After falling to the reigning champion Golden State Warriors on Friday, the Knicks lost their second game in a row to the Suns on Sunday, falling to 8-9 on the season. Obviously, the Suns are a great team and are very hard to beat, but too many Knicks players disappointed in what should have been a winnable game.
I will say it was nice to see Quentin Grimes start in place of the injured Cam Reddish, as he played very nicely on both ends of the ball. While I’d like to criticize Tom Thibodeau for not playing him, it was likely due to Grimes’ foot injury that he may have still been dealing with.
As for the rest of this game, the Knicks must be better as they will face great teams in their coming games.
The Knicks have yet to obtain a win against a quality team this season. While they’ve beaten teams like the Nuggets and 76ers, the Knicks barely squeaked by when both teams were missing their best players.
It was quite obvious before the season that the Knicks were not built to compete against high-level teams, so this is not surprising to see. However, the way in which New York continuously disappoints against top teams in the league needs to be discussed.
This team does not have the star power to push them over the edge against these great teams. While players like Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson have stepped up and had great performances, they are, for the most part, just very good players and the Knicks need more than just them.
Not only do the Knicks lack an elite defensive player that can help slow down an opposing team’s best player, but they also lack the offensive juggernaut that can match the scoring output of an opposing star.
Brunson has had many moments of being an elite offensive player, but his limitations on defense and lack of help at times on offense allow him to only do so much.
Regardless, the Knicks must be better against the top teams in the league if they want to have a chance to make the play-in/playoffs. You can only feed off of the bottom teams in the NBA for so long before you have to suit up against some juggernauts.
not playing him</a>, it was likely due to Grimes’ foot injury that he may have still been dealing with.</p>
<p>As for the rest of this game, the Knicks must be better as they will face great teams in their coming games.</p>
<h2>3 takeaways from the Knicks’ aggravating loss to the Suns</h2>
<h3>3: Knicks continue to struggle against good teams</h3>
<p>The Knicks have yet to obtain a win against a quality team this season. While they’ve beaten teams like the Nuggets and 76ers, the Knicks barely squeaked by when both teams were missing their best players.</p>
<p>It was quite obvious before the season that the Knicks were not built to compete against high-level teams, so this is not surprising to see. However, the way in which New York continuously disappoints against top teams in the league needs to be discussed.</p>
<p>This team does not have the star power to push them over the edge against these great teams. While players like Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson have stepped up and had great performances, they are, for the most part, just very good players and the Knicks need more than just them.</p>
<p>Not only do the Knicks lack an elite defensive player that can help slow down an opposing team’s best player, but they also lack the offensive juggernaut that can match the scoring output of an opposing star.</p>
<p>Brunson has had many moments of being an elite offensive player, but his limitations on defense and lack of help at times on offense allow him to only do so much.</p>
<p>With all the rumors surrounding the team’s likelihood of<a href=https://dailyknicks.com/2022/11/21/3-big-takeaways-knicks-aggravating-loss-suns/"https://dailyknicks.com/2022/11/10/4-megastars-new-york-knicks-happy-trade-trove-picks/"> trading for a star</a>, who knows, maybe a move is on the way soon.</p>
<p>Regardless, the Knicks must be better against the top teams in the league if they want to have a chance to make the play-in/playoffs. You can only feed off of the bottom teams in the NBA for so long before you have to suit up against some juggernauts.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #007BC1" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://dailyknicks.com/2022/11/21/3-big-takeaways-knicks-aggravating-loss-suns/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> A pleasant surprise that was nice to see despite the loss </a>
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<img decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-136217" src=https://dailyknicks.com/2022/11/21/3-big-takeaways-knicks-aggravating-loss-suns/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_2133,w_3200/https%3A%2F%2Fdailyknicks.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2018%2F08%2F1443086369.jpeg" alt="" width="3200" height="2133" srcset="https://dailyknicks.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2018/08/1443086369.jpeg 3200w, https://dailyknicks.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2018/08/1443086369-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 3200px) 100vw, 3200px"><p class="wp-caption-text">Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)</p>
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<h3>2: Jalen Brunson continues to show why he is worth every penny</h3>
<p>In yet another amazing showcase of talent, Jalen Brunson showed yet again why the Knicks made the right decision <a href=https://dailyknicks.com/2022/11/21/3-big-takeaways-knicks-aggravating-loss-suns/"https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/34174978/sources-dallas-mavericks-informed-jalen-brunson-intends-sign-new-york-knicks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to pay him</a> so much money. The Knicks have been without an All-Star level PG for so long and it seems as if they finally have their guy.</p>
<p>Brunson dropped 27 points, three rebounds, and three assists while shooting 11-of-21 from the field and 2-of-4 from three. He may not have been the best defensively, but that is not what New York pays him to do.</p>
<p>Overall, Brunson is averaging 19.6 points, 6.8 assists, and 3.7 rebounds while shooting 47.7% from the field and 29.7% from three on four attempts per game. While Brunson’s three-point shooting may be disappointing, he is doing just about everything else on offense at an elite level.</p>
<p>For example, Brunson’s playmaking this season has been everything the Knicks have wanted and more, as he is averaging 6.8 assists to only 1.8 turnovers per game. Considering how poor New York’s starters have played at times this season, the assists number doesn’t fully showcase how good of a passer he has been.</p>
<p>Considering how poor the Knicks point guards have been over the last 10 years, Brunson is worthy of his own little reward for simply being a great NBA player at PG for the Knicks.</p>
<p>As the season goes on, Brunson will likely only continue to prove just how good of a player he is, shutting down any of the questions surrounding the money he is being paid.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #007BC1" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://dailyknicks.com/2022/11/21/3-big-takeaways-knicks-aggravating-loss-suns/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> These two players really stunk it up on Sunday </a>
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hurting the Knicks</a> with his lack of offense over the last few games. While Barrett has supposedly been playing the last couple of games sick, this does not excuse how he has been forcing shots on offense.</p>
<p>This game was not nearly as bad in terms of Barrett forcing offense, but it was still not a good game at all. In 27 minutes of play, Barrett had 12 points, four rebounds, and two assists while shooting 3-of-11 from the field and 1-of-3 from three, continuing his awful stretch.</p>
<p>In addition to the issues surrounding his three-point shot, Barrett has even had issues hitting simple layups. While I’m sure he will break out of this slump soon, he still needs to be better.</p>
<p>It is year four now, and while Barrett is only 22 this does not mean that Knicks fans can baby him. Just like we all hold players like Julius Randle accountable, it is time to do the same with Barrett.</p>
<p>Speaking of Randle, he has been fantastic offensively in recent games, however, this was not the case against the Suns. He only put up nine points, six rebounds, and two assists while shooting 4-of-11 from the field and 1-of-4 from three.</p>
<p>However, I am not going to talk about Randle’s issues on offense, as he has played quite well on that end for the majority of this season. Instead, we’re going to talk about Randle’s defense, which has been absolutely dreadful this season.</p>
<p>While he has had some moments of putting some great effort into his on-ball defense, his ability in the off-ball has been some of the worst I’ve ever seen.</p>
<p>After almost every game, we<a href=https://dailyknicks.com/2022/11/21/3-big-takeaways-knicks-aggravating-loss-suns/"https://twitter.com/IQfor3/status/1591989467141013505" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> see clips</a> surface of Randle just sitting around in the paint completely ignoring his man, which causes major complications for New York’s defense. While this version of Randle is better than last year where we saw no offense AND no defense, he still must be better.</p>
<p>Hopefully, as the season goes on we see major improvements from both of these two, as we all know that the Knicks only go as far as Randle and Barrett will take them.</p>
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