Frustrating.

Developing late draft picks is crucial to the Knicks' immediate and long-term success. This season has not been encouraging in that respect.

Final Score: Knicks 94 - Warriors 97
Record: 42-24

The Knicks, playing their final game on a challenging West Coast road trip, had an opportunity to head home with an impressive victory.

New York clawed their way back in the fourth quarter, tying the contest with three minutes remaining in regulation, but could not execute offensively down the stretch, allowing the Warriors to pull away late.

This game had extra juice and often felt like a playoff showdown due mainly to the simmering tension between repugnant loudmouth Draymond Green and Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns.

And if Knicks fans are looking for a silver lining from this defeat, it was KAT playing incredibly well on the offensive end with the eyes of the NBA on him, observing how he'd respond. Towns started the game by dunking on Jimmy Butler and continued attacking the tin all night despite getting in early foul trouble. He finished with a game-high 29 points (12-of-21 FGs), a game-high 12 rebounds, three assists, one block and three three-pointers in 30 minutes.

(As for Draymond, Towns' teammates let him down by not taking it to Green's chest. More on that below...)

The other encouraging takeaway from Saturday's defeat was Miles McBride's impressive performance on both ends of the floor. Deuce tallied 19 points (8-of-17 FGs), five rebounds, four assists, one block and three three-pointers in 38 minutes. Although Stephen Curry scored 28 points for Golden State, he needed 20 shots to get there. McBride played as well against Steph as could be humanly expected against a superhuman sharpshooter.

According to NBA tracking data, in the 39 possessions in which Deuce was Steph's primary defender last night, Curry was 2-of-7 from the floor and 1-of-6 from downtown, with zero assists and one turnover. Simply can't ask for more than that.

Overall, the Knicks played well enough defensively (other than KAT falling into drop coverage occasionally) to walk away with a win. They held the Warriors below 40% from the field and 32% from behind the arc. It was the first time Golden State scored fewer than 100 points since January 20.

However, New York's offense was again rudderless without their Captain steering the ship. In the four games they've played since Jalen Brunson injured his ankle, the Knicks are averaging just 110 points per 100 possessions, which ranks 26th in the NBA in Offensive Efficiency.

Josh Hart was one of the primary culprits last night in The Bay. Hart was held scoreless for the first time this season. He was 0-of-7 from the floor, including missing all four of his layup attempts. And, as we noted previously, opponents being able to stick their center on Hart and sag off him, decimates the Knicks spacing. NY had a very difficult time getting clean looks down the stretch. Coach Tom Thibodeau should have considered replacing Hart with a shooter on a night his energetic forward did not have it.

I'm not sure if his knee is barking again, but over the Knicks' last six games, Hart has shot below 35% from the floor, 32% from deep, and 62% from the free-throw line. Yet he is still averaging over 39 minutes per game during this stretch.

The Knicks bench also failed to deliver vs. Golden State. Precious Achiuwa had one rebound, zero points and got burned defensively in ten unproductive minutes. Mitchell Robinson (two points and five boards in 16 minutes) had his worst game since returning to action. Landry Shamet was 1-of-4 from the floor. Cam Payne missed all four of his FG attempts and had just one assist.

And, yes, it's frustrating to see Tyler Kolek rotting away on the bench while the Knicks are without a true point guard who can set the table for his teammates and organize the offense. I remain stunned that Thibs hasn't given Kolek an opportunity at any point over the past three months, especially with Brunson sidelined. He hasn't played a second in the first half since January 1.

When I suggest Kolek be given an opportunity to crack the rotation, that doesn't mean he should have been starting and deciding the Knicks' fate this season. But what do the Knicks have to lose by giving their former Big East Player of the Year and 2x NCAA assist leader a chance to provide a spark?

Folks that defend Thibs often proclaim, "The Knicks bench completely sucks, so the coach has no choice but to run his starters into the ground." Or that Kolek should be shackled to the pine because he is a poor defender. Well, the reality is that very few players, especially reserves, are above average on both ends. Right now, the Knicks need an offensive boost.

If Quinten Post and Gui Santos were on the Knicks roster, toiling away in the G League, many of those same fans would state, without evidence, that those two scrubs are terrible and incapable of contributing on the NBA level.

The 22-year-old Santos (whom the Warriors selected with the 55th overall pick in the 2022 draft) started for Golden State last night and played 20 minutes in their win.

Post, whom the Warriors selected with the 52nd overall pick in the 2024 draft, has started 11 games for Golden State this season. He logged 19 minutes last night and is averaging 18 MPG over the past two months.

Trayce Jackson-Davis (the 57th overall pick in the 2023 draft) has started 37 games for the Dubs this season.

Obviously, the Golden State is a "win now" team.

Obviously, Steve Kerr would love to play Steph, Draymond and Jimmy Butler 36 minutes a night.

But Kerr, who was named as one of the Top 15 coaches in NBA history in 2022 and became the winningest coach in Warriors' franchise history last night, limits those three veterans to less than 32 minutes per game while leaning heavily on unproven rookies on a nightly basis.

Is Kerr part of the "minutes police" (GASP!), or is he part of an organization looking at the big picture and making tactical decisions to balance the desire to win every regular season game vs. the desire to win an NBA championship?

To preemptively shout down those Thibs acolytes yelling about Curry's current age, you should know that in his first MVP season (2014-15, when Steph was 25 years old), he averaged 32.7 minutes per game.

The Knicks targeted and traded up to nab Kolek last June because he was considered one of the most "NBA ready" prospects in his class, and backup PG was a position of need.

Kolek, who will celebrate his 24th birthday in two weeks, looked great in Summer League action, where he became the first and only player in Vegas SL history to dish out 35+ assists while committing fewer than eight turnovers. He was also the only player in Las Vegas last year to score more than 30 points, dish out more than 20 assists and grab more than 10 rebounds. He held his own in the preseason as well.

However, with less than a month remaining in the 2024-25 campaign, Kolek has logged just 152 minutes.

A total of 47 rookies have seen more court time than Kolek this season. The following undrafted rookies have logged at least 150+ more minutes than Kolek: Reece Beekman, Keaton Wallace, and Jamison Battle.

Moreover, only one healthy first-round pick (DaRon Holmes tore his Achilles and Nikola Topic tore his ACL) has played fewer than 100 minutes this season: Pacome Dadiet.

With the Knicks hard-capped by the second apron, their options for upgrading the roster are limited. They will only get further hampered by financial limitations in the future as the annual salaries of KAT, Brunson, Hart, OG and Bridges all increase drastically.

Developing late draft picks is crucial to the Knicks' immediate and long-term success. This season has not been encouraging in that respect.

Frustrating.

Other Takeaways and Knicks Notes:

🏀 Mikal Bridges had another solid all-around effort, amassing 19 points (8-of-14 FGs, 2-of-2 FTs), six rebounds, three assists and one three-pointer in 38 minutes… OG did OG things, racking up 23 points (7-of-15 FGs, 7-of-9 FTs), nine rebounds, two assists, three steals, one block and two three-pointers in 38 minutes.

🏀 Hart and Thibs got into a heated argument on the bench in the fourth quarter, but the player and the coach brushed it off after the contest.

"I love Josh," Thibodeau said. "It was whatever to get us going, to try to get us going."

Hart, who has long been an ardent supporter of Thibs, told reporters: "You all know me. You know my feelings towards Thibs. You're not going to find a more loyal player. I love Thibs. I think that was just my frustration coming out with the flow of the game, my own individual performance.

🏀 Over the Knicks' first 50 games this season,
Josh Hart shot:
56.3% from the floor
34.6% from downtown
81.5% from the FT line
in 37.6 minutes per game

Over the Knicks' past 16 games,
Hart is shooting:
44.8% from the floor
28.9% from downtown
72.9% from the FT line
in 39.1 minutes per game

🏀 On the ABC pregame show, ESPN's Shams Charania reported that Brunson is expected to miss another one to two weeks with an ankle sprain.

Per Shams, JB will undergo a reevaluation on Thursday but is expected to remain sidelined through late March or early April.

When Brunson first went down, I assumed we would not see him again until April, and that's still a safe bet.

No need to rush him back. Err on the side of caution. It goes without saying the Knicks need Brunson as close to 100% healthy as possible to make some real noise this postseason.

🏀 Speaking of ABC, I thought they did a terrible job during the broadcast. You guys know I love Mike Breen, but he and Richard Jefferson took it very easy on Draymond Green for his irresponsible/cowardly comments. A decent chunk of the 2.5 hours was a decimated love-fest by the broadcast booth for Draymond. Breen and Jefferson also inexplicably declared that Draymond apologized to KAT, which is flat-out false.

Draymond said he was sorry KAT's friend died. Draymond did NOT apologize to KAT for his disgusting, untruthful comments. In fact, when he had the opportunity to say he was sorry, Green instead decided to plug his podcast.

If you are broadcasting that game, you have to be familiar with the facts of this situation.

🏀 Speaking with reporters after the game, Draymond played the victim, despite the fact he accused KAT of ducking the previous matchup because he was scared (while Towans was actually out of town attending the funeral of a close family friend who died from breast cancer).

"I saw [Towns] answer to y'all," Green said. "He kinda fed into what everybody else was saying… If that forces a guy to play harder and play physical, great. I enjoyed that. That was fun."

While it's not surprising in the least, it's more incredibly classless behavior from Draymond.

What did KAT feed into, after Green maliciously and falsely attacked his character? What was everybody else saying? The truth?!?

Towns decided to take the high road throughout this whole mess. "I choose to approach that with love and not hate," Towns said earlier in the week.

🏀 Lastly, I understand that the NBA is different from years past, and you can't pummel opponents like they did in the 1990s. However, one of KAT's teammates owed it to him to hammer Draymond on a screen at some point in this game. It never happened.

What's worse, several Knicks players (Mitchell Robinson, OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa, Mikal Bridges, PJ Tucker) and coaches (Tom Thibodeau, Darren Erman) hugged and dapped up Draymond on the court after the game. If I were KAT, that would have infuriated me.

🏀 Next Up:
Knicks Host the Heat Monday night (7:30 pm)

The good news is the Knicks are back home, but it's a quick turnaround after a cross-country flight. New York then has to fly to San Antonio to take on the Spurs on Wednesday night and then play in Charlotte on Thursday.

Fortunately for New York, Miami has been awful over the past few weeks. They have lost seven straight games and have been by far the worst offense in the NBA this month, averaging just 105.8 points per 100 possessions (every other team in the NBA averages north of 109).

Monday's game will likely be a low-scoring slugfest reminiscent of the Jeff Van Gundy vs. Pat Riley days, as New York has issues of their own offensively and also has the third-best DefRtg in the NBA in March.