(Tuesday, March 20, 2018 9:37:54 PM)
The Knicks may not be helping their draft position by suddenly winning games, but developing their first-round draft pick from last season is the most important thing at this point.
(Tuesday, March 20, 2018 6:26:51 PM)
The Knicks were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention for a fifth straight year Monday night, so it was symbolic that rookie forward Isaiah Hicks was the on-court postgame interview for MSG Network following “The Tank Bowl.’’ The 6-foot-9, 240-pound Hicks, on a two-way G-League contract, had just completed his second straight game of note, hitting…
(Tuesday, March 20, 2018 11:32:37 AM)
It has been an interesting nine mental months for Knicks rookie Frank Ntilikina. He was drafted at the grizzled age of 18 last June after strong showings in Europe. But he was a virtual summer league no-show because of a bum knee sustained in the European playoffs. So he plodded through training camp, behind the…
(Tuesday, March 20, 2018 9:40:22 AM)
Kristaps Porzingis generated buzz over the weekend after he was pictured shooting at a gym in his Manhattan apartment building on Sunday.
[NYDN] Trae Young could give Knicks a Curry-like nightmare in draft (Tuesday, March 20, 2018 8:30:06 AM)
Trae Young is officially on the Knicks’ radar now that the Oklahoma freshman guard has announced that he is entering the NBA draft.
[NYTimes] J.J. Redick Might Be the N.B.A.’s Most Meticulous Player (Wednesday, March 21, 2018 9:00:10 AM)
In his 12th season, Redick painstakingly plans everything from his naps to his shots. It’s helped him steady a 76ers team that is poised to reach the playoffs again.
[NYTimes] Kyle Korver to Miss Time With Cavaliers After Brother’s Death (Wednesday, March 21, 2018 5:00:57 AM)
Korver’s brother, Kirk, died at 27 on Tuesday in Iowa after becoming sick last week.
[NYTimes] On Pro Basketball: Lose Now, Win Later? In Sixers, Knicks Have a Role Model (Wednesday, March 21, 2018 10:23:18 AM)
The long-term absence of Kristaps Porzingis and a visit by Philadelphia on Thursday offer lessons for the Knicks, and a reminder that losing doesn’t have to last forever.
65 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.03.21)”
I like that Frank has been playing better. I like that they’re letting him run the offense more. They should let him do that even more, but it’s still nice to see some improvement from him. He still has a negative WS/48, but it’s steadily improving each game (and his defense has always been rated positively all season. He just needs to not have historically bad offense).
Trey Burke and Frank Ntilikina are our best guards. I think they should start with TH2 coming off the bench as the 6th man, and Emmanuel Mudiay should be cut. Mudiay has no body control, he’s a poor leaper, a poor defender, and a poor shooter. I don’t really understand the infatuation with a guy who doesn’t even give you a wow play every other game.
The Knicks have done a really good job with finding Trey Burke and Troy Williams. Both of those guys have played excellent ball for us relative to their contracts, and we have them on non-guaranteed contracts through next season. I really hope Kanter opts out so we can give Julius Randle the TH2 contract (except Julius Randle would be worth it). I’d be content to start 2018-2019 with a starting five of Burke, Ntilikina, Hardaway Jr, Randle, and O’Quinn. I think Randle could really star on a team like that and be a great fit next to KP at the 5.
Kanter is not opting out. The only reason anyone would even consider it would be to get a long term contract sooner if for some reason you wanted/needed that security almost immediately. Then you might give up some money short term to have a greater amount of money locked up long term. But he’s already had a huge contract and is almost certainly financially secure. It makes way more sense to collect next year’s big money and then get the long term contract for less per year after the season.
I have to address to this one more time because this “take” overstates the impact significantly.
To acquire picks, you have to give up other assets..
For example:
Phil could have gotten a first round pick and players for Melo, but then we wouldn’t have gotten Kanter, Chicago’s 2nd round pick, and McBuckets.
Would we have been better off making that Chicago trade anyway?
I think so. I argued for a trade at the time.
But the impact of that mistake is only the difference between what we could have gotten back then and what we actually got.
How much better would a 1st round pick from Chicago be than Kanter?
They were still good at the time. It wouldn’t have been a high pick. It’s not like we were automatically going to get a star from some mid pack 1st round pick from Chicago. We might have even come away with a lesser player than Kanter.
How much better would the filler have been than McBuckets (who we subsequently gave away) and Chicago’s 2nd round pick given that the lions share of filler was going to have to be Boozer?
Probably better, but not huge.
I don’t want to hear any nonsense about us getting multiple 1st rounders or another star back.
That was all speculation.
If anyone thinks that mistake by Phil (and it was clearly a mistake) was critical to the position we are in now or more important than the fact that prior management was stupid enough to trade away 2 first rounders for trash, you don’t know what you are talking about.
Not having those 2 1st rounders is about 90% of everything wrong with the position we are in now.
Even that isn’t as bad as it seems. If we had gotten more for Melo or had those 2 picks, we would have been better last year. That means we wouldn’t have gotten Frank and we wouldn’t be getting a solid lottery pick this year either either. In both cases, we’d select lower.
You’re acting as if trading Melo to the Bulls in the summer of 2014 was Phil’s only chance to acquire first round picks.
Brian laid out 6 examples yesterday where he could have gotten picks. Phil wasn’t handcuffed. He was short sighted.
Just to lay out the most egregious example, the Sixers got an unprotected first, a pick swap, and Stauskas for renting out less cap space than Phil used on Arron Afflalo and Derrick Williams. There is no amount of spin that can defend his record. It is truly a ridiculous hill to die on. He passed up multiple opportunities to spur a rebuild because he thought the path to building a contender went like this:
1) Sign mediocre free agents
2) Triangle
3) Championship!
Orlando is the only team that’s gonna keep us from Trae Young. I’m almost hoping they win the lottery so they can take Luka instead(if we don’t get him of course).
Phil traded our 2nd round pick in 2019 to Philadelphia just so he could create a roster spot for Travis Wear. Every time Phil had a choice between a draft pick or minimal to marginal improvement, he chose the latter. Every time.
Hiring Mark Jackson as HC would, IMHO, lead to the greatest of Knick dumpster fires.
The noise coming out about his candidacy is, I suspect, coming straight from him or his agent. Otherwise, I don’t think there’s anything to see here.
Just for the sake of organizational stability, I’d really like to see the Knicks have a HC finish their contract for once
Stephen A Smith has been behind the Mark Jackson to New York rumors. I really hope Scott Perry knows better than that and gets a harmless guy like David Fizdale or something.
I’m glad that I don’t have the decisions to make that Perry does. It looks like if we land anywhere from 7-8-or 9, that both Mikal Bridges and Trae Young will both be there. The problem for me is I’ve gone back and looked closer at Trae Young. I’m not a fan of the Chef Curry comparisons, but I’m starting to really warm up to him. His team is terrible, had it not been for him- they might not have been able to win 7 games. The per game stats are hard to ignore, even with the turnovers. But..he’s creative off the bounce, has range and accuracy, and is clever setting teammates up for buckets. He’s not the best defender, but he can learn to be passable- look at Burke. A backcourt of Ntilikina and Young would be nice, and I don’t know how Perry passes that up even if Mikal Bridges is there- though Bridges is the bigger need. Maybe Mudiay has a strong finish, and we can package he and either THJ or Lee for a SF. And honestly, if Perry drafts Young, I’d rather keep Lee. We need accurate shooting- and he can be our Kroger for the duration of his deal.
That was meant to say KORVER..my phone’s autocorrect hijacked it lol
@ 11 – My thing is that its gotten to the point where people really nitpick these prospects to the point where you start to believe that any pick we make is going to be a mistake and a bust and of course if they don’t win rookie of the year or make the all rookie team their first year then they’re a bust. It will be funny if we pick Young and all the pundits make fun of us for picking a scoring guard with no defense after making fun of us for picking Frank over DSJ the year before. But damn a really good point guard who can score and set up his teammates as a 19 year old rookie paired with Frank in the back court? I mean…that would be really exciting for us. We need wings too but I don’t think we’re at the point where we can say “nah our backcourt is set, lets get wings.” I feel like a decent 3 and D wing is maybe easier to find in the second round or D-League or pick up in free agency than a really good PG, which I think Young can be.
But I read comments about all these kids and everyone has their favorites and makes everyone else sound like an absolute sure fire bust. So much of it is dependent on what they do once they’re drafted. But with Frank and KP, we could probably roll the dice on Young not being as good on defense.
I think Horny, like it or not, will be back next year. And he probably wants some form of a 2-pg lineup.
I just hope we come into camp with no one guaranteed a starting spot.
I think it’s a given that Kanter will start, so hopefully they can find an agile rim protector to put next to him that can shoot threes (Carter Jr.?) but if not, I think Mikal Bridges would at least help the D and our outside shooting.
I’d like to think that Frank would win a starting spot in the back court with his defense, but who knows what Horny is thinking? I hated the Mudiay move, but if he can be limited to back up pg minutes, that would be tolerable.
A Trey/Frank/TH2/Carter Jr/Kanter lineup is also tolerable for a year.
Adding Trae Young to the equation would be crazy, but I could see it happening.
Mark would be terrible for the tank, too. He’d squeeze out 4 extra wins by going to the whip down the stretch.
I hate the Steph Curry comparisons for Trae Young because they are lazy. He’s not as good a scorer or shooter as Steph, and Steph just isn’t the passer that Young is. Young has some flair in his passing, and he’s excellent in the pick and roll. I also think Steph is a much more fluid ball handler while Young makes sharper, precise movements with the ball. I see Trae Young and I see Steve Nash.
If Perry drafts Bridges though, a perimeter trio of Ntilikina/ THJ/Bridges is still good. I just don’t know which one to choose, Young’s game and ceiling makes it difficult. Probably can’t go wrong either way
If someone told you we could hire a coach who had coached for three years in the NBA and took a team from 21 wins his first year to 51 wins his last year, would you think that coach might be a good coach for a young team?
That is what Mark Jackson did. I get it. The super religious stuff rubs a lot of people the wrong way but also A LOT of athletes are super into religion and Jesus. I would be very concerned about him and Dolan going at it and obviously it did not end well for him in GSW but I think he does get a little crapped on bc Kerr took over that team and they started wining titles and becoming one of the best teams of all time. But like we have no idea what leap GS would have taken if Jackson had stayed there and Kerr definitely took over a good situation that Jackson helped create.
I do not want him but I think this idea that he would be a disaster is a little over the top. He has one previous stop as a coach and from a record/developmental standpoint, if you just look at the numbers, he was clearly a success.
You guys act like everyone is stupid and would just give away value to the Knicks if Phil wanted it. Reading this blog is kind of like watching MSNBC discuss Trump. It often has a very good point, but it takes that point to a delusional level.
People forget how anxious we were to get rid of JR Smith at the time. The cost was Shumpert. Maybe we could have gotten something for an oft injured Shumpert, but it wouldn’t have been much. Teams knew his contract was coming up and he was going to get paid. Plus, we’d still have JR Smith untying shoes and being an idiot. If we kept Shumpert because he was young and we were trying to rebuild anyway, we would have overpaid for a young player that turned out to be a dud.
People forget how anxious we were to get rid of Felton and his gun arrest at the time. Part of the cost was Chandler, but we also got back a young player (Shane Larkin) and 2 decent 2nd round picks along with the filler. The problem is, young players and picks don’t always turn into NBA players, let alone good players. If we made a good selection in that draft or Larkin had developed , we’d have a different view, but we picked two duds.
I like renting cap space, but how’s that working for the Nets? They still suck. They still have a bunch of terrible long term contracts. Soon they’ll have to make a decision on a few decent players they have accumulated while still buried in some of the trash they took on. They are still YEARS away from digging out of the hole of those bad contracts even though they’ve supposedly been doing the right things.
It’s not that easy. No one is giving anything away. The draft is NOT the only way. It’s one part of the puzzle.
Also, I meant to say that I think Young will be gone by 8 – 10. I believe he’s widely considered the top pg, and those usually go top 5. We are hoping he’ll slip, but I can’t imagine a scenario where he does.
The Suns, Magic, Cavs, and Bulls would all be dumb to pass him up. Remember, the Suns could end up picking as low as 4.
He clearly has a much lower ceiling, but our Trey has looked good running the offense. He deserves time as the starter.
But yeah, man, we really should be in this top 7 or 8 where the potential all-stars are. Those early season wins really super F’d us.
If someone told me that, I’d assume that they were trying to cover up a shitty coach by going oddly specific and vague.
Mark Jackson is destined to the next Knicks coach, because he’s by far the dumbest realistic move possible.
If you ask me, the best value a coach can give to a team is near to zero. I pretty much define the skill level of a coach by how little he messes the bed up, especially in terms of clashing with his players or making then tune him out (the Skiles special).
So I have trouble crediting Mark Jackson for the Warriors improvement, exactly as I have trouble thinking Tyronn Lue is a better coach than Jeff Van Gundy or even David Blatt just because he won a ring. I pretty much prefer an unproven coach. The problem, though, is not the coach in itself. Is that our managment is shortsighted and probably dumb. So, whomever the coach, the mandate will be to do stupid things like start Mudiay or something like that. I mean, Hornacek has clearly a lot of trouble in managing people, but I think that if management said to him “Hey bud, you’re safe anyway to coach another year, show us what our youngsters can do” he wouldn’t be chasing useless wins around.
The only thing that would make the Young-Curry comparison lazy is that they’re both light-skinned POC — which is a thing that we see all the time. Some arbitrary idea of “sharper, precise movements” is just silly. Young is obviously modeling his game after Curry: lots of high screen motion, off-the-dribble shooting, midrange floaters and driving to the hole for acrobatic layups.
Steve Nash liked layups too, but the dude was a pick and roll/fast break passing genius, not a volume shooter who would take double-teamed threes from 5 feet behind the arc.
Now I don’t think there’s any evidence to suggest that Young will be remotely the player that Curry is, but the playing style is as similar as it gets. You say that Young has passing flair as if Curry doesn’t. I mean, what?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf4O0r6RwrY
@18
Does Mark Jackson come with Steph, Klay and Draymond attached to him? Then I’m all for it, just hire him!
Our amazing coach took over the 25 win Phoenix Suns and won 48 games the very next year, so maybe we should just keep him? Don’t mind that they won 39 then 23 right after until he got fired.
@19
You ignore the fact that teams were actually giving assets away at the time. The Sixers got two 1st swaps + a 2019 first from the Kings for literally nothing but renting cap space. It was a different moment where contracts were off the charts and teams were desperate for cap space. It’s not fair to compare that specific moment Philly did it (and Phil could have done it) to the Nets trying to do it now.
Even then, the Nets got to gamble on Russell + the Toronto pick just for renting cap space, which is better than what they had. It didn’t turn the franchise around, but no one is saying renting cap space would have turned the Knicks around completely, just that it was far better than the lateral bullshit moves Phil pulled off.
I can’t believe people want to like Mark Jackson as a coach because he went from having a shitty team with an injured Steph to a team that won 51 games with prime Steph Klay Draymond and Iggy. Byron Scott, one of the other shitty coaches in recent NBA history, won a very similar lottery to start out and spent the rest of his career proving it. Hiring Mark Jackson because he took those two teams from 21 to 51 wins is like poaching the concierge from Mar A Lago because you want to know how to attract to these full price paying foreign dignitaries.
Who was anxious to get rid of either JR or Felton? I sure as hell wasn’t and the administration shouldn’t have been either, not at the cost of costing us assets or potential assets. And did either Felton or JR have more than 1 year left on their deals?
I guess building around the decline phase of Carmelo Anthony and giving him a mega-max no-trade contract, signing the funkified corpse of Joakim Noah to a 4/72 deal because passing out of the pinch post is so essential, trading a still-valuable Tyson Chandler for a useless Jose Calderon because Calderon is so triangle-y, giving away Iman Shumpert for nothing, burning a first-round pick on a rookie contract to acquire the 2016 version of Derrick Rose, wasting cap space on one pointless season of Derrick Williams and Arron Afflalo, trading a second round pick to create roster space for Travis Wear, and generally acting like an embarrassing ass make up the other 10%.
You’ve made this argument a million times before, so I know what you’ll say: yeah, but Melo is gone, and none of those moves are impacting us much except the Noah contract. But here’s the thing: you’re wrong. You know why? Because you know what Phil could have done other than make all of those obvious mistakes? He could have done SMART THINGS. Instead of making dumb, mediocre decisions that fizzled into nothing, he could have done things that were actually a benefit to the long-term health of the team. He racked up an exorbitant opportunity cost with all of his lame and ineffectual moves, and that’s a lot more than 10% of the reason why we’re in this shitty situation.
trae is pretty different than curry…. similar styles but trae is a much better handler than curry was as a junior… he has that going for him….
he’s able to get into the paint which has led to more 2p fg attempts… and a much higher ftr…. what he doesn’t have going for him is his efficiency in 2p land.. which curry had a pretty decent floater game even in college … he also had a much higher steal rate….
that’s the main question with trae… if he can translate his ftr and can have a sufficient efficiency on his drives to the basket then he’ll probably do great… if not then he’ll probably be more like dennis schroder….
As Maya Angelou famously said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
Phil specifically told us why he made the moves he did and his reasoning was dumb then and dumb now.
He told us that he saw the 37-win Knicks and thought he could get them to 40-41 wins by trading Chandler for Calderon and Dalembart. He would then use the upswing to get free agents to sign with the Knicks because he felt that players would want to play for him. That failed miserably.
So he then said, “Okay, I’ll sign a bunch of short term free agents, I’ll get us to around 40 wins and then I’ll use that upswing to get free agents to sign with the Knicks.” That failed miserably.
So then he said, “Okay, I’ll sign a bunch of longer term free agents and trade for Derrick Rose. This will get us to around 45 wins and then I’ll use Derrick Rose’s cap space to get Russell Westbrook or Chris Paul to sign with us and we’ll be great.” That failed miserably.
Then he was fired.
He was who he said he was. A dude who was obsessed with getting the Knicks to mediocrity in a season so that he could then get free agents to take them to the next level, which was a dumb plan at the time even had it gone the way that he was hoping it would go and it never came close to going the way that he wanted it to go.
He sucked.
But he did draft KP. He’ll always have that to hang his hat on. That’s legitimately something.
@23 They do not play similar games. I’m a guy that watches a lot of film on draft prospects, probably more film than anybody else on this board. When Steph Curry was at Davidson, they designed a lot of plays to take advantage of his catch and shoot prowess. Young at Oklahoma was a guy they gave the ball and told to create things, that’s how he ended up leading the nation in points, assists, and really bad shots from 3 point range. I know it was against a bad team, but Trae Young had a 22 assist game. He’s a playmaker first and a shooter second. Steph Curry is a shooter first and playmaker second. They’re different basketball players by their games, and that’s because Steph is the better shooter and Young is the better passer. Of course he molds his game after Steph Curry, but Trae Young will tell you himself he also studies Dame Lillard and Chris Paul’s tape.
Trae Young’s primary value as a prospect is his ability to pass the ball. Don’t let Lon Kruger’s terrible offensive strategy fool you, Trae Young won’t be the chucker he had to be at OU because the other four guys just stood around doing nothing on offense. Put him in a system where he can use his shooting and passing out of the pick and roll and you’re talking about a guy who brings a ton of value. He won’t survive at the next level taking 20 shots a night and being expected to carry an offense by himself. I don’t think Trae Young will ever lead a winning organization in FGA.
I mean you guys can knock Jackson all you want but isn’t this a site driven by numbers? If you look at the numbers…ignore everything else, he has a proven track record. You can try to explain it with he had Steph and Klay but neither of those guys came into the league the players they are now. When they were drafted by the Warriors they were both unproven rookies who had the potential to be good or also be a bust, like every other pick.
I just find it funny. People love to bring up the numbers on this site until it actually works against their narrative. 21 wins, 47 wins, 51 wins. That’s Mark Jackson’s record as a head coach. Three years, improvement every year with a franchise that was struggling before he took over. You can try to deny it all you want. The numbers show he’s been a successful coach.
The guy ran the team for three years and completely remade the roster in his Triangulified image, and only 10% of this mess we’re in his his fault? Naw fam.
It’s a site driven by numbers, which means numbers have to be interpreted and understood within context.
If you really believe the jump in wins is Mark Jackson’s merit and that’s it, honestly it’s not even worth to go into more specifics. It’s like saying Devin Booker is a better scorer in the NBA than Harden because he has a 70 point game in his resume.
Then why the hell was Jackson fired, and right after he did the Warriors jumped from 51 wins to 67 and a NBA title, then to 73 breaking the record of most wins ever? Please.
By the way I’m totally playing devil’s advocate with Jackson. I do not want him. I just think its weird that he hasn’t been hired by another team bc honestly his record with the Warriors warrants him getting another job somewhere.
I actually want to keep Hornaceck for next year. I look at how this team played the beginning of the year with a mismatched roster and JJ as the PG and I think we outperformed expectations. And I look at how this second unit with Burke, Williams and KQ are playing these last two games and to me that shows a decent coach who has gotten some new players to play well together after a few weeks mid season. The team isn’t completely mailing it in and unlike past seasons we aren’t hearing a lot of rumblings from players who are mad at Horns (Noah aside which was inevitable). Give Jeff another year!
Jackson is known to cause trouble in the locker room. No team wants to deal with him.
It’s not weird because he is awful and every other team in the NBA knows it.
Hopefully the Knicks do, too.
Hopefully.
Mike Brown won over 60 games in a season twice. He was also awful. No one wants Mike Brown to coach their team now.
@31 – I think Jackson was a bad offensive coach strategically, but did a good job of developing the young guys they had. Offensively, Steph and Klay were always going to become who they have become, but Jackson definitely helped to instill in them the need to compete defensively as both were seen as major liabilities coming out of college and in their earlier seasons in the league.
It’s irrelevant to why I don’t want Jackson though. He could be Greg Popovich tactically and I still wouldn’t touch him with a 10 foot pole.
He’s somebody who potrayed himself as a man of God and then was embroiled in an extremely embarrassing extortion case as the result of an affair he had with a stripper.
He once told the team Festus Ezeli was rooting against them to make himself look better which led to a confrontation in which Ezeli burst out in tears to refute that claim.
He got into serious issues within his own coaching staff with Mike Malone, Brian Scalabrine and Darren Erman stemming from his insecurities and issues.
He barred Jerry West and team execs from practice for no apparent reason.
He generally had a contentious and adversarial relationship with the front office.
There’s a reason that after being fired by the Warriors he’s never so much as even had an interview with an NBA team. Nobody around the league wants to deal with all the bullshit that comes along with him outside of the actual coaching aspect of his job, which had it’s own warts as far as offensive playcalling went.
Mark Jackson got fired from a great situation because he has a toxic personality. Anybody who thinks his tenure as Knick coach wouldn’t devolve into a high-drama mess is kidding himself.
As for why we shouldn’t keep Hornacek, well, let’s say he has a history of losing his players because he has trouble communicating with them (don’t forget the Courtney Lee “dumb and dumber” tweet).
Yeah, that’s exactly the kind of guy I want running my team.
If anything, promote Jarrett Jack to head coach and fire Hornacek and Rambis
I think it’s a travesty that he’s still calling games for ESPN, but I take solace in the fact that he had to be around to see his old team win two rings. It’s like being the announcer of your ex fiancee wild spring break. Twice.
Also, Mark Jackson seems just the perfect coach to pair up with Enes Kanter! If they’re gonna hire him I’d rather they do it now, so Kanter can opt out already.
@44 Give Jackson a 10 day contract.
Totally.
http://knickerblogger.net/knicks-morning-news-2017-04-27/#comment-579228
Monk, 2017-18
-0.037 WS48
-6.1 BPM (would be worst among all players if he qualified for leaderboards)
-0.7 VORP (a staggeringly bad number for a guy who’s only played 630 minutes)
-0.178 WP48 (worst among all players with >270 MP)
.430 TS% (????elite???)
http://knickerblogger.net/knicks-morning-news-2017-04-27/#comment-579236
I mean this one is from last year, and since it links to the Bargnani comments, I’m gonna go with, uh, haha nah.
@41 – thanks jowles – needed that laugh…that’s some seriously funny and weird shit…
who doesn’t like a “lively” service now and again…
so, assuming we are stuck at 9, which based on the teams around us and our and their schedules seems pretty likely – if we choose a point guard – is it collin, zhaire, or shai…i’d go with shai…
if we go for a small forward – mikal, miles, or kevin …i’d go with mikal…
wow, this draft guessing stuff is pretty hard…what crap shoot…
The weird thing about this draft is that the guys who are projected to go in the 7-9 range– Mikal Bridges, Carter and maybe Young– seem like better prospects to me than some of the guys projected to go 4-6 like Bagley, Bamba and Porter.
Partially why it feels like an inevitability.
I like Porter quite a bit, but he’s such an unknown given his lack of playing time and there’s also some serious injury risk as well.
Bagley just seems like a bigger Michael Beasley to me. I really really don’t want him or Sexton.
Pastor Mark just seems like a Steve Mills guy. That’s why I’m so nervous.
At least the Pastor will be able to sleep with a higher class of stripper in New York. We’ve got some cute ones here. And he’ll be able to involve the team owner in his power play drama, since Dolan is a sucker for that kind of stuff.
Yeah, Jackson is probably heavily considering the Knicks for the career security move of having a franchise to back him up if he has “extremely poor judgment” and makes “egregious errors” again, at least we know Mills has past expertise on that end.
If we’re going to go pursue trouble with coaches, why not bring Fisher back? THJr wouldn’t be too upset about that…
After all Fisher still has 1 year remaining on his contract. To his credit, he was the last (and possibly only) coach to get Melo to play D.
Ironically enough, potentially paying 10MM to previously fired coaches (Hornachek and Fisher) next season might not fly with Dolan.
That said, I’d rather keep Hornachek because I like how he’s managed a flawed roster and season-long conflicting expectations.
That, and Perry’s background is about pivoting other people’s hires to becoming his guys, like a proper Jim Collins “Good to Great” level 5 manager should be able to do.
My career arc inside KnickerBlogger
2013: Damn that Jowles is surely an entitled prick. Also, we suck
2015: Oh, maybe Jowles is a little rough on the edges but the man certainly has brains. Also, we suck hard
2018: Fuck I wish Jowles stepped his game up every single day. Also, can we please stop sucking?
Bowles is a prick. It autocorrects to Bowles for a reason.
Monk is a rookie. You can’t make any claims about an nba player good or bad until at least their third year unless they’re an absolute superstar.
@11 “I’m glad that I don’t have the decisions to make that Perry does. It looks like if we land anywhere from 7-8-or 9, that both Mikal Bridges and Trae Young will both be there. ”
Don’t worry, they’ll be picking 10th so this decision won’t be an issue for Mills and Perry. Miles Bridges will be waiting for his name to be called
Actually my expectations have been so lowered that I’d be ok with anyone from the first 13 prospects who’s not named Sexton
I’m just pointing out that you have a track record of pointing to “upside” when referring to the actual worst players in the league, so maybe your opinion on “upside” isn’t so hot.
It’s one thing to quibble about whether a player is a role player or a highly-productive semi-star (J. Bell, Faried, Whiteside, Crowder, Porter et al.) or whether a decent rookie (Porzingis) might end up a better player than an offensive-genius rookie who can’t really play D (Jokic). Those are heated conversations we’ve had on this board and with good reason: there’s a lot of grey area about player ability. I can even see how a person might think in 2012 that Harden’s ceiling was 6MoY, rather than perennial MVP candidate (and soon to be the league MVP). It was wrong, and I called it wrong at the time, but there’s some room to argue.
It’s another thing to have a track record of defending the “upside” of the actual worst players in the league. When you see a shitty player, just call them shitty and focus on the good players that are available. The NBA’s front offices make a lot more mistakes than they do successes.
@50 I see Marvin Bagley and think the kid is already a better rebounding Chris Bosh and he has the potential to develop a handle. Bagley was playing in the Drew League when he was 17 years old lol
Think about it, Charlotte wanted a combo guard who could score a lot to take pressure away from Walker. They chose Monk over Mitchell. I don’t really care much if Monk eventually improves in his 4th year, it was simply a mistake.
There were arguments everywhere, but we really need to stop with the idea that front offices are much better than us making those guesses. Some are, some probably are, some probably aren’t and some definitely aren’t. I’m 100% sure our conversations here about basketball are more insightful than Stan Van Gundy’s entire tenure in Detroit or Rick Cho in Charlotte, not even going into the Kings and Suns of the league.
I wanted no part of Monk and I agree that I would have taken Mitchell over him last year, but what shocks me is that the guy can’t even shoot. That was, like, his one thing that he could do!
Bagley has been bad enough on defense over a full season at Duke that it’s a red flag. His scouting report going into the season was that he was supposed to be a mobile and active defender, but he hasn’t been very effective on defense for much of the year.
I still think he’s a good prospect, but his less flashy teammate Wendell Carter seems to be the more well-rounded player, and the more effective player for Duke.
I have mixed feelings about Bledsoe, but I am in favor of keeping him. In Phoenix, his point guards did well;and, in Dragic’s case, much better than expected. Phoenix ended up with three good point guards, when they only could use two. Phoenix management then screwed things up by making many trades and changes. Part of the result of the was eventually having none of the three point guards. This could actually happen to the Knicks, especially if they draft Young. But it probably wouldn’t be Hornacek’s fault if we have too many functional point guards. It would be Knicks management’s fault for actually outdoing Phoenix in bad management (and we all know this is a possibility).
I think he’s a competent coach and keeping him is one less change for Knicks management to make and mess up.
shooting is a highly specialized skill and so you should dubious of any prospect who is a good shooter but poor secondary stats … especially when they’re undersized…. occasionally a guy like reddick comes along to be an outlier but that’s basically what they are… outliers… even a guy like korver had outstanding secondary numbers in college….
bagley has shades of okafor…. except he happens to be a great rebounder…. duke’s played a lot of zone so there’s a chance bagley’s been hidden defensively but i’m willing to bet that he will probably be a liability… it’s possible he could turn into a kevin love type who can be incredible by just having efficient offense and good boardwork but there’s also a good chance that his offense falls apart…
that makes him a huge risk and i have no idea why he’s a consensus top 5….
Strong thread people. That story about Curry and the anointing is pretty amazing.
Mark Jackson is my redline.