Knicks Morning News (2019.04.22)

  • [Hoops Rumors] Knicks Notes: Draft Picks, Ntilikina, Dotson, Dolan
    (Sunday, April 21, 2019 1:59:26 PM)

    The Knicks will miss out on a valuable pick in this year’s draft because of a trade former team president Phil Jackson made nearly five years ago, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post. New York would own the 31st pick, which is coveted because it offers a chance at a potential first-round […]

  • [NYPost] Potential Nets free-agent target is hoping for future with 76ers
    (Sunday, April 21, 2019 5:27:44 PM)

    Sixers forward Tobias Harris exploded for 53 points in two playoff games in Brooklyn. When Saturday’s Game 4 ended with the Sixers pulling out a 112-108 triumph, the 30 happiest fans inside Barclays Center came via the Long Island Rail Road — Harris’ family. And there was also one other relative not in attendance, but…

  • [NYTimes] On Pro Basketball: The Celtics Sweep the Pacers. Now Comes the Hard Part.
    (Sunday, April 21, 2019 11:07:13 PM)

    With a strong performance against Indiana, Boston suddenly looks like the team many predicted would roll through the East. Can the Celtics sustain it against the Bucks?

  • [NYTimes] Nets’ G.M. Sean Marks Suspended for Entering the Referees’ Locker Room
    (Sunday, April 21, 2019 11:35:39 PM)

    Marks was fined $25,000 and will be suspended without pay for Game 5 of the first-round series with the Philadelphia 76ers.

  • 92 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2019.04.22)”

    Here’s Before Today-era APHG playing “Round And Round” on Fallon.

    Yours truly playing the orange Strat. No backing tracks, everything is 100% live.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU8zUSCrWv0

    Legendary chorus, gets me every time. For some reason I thought you had delay for the palm-muted part, but now I see the upstrokes. AP is in fine form here. Do you have a set of favorite songs to play? Either for the song itself or for your parts within it? I always suspected that playing the title track on Bobby J would be a blast for the joyousness of the chorus.

    From the four “studio” albums I always love playing L’Estat, Fright Night, White Freckles, Lipstick, Four Shadows, Negativ Ed, Time To Meet Your God, Dedicated To Bobby Jameson, I Wanna Be Young…

    I didn’t participate as much in the making of the DTBJ album, he did that one mostly with Kenny and Allene Norton, but I did come in for a few days of overdubs and the jangly guitar in the chorus of the title track is one of my favorite things I contributed to the record. So yes, that one was always fun to play live. It’s always extra satisfying to play your own parts that you devised.

    Most of my favorite tunes to play though were the back catalog tunes, because it really felt like we brought those tunes to life. I always love playing Helen, that is a really well written song and we always kill that one. Flying Circles, Grey Sunset, Envelopes Another Day, Somewhere In Europe, One On One, Thespian City, Trepanated Earth, those were all tunes I loved to play.

    Another one is Witch-hunt Suite For WWIII, we played that beast a lot over the years and the studio version we did of it in 2011 kind of went under the radar but I’m really proud of that recording.

    Some of my favorite bits that I played on the records… Jello is almost entirely me, including the guitar harmony solo, Dinosaur Carebears has a lot of me on it, most of the goopy synths on One Summer Night are me, the organ melody on Kinski Assassin, the guitar stuff on Farewell American Primitive, most of the keys and glockenspiel on Plastic Raincoats, the big reverb-y guitar on Sexual Athletics, the acoustic guitar part that glues together Only In My Dreams…

    Jowles, thanks for posting the links – I didn’t know who APHG were. And he/they aren’t exactly my thing, but I love your playing, JK – always the right part for what the music calls for, thoughtful riffs, great sound. Major props to you, man!

    If you were in NYC 20-25 years ago, we must have crossed each other’s paths. My band were never bigger than Webster Hall (I’m using the band name for my handle, though you’ll never find us online because it was a bit too early and today there are lots of Ramas), but we were around in all the usual places…most of which are now gone. The rest of my crew made it (drummer with Al Green, bassist with the Scorpions, guitarist with Britney Spears – which he was too embarrassed to tell me, I had to see him on TV purely by accident), but I was never comfortable onstage, so I bailed. So it goes.

    @JK47 I want you to know how meaningful I find this interaction. I’ve been lurking on this site for 7 years and this is my 4th overall comment, 3rd in as many days. I remember lighting Tim Koh’s cigarette outside Bimbo’s making my week. Oh man, I remember when I first bought Before Today at Amoeba Records in LA alongside Z’s New Slaves. The wife and I were driving home to fairfax village and we listened to the entire album. After that it was a wrap.

    One of the best parts of APHG, especially evident in Pom Pom, is the volume of genres that are spanned in a single album. I don’t know anyone else today that has that versatility. For awhile Not Enough Violence was my favorite track off that one. Right now it’s Dayzed Inn Daydreams.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOoYKI3WpBI
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXKLqVCz8SA

    Quick aside, the Pom Pom logo — especially on a black shirt with white lettering — looks a lot like the ISIS flag. I sometimes get weird comments when I wear it.

    Ariel Pink is really not for everyone. My wife either loves the songs or hates them, sometimes one after the other. (As I mentioned in an earlier thread, she seems to have that issue with most of my favorite artists: I’d prefer that she not touch the stereo when we listen to, say, GBV’s Bee Thousand or MBV’s Isn’t Anything for that very reason. She complained about the song “Lose My Breath” until I turned it off, and then later, listening to “All I Need,” she raved and asked me who the artist was. “It was the same album, darling.”) But the irreverence of “Santa’s In The Closet” or the manic energy of “Time to Live” is refreshing when the earnest love songs like “Feels Like Heaven” and “Another Weekend” come at you so hard. Can’t remember if I posted this or deleted it before I clicked submit, but I think it’s similar to The Replacements’ Let It Be — you gotta have the wacky “Gary’s Got a Boner” or the pastiche “Black Diamond” to keep the “Unsatisfied” and “Androgynous” from beating you over the head with desperation. Paul Westerberg without humor or self-awareness would be Gin Blossoms.

    quick update on the CA trip: on 4/20 (damn!) we stayed at the Mondrian (oh shit!) then went out to the strip and wound up at a place called the Viper Room. Saw 3 unbelievably tight bands all playing dynamite original music: Paper Jackets, Smoky Knights, and Zoe Zobrist. Then went to the Rainbow where people were smoking their brains out..shocking to see people smoking weed right in a bar. Then yesterday went down to Santa Monica, walked to Venice beach and had drinks at the Venice Whaler. Unbelievably beautiful sunset bar scene!

    And this was after a couple of days in SF, seeing Yosemite, Muir Woods, and Pacific Coast hwy all the way down.

    Bottom line: CA is not a bad place to hang. LeBron may have gotten it right.

    Bottom line:

    @6 Me and the fiancee aint really into the band scene like that, but yes to both Santa Monica and Venice, two of my favorite places to go.
    And one of the great things about out here is that the beach/pier scene is varied. Venice Beach has its own thing vs Long Beach piers vs Beach Cities (the cities right south of LAX).

    Z-Man, that trip was with your son, right? So it would be even better than it sounds, and it sounds great!

    Even though this whole ariel pink conversation has personally underscored just how cool I’m not, it’s still been pretty fun to read. You seem to kick ass, JK47.

    I also enjoyed the revelation that there are so many first time father’s slightly above me in age. I’m 41, and I was really, really enjoying late stage bachelorhood for the last 4 years since I exited my previous relationship. And then suddenly I met an incredible woman who I’d like to settle down with but from time to time I’m a little overwhelmed when I do the math. I’m 41 today, if I go all in right now, with any luck, we’ll have the first one by the time I’m 43, which puts me at 64 on his 21st birthday, which means I really need to reign in my bad habits so I’m still alive then, and don’t even get me started on how old I’ll be when the 3rd one hits 21, etc etc etc.

    So yeah, I’mma enjoy my sleep while I can, and keep working on that cholesterol.

    i’ll teel ya – as cool as it is to hear jk share some of the music stuff, it’s even cooler for me to read jowles and KnickerBloggerPowerRankings (oh my goodness – any chance of tightening that handle up 😮 ), being able to interact with an artist they have so much regard for…

    my sister lives up by sf bay area in is totally and completely lost in the live music scene there (i have a buddy at work that averages a few live shows a month – not that long ago i asked my sister how often she goes to live music, it’s like a couple of times a week for her still…that’s both cool and crazy to me…

    her passion for the bands she follows has been there since she was old enough to get on the LIRR and head in to the city…that passion has stayed with her throughout her life, and, it’s pretty cool to see…heck, her love of live music and that yoga stuff is one of the reasons my older sister looks like my younger sister now…

    My plan for this year was to post once a week with a ranking of who won the most statistical arguments, hence the terrible jokey handle. Confronted with the reality of statistical analysis of board posters, the creation of advanced metrics like post per thread, burns +-, swayed posters, etc. I found that I made a bed for myself whose juice wasn’t worth the squeeze. If I find the motivation to crawl out of the lurking sewer and post more I might switch it up.

    i’ve never married or had children…when i was 40 though, someone i was dating at the time had a daughter who was one…we only stayed dating for a couple of years, but, i became close to her daughter, and, stayed friends with the mom…

    for a year or so i was just more a babysitter than anything, soon though we were friends, then best friends, and, then i was her god dad…i only spent time with her a couple of weekends a month, so, it wasn’t really that taxing physically…if anything, it helped keep me in good shape…

    her brother was born when i was in my late 40’s – he saw my relationship with his sister, and we were best friends from the beginning…by the time he was really in to playing catch though i was in my early 50’s…it was funny, about a year ago i started having some trouble with my shoulder…at first i thought it was because i was sleeping on my side or something – took me a few months to realize i had simply worn out my shoulder a bit from months of playing catch with him for hours on end…

    my one big recommendation for older folks getting in to parenting – beware of skateboards…there’s a good chance your balance may not be what it once was…

    Glad you enjoyed LA, Z-Man!

    The Viper Room was a good choice. It’s a teeny tiny stage but that’s one of best sounding rooms in Los Angeles. There’s a top notch PA crammed into that little space and the guys that run sound there really know what they’re doing. They book pretty good stuff in there too, people use it as a showcase room because it sounds so good and it’s not hard to fill the place.

    The cool thing is that it’s not just an artist I like, but one I admire and respect. Gonna keep this a short story, but I played guitar for Lana Del Rey before she got her big break (from her rich daddy paying a marketing team to create “Lana Del Rey”). We were friends and had a brief time of intimacy, and I recognized her (vocal) talent but to be honest I haven’t listened to her albums since Born to Die. If she dropped into my email today with glad tidings, I’d wish her well and maybe try to catch a drink backstage. I just don’t care about her music at all. Ariel Pink checks all the boxes for me, and plus I like what JK47 has to say about basketball. This is a very fun and cool moment for me.

    If I find the motivation to crawl out of the lurking sewer and post more I might switch it up.

    well, i for one enjoy your writing style…not too bad on substance either 🙂

    can’t wait to start seeing you put yourself out there a bit on some of your basketball calls…i’ve been actually getting a little more daring in that regard myself the last year or so…i try to remember though to stay in my lane when the serious stat heads get going 🙂

    plenty of other knick stuff to talk about though…

    since it’s irrevocable that i’ll age, i started looking in to tips for healthy aging – participating in community is way up there…it hard though to find community at times, especially if you don’t really like being around people all that much…it was hard for me to figure out where to look, and, exactly what sort of community might suit me best…

    basketball, alcohol, a little social awareness, sports, occasional politics, pizza, music, bagels, some gambling stuff, drugs – heck, yeah – i can relate to all that…i’m grateful to mike and brian for keeping a site like this going…

    hmmmmm, now that i think about it – seeing how my participation in knickerblogger is in fact part of my long term health care – i wonder if there’s some way i can write off on my taxes the time i spend posting here…

    i guess at worse, i’ll have some kind of an excuse for when my boss eventually asks what the heck i’m doing spending so much time on this site during work…

    The most difficult choice I face as a father is whether to raise my children as Knicks fans.

    Everything else is doable if you can survive the lack of sleep for the first couple of months. The only thing I would put a really strong vote in for is strict sleep training. Like really strict. Don’t think it matters for the kids but the stats show that it does wonders for parental depression rates. And vaccinations of course. All of them.

    Will limit myself to that because me on parenting would be like Nkilatilla on politics on steroids. It’s fun though, very fulfilling, if you are ready and if you have the right person to do it with. That’s how it worked out for me anyway.

    That tune was produced by Raw Deal, which is Ariel Pink and Justin Raisen. Justin is another good friend of mine, I’ve been playing on his productions a lot, including the upcoming record by Yves Tumor. Justin wrote pretty much all of the tunes on the (excellent) Sky Ferreira album.

    I played on about one third of the Kurt Vile album “Bottle It In” that came out last year and probably would have toured with KV if not for the arrival of the baby.

    I also toured with Sia back in the day, before she was a giant international pop star. I did SNL with her back in 2015, which was a bucket list kind of career thing for me.

    next thing you’ll tell me is that you regularly get drinks with connan mockasin?

    Ha. I’ve chatted with Connan a few times, he is good friends with Tim Koh.

    Playing on that circuit with APHG is amazing because you’d get to hang with so many cool people. The Animal Collective guys were big early adopters of Ariel, so they’re around a lot. We did a thing called the Laneway tour in Australia and it’s super fun because it’s like 25 bands and you have to fly everywhere because Australia is so huge. So every day you’re at the airport and the hotel lobby with all the bands. The year we did it the lineup was us, Deerhunter, Blonde Redhead, Yeasayer, Beach House, !!!, Jenny Lewis, Warpaint, Les Savy Fav, Cut Copy and a bunch of other bands. Deerhunter were our label mates so we’d play with them all the time. They were really awesome back then with their original lineup.

    Another APHG-adjacent record I’d recommend is the latest album by Chris Cohen, came out just a few months ago. That one was also mixed by Kenny Gilmore. Chris was in the band Deerhoof and he’s made some cameos on APHG records. He’s one of the voices singing harmony on “Round And Round.”

    The only thing I would put a really strong vote in for is strict sleep training. Like really strict. Don’t think it matters for the kids but the stats show that it does wonders for parental depression rates.

    My girlfriend says we’re getting a night nanny for the first month or so, and that’s non negotiable.

    I don’t know if that means I’m paying for it. It probably does. I don’t want to google what that costs until it’s worth arguing about.

    Forever Dolphin Love’s video is some next level shit. There’s some parts of that track that sound like Joy Division it’s crazy. Deerhunter/Atlas Sound is my jam, saw them so many times when BK used to have free shows at McCarren Park.

    Yeah AC is also on my Rushmore. I got married last year and walked down the aisle to winter’s love.

    This site is so much more pleasant to read when nobody is talking about the Knicks.

    Thank for the Chris Cohen tip, green eyes is lovely. Man, I’ve been stuck in music discovery doldrums over the past 3 years because I’m either getting older or everything coming out is trash. so anything else (new and old) is much appreciated.

    I’m generally 3-5 years behind on discovering good music (have caught up, recently) so of course I went to the 2011 Pitchfork Festival, Friday and Sunday. It was miserably hot and I am not made for extreme heat, so I was agitated the whole time.

    My friend, whose musical repertoire seems begins and ends with the midwest emo bands we listened to in high school and any of the emo-revival stuff that it has spawned this decade, was not keen to see neither APHG (“eh, too weird”) nor James Blake (“too dubstep”), neither of which I had heard before.

    I was even annoyed by the Animal Collective set late on Friday. I had no idea what brilliant albums they made around that time (SJ and MPP) and so I was getting to hear some of their stuff at the end of a long, hot day with a festival crowd that, per usual, was an even mix of people who were there for the music and those who were there for a festive summer day and drinking beer in it. Same went for classic-lineup Guided by Voices (positively unable to rouse the disinterested crowd, a stark contrast with their 2-hour, full-participation singalong at Terminal 5 in late 2010), Superchunk (way too old to be playing pencil-necked college rock) and Battles (struggling to figure out how to make stuff from Mirrored work without their departed fourth member). So maybe I could have kicked off my APHG habit earlier had I better counsel on the whole thing.

    I bet that airport stuff was awesome, JK47. That sounds like a fun, talented group with a lot of personalities.

    The new MGMT album was pretty awesome, KBPR. I was never into them before, but I am into that album. Lots of genre swings and crafted songs.

    That Pitchfork show in 2011 was so brutally hot. We played mid-day and we all thought we were going to collapse. There’s good video of that on YouTube, we do a pretty searing version of “Witch-hunt Suite For WWIII.” Ariel was wearing a Madonna-style headset mic and it got all tangled up in his hair so he pulled it out and started singing directly into it like a tiny little hand-held mic and it sounds so crazy and fucked up. One review of that set said it sounded like Ariel was singing through a “crapulizer,” which we thought was pretty funny.

    Stratomatic "I'm tired of the Knicks paying lip service to DEFENSE. Get defenders & two-way players. Then play them!says:

    Sorry to change the subject back to basketball, but my musical taste starts with Mozart, jumps all the way to the delta right through modern blues, takes in a little Django and hot club, peaks with classic rock, and ends with grunge. I also listen to ragtime and bluegrass, but it’s mostly for a change pace.

    “What Brooklyn has done without lottery picks has exposed teams like the Knicks, Lakers, Suns and Kings, who have consistently been in the lottery but failed to make the playoffs,” former Nets executive Bobby Marks said.

    “If I’m an owner, I’m asking, ‘Why can’t we replicate what the Nets are doing?’”

    “The definition of sport is to compete,” one executive for an Eastern Conference team texted.

    “Thus, Brooklyn’s approach is the ONLY way to approach a rebuild. The 76ers are a historical franchise that was gutted for future picks. Some may argue the approach was creative or out of the box thinking. However, the actual pick selections were not accurate when it comes to talent evaluation bypassing players such as Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kristaps Porzingis.”

    https://theathletic.com/937987/

    Z-Man, we were dangerously close to running into each other on the Venice boardwalk…

    Damn, you two ripped that solo. Awesome quality for a crapulizer.

    If we get the dreaded #5 pick, is anybody feeling Deandre Hunter there? The nbadraft.net comps for him are OG Anunoby and Thaddeus Young, and those seem like fairly reasonable comps. Seems like a fairly high-floor guy. Not super exciting but probably won’t stink out the joint in the NBA.

    reading some of jk’s comments – makes me a little envious…it reminds me of conversations i’ve had with some folks whom teach for a living, or, others involved with coaching or refereeing in sports…

    as much as i enjoy my job, co-workers, environment, and, believe in the company i work for – man, it’s just moving widgets around for me, and, i can’t wait to retire…

    although jk is taking a break and involved in one of the more meaningful and rewarding tasks in life – some of the words he’s written recently scream: i can’t wait to get back to playing music with and for others…

    for those of you whom been able to combine your passion and profession together – very well done…you are most definitely winning in life…i’m not quite sure why i can’t find someone to pay me for getting high and playing video games all day 🙂

    just from looking at the tournament – hunter seemed to look a lot more ready for the nba than culver did…

    i’d still take barrett over either of those two of course (he’ll probably be gone at 3 though)…

    the question is = coby white over either hunter or culver…

    Ha i was in La for the first time this weekend too. Back in Ny now but my gf and I had a blast. Got a lot done in three days. Highlights were Malibu, Chateau Marmount, The Eames tour, Melrose Swap Meet and the Echoplex for the Grateful Shred gig. Ha, we did Zebulon too only cause we’d go to Kent way back when, it totally had a Union Pool West feel. It was funny.

    LA is the land of goofy hats.

    Oh and the only A.Pink I fuck with is the My Molly EP

    “What Brooklyn has done without lottery picks has exposed teams like the Knicks, Lakers, Suns and Kings, who have consistently been in the lottery but failed to make the playoffs,” former Nets executive Bobby Marks said.

    The issue is the failure to identify talent. It has nothing to do with draft position for those teams. They waste high-lottery picks on scrubs with upside.

    “If I’m an owner, I’m asking, ‘Why can’t we replicate what the Nets are doing?’”

    The answer: the failure to identify talent.

    “The definition of sport is to compete,” one executive for an Eastern Conference team texted.

    Perhaps the most facile description of roster-building I’ve ever seen.

    “Thus, Brooklyn’s approach is the ONLY way to approach a rebuild.

    Which is why they’re about to lose to the Sixers.

    The 76ers are a historical franchise that was gutted for future picks.

    This executive is bad at language. What does “historical franchise” mean? Historic? Yes. They are. What does that have to do with anything?

    Some may argue the approach was creative or out of the box thinking.

    It’s not so much an argument as it is a statement of fact.

    However, the actual pick selections were not accurate when it comes to talent evaluation bypassing players such as Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kristaps Porzingis.”

    Again, this is a stupidly-written sentence, but the sentiment is even dumber. The Thunder, who have the best draft track record since Durant declared, also passed on Giannis. The idea that Giannis was this obvious future-MVP pick belies the fact that 13 other franchises also passed on him. And then the Bucks picked Jabari Parker, a straight-up bust, the following year.

    “My Molly” is a Cobain-level song. I tried to get that into the live set many times but he never seemed to want to do it. Same thing with “Are You Gonna Look After My Boys.”

    it’s really dangerous to judge prospects off the back of a few games… esp one that was during a hot shooting streak… deandre hunter is not all that of a prospect… he plays defense and he shoots… and that’s really about it…. that’s mid to late first type and not at all what you want out of a lotto pick….

    i hope the frank pick would put ppl off of ‘measureable’ type of players for good…. hunter is basically that… and yea defense and shooting are nice things.. but if you’re only doing that at a young age… you’re probably not gonna be doing those things as well in the pro’s…

    it’s really dangerous to judge prospects off the back of a few games… esp one that was during a hot shooting streak… deandre hunter is not all that of a prospect… he plays defense and he shoots… and that’s really about it…. that’s mid to late first type and not at all what you want out of a lotto pick….

    i hope the frank pick would put ppl off of ‘measureable’ type of players for good…. hunter is basically that… and yea defense and shooting are nice things.. but if you’re only doing that at a young age… you’re probably not gonna be doing those things as well in the pro’s…

    this

    Will limit myself to that because me on parenting would be like Nkilatilla on politics on steroids.

    I would be very receptive to a weekly Owen column on parenting.

    it’s really dangerous to judge prospects off the back of a few games… esp one that was during a hot shooting streak… deandre hunter is not all that of a prospect… he plays defense and he shoots… and that’s really about it…. that’s mid to late first type and not at all what you want out of a lotto pick….

    Problem is, at #5 there may not be a lotto pick-worthy player on the board. It seems better to get a good role player than an empty pointzz dude no matter where you’re drafting. An OG Anunoby type is not a super exciting result after the epic tank season we just witnessed, but I’d rather have that than Cam Reddish, a scorer who is very bad at throwing the ball into the basket.

    This draft really does fall off the table quickly after the first couple of guys.

    Hunter offers more shot creation than you’d think because Virginia was the slowest paced basketball team in the country. He still wasn’t exactly a dynamic offensive player, but he wasn’t just a 3 and D guy either.

    The Nets took on plenty of bad contracts for assets (Faried, Carroll, Mozgov off the top of my head), gave out end of roster flyers to guys with interesting NCAA/G-League profiles (Dinwiddie, Harris off the top of my head), didn’t take on a lot of long-term money without compensation, and generally didn’t express much interest in winning until this year (and there’s some reason to believe that was an accident of sorts).

    They basically did all of the things tanking teams should do with the colossal exception of getting high picks, because they traded all of those away. Had they not done that, there’s a good chance they’d be a very good team right now because they followed the Hinkie blueprint to a tee. Instead, they have a mediocre team because they successfully followed its tenants but didn’t have access to the most important one.

    To the extent they deviated from that blueprint, those are the moves they now regret. I mean, how’s Allen Crabbe’s .519 TS%/$18.5M AAV salary working out for them right now?

    I really don’t get why this example keeps getting thrown out there. They’re a nice story because of the position they were in post-Billy Kingacalypse, but they’re also about to get gentlemen’s swept out of the first round and don’t have an obvious path to improvement unless they can lure an elite free agent. What exactly is supposed to be instructive here, aside from the pseudo-tanking things that worked well for them?

    Are we still on the “I’d rather be Brooklyn than Philadelphia” train? With Philly up 3-1 on the series despite all the shenanigans?

    If the only way to build a team is to build a 6th seed that loses in the first round and can only hope for contention if they also sign a max free agent then yeah, I’m still taking Hinkie’s plan.

    I won’t get much into the music talk as I’m pretty uninformed compared to you guys, but I met Mike Patton once through my ex-boyfriend (he’s the singer of a band that opened for Faith no More here in Brazil) and it was the coolest thing for me, so I can only imagine what it’s like to work with these awesome names.

    Unless Blake Griffin’s health coincidently has aligned perfectly with the financial interests of the Detroit Pistons, is sure seems like they put him at risk to sell tickets in games they’ll still lose badly. Pretty shitty.

    don’t have an obvious path to improvement unless they can lure an elite free agent.

    That’s the Knicks obvious path to improvement other than lucking into Zion.

    The most difficult choice I face as a father is whether to raise my children as Knicks fans.

    Actually, its raising children during what could be the tail end of the 6th Mass Extinction level event in Earth’s history – the previous ones having extinguished the dinosaurs, who were the dominant terrestrial lifeforms on the planet at the time.

    Problem is, at #5 there may not be a lotto pick-worthy player on the board.

    djphan is right about Hunter and similar guys, but this just isn’t a typical draft. High floor is probably BPA this time where the remaining guys at 5 all look like mid-lotto picks. The Knicks timing is so dumb it has filled me with ennui. Le sigh.

    Actually, its raising children during

    Le sigh. I’ll take a double Clorox on the rocks with a twist. I wanna feel lemony!

    there are absolutely lotto worthy guys on the board… this is not such a weak draft…. or that it’s so weak you need to start looking at guys like hunter or clarke in the top 5….

    og anunoby was way better… and frankly way more athletic than hunter… hunter for all his measurables is very stiff for his size… and just does not have the ball skills to make it as a sf…. and he doesn’t rebound enough to be a pf…. i can buy the pace argument if hunter came close on some of the benchmarks but even pace adjusted he’s not quite there on scoring and rebounding and he’s way way short on stls and blocks ..

    if you want a role player…. alexander-walker has a chance to be a very solid one…. without a disaster of a statistical profile that hunter has….

    That’s the Knicks obvious path to improvement other than lucking into Zion.

    If the Knicks don’t land elite free agents, they can keep tanking until they’re good. The Porzingis trade opened up that path, which is why I liked it so much regardless of whether or not it indicated wink-wink agreements.

    That path is gone for Brooklyn. That’s definitely not the fault of Marks, who I agree has been excellent, but it goes to show you that ironically enough they’re actually in a much more “free agency or bust” situation than us.

    The Knicks were also in “win now” mode until very recently, adding the likes of Joakim Noah, Courtney Lee and Tim Hardaway Jr to the roster in the last two offseason, and trading away recently drafted first rounders for a Derrick Rose rental.

    Thanks, (mostly) Phil!

    Actually, its raising children during what could be the tail end of the 6th Mass Extinction level event in Earth’s history

    Womp womp.

    djphan with the caveat that if we disagree on something draft related you’re probably right, I’m just not seeing “disaster” in Hunter’s statistical profile.

    His steal rate is pretty bad, but in both years he had a pretty solid 2PT% on high volume. I didn’t watch a ton of UVA this year, but I got the impression they used him mostly as a SG and that seems like his most likely NBA role. When you take that into account, his rebounding doesn’t seem to be much of an issue and might even be a minor strength.

    He’s not all that good of a prospect, and I totally get it if you’d prefer one of the higher ceiling options in Langford/Garland/Alexander-Walker, but I do think you could do worse if Zion, Morant, Culver, and I guess Barrett are off the board. Khris Middleton seems like an optimistic but reasonable comp for him.

    I should add that I’m very against drafting for fit outside of very specific situations, and since the draft happens before free agency we’ll have no idea who fits where anyway, but maaaaaaaan Hunter seems like a potentially great guy to have on a team with some max guys.

    Yeah it’s pretty silly to compare the nets to the sixers. They employed the same strategies. One team just had higher picks.

    The reason I envy the Nets, quite simply, is they’ve drafted better players in the 20s than we’ve gotten in the lottery. And they seem to have a San Antonio-esque player development program that’s yielded nice players like Dinwiddie and Harris while we just have the likes of Hezonja and Mudiay wasting everyone’s time. And they were willing to trade cap space for assets like we should have done.

    It’s not so much that they’re in a better position than us (even though they are). It’s that I think we’d be in a better position if we’d done what they did.
    P

    Actually, its raising children during what could be the tail end of the 6th Mass Extinction level event in Earth’s history –

    that’s right räz…that’s why you gotta ride that party bus till the wheels fall off…tomorrow is never guaranteed…just very statistically likely…and, we all know how much stats lie…eventually, today will be the last day…

    @57 thanks, I was thinking the same thing re: Hunter is a statistical disaster. Alexander-Walker is def in the conversation, but how many players are no-brainers to go ahead of Hunter? 3? 4? Is 62% TS in 1200+ minutes “a few games”? DJ, who are the absolutely lotto worthy guys you have above Hunter & Clarke?

    i don’t think hunter played much sg last year but he def did play some pf this year… he falls short on pts… rebs… and stls+ blks…. that’s 3 out of 5 and that’s getting into 90+% bust rate at that point…. 2 out of 5 you get guys like mbah a moute… josh richardson…. harrison barnes…. you look at every other SF in the league and they all have performed way better than hunter has in college…

    i’ve said this before.. but ts% is a good backward looking metric.. but it’s a pretty poor fwd looking one… you don’t want a college guy to be depending on a lot of points from beyond the arc….

    anyway here’s 8 who i’m highly confident will have a better career than hunter….

    1. zion
    2. morant
    3. culver
    4. barrett
    5. coby white
    6. langford
    7. alexander-walker
    8. ponds

    @61

    It’s okay, Bernie will save us

    You’ve actually helped me realize something very important here by mentioning Bernie when no one else did: Sanders Derangement Syndrome is clearly the flip side of Trump Derangement Syndrome among white professional centrist liberals. This is so Hegelian in the way it unifies opposites.

    in which case we’ll all die

    Not so much us – even though we’re seeing near catastrophic effects where my family lives in Puerto Rico. The problem is especially daunting for future generations who will have to live in this. 12 years and counting to reverse it or else its a count down to civilization collapse. Tick tock, Tick tock.

    Le sigh. I’ll take a double Clorox on the rocks with a twist. I wanna feel lemony!

    As you can see, I am the life of parties.

    He’s back! And this time, with fewer thoughts on the Mueller Report!

    he falls short on pts… rebs… and stls+ blks…. that’s 3 out of 5 and that’s getting into 90+% bust rate at that point

    What are the benchmarks he’s falling short of?

    He’s back! And this time, with fewer thoughts on the Mueller Report!

    We’re about to find out whatever Glenn Greenwald’s opinion is on the subject

    Bucks look super tough. I am picking them to take the Eastern Conference. Giannis played that 4th game like a true closer.

    Thanks for the explanation. I am with you that his stats are totally thin for a typical 5 pick and you make a solid argument, but his advanced stats are better than UCLA Mbah a Moute (slightly worse TRB%). Also, TNFH’s Middleton comp is interesting. Middleton fails the same per40 tests as Hunter but was a much worse shooter. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the guys you list end up better than Hunter. It’s your degree of confidence that has me at a loss. I just don’t see him as a 90% bust and obviously worse than your 3 thru 8 picks. But I sincerely appreciate your insight.

    He’s back! And this time, with fewer thoughts on the Mueller Report!

    We’re about to find out whatever Glenn Greenwald’s opinion is on the subject

    LOL you guys so can’t over being wrong about Russiagate. It’s kind of funny since I’ve moved now that its been proven to be a farce and yet it’s really disturbing because people like you can’t move on from and are irrevocably damaged because of it. All of this snark sounds like an ex who is litigating the past with throwaway obnoxious comments out of insecurity.

    20 pts per 40… 8 rebs per 40 and 2.5 stls + blks…

    right, but Virginia is the slowest school in the country and he’s averaging 18.8 points per 40-I think the real red flag is the lack of blocks and (especially) steals.

    well, partly due to raz, I’m watching the democratic town halls…caught kamela harris and watching that mayor pete guy now…

    kind of disappointed I missed warren, I hear a lot of good about her…

    hard not to focus on, not so much their beliefs/values/ideas – but, who has the personality necessary to defeat donald…

    it ain’t gonna be no fair, intellectual fight…

    Yeah, I’ve come to accept that steals are a pretty good proxy for overall defense when you’re trying to project college players. And Hunter doesn’t get a lot of those, and his calling card is supposed to be defense, so I dunno.

    I’m just trying to figure out ways to not end up with Cam Reddish

    Please ban Ntilakilla.

    For making a point about climate change? LOL. Are you shitting me?

    This is you talking about the Mueller investigation:

    LOL. But I’m not talking about it. You are. That’s yesterday’s BS conspiracy theory.

    middleton is more of a SG.. and if you look at his numbers in that lens he wasn’t bad…. he got converted to a sg early on in his career and only recently was a SF…

    scoring volume is pretty important… and yes there’s some pace adjustments that should be made.. but hunter’s not exactly a great scorer…. he depends largely on others creating shots for him…. he has a good pump fake/jab step ->drive game.. but that’s really it… he has an ok post game but he’s not gonna be able to depend on that in the pro’s….

    it’s not that stls or blks are proxies for defense… they are proxies for a whole lot of things… and the thing with hunter is that is that he’s not exactly all that quick or shifty …. especially with the ball in his hands…. and for any of the perimeter positions.. that’s not good…

    kind of disappointed I missed warren, I hear a lot of good about her…

    hard not to focus on, not so much their beliefs/values/ideas – but, who has the personality necessary to defeat donald…

    it ain’t gonna be no fair, intellectual fight…

    Dude, I’ve had my eye on Warren for awhile. I think she’s issuing the most ambitious and systemic critiques of our economic and political system among any of the Democratic hopefuls running right now, bar none. Her proposal for a student cancellation debt program of up to 50,000 dollars for households earning 100,000K or less so a greater percentage of Millennials can get their credit in line to enter the home real estate market is just the latest. My major concern about her regard what I fear are poor political instincts. She seems to be a better statesperson than politician, which as you insinuate, is a real problem because the issue won’t be fought on policy specifics.

    What do you think about Harris and Buttigieg?

    Jazz came out on fire. But why do I feel as if the Rockets can pour it on at will against them?

    I would be very receptive to a weekly Owen column on parenting.

    Like politics, there are definitely plenty of forums to discuss parenting on the internet, each of them with the kind of deeply impenetrable jargon and acronyms that would make an basketball statistician deeply envious.

    Also, in my family, my wife is definitely the authority. I would say most men I know feel the same way.

    Definitely looking forward to discussing it with you at the next Knickerblogger meetup, tentatively themed, “We Mourn the Passing of Zion.”

    If we draft fifth and pick Hunter I won’t complain. I have a hard time getting super excited about him. He just strikes me as a bit of a Stanley Johnson or Rondae Hollis Jefferson type. Although those aren’t really good comps. But point being, I don’t know that I believe he’s really a legit NBA shooting guard and I don’t see the kind of athleticism to make him a devastating 3. But I am not that up on him and the numbers are ok.

    it’s tough to judge someone on a very limited exposure…

    having said that, kamela, is not an unattractive woman, I’m not big on the whole pant suit thing, but, she’s got really nice eyes, and, some other parts too…what she says seems okay, however, I would say no to putting her up front as “the” candidate…

    I liked mayor pete – a lot…smart guy, vet, I like hearing faith talk from leaders…I get the whole separation of state and church, still, having a decent moral compass is pretty important for decision makers…

    not sure how accepting america will be of his romantic preference…whether it may be possible at this time for that type of large scale cultural breakthrough…

    i gotta be honest, when he first walked on the stage I thought of dukakis – james madison at 5’4″ was the shortest president ever…

    him and trump on the same stage, will not be a good visual…

    yes, I excel at superficiality 🙂

    @85

    yes, I excel at superficiality 🙂

    LOL. I respect the honesty and agree that appearances will color a lot of the 2020 election.

    Mayor Pete, in my mind though, is a no go. His unattractiveness as a candidate for me was highlighted with the recent NYTimes article linking him to Neera Tanden and the Center for American Progress, a think tank whose nickname is Orwellian in its deceit. Like a good flag and anthem “centrist” he was just recently pronouncing a false equivalency between Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, which is a major red flag to me. A candidate can disagree with the Berniecrat wing of the Democratic Party all they want, but when a politician equivocates a politician attracting a multiracial coalition of supporters in support for single-payer health care to politician attracting white nationalists on the premise of creating a police state around the U.S.-Mexican border, that candidate is showing me they’re either completely out of touch or just plain lying.

    LOL you guys so can’t over being wrong about Russiagate. It’s kind of funny since I’ve moved now that its been proven to be a farce and yet it’s really disturbing because people like you can’t move on from and are irrevocably damaged because of it. All of this snark sounds like an ex who is litigating the past with throwaway obnoxious comments out of insecurity.

    Remember earlier in this thread when I said this site is so much more pleasant when nobody is talking about the knicks?… well, let me be the first to say that I was wrong.

    @88 – That description of the of the Walton assault is graphic and disturbing. The description also suggests the accuser will have a difficult time proving any of the claims, unless there are some incriminating texts, or something.

    Speaking of parenting, I feel like I’m getting a decent primer with my new upstairs neighbor having a newborn plus two other young ones. Kinda bullshit when someone else’s crying baby wakes you up.

    A candidate can disagree with the Berniecrat wing of the Democratic Party all they want, but when a politician equivocates a politician attracting a multiracial coalition of supporters in support for single-payer health care to politician attracting white nationalists on the premise of creating a police state around the U.S.-Mexican border, that candidate is showing me they’re either completely out of touch or just plain lying.

    This is my favorite instance of you showing us all how gullible you are. And there have been so many.

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