Kustok and Begley
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And now, The Low Post. Welcome to The Low Post podcast live from an undisclosed location in Los Angeles, California, where all my life, all my life is an East Coast resident. All my life, 20 years living in the greatest city in the world, New York City, New York. Now I'm a loser suburban dad, so I don't live there anymore, but I live close. And all my life, my dream,

was to live and work in an NBA world where both the Knicks and the Nets were good. Competent would have been fine for a long time. Great seemed too far off of a dream. Too far off. Good. And oh my God, after so much drama, after me learning about a lot of historical stuff that I didn't really want or need to learn about,

are we there i it can't be happening this can't be happening sarah kustak from the yes network wearing a hat that for anyone else in this world will get you banned right the hell off this podcast oh zach i'm sorry in my enthusiasm and excitement for all that's happening in new york i don't own a mets hats because i obviously work for the yankees entertainment and sports network but i find this certainly was not a a slight at you

And how honored I am to be on the low post. As I tell all the, now I'm friends. I'm friends with children now because my daughter has children friends and some of them have older sibling friends. And I've watched now the process of these children picking their baseball teams. Some pick their parents' baseball teams. Some pick the Yankees. Some pick the Mets. I tell them all, look, you should be proud of your own choices. You should own your own choices. You should just know that you can choose good football.

or you can choose evil. And you, young Yankee fan, have chosen evil. So just get used to it. Sarah Kustak, how are you? It's so nice to see you and your plants in the background. They're looking really good, the plants. I don't have plants. I just purchased them today because you told me we're on YouTube now. So we're on YouTube.

So as you know, in previous low post appearances, my background didn't look like this. This is just for you, Z. Just for you. You should have. In a joke that you will not get, you should have gotten two ferns and sat between two ferns. Google that later and you will find something. Sarah Kustak, the Brooklyn Nets are 11-2 in their last 13 games.

They've won six games in a row. They are fourth in the East. That's not a ranking, like offensive rating, defensive rating. They're just fourth. They're fourth in the East. They are, for the season, seventh in offense, 16th in defense, and tied exactly, what a bit of serendipity, with the New York Knicks with a plus 1.8 per 100 possessions net rating. And I think the headline is, over their last 11-2 stretch, they're 13th in defense overall.

He's 20th in defensive rebounding, which doesn't sound like much, but when you're coming from below last, that's a big, big deal. They're getting healthy. Ben Simmons is not quite Ben Simmons-y as he was a few weeks ago when he was rolling and then had to sit out with...

With knee issues, but he's back. Joe Harris is back. Seth Curry's back. Patty Mills will be back soon. TJ Warren's back. Utah want Dhanabi. People are going to laugh that I bring him up this early in the podcast. Missed nine games. He's a big deal. You know what? Utah's shooting on corner three. Syracuse, I bet you do.

I don't, but it's got to be over 60%. 71%. Oh, look at that. You have all the numbers for me. I just know that it's... I had a cross-country flight today with all else to do, and I'm punchy because we sat on the tarmac for a long time, so I'm going to swear. Say that again, though. Over 70%. 71%. And look, I wrote a 10 things item on Utah today.

Years ago when he was in Toronto about his closeouts, his technique closing out to shooters on defense. And there was some snickering on the internet, I remember, from Raptors fans who loved Watanabe, but were like, whoa, that's a deep cut. Like Zach is highlighting...

Utah's closeouts. And I remember saying like, this dude is a jump shot away from being a good NBA rotation player. Cause he does everything else pretty damn well. Now he's a good NBA rotation player. Sarah Kustak, the schedule has been easy. This was clearly Brooklyn's time to, to get fat. Okay. Toronto without Van Vliet and Siakam, Portland without Lillard, Orlando without any functional guards, the Hornets without Lomelo ball, Atlanta without Murray and Collins, but Ben Simmons missed a bunch of games. All those other guys, uh,

Next four games, Warriors, Bucks, Cavs, Hawks. Please just tell me, please, that it's not all going to come crashing down. Please tell me that the vibes are good. Everything's good. It's going to stay good. No one's going to tweet. The Instagram accounts have been disabled. Can we just move on and be a basketball team? Z, I can't see into the future, but I can tell you vibes are high.

And I obviously am around the team, call the games. I think oftentimes when I have a positive outlook on things, it's on the basis of, well, of course you're going to feel that way. These guys are having fun. They're playing for each other. You went through, you hit a lot of the highlights when you talked about the differences in how they're playing defensively.

That starts with a level of communication, a buy-in, an engagement. The rebounding factor has been huge in their improvement. Again, do the numbers look great? No, but that jump has made a major difference. And that's been a collective effort of this group.

Jack Thong, I cannot say enough great things about you. I want to talk about someone who brings that juice and guys drink the Kool-Aid because he not only has a infectious energy, he has a organized game plan.

The entire coaching staff, but it starts with JV, his in-game adjustments, how locked in he is, how locked in he is with the communication with all players. But you watch him and Kevin, you watch him and Kyrie. It is something that has been fun to see. And add in the fact that Kevin Durant is playing at an MVP level.

Him and Kyrie Irving are both, they got a one-two punch of those two playing at the same time together, same games, which I think we hadn't always seen when they were on the floor together. KD, 30 points, six and a half rebounds, five and a half assists.

56.5% from the floor. It shocks me when he misses. It shocks me when he misses. That's a joke. To shoot 57% on these kind of shots? We don't... That's the... I could go on forever about this, and I won't because I know we have a lot to get to.

The efficiency of which he's shooting when he is seeing double teams, different coverages, what he is doing in terms of making shots, that he's got guys draped on him. And also it's the facilitation. You talked about Utah, and Utah's a guy who kind of jokes. He's like, well, of course I'm getting wide open looks because look at who I'm playing around. But the balance of guys not forcing things, the less –

We talk so much with both Kevin and Kyrie because they can do it, but about the isolation basketball, it has been so much less of that. It's been quickness of decision-making. It's been getting everyone involved, the touches, the energy the ball feels. So to answer your original question, yeah, are these teams that they maybe could, should have beaten a nice little stretch in the schedule, but you're still playing the teams that are in front of you. And it's less about to me in watching them

It's less about the record. It's less about the wins. It's more about how they're doing it, the style of play they've figured out and identity. And that's where I think there's carryover. Well, the rebounding stuff, I mean, you just watch the games and you see it. They've committed to gang rebounding. Everyone is crashing back. They've sacrificed fast-breaking players.

For gang rebounding, and it's working for them. Durant, by the way, 63% on twos. That's a joke. Those are mid-range looks. His numbers are things that you would think is a center kitchen lob's.

His defense, he's all the way bought in on defense. Deflections, shot blocks. Last night, we're recording this Monday afternoon. Last night, they played the Pistons. Marvin Bagley tried to post him up, and I started laughing on dribble number one. Like, Marvin Bagley, man, what do you think is going to happen here? It's not going to be good for you. And KG just stripped him, and off they went the other way. Offensively, you mentioned the two stars, and...

That's just I mean, this is a jump shooting machine. That's how this team is built. They don't get to the line They turn the ball over quite a bit. They don't get offensive rebounds. Their shot distribution is heavy on mid-range shots they just have makers they have makers and They have makers in those two guys who don't need like pristine spacing they don't need everything around them to be perfect and

to make shots like that. And I think one of the things that's been interesting about Jacques Fon's tenure is he's gone back to, we have to see what we have with Simmons and Claxton on the floor together. We have to. Because Claxton is playing at a borderline all-defense level. He's getting enough shot creation, like out of the pick and roll and his fake dribble handoffs and all the quirky stuff he does, to make you think, okay, neither of these guys can shoot free throws. By the way, Ben Simmons...

Has 18 free throws the entire season. He's 0 of 2 in the last six games combined. Zero free throws in six games. But if we have those two super-duper stars, a third guy who can shoot, we've got to get something out of those minutes. It can't just be something where we separate them for the entire game. They've been starting together. And slowly but surely, that foursome of KD, Kyrie, Simmons, and Claxton has now eked over the

the positive plus minus line after starting way underneath it, which means in this 11-2 stretch, it's been a major positive. And you look at that starting five.

of KD, Kyrie, Simmons, Claxton, Royce O'Neal. It's a big lineup. It's not big in the middle at the traditional big positions, but Royce O'Neal is the two-guard in that lineup. And they're switching everything. They're scramming Kyrie out of the bad matchups on the back ends of those switches. And then when they downsize and they play one of Simmons...

or Claxton with Warren and Watanabe in the rotation, they have more options where they can play those lineups without going so teeny, teeny, teeny with like two of Patty and Seth and Kyrie. All along, you could see the blurry outlines of what this team was supposed to be. And it was just a matter of like, can we just see the team? Well, to their credit, we've finally seen the team

it's not as good as Boston it's not as good as Milwaukee those teams are amazing despite Boston's offense going in the toilet in the last 10 games but it's it's pretty it's pretty freaking good and it's right where I thought it would be at the beginning of the season when I had them in that second tier of Eastern Conference playoff teams I thought Philly would be ahead of them but this is about what where I thought they would be and then it all went haywire and I thought honestly like

I thought it was over. I thought it was over. It might still be over. Kyrie is still going to be a free agent after this season. We have learned it's Charlie Brown with the football. We've learned over and over again that we're one tweet away from disaster. But to their credit, this is now I asked for 20 games. I went on TV and I had a whole rant that I know made people in the organization mad. I said, give me 20 games of competent basketball. We're almost there.

Yeah. I mean, I would give you 16. And so you got a couple more left, but I think you hit on a lot of things in terms of the lineups. One, I think you see a variance in the opportunity for figuring out how you want to play. And when you talk about Claxton being on the floor with Ben Simmons, and there's obviously different areas that the Nets have tried to mitigate some of the weaknesses, but even like to the point of Kyrie defensively,

He competes. He's been that's where I go back to the energy or the buy. And you talk about them scramming on the back or how they switch, double switch what they've been doing. But the way in which everyone's figured out and there's definitely moments, there's moments of a lot of breakdowns. I mean, you could point we're talking about this Detroit game. There's but the understanding of what needs to happen is.

And I think for those reasons, that's why there's optimism of if you have a collection of depth and there is depth and guys are healthy, then you can figure out what you need in terms of different scenarios or who you're playing against, who you're matching up against. I think that's part of even some of the stretches of what Markeith Morris has come in and done.

Or you have, you know, in terms of size, Joe Harris starting to hit shots again and using it. And then there's been times that, you know, you mentioned Patty Mills, like Patty Mills was, has been out of the rotation for a good stretch, but you have pieces of players that you can, you know,

go about figuring out what you need when. And I think that's part of the work in progress here for these guys. And is everything tenuous though? Like you look at this team and I know you point to that and obviously there's more reasons and more background collected to understand that maybe it is, but

As of right now, how they're playing and how they're playing together and what it is that they're trying to accomplish. I think the closer they get to that, the more they feel. You mentioned them being fourth and in the East. I think these are players who...

especially in a Kevin and a Kyrie, the more they taste winning, the more they taste success, the more they're figuring out how they can have fun playing together, but still find success, put up these type of numbers, have these type of wins. Like there's been some fun wins, the game winner by Kyrie, the way that they came back when no one was playing and won in Indiana, like those type of those. The Indiana win was one of the most fun wins of the entire season for any team. And again,

And I think it was just as fun watching the guys on the bench that were not playing watch these players. And that goes back, harkens back to Kevin Durant talking about how he felt when he was hurt last season and during that stretch and the approach of it. And he circled back, you know, talking in the postgame, just the pride he had for this group and how they played. But I think there's just a different mindset currently.

And I think that's the optimism that you can continue to build on that and build on that with pieces that can fit together and fit together in different ways. The Simmons piece to me is,

It's been interesting because this run began with Ben Simmons looking like Ben Simmons again for three or four games. Then he went out with injury again. And he hasn't looked like Ben Simmons since he came back. It's been just, I think, a few games now since he came back. I've seen most of them. He's looked okay. I'm interested in your take on this. To me, I think part of the reason why maybe his numbers are a little down, defensively he's bought in. He's playing really well defensively. He's rebounding. He's chasing guys around.

I feel like since Jacques Vaughn took over, the offense is simpler now.

In that there is no one is going out of their way to solve the problem of like, how do we use Ben Simmons? Where should Ben Simmons be? How do we use them? It's like transition screen, get out of the way. You're not going to be as involved. It's like a lot of high pick and roll for Kyrie and KD. A lot of their, their two man game together is happening more frequently. The two stars, like they had a couple of possessions where Claxton set a ball screen for Kyrie at like half court the other night. And it's like, just, just do that kind of stuff. And I feel like,

For better or worse

The Simmons thing is less central. Like, how do we incorporate this guy? It's kind of less central to what's going on. What's right and wrong in what I've said? I would agree with that. We're not necessarily disagree. One, you're right about Claxton. You're right about the two-man game between Kyrie and Kevin. I think he'll continue to see more of that. I think even with Ben, just the opportunity, dribble handoff here or there, and then they'll run a couple actions and get him back in the dunker spot. Like, I think that's...

if he's bringing the ball up, I think his greatest strength we've seen is being able to push the ball and push the tempo. And I do think it, it just hasn't been to the same level.

I don't know if efficiency is the right word level who did, you know, it's all about body. It's all about getting back and getting healthy, but since he's returned and came back, but he's got a burst and he looked different. He had a different, a different uptick tempo that he was able to get it to. And I think you're starting to see that that's where he's at his best offensively. What I will say is they'll run, they'll put him in the mid post and he'll play with his back to the basket. And it's been less about, um,

him necessarily. I mean, he has the option obviously to pass out of that. We've seen him take a lot of little hook shots, a lot of short shots. He's not been to your point, getting to the line as much in a, to me in a forceful way, but he'll attack the basket. He looks more at ease being aggressive and assertive looking to score, taking some shots. Um,

Um, and, and that's why I think it's become less of a factor. He's not going to take mid range looks. Um, but will he, you know, it takes some seven footers. Will he do his best to attack? Like, those are the things I think you still see mixed in there. And it's a balance of how much he chooses to do that and how much they choose to do that. But it's not necessarily a, we're going to run this set and run it for Ben, um,

But I think there's just a lot of actions. Like to me, the offense has changed because there's so many actions off the ball. There's so many actions that are taking place that has shifted the defense and allowed them just to play at a quicker half court pace. Yeah. When they, when they play through the post, whether it's Simmons and look, I'm, I'm not going to lie. I have no faith that any of those six foot flip shots are like ever going in, but they've been going in at a decent amount. And when you, when you get a switch with him and it's like Killian Hayes the other night or some small point guard,

If he can back you down to the layup range, like he's going to score and teams are going to send help. And it's the same thing with Durant. When they get him on a switch or when they get him against a mismatch, which is everybody, basically, they're playing. They'll post him to pass out of the post. They'll post him to draw help. Guys will cut. And I've said this from the from the second they got Harden, Kyrie Irving.

bought back into being an off-ball mover and off-ball cutter. And they are at their best when he engages that part of the game. It's not central to his game, but when it's appropriate, he's been doing it. And I have a couple of clips lined up for a column item maybe one day where he's cutting and Watanabe found him on one, Durant found him on one. That's when they're at their best. Look, we all know this is going to be a good offense, and they're up to seventh. They're fourth in the last 15 games. It's the defense that is going to kind of define –

How far this team can really go. They've still fouled the hell out of everybody. They've been merely average in this stretch. It's not like they've been great, but average. That was always the roadmap. It was the roadmap when they had Harden was average defense and blow you out of the water offense. Well, they're not going to this offense. I don't think it's going to blow you out of the water, but it's it's pretty damn good. And

You know, defensively, I don't really know how they're doing it, but they're not allowing a ton of threes. I guess the switching helps. They limit dribble penetration, but they're allowing a ton of shots at the rim. Switching a lot and letting teams get to the rim is suboptimal, but they're cleaning up the mess, and that's where Claxton— They're leading the league in blocks, and there's been—so that's where I think it's hit or miss. You know, you have times where you have some—

some nice rim protection than you have some where there's wide open looks and guys are just get to the basket with a whole lot more ease. But I think that ability to protect the three point line makes a difference. And I also think though, that's where they've been susceptible with giving up rebounds when you're switching that much, when you're getting out of position, when you have a lot of those long rebounds that can hurt you. But that's where I think the buy-in guys getting back in that to me will be the big test. How much are you? Because,

Even in stretches in the early part of the season, they were pretty decent defensively. Because you look at Kevin Durant, you got Nick Claxton, Royce O'Neal, Ben Simmons. These guys are good. They're good ranging defenders. But they would get the initial miss and then just not get a rebound. And that's the stuff where I think they've improved. Can you sustain that? Can you consistently get better at that? That, to me, will be the big questions. But they...

With that being said, that's why offensively to them getting some runouts, them getting into early offense, not allowing teams just to set up in their half court and figure out how they're trying to slow down Kevin, how they're trying to get the ball out of his hands. That type of stuff obviously has benefited them. Yeah. And I don't I don't think there's any.

fix for the rebounding other than everybody has to try really hard on every single possession because this team as is is small. They're just small. Claxton is skinny. The behemoths of the league are going to push him out of the way and

Like the difference is when you're giving up a 35% offensive rebounding rate, you can't win in the NBA. You just can't. It's volleyball for the other team. It's too many second chances. When you're at 28 or 29, you're just like a normal average to below average offensive rebounding team. You can win. Those six or seven chances per game are the difference between winning and losing. And that brings me to where we should go next, which is suddenly the conversation about this team needs to shift to,

Are they going to be buyers at the trade deadline from like a month ago? And I was not guilty of it because I still don't know what the hell is going to happen. But it was all who's going to trade for Durant or the calls are going to come in for Durant, blah, blah, blah. Now it's, well, they have an extra pick from Philly. They have their own pick to trade in 28 or 29.

Um, they have a bunch of midsize contracts, all of whom are linked to players who play real minutes on their team, whether it's Joe Harris or Seth Curry or Claxton or Royce O'Neal. Um, is, is there something they can do to, to, to shore up their rebound and shore up their defense and everyone's going to be obsessed with the center. Can they find a center? Um,

I just, we can go through the names, but everybody gets excited about these like low cost or like buyout market centers. And then they come in and they're like, oh, it's DeAndre Jordan. You can't play in the playoffs. No, it's like New Orleans Noel. We're not going to play this guy in the playoffs. I mean, I have some names for you, but I just don't see an easy center trade for them. I even thought about Vucevic because they could get the salary up to get Vucevic. It would be two of their rotation guys going out.

Probably a first-round pick. I mean, if the Bulls think they're getting this pick bonanza for Nick Vucevic on an expiring deal, I'm sorry to tell them it's not going to be a bonanza similar to what they sent out. But a first, a couple of seconds, a couple of useful rotation guys, do you just sort of wash your hands of it and say, okay, good, that's the best we're going to get? And I'm like...

Is he going to play this? Sorry to cut you off, but in terms of bigs, and you think about this, in the need, I would think about a defendant, Joel Embiid. You think about Boston, the bigs. The concern would be in getting bigs on the defensive end.

And that – like Vucevic isn't going to – like that's not going to help you. No, at least he'll help with the spacing, right? At least he can shoot. So if you add – if you're talking about adding like a Jakob Pertl or somebody like that, we're like, well, we already have Nick Klaxon. He can't shoot free throws. Ben Simmons can't shoot free throws. We're adding another big guy who can't shoot. I know he's only going to play with one of – we're shoehorning ourselves now into two of those guys have to be on the floor together at almost all times and –

You know, that's just not ideal. So it's actually kind of hard to find somebody who's worth it and all that. And I do think to your point of in where you look at Claxton or you look at you look at Ben Simmons or what we all think about is the closing lineups or what you need. And that's where the free throws, the inability or the struggles to make free throws. That's where it comes in play. You see some mixing and matching now with lineups.

So I don't know. I don't have an answer. I know you have some names, but there's...

There's a point where it comes to how much is it going to move the needle and how much do you mess with? I mean, we'll see next couple of weeks or next month, but the consistency and the continuity of the way guys are playing or what they're doing or just the different added benefits that it brings on the offensive side. Because at some point too, at what juncture do you say have teams match up? You got a player like Kevin Durant, how Kyrie Irving has been playing. At what juncture do you say have teams match up against Kevin

Against how you're playing. TJ Warren has only played, I should have these numbers, but seven games, six, seven games. So he's getting back. Yeah. Okay. But it brings a little bit of size. The Ben Simmons component of him getting healthy again. And he looked a different way before coming back. But I think for him to just reacclimating himself. I mean, so I,

I think there's a lot of things to look at, a lot of questions to have, but I do think this is absolutely a team that thinks that they can compete because I think they think as a whole they're just beginning to scratch the surface. Yeah, I thought about... I can't believe I'm saying these names in relation to the Brooklyn Nets. Please. I thought about Kristaps Porzingis because he can block shots and shoot threes, but he makes $35 million a year. It's too many outgoing guys. Miles Turner...

I don't even know. I've said for two months, they may and it may be most likely now that they renegotiate and extend him and he's not traded at all. And after that, I just we're just running out of guys in the center for the sake of getting a size. He's the center for the sake of size, size for the sake of size. Just doesn't it doesn't translate into the playoff rotation like everyone thinks it will be.

I almost think they should sniff around one of these bigger tweener forwards who can just give you a little more size and

maybe is a little more proven than Warren coming off two years of injuries, Watanabe coming off very little experience, really, and almost no playoff experience. So I thought about the usual suspects here, Kuzma, Bogdanovich, the old friend Bogdanovich, whoever, and they can get into that if they put picks on the table. I'd rather go for that guy, but I think that's the conversation I was like, these guys are going to be buyers now, and they should be.

Yeah, I agree with you and those names that you said. And I think that's just a point of what you're willing to give up, what you're willing to sacrifice now. And I do think, though, when you look at how the group has been playing, that they will be in some capacity. I don't know if that, you know, what the moves look like, what the players look like, you know, where the trust is with some of the players that you have. But I have no doubt that it's moving in that direction as opposed to,

you know, necessarily thinking that this is something that is not going to come together, not work out. You asked me in the beginning of this podcast to, you know, to make a projection of if this is going to continue. And I didn't even want a projection, sir. I just want, even if it's just blind,

reassurance like like talk to me like i'm a child no but but i i know the meteors are falling just tell me it's gonna be okay but there's no meteors there's no meteors see no but i think i think just in that sense of we shouldn't make we should not make galactic or outer space analogies anytime talking about the brooklyn nets which it's my fault i brought up meteors we just shouldn't think it's the last time we're gonna be talking me here in my in my yankees hat

Anyway, I just wanted to be reassured. That's all. I know you can't project the future. Nobody can really project the future. If you could, we'd all bet. Well, we're not allowed to bet, but still. They're playing well and credit to them. I mean, talk about it would have been easy to let go of the rope. The rope got lit on fire and was like cast aside down into the sea. It was over. And they steadfastly were like, all along, if we just get our guys to play,

If we could just see what the team is. We've got something here. We don't know what it is, but it's something. And they were right. They've got something. I don't know what it is. I don't know how long it'll last, but they've got something. You've had for almost 20 games on Syracuse stock, just a basketball team to talk about and analyze. It's been probably kind of fun.

More than fun. Not to mention, I'll say it again, like overlooking what Kevin Durant has been doing is, and I know there's a lot of players putting up a lot of big numbers and special performances. But to me, like you cannot say enough about on a night to night basis, how much he's been integral to how this team is collectively playing. And Kyrie has been a part of it. Everyone we've, we've been through all of it, but yeah,

Kevin Durant, there has been a different level of just enthusiasm and joy that I've seen him play with that...

has been so much fun to watch and I to me that's where it all begins with this team and with their success and it started in the stretch when Kyrie was suspended and Simmons was out and it was like KD and Edmund Sumner and all these guys that he eventually were kind of like that's where Utah ended up you know like getting moments and different players just getting moments and taking advantage but that

that was all funneled through the play of what Durant had been doing. Until he gave the regrettable interview and he was like, well, the guys are not here playing with Edmund Sumner and you don't want to know, but you think we're going to win that game? That came off the entirety of it. No, no, it didn't come off. It was just not great. It was not great. The entirety of the article, yeah. I think they had a big win that night. But I gave you the numbers. He leads the league in minutes.

Period. Full stop. Kevin Durant has played more minutes than anyone else in the NBA this season. And, you know, about a month ago, I sort of wondered aloud when I had Nick Friedel on, like, can you or was it was it was someone else, but it doesn't matter. I was reckoning with as we start thinking about MVP more seriously.

We talked about when the Nets traded for Harden and for 25 to 30 games, Harden played his way into the MVP conversation. I remember saying, I just don't think I can vote for a guy who lit his previous franchise on fire, visibly did not try for the first 12 games of the season, and then got himself traded. And I began reckoning with the Durant thing, being like, well, you know, he was the source of much organizational drama, even though he was not the cause of it.

Even though the drama had been swirling around him and he was the one durable, mostly constant for this team, the one guy who just showed up every day and played. And so you couldn't blame him for being discontented. But then his discontent was like fire on top of fire on top of a fire. And he requested a trade and rescinded it. And then he asked for the coach in the gym to get fired. And I reckon with like, can you do that and then win MVP? And I didn't know the answer. I just raised the question.

And now that we're into the guts of the season and you feel the length of the season and the difficulty of navigating 82 games...

The more he plays like this, the less that other stuff matters to me. And he's just a normal MVP candidate again. And the baggage gets thrown out to sea and it's all good. I'm ready to, if he just plays like this, I'm ready to just erase that from the MVP. And it was pre, it was off season. It wasn't in season, like the Harden stuff that I mentioned. I mean, you just cannot, he's majestic every single night. It's a piece of NBA majesty happening.

That's a perfect way to put it. Off season feels like 100 years ago. The fact you're even bringing this up, so much has happened. I forgot that even occurred. But I do think there's, I do think when you're sparsing out and the MVP conversation is something that, you know, there's probably a lot of gray in figuring things out, but when you sparse out,

the reasons why when you sparse out how it all kind of matriculated, what it started as, what it turned into, but what the season has looked like, what he has looked like since stepping foot into training camp. And from then on, like to me, that's a part of how are you playing and what are you bringing to this season and

And that's where I would think, you know, pending what happens, obviously, you know, just in general. But that to me wouldn't even, you know, at this point, move the needle of being a negative or a takeaway of him being in the discussion, being in the conversation, especially considering the fact that, to your point about the longevity of the season, I mean, we're still sitting here in December. So there's a long way to go. And I think

With that being said, it turns more into the performance, the play, and what he's doing contributing to his team's success. Sarah Kustak.

I don't need to tell the people that Ian Eagle and Sarah Kustak are incredible on the broadcast. I do have to say that during a recent game, it must have been a blowout because you guys were off on one of your tangents. You anointed Sour Patch Kids your favorite Halloween candy, I think. Was it Sour Patch Kids? Very likely. Disgusting. Disgusting choice. Absolutely disgusting.

You don't eat the kids? That's all poison. All the sour patch stuff with the powdery sugar all over it. Well, there's a little sugar. What about Swedish fish? Gross. Mike and I? Just have some chocolate. Dots? No. Just have like a chocolate, like an actual thing that exists in nature, and it's just chocolate. You have a Kit Kat or a Twix. All this stuff you're naming is disgusting.

No, yeah, no, I'm all in. I'm in on the sugar. Give us all the sugar. We got some great people that bring us candy during the game. So maybe that's why we were a little delirious when we were talking. We were all hyped up on sugar. Sarah Kustak, just one of the absolute gems of the business. I can't wait to see you at Annette's game soon. And knock on wood, we just didn't jinx everything. But it's great to see you, and I'll talk to you soon. If you did, I know where to come back to. Thanks, C.

This episode is brought to you by Experian. Are you paying for subscriptions you don't use but can't find the time or energy to cancel them? Experian could cancel unwanted subscriptions for you, saving you an average of $270 per year and plenty of time. Download the Experian app. Results will vary. Not all subscriptions are eligible. Savings are not guaranteed. Paid membership with connected payment account required. All right, let's transition to what some...

Not all, but some would say is the real team. Most, let's be honest, the real team of New York City. The New York Knickerbockers, who have won seven games in a row. They are 14th in offense, 9th in defense.

In that seven-game stretch, they have the number one defense in the NBA by a mile. And at the beginning of this season, Ian Begley from SNY, it's great to see you. At the beginning of this season, we previewed the Knicks, and I said, you know what? Let's preview the starting five. Who's it going to be? And I said, let's get Evan Fournier.

all the way out of here and put Quinton Grimes, after all this hype, after he was the piece they wouldn't deal for Donovan Mitchell, allegedly, reportedly, in some offers, whatever, and then Quinton Grimes had a foot injury and the whole season was awry. Well, now Quinton Grimes is starting. Derrick Rose is out of the rotation. Evan Fournier is out of the rotation. Deuce McBride is in the rotation.

They have a nine-man rotation. They have a rotation where Barrett is playing with the bench, where he gets to eat a little bit. It's Barrett and the bench guys. They have Emmanuel Quigley, who's kind of become their sixth starter. He plays with the other four starters in place of Grimes and then in place of Barrett.

They're defending like hell, getting a little lucky from three. The schedule's been forgiving in this seven-game stretch, but you've got to win the games that you should win. They play the Warriors. We're recording this Monday night. They play the Warriors in about 24 hours without Steph Curry, so Steph Curry can't just blast this winning streak to Smithereens like he otherwise would. Ian Begley...

When the Oklahoma City Thunder hung like 140 on the Knicks at home and then Dallas hung a million on them somewhere. I can't remember where it was in Dallas and New York. It felt like it was teetering. And like the nets across the river where it was teetering in a much different and more dramatic and public way, the Knicks didn't implode. They didn't wobble. They kept fighting. They went all in on defense. If you can't guard, you're out unless you're one of our star players not playing.

And it's worked. And the way you see it working is not only the defensive numbers, even if it's a little bit of luck, they're still doing the other stuff really well on defense. It's working. And the way you see it working is like for the first time in what feels like forever, the starting lineup is good. The starting lineup is building up leads. This is funny. And Begley, the Knicks.

This is Funzac, and this is the starting five that I think would have been on the floor opening night if Quentin Grimes was healthy. You referenced it, the foot injury. I think that really derailed a lot for this group from the top on down because of the plans they had for Grimes. I mean, they said that it was going to be an open competition and training camp for that shooting guard spot, but I think Grimes, if healthy, would have won the spot, and then maybe this year looks a little bit different, but

Regardless, here they are now. Quinn Grimes reinserted into that starting lineup and Mitchell Robinson also coming back healthy into that starting lineup back on November 21st. And it wasn't a straight line ascension, but you could see as Robinson got his feet under him, as Grimes started to get his rhythm back, that this unit was doing something that Tom Thibodeau wanted it to do, which was to defend

And also Grimes started to make his shots. And you look at the numbers going back to that date and the starting five, I think has the most minutes played in the league from that date to now and has the best plus minus. They were plus 65 going into that Indiana win last

over the weekend. So as starting five, I think is what Tom Thibodeau envisioned when he was coming into training camp and it's playing, I would think exactly how he hoped it would, uh, when the Knicks rolled the balls out on this season in October. Yeah. The starting five, I have it plus 63 in 235 minutes for the season. It's a really good lineup.

You mentioned Mitchell Robinson. He's been sensational. This is the best he's ever played, the steadiest he's ever played defensively. He's always been a great shot blocker, rim to turn. He's more disciplined. His rebounding is better on both ends of the floor. And I think the ripple of Randall, this is what has both made Randall like I'm always, he's like a siren song for me. I'm always lured to Randall. I've always been a fan of his. And then sometimes the same thing would repel me is that

When he tries on defense, it's so obvious. He's so much better. He's so much more impactful, both as a rim protector, if he wants to be, or a switch guy, which the Knicks have used him on a lot. Like when they were playing the Bulls in those back-to-back games, there were a couple possessions where he switched onto Zach Levine and DeMar DeRozan and got into their ass, man. Got into their dribble, got into their jersey, and defended like a guy who's like, I want this. And

and he has the biggest sort of like, am I trying? I test gap maybe in the entire league and he's trying, but Mitchell Robinson, the ripple effect of that is the Knicks, whether it's happenstance or not, are giving up fewer threes, um,

than they were prior to this stretch when they were giving up almost the most threes in the league. And you can give up a lot of threes. That's not a cardinal sin. We've seen a lot of good defensive teams. As much as people want to say the threes are evidence that Tibbs is out of touch and old school, and he is old school. Tibbs is old school. You can give up a lot of threes and have a good defense. I...

They have found the right water level now where they're not helping inside quite as dramatically. They're trusting Mitchell Robinson to do a little bit more. They're allowing an average number of threes. The other kind of flip side of that is teams are getting to the rim on them more, but that's why you have Mitchell Robinson. And he's cleaning up a lot of messes. Right.

And they just, they look, you know, they look like a Tom Thibodeau team in this sense. The Bulls announcers were talking about how Tibbs is, about Billy Donovan saying how physical the Knicks are. And they're very physical physically.

But they are a power team in the purest sense. They get to the line a lot. They take care of the ball. And they've gone from a bottom 10 defensive rebounding team to the best defensive rebounding team in the last 10 games or so. They're winning the power kind of categories. And that's a very Tibsy thing.

Yeah. It's remarkable when you look at, you've mentioned the three point shooting and the three pointers allowed. And you look at that adjustment that Tom Thibodeau made after the Dallas game, that when they got crushed at home, Hey,

He said, all right, I'm going to go down swinging here. If I'm going to go down, because there was a lot of questions about his job security at that point. So he says, all right, Miles McBride, you're getting minutes. Um, Kim Reddish, you're going to be outside of the rotation. Derek Rose, you're going to be outside of the rotation. And I think what you've seen from that point to here is the Knicks just being able to contain the ball a lot more on the perimeter, uh,

It keeps them out of rotation and it keeps them from giving up those wide open shots. They're still giving them up to a degree, but much less so. I think with this new rotation here, Miles McBride flies around the floor manual quickly, I think doesn't get enough credit for his defense. And then Quentin Grimes is very good on the perimeter. So the ball containment, you know, Tom Thibodeau will tell you it starts there for the reasons why they've had so much success on defensive late and

And yeah, this is just, it's, you talk about a New York minute, right? Because back then that Dallas, Zach, I'm telling you, you know, this people around the league saw blood in the water, right? There was even a top executive from another team, you know, kind of back channel. I don't know his people, somebody connected to him was trying to get to owner James Dolan to try to put his

his hand in for if Leon Rose were to be let go. I mean, people saw it as that much of a dire situation. And now here we are seven games later and it looks like a different team and it looks like a different season for this Knicks club. On quickly, totally agree. He's, he's, he's always been one of the best rebounding guards in the league. His screen navigation, getting around screens, sticking with people has just been on another level this year. Now he's shooting. Hasn't been great from anywhere. Fine. Shooting goes up and down.

Are they still looking at trades for him? I get all the reasons why they were allegedly, reportedly, at least listening. They were. Because, you know, his shot is up and down, to say the least. He's going to want an extension that's going to be a lot of money. Yeah.

The last 10, 12 games to me, he's become too important to their current team where if I'm trying to win this year, like I'm not super psyched about just like quickly for a lottery top 18 protected first or something. Is that done now?

I don't know if currently those conversations are still being had, but, you know, I do know that he's been such an integral part of what they've done, not only the last seven games, but you go back to, you know, that OKC game where they set this starting five. You know, he's been right there in the middle of it all. Well, I mean, and through it all, for two years, the bench was what lifted them up all the time. And he was always a part of that, even if the numbers didn't paint him as the main part of it, the main driver of it. Like, you know.

I don't know. Right now I'm watching, like, I'm not in a rush to trade that dude. I don't really care if he's extension eligible. We'll figure that out later. Well, that's the thing, right? Like, cause you look at him and you look at OB Toppin, both extension eligible, but if you get them on deals that are, you know, within reason and they continue to play the way that you as the organization that drafted these guys hope they would, you know, those are tradable contracts. Those are things that you can, those are decisions you can make,

after this off season, after you extend them. So, uh, I know coming into the year, the people in touch with the team felt like they, they were not keen on extending both of those guys, but they also have to win games, right? This is not a season where you can punt midway through the season and expect to, uh,

Keep your job, quite frankly, if you're Leon Rose and William Wesley and Tom Thibodeau. So these guys have to win games. They know that. It's just an interesting set of decisions here with quickly. I would assume that they end up holding on to him if they continue to win games, if they continue to be at 500 a couple games above, because how do you shake that up if the goal is to win games as to show tangible improvement this season? You can't go ahead and trade Warnock.

one of the players in this tight rotation just for a future pick. You can't do it. And I think Toppin is good. I've always thought Toppin is good. I can't believe how much I'm enjoying the Jericho Sims, Isaiah Hartenstein duo double center look that they're using while Toppin is injured.

I've said this before. Put Jericho Sims in the dunk contest, man. That guy might be able to dunk on like a 14-foot hoop. It's ridiculous. But those guys are playing well. I would pull the plug on whatever trade, whatever was going on with Quickly. And look, I don't think this team is great. In those last seven games, opponents are shooting 27% on threes. I mean, that's not going to last. They're shooting pretty well.

on two, so maybe it balances out a little bit there. Schedule will get tougher again. But we talked about it before the season. You and I were both, relative to consensus, a little higher on the Knicks. I took the over on the Knicks. I think it was like 42.5. I was like, I think they're a little better than that. I was high on them last year, too, relative to consensus, and they crapped the bed, so whatever. I was wrong then, but I thought this team was somewhere from like 6-10 in the East, in the play-in race for sure.

that's probably I don't I mean as nice as this seven game win streak is I don't think it's like really changes the even medium term outlook for the franchise I'm not sure that it if you thought not trading the whole kit and caboodle for Mitchell was a mistake and I said at the time like I'm not really sure how I feel about it like I think it's I think it was fine for the Knicks to not do that considering their their situation going into the trade I didn't didn't

didn't have strong objections to them holding fast to what they had

But if you thought it was a mistake at the time, I'm not sure this streak proves you wrong that they should have traded Gano in for Donovan Mitchell. We'll see. It doesn't prove that they were right, rather, to exercise that discipline. The jury's going to be out on that for a while. I don't know what the longish term plan is really still, but I know that part of the plan has been to try to be competent. And this team looks competent and –

A big reason for that that we should probably talk about now, probably should have led with it, is Jalen Brunson is really, really good and has changed, has fit into what the Knicks did well stylistically before he got there, given them more avenues with which to do it.

It's done his job really well and just stabilized everything. He has been really good for them. I said it in July. I don't get why everyone is freaking out about this contract. I said it might not be an A, but it's a B. It's fine. It's fine. He's good.

I think it's more than fine. And I think, Zach, you talk about on the court and also off the court the way I think he stabilized the locker room there, because if you look at the Knicks teams that have struggled, you know, the past five, 10 years,

Those teams, they lose a game like that Dallas game at home that we referenced. They lose a game like that Oklahoma City game that we referenced where they gave up 145 points in regulation. And I was hearing about the heightened scrutiny on the group from ownership. So I'm sure the players were hearing about it. I'm sure the coaching staff was hearing about it. You saw those Knicks teams over the past five, 10 years.

more or less kind of fall apart in those situations. But Jalen Brunson, I think has this steadying effect on this group where they kind of put things in the rear view mirror very quickly and they move on to the next game. And of course he's very invested in this Nick team succeeding because, you know, they brought his dad in on Tom Thibodeau's staff. I think he has a, uh,

affinity for Tom Thibodeau as a coach and a human being. So I think he wants this to work in so many different ways, but you're seeing the

the way that he's getting it to work tangibly stuff you're seeing on the floor. And then also the stuff you're seeing off the floor where he's, I think he's connected with a lot of these young guys and even the veterans, um, in a way that maybe you wouldn't have assumed for a player who was not the, the one a in Dallas wasn't the face of the franchise, but he's got these, these ways of connecting with players, uh,

from the top of the roster on down that I think, you know, just builds a camaraderie in the room and builds a togetherness that you haven't seen among these Nick teams a lot in the recent past. And having a real point guard who can, who's a plus offensive player, a good shooter, good creator, good ISO guy, all that stuff. It's the reason why you can take Derek Rose and Evan Fournier out of the rotation is because you have that guy alongside Barrett and

Who is endlessly fascinating to me. On some nights, I'm like, where is he lost within this offense? Where is he? Does he have to scrounge for his points? And then he plays with the bench and he can do more. I don't know. But he's not shooting well, but he's okay. And Randall, they have enough creation now where they can just say, we don't need Derrick Rose. We don't need Evan Fournier. And it's because they have Jalen Brunson. And what I meant before by...

fitting in to what they used to do when they were good two seasons ago and then amplifying it is they're a unique combination right now at least of when we think of like power teams, like it's not like this offense has suddenly become creative and stylish and, you know, Julius Randle's like moving it and doing it. There's still like a fair amount of

Pound the crap out of you one-on-one in the post. It's not a beautiful offense. The spacing gets clunky. But they just have more vehicles to do that in creative ways now. Like Brunson will come down the floor quickly.

And he'll run like a guard-guard pick-and-roll to get a switch that he likes better, a little older guy or a worse defender. And he'll just start pounding that guy, draw help, kick it out. Brunson and Randall have a nice little pick-and-roll combination going both ways where you have a decision to make like, am I going to switch it or am I going to try to hedge and recover and maybe give up an open three? If you switch it, you've got mismatches both ways. They go into their bully ball and play out of that.

And when Randall's not involved in the central pick-and-roll action, you've got to run pick-and-rolls with Mitch. He's a great lob catcher. They're doing a smart job of, like, sometimes he's in the corner. Sometimes he's in a dunker spot. Sometimes he's on the other side, opposite wing, waiting to run a dribble handoff. It's just...

It's not a sea change in how they play. It's still kind of brutality basketball, but it's more variety to it and less predictability to it. And mostly, mostly because of Brunson, like Randall will run pick and roll with Robinson too. Sometimes Brunson will be over here. He's fit into exactly how they want to play.

I think with Mitchell Robinson too, Zach, you, you hit it earlier, the rebounding, particularly on the offensive end, I mean, the way he's improved in that area, several coaches have said after these games against the Knicks that, you know, they've, they haven't faced the player that puts that much pressure on them on the offensive glass, then Mitchell Robinson. And so the added strength for him, I think he's really grown into it. He put that strength on two off seasons ago when he was injured, uh,

He was dealing with a foot injury coming back from that. And I think he's gotten used to it, gotten used to playing with that added weight. And he's a force down there. And he is, he's not a player who obviously is going to take much away from you, demand anything from you. Offensively, he's going to finish possessions well.

around the rim and not ask to do much else. And I think that also fits the three guys that you were discussing, Jalen Brunson, RJ Barrett, Julius Randle, really well, really well. And, you know, Quentin Grimes, now that he has slid into that starting role, he's another guy that he's not going to, you don't have to run plays for him. He's not going to, not a high usage guy. So you put those two players,

around the mid three, I think I saw online that Jalen Brunson, RJ Barrett, Julius Randle have been nicknamed the mid three. It just works right now. And you hit it. Is that a real thing? Yeah, I've seen it. I've seen it all over the place. And more so Nick fans mocking it over this last seven game win streak than not, than using it as derision. But, you know, who knows? Is it sustainable? We'll find out. Does it change the ceiling on this team?

I don't think in a big way, but I think it does show you like from a from a macro perspective that the plan, at least coming into this year and not doing the Donovan Mitchell deal, the plan made sense because you're seeing what the Knicks had hoped to have on opening night. You're seeing it here over these past seven to 12 games or so. And it looks pretty good.

Yeah, like I said, I'm not sure the Mitchell non-decision needed to be redeemed. Like, I was pretty okay with it at the time. It looked like it needed to be redeemed when the whole team felt like it was teetering. But I'm not sure it has been redeemed if it needed redemption to this point. A couple of Brunson notes. I mentioned the variety. He's set a fair number of ball screens, I'm looking at the numbers now, as the screener for both Barrett and Randle.

Among all players who have set at least 50 ball screens this season, that's 243 players, Brunson is third in points per possession scored on any trip where he sets a ball screen. And if you zero in on the shots that come directly out of it, he's top 10. He's a really good little screener, and that's what I mean by variety. Brunson isolations, the Knicks are scoring 1.2 points per possession out of a Brunson isolation.

that would basically lead the league over a full season or be close, be top five. Like he's, he's bringing the variety and the bullying both at the same time, which is kind of a, it's, it's weird to think of as sort of brutish offense is also having variety and unpredictability, but they've got that right now. Trade deadline, a couple months away. Still, Nick still have all the picks, all the protective picks from other teams. Um,

They have the Dallas picks still. They've got all their own picks. Cam Reddish, we know that they have. They've got stuff to play with, and

I think there's the sense that they missed their first big shot with Donovan Mitchell. Maybe they missed it on purpose or they didn't take it, whatever is the right terminology. And now everyone's focused on all these little things like, oh, Cam Reddish, can we get a couple second round picks for him? What should we actually be focused on, though? Are there bigger things to be focused on than little fringy things? Here's what I look at, Zach. I look at the record, right? Because if the Knicks were, let's say, if they are,

five games under 500 or struggling as we get closer to that February deadline, I could see them being more aggressive in making a roster altering move to try to get things turned around in the right direction for what, for reasons that we discussed earlier, this group, they have to win games this year, bottom line. But if they continue to be around 500 few games over, then,

I don't see them. I'd be surprised. I should say if they make a big, big trade at the deadline, because they're showing the step that they intended to show coming into this season. So they'll get another off season and they'll get another shot to, to take the big swing. So I don't think they, they would feel pressure to make that move in early February. I think it would be an off season move, but if you look at the record and it's, and they're struggling and,

They need to get things turned around immediately. I could see them being aggressive there. But you look at the landscape of the league, right? Everybody's keeping an eye on Chicago. Yeah. And I understand that, you know, what's going to shake loose there. I think Toronto, too. People are keeping an eye on Toronto. And I think just to speak to the Knick mentality before this winning streak, it's

Somebody over there had touched base with Toronto on OGN and OB, and I think it was just a casual conversation. But I think when they were struggling, they were looking at those kind of moves, those bigger moves to move the needle forward. But now after these seven wins, assuming they kind of maintain this pace, I would assume that they are more aggressive on the Cam Reddish's, the Derrick Rose's, the Evan Fournier's than they are on taking a big swing. So you just nailed it.

Stole my thunder. Just came into my own podcast with your fancy New York skyline background. Everyone is looking at Chicago, right? And Anthony Davis is now injured for the Lakers for some undetermined period of time. Unless they've put out an announcement while we've been doing this podcast that may or may not torpedo the Lakers interest in upgrading their current roster. It may just may not be worth their while.

Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the severity. Depends on how the next month goes. I don't think they're in a rush to conclude that their season is effectively over. But certainly if they struggle with that Anthony Davis, I think you just keep your powder dry and go into the offseason and try to play for next year or make a trade that's aimed at next year, which would take, I think, the Bulls guys off the boards for them either way, as well as the Rosen might fit there. So you start to think.

I don't want – Vucic isn't going to do anything for me. Center rotation is fine. DeRozan feels a little old for the Knicks timeline anyway. Where else do I start looking around? Who's got younger guys? And you said it, Toronto. Everybody is watching Toronto. I said it last week. Maybe it's – and my official Toronto prediction was, A, they stabilize, and B, if they make a move, it will be Gary Trent and that's it. But –

If I'm the Knicks and I missed my first big shot at Donovan Mitchell or didn't take it, you said the name OG Ananobi. If I'm them, that's a guy I would look really, really hard at. And I said last week, I want to be very careful here. I said, I don't think the Raptors are interested in it. All these reports that Ananobi is unhappy. He's publicly said no. The Raptors over the years have publicly said everything's fine. I still think the Raptors are going to stabilize. All of that.

I got bad news for Knicks fans in this sense. If those things ever change, the entire league wants OG Ananobi. Everybody wants OG Ananobi. And if he ever gets traded, the price in picks or whatever is going to surprise people because it might be on par almost with what the Cavs gave up for Donovan Mitchell. Like it's going to be a lot if it ever happens. But that's the name. It's hard to find names because there's not that many sellers anywhere.

And the Knicks shouldn't be in the market for anybody 30 and over if they're going to give up lots of stuff for him. And so you just sort of naturally come down and you said the name. That's that's one of the right names. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that, you know, if Toronto decides to go that route, he instantly becomes the top name. I mean, you, Zach, I'm sure you know this, but, you know, Bogdanovich in Detroit, I think they would ask a lot.

for Bogdanovich, but I think he might be the most impactful player, at least right now. I see these reports like Detroit's telling teams they're going to keep Bogdanovich. I believe that

For 0.0 seconds. Like I'm sure like you can tell teams whatever the hell you want. I just don't believe if they told me that if I were to opposing GM, they're like, you cannot make us an offer where we would part with Boyan Bogdanovich. Don't even bother. I would be like, all right, what are we doing here? Like, are you serious? Come on. You're not serious. Let's actually talk.

No, I think it's posturing. And I think obviously they're going to entertain offers and they'll obviously hold out for the best offer. But teams think that, you know, push comes to shove, that he will be available. But, you know, it's not going to be a shove. It's going to be a little gentle tap.

So, yeah, Toronto, I think, tilts the market, as does Chicago, depending on which way either of those teams decides to go. And, yeah, Toronto, they've said in the past, and I'm sure they'll continue to say that, you know, everything is copacetic. But if they flounder and they don't coalesce, as you're saying, Zach, I think there's decisions to be made up there. And, you know, Masai Ujiri is never hesitant to make a big decision.

What are you hearing about the Bulls? Because as much as you're a Knicks beat guy, you have sources all across the league. You're really, really plugged in. The vibe I got from the Bulls as of a week ago or the vibe others were getting to was we're not ready to have this conversation yet. We still want to stick it out with these guys. We just built this team. We still think there's something here. And

It's like you're 11 and 18, man. Like it's not going great. Like what's the latest you're hearing? Well, before the Knicks went to Chicago, which was last week, I checked in just with people that had been in touch with the Bulls and they got a similar vibe that they weren't in a rush to pull the plug and to blow things up. And it would be a pretty significant pivot based on how the team was built and the moves that they made to get here. I think...

Zach Levine surprised me a little bit. Just, I don't know if it's people in Chicago, but you know, people kind of around Chicago are wondering how the Bulls like feel about his play in general. I know he's been hurt. I know he's still coming back from the knee. But just the idea that it wasn't all rainbows and unicorns, at least from people who've been in touch with the Bulls on Levine, that piqued my interest. But again, I would be a huge pivot

for management there to go that route and to pull the plug when you're, when you are not that far removed from committing all the money and the assets that you've committed to build this roster. So I think I heard the same, the similar that you had Zach, but you keep losing. I mean, what did they do? They gave up one 50 the other night. One 50 to the Timberwolves without, without like a bunch of guys. Yeah. It's hard to justify. I think,

not at least exploring the ear options as you get closer to February, if the team continues to trend in that direction.

Yeah, I'm not sure. That's why Ashley's like, I'm not sure my intel is up to date. Like that already could be outdated and things change fast and you don't hear all the accurate stuff in a timely fashion if you ever hear it. But it just – it's December 19th. It is early. And the play-in has had an effect on a lot of teams where like, well, we're not out of it. And if we get in, we can build something the way the Pelicans have built something, build a culture, build – let the young guys –

experience winning. But 11 and 18 is not very good. What else? Anything else we need to hit on the Knicks? I mean, it's been a nice turnaround. I don't know what it means really, but it's nice to see them play. It's nice to see them defend the way they defended two seasons ago because I did think this could be a 45-win team on talent and on depth, and those things are starting to show up.

Interesting thing to me is, you know, we locally, I should say, Knicks fans and the media, it's easy to get on Tom Thibodeau when the team is losing because there's so many decisions that he makes and can make on a night-to-night basis when you have a roster as deep as the Knicks are, especially with politics at play with regards to Cam Reddish.

and others. So you have to also give him credit when he decides to rein it in and he makes a big decision and goes with the rotation as it is right now. And the results are what they are. The thing that I wonder though, on Evan Fournier in particular, like he's out of your rotation. He's making a lot of money and how, how,

how is it even possible to get anywhere near equal value for him? Um, considering all those factors. So I don't know how they do it. That's why when horse mentioned it the other day, I think they're willing to be patient on Evan Fournier. They have no interest in dumping him salary dump. Um,

partially, I think, because they've done that with so many other contracts from the 2021 off season. So you can't do that with yet another one. But to me, that's, that's interesting as you approach a trade deadline, how do you maneuver a

if you want to offload guys and you want to figure something out, maybe open up another rotation spot. How do you do that with so many players that are fully out of your rotation and teams maybe give you 60 cents on the dollar? So it's going to be an interesting dance for the Knicks as they continue to get closer to that early February deadline. Yeah, I'm not...

I'm not in the business of sacrificing a valuable future asset to get off Evan Forney. I'm just not. And by the way, he's out of the rotation. The team's winning.

You want to draw natural conclusions like, well, he must not be able to contribute anything. Someone will get injured. Two guys will get injured at the same time. And you will all of a sudden need a guy who's averaged 19 points a game in the NBA. You can shoot threes. You can run a secondary pick and roll, even if it's not a lot effective. Like you might need Evan Fournier at some point. Just like the Knicks all of a sudden needed Alec Burks to do everything last year. Oh, by the way, one point I wanted to make about the variety in Brunson. Randall is still isolating a lot this year.

last year it was 15 isolations per 100 possessions. It was like number one or two in the league. This year it's down to 11. His efficiency is up. And that's what I mean. Everyone's at their right water level. And the defense has been pretty ferocious. And Tibbs and his beard. What grade do we give to Tibbs' beard? It's better than mine.

I don't know what you mean. I want the beard gone. I want the beard gone. Not a fan. Not a fan. You're calling for the end of the beard. Jacques Vaughn beard, Tom Thibodeau beard. What do you... Oh, it's Jacques Vaughn. It's not even close. It's not even close. Tibbs is... It's getting better. It just...

He just can't make it look polished. And it's just, I don't know. It's not working for me. But it's working for the Knicks. Ian Begley, it's always wonderful to see you. Just covers the Knicks better than anyone in the world. It's good to see you. And I'll see you at the world's most famous arena fairly soon, hopefully. Zach, I look forward to it, my friend. Always good to see you. And all the best to you and your family. You too.