KAT Puts Up Huge Numbers but Still Faces Criticism

Let's talk about the Knicks, who have won 6 straight games.

Go Knicks, and are a half game back now of Boston for that number 2.

Knicks.

Knicks too.

The best, my favorite mid-tier team, as I like to call them.

Uh, now we have to, we , we do have to couch this by pointing out that the Knicks' schedule has been loaded with cupcakes over the last 6 games.

The 6-game winning streak includes a win over Utah, 2 wins over Indiana, Brooklyn, Washington, and a Warriors team that was playing without Stephen Curry, uh, and There have been times in the stretch where they haven't looked very good.

I mean, that Nets team, you want, you know, exhibit A for tanking that last play against the Knicks where the Nets threw the ball into the backcourt to attempt a 70-footer.

Doesn't look like they were feeling the need to win, uh, that one there.

We'll be excited because you're about to get two more of those.

Exactly.

Well, New Orleans playing better.

They're playing Seattle and Vegas.

Oh, it.

I thought you were talking about the Knicks' schedule coming up.

Um, yeah, um.

So with the Knicks, the good is, I think Karl-Anthony Towns.

His numbers have been outstanding.

Um, overall in the season, his numbers are a little bit down, but some of that is, his minutes have been down this year.

If you look at his per 36 numbers, they're right around where he was last season.

This month, he's shooting almost 60% from, from the floor.

So he's been excellent.

Mitch Robinson, um, averaging around 10 rebounds per game in sub 20 minutes per game, still can't.

Make a free throw for the life of him, but he's still an inside influence there, inside protection.

Uh, McHale Bridges.

Mixed bag, looked good against Washington, you know, I think they'd like to bottle that, you know, high percentage shooting, good defense, playmaking, rebounding, uh, but Steph definitely still some questions about the Knicks.

What does this six-game stretch tell you about New York and where they are at this stage of the season?

I mean, it tells me kind of what I've thought for a while since the Celtics have been really making their run pre-Jayson Tatum, by the way, and then certainly post- Jayson Tatum.

They're probably the 2nd or 3rd best team in the East, and, and, you know, I, I think the Pistons still have another step to go, especially if Cade is coming off a lung collapse, um, yeah, that's a , so which is such a shame.

And by the way, can we, can we just tag me as correct on the 65 game rule.

Being dumb, which I've been saying since I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna give you time later in the, uh, the, the, not this, not this show, but take your when, when I have several victory laps when I agree when it comes out that like the Derrick White's first team all NBA, then have a different, we're gonna have a different conversation, um, but I, I, I think the Knicks are wildly inconsistent.

We've talked about that all season.

I think Mitchell Robinson's health is gonna be a huge thing in this, but I would like to say one thing about Kat.

He just, I don't know what it is about him that people make him a scapegoat.

I don't know what it is about him, about the defensive tag he gets.

I think that he is playing the best defense of his career right now, which is impressive.

And I also think that his career is actually a lot more impressive on defense than people realize.

Do you know that in the last 8 years, he's only had one season where he has ended up minus defensively.

Or minus at all, sorry, which would indicate his defense.

Like that's, that's not a fluke.

Like he's never gonna be a lockdown defender, but he's not the liability people think he is.

And by the way, he's playing his best defense of his career right now in my opinion.

Jalen Robins, uh, Jalen Brunson, I feel, has added, let me, let me add though on cat because I, I agree with you, and I'm kind of over the cat slander because I think like it's exhausting casual fans that.

Follow the Knicks on social media.

Probably get a heavy dose of the cat slander because, you know, Draymond has made it his mission to just hammer Kat every single opportunity he gets.

After that Nets game, Josh Minot, Josh Minot dropping bombs on towns.

He doesn't like the physicality.

I did not have Josh Minott, a teammate of Towns in Minnesota.

Slapping him around like that, that was wild.

But his numbers are excellent.

He is one of the best offensive big men in the game.

He is vulnerable defensively.

I, I think there's no doubt.

Look, and his, his defensive numbers over the years, probably a lot of them propped up by the fact that he spent a good amount of time playing alongside Rudy Gobert in Minnesota.

That helps.

That certainly helps.

And, you know, in New York, hasn't played a ton next to Mitchell Robinson, but, you know, it helps when you're alongside a great defender like Robinson.

But, It it feels like we're we're asking Kat if he's not, you know, Victor Wambayama, then he stinks.

Then he's awful.

He, he's, he's serviceable.

Yes, you put him in the pick and roll, you're gonna take advantage of him.

You're gonna play drop coverage a lot, but You can live with that.

Like you can live with that when you're getting 25 and 13 every single night.

He is close to an automatic.

You give him 35 minutes per game.

He's getting 25 points and 13 rebounds, and he is a bucket down the stretch.

He's gonna shoot a high percentage from, from the free throw line.

He's gonna get to the free throw line, which is what they were missing last year.

Like you, every team in the league wants him.

Like every team in the league wants a player like Karl-Anon Towns.

I can't.

I, I'm over the slander.

I, I'm over it.

Like he's a flawed player, sure, but He belongs on an all NBA team at the end of the year.

And when you get to the playoffs, he'll get your buckets against any offensive big in the NBA.

If you are a defensive big, you, you are gonna have to send double teams to that guy to slow him down in the postseason.

Yeah, no, so I, I think that's interesting.

Jalen Brunson, I think his playmaking has really improved.

His playmaking for other people has improved this year, and that's gonna be important because he just cannot be the only guy.

And I know he loves to take a superhero, Mr.

Clutch, whatever, but.

They're gonna need a little bit more dexterity against, say, the Celtics in the playoffs, but look, I think the Knicks are an exciting team.

I like it.

When the Knicks do well, it's good for the entire NBA.

When the Lakers do well, I know people like there are diehard fans who hate it when the Lakers do well, but it's good for the NBA.

It's good for the league when teams in big markets do well because that just rises all the boats in terms of the interest and sort of the money and everything else.

I, I think the Knicks are a really fun team.

I am not picking them to win the East.

I, I don't, I mean, and look, I could be wrong, and I'm happy when they win the East.

If they win the East, I'm happy to stare at this camera and say I was wrong.

They have won the East, but it's not my pick.

My pick is the Celtics.

I mean, what do you think?

I'm picking the Celtics to win the East.

Do you think the Knicks are winning the East?

Uh, I think it'll be interesting if the Knicks get home court advantage, um.

And I think you can't dismiss what they did to Boston last year and the roster is still basically the same, um, but they on the Knicks side, still basically the same.

Uh, the, the questions that there's some unpredictability with some of these guys, uh, and it begins with Brunson like Brunson.

Uh, has not looked like himself over the last month.

And I think a lot of that has to do with the ankle issue that he's been having.

Um, and, and I wonder if it's reaching a point where if he can't sit down for a period, then is this the guy, the version we're going to get?

Someone that's still able to give you a 2025 per night, but does it in a more inefficient way.

Uh, I mentioned McHale Bridges.

Like, what are we gonna get from him in the playoffs?

Is he gonna be a reliable shooter?

It's not like he, like, I think his 3-point numbers overall are up from last season, but they've just been down over the last 10 to 12 games, really since the All-Star break.

He hasn't looked like the guy that we've seen at different times during his Knicks tenure.

An Enobi is great, um, no issue there.

Uh, the bench, like Jordan Clarkson's been pretty good.

I've seen some good energy from him over the last couple of weeks.

He's still a very flawed defensive player.

Tyler Coli is a flawed defensive player.

Like they, he had a big night the other night.

He did.

He, well, that's the Wizards though, you know, sorry for your wizards.

You're quoting what McHale Bridges stats from the Wizards.

I know, but Tyler Coli's been out of the rotation.

Though, so it's, I, I, who's reliable with that second unit?

Um, I'm looking at the standings just to see if the Cavs, how close they are.

They're a couple of games back now.

I think the Knicks have pulled a couple ahead.

Is that right?

So the Knicks are 2 ahead in the loss column, 3 ahead in the win column.

By the way, keep an eye on the Celtics overtaking the Pistons.

Well, not after the game I saw against Minnesota, but that was a stinker.

Yes, also, the Pistons will be without Cade Cunningham.

It looks like for the rest of the season, the Knicks, I mean, look, the Knicks are only 5 games back of, of Detroit.

Like, I mean, Detroit, if, if Detroit falls, they're gonna fall hard, I think.

I don't think they're gonna, they're either gonna tread water or they're gonna fall really hard.

And so I think that's definitely worth watching, um, but time is kind of on the Pistons side here with the number of games that are left in the, in the season.

Look, I think it's, look, the Cade injury.

Creates a whole new bunch of questions for Detroit at the top of the conference.

Boston have been, have been great with Tatum coming back, but that game against Minnesota was so bad.

That was awful.

nationally televised too.

That was bad.

Just everybody looked bad in the Celtics going up against an Anthony Edwards last team.

I think the door is open for the Knicks to do so.

I also wonder about to put a button on it like.

The consistency is the kind of mental toughness.

I mean, say what you want about Thibs, but Tibbs had that team ready to go every single night.

It doesn't, like some nights it feels like the Knicks are just kind of sleepwalking.

Like they had that stretch in January where like 2 and 9, like, I don't know that a stretch like that happens with Tom Thibodeau there.

Like, maybe I'm gonna Knicks fans will tell me, no, they had this stretch with Thibs, they had that stretch with Thibs.

They weren't very good, but a 2 and 9 stretch in January after your owner says you better win a championship.

I don't know if that happens with Thibs on the clock.

It's not, Mike Brown's got this team right now.

They're top 5 in both .

The only team that's the 3 teams top 5 offensive, defensive, efficiency, Boston, San Antonio, and New York right now.

So they're getting it done statistically, but like that, that edge that I kind of knew they had last year, do they still have it?

I don't know.

I don't know.

As I said, the fir, my first answer to this question was inconsistency has been their Achilles' heel this season, so we'll have to see if they're on a high for the entire playoffs or not.

I've had several people ask me in interviews and things like, and, you know, panels on TV and things like that, like, oh, is this Knicks team.

Better than last year's Knicks team.

Here's the answer.

When the Knicks get past Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, they are a better team this year.

That's it, because this is a game where you try to win as much as possible for as deep as possible to get as close to the trophy as possible.

And until you show me this team can get past game 6 of these.

Eastern Conference Finals or doesn't even need to because they're in the finals in 5.

Like, I can't tell you this team is better.

And, and this comes back down to me.

I understand all the problems that come along with Tibbs.

You and I have covered every Tibbs team.

We get it.

We've seen the pattern, all the stuff, and maybe it's just nicer on a day to day basis with Mike Brown than Tom Thibodeaux for the players, for the staff, whoever, but you cannot knock the results to your point and like.

Until this team gets past game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, I'm not ready to declare them anything because they had their best season in 20 years last year.

Yeah, I, I agree.

I, it's gonna be interesting.

I'm curious to see how the stars look when the playoffs roll around.

Is Brunson, Brunson, is Bridges Bridges.

If they are, this team can make a run, this team can win the whole Eastern Conference.