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OPPOSITION TERRITORY: New York Knicks · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

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Hey there, everybody, it's Jeff. Wanted to let you know we recorded
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this Opposition Territory podcast on Tuesday, February twenty seventh, twenty twenty four.
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By the time you hear this, some things may have changed here and there,
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but we hope you enjoyed the show. Welcome to Opposition Territory. Here
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at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast
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show in the world, over ten and a half years strong. We got
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a great discussion come in your way as we focus on a specific NBA team
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that really has made a lot of waves during the course of this twenty twenty
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three twenty twenty four NBA season, and that is none other than the New
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Your Knicks. Yes, Sixers have been faltering, as we know, Joe
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El Embiid is injured, and boy, not having him on the court has
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been really tough to watch this Sixers team. But the New York Knicks,
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they are capitalizing on various aspects of the Eastern Conference, and they're also just
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coming together and gelling in various ways. And it's interesting to watch this team
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and interesting to think about what they could do potentially in the postseason. We
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got a great discussion coming your way. Let's get to it. It is
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great to have back on the podcast coming to us from the Dime with Josh
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and Quab. I've been on their podcast before, a fantastic show, and
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it is great having him on board to talk about this Knicks team. We've
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got the one and only Josh Rodriguez. How you doing, buddy, Yeah,
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thanks for having me on man, beautiful lady Nick Dan. I'll spend
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a few times, if I could say it, I yes, I love
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it. I absolutely love it. If you are into some NBA action and
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talk on the social media is out there, you can follow Josh on the
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Twitter, slash x dot com at Josh Underscore Rodriguez Underscore. He is a
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great, great follow We love him. And I know you're doing some other
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stuff out there as well too, Josh in the in the interweb world,
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right, Yeah. I mean, I'm a producer for the Volume, which
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is con Coward's Sports Network, and I produce a show called Hoops Tonight with
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Jason timp and also Jenkinson Jones, just more like a comedy topical show.
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Yeah, and I have my and other things as well with the company.
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So that's that's my main job, but also definitely go check out the dime
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with Josh's club. That's my baby. Absolutely, I loved you. I
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love having quab On. He was fantastic, had amount a couple of months
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ago, and it's always great to have you on to talk about specifically the
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Knicks the Eastern Conference. So let's get into it, Josh, because like
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I remember the last time that you were on the podcast and I said that
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I thought the Knicks took some steps like during the offseason kind of get out
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of the middle of the pack in the East. They're definitely showing us something
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this season here. However, you know, there are some folks out there
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in the NBA, you know, ecosphere, you know, who aren't necessarily
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sure if this team is actually the real deal here. So I'm wondering if
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you can kind of take us back a little bit, give us a little
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history on how the Knicks kind of got to the point where they're at today.
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And I believe they may still be thirty four and twenty three as of
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us recording this here on Tuesday, February twenty seventh, and they're just overall
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having a successful season here. So if you can kind of take us back
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a little bit here, give us a little history about how they got to
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this point. How have you seen this team grow, my friend? Well,
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it's interesting because a lot of the growth has to do with people who
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aren't here anymore. Like I would have to talk about RJ. Barrett and
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drafting RJ. And RJ even though I mean he was a third pick of
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the draft, I wouldn't say he performed like a third pick, but he
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performed well not to be a starter in the league and to help this team
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grow. Yeah, drafting, drafting Emmanuel Quickly, who is someone who became
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a sixth Man of the Year candidate last year and who was an inteful part
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of the team while he was here. Even Quinton Grimes, who they just
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traded to Detroit, was our starting toward last year, who, when implemented
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in the starting lineup, turned the whole season around like did Nicks for five
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hundred team last year before Quinton came in and replaced seven fourty and then everything
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just kind of flipped on its head. So a lot of the progress that
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has been made has been because of players who just aren't here anymore. And
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that's the credit to Leon Rose and in the front office. For being patient
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and drafting. Well, they've been a stock picks and I guess if you,
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if you want to be, you could say that he moved. He
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has moved these players at the right time to upgrade the roster, keeping Julius
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Randall and then of course a big one obviously, I can't believen't said yet.
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Signing Jalen Brunston to a very team friendly contract who off seasons ago was
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probably the biggest thing. I mean, I like, I liked it.
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I wasn't a huge fan of the signing of Brunston just because I didn't know
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how good he was. I don't know anyone knew how good. I remember
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us talking about that sometime ago. I mean, you've been coming on this
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podcast now for you know, a few years here, and I remember you
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actually saying that. But it has worked out, my friend. Yeah,
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I mean, I did not know what he's I'm just a little bit arguing
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on Twitter because I said he's he could be a top ten player, which
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is ridiculous. I was kind of just I was being Twitter, Josh.
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Sometimes you just say I don't I don't mean that. People. I hope
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he's a top ten player, but I think you could arguably, arguably he's
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placing the top fifteen the way he's played this year. Oh yeah, I'm
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you would have to like argue over Halliburt and other players like that. But
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I mean, he's been phenomenal this year, and I would have never guessed
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that at best. I would have thought he'd been like an eighteen and eight
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type guy who like steps to the offense, which I would have been fine
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with. But he's he's a low end MBB candidate. He's in the conversation.
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Absolutely, yes, absolutely, for sure. Well, I wanted to
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move on to this next player here, and it's a it's somebody who I
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was hoping the Sixers may have been potentially targeting before the trade deadline. But
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the Knicks certainly got better when they acquired Bojon before the trade deadline. I
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mean, and he certainly killed the Sixers last week, and when he put
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up twenty two points, I'm thinking, oh yeah, only you know,
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it's like it's a small sample side that we're seeing thus far here, but
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like overall, like what has Bojon brought off the bench, and like what
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what what are some of the expectations for him this season within Knick's nation.
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You know, and the role that he's gonna bring for this team, well,
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he brings just someone you can give a ball to who can score off
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the bench. I mean the Knicks were kind of missing that, you know
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with their bench unit. They were trying to stagger Julius with the bench unit
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and kind of didn't go well. They tried staggering Jalen, but then Jelan
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was playing too many minutes before Ogi got hurt. They were staggering Og to
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see they can go, you know, create some offense out of that.
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So Bodie brings just some type of like here, take a ball, go
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score, like you could just do whatever you want, which is good if
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I'm gonna be honest with you. Meant, I wasn't a huge fan of
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the trade, Okay, I love I love Quenten Grimes, Like quin Grimes
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is probably my favorite nick. I'm not gonna lie, and I think trading
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him away you kind of sacrifice offense for defense. The Knicks have an identity
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where it's like we're gonna be tough, we're gonna beat you up, and
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you know we're going to defend you. And you just gave away out out
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of Bogi. You're best point of at offender defender on your team. Now
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you're relegating Deuce to the bench more minutes because you're bringing Burks. So for
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me, it's like I looked at Deuce and Grimes versus Bogey and Burkes,
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and to me, it's not that much of an upgrade offensively, and it's
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definitely a downgrade defensively. So for me, I have a lot of complicated
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feelings when it comes to trade because I understand why it was done and I
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like both. I like Bogey and I like Burkes. I just have to
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wait to see how it looks when they'll everybody's back, because I'm trying a
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hard time figure out like how Boge he's gonna get minutes in the playoffs and
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not get run off the court because he can't play defense against the Bucks and
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the Celtics exactly. And that's what I was actually thinking about, too,
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and what this move actually means for the postseason for the Knicks, because like
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you, it's kind of there's some confusing aspects to it, and maybe they
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were trying to look at something with regard to the postseason, but I'm not
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one hundred percent sure because it is a little bit confounding. Actually yeah,
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I mean I just for me, I wanted to add brogged On because to
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me is like, well, we need someone like a Bogey who can get
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the ball to and who can score the basketball. I didn't want to give
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up I didn't want to give up Grimes. You know, I think they're
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two issue parts, especially defensively to the bench unit. I just think they
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needed a simple addition, maybe another option. But now you give up a
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player who, like, again, he was six y four, but outside
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of og he was your best defender and he was the best defender of the
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next team. Last year. He had a moment when he took the ball
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from Dreaming Butler. I'm not saying Quentin Grimes is the star. I'm not
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taking it down that route, but I'm just saying in general, I think
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his value to the team is not really like you can't really replace it.
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Well, then there's something to be said with regard to defense in the playoffs
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too. I mean, as a Sixers fan, holy cow, the lack
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of defense, Like Bogy, He's gonna get run off the court. It's
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like, yeah, I like Bogie, Like he can hit the three and
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he can change the game. If he's hot, but like if you put
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him in for five minutes against the Cells, extra bucks, like he's gonna
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get exposed right away. It's like it's the good of having him. So
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it's it's I have mixed feelings about it overall, but I do want I
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do see the vision. And for those who are not familiar with the Knicks,
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there there's been a lot of turmoil between Grimes and the and the front
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office. So I think that they were just trying to make a move and
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get him out of town. Yeah, and that was you do yep,
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all right, Well, moving on here, Josh, you know, every
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single team, I mean, the Celtics included, i'll say, even though
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they're unfortunately killing it at this moment, and every team they have weaknesses here,
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So I wanted to get into, you know, what are the biggest
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weaknesses with this New York Knicks team that you think potentially could be exploited down
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the stretch, because again, you know, going back to what I said
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previously, there are some folks out there aren't one hundred percent sure if this
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next team is the real deal, saying they have weakness after weakness. I
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don't necessarily know about that, but what did they What did the Knicks need
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to be concerned about down the stretch here and even as they're potentially looking at
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the postseason here? What are your thoughts and what are you concerned about?
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I'm concerned about health obviously, I mean again, like we just kind of
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went all in with knowing that Julius Raandel has to justicate a shoulder. OG's
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been out for an extended period time because of elbow information, Robinson has been
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out for a long time. Hartenstein, who's been a great replacement, is
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kind of banged up now. So help is one thing. But if I
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assuming everyone's healthy, it's really what type of Julius Randall are we get in
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the playoff? Oh yeah, I don't we're a getting man like are again
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the Julius who was like she was twenty eight percent from the field and chucking
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step back threes with sixteen seconds left on the shock lot, or again the
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Julius Randall who's gonna, like, you know, drive aggressively, did a
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hoop and finish and driving cake and look for his teammates to not be a
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headcase to me, Like, I'm not saying that's the only because that's the
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thing that worries me the most about the Knicks because if we have the right
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Julius, this team could beat anybody in the Eastern Conference. In my mind,
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I'm not saying they're better than the Celtics. I'm not saying they're better
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than the Bucks. But if you were like, wake me up in June
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and say here, it wouldn't shock me, right what I'm saying. Yeah,
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so that's their biggest weakness. I mean a lot of people like to
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say, like, you need the guy, and I think Jaylen Brunton is
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the guy. Is he a better guy than Jason Tatum? Probably not,
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but he is a guy. So to me, it's more of like what
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Julius Randler are getting because they are a fantastic rebounding team. They're still a
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pretty good defensive team. They have shooters, now you know, that's what
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the boat me thing did. Now you have players who can struct the floor
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positive acquisition as well as also like hey, like now we have more like
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lineup creation, like we have different like ways that we can So yeah,
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to me, it's it's more about Julius Randall. I think that's fair,
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I really do. It's interesting you mentioned how good of a rebounding team they
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are, and I think I think a storyline that doesn't get talked about enough
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with regard to NBA play in general, is offensive rebounding. I really don't
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think it gets its due. And the Knicks are a damn good team when
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it comes to offensive rebounding and really has saved their butts on a few occasions
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here or there. I think the offensive rebounding from the Knicks is something an
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underrated storyline I should say, heading into you know, this latter part of
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the season, what we're going to see from them in the postseason, offensive
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rebounding is huge in my opinion. Yeah, I mean that's honestly. Their
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opposite ranking is in large part due to offensive rebounding. Like they're not the
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best shooting team in the league. They shoot them shot the three ball better
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a lot better this year, but a lot of it is like Mitchell Robinson
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and Isaiah Hartenstein even prussures of chewing. Now who they got Josh Harten getting
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offensive rebounds so possessions don't go to waste. That's how they be Cleveland last
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year too. It's just the crap out of Josh, Jared Allen and Evan
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Moulgy on the boards. So you know, the Celtics to me don't have
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like that big of a front line. Yep, the Bucks do, so
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I don't. I'm thinking matchups now, but to me, like the only
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weakness to me is like, really, what kind of Jewish reget? That's
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what I keep going. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Well, moving along
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here, Josh, you know, I wanted to go a little deep here
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into the knicks, you know, into the rotation here. I want to
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note that there's one particular player, Miles McBride really kind of found his role
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with the nixt second unit in his performance against seventy six ers recently, and
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it was pretty interesting to watch and I'm thinking to myself, Wow, man,
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Miles McBride here getting it done. So I get a two part question
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for you here, like what has he been really able to bring to this
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team and how does the bench in general really need to perform down the stretch
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here? Do you have any concerns or is it something where, man,
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you believe it's going to be a positive and a momentum changer at times as
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they're looking to the future. Yeah, So, Miles also known as Deuce,
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he it's funny because like for his whole NBA career, he's been just
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a bad free point shooter, Like he just was not good. And one
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night in Philadelphia, I was there, actually one night in Philadelphia, he
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just decided to turn into like Ray Allen and he's been he's been essentially right
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out ever since. Yep, So now he brings shooting. Who knew?
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But yeah, I like his story a lot because he's somebody who was a
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later pick in the first round. He's undersized, he has to work for
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everything that he has, and he took him two and a half years to
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kind of crack the rotation. You know, after they traded for Og,
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a couple of days later, they extended Miles and Nick. Fans are like,
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why, I mean, he wasn't gonna playing time. We all like
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him, you know, he played, but only in spots where they weren't
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healthy. And every time he's played, he's been like just this menace on
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defense that we love. You know, you love those type of players,
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like a Tech McConnell type player. You love them because it's it is they
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provide energy and that he brings energy. But I didn't know that he could
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shoot the ball like this. Uh, so he brings shoot either. Yeah.
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Yeah, I was talking trash to the Sixers has because he hit two
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straight threes and I was like, oh, these hitting shots, It's like
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it's over. It's a long night. So yeah, so but yeah he
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brings shooting. Defensive, he's a fantastic defender, he says, undersize,
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but a fantastic defender. And honestly, now again with Bogie in the lineup,
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we're gonna need a perimeter defender. Who who's going to have to hide
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certain uh deficiencies uh with with our new acquisitions. To me, he's I
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hope he gets more minutes t on me play ten minutes last night. His
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minutes have been cut since Berks and Bowie came over. But I really hope
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that Timms trust him it'll playoffs because I think he deserves at least fifteen to
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twenty at night. Again, folks, talking to Josh Rodriguez from the Dime
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with Josh and Quab. Great great podcast. I listened on Apple Podcasts.
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You should listen as well on whatever podcast platform you're listening to us on.
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Give Josh a follow on Twitter, slash x at Josh Underscore Rodriguez Underscore He's
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a great, great follow And as we're moving along here, Josh, I
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wanted to really just get into that million dollar question that a lot of folks
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have been asking in the basketball world, specifically with regarding the Eastern Conference.
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Can the Knicks make it to the Eastern Conference Finals? So, taking out
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any bias here, what are your objective thoughts on this possibility? Can this
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team actually do it? Oh Man? So this is not going to sound
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objective, but I promise you, executive, I think the win. I
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think they can win the East. I'm not gonna oh man. Yes,
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I wouldn't pick him. Don't everyone listening. I don't know how Philadelphia is.
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So a bunch of people cursed me out. I'm not saying they're going
16:04
to win the East obviously this, but I think right now a lot of
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things are working in their favorite right. The Bucks have no idea who the
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hell they are. Doc Rivers has no idea what he's doing, going through
16:15
a full blown identity crisis. Who knows what's going on with Philadelphia and their
16:18
health and what's going over there. So for me, you know, the
16:22
only team that worries me is the Celtics, who is obviously the best team
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in the Eastern Conference and who I would pick to beat the Knicks in the
16:30
conference finals Philadelphia. So relax, but yeah, I think they can.
16:33
It depends what seed they get, you know. I hope they get the
16:37
two or three seeds so they don't see Boston until the Eastern Conference Finals.
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I think that has a lot to do with it. I think they're capable
16:42
of getting that two or three seed. Cleveland does not scare me at all,
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considering what the Knicks did last year. Same here. I've mentioned that
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on the podcast too. I mean that the Sixers have been taking care of
16:52
them too. Yeah, and it's like, yeah, Cleveland's better this year,
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but guess who's better too, The Knicks are better, Like that's not
16:57
the same Knicks team as well. So Cleveland does not scare me at all.
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I think, you know, barring injury, and if Julius comes back
17:06
in time, and if Og comes back in time, and they're able to
17:08
get at least that three seed, then yeah, they can make the Eastern
17:11
Conference Finals and possibly go to the finals. I don't think I would pick
17:15
it, but I definitely think the Eastern Conference Finals is definitely a realistic option.
17:18
If they get that two or three seed. I think that home court
17:21
advantage at MSG would be absolutely crazy, and I think it would be a
17:26
real difference maker too, I do given the energy surrounding the team right now
17:30
at this point and even down the stretch, if they're able to keep it
17:33
going, that home court advantage would be absolutely invaluable. Yeah, yeah,
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sure, all right, Well, last topic here, buddy before I let
17:41
you head out, And I know it's kind of general here, but I'm
17:45
wondering, you know what, what's the biggest NBA storyline that you're gonna be
17:48
keeping your eyes on from now until the end of the season. I mean,
17:51
whether it deals with the Knicks or just in general. That NBA storyline
17:56
that really has you intrigued and you're gonna be keeping your eyes on it is
18:00
that. Honestly, we just mentioned it with the bucks Man because to me,
18:03
the Bucks were title contenders at the start of the year. You get
18:06
Damian Lillard, and obviously that's an creed over drew a holiday offensively, but
18:10
he's been had a hard time introgating offensively. Honestly, he's had the worst
18:14
offensive season he's had in this year with the Bucks as well. Firing Adrian
18:18
and Griffin bringing in Doc Rivers. You've had three coaches now in the past
18:22
like year Boundar Year. So to me, you know, if you take
18:26
out the Bucks from the conversation of teams that can win the title, all
18:30
of a sudden, I think the East opens up to a lot of teams.
18:33
I mean, I know we just hated on the calves here, but
18:33
if I'm Cavstan, I'm telling myself, Hey, we can win the East.
18:37
Why can't we win the East? We're the two seed right now,
18:38
Philadelphia. If we all get healthy and you know, we click, why
18:41
can't we win the East? So I think, you know, having the
18:45
Bucks taken out of the equation gives a lot of hope to a lot of
18:48
Eastern Conference teams, and to me, probably is the biggest story of going
18:52
into I guess the second half of the season now, I love that storyline.
18:56
Fantastic again, folks, Josh Rodriguez The Dime with Josh and Quab take
19:00
a listen on whatever podcast platform you are on. My friend, it is
19:04
always great talking to you. Thanks so much for joining us to get into
19:07
this nixt talk. Let's talk down the road, my friend, You're coming
19:11
back on the dime for a six Ers episode. That absolutely, I would
19:15
love it, my friend. Absolutely. I don't know about you all,
19:18
but I just think the Eastern Conference is a lot more interesting than the Western
19:21
Conference at this point. Really, what Josh just finished up talking about the
19:26
Bucks and how that team performs down the stretch, that's definitely a top storyline.
19:32
It's and it's a storyline too, that is going to affect more than
19:34
just their team, like Josh mentioned, I mean, it's going to affect
19:37
the Knicks, the Sixers, even potentially the Calves as well. I mean,
19:41
could it affect the Pacers if the Pacers start getting hot at the right
19:45
time. So it's gonna be very interesting and we're gonna continue following all these
19:48
storylines here at the PST Podcast Show. Thanks so much for joining us on
19:52
our Opposition Territory pod. Go back into our feed and this past week we
19:57
had a great table talk to discus where we got into some MLB talking,
20:03
specifically with regard to the New York Nets, what that team has been doing
20:07
or as our guest was talking about, really have not been doing during the
20:11
course of the off season leading into spring training. How that relates to the
20:15
NL East as well. It was a great conversation with our friend Maggie Wiggin
20:19
over at a pod of their own, great great podcast as well. So
20:25
it's good to do it for us here on Opposition Territory. Make sure you
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follow me on threads. If you are on Threads, I've been trying to
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spend some time over there at mister Jeff Warren. You can follow the show
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will catch you next time.