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Injury riddled Knicks might face same fate as banged up 2020-21 Nets

 


Injuries stink. They're also part of the game. The New York Knicks have tried to grind and battle their way through a whole host of injuries. 

Between Julius Randle announcing before the playoffs he was lost for the year, Bojan Bogdanović shutting it down after the first round series win over Philly, Mitchell Robinson going on the shelf after Game 1 against the Pacers, and OG Anunoby's hamstring injury in Game 2 of the semi-finals series, it's been almost too much to take for Knicks fans. 

Now, the team's emotional leader, Josh Hart, suffered a strained abdominal muscle on his left side. Hart tried to exit and re-enter two separate times during Friday night's Game 6, but he was unable to continue. 

His status for Game 7 is uncertain. Even if Hart gives it a go, he'll likely be compromised and not the same hustle player fans have seen this entire tenure as a Knick. 

So now the Knicks are staring at a Game 7 at home leaning heavily on their leader, Jalen Brunson, to take them to the finish line.  A berth in the Eastern Conference Finals is at stake. 

Where have we seen this storyline before?

Look no further back than the 2021 playoffs, when the Nets watched injury after injury decimate their team, leaving Kevin Durant on an island to try to play hero. 

Kyrie Irving, James Harden, LaMarcus Aldridge and others were banged up or lost for the playoffs, with the Nets losing an epic Game 7 at home to the eventual champion Bucks. 

Just like Durant before him, Brunson may be heroic, but the odds are stacked against the Knicks just like they were the Nets only three short years ago. 

The Knicks are hoping to avoid the same fate the Nets faced, a heartbreaking loss on their home court to end the season and a hopeful playoff run cut tragically short. 

Nets might trade for Cavs guard not named Donovan Mitchell

  


The talk of the NBA world is the future of Donovan Mitchell in Cleveland. Reports have began to surface about Mitchell's rocky relationship with guard Darius Garland. 

According to many media reports, if Mitchell is to consider signing a long-term extension with the Cavaliers, Garland would have to be moved. 

It's unclear Mitchell's intentions at this point and whether the Nets would even be atop his list of trade destinations.  Clearly, if Mitchell has no intentions of signing long-term in Cleveland, his list of suitors will be long. 

Expect the Lakers, Bulls, Nets and Knicks to be chasing his services among many others.

Mitchell will be a free agent after the 2024-25 season and instead of losing him for nothing, Cleveland would opt to move him now for a combination of future draft picks and rotation players. 

While Sean Marks can't get fixated on one player, the move that perhaps makes the most sense for the Nets is trading for a player like Garland. 

Dennis Schröder played well in his short time with the Nets after trade deadline, but Garland is a legitimate top 5-7 point guard in the league.

Marks could consider offloading Simmons' expiring, Dorian Finney-Smith and a sign and trade with Claxton, to net Garland and perhaps even Jared Allen y involving a third team.  

Sean Marks has been creative putting together three team mega deals. 

With the NBA playoffs heating up, Nets fans' attention will be on this summer to see what big moves their GM has under his sleeve. 

Knicks player trolls Haliburton with meme about maligned Net

 


Donte DiVincenzo didn't pull any punches in Game 5 and he is not pulling any punches in his meme game. 

Following the 121-91 win in Game 5 over Indiana at MSG, DiVincenzo took to Instagram to caught a stray via Instagram. 

New York can close out the series on Friday in Indiana. Haliburton had a down game with just 13 points and five rebounds. 

Clearly, the Pacers star has bulletin board material that he'll need to use as inspiration when he returns to Gainbridge Fieldhouse. 

 

Knicks on verge of something Nets' Big three never achieved

 


The New York Knicks defeated the Indiana Pacers 121-91 to take a 3-2 edge in the Eastern Conference semi-finals on Tuesday night. 

The series will turn back to Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indiana for Game 6 with the Knicks looking to close it out. 

The Knicks have not been to the Eastern Conference Finals since 1999.

 In that lockout shortened 50 game regular season, the Knicks advanced as the number 8th seed all the way to the NBA finals.  

They eventually fell in five games to the San Antonio Spurs. 

That feels like a lifetime ago, but the Nets best chance at a championship feels like yesterday. 

Even with Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden, the Brooklyn Nets never even reached an Eastern Conference Finals. 

In fact, the last time the Nets were in the Eastern Conference Finals was in 2003 when they were making their second of consecutive runs to the NBA Finals.

Not since the team relocated to Brooklyn to start the 2012-13 season have the Nets advanced past the second round of the playoffs.

Meanwhile, a Knicks squad without Julius Randle, OG Anunoby and Bojan Bogdanovic is doing something that a super team in Brooklyn could not achieve. 

It goes to show that togetherness, grit and hustle go just as far, if not farther than talent.

Durant, Harden and Irving had plenty of talent, but were sorely lacking in the intangible area of leadership. 

Barclays Center is early quiet while Madison Square Garden rocking between the Knicks and Rangers playoff runs this spring.

The Nets better regroup in short order because this Knicks core isn't going anywhere anytime soon. 

Like Kidd before him, Carter will not be enshrined in Basketball HOF as a Net

 


It's almost indisputable that Jason Kidd's most productive years were with the New Jersey Nets. The same can be said for Vince Carter. 

When Kidd was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018, he was  enshrined as a Maverick. Yes, the team that drafted him and he won a championship with as a secondary star.

Carter will also be going into the Hall with the team that drafted him, the Toronto Raptors.

When Air Canada left Toronto, there was much vitriol from the Raptors fan base.

So why is it that two all-time Nets will be memorialized in Springfield, Massachusetts, with another franchise? 

It likely has a lot to do with the Nets running away from their history. Upon the move to New Jersey, the Nets did a terrible job of honoring the Long Island era of basketball. The same can be said upon the move to Brooklyn, when the Nets tried to treat the relocation as a rebranding of a new franchise. 

As the years go on, and the Nets are further and further away from those back-to-back NBA finals berths. Some of the great moments and legends of those years are being forgotten about. 

The Nets public relations staff has done an extremely underwhelming job of welcoming in former alumni and spearheading initiatives to honor the team's history. 

The Nets have finally reportedly decided to retire Vince Carter's number, which is something that is years and years overdue. 

So while there may be some some hard feelings from Nets fans that wanted to see Carter and Kidd with New Jersey Nets gear in Springfield, the organization is as much to blame as anyone.  Sadly, there is not a single player, coach or executive enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a Net. 

 

Brooklyn Nets tease retiring Vince Carter's No. 15

 


It's about damn time. The Brooklyn Nets are late to the party, better late than never.

Soon to be Hall of famer Vince Carter will have his name enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this summer. 

Carter is an all-time legend, but somehow the Nets organization has waited all this time to lift his No. 15 into the rafters. 

This latest tweet by the Brooklyn Nets indicates that a retirement ceremony could be in the offing. 



Carter has already announced, despite his unceremonious departure from Toronto, that he will go into the Hall of Fame as a Raptor.

Perhaps if the Nets were a little more proactive and retired his number and honored one of the franchise's greats sooner, he may have gone in as in New Jersey Net.

While this will be a bittersweet moment for the part-time YES analyst, many Nets fans have been hoping for this day for many years.

As has been the case throughout Nets history, they've been a day late and a dollar short on many occasions. At least Carter will get the tribute he deserves for some terrific years during the New Jersey Nets era. 


 

Just like in GS, BKLYN , KD shows no leadership in PHX

 


Kevin Durant is not a leader. Plain and simple: when things get tough, there's zero accountability from him. 

That's why when he formed a big three in Brooklyn alongside Kyrie Irving and James Harden, things fell apart. Both Irving and Harden accept zero responsibility when things go sideways. 

It's either changing area codes or changing coaches, not looking in the mirror for these mercurial stars. 

It makes sense why Durant would want to play with two players with similar characteristics to his own. Devin Booker and Bradley Beal fit that mold as well. 

Now in his second not even full season in Phoenix, the Suns just hired their third coach,  championship winning one at that, and dismissed him after only one season.

Monty Williams was fired after a very successful run with the Suns including an NBA finals appearance in 2021.

They are now rumblings that Durant has not exactly ingratiated himself to teammates in Phoenix.

This dream big three they formed out in the Valley is going the same way as things went in Brooklyn. More drama and dysfunction than achievement. 

It's kind of sad in a way to see how Durant's legacy will be tainted after his last few seasons, but he has nobody to blame but himself and his ring chasing ways. 

Maybe if he spent less time trying to pull strings behind the scenes and play general manager and coach, he might form a closer bond with his teammates and develop some leadership skills that are sorely lacking. 

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