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Good evening, fellow mammals! (Apologies to any lizard people.)
We’re three games (read: losses) into the Knicks’ new season, and players are already talking about what a mess the team is in postgame interviews! The Knicks are back!
Here’s some tuneage for while you read:
Who’s the top grumbler on the Knicks?
— Courtney Lee got some grumbles out after the Knicks’ brutal loss to the Celtics last night:
"It was a lot of possessions like a normal eye might not see it, but we messed up on a lot of plays where the ball wasn't getting delivered on time or one or two guys not being on the same page as far as the playcalling. That's on us. We've got to pay attention more in practice, make sure we execute more when we're out there.... There's plays that we go over in practice, if we're messing up in practice and we're messing up in games we got to understand these plays and get in those positions to where we're executing and being sharp. If we miss shots, we miss shots. That's part of the game. But not being in the right position takes away a shot for your teammates. We got to learn the plays."
— Not to be outdone, Tim Hardaway Jr. made his case to start at Lead Locker Room Grumbler for the rest of the season:
Tim Hardaway Jr. on what was wrong in the Knicks' 21-point loss on Tuesday: "Everything. Nothing - couldn't get anything offensively. We're all out there just running like we don't know what's going on. It can't happen. It's frustrating at the same time, but it's still early in the season. We've just got to go to the drawing boards and get back to practice, just go out there knowing what we have to do offensively and defensively," said Hardaway, who missed 9 of 11 shots after going 4-for-16 against Detroit. ".... You guys see it out there. It's no secret. We're turning the ball over, lackadaisical out there. Nothing seems crisp really. I mean, yeah, that comes with not really that much experience all together, like all these other teams. But at the same time we can control what we can control, that's keeping the ball in our hands and executing properly."
Tim went on to say today that, even though he’s suffering from an ankle injury, that shouldn’t be an excuse:
"If I'm out there that means I'm 100 percent. There's no excuse on the ankle, no excuse on anything. Yeah, I tweaked it in preseason but it's no excuse. I'm not playing the way I wanted to play and it sucks. But I can't harp on that. You've got to move on, get back in the gym and work."
— Jeff Hornacek grumbled that it’s not his fault that his players don’t know the playbook, it’s the league’s!
Hornacek said recently that players not knowing plays is a consequence of a shortened preseason.
— Stefan Bondy (@SBondyNYDN) October 25, 2017
Ahhh, good to know, Jeff! Be sure to put that in your farewell press release in a couple months. (In a couple weeks, hopefully.—Ed.)
— Kristaps Porzingis is grumbling about getting a bad whistle through the first three games. Hey man, welcome to being the top option in NY! Call Melo and ask him what kind of whistle he got when he was the big dog here.
— Juancho Hernangomez, brother of Willy that apparently loves making out, did a little low-key grumbling at the Knicks for not playing his big bro:
12 pts in 11' not bad @willyhg94 ...
— Juancho Hernangomez (@juanchohg14) October 25, 2017
— Steve Popper writes that the Knicks should take notes from the Celtics’ rebuild as they progress through their own.
— Kyrie Irving confirmed that the Knicks were indeed on his preferred list of trade destinations — “They were close to home. That’s about it.”
— Former Knick Channing Frye wishes he could have done better in the Big Apple:
I always regret not being better in my first two years as a Knick. Being great in NYC would’ve been epic!
— Channing Frye (@Channing_Frye) October 25, 2017
Ironically, one of Frye’s best seasons of his career was his rookie season with the Knicks.
— My fantasy basketball team in the P&T commenter league really sucks. I blame the shortened preseason for my team’s ineptitude (and Eric Bledsoe, damn it). PhenomenalKnickname (not sure who that is, give ups to yourself in the comments) killed it in week 1 with 521 points.
That’s about all I got today, kiddos. Tune in next time!