(I originally wrote this on the day of the trade.I didn’t edit the beginning.)
We just got a letter, we just got a letter, we just got a letter, I wonder who it's from?
Okay, so for those of you who don’t know, OG Anunoby is a very good basketball player. He’s one of if not the best on ball defender in the NBA. This simple fact is why the Knicks made the trade, after watching RJ struggle to guard anyone on the wing for the past few years, the Knicks made a win now trade that loses a lot of the firepower that might be needed to make this team successful. Thibs obviously will love him, which means we’ll run him into the ground, but the main negative is he’s only shooting about 37 percent from three, which isn’t terrible but isn’t “hurray!” Will likely get more open threes with Brunson and Randle getting most of the attention, so expect that number to tick up.
I would like to take a step back and state the obvious, I am going to miss watching Immanuel Quickley play basketball. Take care of him, Canada. We love him. RJ, thank you for last year's playoff run. We couldn’t have made it that far without you.
Random Trade Notes:
This is pretty much a “we fully believe Jalen Brunson is a superstar” trade. We think Jalen Brunson is Jimmy Butler and he is going to take us into the great beyond and be widely successful the next three seasons.
OG is just so much bigger than RJ.
What’s the rotation? Jalen, Donte, OG, Randel, Hartenstein; Grimes, Hart, Prince, Duce? I guess it has to be Duce? Arcidiacono? (Imagine you’re Ryan Archidiancano right now. You’re getting ready for this Indiana Pacers team, reading the scout to call out coverages from the bench, this trade hits, and you realize you're a guy in foul trouble away from getting real PT)(From the future, Duce! How good has he been, huh!)
We are going to get the doors blown off us against the Pacers. As I write this I realize that this is a classic Knicks find a way to win this game anyway. ML Knicks, 15 bucks, bet placed (again, from the future never listen to me on gambling).
I feel like this helps Randle. How? I don’t know. I don’t see the vision. I am just a man, looking at a computer screen. You have to imagine this means Randle is here for the long haul. You got rid of the third scorer, hoping that you get another scorer to take that role. So that was going to be either RJ or Randle, knowing what we know about how the Knicks feel about Jalen Brunson.
I’m going to have to watch some more OG Tape. I’ll be back. Okay, I’m back. He’s a fine offensive player with a limited skill set and an absolute legend on the defensive end. Like he can create a little bit, but it’s more about the defense. He’s versatile, being able to guard a legit 1-5, and he’s a lot of fun to watch play defense.
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Okay, It’s Jan 9th, we play the Rocket’s tonight, which is fun. Should be a Jalen game. 4-0. RJ dropped 37, sure, but we are 4-0. OG is better than we could have imagined. I just “got over” Covid, Covid fucking sucks I am so tired. Alas, Jalen Brunson plays tonight so I have to stay up. Here’s the question we all should be asking: What is the best course of action for the Knicks?
Questions other people are asking:
How do the Knicks win a championship?
Is there another move to be made to be better than we are now?
Donovan Mitchell?
Is Stephen A. pretending not to know who Hartenstein is a brilliant stroke of baiting (yes) or does he just not watch the Knicks? (also, yes).
Have I missed a Knicks game this year? (first half of the Wizards game this past week).
I am a man who loves the Knicks, but really I love watching this team. I love Jalen Brunson, sure, but we lost two of my favorite Knicks players in recent memory, so let’s look back at these two beautiful men.
Quickley: Skipping, hitting timely threes, the second unit, post game interviews, his Mom, being God’s Son, skipping again, 40 against Boston, 6th man race, his relationships with everyone on the team.
RJ: Last year's playoffs, everytime he made an open three, pre migraine RJ, hearing about his “work ethic,” his “serious” face, jumping around pre-tip, those one handed dunks that reminded you how big this kid really is.
There’s a quote I love from Roger Ebert (look him up) where he says, “What makes us men is that we can think logically. What makes us human is that we sometimes choose not to.” I feel for the RJ and Quickley fans’ pain. I feel it too, the loss of a team that once was, replaced with a seemingly quiet, gigantic young man who enters our beautiful team in replacement of these two basketball artists. OG plays offense robotically, cutting at the right times, standing in the corner waiting for a pass so he can let off his corner three, the shot we all begged RJ to take and make at a consistent basis at a high clip.
It feels strange. It’s not like Josh Hart joining the team, going on a similar winning streak last year. Josh Hart gave them a jolt, a breath of fresh air of running around grabbing rebounds and hitting timely threes (the man shot like 50 percent from three when he showed up here) screaming “this is my fucking city” at the MSG crowd. OG joining the Knicks is like when in a fantasy TV show or movie when the protagonist finds themselves up against a challenge they can’t face alone and some mysterious figure comes out of nowhere to help take down the big baddy. It’s not as rewarding as the protagonist somehow finding the power to overcome the power of the strong evil character on their own, but it allows for the protagonist to learn a lot about themselves, the limitations of their power, and how going on this quest alone would be impossible.
I bring this up for two reasons. For starters, for a lot of Knicks fans, RJ or Quickley was the main protagonist of this Knicks team. They watched them on every play, living and dying with their guy, living through them in a real way, watching their favorite team through the eyes of their favorite player. I watch this team through the eyes of Jalen Brunson. If he was shipped off for Donovan Mitchell, or some other player the world sees as better than him, I would be devastated. Don’t take this team for granted.
However, with all of this being said, Julius Randle is the protagonist of this Knicks era. He is, by far, the most interesting person to examine. If Julius Randle is traded tomorrow, or in the off season, we live in a new Knicks world.
I want you to imagine something. Imagine, somehow, the Knicks build this team around Brunson and Randle and they are the two best players and they win the NBA Championship. While that video of Jalen Brunson and his Dad, him being a second round pick, being short, makes you think Brunson is the sports movie waiting to happen, the better movie is through Julius Randle's eyes. Brunson was a five star recruit in High School, literally has a documentary you can watch about his high school career (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u68gZApcpRk), won two championships at Villanova, and worked his way through self-belief to become the player we see today.
Julius Randle came out of Texas to be a one and done at Kentucky, where his eighth seeded Wildcats made it to the national championship game to lose to UConn in an ugly low scoring affair that I forced myself to watch to write this sentence. He’s drafted 7th overall to the Lakers, the most glamorous team in the association, and managed to get fourteen minutes into his rookie season before breaking his leg and missing the rest of the season. The next three seasons, Randle averaged in the low teens in points, having fun off the bench as a center in the 2017-18 season. At the end of the year, the Lakers renounced their rights to Randle, so he goes to the Pelicans on a two year 18 million dollar contract. After a successful breakout season, Randle opted out of his deal via a player option and signed a three-year sixty three million dollar deal with the Knicks. This was the legendary power forward year where the Knicks had just a few too many 4s and were horrid. Then, Covid hit, the Knicks hired Tom Thibodeau outside of the bubble, and in the following shortened season the Knicks went 41 and 31 and lost to the Hawks in the playoffs. This is the season where this era of the Knicks begins.
Randle was mainly the reason why this team performed so well, earning all NBA honors, but floundering in the playoffs. The next year, the Knicks regressed with Randle, his scoring dropping a full four points and his field goal percentage dropping nearly five percent.
Last year, the Knicks three headed monster of RJ, Randle (all-star and all NBA player), and Brunson managed to make it to the second round of the playoffs, winning a playoff series against the Cavaliers. Randle suffered an ankle injury late in the season which carried over into the playoffs and (in part) was the reason for his horrific playoff performance. After ankle surgery in the off season, Randle played like shit to start the season, getting his feet under him after not being able to work on his game in the summer. We finally reach the current day, Randle, surrounded by Brunson’s lifelong friends, seemingly alone with his family in New York, not as beloved as Brunson, but arguably the more important player on the Knicks. People expect Brunson to be good, to be great. Brunson can walk around the city and feels the love surrounding him. Randle, no matter what he does, will never be as beloved as Brunson. And yet, that’s what makes him the protagonist of this Knicks story. His moodiness on the court, having to change his game year after year to fit the team so that the rest of the cast can play their roles to the best of their ability (shoutout to Donte, clearly making it a point this season to show love to Randle during the games, a much needed guy on his side and a bridge between him and Brunson). You can see, on occasion, the love between Randle and Brunson. Whether it was Randle hitting Brunson on the head during the Timberwolves game as Brunson missed jumper after jumper, or Jalen, open in the corner for three, over-celebrating a Randle and one where he drives into traffic and manages a ridiculous lefty shot of the glass that goes in as he falls onto the floor, just so Randle can see when he watches the film back Brunson celebrating him. You can also see frustration from them sometimes, mostly from Brunson (which I think is a credit to Randle, as Brunson dribbles around all the time) as the other tries to do too much in a possession.
Randle is the protagonist of this Knicks era. This team with him on it goes as far as he can take us. Only time will tell if he’ll get the chance to complete his quest.
Yet again, I come from the future.
It seems I only publish these things when the Knicks lose to the Celtics. The Celtics third quarter was ridiculous, and I say that only as a compliment. I’ve been watching Uconn lately and for some reason it finally dawned on me that typically the team with the best five guys wins. If you have four solid pieces, but someone is on the court that shouldn't be, other teams can gameplan around that so effectively it inherently changes what these four other players can do on the floor. Watching the Celtics last night, how unselfish they are, how fucking good they are, left me in a place where I think we can’t win this year. We can’t win with our guys.
It is silly that when Hartenstein has to help on a second drive off a close out and we’re lost in rotation that the Celtics get to kick the ball out to a wide open in the corner Drew Holiday. Drew Fucking Holiday is wide open in the corner in an NBA basketball game. Derrick White is unbelievable at basketball. It’s expected from Tatum and Brown. Tingus Pingus, when healthy, is obviously an elite center, especially for this team.
And we have Jalen Brunson. Is Jalen Brunson better than Tatum? No. Brown? Maybe. Drew Holiday? At offense. Tingus Pingus? Well, Tingus Pingus does have a foot on him. Derrick White? Seriously, if Derrick White and Jalen Brunson switched teams, I think both teams would be worse. That is an insane thing to say about our best player. That’s an insane thing to write in general. Do I believe it? Sitting here today, no. Not really. Brunson is too good, too clutch, too skilled to make the Celtics worse. But watching different dudes just back Jalen down for layups last night has me wondering what has to change.
I read an article for the first time last week about the boys being back in town (https://www.vice.com/en/article/dpwa7w/i-played-the-boys-are-back-in-town-on-a-bar-jukebox-until-i-got-kicked-out-832). We need the boys to come back (the boys are back). OG, Mitch, Randle, likely in that order (timewise, asshat). OG’s elbow surgery was cool, didn’t care, Mitch is needed because iHart’s achilles is hanging on by a thread, and I hate the fact that Brian Windhorst has made me realize the fact that I have had multiple shoulder surgeries does not make me less of an asshole for pontificating about someone else’s shoulder. Randle will be fine, kinda. He won’t be the same, but he won’t be different. For a time. Until it pops out again. And he’ll be fine again. But then it will pop out again. And again, and again, until he can’t play. It’s a time bomb. The moment he forgets about it is the moment it will pop out because he’ll dive on the floor or he’ll try to block a dunk or some shit. It’ll be something weird in the playoffs. Trust me.
I’ve been obsessed with the song Flagpole Sitta for the past three days. I’ve been around the world and seen that only stupid people are breeding. Commit me.
I will miss you, Mr. Grimes. Not this year you, you were understandably mad, which makes me think that trading you was a good idea because I don’t want that kind of emotion on this team. We already got a guy that fills that role. That Miami steal was fucking sick, you’re such a dog, I know in a few years you’re going to be a starter or a sixth man on some awesome playoff team.
We don’t have a few years, we likely have three, including this one. I’m basing this off of nothing. Just a gut. How the NBA works. I think this year or next year is either everything goes our way and we go to game 7 of the ECF and the other one is we lose in the first round. And the last year is either we win or we get rid of a bunch of dudes.
I’m done, godspeed, I’ll have one of these next week, I promise to my loyal readers.
Big East has been fun past few weeks. Uconn losing, Dan Hurley winning me over, Slick Rick winning me back, Eric Dixon being a beast, missing old Justin More (he was so good, NBA good, I feel terrible for that man). Thad Matta, Posh Alexander being dawgs. Marquette just shitting on the shitty teams in the conference. The Providence kid is an NBA guy, he’ll find a way. I’m trying to think of his name and not look it up, I promise you I will not look it up because I know it, I know the kids name, DEVON CARTER, fuck yes I promise I did not look it up. I swear. I would tell you, you know I would tell you.
This is the part where if I had an editor they’d be like “Dude what the fuck were the last thousand words,” and I’d be like “You mean the best part when I tried to rememender THE Devon Carter’s name?” and they’d be like ‘YEah” and I’d be like “GO watch his tape and get back to me, see if it wasn’t worth it,” and depending on who they is they’d either be like “I cut it and the rest of it is fine but we really do need you to write more frequently” or they’d be like “fine,” and then go watch some Devinn Carter Highlights like this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCMujbJX6bc) and then they’d come back and be like “you’re right, fuck, kid is awesome,” and I’d be like “right?” and they’d be like alright we’ll keep it in but I’m cutting some of your parentheticals” (fuck you, bitch) and I’d be like
Alright, sorry about that, (WOW? A DEEP THREE . . . AWWHHWOOOMYGOODNESS HE HIT IT!!!!!) I get lost in the Big East sometimes. It’s so fun. I’m still listening to these highlights and this announcer is elite (OHHHH MY GOODNESS).
Speaking of Announcers, Knicks MSG Broadcast RANKINGS:
Clyde
Breen
Alan Hahn? Han?
Monica
Peedo
Wally
Don’t get me wrong, all these people are good. Monica and above are great. Breen and above are the best in the world at their job. Clyde and the Senator going back and forth in the god awful game I never want to think about before was at times incredible, sad, what the fuck is happening the KNicks are playing currently on air and things are happening in the game which are interesting and I want you all to talk about!
I actually don’t mind Wally at all, I know he’s last, but I think I like him more on the call instead of post game? I know that means Clyde is missing which is a big negative but alas.
Okay, go Knicks. And as always.
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