Christian, how are you man?
Thank you for taking the time. Thank you for having me. I'm doing well, man. How you feeling? I'm better.
I think I'm better than a lot of Nick fans. Look, the next step, they're 37 and 13 in the season. But against Boston, Cleveland, Oklahoma City, they're 0 and 7. They're getting smashed. I mean, what could Nick fans possibly expect to change?
Is the answer nothing? What they can expect to change is the roster in terms of Mitchell Robinson coming back. And I think that's a big piece of the puzzle for this team. Remember, when you trade for Karl Anthony Towns and you start him at center, you understand that you're able to space the floor. You're getting all the offensive gifts that he comes with. You're getting the rebounding. But the Minnesota Timberwolves went and got Rudy Gobert for a reason. That's because the defense, the paint needs protecting. And that's not catch strong suit. That is Mitchell Robinson's strong suit. So I know we're talking about the defense and we're going to get into it. And the transition defense has been terrible. The three-point defense might be worse than the transition defense.
But the paint protection, I do think there is an answer to. Right. Well, Mitchell Robinson comes back provided he can be healthy and stay healthy. Remember, two ankle surgeries after getting stress fractures last season alone. He's got to kind of take his time. And that's why the Knicks are taking the cautious route, excuse me, with bringing him back.
But if he can stay healthy, he's going to be somebody who kind of solved some of these paint problems. And the loss of the Cavaliers yesterday, the Celtics were getting into the paint. It's just the resistance hasn't been there.
And he helps with that. But there are other concerns with the team in terms of the mileage the guys are accruing in terms of whether or not these guys, you know, half of the issues yesterday were offensive. You know, the Knicks didn't score 25 points in three of the four quarters. So, you know, this team has some kinks they need to work through.
And I don't know that Mitch alone is going to solve these issues. And you pointed it out in the intro. You know, this is a very good team. This is one of those teams. This is one of the most successful Knicks teams that we've seen in the last 20 to 30 years. But at the same time, the team doesn't want to just be good. They want to be great. They want to be where the Celtics were in the NBA Finals hosting the trophy at the end of the season. And they're not there yet.
It's clear. Christian Winfield is joining us from the New York Daily News. This is the JR Sport Reshow, the Infinity Sports Network. You talk about Mitchell Robinson. And the first thing that comes to my head is some other people I think New Yorkers are familiar with. John Carlos Stanson, never healthy. Right down the road, you got another giant and Joel Embiid, never healthy. Is it a pipe dream to even mention Mitchell Robinson and health?
Oh, man. You know, I'll say this. If he gets hurt again, then you have that conversation, right? I think the long road that he's had to recovery has been because the Knicks know what's at stake here. If you brush Mitch back and he's not ready to play or he hurts himself trying to get back, that's it. And in terms of trade, in terms of salary cap and why they weren't able to move him by the deadline, it's, you know, when you trade a guy of that caliber, we all know what Mitchell Robinson is capable of when he's healthy. We're talking about a guy last season who was mentioned next to Moses Malone in terms of offensive rebound and great to start the season. But we're also talking about a guy who when you got opponents who are driving to the lane, they're thinking twice about going to the rim versus when you got cat in the paint. They're trying to drive right by him and get to the basket.
So you know what you're getting in this. It's just a matter of can he stay healthy, right? And from what I've been told and what I've heard and just seeing him walk around in the locker room, the guy looks light. He looks fit. He's practicing for five on five. You know, he's taking contact. So he's coming back soon. It's just a matter of can he stay healthy and how much time do you have left to get him acclimated to get him up to game speed? The end of the season or the regular season is coming that fast.
So these guys have got to get ready. That's great. Well, he's a Twitter MVP, probably second behind Kevin Durant. That much we know Twitter fingers or X fingers are healthy. And speaking of health, you had mentioned Tom Thibodeau and some of the, you know, banged up here or there. It seems like everybody on Knicks got a busted up knee.
They got a foot. Karl Anthony Towns now with his knee. People are like, why did he go back into the game? We don't know his status.
OGN and OB just comes back. Josh Hart. Now they're just like, this guy's knee's been hurting forever. Is the criticism surrounding Thibodeau, is it fair? You know, that's a tough question, right? Because part of it is on the front office and the way that this roster is constructed. You look around the NBA, you see teams like Indiana, you see teams like Orlando when they're healthy.
We saw what Oklahoma City is able to do with Cleveland. You know, these teams have, you know, 10, 11, 12 players that they can put on the floor for you at any time. They can rotate through versus the Knicks. You know, you look at the bench for Tom Thibodeau, you've got a three guard lineup of Landry Shannon, Deuce McBride and campaign.
And then from there, you've got pressure to tour. Yeah, everybody was getting minutes not too long ago, but in these high pressure moments, we don't know if the trust is there yet, which is why it's so important that Mitchell Robinson come back and be able to stay healthy because not only is he giving you an extra body, but he's giving you a way to now stagger these rotations so that guys like Mikkel Bridges and Josh Hart and Odeon and Obie are picking up all these minutes. If you're able to put two big men on the floor, if you're able to put Mitch and Karl Anthony Towns on the floor, for example, and then you have Jalen Brunson right there with them, there's only two more spots on the floor, which means one of those three guys who are leading the league in minutes have to be on the bench, catching the brick.
And sometimes it's that simple, right? If you're able to add another body out there, maybe some of these minutes start, they don't start accruing. Now, to be fair, the bench yesterday, you had campaign and you had Landry Shamma hit some shots, but this is the next bench that ranks dead last in scoring by a margin.
It's not really close between 30 and 29. So, you know, Tibbs is trusting his starters and he's leaning on them because quite frankly, the numbers show the bench isn't producing at a high enough rate. So that's the way this roster is constructed. And, you know, we'll see what if these guys wear down towards the end of the season. But one thing that I do want to note is that you've got guys, like you've got a guy like Paco Daddier who you drafted in the first round last year, who hasn't really seen the floor.
And he's probably not going to see the floor in the second half of the season because he's not ready because he didn't play at the beginning of the season. So, you know, there is criticism there in terms of using the players at the end of the rotation. But at the end of the day, Tibbs is going to use the guys that his front office gave him and he's going to do what he thinks is going to get the wins. And that's playing his starters and his key role players every minute. We all saw what the Knicks did in the off season.
OK, they re-signed Oji Ananobi coming back from a foot. You think about getting bridges over from Brooklyn and the picks that they had to give up for that. You talk about the lack of depth that this team currently has. Is this roster obviously for the rest of this season? But going into the future, isn't this kind of what it is? We see anybody can get moved, but there's little wiggle room.
Yeah, you make a great point. You know, when you trade five draft picks for a guy like Mikel Bridges, and then you trade for a guy in Carl Anthony Towns who's making, what, 50 million dollars or more every season. And then, of course, you just gave, as you mentioned, Oji Ananobi, the biggest contract this team has ever given anybody, five years, 212 and a half million.
You're kind of boxed in with what you've got. And then you've got Jaylen Brunson's extension that's going to kick in. So, in terms of the salary cap, yeah, you're going to see this new broadcast rights deal money come in, but because the cap's moving, the cap's only going to go up 10 percent every year. And now you've got all these guys, Mikel Bridges has to get paid, so you've got all these guys who are going to make money. So, theoretically, the only way this team can improve, if they were to maybe go back to the second round and not make it to the UCI College Finals, or if it's either where to cut short sooner than there, you're going to have to look at a team.
And if you're going to be this fun office, you're going to look up and down at that roster and say, we need to get better. And the only way to do that is by trade. The Knicks aren't going to be any major players in free agency. They're not going to have enough caps. They're not going to have any caps.
They're going to have to go further into the tax to do that. So, you're looking at a team where, if this doesn't work out, somebody's going to have to be on the move, right? And then, from there, you start looking around at guys. You look at Jaylen as a captain. You just traded for Kat. You traded five picks for Mikel Bridges. It would be a terrible look to then turn around and try to trade them a year after for a lesson that you paid for them. And now, you're just looking elsewhere on the roster.
What can really move? You just gave up all your draft capital. The Knicks are in a tough spot right now, right? So, if this season doesn't go according to plan, if it doesn't even look close to... Like, these haven't been close games against the Celtics or the Cavaliers or the Thunder. Like, there's nothing that tells me in a seven-game series from what we've seen against the Celtics. Now, the Cavaliers are a different story because we don't know about them in the playoffs. The Celtics, if the Knicks have to play the Celtics in the second round or whatever it is, good luck to this team getting a game based on what we've seen. So, it's tough, and the outlook further than this season in terms of improving the roster, you're going to have to trade somebody, and you don't have any draft picks to add to that trade. So, yeah, the Knicks are in a tough spot for sure. Christian Winfield joining us from the New York Daily News in finality.
Christian, you may not have your pulse on this one. Are the Knicks fans going to shut up now, or are they going to relax, right? What do you mean shut up? Why would the Knicks fans ever shut up? We talk about the Korean fan base, I don't think we're talking about this. Bing bong outside, and oh, we got bridges, oh, now we can compete with the Celtics, and the expectations have been tampered now, right? The expectations coming into the season were championship, right? That's, like, we'll say it again, when you trade five picks for somebody, right, and then you make another move for a guy like Karl Anthony Towns, you know, this team, and I always bring this up, I was in the press conference last season, Game 7, Knicks get eliminated by the Indiana Pacers, and they just won 50 games, despite all these injuries, they get the number two seed, I sit there, I ask Jaylen Brunson, do you look at the season as a success, based on what you guys had to go through? He said no, because we made it to the second round the year before that, and we lost, so we didn't improve on that, so it can't be, this has to be a failure. If the Knicks go to the second round again, and they get bumped, that's after making all the moves that they made in the summer, it just, it's like, why did we even go and do all of this and mortgage our future if this is the ceiling of this team? So, there's a lot at stake for this team right now, after an offseason like that, and, you know, some people say this is a multi-year plan, we can't look at just this as a back game.
I don't know about that. I would disagree, you know, so, we'll see what happens. I think this front office is going to be under pressure if this season doesn't. It'd be one thing if these games were close, right, if it was competitive, but we haven't seen anything remotely competitive outside of that third quarter in Boston.
That shows us that this team that has currently constructed can improve to compete with these guys, because they can't. Yeah, I know fans will be yelling for Tibbs to get fired, the easiest guy not to get the boot. Hey, Christian, thank you so much for the time. Where can people follow you in all your work and coverage of the Knicks? You know, if you're in the area, go grab a New York Daily newspaper from your bodega or wherever you get some newspapers. You know, I'm obviously in there every day or every other day whenever there's a game, and I'm on Twitter and all social medias. I'm at Chris Flash, so hopefully I see you. Hopefully you guys enjoy my work. I love what I do. Well, thank you, Christian. We'll catch you on down the line, okay? My guy, anytime. Thanks for having me.
