The Knicks held a lead early in the fourth quarter on Sunday vs. Philadelphia, but ultimately lost by 16 points, prompting Evan Fournier to try to diagnose the cause of the club’s late-game struggles, per Greg Joyce of The New York Post.
“Our togetherness down the stretch is not good enough,” Fournier said. “By togetherness I mean we are not tied together enough. Down the stretch, like I said, we have no confidence, so we are second-guessing at times. It should be second nature — boom, boom, boom, this is what we’re doing. As long as we are not doing that, it’s going to be hard to close out games against teams that are good. It keeps happening and that’s what’s so frustrating.”
As Joyce points out, the Knicks’ fourth-quarter net rating in their last 10 games is an abysmal -34.9, easily the worst mark in the NBA. The offense, which has a fourth-quarter rating of 85.9 in those 10 games, has been especially bad — Portland has the league’s next-worst fourth-quarter offensive rating during that stretch, at 100.0. Joyce believes having a veteran point guard like Derrick Rose running the show would help.
“I feel like we’re in a position right now where we are down two or down three, teams get on a run, it’s like, ‘Oh s–t, again,'” Fournier said. “Maybe just a good win would help us more, more confidence would help.”
Here’s more on the Knicks:
- While Nerlens Noel has technically been active for the Knicks’ last couple games and could theoretically have played, he’s “far from 100% healthy,” a source tells Ian Begley of SNY.tv, who provides some additional info on Noel’s plantar fasciitis. The injury first flared up on February 7, Begley adds, noting that it’s unclear whether the big man will get back to 100% before the end of the regular season.
- The Knicks have had talks throughout the season with Mitchell Robinson‘s agent Thad Foucher about a possible contract extension for the young center, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said during a TV appearance on Sunday (video link). A source tells Begley that in one of those conversations prior to last month’s trade deadline, the two sides were “not close” on the proposed terms. New York can offer up to about $55MM on a four-year extension, but presumably hasn’t gotten nearly that high.
- Robinson, who griped earlier in the season about “literally running for cardio,” still appears dissatisfied with his limited involvement on offense. Replying to a tweet from a fan on Monday night, Robinson wrote, “Everyone knows when everybody gets involved and the ball moving and everyone touching the ball, the energy and effort goes to another level. Let me ask you this and be 100% with your answer: How would you feel just running up and down the court for 48 or even for 20 minutes?”
This is a team that misses Elfrid Payton. Elf isn’t an all-star or even close to that level but he was extremely important to the Knicks success last yr. They are much worse defensively & their pg play has been subpar all yr long. A lot of people thought they were upgrading when they went out & got Kemba & let Elf go. It was obvious to me that they’d suffer bc of that decision & here we are. Knicks are gonna have to address the PG spot this summer & hopefully for them they do a better job than they did last summer
Give me a break.
Thibs misses Payton and has been coaching to lose all season as part of a tantrum and a power play.
He’s failing miserably but is taking us down with him.
Hard.
Payton was never taking this team past the first round so keeping him would have been counterproductive at best.
Lol you think the Knicks suck bc the coach is sabotaging the team & making them lose on purpose??? Elf might not have taken the team deep into the playoffs but obv it’s losing him that has turned out to be counterproductive. They were a much better team with him as their starting pg, that should be extremely obv by now
LMAO this is not accurate in any way. Elfrid Payton is and was terrible and the Knicks don’t miss him a single bit. The two players they miss are Derrick Rose and Reggie Bullock. Bullock had the outside shooting and great defense they’ve missed. As for Rose, here’s the Knicks record over the last two years with and without Rose.
With Rose: 34-26
Without Rose: 32-41
Elfrid Payton was so bad last year he lost his spot in the entire rotation come playoff time. Terrible take.
They miss Rose, Bullock & Payton. Like I said team defense & consistent pg play has been their main weaknesses this season & losing Elf made them considerably worse at both. Let’s see their record with & without Elf over the last 2 seasons. I’m pretty certain they got embarrassed in the playoffs without him in the rotation. They clearly could have used him then as well bc Trae carved up their defense without him. Knicks were 0-3 in the playoffs without him but were a top4 team in the East with him during the reg season. Don’t take a genius to see that he was an important guy on that team
Sorry, dude, but if you think the Knicks miss Payton one iota, then you clearly know nothing about the Knicks. I’ll say this again because you seem to be unaware: Payton was so awful last year that he not only lost his starting job, he was completely removed from the rotation.
I get the need to come up with new angles or ways of looking at things, or putting out hot takes or whatever, but to point to Payton as a reason the team is struggling this year is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever read here. He’s not. He was one of the worst PGs in the league last year and possibly the worst starting PG. There’s a reason he barely plays this year.
Knicks problems are: Randle regressing, missing Bullock (and Noel), missing Rose, Kemba not being able to give them anything, Thibs’ rotations, Fournier’s streakiness, RJ’s slow start (and COVID), etc. Nowhere on that list is Elfrid freakin Payton. You may as well say they miss Frank and DSJ.
You are completely misunderstanding how important defense is to winning basketball, especially in the case of the Thibodeaux Knicks
Btw the Knicks were 36-27 with Payton last season & 25-36 without him this season
Ridiculous cherry-picking because the team has changed a lot since Payton left. Rose was the only real change last year and it lead to a complete turnaround of the team.
Rose is still on the team this year and they’re a worse team without him there.
Lol so it’s ridiculous cherry picking when I do it but you doing the exact same thing is what, relevant facts? The hypocrisy is palpable… Obv the Knicks miss Rose in a big way. I’ve said this throughout the season. The definitely do NOT miss Rose on defense tho. They miss Elf badly on defense. They also miss him as just a steadying influence & a natural pg on the floor which I mean Burks & IQ are not natural pgs & tho Burks does a good impersonation at times, it makes a difference when you’re playing without a pg. But again defensively is where they miss him the most & it was obvious that would be an issue bc of what happened when he got benched late in the season. He got benched bc the offense was stagnant with him but without him their defense went from elite to average & they were destroyed in the playoffs. Knicks didn’t have much of a chance if beating ATL especially once Dre was back in the lineup. But once Payton was out of the picture the series was a walk & that’s pretty much how their season has gone this yr too
We don’t miss anyone. Stick to the Hawks please. Mitch has been hurt. Noel has been hurt, New guys on team. Our team is terrible. Got nothing to do with those players. Our anchors are not playing. Team D is not about one or two players. And PG has been annn no issue since before Thibs. It’s why he traded for Rose. But he’s a 20-25 min player. Dinwiddie was only FA PG available. They didn’t want him.
Payton sucks ….. it’s so boring hearing from people who just don’t know.,
One thing PG is still the issue.
Nobody in NY thought Kemba was the answer. We hoped he and Rose together would be decent. Knicks problems at D . Has nothing to do with Payton. This is so lost.
Agree with Sankara and facts are on his side. Payton is a true PG, meaning the Knix had a PG once, and were winners for it. Kemba is not, and as a fan of Burks, I can say he is best as a plan B at either guard. It may be too late for him to be a starting PG… even tho he is the best they have, the team might be best off tanking & teaching another— which does not rule out Burks’ involvement.
Payton half-died at the end and maybe he is done, and was never personally popular. He should get more credit, but his weakness is probably off-court. There must be a story there.
Payton could successfully engage Randle as a playmaker because true PGs can if they want to. Randle does not have a friend now on-court and initially did not off-court in his first year there (rumors in HR).
Measuring a player also means measuring who he affects.
Except for older players DRose & Calderon, recently the Knicks have only had a decent true PG (albeit streaky) from late January 2020 to mid-April 2021. Go back 10 years and Lin and some older guys passed through. 15 years ago, Marbury & Nate Robinson were deluxe. But not Walker, Mudiaye, Ntkilina, Felton, Duhon, etc. I don’t recall Ward in BB but he played FB like a good PG!
Thibs is causing so much long term damage at this point it’s criminally incompetent to keep him.
Mitch has his issues but also has the potential to be a key piece. Losing him for nothing to avoid looking bad by firing Thibs is insane.
It’s time to get a grip.
Knicks are one of those teams that just feels right in the NBA world when they are a winning team. They had all of that cap space last 2 seasons and just completely blew it.
Thibs should have nothing to do with personnel any more
D Rose is a backup at best J Randle is overpaid bigtime. Don’t even understand the Reddish trade though I love his potential.
Knicks need to sign a couple legit FAs this off-season and not any more Fourniers or Randles or Kembas.
I hope they make the play in
Feels right to me when they’re losing. They’re the worst franchise in the East for the past 2decades. The league has been in 1 of it’s best eras ever & grown exponentially in value since NYK was a respectable franchise. They could suck for the next 20yrs & the game/league would still continue to thrive… DRose might be a backup at this point in his career but he’s literally one of the top5 backup guards in the league when healthy. Last yr he was healthy & he was great for NYK. This yr he hasn’t been healthy & they’ve suffered without him.
Yeah and in that time Knicks are the richest and most valued franchise in NBA. So what’s your point.
You know nothing about us. Try and figure out why we suck so much. Yet own the soft Hawks. Which must say you must really Suck ……
(11-27) Knicks 99 — Hawks 90
(12-25) Knicks 101 — Hawks 87
(1-15) Knicks 117 — Hawks 108
Next gm 3/22 hopefully Hawks show up LOL …….
Agree and disagree. As far as cap space though? They couldn’t get any of the big name free agents to sign. The problem is that have you pay someone and the Knicks aren’t going to start the season on a tank. They usually try to be at least semi competitive then shift to a tank when the ish hits the fan.
You’re right though on the NBA just feeling right with the Knicks being a very good team. They were never “my team” but growing up I always made sure to watch Ewing, Starks, Jackson and GrandMama especially when they played your Heat. There’s just something about playoff basketball at Madison Square Garden.
You talk negatively on Thibs for personal decisions.
Then jump to saying DRose is nothing but a back up. Thibs has kept him as a back up through his whole time as head coach, he’s only had 7 starts in the past 2 seasons.
You then say Randle is massively overpaid, Thibs didn’t write him that contract. Thibs had him playing extremely well. He was all nba second team last year, an all star and even now he’s leading the team in every statistical category.
Then you say you don’t like the Reddish deal, to which it’s clear he wasn’t a Thibs signing that was a decision from the owner or front office.
As for free agents, Knicks fans think they can get all stars but why would they want to come to the Knicks. You guys have sucked for decades and when you do get a good player your rip him to pieces and he wants out like Randle. Kemba is another example. He is a former all star point guard, former all nba teams and said he wanted to come back home to New York and help them win and the coach doesn’t want to play him and the fans don’t want him either.
The problem with the Knicks is the front office and the toxic fan base.
Be interesting to see what Mitchell Robinson gets in FA.
He’s a 7 foot, 23 year old centre. Currently 7th in the league in blocks although he only plays 25 minutes per game. He would be leading the league in FG% by 6% but to count for that he has to be on track for 300 shots and he’s currently on 252 and apparently won’t get to 300.
He also ranks 4th in offensive rebounds.
Not that he’s going to be some elite centre but he is young and he’s one of the best at blocking shots and grabbing offensive rebounds. I’m sure loads of teams would love to have him.
Charlotte Hornets make a ton of sense, Houston makes sense, OKC makes sense
No outsiders should try and tell us about our team. Criticize , yes. We deserve it. But I doubt you know or understand why we are here today. And who lives in the past. Sports is not life. The FO has changed 12 times in 25 yrs. These players got nothing to do with history. Most are under 23. So stop showing your ignorance. You want to make a real point. Ask a real question. Start from there. Cause it only takes a genius to say Knicks suck.
Only one that matters now. That’s the draft. Would love to see the you g guys play. Especially McBride, Cam, Obi. But I’m not in charge. So all I do now is scout. I’ve watched the top 20 for four wks now. Plenty tape and gms. After the Dance there will be more players moving up. But I’m really good with 8-10. Cause we can move up. Or find the player we need there. I’m sure of it. I just wish they would listen to me.
I agree no need to trade up there is good talent all over this draft. It’d say the biggest thing has to be fit. Not every player is fit for every team and the Knicks is one of the hardest teams as a young player.
I know that Duren will be there. He’s going to be better than Mitch, and I like Mitch. So this way we can sign n trade Mitch. Use him, other players to trade for a position we need. I see that as an option. I also like Agbaji a lot. But he’s a 2. And we are good there. I think he’s got a big future as a 2way player. Best scenario is getting to 6-8. If we play young guys, get me. Then we can trade up, hopefully Banchero is there at 5-6. Then definitely move Randle or move him at draft. I want to get younger. Time to build around RJ
I don’t think Duren is the answer and I also don’t think Mitch Robinson stays.
I think Knicks will end up 7th which is a tough spot, no Jabari Chet Paolo Jaden AJ. I think if all those guys are off the board they should trade back. I’d be lining up the Grizzlies and Thunder who both have three first. In which case you trade back I like Wendell Moore, Tari Eason, Kennedy Chandler and Julian Champaigne.
As for replacing Robinson, there’s a few options. Mo Bamba could be a good choice. He gets blocks like Robinson, he can shoot the three and hit FT’s, he gets rebounds and he continues to improve every year. Magic also have Carter Jr, Bol Bol and may even take Chet in the draft.
Another idea could be trading for Richuan Holmes. Something like Evan Fouriner, Alec Burks and a second round pick for Harrison Barnes and Rich Holmes. Clears Fouriners deal, open up minutes at SG, and I think Harrison Barnes could be a great fit under Thibs especially. Holmes them fills out centre. Would be cool for Sacramento too, Fox Fouriner Justin Holiday Keegan Murray (draft) Sabonis, Mitchell off the bench with Divancenzo Burks Lyles and Len.