Ode To The 24-25 Knicks

With the Knicks season ending last night in Indiana, I reflect on their most successful season in my lifetime thus far, being able to enjoy that playoff run with some great people along the way. Also, ripping off the band-aid that is the question of what the Knicks do this offseason to get themselves a step further next season.

Intro: Morgan Wallen - '98 Braves

@SleeperKnicks X thread I was referring to in this episode: https://x.com/SleeperKnicks/status/1929017870400274637

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to PEG's perspective with your host Ryan Pagano. Winsomulism
is Homras Lasser's the way that plays. If we were
the same Love was a gang, they would have been
ninety a Braves. All right, we're back talking hoops here

(00:23):
on PEG's perspective, bringing things in with the little Morgan
wallin ninety eight Braves. So I feel like that really
is the song of the day here, ninety eight Braves
a nostalgic tribute to well, the nineteen ninety eight Atlanta Braves,
a really great regular season team that ultimately fell short

(00:43):
in the postseason. And I guess it's kind of easy
to compare that to the season that the twenty four
to twenty five Knicks had their most successful season in
twenty five years, and it ended just last night at
the hands of the hated Indiana Pacers. They take Game
six in indianaeive to one oh eight, and they reached
their second ever NBA Finals, their first on ironically coming

(01:06):
at the hands of the Knicks in a six game
series back in two thousand. Now, I do have some
mixed feelings about this. Yes, it's somewhat disappointing because if
we're being realistic. The Knicks should have been up three
to two here. This series should have been going to
a Game seven at MSG tomorrow night, if only they
could have made their free throws, or stop Aarony Smith
when he caught fire and channeled his inner Reggie Miller,

(01:29):
or perhaps stop Tyres Haliburton on that last possession in
regulation of Game one. If any of those things happen,
we're talking about Game seven of the Eastern Conference Finals
tomorrow night, and we're talking about the Knicks having a
legitimate shot at reaching their first NBA Finals in twenty
six years, especially with them having home court in the series.
But alas, just like the ninety eight Braves, it was

(01:51):
not meant to be. Now, while this is very disappointing,
I have to tip my hat to the Knicks because
this was far and away the most successful season that
I have ever seen in my time as a Knicks fan. Because,
let me put it to you this way, the last
time that my team won a game in the Eastern
Conference Finals, never mind even been there last time that happened,

(02:12):
I wasn't even born yet. I quite literally have not
seen my team in the Eastern Conference Finals until this season,
and it's a run like this that really could illuminate
for the next decade in Knicks Nation if they can
play their cards correctly. This makes me genuinely proud to
be a Knicks fan. Crazy statement, I know, given how

(02:32):
this team was run since their last Eastern Conference finals,
what with the Isaiah Thomas era, the failure of Mellow
and Stodemeier, Phil Jackson, and James Dolan at that point
being one of the worst owners in sports. US Knicks
fans have been through a lot. We've been certainly traumatized
by all those years. So can you really blame us
when we're celebrating like crazy in the streets on Seventh Avenue.

(02:55):
Can you really blame us? It's us taking out all
our PTSD in celebration, and a worthy celebration at that,
because the Knicks, for the first time in a million years,
are actually respectable again, at least as far as their
on court product goes. I'm not gonna say the same
about everything associated with the Knicks, because I truly believe

(03:16):
it was the trash back throwing out that Pacers fan
following the Knicks eliminating the Celtics that really started to
do them in so I don't really blame the Hoosiers
for calling us out in that regard, but yes, as
far as the on court product goes, it's actually respectable. Again.
This is a far cry from the days that rookies
were getting thirty minutes a game, a far cry from
the days where Alonzo Trier was the knicks best player.

(03:39):
No disrespect to Alonso, still love them, but this run
was for all the fans that have stuck by the
New York Knicks through all the tough times that they
had in the past twenty five years. Now, joke that
the ones that really deserve this run are the Knicks
fans that remember Lou Aminson, Quincy ac Alexi Cheved Langston Galloway,

(04:01):
and for those that remember what happened to Clee Anthony
early that one morning in Maspeth. Shout out to all
those Nick legends from the mid twenty tens. This run
was for them. I can say I'm one of those fans,
and I'm super thankful to have been able to share
that with some other fans throughout this playoff run. Chris Cantello,
Matt Sambolin, just to name a few. Of course, I
would be remissed though if I did not mention the

(04:24):
Alex Garrett having him at the Game five watch party
against the Celtics at MSG was just freaking electric, getting
the tickets very last minute, sitting three rows away from
the court, keeping the seats at celebrity Row very warm,
and not only that, but sitting just rose in front
of nick legends like Latrell spree Well, Larry Johnson j R.

(04:47):
Smith That's the type of stuff you're not gonna forget
anytime soon. Also getting a thumbs up from Latrell's Spreewell
that night. Not to mention all the celebrity sightings outside
of four Penn, seeing people like Bad Buddy, Bust of Rhymes,
Cardi b even standing right next to one of Tracy
Morgan's cars, and of course Patrick Beverly who tagged me
on his Insta and he even gave me a followed

(05:09):
back of my personal account after I posted a picture
of him entering the garden I had of one of
those games against the Celtics, so huge shout out to
Pat BEV for the follow You the man, and by
the way, if you want to keep up with my
dventures on Instagram, I post there pretty frequently. You can
go check out my personal account at Ryan Underscore, pegs underscore,

(05:32):
and if you want to check out more updates as
far as this podcast goes, I post updates there pretty
frequently on Ryan Pegg's Underscore podcasting, so be sure to
go check out my two accounts there, give him a follow,
give him some likes, greatly appreciate it all the same,
I loved every single bit of this nixt playoff run,
and I'm really looking forward to what comes next in

(05:55):
twenty five. Twenty six certainly gonna be a bit more
of a challenge this time I'm around, with the Eastern
Conference set to become a little more dense, especially with
the Calves growing from their recent playoff failures. The Celtics
will certainly still be around, especially once Tatum returns. I
would have to assume that would be around the All
Star break, but we'll see what happens there. Of course,
Indiana will still continue to be a thorn in the

(06:17):
Knicks side, but then you also got the Detroit Pistons,
the same team that the Knicks dispatched in the first round.
They're pretty damn good and they're only going to get
better from here. On out. So if there really is
a time to capitalized within the Eastern Conference, that time
is now. The window is still open, yes, but you
have to capitalize on that sooner than later if you're
the New York Knicks. And no, I don't mean capitalizing

(06:39):
on this window by trading away Cat. Yes, his defense
does leave a lot to be desired, but here's what
really helped you get here. Trading away Julius Randall and
Dante Gi Vincenzo to the Timberwolves. It was a true
wind wind trade on both sides. For a championship run
to be likely, you need to keep Cat around. You
also need to keep the depth as well, and not
trade them or Yanna Sonse Tocumbo in a panic, not

(07:02):
unless you want to end up like the current day
Phoenix Suns in two years now. There is one other
question in basketball wise that will need to be answered
ahead of twenty five to twenty six, and that's with
the status of Tom Thibodeau. Now, I'm very conflicted on
the guy. He's a great coach, yes, but he's the
basketball equivalent of Peter Duboor. He will get you regular
season results, he will not win you a championship. Though,

(07:25):
and this fan base, especially this postseason in particular, they
were uber frustrated with him at times, with him using
the same eight guys in the rotation, and it got
results not the ones that Knicks fans were hoping for,
because you could see the guys getting exhausted before the
end of games, and you had great fourth quarter teams
in particular the Pacers easily exploiting that weakness throughout the series. Now,

(07:49):
I know Brunson was questioning reporters that were questioning him
on Tibbs being the right guy for the locker room,
and look, I completely understand that. But also so you
gotta remember basketball is the business and it's all about
capitalizing on a championship window. Because look at some of
the NBA champions that we had in the twenty tens,

(08:10):
the Warriors, the Cavs, and the Raptors, they all fired
their incumbent coach, replacing them with first time head coaches
and won championships immediately after as a result. And this
gets me to my next idea that I'd actually be
down with. Shout out to Sleeper Knicks on X for
this of a firing by promotion for Tom Thibodeaux. Where
he would become the assistant vice president of basketball ops

(08:34):
with the Knicks being able to bring on a new
voice as their next head coach. Now, I know the
best option there is Mike Malone. I know that's the
first option that a lot of Knicks fans are going
to think of, and I'd be down for him to
become head coach in that regard. But there's also somebody else,
if we're looking at first time head coaches, that I
feel like could excel in that role. And he's a
familiar name to Knicks fans. Johnny Bryant the lead assistant

(08:56):
under Thibodeaux in the early twenty twenties before taking that
same position with the cas this past season, and look
at how successful they were in the regular season. He's
very familiar with Tibbs's style. He's worked as an assistant
under Quinn Snyder and of course Kenny Atkinson this past season.
So if the Knicks are going to look for a
new voice that could push them over the top, I
think Bryant could be that guy. And as much as

(09:17):
I like Tom, I can't see his offensive schematics start
to wear off on the guys. That said, I still
want him involved with the Knicks, and even if he's
still the head coach, which at this point in time
I think seems likely. I've not seen a single sign
of Tibbs potentially being let go following this run. But
then again, it also is not even twelve hours since

(09:38):
the loss at the time I'm recording this, so look,
even if he's still the head coach, I still trust
him moving forward. And finally, as far as offseason targets go,
I know I made it very clear that I do
not want the Knicks to trade for Giannis unless they
want to become the modern day Phoenix Suns playing team
at best, nothing more, nothing less. So as far as

(09:59):
who I think the new should target in free agency,
I want to put two realistic targets out there, Chris
Paul Kevon Looney. They're both two experienced bench pieces that
I feel the Knicks should be going after here and
with current pieces on the roster, I also really want
to see one an extension for Michal Bridges, but also
I'd really like to see Landry Shammitt back. I think

(10:21):
if you have all four of those pieces in play,
it really gives the Knicks a roster that allows you
as a fan to feel really comfortable in any given situation,
especially if the coach isn't going to overutilize the same
eight guys over and over again, depth up and down
the roster. That's ultimately what's going to push you to
that next level, which, and I hate to say this

(10:43):
hasn't really been a thing in the Tom Thibodeau era
of Knicks basketball. So yeah, not a flashy off season
that I'm envisioning, but they have a championship corn place.
All that needs to be done is just tighten up
a few screws, take care of some all season housekeeping,
and you're good to go. So you know what, trust
that Leon Rose is going to be able to do
the right things to push this team towards a ring.

(11:05):
We'll see what happens from there, and I'll be back
with more updates on packs perspective as we get further
on into the offseason, and even with the Nixon Cancun
go New York Go, New York Go,