Surviving your slog through the heat of mid-summer? Tired of the deluge of World Cup corruption? Weary of watching the Summer League Knicks struggle to score 50 points in a game? You need a P&T mailbag, STAT.
And you’re in luck! Here’s one now.
1) How will you feel watching Mitchell Robinson ply his trade as a leprechaun? Good, bad, indifferent or something else?
— Ariel Hukported
Terry Pendleton was my first moment of heartbreak as a childhood sports fan. Darryl Strawberry signing with the Dodgers a year
later was the second. But the first real “Et tu, Brute?” instance was Xavier McDaniel signing with the Celtics after being the Knicks’ second-best player that postseason. If you ever wondered “Would X have really have made any difference over Charles Smith?”, check out 2:35 in this clip.
I love Mitch. I really do. I wondered how long it’d take me to offer a hearty “Fuck Dolan” after Game 5, and it didn’t take long. Still. Not the same. Not even close.
X-Man was, after Patrick Ewing, the biggest reason the Knicks were able to push MJ & The Jordanaires farther than they did in 1989, 1991, 1993 and 1996. There may never have ever an answer for how to stop Jordan, but X had a PhD in Scottie Pippen. Losing him back then would be like if last year’s Knicks lost in the Finals, then Karl-Anthony Towns or OG Anunoby signed with San Antonio. Uuuiiiii!
I won’t have any problems watching Mitch or rooting for him, for the same reason I won’t care if Mike Brown starts the year 4-18, or if — as I’m expecting — OG, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges combine to miss 50 or more games. Or if Jalen Brunson misses that many on his own. Or if Herb Williams, Chris Smith or Taj Gibson are on the roster at some point in 2026 -27.
BECAUSE THE KNICKS ARE THE ****ING NBA CHAMPS!!!!!!
Mitch is one of the greatest Knicks this century and one of their all-time top big men. He came to New York as a project with no experience balling beyond high school; he leaves as the greatest offensive rebounder in franchise history and a two-way terror critical to closing out Games 2 and 5 in the Finals. He’s a lovable dude.
He’s also nearing 30, often injured and so bad at the free throw line he makes Chris Dudley look like Allan Houston. The Knicks got into the Mitch business at the right time, stuck with it all the way to a championship and are now out of the Mitch business. If Mitch had never heard of Instagram, or shot free throws granny-style, I’d miss him more.
I think the owner’s reasons for cheapening out are bullshit. I appreciate those of you who think I’ve never read how the second apron works, and who believe Dolan when he says it’d be “suicidal” to do the same thing Cleveland did before somehow acquiring James Harden and looking to add LeBron (does “suicidal” mean “Able to add multiple HOFers”?). It’s honestly cute.
If Leon Rose had said it, or Brock Aller or Walt Perrin, maybe I’d believe it all boiled down to roster flexibility. Given how many reporters close to the Knicks have said the front office was as blindsided by the news as many of us were, and that paying Mitch would have meant a bigger luxury tax penalty, I believe the owner is full of shit. Speaking of which . . .
2) Quentin Dolan — after seeing him get keys to the city, and hearing that he’s running the hockey team, should we be worried? Is he a capable guy? Or nepo-baby, as they say? Will he eventually be handed the keys to the Knicks too?
— SayAgainSayAgain
For the uninitiated: Dolan’s son Quentin, 32, has been given the keys to the New York Rangers franchise as their new alternate owner, president and chief operating officer. As a Blueshirts fan, I don’t care either way. The Rangers biggest problem is that Chris Drury doesn’t know what he’s doing, but whereas Glen Sather was the Broadway Blues’ Isiah, Drury is more their Steve Mills — a dope absent any evidence that he has a clue how to run a sports franchise. Yet the dipshit who makes those decisions is passing the team on to the literal closest thing he has to a genetic successor. What could go wrong?
I doubt Lucky Sperm Jim would’ve given the keys to the Rolls to Lucky Sperm Q if he were worried the lad intended to drive it any differently. But it doesn’t sound like Quentin taking over the Rangers has yet to cause upheaval, even with a team sorely in need of one. So while Son of Dolan may indeed do the double and take over the Knickerbockers someday too, there’s no way to know how he’d rule.
3) Did it make sense for the Knicks to take such an austere approach in the draft this year? Or should they have tried to resolve an easily anticipated problem by drafting one of the big men who was available?
— PolyphonicSpreewell
Let me open with an admission: I’m a 100% dummkopf when it comes to evaluating draft abstinence. No matter how many times the Knicks treat draft night as performance art, continually flipping a hamburger today for two hamburgers next Tuesday, and no matter how often it suits their needs, I’m a basic bitch. I root for people. Not assets. Not flexibility. I always wanna see new faces added to the side.
So on draft night, yes, I was hoping the Knicks would draft a center. Or an upgrade on Tyler Kolek. Or any one of a half-dozen dudes linked to them in various pre-draft rumors. I was not hoping their bounty would boil down to a handful of second-round picks and/or the draft rights to a draft-and-stash European as likely to ever set foot in this country as Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.
But I get it. I think.
The Knicks are all and entirely about competing for another championship next year (other than letting their indispensable back-up center leave). It may not be long before Tarris Reed Jr. is a better big than Andre Drummond, but what are the odds Reed will be better by next year’s Finals? The Spurs drafted Reed (and Jayden Quaintance) hoping to get more from them than they did last year from Luke Kornet. Those odds are shorter.
I’m not bothered by the Knicks being entirely driven to win whatever they can now, and to blazes with the short-term future. The rules are different when your title drought is older than the majority of your fan base. I watched the Rangers break a 54-year title-less drought in 1994. By 1998 they were kicking off seven straight seasons of missing the playoffs. Was it fun? No! Hearing “Bobby Holik” still gives me the shakes. Did it even hold a candle to what winning it all felt like? What it still feels like? Not even close.
Another way to think of it: if drafting someone 24th meant losing Deuce McBride, Jose Alvarado, Jordan Clarkson or Mo Diawara, would you prefer that? If New York were entering year 54 of their own dry spell, maybe I’d care more about the future, or more aptly worry about putting all your eggs in a basket that always comes up short. But this basket was the winning basket. The basket we always wanted. Entering year one of a title defense? [Bleep] them kids.
4) Who will we face in the ECF?
— Double Double Dutch
Short answer: Indiana.
Longer answer: Detroit got no second banana; Cleveland’s dream is risking it all on two guys turning 37 and 42; Boston just traded Pippen for X-Man; Toronto doesn’t even know if Kawhi Leonard is theirs; Philadelphia saw how miserable Jaylen Brown was not being first violin and added him to a team where none of Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, VJ Edgecombe and LeBron James (if they get him) are looking to play second fiddle.
So yeah. Indiana.
5) What will the Knicks record have to be in January to hear calls to fire Mike Brown?
— cynickfan
For those who think this question absurd: the Knicks have had three peak seasons during James Dolan’s reign. In 2013, Mike Woodson led them to their first 50-win season and playoff series victory in 13 years. 11 months later he was canned, having held the job about as long as Isiah Thomas and Jeff Hornacek would. In 2025, Tom Thibodeau was at the helm as New York won their most games in a season since Woodson’s squad and reached the conference finals for the first time in 25 years. Within 72 hours, Thibs was fired.
So while it may seem difficult to imagine Mike Brown departing the MSG coil anytime soon, is it really? How secure was he when the Knicks trailed the Hawks 2-1 in the first round? If they’d lost that series, you think he’s still in charge today? If they’d lost in the Finals, you think Brown would go into next season with the organization 100% behind him?
Let’s allow that it’s unlikely Brown does anything to get sacked by midseason, but run with the thought experiment anyway. What would have to happen for Brown’s job status to be in jeopardy?
If the Knicks were 20-20 after 40 games, would that do it? Would the nature of their struggles matter? If they’re .500 and half the team is out injured, would Brown receive any grace? Unfortunately there isn’t much precedent for what happens with Knick championship coaches. Red Holzman is the only person besides Brown ever to win it all in New York, surviving eight seasons after his last New York title run in 1973 despite failing to win a playoff series the last seven. I’m confident Brown won’t last until 2033-34. Hopeful Dolan doesn’t.
