Interesting Dan Favale piece:

Baseline sensibility is an awfully low bar to which to hold an NBA franchise. Celebrating what feels like the bare minimum of coherent thinking doesn’t sit right. But we’d be remiss not to acknowledge that, in this case, it also represents a shift in operations. The bare minimum has by and large proved to be unreachable for so long. Even when promising groundwork appears to be laid, it is inevitably short-circuited for a chance at superstar hoarding.

Maybe this iteration of the front office, led by Leon Rose, deserves the benefit of the doubt. Maybe.

The tentacles of CAA, Rose’s former agency, continue to have a tight grip on the organization. Just for starters, Toppin is represented by them, as is head coach Tom Thibodeau. The latter’s arrival itself was seen as a red flag.

Never mind the optics of a recently hired agent using his new position to hire his former client. Thibodeau isn’t the coach you choose to chaperone one of the league’s youngest rosters and oversee a thorough rebuild. As the New York Daily News’ Stefan Bondy noted: “In his last 15 seasons as a top assistant or head coach—with the Rockets, Celtics, Bulls and Timberwolves—Thibodeau finished with exactly two losing records.”

Boxing coaches into a roster type is lame. They can adapt. (Though, Thibodeau has yet to show he can update his defensive approach.) And Thibodeau isn’t in New York under false pretense. No amount of cap space was going to rescue the Knicks from the fringes of the NBA’s basement. It wasn’t that type of free-agency class. Both he and Rose emphasized player development about a kajillion times when Thibodeau was hired. This version of the Knicks could be different.

I think he splits the baby well between complimenting the Knicks and noting that it is still relatively early in our judgment on these guys.

Berman tried to throw a bit of a grenade into our general “feeling good about the Knicks’ front office for the first time in decades” attitude:

The Knicks entered free agency with a league-high $40 million in cap space and with heady visions. They wanted to be a major playoff threat in coach Tom Thibodeau’s first season and bring glamour back to the Garden – even if it might be empty for the 36-game home schedule.

That is why they drafted a more ready-made forward in native New Yorker Obi Toppin, age 22, over Israeli project forward Deni Avdija, 19, when both surprisingly dropped to No. 8.

Avdija, a playmaking forward, could be the next…Gordon Hayward. The Israeli had his fans in the Knicks organization.

The Knicks acted like a title contender on Wednesday’s draft night when they wanted to keep open a roster spot for free agency and decided to hastily trade the 33rd pick in the draft – which most executives covet – for a 2023 second-round pick. They had little time to wheel as all their targets came off the board, including Duke center Vernon Carey Jr. at 32.

Those are not the actions of a rebuilding team, but one looking to turn around its miserable fortunes right away in a hurried, chaotic 2020-21 season. They wanted to give star-caliber coach Thibodeau, who usually doesn’t covet rookies, the best chance.

As it unfolded on Blue Saturday, the Knicks went from potentially being a legit playoff contender (10 teams qualify in each conference) to competing for the No. 1 lottery seed in the 2021 draft with a chance at 6-7 combo guard Cade Cunningham of Oklahoma State, whose season begins Wednesday vs. UT Arlington at 4 p.m. on ESPN2. He’s the NBA’s Trevor Lawrence.

Now, yes, let it be said that the plans that Berman goes on to list, if true, were not smart plans (and whatever else we think about Marc Berman’s journalism, he tends to be spot on about stuff like this), however, I think it is important that Rose actually pivoted to something intelligent when his first plan didn’t work. That’s huge. When Mills and Perry had their initial plan for last offseason dashed by Kevin Durant’s injury, they pivoted to just absolute nonsense. Here, Rose pivoted to well-considered, intelligent moves, while keeping the Knicks cap space open for future moves. He added undervalued complimentary veterans who will help, but there is little chance of Elfrid Payton, Nerlens Noel and Alec Burks “carrying” the Knicks to a high 30s win team. If the Knicks win in the high 30s, it will be on the backs of their young players like RJ Barrett taking a leap, Obi Toppin being better than expected as a rookie and Mitch continuing to be Mitch (but maybe with a fabled outside shot now?).

That’s the correct way to manage these things. So yes, Rose’s initial plan was a bit ill-considered, but at the same time, his ill-considered plans were so ill-considered (Hayward taking barely a raise on a two-year deal? Huh?) that it struck me that he was fully prepared for these plans not happening and if/when they didn’t, he was prepared to go with a reasonable plan.

That’s a good thing.

Here is a thread for all of the free agent nonsense.

And since we are all polls, all the time now, here ya go…

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From Scott Thompson:

The Knicks and Jazz are in agreement on a trade that would send veteran center Ed Davis to New York, SNY’s Ian Begley confirmed.

Utah will also be sending two second-round picks in the 2023 NBA Draft with Davis, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

With the Knicks declining the option for Taj Gibson, a trade for a younger Davis makes sense to back up Mitchell Robinson down low. And it’s a role Davis is used to in the Big Apple, having worked behind Jarrett Allen with the Brooklyn Nets two seasons ago. He was also behind Rudy Gobert on the Jazz last season.

At 6-foot-9, 218 pounds, Davis can also play at the four if need be. The 21-year-old averaged 10.8 minutes per game last year and only 1.8 points with 3.8 rebounds. With the Nets, he averaged 8.6 rebounds, his highest total of his career, with 5.8 points per game.

Davis only costs $5 million for the 2020-21 season.

Nice to see the Knicks actually taking on salary for future assets. It’s a thing of beauty. And it’s funny that Davis, who Rose just picked up as a salary dump, is not much worse than Taj Gibson, who the Knicks actively signed for $10 million.

Unless, of course, they then trade all of these second round picks for, like, Russell Westbrook.

I am sorry for putting that evil out into the world!

From ESPN…

The New York Knicks created over $40 million in salary-cap space Thursday by parting ways with six veteran players.

The Knicks announced that they waived forward Taj Gibson and guards Elfrid Payton and Wayne Ellington and declined the $15.75 million team option on forward Bobby Portis’ contract.

Gibson was set to make $9.45 million in 2020-21, while Payton and Ellington each was scheduled to make $8 million.

The three will each make $1 million in guaranteed money from their deals with the Knicks despite being waived.

New York also declined a $1.7 million option on forward Theo Pinson’s deal and waived forward Kenny Wooten, who was on a two-way contract.

The Knicks signed Gibson, Payton, Ellington and Portis in June 2019 after failing to land the high-profile free agents that summer, including current Brooklyn Nets teammates Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.

It’s going to be fascinating to see what they do with all of that cap room.