(Monday, May 07, 2018 6:14:54 PM)
LeBron James is expected to be a free agent this summer, and Knicks big man Enes Kanter challenged him Monday to come to New York and back up his declaration that he’s king of the city.
(Monday, May 07, 2018 6:05:40 PM)
While answering questions on social media Monday afternoon, Knicks forward Enes Kanter had a message for the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Lebron James: “You really want to be King of New York? Come and prove it.”
(Monday, May 07, 2018 4:00:33 PM)
The Knicks have officially hired former Grizzlies head coach David Fizdale as their head coach, the team announced Monday.
(Monday, May 07, 2018 2:52:28 PM)
Hall of Famer and former Knicks F Bernard King sees loads of potential in Knicks PG Frank Ntilikina.
(Monday, May 07, 2018 11:45:27 AM)
For Knicks PG Emmanuel Mudiay, change has become standard.
(Tuesday, May 08, 2018 1:59:28 AM)
It’s official. The Knicks on Monday announced David Fizdale as their new coach.
(Monday, May 07, 2018 6:02:00 AM)
We are almost there, people! The emergency redecoration of metropolitan area coaches’ offices has one last makeover left on the agenda: a new head coach for the Rangers.
[NYTimes] Cavaliers 128, Raptors 93: LeBron James and the Cavaliers Earn Themselves Some Rest (Tuesday, May 08, 2018 3:39:16 AM)
After a quiet first half, James put up another big game against the Toronto Raptors while securing the 12th playoff series sweep of his 15-year career.
[NYTimes] N.B.A. Playoffs: T.J. McConnell Helps 76ers Avoid Elimination (Tuesday, May 08, 2018 3:23:44 AM)
A surprise starter, McConnell scored a career-high 19 points as Philadelphia beat the Boston Celtics. Boston leads the series 3-1.
[NYTimes] On Pro Basketball: To Dominate in New Orleans and Beyond, the Warriors Head to the Hamptons (Monday, May 07, 2018 10:03:16 PM)
Golden State has typically reserved its best lineup for the end of games, but the rest of the league is on notice: The Hamptons Five is now starting.
[NYDN] 8 questions for David Fizdale and the Knicks front office (Monday, May 07, 2018 9:42:02 PM)
The word on David Fizdale is that he’s a big “culture” guy and, in pursuit of that culture, he’s not afraid to ruffle feathers.
[NYDN] Enes Kanter dares LeBron James to sign with Knicks (Monday, May 07, 2018 9:22:07 PM)
Enes Kanter has a message for LeBron James: think you’re the king of New York? Prove it.
[NYDN] Knicks officially name David Fizdale as next head coach (Monday, May 07, 2018 3:45:06 PM)
The Knicks have officially hired David Fizdale as the team’s head coach, the team announced Monday.
(Monday, May 07, 2018 7:26:57 PM)
Troy Williams, the lone Knick to play for David Fizdale, gives his former/current coach credit for one of his most memorable nights in the NBA during his rookie season with Memphis. On Dec. 10, 2016, the Grizzlies were down to 10 healthy players and Williams was forced into the starting lineup against the vaunted Warriors…
(Monday, May 07, 2018 4:34:32 PM)
The Knicks believe they’ve found their guy in David Fizdale, who was officially announced as head coach to ringing endorsements Monday. Here are five questions the former Grizzlies coach must address as he takes over a long-reeling franchise: 1. What did he learn from his feud with Marc Gasol in Memphis? Fizdale has yet to…
(Monday, May 07, 2018 1:26:21 PM)
Knicks center Enes Kanter continued his trolling of LeBron James on Twitter on Monday as the Knicks officially announced the hiring of one of James’ favorites, David Fizdale. James swears by Fizdale from their Miami days and provides a glimmer of hope the new coach can persuade him to make the Garden his home at…
(Monday, May 07, 2018 12:05:03 PM)
It’s officially official, and even owner James Dolan has chimed in with his take on the hire of David Fizdale, calling him “creative” and “the right coach.’’ Knicks general manager Scott Perry went with “dynamic” and cited his “championship pedigree.” President Steve Mills called him “an effective communicator.’’ “I would like to congratulate and welcome…
62 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.05.08)”
Any fear of a trade with Toronto for DeRozan is unfounded. Dolan has forbidden any and all contact with Masai Ujiri, and it’s the best thing he’s done as an owner. We should never deal with Morey, Ainge, or Ujiri under any circumstances. Those guys are thieves.
Don’t get me wrong, I like him, too. But that article posited that Stevens would go top 3 in the next draft with Doncic and Ayton.
If any dorky white dude in Boston should be getting the deity treatment, it’s the guy who engineered three of the best trades in recent history and assembled a team with the depth of elite talent to withstand the loss of Kyrie and Hayward.
I wonder if Toronto might actually be better off if they just dumped DeRozan period. I think it might be a case of addition by subtraction.
McConnell is certainly the little engine that could for Philly….. isn’t he?
I was thinking about the parallels between this Toronto team and the 90’s Knicks – the Knicks could never get past Jordan and the Raptors can’t get past LeBron. Big difference is that those Knicks-Bulls series were super competitive and no one thought it was an impossibility that they could get past Chicago.
What Toronto needs is for LeBron to sign with the Patriots as a tight end.
@3
I think he’s a worse player than Paul George and we all have seen what happened with the Pacers.
I’m quite convinced he’s their major issue and there’s no way Toronto wouldn’t be able to find Paul George like compensation from him in a trade. At least Indiana took Cleveland to 7 games and had a realistic chance of winning.
I suggested this in the previous thread but considering he’s owed something like $110m over the next 4 years I’m not sure they can do much better than an expiring and a protected first. Blake was on an even worse contract, but the perception is that Blake at his best can be the fulcrum of your offense and elevates a team. He also has more star power which matters in trades more than it should.
DeRozan is a nice player, but he’s been at his best the last few years without any health complications and there are many metrics which still paint him as a player who racks up great individual numbers without really elevating his team. I don’t think teams are particularly enamored with DeRozan either. If you can get out from under that deal for something like Melo’s expiring and a protected first from OKC (would have to be in 2022 as they already owe this year’s and 2020’s lol) that might realistically be the best you can do.
I wish I had bet on this yesterday. Boston strikes as extremely overconfident for a team that was fortunate to be up 3-0. If their shooting reverts to the mean and Simmons and Embiid revert to the mean, as well, this series could change very fast.
Embiid and Simmons just look so bad, though. It’s hard to see them breaking out when they’re currently relying on TJ McConnell to bail them out. And Brown doesn’t seem like he has anything to offer them to counter the way they’re being defended.
You guys are making me really scared that we’re going to trade Frank, the #9 pick in the draft and matching salaries for DeMar DeRozan. Please stop.
Lakers would be a great trade partner for Derozan, if they strike out on PG and Lebron.
If Ron Baker could do some Tj McConnell things next year he’d be seriously earning every buck he was given.
Tj on defense is a like a midget Draymond and I mean that in a good way. Uses his body perfectly.
I wish we’d stop embarrassing ourselves with these “challenges” to LeBron.
@10
The Lakers and the Clippers both make a lot of sense, specially with the DeRozan returns to LA narrative.
The Lakers if they don’t get their favorite targets and the Clippers as currently constructed are too good to really tank and have plenty of assets to spare.
@12
Kanter’s challenge to LeBron makes me worry his earlier talk of opting out is because he has a promise of a long-term deal from the Knicks. That would be worse than trading for DeRozen. Maybe.
Again, take anything said at press conferences with a few dozen grains of salt, but the current management team is staying consistent on the idea that the rebuild will take some time.
Also:
Yikes Rodney Hood refused to go back into the game last night in the blowout (after not playing the first 3 quarters). Good luck in RFA Rodney.
I really don’t think the plan is to go make some dumb trade for Derozan. I’m not listening to the press conference right now but Perry has said over and over they’re not going to try and skip steps this time. Derozan would such the wrong move.
Re: Boston – Stevens IS a great coach but the real story is Ainge and how much talent they have on their team. Their starting lineup without Hayward (1st round pick 9) and Kyrie (#1 overall) has Horford (#3 overall), Tatum (#3 overall), Smart (#6 overall), and Rozier (#16) and they’re bringing Jaylen Brown (#3), Marcus Morris (#14), and Greg Monroe (#7) off the bench. They have 6 lottery players (and 4 HIGH lottery players) in their rotation even without Hayward and Kyrie.
Stevens is doing a great job but the little engine that could narrative is a bit much.
Stevens is doing a great job sending telepathic messages to Sixers players to throw god awful cross court lob passes.
Seriously, some of those passes the Sixers make are mind boggling, like they’re just handing the ball over to Boston. And that’s why this series is 3-1 and not 2-2, their performance at the end of game 3 was horrid.
Yep, I said it that night. I have never seen an NBA team play that poorly at the end of a playoff game. Not an exaggeration. They suddenly turned into a rec league team (other than Belinelli).
Embiid was totally gassed and should not have been in the game. I understand he hasn’t had the chance to reach peak conditioning but it’s sort of shocking to see an NBA player on the court looking as tired as he did.
The reason Stevens is so highly regarded as a coach is that there’s evidence accumulating that players that go to Boston exceed their previous production and when they leave they decline. People are taking the production of the current Boston players with a grain of salt and saying, “This guy is not as good as he looks. That’s just Stevens getting more out of him than most other coaches could”.
The other reason is that his defensive strategies, “in game” adjustments, and play calling out of timeouts always seem really sharp.
I guess you can tell I’m one of the people that thinks he’s in the conversation for best coach in the NBA right now.
The problem isn’t that we might extend Kanter. It’s the price we may pay if we do.
Stevens is 100% in the conversation of best coaches in the league. If you watch Boston play, it is very clear they are well coached and those out of timeout plays are successful a high percentage of the time. Yeah he has good players but the attention to detail maximizes those players performances. Considering they are missing their best two players it’s a pretty solid showing to get this deep in the layoffs even in the eastern conference.
That said Ainge deserves a lot of credit for obtaining an abundance of very talented players for a deep and balanced roster. Very impressive. I dream of the Knicks hiring someone who is 75% as successful as Danny has been.
The quotes from Fiz and Mills/Perry make it seem like they don’t want Kanter back.
IMO, the best thing about the Fiz hire for the Knicks is- based on the way he wanted to utilize Gasol in Memphis, you just KNOW that KP will be the starting center when he gets back. I think that move makes the team better. Opens the floor on offense, and puts out best interior defender IN THE INTERIOR. It’s probably easier to find a defending & rebounding forward to slot next to KP that’s not a net negative on offense than it is to find a center that fits the criteria.
Borrego is taking the Hornets job, per Woj. So we’ll get to see one of the candidates we passed on several times a year.
I’m totally fine with Kanter opting in, which is also probably the smartest thing he can do. It parks his cap space in a year when we can’t/shouldn’t really do anything with it, gives us an expiring to trade at the deadline if a contender’s desperate for inside scoring, and his defense helps the tank. Plus, he’s a fun guy to watch and root for, despite his game’s many shortcomings, which makes him ideal for a season in which we’re likely to be terrible. If KP were going to be healthy all year, I’d be annoyed by Kanter eating up so many minutes at the 5, but with KP out, Willy in Charlotte, and KOQ maybe leaving (though he did attend the Fiz presser today), who would be our center, anyway? Noah?!?!
As constructed Toronto aka Jamestown will be a top four team in the Eastern Conference for another 4 yrs, minimum. Consistent sell outs, two all-stars, growing fan base (revenue) etc… and some folks here think this is a perfect time for owner to move away from this situation and go back to losing aka discounted tickets and lower merchandising revenue?
Every franchise/owner has the same goal: – get to the top 4 teams in your conference and give yourself a shot at the finals and stay at the top four spot as long as possible. Injuries, sickness, player forced trades, veterans picked up of waivers, player(s) surprises downside, life timing (players personal situations like family sickness, marriage, alcohol/drug abuse etc), poor referring (ex: Hubert Davis call or Charles Smith non-call), miracle type low percentage shots to win games or missed finger roll layups; defensive blocked shot (LBJ or Hibbert throwing Melo), someone gets hot and outplays their abilities or someone goes cold and cant buy one, ejections and/or suspensions (Dreymond Green or Ewing and others for us back in the day), perfect matchups, etc…are often X-factors and determine who wins a specific series.
Clearly, that’s precisely what people were saying. Spot on. It’s like the earlier posts were simply reposted, that’s how 100% accurately you’ve captured people’s arguments about what the Raptors should do next.
Is Al Horford playing so well this year because Brad is the smartest coach in NBA history? Well then why didn’t he play this well last year? And why did he play as well as he has this year when he was on the Hawks? Marcus Morris still kinda sucks-why didn’t he get any better? I mean, he’s always kinda sucked, but why don’t we blame Stevens for that? If Terry Rozier is really this good why wasn’t he this good in the regular season? If Terry Rozier is just playing out of his mind is Brad Stevens really that good of a coach? Say Rozier leaves in free agency and goes back to being Terry Rozier-a good but not all star caliber player- do we shake our heads and say look, there’s another guy who wasn’t the same after he left Brad Stevens?
+1
I think Cuban did something like this in Dallas after their championship and I bet he regrets it. His team have been awful since.
What price would be OK? Because I don’t think any price works. I mean, if Enes came back for the mid-level, I guess, but I’d much rather than KOQ at that or something around that. KOQ is a more complete – BETTER – player, and seems very likely to get a lot less than Enes.
If Kanter is on the team, I’ll root for him. He has heart and some real skills, But he gives so much back on the defensive end, ultimately you can’t win with him at any more than 15-20 mpg and maybe $8mil of your annual cap.
So I guess you all think the suggestion to trade DeRozen means tanking? Because what people are actually saying here is that DeRozen is not the reason the team is winning, anything he does can be replaced for a lower cost. Which would ultimately make the Raptors better…if not necessarily able to summit Mt. LeBron.
Do you really think keeping together a core of Jason Kidd, DeShawn Stevenson, Shawn Marion, Jason Terry, Dirk Nowitzki and Chandler would have simply been a successful proposition?
Losing Chandler was a huge mistake (one that many knickerbloggers would have thought was the right move at the time), but that team was going nowhere and going fast. Their fall from grace is much more on the decline of everyone pretty much than on what Cuban did. The youngest player of that core lineup was Chandler at 28, everyone else was over 30 and starting to decline hard except maybe Dirk, who declined but continued to produce.
It’s very easy to say it was a mistake in hindsight simply because they missed the mark on the rebuild so hard, but I could easily see them keeping their core together, getting destroyed in the playoffs anyway and then people would be flaming them for keeping an old, declining roster together for too long.
I don’t remember being anything other than delighted that Chandler was coming to the Knicks. I can also remember scratching my head when they made a big commitment to Harrison Barnes.
Clyde’s no doctor (nor is James Dolan), but it’s notable that this is the buzz floating around MSG. A better safe than sorry approach, but it really will complicate the extension question if he doesn’t play at all.
derozan has issues in the playoffs… but he’s still a solid player and i’m pretty sure he figures it out at some point…. he’s definitely overpaid so it’s unlikely anyone will take that contract on… sometimes you just have to ride the horse you hitch your wagon on….
toronto’s issues this playoffs was more on the defensive side anyway… and yea derozan wasn’t great there but jonas and ibaka got exploited also… one of them should go instead since poeltl is absolutely ready to take the reins….
they need a coaching change more than anything… they have good developing pieces but they also have some very good veterans… they are like the pre-cp3 rockets only they have a much worse version of harden…. there’s enough there to compete …..
Here is salary cap dump of historic proportions and Isaiah Thomas would easily pull off because he’s add a bunch of 1st round picks too. Trade possible as both teams have over $24M in trade exemptions.
Enes Kanter $18,622,513
Courtney Lee $25,013,450
Frank Knitilikina $4,155,720 – club option for all the rest
Total $47,791,683
Kyle Lowry $64,296,296
D. DeRozan $83,219,925
Serge Ibaka $44,938,272
Total $192,454,493
Total Salary Cap Dump = $144,662,810 + tax.
@34
And a worse CP3, but the comparison is indeed interesting. I think Siakam and Poeltl are the future at the 4 and 5 but Valanciunas also has a big contract, not as bad as Ibaka’s but potentially also untradeable.
That’s the issue of commiting super hard to a core when your superstars just aren’t at the absolute top of the ladder. They didn’t have much choice, but it goes to show that smart team building can only take you so far when Toronto hit on countless small moves and Cleveland missed so badly on so many, and yet LeBron is still the barrier they can’t get through.
howdy everyone…
it’s been great to see so many new names here on the site recently…my favorite from yesterday:
heck yeah…
not sure where bud will eventually end up – but, i’m glad we nabbed fizdale when we did…
what is the date when players need to either opt out or opt in?
i think i read somewhere that it’s july 1…
knick wise – kanter and baker should opt in, o’quinn should be able to opt out and make a lot more than the 4.2 million we would have paid him next year…
when o’quinn leaves we should be around 5 to 6 million under the cap…around 3 and a half will go to our first round pick…not sure how much kornet and hicks will cost next year…
doesn’t seem like our roster will change much, barring some kind of trade…
That trade with Toronto?
Pass.
KP can barely handle PF for a full NBA regular season. Now we want him to grind as a center after tearing his left ACL?
Budz has been playing a risky game and may well be overplaying his hand. If he doesn’t get the Milwaukee job, he may get shut out entirely this offseason.
@40 I would be mildly satisfied with this situation.
In some ways KP would have less wear and tear playing center – eyeballing the tracking data on “speed and distance”, centers run about 0.5 mile less per game than forwards or guards.
How many centers have torn their ACL? That’s a wing/guard injury for the most part (or at least it seems like that).
Re: Budenholzer – he’s getting paid $7MM/year for the next 2 years. There’s very little risk for him regardless.
I’m guessing we are re-signing KOQ (or he’s opting in) given that he came to the presser today.
Re: Kanter – I am sort of in agreement that him opting in at least protects us from doing something dumb with his cap space, which includes signing him to a long-term contract. It also keeps us from doing something smart with his cap space, like taking on a 1-2 year contract dump for draft pick(s), but this is Knicks PTSD talking.
I’m firmly on the camp that Porzingis should be held out for at least half a season. We have a new coach on a 4 year contact that should have absolutely zero pressure about winning right away, only continuing to build upon everyone else around KP. Don’t extend Kanter no matter what, if he opts in fine, if he leaves it’s not a big issue anyway.
I understand Porzingis will want to play at the very least past the halfway point as he would want to guarantee the max extension, but there’s no reason at all to play him before the all star break unless it would 100% alienate his wishes and make him truly pissed. I hope he understands the situation and focuses on getting back 100% no matter how long it takes. If I’m Mills and Perry I would even go as far as guaranteeing him the extension he wishes if he focuses on recovering fully for the first half of the season (and obviously comes back really healthy and doing well).
I bet most of that evidence is wrapped up in Isiah Thomas, and I’m sorry but I’m not giving credit for his ascent and decline to his marriage to Brad Stevens.
I believe that, too. Would you trade the Knicks’ pick in this draft for Brad Stevens, though? That preposterous Ringer article yesterday claimed he was worth a top 3 draft pick.
It should completely eliminate the extension question.
Do you mean a max extension?
I’d be fine offering him the Giannis / Steph Curry extension, i.e. 4 years at a fixed dollar salary (not 25% of cap) a little under the max while he’s rehabbing and takes a whole season off. That’s the reasonable compromise for the two sides. If he’s going to be insulted and sulk over a 4 year, ~$96 million extension while rehabbing from a horrible injury, he’s a little out of his mind.
I don’t. The point of my post was to agree with what GianaDani was saying, that taking apart a strong team that can go to the 2nd or 3rd round of the playoffs is against the instincts of most owners, and it did not work out for Cuban.
If Toronto trades DeRozan thinking it would make them better, which it may, than more power to them. But that’s a different issue.
Not extending KP could be a huge gamble, though. Say he plays on the QO in his 5th year and turns into Tyson Nowitzki. He’d be a UFA in the summer of 2020 and could walk for nothing.
I’d give KP the Giannis/Oladipo extension this summer and see if he bites. There’s no way I offer him a max deal, but I’d like some security. If November KP becomes regular season KP, that’s a franchise player.
I don’t think KP is ready for the “5” spot. It makes sense because he likes stay near the paint on defense, but he’s averse to contact and the physical bigs will make him dread going to work.
When defending against small ball lineups it may work, if he can keep the pace.
I don’t get all the Enes hate here, and you’re exaggerating how bad is defense is.
On the plus side of ledger, he’s the closest thing on this team to a leader, plays his heart out, and he’s a monster on the offensive glass.
Yes, overpaid. But, he makes the knicks a better team.
Per Ian Begley “President Steve Mills … says NYK is committed this time to avoiding the shortcuts they’ve taken the past. He reiterated that owner Jim Dolan is on board with taking a patient approach.
If he does this he’s an idiot. Him tearing his ACL makes this so unlikely it’s not even worth entertaining. You don’t turn down a 9 figure guaranteed payday coming off of that type of injury at his height and actually delay getting that type of payday for a year.
Off the top of my head, I’d include Crowder and Bradley in that and I’d definitely give Stevens credit for Thomas’s big year.
Not signing KP to an extension positions us to have some cap space in the summer. I dont think the team would be in shape to make FA acquisitions, but some guys like Jimmy Butler, Khris Middleton, Kawhi Leonard or Tobias Harris could be available, giving us a chance fo fill the SF position. But first, we should ace the pick this year (and the next), Ntilikina show progression, THJr become more efficient, and KP come back fully recovered.
Signing KP is a big time gamble. Letting him walk may be a bigger one.
KP would be a restricted free agent, I dont think it is a big risk. Very few players have gone for que qualifying offer route, and it usually has not worked well for them.
Chris Paul was apparently really tired of reading those CP3 never even made a conference finals articles
I watched the entire press conference on Youtube this morning. One takeaway I had is that the management and the coaching staff is all on the same page that defense comes first. That is a good thing. I think Phil Jackson may have also thought that way, but no previous GMs before him seemed to.
Wow, it only took 855 losses over the past 18 years, the worst winning% in the entire league over that span (and more than twice the losses than the San Antonio Spurs) for Dolan to get on board.
In other news, Ozzy Osbourne is on board with the idea that he might have had a minor substance abuse problem, and the Marlboro Man has decided that smoking cigarettes may not be all that good for you.
@60 If I know my Knicks, that process will last the exact amount of time it takes till KP is healthy and then it will be trade everything to win now.
Good things only happen to the Knicks when they’re forced to do it.
I’m just happy that you waited until they won the game this time. 😉
But seriously, it is nice to see him make the Conference Finals. Good for him. So many bad takes on him never making it that far.