come out and have an outstanding game against them. Um, Yeah, I think we can go into Denver and get another one. I don’t really fear Denver Although they have the MVP on their team [00:42:00] We’ve matched up pretty well with them and I think we will just continue to do so So I got us winning all three games this week Book it.

Um

Jah So Focused: Game win streak.

French: Yeah, five game win streak Knicks gonna be the third seed. Let’s talk about it

Jah So Focused: If the Knicks get a five game win streak without Julius Randle

French: They had a nine game without him, didn’t they? Oh, no. Damn. Nope. Nope. That’s how long he been out. Nope.

Jah So Focused: Um, kind of proves my point from last week that getting O. G. back first would have been, More important than getting Randle back. Although they need both of them, need both of them. And it’s, you know, there’s no wrong answer.

Conclusion

Jah So Focused: Like I said, anyway, all right, this is where we’re going to, um, cut it off at. Um, once again, make sure you please like subscribe, give us some comments. We would appreciate the comments.

French: Let us know who y’all think the best role [00:43:00] player is. We probably going to talk about that again. Next week, next, next episode.

And what the qualifications

Jah So Focused: should be. Yeah, we should probably talk about that. What the qualifications of a role player is. But anyway, Furch, you got anything?

French: No, I don’t got nothing. I want to talk about, um, new shows that I’m watching, but I’m going to just tell you about that next time you ask me how my week was.

Very good. That’s how we’re going to do this moving forward. But until then, we’d like to bid you adieu. Thank you for listening to the Knicks Take Podcast. Peace out y’all.

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