Transcript
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So that means a half day. Yeah. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required new customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow. 135 gigabytes of networks busy. Taxes and fees extra. See mintmobile.com this is the Don Hahn and Rosenberg podcast. That sounds like heaven to me. Listen live weekday afternoon starting at 3 on 8 80, ESPN, the ESPN New York app and your smart speakers, Han Solo. Oh, I like it. I feel comfortable. I feel at home. I mean, it is dark out. It is evening. This is where it all began. Anthony remembers the evenings after the K show with Han Solo. So we got that taking you up till 7 o', clock, leading you into Dan Grasse, who then leads you into some Rangers coverage. Rangers and the Golden Knights tonight, 800-919-3776. The number. So we'll like, like, let's talk some basketball because people tell me all the time that it's like, you got to talk more Knicks. You got to talk more Knicks. I'm like, all right, well, here's your opportunity because I'm in full control of the show. So we were just discussing, actually, before we get to the NBA stuff, I did ask this question and we all can rely on Kofi when we have a question that needs to be answered. He's our Google, he's our Siri, he's our Alexa. And so Pusick, if you want to know, with Grisham signing the QO with the Yankees, he cannot be traded until June 15th. So that's, he's, he's at least here for half a season. And so, you know, like that's locked in. That's your center fielder. Yeah, there you go. And again, if you're, if you're Dominguez, you're really starting to wonder, where am I going to play next year? And the Yankees might say that, oh, no, we're still committed to him. We want to committed to his development. Maybe they don't want to rush him because he's young. But you get to a point where you're like, I don't want to be here because there's a, there's this now there's a glass ceiling in my way. Especially if Bellinger is part of the future as well. Uh, but. But onto the Knicks because they lose last night. 115, 113 in Miami. It's a home and home. Guys, you remember the Friday night game was the 1:40 to 1:32, I believe, was the final score. That game, Friday night was on Amazon prime was a crazy game. They lost Anunobi early in that game. They didn't have Brunson, obviously. Towns was insane. Like he just had himself a night. And then in the second half, the bench went crazy, especially with Landry Shamon. So Eric Spoelstra has two days now to prepare for all the things that you like to do. The corner threes, the offensive rebounding, physicality. And his team was ready. It's hard to sweep a home and home series in the NBA. It's difficult. And so that game was a grinder to the end. And the Knicks still had a chance to at least tie on the final possession to force overtime, and they just couldn't do it. And it was. You missed Brunson in that situation, clearly. And that's not. That's Captain Obvious stuff. I get it. Saying you missed a clutch player of the year in a Last minute, last 20 seconds possession is obvious. But they didn't get a good possession there. And you know, McBride had a nice game, but Deuce McBride ends up taking a shot at first. The first shot he took was a weird kind of runner with plenty of time left. But they get the rebound and then they have a stoppage. They do a jump ball and then Deuce gets the ball. They win the jump ball, which was huge. So now the shot at it and Deuce drives again and throws up a bit of a crazy shot, misses. And Towns gets it again. And this time his shot, which was like little Dirk Fadeaway rattles out. So it's, what are you going to do in that situation? They didn't make threes in the game. They only made nine. They only took 36. They're not going to shoot 25% from three all the season. They're a good three point shooting team. They're not going to have that struggle. That was a big part of it. That was a good game. It was a. It was a loss, which is frustrating, but it wasn't like they played bad and they were without two of their key players. Towns didn't have a great game. He has really struggled with his shooting for the most part this season, which is surprising. But what are they right now? Is the question. It's still too early to make any kind of declarations, we got to get to 20 games. So before you make any declarations, you want to get the 20 you got. What are we, 13 in? So there's still a few more games before we can really say, okay, what does it look like after 20. But this was a team that went into the season that had some championship caliber aspirations. They were a team that, you know, odds, odds on favorites, top three to win the NBA championship. It was Oklahoma City as a repeat. It was Denver Nuggets and then it was the Knicks and the Cavs tied for third. Now the Rockets are making the case. They look good. Denver looks really good. The Thunder, they don't lose. And this Pistons, the guys, this Pistons team that the Knicks played last year in the first round, I'm telling you, I'm watching them and it's like I'm a little worried. Like early on they, they look like that team. Every year there's a team that you didn't see it coming. They look like that team. I don't know how much they can, they can keep it going. They have played a favorable schedule, but the Knicks have also played a favorable schedule. They played a ton of games at home. They haven't won a road game yet. They're owing four in the road. So I have two concerns and neither one of our injuries. My concern for the Knicks is about their ability to defend. I want to see can they. That's an area because their offense looks great, but defensively, man, they struggle to stop drives. They struggle to get out and close out on threes, which has been a story that, that's before Mike Brown, that was a Tibbs issue. They couldn't close out threes then either. And teams shoot a high percentage. I think they're like 29th in the league in three point defense. And in today's NBA, the way, the way teams are shooting threes, you can't afford that. So I'm worried on the defensive end. Are they good enough defensively? Even with Mitchell Robinson, even with Og Anunoby, even with a guy like Mikhail Bridges who's getting like seven steals in a game, it's everywhere else. Teams are exploiting them and they're getting threes up. Even bad teams get threes up on them. And if you want to be a champion team, you got to play championship defense. They are not playing championship defense right now. So while I am very optimistic about this team this year, this is, this should, once they get healthy again, but this should be one of those years where it's like this is as good a Nick team as we've seen a long time when it comes to offense and the way they're scoring. But this year is going to be measured on can they get to the finals, can they play for a championship? And I'm watching them and I'm saying that, you know, they're still missing some things. I'm looking at other teams that are way more complete. We know the Thunder are complete. I need to know that they have all the pieces that you need. And I don't know if they have another ball handler off the bench that you can trust with the ball in their hands late in the game. And if Brunson's not available, I don't know if they have that. They might need to go get that because they thought it was going to be Malcolm Brogdon. He's not there. Then when Yabushelli was signed, everybody was excited about his addition because he's kind of an energy guy, he's a good guy off the bench, he's physical guy, he can shoot a three. But man, when he's out there, he looks kind of short. And I don't think that they have enough length at times. You need more size. So if, if I had my wish before the February trade deadline or when they get, when you get to the point of the season when some guys get veterans, get bought out, and then they can sign with another team. I need to find one of those. I need to find a bouncy big man off the bench who's got, you know, again, seven foot, seven footer with a big wingspan. Like I need that. And then I need a veteran ball hand or somebody who's steady, who can handle the basketball under pressure, who can make good decisions. Everybody wants these guys. But when you're the Knicks, these feel like final pieces to the puzzle type moves that gonna have to be done before the end of the season. I feel like if you really want to close the deal, but that's, that's what I see. Otherwise, it's a fun offense. Friday night was a fun game. They've got guys who can contribute on a given night and the same guy might have a bad night the next night. Like we saw Shemon, that's okay. Some games you just need one guy that's going to step up and give you a game when you're, when you don't have a full lineup. But this is, this is a road trip that I told you about that started in Miami. That's a tough team. Goes to Dallas, team That's really struggling. They just fired their gm. Everybody's hurt. No Kyrie, no ad. Then it goes to Orlando, a team that came into the Garden and they beat the crap out of you physically. And they're a physical, nasty team, but they do struggle as well. They had a good game on a. It was a second game back to back for the Knicks, but they had a good game. You got to be ready to play them. You're going to have two days off in Orlando to prepare for that game. It's a Saturday afternoon, five o' clock start. And then you go to Brooklyn and Brooklyn's not trying to win. And then you play the last road game the night before Thanksgiving against Charlotte. And Charlotte's, you know, like again, they don't have a good record, but they're a pain in the ass team. And at the end of a road trip right before Thanksgiving, you might want to make sure you're locked in. How long do you go without Jalen Brunson? He's in a day to day situation. He's somebody that you got lucky that it's grade one ankle sprain and that they're going to evaluate him. They said daily he was on the court warming up, taking shots, really not really putting a hard warmup in on the court in Miami. That's a good sign. Now, he wasn't running around, he wasn't doing a lot of things. He was being very careful, very static with his movements. But that's better than a walking boot or not even on the road trip. Right. So generally a grade one takes about a week to two weeks to get a full recovery. Now he's also a little different. You know, he's got that Vulcan blood. So he could be sooner, but I don't know. So a week is tomorrow's game. Would he be back for tomorrow's game ever? It's Dallas. It's where he started his career. Might be mean something to him personally, but if you're being smart and don't want to rush it and want to be sure you can get a whole like week and a half in full 10 days if you wait till Saturday and you play the team where you got hurt again. So scene of the crime, Orlando Magic Eastern Conference game. That's a little more important. So I'm curious to see what day it might be. But I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't see him until next week either because it's a different regime now. He'll want to play as soon as he can, but they might Say, listen, it's November. That's the same ankle you heard at the end of last season. Let's not get to 80%. Let's get to 100% before you put the sneakers back on. Get out there and do your thing. So this message is sponsored by BetterHelp. Shorter days don't have to be so dismal. It's time to reach out and check in with those you care about and to remind ourselves that we're not alone this month. Don't wait to reach out. Whether you're checking in on a friend or reaching out to a therapist yourself, BetterHelp makes it easier to take that first step. Our listeners get 10% off their first month. Just call pound 250 and say the keyword timeout. That's keyword timeout after calling pound 2, 5 0.