Comments on: Knicks Morning News (2018.01.16)

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 12:06:26 +0000

In reply to Z-man.

But Thomas was such a bad GM that getting the terrible team he put together to 33 wins is impressive in and of itself!

By: Z-man

Z-man — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 11:03:42 +0000

I would beg to differ on Isiah’s coaching. Fisher, for one, had the team over .500 until Melo rolled his ankle on a ref’s foot, and largely did so by marginalizing the triangle, much to Phil’s displeasure. He was an a-hole in some ways, but did much better (and would have continued to) than Rambis. Hornacek has been quite serviceable, given the preseason predictions for this team. And it’s hard to distance Isiah the GM from Isiah the coach, since he coached a team of his own creation and never got them past 33 wins.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 10:49:00 +0000

In reply to Knick fan not in NJ at this time.

thanks for the info. Then, since they can’t trade their own pick due to the Stepien rule, they have even less to offer us.

As others have noted, the Stepien rule only states that you must have a first round pick every other year. It doesn’t have to be your own. So the Cavs can trade their pick and still satisfy the Stepien rule through the Nets pick.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 10:47:31 +0000

In reply to Knick fan not in NJ at this time.

Thomas was an absolutely awful GM, but I was thinking the other day and you know, he’s sadly in the upper tier of Knick coaches that the Knicks have had post-Van Gundy. There’s D’Antoni right at the top, but after D’Antoni, Thomas probably did a better job than Don Chaney, Herb Williams, Lenny Wilkens (who had just checked out by the time he took the Knicks gig), Larry Brown (who was more interested in proving Isiah was an idiot than actually coaching the team), Derek Fisher, Kurt Rambis and, heck, probably Hornacek so far, as well. His only real competition for #2 is Mike Woodson, and I think Thomas was actually slightly more competent than Woody.

Note that Thomas was only competent as a coach. He wasn’t some mastermind or anything, but competence is sadly more than we have seen the Knicks get from most of their coaches these past 17 years.

By: Knick fan not in NJ at this time

Knick fan not in NJ at this time — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 06:44:41 +0000

Actually, I think Thomas was a good judge of talent, but no judge of value. So his acquisitions didn’t do as well for him as they could have. A lot of the players he acquired had long careers in the league, for example Crawford and Z-Bo, and clearly had value in and of themselves. But he didn’t put a good team together. I think he just got unlucky with what’s his name, who was a center and gained so much weight he was useless. Apparently the guy had a personal trauma in his family and became depressed and then his basketball really suffered. Now Jerome James was a disaster, no arguments about that.

By: Cock Jowles, Living through the Melo Era All Over Again

Cock Jowles, Living through the Melo Era All Over Again — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 06:14:37 +0000

Was Isiah lucky or good? The sample is too small to know.

You can’t just look at his drafts. If you look at his trades and FA signings, you realize he couldn’t tell an NBA player from a bobsledder.

By: djphan

djphan — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 05:21:39 +0000

playing around with the trade machine….

minnesota i think is a good landing spot for lee…. they have an easy contract match with cole and late first picks which i’m sure they’re fine with including if they want a better bench option than crawford….

the blazers.. i have no idea what they are doing… but i think kanter would be a good fit for them… i’m not sure if they are still in love with nurkic … but the guy has been pretty horrendous …. harkless’s contract is pretty bad but i think he’s at least rotation worthy at a position of need…. and we can include any one of the blazers prospects… with the goal of getting someone like zach collins or vonleh/picks…

By: Knick fan not in NJ at this time

Knick fan not in NJ at this time — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 05:19:17 +0000

Thanks for the info. Then, since they can’t trade their own pick due to the Stepien rule, they have even less to offer us. Honestly everything I am reading suggests that this trade deadline won’t be very active, and I suspect this will be true. There just aren’t that many teams that are active buyers. Milwaukee could be one, and maybe Detroit, Denver or Portland another. The Clippers and Cavaliers probably would like to be active buyers, but they don’t really have much to offer or at least much that they are willing to offer. Can you think of others?

By: Bruno Almeida

Bruno Almeida — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 04:50:23 +0000

@76

It’s the Cavs own pick actually. They traded their 2018 pick to the Blazers when they dumped Varejão’s contract on them, then traded the 2017 one to Portland (that became Caleb Swanigan) to get the 2018 back. They only have this pick and the Nets pick.

By: Knick fan not in NJ at this time

Knick fan not in NJ at this time — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 04:14:01 +0000

I think the Cavaliers have Portland’s first round pick this year. That would be worth something in a trade to the Knicks. But I doubt the Cavs are in any mood to trade any picks, unless James indicates he is staying before the trade deadline. If we trade for personnel, who do we actually want that they would be willing to trade? Maybe Osman, because he is young and at a position of need, or Frye, because his contract will expire at the end of the year and that would give us cap space, but that is very little basis to make a deal with Cleveland. I think we have to look elsewhere for a good deal