Shams Reveals SHOCKING Knicks Update...

Shams Sharania has revealed a shocking New York Knicks update, and this is getting out of hand. As after Karl-Anthony Towns was confirmed to be missing the first game of the Knicks season alongside other Knicks, Shams revealed that things are much worse than meets the eye, with multiple players on the Knicks, now not just looking at missing one game, but things are getting really, really crazy with the Knicks right now with these injuries, and the reports do not stop coming in. And guys, every time new reports come in, we are going to be breaking them all down on this channel, so guys, make sure you are subscribed so you don't miss a single Knicks update if you're part of that 57%. That's not subscribed to Knicks Digest, but with all that being said, let's jump into the video. There is a lot to go over on the Knicks, obviously, because Shams Sharania recently revealed that Karl-Anthony Towns is now doubtfully playing in the first game of the Knicks season against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Now, here's the thing. The Knicks, don't get me wrong, it's not surprising to see injuries happen. It's really not, and Shams did say that if Karl-Anthony Towns can play, he's going to do everything in his power to try to get out there and try to play this season, or play this game. But look, right now he is dealing with an injury to his quad. He's dealing with a quad strain, and quad strains are difficult because they are very suspectable to re-injury, which is the last thing that the Knicks want to happen right now. With that in mind, the Knicks are trying to navigate a situation where they can figure out how to not deal with Karl-Anthony Towns dealing with an injury that's going to be longer-term than initial. That's why the Knicks are trying to keep Towns out of this game. It's not because he can't play. If it were the playoffs, Karl-Anthony Towns would be playing, but it's not. It's the first game of the year, and the Knicks are clearly being very careful with all this injury stuff, as I've talked about before. I mentioned the same thing because there were reports that were similar about Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hart, saying that if this was the playoffs, these guys would be playing right now. Josh Hart is dealing with some back spasms right now after falling on his back, and he's just trying to get to full health because the Knicks don't want Josh Hart playing on lower back pain. Meanwhile, Mitchell Robinson is dealing with some ankle soreness that has led to the Knicks being very worried, considering it is Robinson's left ankle. The same one that he has had multiple surgeries on because of stress reactions, and because of that, there is a lot of fear about the Knicks trying to push these guys too hard, and all of a sudden, they're dealing with injuries, and then before you know it, the Knicks are dealing with long-term injuries, which is what they're trying to avoid here. Here's the thing with the Knicks. Casey Smith is one of the best injury managers in basketball that they have on their staff when it comes to injuries, so that's what's happening here. The Knicks are doing everything in their power to keep these guys as healthy as possible, but Shams revealed a new update recently. As he said, the Knicks are so injured, they're dealing with injuries right now, as he tried to correct himself after saying the Knicks are so injured, saying, they're banged up already. Mitchell Robinson is out tonight, Josh Hart is out tonight, you have your starting center and your sixth man to start the year. Even Kat, he's been playing through a ton of pain these last few years, and those two guys, Mitch and Josh Hart, I think there is a very real chance, they miss real time to start the year. So now it's not just these guys are missing today, these guys are now going to be missing significant time this season, and based off that, it does make it feel like they're not playing in October, they're probably not playing in the beginning of November. What now we're looking at is a situation where we should be expecting Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hart to not be suiting up for the first week, to two, to three, to even four weeks of the season. That's really what this feels like looking at right now, where the Knicks are just not going to be playing their guys at all right now because they're not healthy. The Knicks, look, now that Tom Thibodeau is out, we know that Mike Brown and the Knicks are having a ton of collaboration between the front office, like Leon Rose and all them, and Mike Brown. Clearly, the Knicks do not want to overwork their guys whatsoever, and if anything, they're just going to try to rest them as much as humanly possible so they can be healthy for the 2026 NBA playoffs. That makes sense right now, the Knicks are planning this out from literally the first game of the season through the 82nd game of the season, and as you hear players mention all the time on podcasts and stuff, not every game you're going to really go in and give your all, because you just can't. You're going to burn out, you're going to be injured, you're going to deal with this, that, or the other thing, and we saw that with Tibbs. If Tibbs were there, we'd likely be seeing Karl-Anthony Towns play tonight. So, maybe not Mitchell Robinson, maybe Mitchell Robinson, definitely not Josh Hart if he's dealing with a lower back injury because lower back stuff is very, very dangerous, so you just want to make sure that he's completely fine because lower back stuff can certainly linger. So, with that in mind, that's the reason why Karl-Anthony Towns is doubtful. Because this is a new team, and Mike Brown even said, I'm not focused on a ton of regular season wins. The Knicks are focused on winning the championship, and with that, they're going to be resting their guys a lot more. But it definitely is a cause for concern when we keep seeing all this stuff go down. I mean, Karl-Anthony Towns is out, Josh Hart, who last year put up 13.6 points per game, 9.6 rebounds, and 6 assists this game, did all the dirty work for the Knicks. He played 37.6 minutes per game, the most of any player in the NBA, and second was Mikael Bridges, who was right behind him as well. So, when we consider that, we have to understand, the Knicks are just trying to be careful with their guys because of the mileage that they've accumulated over the past couple of seasons, and because of how deep they were in the playoffs, they had a shorter offseason. So, with that in mind, as we know from Ian Begley, the Knicks downgraded Karl-Anthony Towns to doubtful on the most recent injury update. No Mitchell Robinson or Josh Hart, and for what it's worth, the Knicks had been looking at a lineup with Gershon Yabusele alongside Towns in practices leading up to the opener, with them knowing that Mitchell Robinson was not going to play. Now, Towns, he's not going to play tonight, and he put up 24.5 points per game last year, 13 rebounds and 3 assists, shooting 42% from three and 52% from the field. Towns is an absolute NBA star when he's healthy, and the Knicks do not want him to push it on a quad because quads are very suspectable to re-injury. And the last thing the Knicks want is for Karl-Anthony Towns' quad injury to, at any point this year, get out of hand. We saw him play through the hand injury last season, and the Knicks just don't want to play their guys through injury. That's clearly what it is. Even if it's a minor injury, they don't want to play their guys through. Now, they've got their bench a lot deeper, and now is where it comes in handy, because Yabusele is looking at a starting role tonight, likely next to Ariel Huckporty, who we'll talk about in one second. Yabusele, last season with the 76ers, put up 11 points per game, 5.6 rebounds and 2 assists, getting a steal per game, shooting 50% from the field and 38% from three. He'll be their power forward tonight. I don't love the matchup between him and Evan Mobley at all, so there is that to consider. Right now, the Knicks do find themselves in a very, very, very difficult situation to navigate. Ariel Huckporty did play in four preseason games for the Knicks, and looked solid, don't get me wrong. I mean, the man put up 4.5 points per game, pulled down 4.5 rebounds as well, nearly 5 rebounds a night. So, he had some solid numbers, got a couple assists as well, specifically against the Hornets, got down 2 assists. So, Huckporty is someone who we can trust, definitely a player who I do want to see get actual minutes. So, seeing Huckporty start in a way is very exciting, because we do get to see what we know about Huckporty, about our bench. Now is where the Knicks bench gets tested. Can they really go in and hang when starters are out? I mean, Jalen Brunson's there, McHale's there, OG Onanobi's there, Jordan Clarkson's going to hang around. I mean, you got Deuce, obviously. But this Knicks bench just got a lot thinner. It wouldn't be surprising at all to see Pacom Dottier get some serious minutes tonight, because they'll need another forward or another wing, really. Just in a general sense, I mean... So, when it comes down to it, the Knicks are going to be digging into their bench. I do expect Trey Jemison to likely find himself getting some minutes as well, because he played really well in the preseason on that two-way contract. Tosun Awoma could find minutes. The Knicks should be digging right into two-way contracts in this game. That's really what we're looking at right now with all the injuries to this team. And it is concerning, but at the same time, look, I'd rather the Knicks rest their guys when they're dealing with minor injuries, than play their guys on minor injuries that could turn into more severe injuries down the line. That's truly just the right way to go about things. It's just frustrating right now, because looking at everything, it does become very nerve-wracking. Jonathan Macri is convinced that Mitchell Robinson has re-injured his ankle on a more serious note, because he started the preseason and played 18 minutes in the first preseason half, and no less, and then played again in the very next game, left in the middle of the third game when all their starters kept playing, missed practice for two weeks, and now missing opening night. As Macri said, the Knicks can dance around it all they want. An often-injured player got hurt. Whether it's a minor or a major injury, something happened, and something did happen. He's clearly dealing with ankle pain, and the Knicks don't want him playing through ankle pain because of the stress fractures in the past. Now, on top of this, we also know that Karl-Anthony Towns recently was asked about his potential role in the Knicks' new offense under Mike Brown. He said, honestly, I don't know, but we're figuring it out. So, after Towns also gave a very not-good answer that you don't like to see about Mike Brown's offense, now we don't see him playing tonight. This is why Knicks fans are concerned, and there is a bit of a right to be concerned here. I mean, but we also should listen to what CP the Fanchise said, because the man knows what's going on inside the Knicks, and he said, The Knicks plan to be extremely careful with both Robinson and Josh Hart. They want to make sure both are 100% comfortable to give it a go. If 6 or higher, they'd most likely play, but the Knicks are being cautious. It's a good chance Huckporty gets the nod at the starting 5, which is very true. He is going to be getting that nod at the starting 5. And as Ian Begley also said, The Knicks will monitor Mitchell Robinson's health all year, and probably keep him out of games when he's healthy, with hope of having him being ready for the playoffs. Robinson is already out tomorrow, which is now today, with the left ankle injury management, and Josh Hart with back spasms is not yet cleared for contact. Again, I truly believe Mitchell Robinson could easily play. This injury management is managing the soreness that comes with getting multiple surgeries on the ankle. That's what this is. The Knicks don't want it to progress to any swelling or anything like that. And maybe there is swelling and stuff like that, and they just don't want it to progress any further. In that case, keep Mitch out. At the end of the day, if the Knicks are in the playoffs dominating, the Knicks are expected to make the Finals. They have the 4th best odds to win the NBA Finals this year. So look, if they end up do making the Finals and eventually winning the NBA Finals, if they do that, none of us are going to care that they missed the first couple games of the season. Can you guys remember all the games that Jalen Brunson was ruled out in the regular season over the past couple of years and thought, well, this is a serious issue? Guess what? At the end of the day, the Knicks were able to be just fine. We do forget about this stuff. It's a long season. All of a sudden, believe it or not, it'll be December, it'll be Christmas, and then we'll be thinking about how the Knicks, hopefully, what will be happening. Hey, remember when they were dealing with those injuries in the start of the year and we were concerned? Yeah, that was funny. Then maybe also, who knows? On the other side of things, injuries happen and maybe the Knicks season gets derailed and then I'm probably just going to absolutely take like a pillow and scream into it for a while on camera and we'll see what happens there, guys. What do you think is going to happen with this? Are you concerned about all these injuries? What do you think the cause is? Do you think they're just being careful or something more nefarious going on behind the scenes? Let me know in the comments down below. Like this video, subscribe, turn on post notifications. I told you we're going to be hammering out videos nowadays, guys. Have a great day. Go Knicks. Also, we're going to start doing Game Watch along, so make sure to tune in for that as well. We'll see you guys later.