2019-20 Game Thread: Knicks vs. Hawks – Can Mike Miller Get Back to .500?

The Hawks are having a terrible season, so this is good timing for Mike Miller, as he tries to get back to .500!

Hopefully Morris increases his trade value!

Let’s go? Knicks!

318 replies on “2019-20 Game Thread: Knicks vs. Hawks – Can Mike Miller Get Back to .500?”

this is a tough one…this may be one of those games we wished we had lost come draft time next year, if we just so happen to win…

Who are “Knicks” here though? This just means Dolan, right?

The current rumor is that the league might be trying to put their thumb on the scale to get Ujiri to the Knicks, so that’s where the “chosen one” stuff is coming from.

The Hawks are fucking dreadful without Trae.

Knox seems to be getting a bit better at finishing at the rim. Baby steps.

Fire Mike Miller before he saves Mills and Perry, please.

This is more like what I expected from the Knicks this year – just good enough to keep the terrible front office in charge for a few more years.

1. I miss Clyde
2. Coaching matters
3. We are only 6 1/2 games out of the 8th seed (lmao)

If Trae Young could play defense at all he’d be scary good because he’s scary good on offense already.

the hawks had two lottery picks in a pretty decent draft and came away with deandre hunter and cam reddish….

and the result of those mistakes is what you see on the floor right now…

Wow, how bad are the Hawks? They deserve the #1 pick.

And we gotta get Morris out of here, he’s costing us ping pong balls.

Uh oh, pretty good DSJ game so far. You know what that means. This board is at high risk of becoming unusable tonight.

I think most folks here aren’t posting because they’re shocked the Knicks scored 77 in the half.

and the result of those mistakes is what you see on the floor right now

Bruno Fernando looks sort of ok!

The Hawks are high on my list of teams I was wrong about. I thought for sure they’d take a step forward this year because they were young, figured to improve, and added De’Andre Hunter who I liked coming out of college (but is disappointing SO FAR on offense). But somehow they got a LOT worse. I guess John Collins is even better than I thought and they miss him a lot.

Part of the scouting tonight was that Mitchell Robinson could jump the passing lanes and get breakaways. He went for three, converted one, and played effective D on the other two.

That Mitch steal and dunk to end the half is Knicks fan heroin. Happy to chase that dragon.

I guess team development is rarely a straight line, so a down year for the Hawks isn’t out the question.

I guess team development is rarely a straight line, so a down year for the Hawks isn’t out the question.

I don’t totally hate this Hawks team long term, but if they keep doing what they are doing in 4 years we’ll be talking about how if they could just get these young kids into the 8th seed to get some experience, they could take the next step.

trae is electric… but he’s still far away from steph curry… and he’s basically gonna need to turn into curry if the hawks are gonna even come close to even on the doncic trade….

this hawk team is pretty far away…young and collins are good pieces but literally no one else is even close.. ok maybe parker still has some future in this league… but that’s it!

I prefer watching the Knicks losing by 30 with Clyde announcing than winning by 30 with Wally.

You could see Bobby Portis thinking to himself ‘don’t get embarrassed’ guarding trae on the perimeter

trae is electric… but he’s still far away from steph curry…

IMO, Curry is one of the greatest offensive players ever. If Trae ever gets the point where serious people are comparing him to Curry in serious conversations, Atlanta will be fine.

I love Mike Miller.

We’re up by about 30 and take a single defensive possession off and he calls a time out to straighten these slackers out!

I think we should probably look to keep Payton long term. He has to get more efficient, but he’s still young. He’s just a few years older than some of our kids. He can get better. We’ll know more in a few months.

Wow, how bad are the Hawks? They deserve the #1 pick.

And we gotta get Morris out of here, he’s costing us ping pong balls.

And he’s apparently worth a FRP right now. We don’t need him getting hurt.

I love good RJ games!

Come on, Morris bidding war! Imagine if a team was willing to deal something good for Randle!

I never give management credit for anything and I don’t know that it’s an especially good strategy, but I like that almost every player on our team can get a rebound and bring the ball up court without having to make an outlet pass to the PG. There’s probably an effective way to use those skills instead of always making the outlet pass or the way other teams defer some rebounds to the PG (Westbrook, Harden, Doncic) to get the ball up the court quickly.

Come on, Morris bidding war!

I have mixed feeling about Morris. Coming into the season I said fans were going to love him because he plays very hard and is a tough guy. But I also said he’s overrated and does some dumb things that will make you shake your head.

He’s been more controlled than I expected and I forgot that I was a fan and might fall in love with him too. He’s a good leader for the kids.

The one thing that really makes me want to move him is that his 3p% is not sustainable. When he starts throwing up bricks my temporary infatuation is going to vanish quickly.

Trae is a better offensive player in his 2nd season than Steph was (and probably a worse defender). I’m not sure how much that means in terms of his future, but it shows you how good Trae is on offense. He’s could be a special player but his team stinks and Luka is even better.

Nice touch from the garden crowd with the ovation for Vince. Hell of a player. I have huge respect for a guy willing to forgo rings for a chance to get minutes and not be a bench warmer.

He’s could be a special player but his team stinks and Luka is even better.

Luka is better, but I don’t think the difference is as large as the “hype”.

Part of what’s helping Luka this season is that he’s often playing with 4 other players that can shoot 3s and really space the court. That gives him the ability to get to the rim easier and finish/draw fouls and score very efficiently inside. He’s getting to the rim more this year and finishing way better, but imo it’s not all just because of him. When they double, he’s got an easy outlet pass to a shooter.

He’s shooting much better from mid range too but is that sustainable?

Otherwise, I think Trae is the better pure shooter and both make plays at a high level.

Doncic rebounds better, but he’s the bigger guy and that has downsides on defense if he’s forced to guard small fast PGs. Despite that, since Trae is so poor defensively Doncic probably has the edge on that side too.

Yeah, Vince was a spectacular player. Not the most efficient, but super-entertaining. Hard to believe he’s still playing relatively well at age 43.

Yeah, Vince was a spectacular player. Not the most efficient, but super-entertaining. Hard to believe he’s still playing relatively well at age 43.

Hard to believe some of the dunks he can still throw down at 43.

Nice to see a win. Even if it is a win against a bad team getting worse. Although note, the Knicks actually lost to the Hawks in the last game of the preseason. Improvement?

Very proud to have been at the Vince Carter game. I think everyone at the Garden was in a state of pleasant shock.

Thoughts:

There is something more annoying than Wally. It is the way they say Marcus Morris Sr. and Kevin Knox the Second after every bucket.

Kevin Knox makes you realize what an asset physical strength in the NBA is. The guy looks great until anything happens that involves physical contact. Excellent game tonight though.

Trae Young is unguardable and also very small.

DSjr is also surprisingly small in person, with short arms.

Morris should be put on ice until the deal goes through. He went down at one point and I almost had an aneurysm. They have a picture of him next to the word unsustainable in the dictionary. Fun to watch right now though.

RJ was excellent. The Hawks defense was helpful but he was great all night and the crowd loved. That dunk in the fourth was a nice exclamation point.

I did my homage to DRed every time Mitch scored a bucket. “Why don’t we do that every single time?” They weren’t even trying to guard him at the end. He had one incredibly dumb sequence in there where he threw the inbound pass away and then fouled the guy. But whatever.

The Garden is a lot of fun. I probably think about what it would be like in there with a great team at least once a week.

This version of Marcus Morris (with no salary commitment after the season) has to be worth more than just a low 20s 1RP, right? I don’t see why Portland would want Kevin Love over Marcus Morris, for example.

He may be worth more. The question is, can you get more. I doubt it, but hey, Mozgov went to Cleveland for 2 #1 picks so you never know!

You could argue that the lack of salary commitment makes him less valuable, since he’s purely a rental with no Bird rights.

Morris > Love at this point, for sure.

Nice to see a historic win! Last high score reg game was 141 in 1988, is that right? What a fucked up thing for this team to beat that. But the Knicks are built to score inside if properly coached and the Hawks lack any serious interior defense.

I think it should be easier for a team like Portland, who is giving real minutes to Kent Bazemore, to commit to a 30 year old
Marcus Morris at $15M for the year instead of going after 31 year old Kevin Love and having $90M in salary tied to Lillard, McCollum, and Love. Teams like Denver, Portland, Sacramento and Houston should all have a lot of interest in Morris. I think his best fit might be in Miami where he and Jimmy Buckets can beat everybody up, but somebody has to be willing to pay up for this guy. He plays both ends of the court, he’s tough, and he’s reasonably priced.

yeah, that was a wierd game…can’t remember the last time I stopped watching a game cuz we were blowing someone out…

I’m with a lot of you, I knew collins was important for atlanta, no idea though that he was that important or could make such a big difference…

He may be worth more. The question is, can you get more. I doubt it, but hey, Mozgov went to Cleveland for 2 #1 picks so you never know!

we’re not just looking for picks though are we – we need young talent everywhere but the 5 spot…

I like shamet a lot but, miami did a great job drafting…one of their young guys might make a good deal…

Very weird that the Knicks seem to be a little more competent with someone who can do the most basic things associated with being a point guard. I was explicitly told this wouldn’t be the case. What gives?

Very weird that the Knicks seem to be a little more competent with someone who can do the most basic things associated with being a point guard. I was explicitly told this wouldn’t be the case. What gives?

Yeah….. Dennis Smith Jr was a player last night 🙂

But watching the Mavs carve up the Bucks on the road the day before yesterday just makes you appreciate how important top coaching is and how valuable it is.

I’m not sure what Millet is doing differently on offense than Fizdsle, other then maybe working harder to get good matchups, but I just cannot imagine the team scoring this many points under Fizdale.

Morris’ best selling point (outside of his unsustainable three point shooting) is that the Spurs dumped a decent player just to sign him. When was the last time that the Knicks got a guy that the Spurs wanted? And it only happened because one of the scrubs they rushed (RUSHED) to sign on day one of free agency turned out to be hurt.

The Knicks are definitely angling to trade DSJ asap. There was no need for DSJ to play anything other than garbage minutes last night, but there he was- and playing decent ball to boot. Folks, get ready for a showcase. If the team is indeed gonna do this, I wonder if Miller should move Ntilikina to the backup SG, and insert Payton in his place. I don’t necessarily like a Payton/DSJ pairing because they both need the ball more than Ntilikina does to be effective. Plus, DSJ/Ntilikina is probably our most complementary backcourt combo. I like Payton and Trier too, but I’m way more intrigued by DSJ/Ntilikina

Very weird that the Knicks seem to be a little more competent with someone who can do the most basic things associated with being a point guard. I was explicitly told this wouldn’t be the case. What gives?

Payton’s penetration and passing and clearly helps, but so does putting coherent lineups on the court, calling decent plays out of timeouts, making in game adjustments, and getting generally more ball and player movement out of the players.

This reminds of me of the time I asked my doctor to take me off 2 medications at the same time. He told me that would make no sense because then he couldn’t tell which one was actually helping the most.

The Knicks changed 2 things at one time.

It’s hard to know how much each each is contributing.

Teams like Denver, Portland, Sacramento and Houston should all have a lot of interest in Morris. I think his best fit might be in Miami where he and Jimmy Buckets can beat everybody up, but somebody has to be willing to pay up for this guy.

Miami has no picks to trade but I would gladly offer Morris for Herro and take back Waiters’ dead money for them. In fact I would take that over just about any deal involving a contender’s pick.

The rumored Clippers trade seems way too good for LA, by the way. I’m only into that if it’s a three-way trade where Harzell lands somewhere else and we end up with an extra pick.

Just spitballing the trade machine….. Denver isn’t good enough or deep enough to make a real run especially depending on 34 yr old Millsap who can’t play >24 minutes now. Randle and Morris for Millsap and some combo of Bol Bol/ picks or MPJr?????

Or maybe Charlotte wants to make the playoffs this year…. Morris and DSJr for M Williams and this year’s unprotected #1?

Kevin Knox makes you realize what an asset physical strength in the NBA is. The guy looks great until anything happens that involves physical contact. Excellent game tonight though.

Owen,

You should have seen him early last year as a rookie. I was shocked the first time I saw him. He’s a lot bigger and stronger now. He looked like a boy playing against men last year. That’s why I wasn’t so concerned about his inability to take contact and finish or eventually rebound better. He was way too weak to be effective at some things last year. Not that there aren’t still things to worry about with him (lol), but when guys fill out physically it changes what they can do. He should get a lot stronger.

That’s one reason Barrett is kind of advanced around the rim for 19. He’s got a man’s body.

Even KP (who was very weak while in NY) is rebounding way better now because he’s getting stripped less often and able to battle better inside without getting tossed aside like a rag doll. He should continue getting stronger also.

Yesterday I suggested trading Portis for Waiters in order to get assets, but just now I compared their stats. I was shocked how much better Portis’s are. And he’s still only 24. I retract the suggestion.

It’s going to be hard to use the guys on our roster to trade for promising young players on good teams unless those players aren’t really playing. I’d love to do that Herro deal, but Miami wants to win now and Herro is playing 30 minutes a night for them-they’re not shipping him out for Marcus Morris because they’d need to make more moves to find a Herro replacement.

1. The chances of getting Herro are zero.

3. We may just sit on Morris for awhile to see if any injuries change (improve) the market later.

2. The risk of waiting is that he starts throwing up bricks from 3 in the second half like he did last year and people realize (like I’ve been saying since before the season started) that he’s not as good as people think.

Here are his splits from last year. Look at his 3p% and TS% for the first 3 months last year. This is not the 1st time he’s had a good run and then reverted to the mean.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/morrima03/splits/2019

I think the obvious trade partner is in Portland. They are trying to get to the playoffs with Kent Bazemore getting real minutes as a starter. By April they should have the best center depth in basketball, but they need to get actual NBA players on that team if they want to give Lillard a shot to take it home. They also have some interesting young players like Simons, Collins, and Little to go along with a 1RP. We could offer them something like Bullock and Morris for Bazemore, Nasir Little, and their 1RP, and that could give us 2 top 20 picks to add to a presumptive youth group of Knox, Ntilikina, Smith Jr, Barrett, Robinson, Brazdeikis, and Nasir Little.

Morris is has shot over 36% from 3 5 out of the last 7 seasons. He’s a big defensively versatile forward who can shoot 3s. That’s why teams that have playoff aspirations want him, not because they think he’s a 48% 3 point shooter. Personally I think those teams are overrating him a bit, but that’s not my business-I don’t think we have to worry that a 2 week slump will kill his trade value.

If we play .500 ball the rest of the season, – we’ll end up 34:48. This may prove to be worse than the atrocious Fizdale hire for our rebuild. Cant’t believe I’m saying this but I’m beginning to miss Emmanuel Mudiay, Enes Kanter and David Fizdale already.

For all the folks in NBA circles that commend Fiz for being a “fine young coach” and whatnot, how is it that Mike Miller has flown under the radar for so long? Obviously he’s coaching better than Fiz did, so you can argue he’s a much better coach. I’m still not ready to have a funeral for Fiz’ coaching skills, but Miller is clearly doing a superior job. I guess this is a chicken or the egg type argument. Is Miller that much better or did he see something as an assistant that he is merely taking advantage of now? If he saw something as an assistant, he can’t implement it himself because you don’t wanna go over the HC’s head. But, if he mentioned whatever he’s seen to Fiz, that is also horrible management by the HC. I have hopes for Fiz as a young coach, but (I’m gonna regret this) maybe Mills is right in firing Fiz for incompetence. Unfortunately, that may save Mills’ job, soooo…..ooof!

I think the obvious trade partner is in Portland.

The problem with this is they’d have no way to keep Morris because they’d still be capped out I’m pretty sure and Morris doesn’t come with Bird rights. They’re going to be looking to make a trade that helps them get into the playoffs this year but also, importantly, makes them better next year when Nurkic is back to full health and they can (in theory, I’m skeptical) make another serious deep run. So they’re going to want to get somebody withh multiple years of control or where they at least have Bird rights. As a pure rental I’m not sure Morris works for them.

1. The chances of getting Herro are zero.

You are essentially saying there is a 100% chance the Heat stand pat.

They can’t trade a 1st until 2025. He is their only attractive asset. That’s why he is being mentioned in literally every trade rumor involving them.

It’s going to be hard to use the guys on our roster to trade for promising young players on good teams unless those players aren’t really playing. I’d love to do that Herro deal, but Miami wants to win now and Herro is playing 30 minutes a night for them-they’re not shipping him out for Marcus Morris because they’d need to make more moves to find a Herro replacement.

Morris would take Herro’s minutes. They would be a little bigger and more “battle tested”, if they think that’s a thing. But I can see how that might not be enough.

How much do you value Herro? You could expand the trade to include Bobby Portis for James Johnson. That effectively makes the trade (from Miami’s POV) Tyler Herro for Marcus Morris now and $32mm in cap space this summer. I like Herro but that seems more than an adequate price.

1. The chances of getting Herro are zero.

I think this is correct, because teams are loath to trade promising young players on team-friendly contracts. Do you think it’s possible that principle is more widely applicable than this one situation?

I love the idea anyone would trade an unprotected first for Smith but if that’s how the NBA works right now I don’t know much about anything….

I would think Minnesota is just interested in him as a flyer and we’d get a fake second round pick, maybe an unprotected second at most. I’m probably in the minority here but I’d prefer to keep him than to trade him for a single second rounder. I like his remote chances of turning it around better than the chances of hitting on a second rounder.

There is no reason for the Knicks to trade Dennis Smith Jr to Minnesota. This is probably just a front office leak to make DSJr play a little better.

I think this is correct, because teams are loath to trade promising young players on team-friendly contracts.

Generally speaking, yes.

But the Heat are contenders and and Pat Riley has demonstrated that he values veterans and cap flexibility more than promising young players on team-friendly contracts.

I don’t know if we have the right package for Herro, but I think Riley’s definitely open to moving him.

Clarence Gaines
@ClarenceGaines2
Some will say I’m a Monday Morning QB, but since I said it before the 2018 draft & I’m watching
@23savage kick the @ATLHawks asses, I’ll never understand how a team with 3 1st round draft picks passed on him 3 times – favor smiled on @nyknicks that night – still SMDH!

we need to get our roster sorted…

we’ve sort of figured out some things with our rotations, but, one of the current three pg’s needs to go along with a pf…

picks and prospects…never really give much thought to taking back bad contracts…to be honest, I just don’t understand a ton of the NBA salary stuff…

having 40 million sitting in the bank prior to each of the next couple/few seasons…not sure if that’s a good or bad approach for this team…

not sure how old taj is, but, don’t really wanna see us throwing anyone else out on the court much past 26 or so…

sooooooo, I have a feeling mike miller may be able to coach…so refreshing seeing someone on our sidelines that doesn’t “look” overwhelmed…

There is no reason for the Knicks to trade Dennis Smith Jr to Minnesota. This is probably just a front office leak to make DSJr play a little better.

For a 1st round pick? I do it in 2 seconds. Have you watched this guy the whole season? He’s one of the dumbest PG’s I’ve ever seen play and his shot is basically broken.

No offense to the guys who put up big numbers last night, but the Hawks played defense like it was a summer league game. But if the Wolves watched that and decided DSJR is their man, please send us a 1st rounder and ignore all the other dreadful performances.

There is no reason for the Knicks to trade Dennis Smith Jr to Minnesota. This is probably just a front office leak to make DSJr play a little better.

I don’t understand how you can say this. A) if we can get something good for Smith, wouldn’t you consider doing the trade? and B) our front office has been very close mouthed about trades. I’d be really surprised if they leaked it. Anyway, why would the front office let Smith know that several teams were interested in him if they wanted him to play better. If anything, that wouild be like telling him he is playing well, which, for the most part, he isn’t.

Edit: D-mar, our posts crossed. Clearly, we are thinking alike on this

Marcus Morris fits the 2019-20 Miami Heat playoff run like a glove, so I wouldn’t put the chances of Herro at literally zero — but they’re not high. I’d be ecstatic if the Knicks were able to get him, which means it’s guaranteed not to happen.

I get that it’s nice to add a Jr to our Sr and our Second but the guy is just not that good in my book.I don’t and have never gotten the Dennis Smith love. If you can pick up Trey Burke for 2 million per not sure what the appeal is.

DSJ for a first rounder is also a no-brainer. You say yes to that in a millisecond. Never going to happen.

I don’t and have never gotten the Dennis Smith love.

Il n’est pas M. Ntilikina. Rien de plus.

@90 & 91.

The POBO in Minnesota is a Darryl Morey disciple. There is no way in hell he is giving up significant draft capital to get his hands on one of the worst point guards in the NBA who also plays bad defense. Minnesota is probably offering a 2021 2RP, and that doesn’t help the Knicks’ front office at all when you consider their jobs are on the line. Maybe they give up Naz Reid who is a good prospect to be Mitch’s back up full time, and we only have one center on the roster so I can make sense of that. Other than Naz Reid, what do the Wolves have that we would legitimately want for the price of our 3rd string point guard? I can’t see Minnesota making an offer that New York would take seriously unless they really want a second 2RP this year, but a top 45 pick may be more valuable than DSJr at this point.

I’d trade DSJr for a 2RP, move Kadeem Allen to the big league roster full time and give Tony Wooten the 2nd two way contract, but I don’t think the Knicks are worried enough about losing Wooten to make that kind of a trade.

To continue, if we got some one like Josh Okogie in return for Smith (this works in the trade machine) that would be like getting a first round pick, except two years after he was drafted. Just saying, our return for Smith doesn’t have to be a draft pick.

If Gersson Rosas is dumb enough to trade Josh Okogie (a year younger, one more year of cost control, and a better basketball player) for Dennis Smith Jr, you take his money every single time. I don’t think he is that dumb.

Knicks hired David Blatt as a “basketball operations consultant.” This could be a case of having a potential Miller replacement in the building, but Blatt has health issues, and in the statement announcing his hire, he says this is the first step in his retirement from coaching.

Breaking news: Knicks hired David Blatt as a “basketball operations consultant” whatever the fk that is

Why the hell did we just hire David Blatt to a front office job?

WHY CAN’T WE JUST FIRE EVERYBODY AND MOVE FORWARD.

Dallas put Denis Smith Jr on the block loud and clear before the Porzingis trade. The story was that they were asking for a 1st round pick. There were no takers. If anything, his market value is much lower now than when Dallas was trying to unload him.

You can see his innate athletic gifts and talents. That’s what makes him enticing when he has a good game, but it doesn’t translate into consistent positive production on the court on either side. Combine that what seems like a low basketball IQ and a tendency to get down and sulk when things aren’t going well and it’s hard to see him becoming more than a mediocre backup (not to mention the bad back). I’m not sure he’s a better prospect than Mudiay.

I’d take a couple of 2nd rounders and run.

Looks like a sign of major FO upheavals coming up, but given the fact that the next GM/POBO wasn’t announced, and Blatt would be under that person, it reeks of either (a) Blatt is the next GM, which I doubt, given the wording (b) he was hired and will need to stay with the next GM which sucks for that guy, and a guy like Masai would probably appreciate using his own guys, and bristle at being told a major hire was already made, or (c) Mills stays and Blatt is the next GM, which would suuuuuuuck, or (d) he’s consulting temporarily since they need someone they trust to make moves until they figure out the next FO.

Basically, shrug emoji

Isn’t Blatt a friend of Mills?

This could be a Mills attempt to get some help running things and salvage his job.

Mike Miller wins a couple games and now Mills is off the hot seat? Come on.

Yeah, I think this is just Mills doing a solid for a buddy. Gives Blatt a head start on post-coaching life, gives him some money from Dolan’s endless coffers, etc. I can’t imagine Blatt being any kind of impediment to hiring a new POBO.

Knicks hired David Blatt as a “basketball operations consultant.”

If he explains to someone the benefits of spacing the floor by not playing three power forwards, I’m all for it.

I would definitely trade Smith Jr. for a second rounder from Minnesota, but there’s merit in just leaving him on the roster and seeing if he can make any sort of improvement until the trade deadline. Now Morris, I would trade him as soon as possible. His current form is clearly unsustainable and if he gets injured in any way his value will tank, so survey the league for the best possible offer and go through with it. There’s an argument for keeping him longer to prey on a team’s desperation, but I think the risk that he drops or gets injured is higher than the benefits of waiting until February to trade him (and I don’t trust Mills and Perry to adequately work other GMs for a better trade anyway).

Occam’s Razor: Mills is doing a solid for a longtime friend in ill health.

Dolan’s Razor (weak form): Mills is empire building in the hopes of building something harder to remove.

Dolan’s Razor (strong form): Mills was given assurances he’s ok and is peacocking.

Another possibility — Perry has been leaking like a sieve, Mills is sick of it, and is hiring Blatt to put Perry in his place. Put that down as Dolan’s Razor (semi-strong form).

There’s just never a normal day around here. The place is completely dysfunctional.

Fascinating Porzingis article:

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/12/18/21027309/kristaps-porzingis-dallas-mavericks-luka-doncic

On the one hand, it’s Strat’s wet dream. He could have ghost written this himself:

The problem is that there is an opportunity cost that comes with Luka’s style of play. Time with the ball is zero-sum. The more one player has it, the less for everyone else. It can be hard for the point guard’s teammates to get into a rhythm when he’s dribbling the ball into the ground.

Of course, when you boil it down, what Tjarks is really saying is that Porzingis is finally doing well because he’s allowed the Mavs to turn him into a 2nd and 3rd option. Which is great, except he’s on a max contract. Most of us always conceded that Porzingis would be a great 3rd wheel. His problem was being paid like a star.

Probably a good thing to get another smart basketball guy in the room with Perry and Mills – they could use it – and Blatt is definitely that. It is a little weird to be making new front office hires when the whole group is reportedly on the hot seat, but with a consulting agreement you never know. It isn’t necessarily any kind of long-term commitment and as others have said could easily be primarily a favor to let Blatt stick a non-coaching item on his resume for a few months before he looks for a more full-time position (whether a Knicks front office position represents a positive item to have on your resume is a seperate issue).

Keeping Mills and replacing Perry with Blatt would be worse than the worst case scenario anyone has put forward for how the current front office situation might play out. Based on that alone you can’t rule it out.

It’s not possible that Dolan brought Blatt in … is it? Yeah, it’s Mills’s relationship, but that also means Blatt could be the one to tell Mills to go bye-bye and ease the fall and then help Dolan in the transition to the new POBO.

I realize this is probably wishcasting and almost certainly childish dreaming, but the empirical reality on the ground is that you could replace Mills with Blatt this second and it would be a big upgrade.

While Blatt is a friend/teammate of Mills (as well as Obama’s wife’s brother) from Princeton he is incredibly accomplished as a basketball coach and was probably the only coach ever fired with a 30-11 record because he didn’t t-bag LeBron hard enough.

He has either MS or Parkinson’s or something chronic like that so he isn’t here to coach any time soon, but his knowledge of Euroleague and its players has to be far stronger than anyone in the Knicks front office. Having smart guys around is never a bad thing,,,,,,,

It might make him unique in the front office……

Blatt should be in a coaching developmental role for now. He should spend all of his time with Mike Miller and if he can teach RJ Barrett to shoot free throws then let him do that too.

yes, he has MS, which is not a good thing. I think Mills looks at it as win-win. He gets a good basketball mind to consult with, especially about european basketball and European prospects, and he helps out someone in need.

I had no idea Blatt was sick. He was ridiculously accomplished overseas, and to have had his NBA career derailed by one superstar tells you everything you need to know about leverage in the NBA.

Looks like he has primary progressive MS, which means not only does he have these neurological plaques causing the MS neurological deficits, he doesn’t get a little better after each episode, but rather establishes a new baseline. Whereas MS is usually characterized as ‘sawtooth progression’ – getting a little better between episodes, but deteriorating chronically – he’s got PPMS, which is basically stepwise deterioration. Horrible.

I guess this means he’s here on a consultant basis, which is great all around

Mike Miller wins a couple games and now Mills is off the hot seat? Come on.

No..in OUR minds he’s not. But! We all know how this franchise operates..

@112

I think this old saw about ball movement is just a bunch of eye test nonsense from Tjarks et al. Year to year there’s near non-existent correlation between how many players touch the ball on a given possession and offensive efficiency. What really matters is whether you have elite offensive players–irrespective if they’re elite because they share the ball or because they’re amazing iso scorers.

See this thread for example e.g.: https://twitter.com/knarsu3/status/1180624616273911809?s=20

Perhaps there’s not something in the data set that might make the difference. But an argument from ignorance is pretty weak here. Style of play isn’t what’s going to determine whether or not you have an elite offense, and one way of doing it isn’t inherently better than any other, contra Strat.

That said, I will say offenses with high amounts of ball movement are way more aesthetically pleasing, so I prefer them on those grounds rather than watching Harden take contested stepbacks and go to the line 20 times a game.

My son and I were at the game last night getting bored with another Knicks blowout (-: and were reminiscing about the Tim Hardaway Jr. saga. Remember when Phil got a first round pick for him, and we were celebrating fleecing the Hawks? That 1st round pick turned into Jerian Grant, who we proceeded to trade to the Bulls as part of the Derrick Rose deal. The Knicks then renounced the rights to Rose to sign Hardaway to that absurd contract.

In hindsight, that might have been one of the Knicksiest sagas in our history, and that’s saying something!

Of the players the Knicks signed in the offseason, I was most pleased with getting Elfrid Payton and Marcus Morris. I liked Taj too, as a stopgap. None of the others were interesting. I wasn’t a big Randle fan.

I’ve been touting a rebuild from within. Let’s get a core of solid roleplayers in-house that makes a free agent think “if I’m added to that team, we can do some real damage”. So I’m against trading Morris and Payton. While I want to give Payton more time, I actually want to extend Morris now. Trade Smith Jr, Ellington, Randle, Portis and all those others but build a base with those others.

Morris isn’t even good and he’s heading north of 30. He’s not even worth the money we’re currently paying him. We’ve done this song and dance before and no one has come. Let’s just do a proper rebuild for once in the last 30 years of franchise history please. Then FAs will come.

Sad to hear about Blatt’s condition. I guess there’s now this one positive about Mills, if he is indeed doing a nice turn for a good guy and friend.

Is DSjr better than Jerian Grant? Is Frank?

Surprised that guy doesn’t have a job in the NBA, His numbers haven’t been terrible.

No defense of Dolan as he has a multitude of despicable qualities over and above his inability to run a pro basketball franchise with any competence, however, one does see some daylight on the personal side that he can be quite a generous and empathetic person in certain circumstances. This sounds like that to me.

The problem is that there is an opportunity cost that comes with Luka’s style of play. Time with the ball is zero-sum. The more one player has it, the less for everyone else. It can be hard for the point guard’s teammates to get into a rhythm when he’s dribbling the ball into the ground.

This is unquestionably the point I have been making regarding Luka.

When one player totally dominates the ball, he’s going to wind up with more shots and get more assist opportunities. If he happens to be a great offensive player like Luka, he can still be very efficient. However, that does not mean there aren’t “x” possessions per game where he’s throwing up terrible shots, making ill advised passes, or hurting the possession by dribbling too much and stifling ball movement. There may even be some shots where he’s 50% that could be 55% or 60% if he simply moved the ball.

To me, Luka is on the wrong end of that curve even if the net of all of what he’s doing on offense so far has been amazing. IMO, the team would be better if he toned down the heroic shots and passes and just tried to get better ball and player movement.

It’s obviously not easy to be perfect in this regard.

We’ve seen Lebron James get criticized for making the extra pass and for not making the extra pass. But still, if James wanted to average 35 and 12 he could do it no problem. He’s simply smart enough not to do it.

Style of play isn’t what’s going to determine whether or not you have an elite offense, and one way of doing it isn’t inherently better than any other, contra Strat.

With great players you can do almost anything you want and win, but it’s hard to imagine anyone arguing that ball and player movement is not a positive after watching Pop and Jackson coached teams, the Warrior recently, the championship Blazers team, the championship Rockets teams, and even the Knicks two champions.

It’s hard to win with selfish basketball.

Il n’est pas M. Ntilikina. Rien de plus.

oh yeah, give us some more of that sexy french talk E…

So classic knickerblogger:
Luka Don?i? is arguably the best point guard in the NBA today (noting that Steph Curry is out), but some folks are arguing that he may be a negative.

The nibbling at the edges of what has become a great player is kind of funny.
It’s a bit like the folks who decried Linsanity because Jeremy was a ball-dominant guard, despite the fact that Knicks were a better team with Lin running the show. Clearly, Lin was no Don?i?, but his impact was huge for the Knicks back then.
What Don?i? faces are players who feel entitled to more touches. Same as when Lin had teammates who were bitter at the attention and touches he was getting.
But it is still remarkable that he is a second year player, very efficient, and the league leader in triple doubles.

@129

You didn’t respond to anything about the correlations but a cursory trawl through bref will reveal the following NBA champions who weren’t all that notable at moving the ball:

18-19 Toronto Raptors: #11 in ast/100 possessions
15-16 Cavs: #10
2011-2012 Miami Heat: #21
09-10 Lakers #16
07-08 Celtics: #8
05-06 Heat: #15
this can replicate throughout league history.

You might make an argument that the *best* teams of all time emphasize ball movement. But that’s not a response to the argument at all, because the best teams of all time were good at everything! Including…elite iso scoring (hello Michael Jordan). It’s not a matter of ball movement being inherently superior. Eye test foiled again.

Of course, when you boil it down, what Tjarks is really saying is that Porzingis is finally doing well because he’s allowed the Mavs to turn him into a 2nd and 3rd option. Which is great, except he’s on a max contract. Most of us always conceded that Porzingis would be a great 3rd wheel. His problem was being paid like a star.

Everyone including Phil Jackson said Porzingis was not ready to be the #1 option on the Knicks when he was thrown to the wolves in his last season here. He wasn’t (and may still not be) strong enough inside, had no idea how to handle double teams once they inevitably came his way, and doesn’t have a very good mid range game. That’s why they called him a project when drafted and that’s why people got so high on him when he was more productive than expected early on.

What he can do is shoot 3s, finish at the basket off lobs and OREBs, and hit free throws at a high rate (assuming he’s 100% which he has not been so far this season).

Those are enough tools to be a highly efficient reasonably high usage offensive player that defends well and protects the rim great IF used properly (big IF).

You can argue the Knicks were trying to make him a more complete offensive player long term because he was only 22 and should fill out and do more eventually. I expect Dallas will also, but for now Dallas is using him way better. So if he ever starts hitting 3s and FTs at the same rate (and the occasional off the dribble mid rage at his former rate or better), his efficiency will rise to above where it was in NY. If he actually improves given his still young age, he’ll be load and a half to handle.

That’s way more than enough on both sides to be considered a max player. Not every max player is a real superstar. The handful of real superstars are underpaid.

The risk for Dallas is not KP’s talent or value. The risk is his health.

So classic knickerblogger:
Luka Don?i? is arguably the best point guard in the NBA today (noting that Steph Curry is out), but some folks are arguing that he may be a negative.

This is classic Knickerblogger and a kind of stuff that makes me want to move on. smh

No one on planet earth said that Doncic is a negative. They are suggesting he’s not maximizing his positive talents for the benefit of the team. On offense, let’s say his talents are currently a 9 on a scale of 1-10 (with Durant and Curry being a 10), he’s only achieving 8.5 by being overly aggressive in his shot and pass selection. With a minor tweak he’s a 9 and his team is better. So do it!

@132

Isolation play makes perfect sense when you have a super elite player, a bad mismatch, you are late in the clock etc… but you won’t find a coach anywhere that thinks ball movement is not a positive to the results outside of certain situations. That’s why in general, isolation play has a lower efficiency than shots off good passes.

Time for me to check out. Enough for today.

Everyone including Phil Jackson said Porzingis was not ready to be the #1 option on the Knicks when he was thrown to the wolves in his last season here. He wasn’t (and may still not be) strong enough inside, had no idea how to handle double teams once they inevitably came his way, and doesn’t have a very good mid range game. That’s why they called him a project when drafted and that’s why people got so high on him when he was more productive than expected early on.

What he can do is shoot 3s, finish at the basket off lobs and OREBs, and hit free throws at a high rate (assuming he’s 100% which he has not been so far this season).

Those are enough tools to be a highly efficient reasonably high usage offensive player that defends well and protects the rim great IF used properly (big IF).

I’ll give you all that.

But such a player is worth around 4 years, $70mm. I would have always been happy to sign Porzingis to a contract in line with who he is.

Dallas is only getting away with the overpay because Luka is giving them mega max value on a rookie deal and it averages out.

They are suggesting he’s not maximizing his positive talents for the benefit of the team.

But context matters.

The problem is that there is an opportunity cost that comes with Luka’s style of play. Time with the ball is zero-sum. The more one player has it, the less for everyone else. It can be hard for the point guard’s teammates to get into a rhythm when he’s dribbling the ball into the ground.

This is unquestionably the point I have been making regarding Luka.

When one player totally dominates the ball, he’s going to wind up with more shots and get more assist opportunities. If he happens to be a great offensive player like Luka, he can still be very efficient. However, that does not mean there aren’t “x” possessions per game where he’s throwing up terrible shots, making ill advised passes, or hurting the possession by dribbling too much and stifling ball movement. There may even be some shots where he’s 50% that could be 55% or 60% if he simply moved the ball.

To me, Luka is on the wrong end of that curve even if the net of all of what he’s doing on offense so far has been amazing. IMO, the team would be better if he toned down the heroic shots and passes and just tried to get better ball and player movement.

It’s obviously not easy to be perfect in this regard.

I noted in my comment that people are nibbling at his edges.

“not maximizing his positive talents for the benefit of the team” is a negative assessment even if you cite positive talents.

I just think it is funny that a guy can do what he is doing, efficiently, and there are still those saying it could be better. Particularly on a Knicks blog where we would die for a whiff of his talent.
You’re being a bit sensitive. I’m not a Strat hater, it was a funny conversation to read. If it makes you want to move on, well, so be it.

KnickfaninNJ, that’s a good point in 91 re: during Perry’s tenure this FO has not leaked. They just don’t do it. And now it’s leaking like something very leaky indeed. Yesterday’s article about “the Knicks” thinking Ujiri is the chosen one, DSj trade rumors, ect. I suspect Mills & Perry have lost control of the FO. Hiring Blatt isn’t a sign of job security, it’s doing his pal a solid while he still can. “The Knicks” is Dolan, that’s who’s really in charge now. DSj trade rumors? Leaking from Dolan’s crew. Buckle up boys and girls and nondeterminents, Jimmy D is back behind the wheel.

Luka Doncic is the best offensive player in the NBA, leading an offense that if it keeps pace will have the highest team ORTG since the league merger, and he’s 20 years old. He’s a top 5 player in the NBA. He’s not an “8.5 bordering on 9”. He’s a 10/10 player, the best prospect since LeBron (maybe even better than LeBron as a prospect, which I suggested predraft), and going to be a first ballot hall of famer, multiple MVP winner, and top 10 player ever if he stays healthy. This is not at all hyperbole. He’s contributing exactly as much as every stat and the eye test says he is.

the highest team ORTG since the league merger

This is the thing to me. Like if you want to build an argument around the fact that Luka probably isn’t literally perfect as a basketball player I guess you’re probably right. But if you’re arguing that he’s hogging the ball on offense it seems like your argument needs to cope with the fact that his ball hogging (which by definition makes the team results largely a result of his personal play) is leading to a historically great offense. Could they be even more historically great-er if Luka gave up the ball more? Hard to argue against a counterfactual but you’re not going to convince me the balance he’s striking is very far off right now because the results 100% speak for themselves.

whoa…did i miss something – why does strat hate luka doncic so much???

the world is just full of surprises i guess…

Time for me to check out. Enough for today.

i just remembered, you’re retired…no doubt whatever you’re “checking out” to go do, is probably infinitely more desirable to grinding away at any regular ‘ol 9 to 5…like, what i’m doing…ugh, enjoy…

“Team play” and “ball movement” are great and all but there’s some point at which it reaches fetishization, where it just becomes a meaningless old man sports cliche. A point we have obviously reached here.

@123

He’s not even worth the money we’re currently paying him. We’ve done this song and dance before and no one has come. Let’s just do a proper rebuild for once in the last 30 years of franchise history please. Then FAs will come.

I would argue he is good. Yes, he’s north of 30 and has 3-4 good years left.

We’ve done the kiddie thing for 4 years and all we really have out of it are Mitch and now RJ. Are Frank, Knox and Dotson replacement level? Even if you consider KP, is he a superstar? So you’re advocating 3 more years of tanking, is that it? All it takes in the NBA are 1 or 2 star players that are added to a decent base to make a team competitive. We’ve got like 7 kids on the roster. What do you want, 12?

You are forgetting the part where the front office chose to “build the culture” by chasing marginal wins, sink the value of their draft capital, and then choose to reach for selecting Frank and Knox (over his better teammate SGA!) in the lottery.

I was about to write about how the hot seat rumors suggest that Dolan isn’t stupid enough to keep falling into this trap, but your advocacy for Morris in all his glory is making me question my argument

Nope, I’m sticking with it. No one can be dumb enough to think that turning this optimistically forecast 20 win team into a 2020-21 25 win team (with nebulous factors like “cohesion” and “chemistry”!) is a good idea. Please reconsider what you’re saying for the two seconds that it should take to come to the correct conclusion.

I’m knocking every wooden object in my vicinity to ensure that I didn’t just speak Dolan’s razor into existence.

Dear God, we’re going to try to re-sign Morris, aren’t we?

This is classic Knickerblogger and a kind of stuff that makes me want to move on. smh

You may go the way of ruruland, cast into oblivion from an overabundance of deliberately counterfactual opinions, but your legacy will live on.

I mean, everytime a historically great player comes up there’s always the people who think they’re super cool and intelligent by going “against the consensus”. It happened with the idiotic “LeBron is not clutch” arguments, it happened with Curry because his playstyle was ruining the young kids who now only want to shoot 3s, Durant who is a “pussy”, Giannis who can’t shoot, Harden who is a foul baiter, etc etc. It happened before them with Dirk who wasn’t clutch, Duncan who was boring to watch, and the list goes on and on.

It will happen with Doncic and it’s already happening as we speak, he doesn’t play defense, he’s a “ball hog”, he takes bad shots because he wants to make highlights… and just like all the guys I mentioned, it’s just bullshit nitpicking that either means nothing or is a biased opinion with some agenda, like trying hard to overstate KP’s and the Mavs role players importance. It really is nothing new.

And it’s not like any of us are arguing that he wouldn’t be a better player if he managed to cut his turnovers in half. One of the big knocks on the creative scorers like Curry and Harden have been their inability to generate those insane opportunities without throwing the ball away… a lot.

Still, set their turnovers to zero and you’ll see very efficient scorers. For instance, if you convert every turnover Curry made into a missed FG, he’d still be a .580 TS% player. But then he’d be an efficient volume scorer who never turns the ball over, so he’d still have put up perhaps the greatest offensive season to date.

“The 20 year old with the historically good offensive numbers on the historically good offensive team is actually not as good as you think” is truly a take that could only come from one person on this board. Bravo!

Maybe you nerds didn’t see on your spreadsheet that the Mavs knocked off the best team in the East without Luka?

good game. This Miami team is almost likeable. Their zone looks gave Philly a lot of problems in the first half. I missed most of the second half making and eating a pizza.

pixs or diden’t happen

Clarke with 27 points on 19 FGA in 25 minutes. God damn.

Out of left field: Wilt was pilloried for being a poor FT shooter (51.1% for his career) and Shaq also got taken to task for his career 52.7%. Meanwhile, Bill Russell shot only 56.1% for his career and never shot better 61.2% for a season….yet no one mentions Bill Russell when talking about all-time greats who were poor FT shooters.

*it bears mentioning that Russell improved somewhat in the playoffs, whereas Wilt and Shaq shot worse.

Luka is not as good as Captain Marvel

Luka is not as good as Captain’s Gig, who set a track record at Aqueduct in ’67.

that looks delicious…

what’s the green thing dred?

it kind of looks like the bottom half of one of them sweet jerkins kinda pickles…

Oh by the way Brandon Clarke is now the league leader in ts% this season, just over .700, averaging 22 points and 10 rebounds per36.

ahhhhh, so there is a pickle on your pizza…cooking is without a doubt the greatest combination of science and art – ever…

it can look magnificent, and then you eat it…

Imagine if instead of signing 12 power forwards we just traded down and drafted one of the best ones in the league for the rookie scale.

Nah

Oh by the way Brandon Clarke is now the league leader in ts% this season, just over .700, averaging 22 points and 10 rebounds per36.

other than the grizz and heat – are there any other teams that did really well the past draft…

just checked…SI mentions rui (wiz) and washington (hornets)…

Well, the Pelicans got Zion, and some other promising guys. Thybulle has been great defensively for Philly too, but not many impact rookies so far out of this class.

The Heat didn’t even do well necessarily at the draft, Herro has shown promise but the guys who have actually been the biggest part of their success were both undrafted signings, Robinson last season and Nunn this season.

Still love the Nuggets snagging Bol Bol in rd 2 despite having no other picks.

Dallas to the extent this year’s pick contributed to getting Luka (lol, hawks turned it into Cam Reddish which I will never get over)

Other than that, I don’t think evaluating the draft in the first year yields much info, particularly with the trend to go younger and younger.

RJs defense has been better than I thought which was my biggest reservation about picking him 3. I don’t put much stock in efficiency the first year, but RJ needs to step up some of the secondary numbers which have also been dropping.

DRed that pizza looks magnificent (I have some doubts about the use of pickled peppers, but the jury is out)

I love when good GMs are also good cooks

and thus began the great KB pizza wars

y’all are gonna smash that like button on my buffalo mozzarella or I will force-feed you Pizza Rolls until the ghost of Ted Nelson comes back demanding original, perr-reviewed research that the pepperoni varietal is not the best invention since antibiotics

I just picked up a 6.75 quart Le Creuset ceramic coated cast iron dutch oven. I can’t wait to make a batch of beef bourguignon in it. I’m going to give it a shot this weekend I think.

I grew the peppers in my parents yard in queens this summer and then picked and pickled them. I ferment the pickles so they’re not aggressively vinegary-I think they’re good on the pizza but ymmv.

That’s a beautiful pizza DRed.

My own research into pizza-making led me to conclude that there was almost no VORP (value over replacement pizza) to be extracted there. My neighborhood is by no means a hub, but there are multiple very good pies available for <$30 in <30 minutes. There are so many other things where the only substitute for a well-made home-cooked version is an expensive night out at a restaurant that the juice just didn't seem worth the squeeze. But maybe that's just because I never made a pizza good enough. This has to be the right crowd for an analytical approach for where to focus your cooking efforts though, right?

I just picked up a 6.75 quart Le Creuset ceramic coated cast iron dutch oven. I can’t wait to make a batch of beef bourguignon in it. I’m going to give it a shot this weekend I think.

Peeling pearl onions is the worst. I’ve started to do the trick where the skins slide off, but the first time was the worst time. One of my favorite dishes to make, though. Pinot-braised shortribs served over polenta is up there as well.

This has to be the right crowd for an analytical approach for where to focus your cooking efforts though, right?

Have you ever used pizza flour with a pizza steel and good ingredients? I make Neapolitan-esque pizzas for about $7 a pop. They cook in about 8 minutes. From start to finish (including cheese, basil, tomato prep) it takes about half an hour to pop out three good pies.

If you’ve only ever used all-purpose flour for your crust, there’s the issue. I do a 24-hour fermentation and measure the weight (and, for water, temperature) of the ingredients to the gram. It’s not very hard though, requiring only a small bit of precision.

Is it easier than picking up the phone? No, but I think my fresh pizza is better than one that’s been sitting in a box for twenty-plus minutes since it came out of the oven.

DRed that looks downright delish. And you prolly heard my gripes with not being able to consistently find great pizza here in LA.

Fuck it… I’m about to be like you and Jowles and learn to make my own. And for bonus points Imma get my sis to send me NY tap water so i can use that to make the dough.

Have you ever used pizza flour with a pizza steel and good ingredients?

No, yes, and other than the pizza flour, yes. Maybe I need to try again with pizza flour.

Is it easier than picking up the phone? No, but I think my fresh pizza is better than one that’s been sitting in a box for twenty-plus minutes since it came out of the oven.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not doubting that there’s positive VORP to be had – like I said that pizza looks absolutely delicious. For a good cook I think you can probably generate positive value above the replacement with a bit of practice on just about anything. I’m making a case about relative VORP, and saying that in terms of quality:cost ratio pizza has just about the highest replacement level on the board.

What got me thinking about this was actually reading a recent NYTimes guide to making your own sourdough. My wife thought it would be right up my alley because I love a big cooking project but I took one look at the recipe and thought “There’s no VORP to be had!”. The lede of the recipe reads in part “You’ll need to invest in some essential equipment, find a starter, and set aside three days (though only the second requires serious tending).” I can get a loaf of exceptional sourdough down the street for $6! And thus was born my thinking about the replacement level of learning to cook various things.

yeah, I mean I can walk to Lucali’s if I want better pizza but I also like doing my own pizzas because I like to do non-traditional stuff and you can make pizza whenever you want.

If you’ve only ever used all-purpose flour for your crust, there’s the issue. I do a 24-hour fermentation and measure the weight (and, for water, temperature) of the ingredients to the gram. It’s not very hard though, requiring only a small bit of precision.

I tried getting into pizza making ten years ago but not being able to create proper dough is what killed me.

I just picked up a great 1/2″ steel (thanks to your tips) for Ms. Hubert for Christmas and would love to hear more about this dough process of yours. We live a block away from Ribalta and that and Motorino have been our go to’s but I’ve become disgusted by how much I depend on other people to cook for me and have made it my goal to do more myself this year.

Imma get my sis to send me NY tap water so i can use that to make the dough.

This is a myth, right?

I mean, it’s a fact that the source of NY tap water has changed over time and it’s also a fact that what’s in NY tap water has changed over time. Yet we still make the same great pizza.

@jk village pizza is pretty good. But yes LA is king in Mexican, burgers, Japanese, and Korean.

Golden state is the burger spot — and it’s baron Davis’ favorite place too!

@190

Yeah, it’s a myth. It’s not the softness of the water or anything like that that makes NY pizza the best. I think the real answer is just that NY has the most competition, and has the best access to specialty suppliers for quality ingredients. So the answer, essentially, is that they’ve been doing it the longest.

Completely off topic but somewhat related bc it’s so knicksy:

Over in football-land, the NY Giants are in perfect position to draft the elite defensive playmaker they so desperately need. But they won last week and in my opinion are a lock to go all out and win one of the next two games and let Chase Young go to Washington. It’s the NY football version of our two game winning streak that denied us KAT. Can’t wait.

I think I also heard the tale about NY water and bagels. Doesn’t all the water come from the Catskill tunnels with some portion via Croton?

Get 00 “blue” flour. It’s got a high gluten content. The difference is enormous. What you’re trying to do is create gases in the dough from the yeast eating the sugars in the flour. Those little air pockets are the source of flavor, and the gluten structure lends the light texture of a great pizza. All-purpose flour dough is invariably tough, like a dense bread.

Pick up a copy of The Elements of Pizza and try the 24-48 hour dough. It has about seven pages on the process from the mix to the bake, and once you learn it, it’s easy as hell.

The stretch and peel were the hardest part for me. I hate to say it, but if my dough is extra wet, I will bake it on foil on the stone just so it doesn’t stick to the peel while I try to slide it onto the stone. I filled our house with cheese smoke one too many times.

Not to interrupt a good pizza discussion (I love the stuff but have eschewed carbs 4 years ago) listening to the Lowe Post he and Woj dropped a little tidbit almost at the end, namely, the Knicks signed Morris intentionally to screw SA for tampering with KP at one time.

Maybe I’ve been sleeping under a rock but I never heard that before and IF it is true SA wanting KP certainly adjusts one’s thinking about KP’s future (maybe?)

Depends on when SA tampered with KP. May also shed some light on how vocal Pop has been about Fiz’s firing.

SA has also pursued such Yay Pointzz!! players as Aldridge, Gay, and DeRozan. So I wouldn’t be too quick to praise their talent evaluation.

Not to interrupt a good pizza discussion (I love the stuff but have eschewed carbs 4 years ago) listening to the Lowe Post he and Woj dropped a little tidbit almost at the end, namely, the Knicks signed Morris intentionally to screw SA for tampering with KP at one time.

Maybe I’ve been sleeping under a rock but I never heard that before and IF it is true SA wanting KP certainly adjusts one’s thinking about KP’s future (maybe?)

Begley had some murmurings in that direction over the summer: Link

Seems pretty weird though since the Spurs weren’t even one of the teams reportedly included in the the list of teams KP wanted to go to. So whatever tampering they may have done doesn’t seem to have had much impact.

batch of beef bourguignon

Pinot-braised shortribs

just reading these words has my mouth watering…

mmmmmmm, fooooooood….

That pizza could have looked quite a bit better…

put up (pics) or…well, you know the rest…

Ashokan Reservoir feeds the city and its water is among the best in the nation. There’s nothing special about NY water except that it tastes good. I could never live in Arizona for a million reasons, but especially because my coffee and bread would taste like chlorinated shit unless I had a reverse osmosis system or something dumb like that.

From the rumors, the Spurs were waaaaaaaaay more aggressive than any team has the right to be with their tampering with KP. It’s believed that the whole “We’ll just take the QO” play came from them, for instance. It didn’t help them get KP, of course, but it still fucked with the Knicks.

One of the most NBA things out there is that teams are trying to convince the Pelicans to trade them JJ Redick. No one would sign the guy this offseason, but they all want to trade for him.

the pizza thing is definitely not the water… it’s really because of how it’s evolved as the goto option for on the go ny’ers… we’ve been doing it for a long time and even 30 yrs ago you couldn’t go a city block without running into a half decent pizza shop…. it doesn’t really have much to do with even the quality of the ingredients because you can be quite forgiving if you’re hungry enough or poor enough for a slice that’s coming straight out of the oven…. you can just look at the success of the 99c shops that replaced all the paper plate options citywide… but our institutionalized pizza joints are still the cream of the crop anywhere in the world…

most other things we had a reputation for work a similar way only they’re not nearly as ubiquitous as pizza is and the rest of the world caught up as word spread and it became a nationwide thing.. we were known before the internet for our hot dog street vendors too… but that lie thankfully died a couple generations ago…. our bagels are overrated…. the large majority of our bagels are frozen anyway and there are places that replicate it quite easily or do it better… and pastrami is better in boston…

la definitely has better asian and mexican food… and most of the mid and low tier food options in fact….i would kill to have anything like porto’s here in ny….

You know, when the Heat signed Jimmy Butler I thought it was a pretty dumb “we need a star here” type of move that didn’t make sense. Now they are legit Eastern Conference contenders. That win over Philly last night was really impressive.

Must be nice to be a Heat fan, enjoy a few championships with D Wade and LeBron, suck for a few years and then be right back in it with a whole new batch of players and a wildly underrated coach.

From the rumors, the Spurs were waaaaaaaaay more aggressive than any team has the right to be with their tampering with KP. It’s believed that the whole “We’ll just take the QO” play came from them, for instance. It didn’t help them get KP, of course, but it still fucked with the Knicks.

I guess the implication being that they made a promise to KP that they’d make him a max offer after his QO season regardless of what happened during the year, removing the risk for him?

For one thing that promise, if it was made doesn’t seem particularly credible to me. Part of the reason KP taking the QO seemed so far-fetched was just how extreme the downside risk for him was. Another serious knee injury and he could have been looking at something like the one-year below mid-level make good deals that Cousins has gotten the last couple years. If he kept getting hurt he’d never get close to recouping the lost earnings. For San Antonio to promise him the max before that year no matter what would be hard for me to buy.

For another thing, I just don’t understand how San Antonio isn’t on the trade list in that case. They were prepared to offer him some illegal and extremely risky max deal a year in advance and in return, when he demanded to be traded, that wasn’t even one of the places he wanted to go. The whole story just seems super fishy.

I never liked eating bagels in New York until I had a Montreal bagel at Black Seed. Sesame straight out of the oven. Hard to beat.

I think they put the idea out there to him. He didn’t go for it, but it got the idea of using the QO for leverage to get off the Knicks into his head. So while it didn’t help the Spurs, it still hurt the Knicks, so the Knicks are mad at the Spurs either way.

Ashokan Reservoir feeds the city and its water is among the best in the nation. There’s nothing special about NY water except that it tastes good. I could never live in Arizona for a million reasons, but especially because my coffee and bread would taste like chlorinated shit unless I had a reverse osmosis system or something dumb like that.

????

Doesn’t most of AZ’s drinking water come from the Colorado River via Lake Havasu? All public water is chlorinated to the best of my knowledge…. is there something funky about Colorado River water or the way it is chlorinated in AZ???

The only non chlorinated water I have ever had was when I had a farm in Clarksburg, NJ and we pumped water from the Manalapan Aquifer. It has so much iron in the water it had to be treated to make it palatable.

Ashokan Reservoir feeds the city

I once made a wrong turn on a trip up to the catskills and stumbled upon this reservoir. It’s a breathtaking scene. Great hiking and cycling around there.

Fun fact: David Bowie bought a home in Shokan (the town near the reservoir). It’s a very small community, and one of my old clients used to live there. According to him, Bowie carried himself there like a regular joe. He’d introduce himself as David to the neighbors. Shop in town for groceries, etc.

Ashokan is only one of the three reservoirs, though. We also get water from the Croton and Delaware aqueducts. We get a mix of all three, which is why I tend to think the NY water thing is a myth. How could all three produce the same results but no other water can?

Having lived outside of the NYC area, NY and the immediately surrounding areas definitely has better pizza and bagels than elsewhere. Other parts of the northeast have decent bagel options, Colorado and LA definitely do not.

LA definitely has better Korean and Japanese food. NY has better Jamaican food (is there Jamaican food in LA?) and Chinese food, Chinatown in LA sucks.

Bowie’s wife is a self-important asshole. I dated a girl from Woodstock for three years, her mom manages one of the local hotspots and knows everyone (we went to a Levon Helm Midnight Ramble for free, for instance). Every story I heard about her was, “Wow, she’s so pretty! On the outside!”

I agree with Montreal bagels (especially Black Seed) being awesome, but if you think NY bagels are usually frozen or not good, you’re doing it wrong. Ess-A, Bo’s, and a bunch of kosher joints in Flatbush are the best in the world. And if you’re getting lox on cream cheese, holy cow is it better in Brooklyn.

For pizza, my secret has always been high-gluten flour, FRESH YEAST (holy shit I ruined so much dough with yeast that somehow went bad in normal temp kitchen for a couple of weeks), and leaving it be under a steel bowl for as long as I could tolerate (2-4 hrs, Jowles’ 24 hours would kill me), and FRESH TOMATO SAUCE – bake a few tomatoes with garlic slices in the oven, let the skin peel itself off, and process/blend away. Good cheese is tough when you’re kosher, so I dont know.

I think they put the idea out there to him. He didn’t go for it, but it got the idea of using the QO for leverage to get off the Knicks into his head. So while it didn’t help the Spurs, it still hurt the Knicks, so the Knicks are mad at the Spurs either way.

Just the idea? Like they explained the way the collective bargaining agreement works to him? And that’s considered going way over the line? It’s not a particularly novel idea – the reason players don’t do it isn’t because nobody has ever thought of this before. They don’t do it because it’s insanely risky and would’ve been like doubly or triply so for a guy already coming off an ACL tear.

I don’t think the Knicks signed Morris just for spite, they wanted him. But they were much more willing to induce him not to sign with the Spurs because of their Porzingis experience.

I mean, KP’s agent is his brother Janis so it’s not like he’s necessarily well-versed in negotiation or even the CBA. He may have legitimately benefited from an explanation of the basics.

Or the Knicks are just trying to save face…

Doesn’t most of AZ’s drinking water come from the Colorado River via Lake Havasu? All public water is chlorinated to the best of my knowledge…. is there something funky about Colorado River water or the way it is chlorinated in AZ???

I’ve gone down this water supply rabbit hole before.

Lake Havasu water is high in TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) and thus tastes rather awful.

bagels are overrated imo. it’s just too damn much. rather have some killer dave’s bread, a baguette from a place like vons, english muffins (brand agnostic), or some phylo dough.

Although Liam Neeson was better….

I can’t access youtube from this browser… is this the cancer bit? That was tremendous.

Some Bagels are huge now. They used to all be a smaller size than is common now. I like the smaller bagels better (that is, when I eat carbs) but they are hard to find fresh now.

Yeah, Liam Neeson wants to do improvisational comedy that involves cancer and other things. It’s amazing.

In other news, looks like James Wiseman has left Memphis and will prepare for the NBA draft on his own.

NY has better Jamaican food (is there Jamaican food in LA?) and Chinese food, Chinatown in LA sucks.

The best Chinese food in LA is not in Chinatown, it’s in the San Gabriel Valley. The best Vietnamese is in the SGV also.

ny bagels are definitely good… i just don’t think it’s the mecca of bagels like we are for pizza… i’ve had good ny style bagels in multiple states… va being the most recent… and montreal def has very good and comparable bagels if not diff style.. what ny has going for it is the volume and proximity… i can get one of the best bagels in the world within 30 minutes anywhere within nyc….

A bagel from ess-a-bagel is special. The top places in NY still do a great job but the overall quality of bagels in the city has gone down, imho.

@cock jowles — I will die on this hill. in the world of bean-based drinks, bagels are the instant coffee. sure, its good enough for the soldiers… but i’ve got choices… after the age of 30, i’ve moved on. croissants have less calories gawd damn.

Dude you’re allowed to have your own tastes and its subjective and all that but god you’re so wrong shut your glazed phyllo face ass before i make you

The best bagel in the world is Monmouth Hot Bagels in Long Branch NJ dont @ me

That place is great. Are you from Monmouth county? Bagel Oven in Red Bank used to be my go-to when I lived there. Grandma’s Bagels in Little Silver had the best PREC tho.

It’s difficult getting good (or any) pork roll outside NJ.

In a single thread we’ve now had cases made against Bagels and Luka Doncic. What is this place coming to?

I dated a girl from Woodstock for three years, her mom manages one of the local hotspots and knows everyone (we went to a Levon Helm Midnight Ramble for free, for instance)

I’m from Woodstock and the Ramble is right behind my house. Ok, who is this girl? Chances I know her around 100%.

Yeah, spent summers by family down by the jersey shaw before the shirt before the shirt nonsense. I remember hanging out with friends at 450am waiting for the fresh bagels to come out. Unreal.

Geez…
The pizza looked great.
It was sarcasm. Like Doncic could be better.

Geo, Owen, et al, smh.
lol

Just wait until I post some pics of the fresh stuffed pasta Lady Farfa and I are gonna make this weekend

I met Bowie when I was a young musician and he was really kind. It was one of the very few times I’ve been star stuck and didn’t know what to say. Also because I was thinking, how can I get him to listen to my CD?, which is just stupid.

As for pizza, married someone with celiac, and both kids have celiac, so…oh well. Though I’ll be having Waldy’s tonight.

Well I just ordered a $16 bowl of Chicken Pho so fuck this city maybe

There are multiple things wrong with this sentence.

my apologies frank o…if anyone should be aware of not taking anything serious, it should be me…

I stand now in a corner in shame…forgive me please 🙂

Just wait until I post some pics of the fresh stuffed pasta Lady Farfa and I are gonna make this weekend

pics, pics, pics…stuff with what???

been thinking about you and your situation at work a bunch lately…

I’m fully aware I ain’t exactly the smartest guy in room usually…I got to imagine though being someone whom is extremely smart must be even more of daunting task we you can so easily assess the inbound workflow and calculate the neccessary time to adequately complete those assigned taks and clearly know – there just ain’t enough time to get it all done…

if possible, focus on your health (eat, sleep, exercise) and with what little time you may have to yourself, try to do those things which will bring you joy – like missus farfa’s pasta or some singing…

okay, back to iman…not sure how if you’ve ever happened upon one of her qvc or hsn things you could imagine her being even remotely “cool” people…

shit, she must be a 100 by now, and, still looks pretty damn respectable…

she could be a bitch all day, but, I’m still available for her – at least for a good 15 minutes or so every few days…

Went to San Gabriel Valley for Chinese food too. Still underwhelmed. Not terrible like Chinatown but I’ve had much better in NY. Maybe I just didn’t know the right places but I tried a couple.

Also, KBPR, that may be the most flat out wrong KB comment in history up there with gravity effects and Kobe assists.

I’m tickled by the feelings caught on bagels. Thanks everyone for giving me a smile.

I’ll toast some slices of French bread (@$0.75 for the loaf) on my cast iron. Put a little butter in there so that is well absorbed. Top it off with some temptee, slices of red onion, and pastrami lox. Voila. Gabagool. Frank sux

I’ll toast some slices of French bread (@$0.75 for the loaf) on my cast iron. Put a little butter in there so that is well absorbed. Top it off with some temptee, slices of red onion, and pastrami lox. Voila. Gabagool. Frank sux

@250

My big bread-adjacent tip is to remove egg whites from your french toast. Brown sugar, warm whole milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, egg yolks, melted butter and a tiny bit of vanilla extract. The egg whites are holding you back.

original, perr-reviewed research that the pepperoni varietal is not the best invention since antibiotics

As hot soppresatta is empirically superior as a topping in both flavor and texture I really enjoyed how you put ol’ Ted Nelson in his place.

I can walk to Lucali’s if I want better pizza but I also like doing my own pizzas because I like to do non-traditional stuff and you can make pizza whenever you want.

And if you factor in the wait it takes hardly anymore time. This is why I’d rather just go to Guiseppina’s. At least until I developed lactose intolerance. I don’t even miss pizza that much. But the Stilton and the Roquefort, some days get real hard.

i’m old…i think i’ve given up on technology…it just way too much effort…such low payoff…

gotta go here

do new post…

you don’t have to set up an account, i don’t think…can’t remember…

follow the instructions…when you’re done you’ll have to check where it shares your link info…

highlight the word or phrase you want to use, hit that button sez link (with an underscore)…paste your link from imgur into the link box…then hit the button sez /link…

that should do it…

i don’t think i’ve ever tried from my phone though..

ooooh, dirty pics coming soon 🙂

And if you factor in the wait it takes hardly anymore time.

There’s a really good place here in SE Portland called Apizza Scholls and I think the guy who runs it is originally from NYC or Philly, but makes New Haven-style pies. Amazing crust, and not prohibitively expensive. However, I’ll be damned if I’m doing a no-reservations style free-for-all at 6:30 on a Saturday for the privilege. Last time we waited there, we ordered an overpriced drink at the bar (which was packed) and stood crushed like sardines for an hour. There’s a taco place next door called Por Que No and they have never not had a line going down the block. For tacos. Street tacos. $4.50 street tacos. Fuck and no. I can make enough carnitas for a goddamn Quinceanera for about twenty bucks.

I’ve definitely stood in line at places like Rainbow Falafel but that was only like 15 minutes at their busiest. I’ve done the wait for Lucali a couple times but I just can’t convince myself it’s worth it when Guiseippina’s is run by his brother and is mostly the same. Sauce is slightly sweeter, but no lines. With the proliferation of online reservation services there’s no excuse for popular places not to implement reservations. Even spots like Atera use Open Table! Forcing people to invest time instead of forethought is the worst kind of backwards elitism.

Thanks geo but looks like i m doing something wrong…
I used imgbb instead of imgur and tried to link the pic on another site and it worked but looks like I’m missing something with the link in here.

Anyway… FUk it !

My big bread-adjacent tip is to remove egg whites from your french toast

Ooh that’s a good one, I am totally doing that from now on

Type in the words you want the link to be, like, click here. Select that text. Click the link button above the comment box. Paste in the link you want people to see.

Don’t try to do just a link, write something about it. Just a link might get hung up on the strange moderation rules.

there might be some sort of decency protocols in place…you might just be triggering something…

Press the “link” button just above the box where you are typing your post. You will get an entry box with “http://“ already type in it. Delete the “http://“. Paste your URL in the box. Hit enter. You will return to the post entry box with some text that includes your URL. Type some words directly after that text. Press the “unlink” button above the post entry box. Then continue whatever you want to write after the link. When you post your comment the some words that you typed just before pressing the unlink button will be blue and act as a hyperlink to the URL you pasted.

So if you have an URL that links to your picture, voila.

The easiest way was written above.

Write the words that you want to appear as a hyperlink.

Select those words with your cursor. Click “link” above.

Add the link to the box that appears. Voila.

Ooh that’s a good one, I am totally doing that from now on

I also bake the bread (preferably day-old) in a 250 degree oven for about 10 minutes, flipping halfway. This will get rid of some of the excess moisture and give you more saturation of the custard. It’s definitely not necessary but a good tip I picked up from ATK, especially if the bread is fresh. Fresh bread will have way too much moisture to absorb the batter.

My go-to is melted cultured butter (European style, in many supermarkets), slightly warmed whole milk or a splash of heavy cream, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, splash of vanilla. It’s the best french toast I’ve had. I love egg whites but refuse to include them in my french toast now. It makes them gummy. I’m all for eggs in a basket or whatever, but not when I want rich custardy bread pudding squares.

What kind of device are you posting from? That might help with more specific instructions.

THCJ – Apizza Scholls does reservations now. It’s so much easier. Agree on Por Que No? hugely overrated, their tacos aren’t worth the price or the wait.

I’ve never felt less worthy of this incredible board.

IM(very)HO, The thing about NYC is not the big ticket items or the hot places but the proliferation. The idea that you can pick any place on any block and it kicks ass on anything in this icy god forsaken burg I’ve ended up in 😉 Just give me a plate of chicken and broccoli from any spot on 2nd avenue between 60th and 96th street. My favorite bagel was a flat one from my old neighborhood in Queens (Queens BLVD near Union Turnpike) Made by Koreans…

As to cooking, when anyone prefaces a recipe with “on the first night…” I’m done. LOL

As to Knicks. I love watching wins but realize that I should still be rooting for losses…

Thanks for winning the internet folks. I am in your debt…

As to Knicks. I love watching wins but realize that I should still be rooting for losses…

Losing isn’t as valuable as it used to be. Feel good about the wins…. According to Dolan’s Razor, we can’t get a pick higher than 3 anyway.

IM(very)HO, The thing about NYC is not the big-ticket items or the hot places but the proliferation. The idea that you can pick any place on any block and it kicks ass on anything in this icy god forsaken burg I’ve ended up in 😉 Just give me a plate of chicken and broccoli from any spot on 2nd avenue between 60th and 96th street. My favorite bagel was a flat one from my old neighborhood in Queens (Queens BLVD near Union Turnpike) Made by Koreans…

+1
In addition, some of the very best food in NYC may be found from food trucks ( ie some of the best tacos are from food truck Birria-Landia on Roosevelt Ave and 78th in Queens) and Queens Night Market.
As for bread, when I first moved to Manhattan, I lived around the corner from Orwashers ( since sold) which was to baked bread what the ’69 Knicks were to NYC basketball.

As to cooking, when anyone prefaces a recipe with “on the first night…” I’m done. LOL

But it’s often an easy step. Like making pizza dough — it takes me less than 3 minutes to mix. I let it rest for 20m. I remove and knead it for one minute, place it in an oiled dough tub. Two hours later I remove it, cut it into thirds, and work them into dough balls onto floured plates, maybe 5m total work. Then I put them in the fridge for another 24 hours and remove at least a half hour before I want to make the pizza. So if anything, it’s the fact that I have to think about the dough that is the consuming part. The active work is minimal — washing the dishes takes longer than actually handling the damn dough!

It’s very simple, just requires a little forethought. Salting meat should be the same approach. Take the five minutes to rub your roasting chicken or ribeye with kosher salt and let it sit in the fridge overnight. The salt will penetrate the meat and dry out the exterior for a perfect sear. If you leave them uncovered in the fridge, they’ll lose even more moisture (which is a good thing, since you usually don’t want to boil meat). Worth the time investment.

Seriously why must Brodie Van Wagenen ruin my life?

Hate-watching the Raiders kind of panned out though, so I got that going for me

Brodie made no moves. He let Zack Wheeler leave and replaced him with garbage, and that’s been the offseason so far.

BVW rumored to be trying to trade for Lindor in exchange for Rosario, JD Davis, and 2 prospects.

Today they say he’s out on Lindor.

That would be very BVW though. Rosario played very well down the stretch and ended up with 2.7 WAR, not too far behind Lindor’s 4.4. Rosario has more years of control left and is two years younger than Lindor, and it would shock pretty much nobody if Rosario put up 4+ WAR himself next year.

Filling holes that don’t exist while ignoring the actual holes: the BVW way!

Tonight is a good measuring stick game. I think we match up pretty well with the Heat and a win (or a nail-biter loss) with good contributions from all who played well vs. Atlanta would be nice.

But he worked hard on the Cespedes contract restructuring. Then again that was about subtracting and saving money. Nevermind

Great job restructuring the Ces contract, that saves them a bunch of money they won’t spend.

When does the real billionaire get to take over again? Five years from now?

I have no doubt that the Heat are going to smash the Knicks. The game I’m keeping an eye on is Pels/Dubs. This could be a great opportunity for the Warriors to catch up a bit. I assume that Zion and Curry will pull both of them up a lot once they’re healthy, but we need a cushion. You know the Knicks will go .500 in April and piss all of us off.

Will Curry even play this season? I think the Warriors are going to slow play his return as much as possible and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that he had “complications” in his recovery or opted to get some minor surgery so they keep tanking.

The Heat are going to kick our asses tonight. They are good and well-coached. We are still bad, despite Miller being competent. And by now teams will take us more seriously…I think we got a little lucky because we were so laughable before Fiz was fired.

Like making pizza dough — it takes me less than 3 minutes to mix. I let it rest for 20m. I remove and knead it for one minute, place it in an oiled dough tub.

I’m on a diet. Pizza is something that’s, well, not diet food. But I found a great recipe that’s sooo simple. It’s this extra-crispy tortilla pizza. I modified it a bit, using low-carb (50 cal) tortillas, fat free cheese (yuck, but some prices have to be paid) and home made (no added sugar or other crap) sauce. I typically take some green peppers, onion, mushrooms and chicken sausage which I chop in a chopping bowl. It’s not Rays Pizza (from 13th street & 6th Ave) from back in the 70’s but it’s damned good – and I literally get it done (aside from making the sauce) in under 10 minutes.

As for tonight’s game (and tomorrows) I would be floored if the Knicks even kept the games close, but who knows? When’s Bullock gonna play? Will we ever see Iggy get some time on the court?

Thanks for the responses 280, 281, 282.

Yes, Rama, it’s amazing how any win can be so intoxicating as to get you right off your tanking stance and bullish on signing Marcus Morris long term.

Bo, My mom sold her place in Queens and is in Manhattan now, which I love, but I do miss the culture there. Chinatown in Flushing is amazing. Kung Fu Soup Buns, maybe the best in the city.

Jowles. I’m like a short order cook but I may take on a project now that I feel inspired. Just a bit of forethought goes a long way, I agree. I hate the feeling of throwing something together last minute and love watching my crew gobble down my food when I do a good job.

love watching my crew gobble down my food when I do a good job.

awwwww, yes, there is something very primal in preparing and serving food for those you love…it can be a bit of work and effort, but, watching them enjoy definitely is a feel good type thing…

this had me smiling all morning:

this icy god forsaken burg I’ve ended up in 😉

i’m sure it all looks beautiful – just really really cold…was leaving out of work the other day and saw in my car the outdoor temp was 51 degrees…man, it felt like 40 below…i had to remind myself i was from new york at one time, and i shouldn’t really be this cold…it didn’t work…

It’s very simple, just requires a little forethought. Salting meat should be the same approach. Take the five minutes to rub your roasting chicken or ribeye with kosher salt and let it sit in the fridge overnight. The salt will penetrate the meat and dry out the exterior for a perfect sear. If you leave them uncovered in the fridge, they’ll lose even more moisture (which is a good thing, since you usually don’t want to boil meat). Worth the time investment.

my mom literally tried to explain this same thing to me over thanksgiving…i love her, but, don’t always listen to her…now that i’ve received secondary confirmation – this is the way to go: especially in regards to cooking steak – i’m a believer now now…

I’m using a cellphone.

i’m sure it can be done off your phone – i haven’t solved that riddle yet though…

it’s something to do with the url you’re provided from the photo upload site/app that isn’t quite formatted “correctly” when you try to paste it in to the link function…

no doubt there’s an “easy” solution to make it all happen – i gave up a while ago though trying to figure it out…

you can do it though knew your knicks…and, then you can explain it to me so we both know 🙂

the outdoor temp was 51 degrees

2 degrees when I got in the car this morning! Decent food here in Manchester tho…

@ 300 Geo I don’t think it has cracked 25 in the NYC Metro area all week. It’s pretty disheartening to see your phone record temps in the teens when you get up.

From Zach Lowe:

8. Mitchell Robinson, hips open
Psst … Robinson has committed only 17 fouls in 191 minutes over New York’s past seven games — about 3.2 per 36 minutes. The Knicks would probably sign up for that over Robinson’s remaining career.

On switches, Robinson isn’t leaping at pump fakes and trying to block every jumper. He’ll sometimes open his hips and concede a driving lane — something Draymond Green does a lot. It looks like a mistake, but it is really Robinson showing faith in his ability to bother shots from behind:

Robinson has been more careful to avoid bumping and reaching with his off arm.

New York is two years into a spirited debate over how often Robinson should switch on pick-and-rolls. No one is better at blocking 3-pointers. There is power in that. Possessions peter out as guards dance with Robinson, only to find themselves smothered.

But he also bites on fakes, and he fouls a lot. With Robinson 30 feet from the hoop, the Knicks are vulnerable on the glass.

David Fizdale overdid the switching. He dabbled in a bizarre scheme in which the Knicks would go under picks and switch anyway — defeating the entire purpose of ducking screens:

Mike Miller has kept Robinson closer to the rim without totally excising switches. That feels like a proper balance. Variety is important. It keeps offenses on edge. The threat of a Robinson switch might spook ball handlers. Deployed properly, switching with Robinson can be a weapon — not an act of surrender.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/28313228/ten-nba-things-like-including-philadelphia-76ers-big-question

2 degrees when I got in the car this morning! Decent food here in Manchester tho…

@ 300 Geo I don’t think it has cracked 25 in the NYC Metro area all week. It’s pretty disheartening to see your phone record temps in the teens when you get up.

that’s what makes ya’ll some hearty folks though…it’s easy to get soft out here…man, i can’t even begin to imagine how far my constitution might dip if i was off living in hawaii…

only been there once – i’ll never forget returning to the states (was living in monterey at the time – not a bad spot to be in either) and immediately thought what the hell is wrong me – i should be living full time in maui…

unfortunatley i was never ablet o puzzle it all out…hell, wasn’t even able to maintain my spot in monterey (i will return to live at some point though)…

i’m out here now in the inland “empire” – ha, yeah right…in a nice quite town that actually has trees (you don’t really miss trees til they’re not around a bunch)…but – there ain’t no ocean walking distance away…

I’ll be out near you this weekend, geo. Driving up to my friend’s house in Chino from San Diego.

The first time I had heard of the “I.E.” was when I was in college in Fullerton. My neighbor was from there and he was incredulous that I was unfamiliar with it.

That Lowe piece sounds like the positives aspects of Mike Miller in a nutshell. “Mike Miller: He doesn’t dabble in bizarre schemes.”

Public Service Announcement for Cooker-Blogger.net

If you want to go hard on the science of cooking and smoking meat, look no further then Meathead Goldwyn at AmazingRibs. The man is a national treasure as far as I’m concerned.

https://amazingribs.com/

The first time I had heard of the “I.E.” was when I was in college in Fullerton. My neighbor was from there and he was incredulous that I was unfamiliar with it.

howdy domiknick…honestly, despite the lack of vegetation, smoggy air, millions and millions of other human beings in close proximity – the so cal area ain’t to bad a place to be stuck in 🙂

san bernardino is – well, san bernardino…riverside is growing like crazy, and heck, all the little freeway towns along the 60, 91, 15, 215, 10 and 210 are getting bigger all the time…man, we got a lot of freeways/interstates out here…lots of vehicles, lots and lots of vehicles moving around…

i’ll never forget coming out of LAX one night at around 11pm or so – i literally got stuck in traffic continuously from LA all the way to the 15…no accidents, construction or anything…it was crazy…

remove the egg whites, interesting.
here’s my contribution to the chat, I add Grand Marnier to the batter its awesome, i also use day old Challah bread,

Howdy geo. Oh yes, my wife is from Long Beach so I’m familiar. San Diego traffic is getting worse but I don’t think we’ll ever catch up to LA traffic, which is obviously a good thing.

I would love to experience living in Monterey, even if just temporarily. We got married at a private ceremony in Big Sur this summer (we called it our “fancy elopement”) so needless to say we love that part of California.

We honeymooned in Big Sur, that’s my favorite place in the world. I would love to retire in the Monterey Bay area and be close to Big Sur.

Nice JK. Ya we had our ceremony on the property at Post Ranch Inn and then spent 3 nights there, so it was kind of our wedding and honeymoon all rolled in to one. It was pricey but our justification was that we spent way less than we would have on a more traditional wedding.

I’m bookmarking this thread. What other basketball thread can discuss food so intelligently and thorough?

@232 sir, that’s just blasphemy! You want instant-coffee level bagels? Lemme holla at you about this chain called Winchell’s here in LA. I crave a toasted onion bagel (and that’s an onion bagel, NOT A FUCKING EVERYTHING BAGEL YOU GOTTA BUY BECAUSE SPOTS DON’T CARRY ONION BAGELS!) and cream cheese – in HS, I used to frequent a spot around Chambers St on my way to Stuyvesant some mornings. I miss that quality of bagel – people out here just don’t know.

@310 that’s the crazy part – I’ve had folks who lived out here for years say that there was a time that the traffic was only bad during rush hours. Now, especially around LAX and that damned 405, it’s just brutal.

The fiancee got t-boned on the 110 last week because a driver didn’t heed the coned-off HOV lanes and rushed to merge. Thankfully, she wasn’t hurt (her friend had some neck soreness but nothing serious) and the driver admitted total fault, but her Kia is likely totaled. And my lady is an excellent driver.

Traffic sucks here. And don’t get me started on LA Metro: as bad/corrupt/decrepit as the MTA can be, LA Metro pales in comparison. I’m getting a car next year because I just can’t take relying on such an inconsistent and not-quite rider-friendly system anymore.

We honeymooned in Trinidad, CA in Humboldt County. This year we went back again. This year our very private AirBNB had an outdoor hot tub and sauna on an 80′ bluff overlooking a private beach on the ocean with about 40 sea lions sunbathing on a distant rock. A perfect place to do psilocybin and exorcise my demons.

It ain’t a vacation unless you can be naked for a consecutive 24 hours, IMHO.

And re: short order cook, I’m not saying that complicated recipes are better. They often aren’t (I made a braised shortrib from All About Roasting by Molly Something or Other and it was 5x as complicated for a disappointing end product). Some things are just scientifically better, like marinading your short-ribs or brining your turkey or fried chicken. Or long-fermenting your pizza dough. A little investment for a lot of payoff.

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