Though he sat for his seventh straight game to start the season Monday night in a 113-104 loss against the Raptors, reserve Knicks center Nerlens Noel appears poised for a return, and not a moment too soon, as third-string center Taj Gibson sprained his ankle during the game’s first half, writes Greg Joyce of the New York Post. Rookie big man Jericho Sims served as Gibson’s replacement during the second half.
The Knicks re-signed Noel to the tune of a three-year, $28MM contract this summer. Noel has been struggling with a knee/hamstring injury since the preseason. During the 2020/21 season, his first with the Knicks, the former lottery pick averaged 5.1 PPG, 6.4 RPG and 2.2 BPG, while starting in 41 of his 64 total games.
There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:
- Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau is reluctant to blame New York’s defensive issues this season on its increased pace, writes Greg Joyce of the New York Post. “It’s probably too early to really tell,” Tom Thibodeau said of a link between the pace and the defense. “You see it in the league all the time, teams that play with an edge usually have an advantage. Oftentimes, it’s teams that have guys that are out, that they play with great intensity. We should understand that better than anyone.” The Knicks are currently ranked 20th in the NBA with a defensive rating of 109.
- During an interview with NBC Sports Boston (Twitter video link), Celtics team president Brad Stevens addressed starting point guard Marcus Smart‘s criticism of All-Star teammates Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown following a 128-114 come-from-ahead loss to the Bulls on Monday night. “When you see (Smart) and (Tatum) sitting down eating breakfast together today and talking about how to find our solution for our team… those guys want to win.”
- Despite the 4-3 Nets grappling with a variety of on- and off-court problems, All-Star forward Kevin Durant looks as great as ever, per Zach Braziller of the New York Post. Durant is averaging 27.7 PPG while shooting 58.3% from the floor and averaging 8.9 RPG. “He’s our guy — he’s The Guy,” new reserve power forward Paul Millsap said. “We feed off of him and what he does. He carries our team a lot. We kind of need him to do that. We need him to be him.”
Yeah, guys like Walker and Fournier who get minutes aren’t going to help the cause on the defensive end. There’s a risk and reward with those two.
Maybe Thibs needs to eat lunch with everyone as well as dinner, Since that seems to have helped so much. LMAO
The Knicks defensive issues are mainly due to the fact that they don’t have many good individual perimeter defenders. Of the six guys the Knicks use 1-3, only Barrett is even arguably a plus defender (and he’s a kid). The Knick defensive system under Thibs is built around rim protection, so getting Noel back should help, but the 5 spot hasn’t, for the most part, been the problem.
I’m quite happy with Knicks’ offseason. But perimeter defense was always going to be a challenge with the new group. I think it will be a WIP all year. For the moment, I’d like to see them stop playing offense as though they have last year’s defense. With the way we’re defending the 3 right now, no lead is safe.
Knicks will be fine. They’ve gotten a bit overconfident. Cause of their new found offense. And have forgotten what makes them a good team, playing D. D is a team effort. And it hasn’t been consistent. It’s part of growing pains this year. Thibs will get them on right path. Knicks have to work to have success. Their depth this year. Is their biggest and best asset. They need to stop stop reading the news. Just play, we have done nothing yet. One gm at a time. We have a tough stretch this month. Like to see Kemba not Randle. Run team more. Randle should be posting more. They are playing smaller quicker guys on him. Let’s do this ……
In Thibs we Trust.