Knicks Win Third Straight: Is The Turnaround Real? | NY Got Game

What's up everybody? We're back for another edition of New York Got Game. Three straight wins back above .500 are the Knicks and I've got a better question for everybody than simply are the Knicks back? Question is, what's actually changed? Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, they combined for 60 points in Saturday's win in Cleveland. But how much of this turnaround can the Knicks build on? And which questions still need answers? So, With Milwaukee up next at the Garden, followed by a rematch with Cleveland on Wednesday. The host of the Orange and Blue Bloods podcast, also a host on WFAN. It's my guy, you see him right there, EJ Stewart. He joins me this week to break it all down. EJ, what's going on, my guy? What's happening, Dex? Always happy to talk Knicks, and it's definitely better when they're on a little winning streak here. Five out of six, love it. You look, it's true. Three-game winning streak, five out of six. I know you weren't, because I know you weren't worried when they were 0-3, but you saw it out there. There were people who were concerned. Listen, in some ways, I'm happy that those people still exist. Because to me, it's almost like, do Knicks fans have they gotten soft after winning a championship and nothing matters? And there are some folks that are still on the championship high. To be honest, I like that there were people that were still critical. I like that people were still concerned. And it shows that Knicks fans never change. It shows that Knicks fans are still a different breed. So in many ways, it was actually a little comforting that during the 0-3 stretch, I think Jalen Brunson kind of said that. He kind of wanted the New York media to get after him because of how poorly they were playing. Like, I kind of like that, like, you kind of got back to business when it came to sky falling for some fans, not all, for some. You know what? It's a good point I hadn't considered. Sometimes we need that balance, right? We need that balance. Like, I thought the championship would change things for people, and it might be like, all right, I'm going to calm down a bit. We're playing this year with kind of free money. And, you know, the New Yorkers were like, nah, nah, not this. We're going to still be on you if you're not playing well, which is good. Accountability is always good. I'm always here. Yeah. So I'm never not here for that. But as you mentioned, EJ, Knicks have won three straight. You're back above 500. When you look at how they're playing recently, what's the biggest difference from the team that we saw at the start of the season to what we're seeing right now? I mean, the offense looks like it's now back to being kind of at full gear. Like, we saw early in the season, Mike Brown mentioned it a ton, that he felt like the team was, you know, playing through mud, and they looked slow, and Josh Hart mentioned after the Philly game, which is in part of this five or six-game stretch, he mentioned that they may be looked a little fatigued. The offense just didn't look smooth. What we saw them doing with all that off-ball action with, you know, Kony Towns at the high post and them trying to get opportunities for Brunson opportunities for. It just didn't look crisp. It didn't look smooth. Nothing looked right about the offense. And now what you're seeing, now making shots helps a ton, but what you're seeing, I think, is a crisper offense. The Knicks getting into their sets, getting into things that they want, and they're operating not at the playoff or championship level, but at a much higher level than they had earlier in the season when it felt like every possession was a grind for them, which is surprising given how much offensive talent is on this team. Right. And, yeah, no, the offense has looked a lot better. Still, there's still a long way to go. They give you better at choppings. I still think there's a lot they left on the table. We'll get to that a little bit later. But we saw Jalen Brunson. We saw Kony Towns. They combined for 60 points in Cleveland. What did that game show you about how you think the two of those can bring out the best in each other right now? Well, to me, it was huge to see Kony Towns really show that, once again, he could still be a dominant scorer. We've seen the evolution of his game on the defensive side of the ball. We've seen his evolution, again, as a passer and as a hub for the offense. But remember, Kony Towns came here to score. That's why they traded for him. They wanted him to be that pick-and-pop threat to open up things for Brunson. And we've seen Jalen get off some of these slow starts. Somebody that had been such a great first-quarter scorer for the majority of his entire next career. He's been getting off a lot of slow starts. So, see Karl-Anthony Towns take ownership early, you know, in Cleveland and just really take it to Cleveland. Allow Jalen to get back into the game. And that's how you compliment each other as stars. You know, some days or some quarters or some halves, one of you might not have it. Can the other guy step up in a pinch? And then when it's closing time, once Jalen Brunson after that, you know, bad first quarter, second quarter, he was Jalen Brunson again. Once you get to closing time, now you know Jalen Brunson's in rhythm and he's not someone that's been, you know, hunting for it. Maybe trailing or chasing a score because the Knicks are behind because he's struggling. So the fact that you've got those guys who are two supernovas on that offensive side of the ball in their positions, it puts a lot less pressure on either of them to have to carry the offense when the other ones struggle. So as you were talking about that and them complimenting each other, EJ, it had me thinking about Jalen Brunson and Karl Towns. Are they the best duo in the East? Or are we, do we not talk about them enough? It's like one of the best offensive duos, at least in basketball. No, I mean, I think you make a case that they're the best duo in the NBA. Like, I think, you know, there were a couple, I saw earlier, you know, during the offseason, there were a couple of websites and stuff, TPSs of the world, I forget who had one, but they did a ranking of the top duos in the NBA. And I think they had Jalen Brunson and Kat one or two. And that's where they belong. I mean, again, when you think about, one, just how different players they are, right? Like, one guy is your starting point guard who is, You know, running the offense, but also your most dangerous scorer. And the other guy can score in the post, can score from three, also is now unlocked as this incredible passer. There's just so much versatility in those guys' games, and I don't know why they don't probably get talked about enough as being a tandem. I think some of it may be a lot of the media press around the whole Villanova. tandem and the Villanova three and then the starting five kind of being this like one unit that's really a unit. I think in many ways people think about this Knicks squad and they don't they even think about Jalen Brunson as you know the king of New York or they think of the entire five as this cohesive unit that is in some ways greater than the sum of the parts but at the same time again when you think about what Karl-Anthony Towns has done this season he's had to me a phenomenal season When you talk about the guys on the team that maybe aren't... shooting the ball as well or aren't playing as well. You can't put Karl-Anthony Towns on that list. He's had a phenomenal start to the season on both sides of the court. And you see how he's playing, and then you know Jalen Brunson, he's going to get it going. He's going to get back to being the same old Jalen Brunson that we are accustomed to. It's very hard for other teams to stop those guys when they're playing at a high level. So I think they did dirty right at the top. Yeah, I was just thinking about it, and I was like, yeah, they've got to be right at the top. And I agree with you about Cat. He's having himself up. At least the season that you can start talking. I know it's early. It's nine games. He's probably in the conversation for first-team All-NBA right now. We'll see how it plays out the rest of the way, but he's up there as one of the best players in basketball. I want to talk about defense real quick here, EJ, because the Knicks, they held Cleveland to 97 points. They've held several teams this season to 100 points or less. When you evaluate their defense during this winning streak, what do you trust the most, and what do you still need to see against different opponents as the Knicks move forward? Yeah, I mean, I just trust that they know what they want to do with their system and their rotations. I don't see a defense that makes a lot of really bad mistakes. You know, I went crazy during the first game of the season with why they were blitzing Maxey so far off in the paint. I still, I mean, from the arc on the screens, I still don't know why they were doing that. But outside of that game, even the game that they've lost, I didn't feel like you were seeing, you know, major defensive lapses. Like, really, the Philly game was the one game to think about, really. Their defense is really sharp. They compete on that end, and I think that's been actually one of the really encouraging signs about what's happened this season is even while the offense has not necessarily been up to snuff for the majority of the season. Their defense really hasn't dipped at all. I think the Chicago game that they won in Chicago was probably the only really, to me, truly disappointing defensive effort, and they won that. So I look at where they've been defensively, and I'm actually really encouraged by what we've seen. And I think that it shows, whatever you think about how they play on the opposite side of the ball, that that championship medal is still there. Yeah, no, defensively, Knicks have been really, really good. In fact, even last week, My colleague, Seth Bonney, was talking about, hey, the defense is ahead of the offense right now. For me, personally, if you're looking at a team and rooting for a team, that's what you want to see. You want to see that the defense is still there. The offense can come and will come, no doubt. So winning, we know this. It can quiet a lot of questions around the team. And the Knicks, they're 5-4 at the time of us recording this. But what's the biggest Knicks concern that these three wins in a row haven't answered for you? Is there still a concern that you have when you look at this team? I don't know if it's a concern, but it's something that hasn't been answered, and it's just because of the nature of the team right now and how they stand, is that the starting lineup has not played all that well together this year. They're about 35th in percentile when it comes to plus-minus. Their offensive numbers are abysmal. And because Josh Hart hasn't played, you know, in these games that they've won of late, those numbers haven't improved. So, you know, Landry Shaheed has been in the starting lineup. He's done a tremendous job. They've been throwing different guys in the lineup. Um, the Knicks are playing better and I don't think this is a, I've been one of those guys at times that have been like, take Josh Hart out of the starting lineup. I don't think this is that. I think Josh Hart actually is one of the guys that has played well this year, even though the shots haven't fallen. Um, I just think it's been a nature of what Landry Shepard brings to the table and he always plays well with those starters and that starting unit that was the backbone of that playoff run and that championship run, they haven't played at a super high level. Do I think they won't? No, I mean, I think they'll be fine, but it will be nice to me to see them consistently, you know, put together, you know, multiple quarters of them playing at a high level. You know, we've seen spurts where they played okay, but again, you look at their numbers in terms of efficiency, in terms of, again, plus minus, and just in terms of the Knicks most efficient lineup. It's been kind of one of their worst this year, which is disappointing. And the only silver lining in that is that we've seen this in the past. We saw this with Tom Thibodeau. We actually saw this with Mike Brown a little bit last year, where in the regular season, it was a situation where they weren't necessarily their best lineup, but in the playoffs, it was a whole different story. So maybe that'll be the case this year. But you would have thought that given how they finished last year, they would have rode some momentum with how they played together as a unit, and we haven't seen that quite yet. No, we haven't seen it quite yet. Still? Early, so, you know, can't go too crazy, but this kind of brings me to the next point because I've been, I've, you know, I've said this on the show. I've loved how Mike Brown Handled the team in terms of rotations and playing guys and mixing, matching and just experimenting during the regular season. So what do you think? What is this stretch? I'll even stretch it beyond the three games, five out of the last six, six games you've seen from the Knicks. What has this stretch told you about Mike Brown's rotations and what roles you're more comfortable with and which decisions would you still question in his rotation? Because he's made some changes. We've seen Tyler Kolek play recently. We've seen Dalton Knecht with Josh Hart being out. Play a little bit, too. We've seen Mikal Bridges, when he's struggling, shooting the ball, sit on the bench. We talked about Landry Shamet starting for Josh Hart. But what are you liking or maybe not liking with Mike Brown's rotation? Well, I think one of the things that's been eye-opening is, for me, I'm always trying to test the BS meter on coach speak in media. So when I hear Mike Brown say, you know, every, you know, spot in the bench rotation is basically up for grabs. How real is that? Because last year it seemed like Jordan Clarkson had played himself out of that rotation and it was justified given how he had been playing. And Mo Diarra had played himself into that rotation and in a playoff time game and it was Clarkson and it didn't really seem, there was no real, you know, reasoning or didn't seem to make sense given what we had seen from the majority of the second half of the season. Clarkson started to play towards the end of the regular season. All of a sudden he was then back in the rotation. So, Is this real? Tyler Kolek right now is the second string point guard, even though Jose Alvarado is available. Is Tyler Kolek, does he really have a shot at being the backup point guard come playoff time? Or is this a deal where this is maybe giving Tyler Kolek a real look, maybe letting him showcase himself? They want to put him in a deal to maybe get some center help. Or is this a situation where he can actually overtake Jose Alvarado for that spot? Mike Brown has said, and again, that's where the BS media comes in, that any person on that bench is fighting for minutes. It's just, it's so, it's so unlike, I know maybe I still got Tibs scar tissue, but it's so unlike what we've seen from how the Knicks have operated for so long that it's still weird to see and still hard to believe. But if he's a man of his word, it's going to be hard to take Tyler Kolek out of the lineup because of how well he's dishing the rock right now. Well, here's what I'll say to that, EJ. I hear you on the Tibs scar tissue. I hear you. Real impact has been made. Yeah, exactly. I don't want to call it trauma because that feels like it's a little bit too much, but there's been some real impact off of that, right? And I think that the one thing I will say with Mike Brown is I think you're right to question whether it's real or not for the reasons you posed, right? Whether is it showcasing somebody? We even saw Mohamed Diawara can get 14 minutes against Cleveland the other night after not having played much this year, but we've seen him in the last two games. I think he really does mix and match, but I don't think the part of what you're talking about is unreal either. I think he also, or I think not just him, I think organizationally. They want to get looks at guys, and it could be for future things. And I'm going to throw in something to you because you mentioned this. You said, could it be showcasing Natalya Kolek to look to upgrade a position later? You mentioned backup center. I should have told you I was going to ask you this, but I'm not. But I didn't, but here we go. Where are you on the Knicks' backup center? Because the last time you and I talked... Um, we talked a little bit about that, but where are you on the backup center for the, are you, again, it's nine games. I'm not asking you to be comfortable. This thing can be figured out in the next couple of months. But when you look at the Knicks backup center situation with Andre Drummond, do you think it, are you feeling comfortable for now is what I'm asking. Comfortable. I mean, I, I'll put it this way. I feel as comfortable as, you know, going to, you know, like. My, my mom's friends, like apartment with all the plastic on the furniture and like, it's, is it comfortable? It's fine. And I'm used to being there. It's my mom's friend. Right. So like, it's like, there's a comfort in that. I'm used to being in this home. Would I prefer to not be in on the old couch that has the old plastic on it? Probably not, but I'll be okay. OK, it's a weird analogy, but that's the only thing I can think of thinking about Andre Drummond, because like to me, like. He's doing something that is very important, is that the Knicks are still an elite offensive rebounding team. They just pounded Cleveland offensive glass in that win. And he's the reason. I mean, and Cat, too. But he's a big reason why. And that is the Knicks, in many ways, that's going to be some of their roadmap to getting back to being an elite offensive team. So for that reason, I'm okay. Okay, he's giving something to the team. I do think he's become, offensively, a little bit of a wild card that is a little concerning. Like, you don't know where the ball is going when he's shooting floaters or shots around the basket. I've never seen him shoot as many air balls for, like, floaters and layups in a short time as Drummond has. And And he's clearly lost a little bit of a step. So, offensively... Because he's trying to do things, too. Like, Mitchell Robinson just wouldn't try to do some of this stuff that he's trying to do. you And it's not going so well. So, I don't love what he's giving them offensively. I think Mike Brown's been right very when he is not giving the right effort to sit him and be like, Hey, listen, you're not one of these championship guys. Like, those guys, if they lack effort or whatever, like, you know, maybe, you know, we'll give them a little more rope. much. Like, you are here to play hard for 10, 15 minutes. And you give us two or three shots in a row. We're not giving it. We're going to go to somebody else. I like that he set that tone. Even though he's a veteran. But I think I'm comfortable in the sense that there's a place for him to be very important in this team with a skill set that he has already displayed. Now, can he play smarter? Can he take better shots? And can he finish better around the basket? Are questions that I don't know the answers to. I'll feel more comfortable when I have a bit more of a sample size of what I'm going to get from him for this season. No, that's fair. I think that's fair in terms of evaluating it. But I did like your analogy, and it made me wonder, when's the last time you sat on somebody's sofa that had plastic on it? It's been a long time for me. You want to talk about trauma? That feels like, I actually had a friend whose family, but we never really sat in that room that had, like, plastic on the sofa. I've been in houses like that too. Yeah, nobody ever went in that room, though. Yeah, but when I was a kid, though, like, it was something that's, like, I probably was, like, seven or eight years old. And it was always, like, Yeah, yeah. What are you going to do? You know, it's just like, all right, this is what we're doing. It's fine. That's kind of how I feel about Drummond. It's like, all right, this is what we're doing. I liked it. I liked it because it took me back to childhood. I'm not going to say who the person is, but a family member who had plastic on the couch all the time. And you had to sit in that room. There was no other place to go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you're in those places, yeah, then it's like, this is all you got. But it's okay. You know, if you're there for a couple hours, it's fine. Now, if you had to stay for an entire afternoon or an entire day or a couple days, you were staying overnight, that's where you're like, which is maybe what the Knicks are going to be dealing with with Drummond because he's with them all season unless they decide to move him or something. So that's the dilemma with them is can they trust him? It's early. I think he knows also it's early. Right. So some of this stuff, I think he's maybe getting out of the system. Can he get to playing that championship caliber ball that is expected now when you put on that Knicks uniform, which is crazy to say, but it's true. Like, there's a standard here that's been established. And I think he's learning really quickly that Mike Brown's not playing around. And that's why I think you've seen him, you know, some of those UFOs, as Clyde said, we've seen. But what you haven't seen is a lack of effort the last few games. You've seen him attacking that class and being a force in the middle. So if he can do that, I can live with the UFOs. That's fair. The offensive rebounding rate has been good. I guess the moral of all this is... Take the plastic bucket. That's the moment. Yeah, man. Come on. It's 2026. Yeah, we got to move on from that. Yeah, can't be doing that anymore. Ha, ha, ha, ha. All right. Knicks have Milwaukee on Tuesday. So when you look at that matchup, I know it's not a sexy one. What would make you feel that the progress we've seen over the last couple of games is continuing beyond them just getting another win, which I think most people expect them to do? But what would look like progress for you here against Milwaukee on Tuesday? Yeah, I mean, I... I want to see them have another, you know, resounding dominant win, kind of like they had against Cleveland, like they had against Chicago. Like, again, these games look a lot more like the Knicks team we saw in the playoff run than the team we saw for much of the season. Like, Milwaukee is abysmal. Taylor Jenkins is already having a tough time, like, just coming up with rotations, getting guys to play hard. Like, it has not been a good look over there. And it's a bad spot because you can't really tank anymore, given the new lottery rules. So, Milwaukee's kind of reeling. This is an opportunity for the Knicks to continue to get right. So, I'd love to see them pummel this team. But I'd also want to see, you know, Mikal Bridges finally get out of the shooting slump. I mean, he has been, like, borderline unwatchable for much of the season. And, like, I get it. Long or short summer, I guess, for the Knicks and a lot of celebrating. I would like to see him start to come off the float and join the rest of the team and get right. It's a regular season now. A couple of weeks, I can understand the fact that he still can't get out of his own way. And It's bizarre. Like The one thing about it is at least we've seen a defensive... I thought his defense in Cleveland was really good. know We just kept him on the floor. But. I mean, he's got to start making some shots. what a Like, enough is enough. And, again, he's got to get off the float you're and join his teammates in this title defense. you. I feel like right now he's still at the parade right now. talking Yo, I like that. Get off the float. That's what you need to see. Look, he did hit that big dagger shot, I'll say. about. I was going to say big shot. Dagger shot against Cleveland. I wonder if that's able to get him going as we move forward. All right, last thing for me, EJ, I'm going to give you this. I'm going to give you a sentence with a couple of blanks that I want you to try to fill in or finish here. Okay. I'm more confident in these Knicks now because blank, but I'm not ready to say blank. Finish that sentence for me. I am more confident in these Knicks because Jalen Brunson looks like Jalen Brunson again. And what was the last, what was the second part again? But I'm not ready to say blank. But okay. But I'm not, but I'm not ready to say that this team will keep pace with Philly and Boston for the top of the East right now. Um, I, they're playing really well. It looks like to me, like those teams are playing different seasons. Like the Knicks, I don't think are running, going for the number one seed. I think that they're pacing themselves similar to how they played last year, where it feels to me like Boston and Cleveland, excuse me, Boston and Philly are like. They want that number one seed. They want that home court advantage. I think the Knicks feel like they can beat anybody on the road, so it doesn't matter. I don't love that. I think that's playing with fire. I think you can have a game seven at Madison Square Garden. That's important. I think having a game one at Madison Square Garden was a big reason why they won the Eastern Conference Finals in such easy fashion because they came back in game one at home when Cleveland looked shook in the fourth quarter in overtime. So I wonder how those teams have just gotten quick out the gates Especially Boston and how they attacked the regular season. Will the Knicks be up for that fight in terms of keeping pace, or will they try to do what they've been doing, which is testing out rotations, testing out lineups, and just working on getting better and peaking at the right time? And maybe that's all that matters, but there is some cost to that if that does happen. So that would be the one thing I'd say I'm not ready to say yet. Not that they can't. It's not that they won't. It's just, have I seen enough in this five to six game stretch that, okay, they will be able to keep pace with those teams? No, because I think what we saw last year is that there's going to be peaks and valleys for this season as they continue to tinker, and especially the team now that already has a title, there will be inevitable boredom with this regular season again once they kind of, you know, go through this mini hot streak they're on right now. Yeah, that's why, if you're a fan, I think it'd be nice if they can get a little hotter, put together a longer stretch, because you know there's going to be another valley, and there'll probably be another peak and another valley, because it's the regular season. I would say this to your point. I think that they can still finish the top four seed, and I think if they do, that's fine. I don't think there's anybody in the East that makes me say that they couldn't beat them if they had to go on the road. So I'm not surprised that Boston taking it maybe a little more seriously or Philly to that degree. Philly, I'm going to put a little caveat in that. Let's see how healthy they are while they're going this hard as they move on through the season. So we'll see. The Knicks. Actually pacing themselves might work in their favor, but I hear you. You still don't want to lose that edge and that hunger to try to have home court. You know, you don't want to play with your, play with your family too much. Right. You know, so it's, it's got to be interesting. Yeah. Go ahead. Well, I'll also say, what I'll say too, say too is I also think the only thing I'm not, I'm not ready to say that the Knicks should also just give Coffee Town a blank check. Cause I've seen a little bit of that too, that like based on what we've seen from how well he has played, that they should just pay him whatever. And. To me, that can't be more prisoner of the moment. Like, this is November. This is November. He's playing great. He's playing at an all-NBA level. I totally agree. And I gave him all his praises. He deserves it. He seems like just a different, more mature guy than he's been at any point in his career. But what we're seeing in this first month doesn't negate any of the concerns you would have paying a center who's 35 years old. Close to $60 million a year. Like, to me, like, these are two different conversations. Like, how well he's playing is great. I don't think that's, like, at least it shouldn't. I don't think it means that the Knicks didn't say, okay, you know what, never mind what our stance was. We should just pay him whatever he wants. Now, what is the number he wants still is the question mark that we're going to continue to talk about. Like, I've thought that four years, somewhere between 225 and 240 should be good for both parties. Um, it's unclear whether or not like Cat would take that. So if, if, if he's going to turn this season into a proving year, uh, I don't know if just based on what I've seen yet, uh, just because of the first month, again, he's got to play a whole season, right? That's what I've seen now. So okay you know what, nevermind. Let's just give him, you know, the full max of $260 million and just call it a day. Like, I think if the Knicks, uh, are trying to stay under that second apron, then that's going to be almost impossible giving Cap that kind of money. Yeah. And it's funny. I don't know this. I don't think he, from what we hear, I don't think he wants to full max. I know you weren't saying that. But the point you made, which is, you know, he's in his early 30s now. This is year 11 for him. And you're thinking about what it's going to cost to pay him at 35 and how that fits in with the long-term part of this deal and how this team is just trying to sustainably have more shots to win it. I've been saying this before. The team as you see it, It's not going to be around in the same iteration forever and might break up, sadly to say, sooner rather than later. That's just how it is in the NBA right now. But, yeah, I think it's a good point. I don't know what that point is for you, EJ, where you might end the season, where you might say, oh, I've seen enough of him playing at this level that I'm confident to give, and I'm not going to say the full max, but in the range that you were talking about, 225 to 240, I believe you had said. Yeah. I don't know at what point in the season if it's closer to All-Star break. You still see him playing this level where you're like, can we get something done in that range? I do think that's fair to say, but yeah, we'll see. You got to see more. You can't, look, everything that we've talked about, you can't go crazy over nine games. You just, on either end of the spectrum, like there still is more to see. There's still more you want to see the Knicks build on. There's some good things over the last three games. There's some good stuff over the last six games, We've both been watching basketball all night. I mean, Dex, I always say, Dex, when we do these shows to start a season, whether it's Knicks or any sport, the whole it's early. Like, if you did a drinking game for your listeners, like, they would be passed out in the corner somewhere, maybe on some plastic sofas. Yeah, because, I mean, the phrase, well, it's early, but it's just something you could say almost every sentence, every segment when you're talking about these teams and what's happening with this team so far. But it has been really reassuring that they have, you know, really turned it around because, you know, you start 0-3 and you lose the way they did. You kind of just wonder, OK, like how many of these games are they going to let go before like it does become a concern? And the fact that they've been able to really nip it in the bud pretty quickly. Is a good sign. And also, it feels like they're, again, not even close to their top form. Like, you know, the offense is still slowly coming together. Defense has been good. But you just know Mikal Bridges is eventually going to make shots. And you know Jalen Brunson is eventually going to, you know, continue to be Jalen Brunson. Like, I think sometimes, you know, watching Luka put up, you know, these insane numbers and Wemby put up these, like, you know, historic numbers. And you saw Jalen struggling. Sometimes, for me, it was a little like, man, I want to see, you know, our guy, you know, also have these big nights and you see him struggling and we know he's on that level because we saw what he did in the finals but like the reality is like again he's running a different race the Knicks are running a different race than a lot of these other teams who in many ways are trying to their proving grounds is right now the Knicks proving grounds in April, May and June Perfectly said. Perfectly said. Can't overreact to all this stuff. Everyone, check out my guy, EJ Stewart, on the fan, also hosting the Orange and Blue Buzz podcast. He does a fantastic job there. EJ, you know I always appreciate you coming on New York God Game. Thank you, bro. Oh, man, this is awesome, man. Invite me anytime you want. I'll be here. Time for this week's Dex's Clipboard. The Knicks, they've won three straight. They're back above .500, as we talked about with EJ. But here's something that caught my attention. According to Cleaning the Glass, they're 25th in shooting efficiency and 12th in offense. So, you might be asking yourself, how does that work? Seems like the math ain't math in here. Well, my read on this one is that second chances are helping keep this offensive flow. That shooting measure that accounts for efficiency that we're talking about is effective field goal percentage, which accounts for the extra value of three-pointers. New York, they're at 51.5% and through nine games, Cleaning the Glass has the next second in offensive rebounding rate at 35.7%. They finished seventh last season in that category. As you know, Gives you another chance to score before the other team gets the ball. offensive rebounds And right now, I think that's an important part of their margin for error and how they've been able to overcome give you a lot of time inefficient shooting early this season. So. Let's look at Saturday's win in Cleveland. The Knicks had an effective field goal percentage to think about what of 50%. Cavaliers, they were actually higher at 52.4. Now in that game, New York's offensive you're going to do next. rebounding rate, it was 41.8%. Another important thing for the Knicks was that they also kept their turnover rate to 11.2%. And they finished with an offensive rating of 122.5. That's an efficient This is an offensive night without great shooting, and in my opinion, That's the value of giving yourself another shot and taking care of the chances you already have. Here's another pattern in these nine games. Four times, the Knicks offensive rebounding rate has topped 40%. They won all four of those games. They're one in four in the other games when they haven't topped 40%. Sure, nine games is a small sample size, but that's something worth us tracking as we get deeper into the season, which brings us His individual offensive rebounding rate on missed field goals is 19.4%. That's in the 99th percentile among big men in the NBA. And the Knicks team offensive rebounding rate is 13.3 percentage points higher with him on the floor than him off the floor. Now, that covers just 118 minutes. And those lineup results also depend on who's playing with him and also against him. My takeaway here is that his work on the glass deserves a place in our evaluation of the backup center position as EJ and I were talking about, especially since I believe this is a position that the Knicks would strongly look at when it comes to potentially upgrading this roster at the trade deadline. On another note, Here is the Knicks and what they've been doing. They've been doing the damn thing on defense. They currently rank sixth in defensive efficiency. So when we look at it all, the rebounding and defense are giving them some breathing room while the shooting remains uneven right now. The next question for the Knicks is. What happens when an opponent keeps them off the offensive glass? Can they generate enough quality looks on that first chance because as valuable as second chances are, the Knicks, they would love to need fewer of them. All right, that's going to do it for this week's episode of New York Got Game. Special thanks to the wonderful team here at the New York Post for Editor Antonio Olivares-Nicol, Producer Nick Federico, Associate Producer Jeff Stansbury, and Technical Director Brian Rakowski. I'm Dexter Henry, and we will catch you next time on New York Got Game. And thanks for watching New York Got Game. Boomshakalaka!