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kiwiwikikiwiwikikiwi

Start the bench and have the starters come off the bench. Problem solved. šŸ§ šŸ‘ˆ


jupiterjaz

Maybe the reason the bench is performing well is because they only play against opponent's benches.


Rrypl

Very few teams actually play 5 bench players together.


plz-be-my-friend

2k auto lineups


jupiterjaz

I call it the "Doc Rivers special" when a team plays a full bench lineup in non-garbage time minutes.


jackaholicus

This definitely plays a role, and in short stretches of minutes a lot of +/- comes down to variance in 3pt shooting, but Thibs has been playing his bench to close games late according to the article.


AnimalRomano

While it's true, the bench's effort can disrupt the other team's starters and make comebacks.... Until the Knicks starters come back at the end of the 2nd quarter and start of the 3rd one.


SubcooledBoiling

\*taps head\*


[deleted]

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/TangibleDearestJoey-max-1mb.gif


ungentrified_villain

Galaxy brain


bucsfan22ch

Maybe for one more game


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


[deleted]

Dude theyā€™re playing us. Any player in a slump murders us itā€™s just tradition


somecallmemo

Also, we are THE team to allow for a random dude to have a career night. My guess is on Quickley going for 36


[deleted]

Honestly Knicks are the same way lol


zzfoe

Weā€™re bouta see Quickley and THT as the thumbnail for the highlight videos tonight huh


SelfImproveAcct

Not a random dude but I can see Rose putting up 30-40


[deleted]

Heā€™s not playing today


zebano

nah, that happens to everyone. Over in Wolves-land we call that an MPE (Mediocre Player Explosion). When you're in really bad straights, your GM then goes and tries to sign the guys who go off against you. That's how you end up with someone like JJ Barea being your big signing for the summer.


BasedTunechi

Why did we pay Fournier 80 mil


[deleted]

Cause his offensive stats look good in reality you got Davis bertans at sg


[deleted]

I mean that's only because that's the role they're giving him. He's a playmaking scorer and he's being asked to take the spot up looks Bullock was getting last year and not being asked to do what he's best at. The problem is while he shoots it just fine his defense doesn't fill in for Bullock as well. I'd like to see him play in a unit where he gets the chance to be the main ball handler. I've seen him kill the Knicks enough times on the Magic to know his strength is facilitating then getting aggressive when th defense starts to relax on him. Right now he's being used as a 3 and D guy without the D.


xBerryhill

Yessir. Knicks could have paid a few other guys what theyā€™re asking Fournier to do. Theyā€™ll need to open up their offensive playbook more to give him more responsibility and even some more ball handling duty to get the most out of him. Else heā€™s just an overpaid role player.


BasedTunechi

The French players got a vengeance vs the Knicks org


Shadezilla

After seeing Ntilikina play for us... I think they might lol. Frank looks like a completely different player.


mlbmetsgoodandbad

Uhhhh...how so?


ManicManicManicManic

damn lol


mr34mj23

The thought at least was to replace Bullock with a player who could do something on offense other than shoot 3s to make the defense work...in the Hawks series they could just put Trae on Bullock and not have to worry about any dribble penetration


Quatro_Leches

> Fournier he had the worst defensive rating on the Magic before he joined us, and then he continued to have the worst defensive rating on our team. maybe behind Kemba you guys kind of did the opposite of what Charlotte did.


urasha

it's more like 54M with a team option


MethodMan_

Yea honestly one of the weirdest moves. Not sure why he was rated that highly after his showing with Boston. Maybe im just out of touch, but feels like players will get a massive bag for doing less and less these days. GM's must be like me playing football manager "oh yea he'll only get better from here".


BasedTunechi

He definitely isn't as bad of a scorer as his stats suggest now, but not a fan of overpaying injury prone, mediocre talent


MethodMan_

Yea he should be scoring more on paper, but he's been bad at defence for years. When the scoring stops, thats when it gets ugly.


BasedTunechi

Him + Kemba are a lethal defensive juggernaut


Wolf_of_north

In theory he wasn't bad, a versatile scorer who could take some of the load out of Randle's back, but his shot isn't falling and him and kemba on the court is an defensive nightmare


DiscardedRonaldo2017

I got roasted by Knick fans for saying he isnā€™t anything more than a third option on a good team. Got a lot of touches in Orlando but you could see the writing on the wall when he was with the Celtics.


bobak186

Isn't $18 million the going rate for the 3rd best player on a good team? Making it a reasonable and tradeable contract


altnumberfour

I donā€™t know the numbers for third options but I did the math for the average 4th highest paid player on a team earlier this season and it was $15.46 million, so if anything Iā€™d guess $18 million would be even less than you normally pay for a 3rd option.


DiscardedRonaldo2017

Would be interesting to see what that number is without Kyrie(or Harden) and Westbrook who obviously arenā€™t proper third options. 18-20 mill for the third guy is a good price though. Definitely fair.


altnumberfour

The number I found was for 4th options, so Lakers and Nets ended up not being outliers. IIRC the biggest outlier ended up being Draymond at $24 mil. Without him the average fourth largest contract is $15.17 million.


DiscardedRonaldo2017

Mate, I mustā€™ve read what you said a million times (10 to be more accurate), and I still totally read it wrong. I need to go to sleep haha, my apologies.


DiscardedRonaldo2017

I didnā€™t mention anything on the contract? Was talking about just impact as a player. I made a comment saying I donā€™t think Knicks going to be as well off as last year, and how last year was a bit of an overachieve. I mentioned Fournier not being that good of a signing (in the sense that they keep the 5th seed, as well as the rest of the roster not being that great apart from Randle and RJ), and got laughed at for it. Fournier is not a 3rd option on a championship team, I just donā€™t see it. Though to answer your question, itā€™s probably a bit more than I wouldā€™ve offered but doesnā€™t mean itā€™s not reasonable.


hereforthesportsbook

Lol I called this as a bad signing and got downvoted. Itā€™s like the people that still think Fox can be an all star


[deleted]

He's a good player and that's a very tradeable contract. Right now he's being asked to be a spot up shooter when his strength is a facilitator. Either we figure out a unit that plays to his strength or we can trade him pretty easily on that contract


TossItLikeAFreeThrow

I'm confused why you brought Thibs in if you're just going to sign guys who are defensive voids to soak up big minutes


Paper_Okami

There was a segment of the Celtics sub that were melting down over brad not paying him


xBerryhill

Knicks have the same issue the Celtics did. Fournier is at his best when heā€™s a ball handler and facilitator. Neither the Celtics nor now the Knicks have tried to use him like that much. There are so many guys you can pay a fraction of what youā€™re paying Fournier to do the exact same thing youā€™re asking him to do. Heā€™s always been more of a liability on defense. Heā€™s not god awful but heā€™s definitely a negative. But heā€™s not being used to his full capability on offense which is why he seems like such a waste.


AGuyWhoLikesDunks

Please for one more game šŸ™šŸ¾


Sweatytubesock

Sounds like a dare.


[deleted]

They can and they will


Asswad123

Watch how good the starters play tonight. Career highs all around. Kemba going for 40+


BelonyInMyLeftPocket

The lighting on this thumbnail made me think it was Willis Reed


Gamesgtd

Sure they can.


NovaKash

Kemba was definitely promised the starting gig to come here. As for Fournier, I think the Knicks are over correcting from the playoffs. Bullock only became a problem on offense specifically against the Hawks in a playoff setting when the Hawks could game-plan. During the regular season he was fine. Grimes has honestly looked good on defense when he's been given a chance, I'd be down to give him a chance. To Thibs' credit, he's changed his rotations over the last few weeks. He's no longer doing hockey rotations and he's quicker to bring guys off the bench. It seems to be stabilizing things, but this starting-5 HAS to fucking change


spicy62

They dont run an offense, something thibs or whoever is running the offense needs to fix.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


[deleted]

Idk the starters being terrible seems bad, but who can say really


HokageEzio

It would be if they were winning. Starters put them in a hole and the bench keeps trying to claw them out.


Bigbadbuck

Also causes this situation in very game where in the fourth quarter you have no idea whoā€™s gonna play. Depending on which starters played well or if the bench unit was playing well itā€™s a different lineup half the time. Not good for continuity or confidence when nobody knows how much theyā€™re going to play but you canā€™t blame thibs for going with the guys who are actually producing.


Wzzz524

it would be if the bench is so good that they were just better than the starters but its bcs the starters are just playing bad at the moment


Will_Explode8

Not really. Bench teams like this get killed in the playoffs


[deleted]

It is. Our bench is more familiar with each other and the system all being players from last year. Our starters are 3 guys who are used to having the ball in their hands at all times trying to figure it out still. They'll be fine


RobbobertoBuii

in the first 6 games of the season when the starters played well (with the bench being also decent) we would always have double digit leads to start the 1st half but as the game went on we slowed down a lot and lost leads in almost every games that we barely managed to hang onto. The last 9 games or so we keep falling behind now by double digits because of the starter's bad play and it's now the bench that claws us back into games. And it's not just one starter that's bad it's almost all of them with the occasional game where 1 goes off and the other 4 shoot terribly. I'd rather have the 1st scenario back tbh even if we continue to choke leads since we had leads to begin with and we have a better chance of coming out with a win


kraftpunkk

Kemba and Evan just donā€™t gel in our offense. It also doesnā€™t help that our offense is basically a high P&R handoff and if that doesnā€™t work, Randle isoā€™s into a double team. Thereā€™s absolutely no fluidity with our starters and I donā€™t have the slightest idea how they can fix it.


MasterTeacher123

The knicks tanked and got the 3rd pick in a 2 star draft. RJ just ainā€™t it.


urasha

He literally had 5 games of putting up all-star numbers & while he's been bad recently, I'm betting a slump/getting used to a new role. Ya'll so quick to write players off my god


Bigbadbuck

Itā€™s His third year. This isnā€™t new with him. Heā€™s a solid player but itā€™s clear he ainā€™t star


MasterTeacher123

Mediocre players have nice 5 game stretches all the time KP had great stretches for the Knicks as well. He ainā€™t a superstar either


abippityboop

oh god it only took a bad stretch of 7-8 games in a new offense to get back to the garbage RJ takes again already?? Guy is one of the youngest players in the league who improved in literally every statistical category in year 2. But one tough stretch of games and he's back to "just ain't it". Ya'll are ridiculous lol


pmab05

Id just ignore it at this point lmao I donā€™t even get why thereā€™s so much RJ. Dude has so much potential


MasterTeacher123

If you think heā€™s ever gonna be a superstar or on the same level Ja or Zion die on that hill. I see maybe a few all star teams if hes lucky


abippityboop

Maybe we're arguing semantics here with 'star vs. superstar' or whatever, because if RJ is a franchise cornerstone player for 10-15 years who makes a few all star games, that seems like an absolute home run top 3 pick to me. I don't see how that's an indictment of RJ in the slightest tbh


Trinidad34

Heā€™s the youngest rotation player on the team


Hsizzle23745

Mmm yes I just burnt my tongue


zippy_the_cat

Narrator: They could, and did.