Category: Uncategorized

From Stefan Bondy:

Leon Rose might look to Philadelphia for his new right-hand man.

According to a league source, Elton Brand has been targeted by Rose as a candidate for Knicks GM. Brand, 41, is currently the Sixers GM and is under contract next season, complicating any designs of bringing him to New York. The source said Rose wanted to see if Brand was dismissed after the playoffs.

Since taking over as Philly’s GM in 2018, Brand tried to build a championship contender around Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. He traded for Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris. Then after Butler left in free agency, Brand acquired Josh Richardson and Al Horford. The results have been mixed.

Philadelphia fell a Kawhi Leonard game-winner short of making the Eastern Conference Finals last year but has underwhelmed this season with a 39-26 record. The inconsistency has left coach Brett Brown on the hot seat.

I really don’t get this at ALL.

I don’t even hate Elton Brand as a GM, but he sure isn’t a guy I’d go out of my way to get. He’s just sort of “blah.” So why would you go out of your way to get him? Who ever watched the Sixers and said, “That’s a guy I’d love to see the Knicks target!”?

It seems like the only real Knicks news is coaches out there saying they don’t want to coach the Knicks.

Stan Van Gundy, who really is a heck of a coach (but a terrible GM), was asked about the Nets and Knicks jobs and replied, “Of the two the Nets are the better job. There’s no question about that right now. The organization has been more stable. They’ve won more games. They have more talent.”

He also noted, “I’m not interested in the New York Knicks. No. First of all, there’s a family history there. If anyone would be interested in that — and I’m not sure he is either — it would be my brother.” Interesting comment about Jeff Van Gundy there.

He ended with more trashing of the Knicks, “And I just – I’ve said this – I’m different than a lot of coaches in looking at jobs. To me, it’s all who you work for and you work with. Everything I’ve seen in the last few years with that organization says that it’s extremely dysfunctional.”

There are many reasons to want the season to return, but partially I’d like to see some stories other than “Coach X would never coach the Knicks.”

New Iona College coach (which is so hilarious), Rick Pitino had a Q&A with the Post and he answered a lot of questions about the Knicks, but the question that has gotten the most attention has been about John Calipari (why Pitino’s insights into John Calpari are newsworthy is a bit beyond me, but hey, we’re all starving for some NBA news, right?):

Q: You don’t think Calipari would be interested in the Knicks job?
A: I really don’t. I think when you coach at Kentucky, you have the premier job in college basketball — in terms of he can recruit any player he wants, he has unbelievable facilities, he’s gonna win his 30 games every year, and he’s got the best job in all of basketball. So I’m not sure why he would ever want to have a job that’s not the best job in all of basketball. He’s smarter than me when it comes to that.

Funny self-own about the time he left Kentucky for the Boston Celtics.

Would anyone here even really want John Calipari? He’s not a bad coach, by any means, but is he really a difference making coach? He hasn’t coached in the NBA for two decades! I don’t see the point.

This has been going around the interwebs, so I figured it could be a fun diversion here.

If you had a chance to play 82 games in the NBA, with a guaranteed 20 minute per game, with the ultimate goal of scoring 20 total points all season, get 5 total rebounds all season and record 10 total assists all season, at which point you would receive a $250 million contract, but if you fail, you’d die (and the players don’t know that you’d die if they didn’t help you, so they won’t help you), would you take the challenge?

I say no way in heck am I gambling my life on that. Scoring a single point in the NBA is ridiculously hard. The other two things could be achieved through luck over the season, but scoring 20 points? That takes some legit skill and I don’t think I’d be able to do it. I certainly wouldn’t be confident enough to bet my life on it. Go to Spring Break during a pandemic? Sure, that’s worth betting my life on it, but not this.

How about you folks?

Kevin Durant was among four members of the Brooklyn Nets who tested positive for the coronavirus, the superstar told The Athletic.

The team announced Tuesday that multiple players were diagnosed with the deadly virus, without disclosing names.

“Of the four, one player is exhibiting symptoms while three are asymptomatic,” the team added in a statement. “All four players are presently isolated and under the care of team physicians.”

Hopefully the player who is showing symptoms is doing okay.

There’s really nothing to be gleamed from this other than the fact is that there are probably a LOT of people out there that have COVID-19 without us knowing about it, which is precisely why the cancellations have been so important.

From Berman:

In a perfect world, the Knicks would have been in sunny Miami on Friday, facing the resurgent Heat while playing out their season’s final 16 games.

Instead, it was Day 1 of Knicks players being advised by the NBA to remain stuck in their New York homes following the league’s suspension of the season because of the coronavirus pandemic.

All teams have been ordered not to practice, according to an industry source.

According to the source, the NBA has recommended “quarantine … only for those individuals who exhibit symptoms of the virus and/or have been in a certain level of close or consistent contact with a person infected with COVID-19.”

The recommendation also included that “teams coordinate with their local or state health departments for such circumstances.”

The NBA has deemed those teams that have played the Jazz in the past 10 days as having such “close or consistent contact.”

Two Jazz players are infected — stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, who played 34 minutes each against the Knicks on March 4 at the Garden.

Hopefully you’re all doing well in your own self-isolation!

Enjoy some Warren Zevon-style isolation…

From a friend who had this encounter at the Garden the other day. I’ve edited it slightly to protect the names and for formatting purposes.

Looks like I now share something in common with Spike Lee, Charles Oakley & a few other exhausted Knick fans…

So with a little over a minute to go, the Knicks down more than 10 again and the crowd chanting “SELL THE TEAM!” with gusto (the loudest the tourists had been all night). I shout “DOLAN SUCKS!”…once. I’m immediately confronted by an MSG gestapo member who instructs me (and my son) to exit. I reply, “Seriously?” He nods.

My son & I step out. We are now surrounded by 4 members of the MSG security force. I say, “what is this all about?” The MSG rep sternly says “those 2 words”. I said, “Dolan sucks?” He nods. I said, “I didn’t notice ‘no free speech’ on the ticket?” We stand surrounded by 4 MSG guards awaiting — what, I don’t know? I look to a less enthusiastic guard and say “I’m going to take a leak, ok?” He says go ahead. I go in the bathroom & basically wait it out. 10 minutes later…all clear! My son & I duck out down the stairs & out of the building.

So…this is what it’s like when you’re a silver spooned son of a billionaire who inherits a storied franchise with no knowledge or ability in how to run it and your ego is so brittle you need to have goons intimidate the folks that have supported the team before you poisoned the entire building. We can only hope he moves on to another toy his father gifts him. It’s been a long, exhausting and expensive walk in the desert…but Knick fans are always hopeful optimists…and I am one. For now the Garden is a quiet and sad resting place where great teams once roamed.

For now, the team echoes it’s owner…directionless, purposeless with no particular drive or merit.