Chapter 1: What concerns does Gio have about the Knicks' playoff performance?
I know what teams are trying to do against the Knicks, and it's working. And that's the thing that really concerns me about the postseason. Because I don't know that they can be much better defensively with their best players on the court. And if you're not going to be better defensively with your best players on the court... You better be maximizing every bit of offense that you have.
And that's one thing they're not doing. Because remember that, what was it, the Shaq interview with Karl-Anthony Towns? He's like, you got to be great. You got to be great. He's like, well, I'm trying to get better. No, no, no, no, no. You got to be number two. You got to be great. 1A, 1A. Simplistically, that's what it is. He has to be, we have to come in the next day like, this guy's a wizard.
The days we come in with Jalen Brunson and go, oh my God, he's one of the best players, one of the free agent signings we've ever had, oh my God, he's great.
Fourth quarter guy takes over the game.
Chapter 2: How can the Knicks improve their offensive efficiency?
All that stuff.
We've got to have four, five, six of those games where we're talking about Carl Anthony Towns in the same way for this team to make it to the finals and try to win a championship. I don't know if collectively this team can get that out of him.
I know he didn't have a double-double last night, but according to Jerry, and rightfully so, because... The statistics will tell you this. He's a double-double machine. The question is, when and where, how is it happening?
Well, yeah, I mean, this is a beyond-the-numbers type of thing. And if you've watched this team throughout the entire year, the most confusing... thing to me is why this guy is not getting the basketball in positions for him to succeed every single game, multiple times a game, throughout the game, not just all of a sudden waking up in the fourth quarter, we got to get him the ball.
That's the most confusing thing. And honestly, this is why I keep blaming Mike Brown. It's almost as if And I don't know this is the case, but it feels almost as if Mike Brown has given up on Carl Anthony Towns being that unbelievable superstar.
Just gets like the minimum out of him and thinks that if the rest of the team plays great and we just kind of keep him in the game, that's a better situation for us. Where I totally disagree with that.
So was Carl Anthony Towns better under Tibbs or is he better under Brown?
Yes. Oh, he's much better under Tibbs.
And they brought Carl Anthony Towns here because Tibbs was his first coach in Minnesota, wasn't he?
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Chapter 3: What role does Jalen Brunson play in the Knicks' success?
To be fair, they asked for everybody in the world during that time, but there were guys that were tied to Carl Anthony Towns that were asked to come in and interview, and a lot of them were denied the interviews.
Let me just say, so the impetus for all of... the beginning of the Knicks or the end of last season, the impetus for all of this were supposedly these player exit interviews.
Yeah.
This is why you don't listen to the effing players. Well, right now... You don't listen to them. You tell them we are paying you a hell of a lot of money, and you are working for us, and you are wearing our uniform, and we run the organization, not you. Yeah. This is why you do that. And I know it's the NBA, so you might as well forget it.
Chapter 4: Why is Carl Anthony Towns not maximizing his potential?
That's not going to happen. But, you know... if you listen to the fans or you listen to the players and you don't make... And by the way, Leon Rose, for the most part, has done everything pretty good. I think we're all pretty happy with where the Knicks have been over the last three or four years under Leon Rose's stewardship.
Absolutely. Now, we have talked before, and one of the age-old adages, if you're going to get rid of a guy as a head coach, you better know who you're replacing him with. And there are times where I'll push back on that because... Sometimes you don't know who is out there. You haven't talked to everybody.
And you've made a decision on a head coach where, like, this guy isn't the right guy to get us over the hump, so we have to go out there and have a search. So that's normally my response to that take. But when it comes to this Tibbs situation... It's exactly the opposite of what I believe. Because they didn't have a plan. They didn't have someone to replace him.
And it was the only real thing that they were changing in this offseason. And they went out and they asked every coach that was successful in the NBA who was under contract if they could have permission to talk to him, which was just one of the dumbest things in the world. And they ended up with Mike Brown.
So I'm not... Like, if they really believe that Tibbs couldn't get them over the hump, fine. But to just kind of go out there blind and then end up with Mike Brown and then think that that is going to be the hire that gets you to the finals, that whole situation might be the reason why they don't get there.
Now, I'm not saying they would have gotten there with Tibbs, but they fired him and then really didn't have any idea what they were doing when it comes to replacing him.
Let me ask you this question. Would this team be any better? And I think... Given if you could replace Karl-Anthony Towns with Giannis without losing any of the other starting four.
Well, I don't think that's possible.
I know. That's why I say that. It's not possible. So they can straighten all this out and we can stop all this discussion if they go to the conference finals and they win and then they make it to the NBA finals. This discussion then stops. We don't have this discussion about Mike Brown. We don't have this discussion about firing Tom Thibodeau.
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Chapter 5: Is Mike Brown the right coach for the Knicks?
I always reference that interview with Rick Pitino. Came on the radio station after the Knicks got eliminated. And he said he has never seen a Knicks head coach with more pressure on him in his entire lifetime as he's been a Knicks fan than Mike Brown's going to have on him. Because if he doesn't get to the finals, it's a failure.
That's one of the great basketball minds in the world who said that. Not us. And that means to me, if he falls short of where they were last year, if you get back to where you were last year, there's a discussion how it happens. If you fall short of where you got last year, where you were brought in to go further than you were last year, then you're done. You had your shot. You're done.
And especially with the fact that I don't believe that he's doing the right things to maximize the roster. But I also want to say this. I'm not giving up on them at all.
No, no, of course not. But I'm just saying they can change this entire discussion if they do what they're supposed to do in the playoffs. That's basically what it comes down to. Is the team bored? Is the team lazy? Is the team not playing defense? Is the team disconnected? I would say in these last three games against really good teams, absolutely. Can they get it back?
Can they end up going deep into the playoffs? I would say yes, absolutely they can.
I still think they can get to the finals.
But this is the only way that they can change this discussion that we're having this morning is by going at least to the conference finals.
Yeah. I mean, maybe losing in a game seven, something like that. We could talk about maybe running it back.
Kind of like St. John's going to the Sweet 16.
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