KnicksTape

Nothing get’s the people more fired up than a revenge game. KAT and Thibs return to Minnesota, while DDV and Randle return to New York. This goes past the normal revenge game stuff since all these guys have a pretty unique story with the former team.

• KAT: This isn’t “Gabe Vincent returns to Miami”. This is a one of the best players in their franchise history, in his prime, returning in the Finals. He was the Wolves #1 pick and supposed franchise savior for almost a decade. They loved him, but it always seemed like there was some hesitancy about his toughness and playoff performances (“He’s no KG!”). Then, they get Ant and he immediately got pushed to the side. In New York, he’s found a ton of confidence and I can’t imagine he doesn’t want to prove them wrong for picking Ant and Gobert over him.
• Thibs: This is the least exciting, but still interesting. I can’t imagine he’s too fired up since he got a pretty fair shake in Minnesota. Also, he’s head coached 3 teams and been in the league even longer than that. Ironically, the player he had the biggest problem with was KAT. I’ve always wondered if they talked about that. Regardless – something to note.
• Randle: This is a tough one for me because I love Randle. I really hope Knicks fan can appreciate that he was the one who came when KD and Kyrie spurned us, and started all of this. If there’s no Randle, there’s no Brunson, there’s no ECF, there’s no Sidetalk videos. If the Knicks continue to compete for the next few years, and then continue to at least be a normal franchise for longer than that, we can always look back at him for being the one who brought us out of the darkest era in franchise history. But… he kind of sucked in the playoffs when he was here and it was a no brainer we traded him. Down the stretch too, it got a little ugly with the fans and the general sentiment was that time to move on. He’s absolutely balling in the playoffs for the first time, and I will bet any amount of money that there’s nothing he wants to do more than win a Final’s game at the Garden and let us hear it. Which is… fair.
• DDV: For being the worst of the 3 players returning, his relationship between the 2 teams is probably the most known because of that commercial. That commercial plays at least 10,000 times a game so there’s no doubt in my mind casual watchers are more likely to know DDV used to be on the Knicks with all his college buddies, than anything about the KAT/Randle trade. Plus, it wasn’t just that he got traded away from Hart and Brunson, he effectively got replaced by another one of their buddies. I know it wasn’t technically how it happened, but the end result is the same. Imagine if your two best friends said “Hey sorry, you can’t come in our Uber we can only fit two.” Annoying, but whatever. Now imagine you’re getting in your own, and your 4th friend climbs into their Uber. You’d be livid. And I’m sure DDV is too.

So that’s the revenge game part of it, and that’s not even the best part.

2 words for you: “Jalen Brunson and Anthony Edwards. Must See TV.” (Google “Charles Barkley 2 Words” if you’re lost). These guys are becoming the faces of the NBA, and yet I always feel like Brunson doesn’t get enough respect. The general consensus seems to be that Ant is in the Luka, Jokic, Shai category of the great players, while Brunson just doesn’t get that credit. I have no issues with Ant; he’s ridiculously good, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the best player in the NBA someday. But Brunson is right there with him. I get it somewhat – the undersized and unheralded late bloomer never gets the benefit of the doubt over the generational athlete top pick who literally looks like Michael Jordan. There’s also the defense piece, to which my response is: whatever you losers, that’s what we have OG, Hart, Mikal, and Mitch for. But every time you watch a Knick broadcast you see another stat like “Brunson has the most playoff points since Jordan”, “Brunson has the most 4th quarter points since Kobe”, etc. At some point, as good as Ant is, it’s time to let results speak for themselves and have a serious conversation about who’s better. And what would be a better time to prove it than the Finals?