Knicks Morning News (2018.01.05)

  • [NYTimes] Sixers’ Throwback Anthem Becomes the Soundtrack of a Comeback
    (Thursday, January 04, 2018 9:33:48 PM)

    The star turns of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid have Philadelphia fans cheering again — and dancing to the disco sounds of “Here Come the Sixers.”

  • [ESPN] Greek Freak ahead of LeBron on All-Star ballots
    (Thursday, January 04, 2018 6:42:04 PM)

    Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo is ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James by nearly 7,500 votes after the first 12 days of the All-Star fan vote.

  • [ESPN] Porzingis: ‘I’m tired’ after playing back-to-back
    (Thursday, January 04, 2018 2:38:19 PM)

    Knicks star Kristaps Porzingis says he’s tired after playing back-to-back games. “I have one day now to rest my legs and then get back and play better and have more energy,” he said, “and also try and bring the team’s energy up.”

  • [SNY Knicks] Hornacek wants Knicks to play faster, says it’ll help Porzingis
    (Thursday, January 04, 2018 10:45:46 PM)

    Jeff Hornacek wants the Knicks to play faster to make life easier for Kristaps Porzingis.

  • [SNY Knicks] Porzingis fourth in all-star voting for front-court, Kanter ninth
    (Thursday, January 04, 2018 7:55:50 PM)

    Kristaps Porzingis is on the outside looking in to start in the all-star game, currently fourth in front-court voting.

  • [SNY Knicks] Michael Beasley talks Erik Spoelstra ahead of Heat clash
    (Thursday, January 04, 2018 5:45:48 PM)

    Michael Beasley returns to Miami to face the team who drafted him second overall in 2008, and he didn’t exactly heap praise on former coach Erik Spoelstra.

  • [SNY Knicks] Daily News Live: Is being tired an excuse?
    (Thursday, January 04, 2018 5:49:39 PM)

  • [SNY Knicks] Why the Knicks should be calling up Trey Burke on Friday
    (Thursday, January 04, 2018 4:30:55 PM)

    Calling up guard Trey Burke from the G-League Westchester Knicks on Friday is a move that has to be made, and one that makes perfect sense to make.

  • [SNY Knicks] Porzingis admits he is drained following ugly loss to Wizards
    (Thursday, January 04, 2018 8:28:29 AM)

    Kristaps Porzingis admits he is starting to feel fatigued after the Knicks’ bad 121-103 loss to the Wizards on the road Wednesday night.

  • [NYDN] Some in Knicks organization want to call up Trey Burke
    (Thursday, January 04, 2018 8:53:14 PM)

    The Knicks’ offense is floundering and there’s a desire from some in the organization to call up their G-League star Trey Burke.

  • [NYDN] Doctor explains how anemia could impact Porzingis’ health
    (Thursday, January 04, 2018 3:42:33 PM)

    Kristaps Porzingis was diagnosed with anemia eight years ago.

  • [NYDN] Porzingis made worst kind of concession with ‘tired’ excuse
    (Thursday, January 04, 2018 9:32:58 AM)

    Kristaps Porzingis spent the day in Miami presumably resting up for Friday’s game against the Miami Heat.

  • [NYPost] NBA scout: It’s ‘idiotic’ to label Porzingis a franchise player
    (Thursday, January 04, 2018 1:19:59 PM)

    MIAMI — Kristaps Porzingis has struggled recently living up to the designation as Knicks franchise player, admitting fatigue through 38 games. Two European-based scouts aren’t surprised, suggesting the natural makeup of an international player isn’t best suited for that role. They see Porzingis as an All-Star — just not necessarily a superstar. Tim Shea, a…

  • [NYPost] Michael Beasley reopens wound with coach who didn’t ‘believe’
    (Thursday, January 04, 2018 11:47:24 AM)

    MIAMI — Michael Beasley has bounced around in the NBA, but often he’s bounced right back to the Heat. Three times. When the sliding Knicks (18-20) face the scorching Heat on Friday at AmericanAirlines Arena, Beasley will face his former team with some pangs of regret. Not once in Miami did Beasley weave the sustained…

  • [NY Newsday] Kristaps Porzingis tiring as Knicks near halfway point of season
    (Thursday, January 04, 2018 6:23:46 PM)

    Kristaps Porzingis was looking forward to a day off in Miami. A little sunshine, vitamin D and some R&R may be just what he needs.

  • 42 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.01.05)”

    Well, considering KP had a .498 ts% in December and has a .398 mark in this first two games in January, maybe Dion Waiters or Michael Carter-Williams will too.

    The Thunder is starting to put it together. The shot selection is improving and everyone’s TS% is beginning to rise. Now we’ll see if this is just some kind of reversion to the mean or whether they can sustain above average efficiency over the rest of the season and move up in the standings. I don’t think the bench is deep enough for them to become serious contenders, but I’m glad they are playing better on offense. I refused to believe that the whole was less than the sum of the parts. That made no sense at all.

    melo has finally gotten it. He’s limiting the isos and mostly shooting open 3’s. It took him 13 years, but he may finally be in the process of understanding team ball. I said it in an earlier post, but I think the loss to the Knicks demoralized him so much that something clicked in his head.
    Plus there’s been some regression to the mean with Westbrook and PG.
    They’re still not getting past the second round, but at least they’re not a mess anymore.

    If this team doesn’t call up and sign Trey Burke by the 10th, then I just have to throw my hands up and say f— it to this front office.
    They might as well cut Sessions, or if they are against that for some reason, then send Dotson down and get him some reps. There’s no point waiting any longer.

    My current theory: Perry is leading a stealth tank and simultaneously trying to showcase the vets. Bringing up Burke will hurt the stealth tank. Once the vets are dealt or the trade deadline passes, whichever comes first, the overt tank will kick in. At that point, the kids will be playing, the vets that are left will be getting 0-15 mins a night, and KP will be shutdown with a bad something.

    Teams can sign ten day contracts starting today, so things might start to happen soon. But the trade deadline is in the middle of February, so things could wait until then too.

    @6 – i agree with almost all of that except i think that they started off better than expected and hesitant to dismantle a potential playoff team… if they collapse this month i’m sure we’ll see some deals….

    @6
    I like that theory and hope that it is true. I’ve long said that if vets are getting too many minutes deep into January, that something has gone wrong. We should see in the next couple of weeks or so if the team keeps losing.

    Trey Burke can stay in the D League forever if it means we have a better chance of uniting Trae Young and Frank Ntilikina.

    I hope I’m wrong, but the Burke excitement seems a lot like the Jimr excitement from a few years ago

    Maybe I’m late to this party but does anyone else want to put the Wizards loss 90% on Hornacek and his need to play Jarrett Jack? Jack’s been better than expected (not that hard to do when your expectation is that he should be retired) but did anyone bring up how terribly amazingly stupendously awful he was trying to guard John Wall? Here are the Wall’s stats:

    With Jack on-court: 25.7 minutes, 9/15 from the floor (including 7/8 at the rim), 8 FTA, 3 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 turnover

    With Jack off-court (ie. with Frank guarding him): 8.6 minutes, 0/3 from the floor, 1 FTA, zero rebounds, 1 assist, 2 turnovers

    WTF would you leave John Wall against Jarrett Jack for more than 5 minutes when it was so obvious a the start of the 3rd that Wall was just hunting Jack and taking him to rack over and over?

    Meanwhile Hardaway has been out a looong time. I think his picture was on a milk carton recently -“ Have you seen me? “ Any update on when he’ll return? Maybe keeping him out is part of Perry’s stealth tank plan.

    This team is not near good enough to compete. They obviously need another strong draft, so the higher the pick the better. Let the young guys play more and trade the vets (Lee, O’Quinn, Lance, Beasley) for whatever can be had as soon as possible. KP’s recurring stamina issues are becoming a serious concern. It happens every year – starts out strong, fades badly as year progresses. They need to figure that out and adress it pronto.

    Oh yeah, and they STILL need a point guard

    Burke is not up because Jack is playing. The Knicks have to cut someone loose to let him play. Sessions is the likely candidate to go. I would much rather go with the kids at this point. If Burke and Ntilikina both develop, maybe their the point guard tandem of this team’s future?

    The Knicks are performing exactly the way I thought it would. If they win 4 games in January it’ll be a miracle. This is the killer stretch and has not started well. KP needs to work through his fatigue. THJr will help but maybe KP needs to take one game off every 5 games to stay sharp.

    if you’re relying on Perry in particular to be the tanker in chief you’re barking up the wrong tree. Go listen to the last five minutes of that interview he did with bj Armstrong and rick bucher when he was between jobs post Orlando. unprompted he brings up how opposed he is to tanking and the putative taint of instilling a losing culture. he wasn’t even a team gm giving a pc answer to a question, he was just a guy offering his unsolicited take.

    I predicted us to win between 7-9 games this month and these two losses don’t change my prediction. It was the Spurs and the Wizards on a back to back. We had a shot at the Spurs but the Wizards on the road on the 2nd half of a back to back, of course we lost that game. Now we have 9 winnable games in a row with 6 games against non playoff teams. This stretch is a good test. If we win between 5-7 games we’ll be fine. If we don’t then hope is pretty lost.

    Sounds like Hardaway had a stress fracture / reaction in his leg, which is a pretty serious thing. I don’t think this is taking any longer than they expected to be honest.

    But to your second point, yes — this team is not nearly good enough. I’m fine with going for the 8th seed, but if we flounder during this road stretch, Perry et al absolutely cannot be buyers at the deadline (in fact regardless of whether we flounder or not, we shouldn’t be buyers).

    Need to move KOQ. Beasley may bring a second rounder given he’s on a minimum deal and can definitely score the ball. Courtney Lee I am +/- on because it’s likely we would need to take back a significant deal in return.

    As to your 3rd point – I think Frank is out PG of the future. He’s doing perfectly fine. If you take all teenage rookie guards that have played >10 min/game (there actually haven’t been that many only 23), his per-36 numbers are actually reasonably good – 8th out of 23 in assists, 1st in steals, 12/23 in rebounds, 10th (best) out of 23 in turnovers. He’s not scoring much and his TS sucks, but I think we’ve seen some scoring improvement as the year has gone on.

    @14

    I agree 100%.

    As soon as Hardaway is back and gets a couple of games under his belt Frank should be the starting PG. He’s not enough of a threat on offense now. It might put even more pressure on KP. But once we have our #2 option in the lineup, Frank should start.

    I also think it was crazy to not have Noah active against Gortat. Our Cs turned Gortat into an all-star on offense.

    whiteside and olynyck are fittin to go off tonight…

    dragic will most likely abuse jack…

    i’m sure the heat will try to wear kp down quickly…that whole “i’m so tired” thing will just cause teams to pressure kp even more – on both defense and offense…

    then again – who knows – maybe we win tonight and kp goes for 30…

    This stretch is a good test. If we win between 5-7 games we’ll be fine. If we don’t then hope is pretty lost.

    No hope at all. Here’s an optimistic view of how I see January playing out:

    @ Mia – loss
    @ Dal – loss
    Chi – win
    @ Min – loss
    NOP – crushing loss
    @ Brk – loss (3rd game in 4 nights, 2nd of a back-to-back)
    @ Mem – loss
    @ Uta – loss
    @ Lal – loss
    @ GSW – loss
    @ Den – loss
    @ Phy – loss
    Brk – win
    @ Bos – loss

    Regarding the stealth tank:

    At the end of January our status will be a lot clearer. At that point they will probably clear the log jam at C by trading O’Quinn, Frank will move into the starting lineup if he continues making slow progress, Willy will be the backup trying to unseat Kanter, and maybe Dotson will start getting a few more minutes if he’s looking good in practice.

    Lee is more of a question mark. We know they like Lee, but if the season starts falling apart they will have to answer the phone and take calls about Lee. The question is whether they can get an offer that fits what they want to do. They can almost certainly just move Lee if they want, but they aren’t going to take the worst of the deal just to get rid of his contract when they like him and he still has a few years left in the tank.

    This team goes as KP goes. If KP starts shooting well we’ll be competitive in January. We’ll probably even win a few games that look tough if Hardaway comes back and plays well. If KP continues his slump and Hardaway is out for most of January or comes back on a minutes restriction and playing subpar, we’ll be going into stealth tank soon after the end of January.

    I just received an ad from the Knicks imploring me to vote for the “UKnickorn” for the All-Star game. Barf.

    I think the Knicks and the Heat are very similar teams and I have no idea who’ll win, probably Miami since it’s a road game.

    The fact that Hornacek keeps playing Jack so many minutes is just a sign of desperation. He understands he wasn’t hired by this front office and that if the Knicks show no signs of improvement he’ll get fired when the season ends, it’s just as simple as that. It’s the same reason he keeps starting Lance. I’m completely done with him and I’ll cherish the day he gets fired.

    Lance should really not be playing anymore unless we’re tanking. He and Ron are the same player — all hustle, no production. Lance’s ability to play 20+ minutes and post almost no counting stats is actually impressive.

    @28

    I mean, one would think the ball would sometimes bounce on him and he would get some rebounds at least right? Our hustle + defense starting wing averages 2.7 rebounds, hits one three per game then flails his arms a lot on defense while leaving 3 pt shooters open.

    I don’t care if it’s been like 4 games since McDermott hit a shot, he should be starting if we’re trying to win games or not.

    Ron Baker is a perfectly cromulent NBA guard. Lance Thomas is a replacement level player.

    Holy crap, the Knicks have replaced Lance Thomas with a hologram. The future is now, and it’s totally useless.

    if you’re relying on Perry in particular to be the tanker in chief you’re barking up the wrong tree. Go listen to the last five minutes of that interview he did with bj Armstrong and rick bucher when he was between jobs post Orlando. unprompted he brings up how opposed he is to tanking and the putative taint of instilling a losing culture. he wasn’t even a team gm giving a pc answer to a question, he was just a guy offering his unsolicited take.

    This is a case where “tank” has become synonymous with “the process”, as opposed to simply playing young players who need experience to develop. Perry was a GM candidate at the time, and no one (now) wants to hear their GM supporting another “process”.

    I don’t want the Knicks to start Jack and Sessions in the backcourt so they start losing games. That’s the surest way to tank. I just want to see them use precious minutes on players who need them, like Hernangomez and Dotson. Or see them used on a player with high upside, like Burke. We will likely lose, but it’s not tanking, per se.

    Aside: I’m kind of appalled they took the MLK day matinee game away from us. We were the only team who did that for decades. Now they’re turning it into a marquee day for the league. That’s cool, but we should never not be playing it at MSG.

    This is the same thing that happened with Christmas basketball. The NBA needs to be a little more respectful of local traditions.

    I have a question that I honestly can’t find an answer for:

    If KP isn’t the type of alpha to build around, how do we get that player?

    Personally, I don’t see an answer through the draft. In free agency, I see answers- but those answers are extreme long shots. I love Bagley, I love Doncic, and I think Porter is very good as well. But I’m not sure if they’re as good as KP, or if they will ever be. Bagley’s close though. I mean that kid is NIIIIICE. But should Perry consider trading KP for that 1st that will get him in a Knick jersey? IMO, this is a catch 22 in a serious way…

    If KP isn’t the type of alpha to build around, how do we get that player?

    Controlling the factors that are controllable (tanking strategy, not overpaying for “veteran leadership,” not giving NTCs to half the roster for no fucking reason whatsoever) and, then, a lot of luck.

    The Blazers, for instance, got Brandon Roy and Greg Oden, each an outstanding player when on the floor. Then they got unlucky.

    The Sonics/Thunder drafted three MVP candidates (good guessing) and then traded one of them to keep Kendrick Perkins. Then there was a lucky spike in the salary cap and they lost the best of the three to an all-time great team. Then they traded for Carmelo Anthony. Dumb, and then unlucky, and then dumb.

    Hey maybe the team falling apart and KP falling off the cliff again means we can give him that extension for less than we would have before if he’d kept up the hot start and lead us to a low playoff seed. IE, the same way GS was able to get Curry for cheaper on his first post rookie contract.

    I say we gotta stop worrying about labels like is KP a legit number one option superstar you build around. And we gotta stop thinking we can only build a legit contender or else what’s the point.

    Manage the team well. Draft well. Don’t overpay for free agents. Make smart trades. Have a good coach. Develop young players. Build a team that can win 45 to 55 games every year and get to the second round of the playoffs consistently. After that, so much of it is luck and timing.

    We know KP is a good two way player and a unique one at that. We know when he’s on he can lead a team to wins. We’ve got to be patient with this. To me, suggesting we trade KP is a panic move. Its similar to wanting to overpay for a veteran free agent to “win now.” Its a panic move. We need to not make panic moves. The team is actually about where we thought they would be this year. Its only because we had some early season success that people’s expectations have changed and people are more frustrated now with the losses.

    Lance Thomas starts at SF for the same reason so many weak hitting middle infielders bat second. Lance Thomas looks more like a SF than anyone else on the team.
    No, we can’t have Dotson play SF because he’s 2 inches too short, but Lance totally looks the part.

    I don’t want the Knicks to start Jack and Sessions in the backcourt so they start losing games. That’s the surest way to tank. I just want to see them use precious minutes on players who need them, like Hernangomez and Dotson. Or see them used on a player with high upside, like Burke. We will likely lose, but it’s not tanking, per se.

    Here’s the problems with that scenario.

    1. O’Quinn and Kanter are in their option year. If you bench them in favor of younger “inferior” players they are going to go ballistic. Their agent is also going to go ballistic. Their career and future paydays are on the line.

    2. Any other veterans that feel they are getting less than their deserved minutes are going to get pissed off and demand a trade.

    Things like that create the kind of poisoned locker room environment we are trying to avoid. They also get noticed by other players around the league. They impact your ability to attract talent later. That’s typically why the “youth movement” doesn’t occur until late in the season when the team is totally out of it and the games are meaningless. At that point all the veterans are willing to sit for the benefit of the team even if they are the better player.

    Of course, you can try to trade all your veterans. But that has downsides in terms of developing the young players and doesn’t make sense unless you can actually win the trade and move in a positive direction.

    Until this season is dead and buried:

    Frank will start when he has earned the right.
    Willy will get more minutes when they trade O’Quinn or he wins the job from him.
    Dotson will get more minutes when he has proven he deserves it in practice or they trade Lee

    I mean, one would think the ball would sometimes bounce on him and he would get some rebounds at least right? Our hustle + defense starting wing averages 2.7 rebounds, hits one three per game then flails his arms a lot on defense while leaving 3 pt shooters open.

    It’s really amazing. Per 36, he’s averaging 5 rebounds and 0.7 steals. How is that possible? The guy obviously cares. He waves his arms a lot and runs to spots. Shouldn’t a 6’8″ forward who tries hard get way more rebounds and steals by accident?

    I think he’ll positively regress a little bit, but jeez. Did you know he’s had a negative VORP every single year of his career?

    Frank will start when he has earned the right.

    Well Jack has a TS% of .474 and Frank’s is .438. Both horrid, but at least Frank actually attempts to guard his man.

    I really don’t get the downside of starting Frank at this point.

    @39

    Yeah, it seems impossible for a player to be this much unproductive when he does try. He averages 0.9 assists per 36!!!!! How does he not stumble upon 2 assists in 20 minutes just by giving the ball to someone who instantly takes a shot?

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