[NYDN] Knicks greats reflect on the impact of Dr. Martin Luther King (Monday, April 02, 2018 4:10:24 PM)
Willis Reed was driving down the Van Wyck Expressway on April 4, 1968 when he heard that Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated.
[NYDN] Knicks’ Troy Williams out for season with fractured jaw (Monday, April 02, 2018 7:48:43 AM)
Troy Williams’ trial this season is over.
(Monday, April 02, 2018 4:25:25 PM)
Nobody hates losing more than Lance Thomas, and he has been doing it for awhile now.
(Monday, April 02, 2018 12:13:37 PM)
Knicks F Troy Williams will miss the final five games of the season due to a fractured jaw, the team announced Monday.
(Monday, April 02, 2018 11:46:34 AM)
Some former NBA players got to suit up for Knicks practice today, and it wasn’t for fun.
[NYTimes] Hornets Offer G.M. Post to Mitch Kupchak (Monday, April 02, 2018 4:48:01 PM)
Kupchak, the longtime Los Angeles Lakers executive, could soon go to work for the Michael Jordan-owned Charlotte Hornets.
[NYTimes] Why Catholic Colleges Excel at Basketball (Monday, April 02, 2018 10:25:23 PM)
As Loyola-Chicago (with Sister Jean) and Villanova make the Final Four in San Antonio, here is a look at the deep connection between Catholic colleges and basketball.
(Tuesday, April 03, 2018 12:23:39 AM)
The Knicks couldn’t be one of the top eight teams in the Eastern conference, but the team still has a shot at being one of the bottom eight teams in the league.
(Monday, April 02, 2018 8:37:51 PM)
An attorney for Madison Square Garden and James Dolan, the Garden’s executive chairman and CEO, has asked a federal judge to dismiss Charles Oakley’s civil lawsuit that stems from the former Knicks player’s televised scuffle with MSG security at a game in February 2017.
(Monday, April 02, 2018 6:59:24 PM)
From Microwave to Passing Fancy, Trey Burke has gone from impersonating Vinnie Johnson to having more Magic Johnson in his game for the Knicks. It’s the natural progression when you go from bench guy to starter. “It’s a thin line. Coming off the bench, obviously you’re in a more strict role,” said Burke, who heads…
(Monday, April 02, 2018 3:24:11 PM)
With Troy Williams suffering a fractured jaw and being scratched for what remains of the season, the injured and ailing were virtually as much a part of the Knicks landscape as healthy bodies Monday. So assistants Jerry Sichting, 61, Kurt Rambis, 60, and a couple kids, Corey Gaines, 52, and Howard Eisley, 45, were among…
79 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.04.03)”
I just listened to the Dunc’d On podcast about the All NBA worst defenders. It was fun and relevant to the Knicks. The worst defending center in the league was Kanter. Tied for worst defending power forward was Carmelo Anthony (he tied with Zach Randolph). Honorable mention went to Mudiay at point guard and Beasley at power forward. There was a lot of “competition” for some of the awards, particularly center and point guard. Dennis Smith, Jr. “won” worst defending point guard, although with the comment that he has a chance of improving.
Went to the Westchester Knicks game yesterday – besides the horrendous defensive rebounding that basically ended the season for the Dubs, I can safely report that Luke Kornet did not look even remotely like an NBA player playing against D-league competition – man was he awful. Didn’t really protect the rim, can’t score in any setting that doesn’t include him getting a wide open 3 (and he missed all of those too), and must have had about a 5% DRB.
Dotson on the other hand — he is way too good for the D-league. He had a couple crossover-stepbacks that literally nearly broke ankles. 3-ball (and shooting in general) looked great. On-ball defense excellent. I really hope he gets some burn next year.
There doesn’t seem to be much else on the team in terms of NBA talent. Rathan Mayes is like a homeless man’s version of Russell Westbrook – and by homeless, I couldn’t come up with anything less complimentary than that. He IS everywhere – rebounds hard, goes after every ball, fills up the stat sheet. He’s like Westbrook without the athleticism, which is to say he’s a career D-league/European player.
Hicks is a little bit interesting. You can tell he’s trying a bunch of stuff out like a bit more ball handling and even canned a 3 yesterday. But he also had 5 awful turnovers, and his strength prob is not enough in the pros. He also prob had a DRB of <10.
That said – there was a great showing from the big club there – Mudiay and Kyle O'Quinn were both there taking pictures with kids etc. Hornacek, Mills, Craig Robinson, Jerry Sichting were all there too. Really made me wonder whether Mills was there to scout Jerry Stackhouse and not any of the players.
I still have hope for Dotson also. I don’t think he’ll become a star and I’m not so sure we need another solid role player at SG, but at this point I’ll take whatever we can get. In the future some of the role players we accumulate can be part of deals to upgrade another position. As long as we have good players on good contracts, we can make moves later.
A few weeks back I half jokingly said the Knicks will probably eventually go from glut at C to shortage at C. I still think that. Willy is gone. There’s a reasonable chance Noah will be bought out before the start of next season. We will probably lose one of either Kanter or O’Quinn in the next 2 years. Of course my preference of the four was to trade Kanter and he’ll probably be the one that remains.
Thanks for the Westchester update. I’ve been very disappointed in Kornet. Somehow he seems to have lost his three point shot. He takes threes when he should, but they often miss by a lot, which is a bad sign. He has to fix that over the summer, or his NBA future is probably dim.
Last night I was thinking about who to draft and how to structure the team next year and realized that earlier in the week I may have started from the wrong premise. My premise was that if we drafted Bridges, it would be tough to put together a starting team with 3 solid scorers because we have some overlap at the guard positions given that Burke and Hardaway are two of our scorers and we still want to get Frank and Bridges on the court.
Perhaps the error was my assumption that Frank was going to start.
It’s possible they will use Frank off the bench again next year subbing for both Burke and Hardaway. He will still get plenty of minutes because he’s play both positions, but we won’t have to worry about having too many non scoring threats on the court at the same time. Of course, I’d prefer that Frank comes back so improved on offense he just wins the starting PG position, but if not another year off the bench at 20 would not be a catastrophe.
The reason to tank was so that they could pick higher in the draft. Mikal Bridges only comes up because he’s one of the players who will be available around the place where the Knicks are going to draft, which is way lower than it should be for a team that shouldn’t have been pointlessly playing veterans for as long as this team did.
So, freeing up a spot for Kornet wasn’t a good reason to trade Willy? That seems hard for me to believe. Kornet’s practices are legendary.
We really just have too many 2 guards that are too small to really play the 3 in pretty much any circumstance. Dotson, Hardaway, and Lee all need minutes but can’t play PG or SF. Frank can switch between 1 and 2 (at least on defense) and fits well with Burke, but then where do you play Dotson/Hardaway/Lee? And how do all 3 PGs get minutes?
I think job #1 of this offseason is trading Lee for just about anything. Then someone has to make a big-boy decision about what to do with the 3 PGs. And that’s not even considering what happens if Trae Young falls to us in the draft.
Re: the draft – I’m liking the idea of Mikal Bridges. He’s limited as of now, but even if he never gets more versatile offensively, he is a really really good shooter, and if all the press can be believed, the best wing defender in the draft. All the comps with Ariza are misguided IMO – Ariza is a career 35% 3 point shooter and that’s with James Harden getting him wide open 3’s in the corner, and I always got the feeling he was a bit overrated on defense.
You put a defense out there with Frank, Bridges, and KP and you may actually have something on the defensive end for the first time in forever.
I’m down with Mikal at #9.
It’d be interesting if they somehow manage to pass Chicago and Brooklyn.
@Brian – if Kornet is a high 30s 3 point shooter and gets stronger then he’ll have a place in the league, as much as Meyers Leonard has a place in the league. But he looked really bad yesterday. 0-5 from 3 point range i think, and if I remember correctly, every last one was basically wide open and uncontested. And the Raptors team without any notable front court talent had something like 20 offensive rebounds, most with him on the floor.
@8
I think Lee is almost certainly gone now. Before KP went down they were trying to make a playoff push to get experience in meaningful games and keep KP happy about the direction of the team. Next year was supposed to be the serious playoff push. In that scenario there was no urgency to trade Lee unless the offer was clearly attractive. He could be moved later. But they have to realize with KP out most of next year the season is going to be a continuation of what they have been doing since he got hurt. The time line has been moved by 1 year. Moving Lee for an expiring and whatever 2nd rounders they can get makes perfect sense given there’s no chance for the playoffs next year. I’m sure they still won’t totally give him away, but imo they are less likely to insist on “their” desired price.
I don’t think that offer even exists anymore. The time to trade Lee was when he was playing well when the team was moronically going for the playoffs early on with a mediocre at best team. Then he came down to Earth (as obviously he would) and now he’ll be a year older next year (making more money) and coming off his worst overall season in years.
Kornet seems to be a decent shotblocker and has a little bit of skill with the ball for a big man, but almost all his value is in his 3 point shot, so if it’s not falling he’s pretty awful. He’s worth taking another look at next season in my opinion. If he can improve the 3 pointer he’d be a useful guy to have.
I don’t mind Kornet having a roster spot. I mind Kornet having a roster spot over Willy. Best case scenario they’re both on the team right now and Beasley, Lee and Jack are not.
Somewhere I heard or read that we were trying to trade Lee to Charlotte for Monk and one of their shitty contracts. So like Lee for Cody Zeller and Monk. I don’t remember which shitty Charlotte contract we were taking, but that would be at least interesting.
Classic strawman, Brian. That was never the stated reason by the Knicks or anyone else.
The Knicks traded a bad player for two second-round picks. A good move that will only become apparent to those who oppose it today when Hernandez-Gomez goes the way of Cole Aldrich.
These rants about Willie and his ‘value’ 100% mimic the old rage over Cole Aldrich’s ‘talent’ not being appreciated by the Knicks. Yes, our front office is terrible, but those two are not mistakes.
@12
I think he had one of his better seasons. He was a little flat in February and since they started tanking and playing him fewer minutes, but I don’t think perceptions have changed around the league. He’s still seen as a guy that can knock down 3 at an excellent clip, play good enough defense, and a great locker room and team player. You aren’t going to get a really good or young up and coming player for him, but you never were. It’s going to be some trash expiring contract and 2nd rounder (s) or something like that.
I think an expiring and a 2nd rounder was what they were trying to get this year and couldn’t get it.
Nothing I have seen from Kornet “so far” leads me to believe he’s an NBA player now or will ever be one.
From the day of the trade:
And also:
And from the next day:
And in response to that comment…
I don’t do strawmen. If I reference people’s positions/statements, it’s because they took said position/made said statements, plain and simple.
Lol. Just wait til he goes one pick in front of us and we end up with Kevin Knox.
How do the tiebreakers work for the lottery?
If we finish tied with either Chicago or Brooklyn is it a coin flip or do things like head to head record and other factors come into it?
(not that I expect us to win a coin flip) 🙁
I don’t get where this “they moved Willy to open up a roster spot for Kornet” came from? They easily could have jettisoned Jack for his spot. Willy was traded for reasons other than we need a roster spot for Kornet.
Now whether they believe Kornet is a better fit moving forward is certainly a different issue (and a difficult one to visualize).
In the case of ties, the teams that are tied split the ping pong balls in the lottery. But then there is a coin flip to determine who gets the spot if they don’t move up. You know, who is the de facto #8 and the de facto #9 if nothing else happens. That’s what happened last year when the Knicks lost the coin flip to the Timberwolves, so the Wolves picked #7 and the Knicks picked #8 (while they split the ping pong balls).
if that @jsports_ent guy can be believed (and I think he actually might actually BE Courtney Lee), the Knicks were holding out for a 1st rounder for him and couldn’t get it…. did you hear something elsewhere?
I’m not against holding onto Beasley but it’d have to be a very team friendly deal for no more than 2 years (maybe something like the biannual exception) so it doesn’t affect our cap once Lance/Noah/Lee come off the cap. As a 6th-7th man at that price, you could do A LOT worse. Offensively he fits really well next to Porzingis assuming KP is at the 5. I’d let Beasley do a lot of the late clock iso stuff, and you could easily play 4 and 5 out with Burke and two of our 10 SG/SF-types. and with a different coach who emphasizes the 3 more, his efficiency could get even better (he’s shot 41+% from 3 the last 2 seasons in about 120 attempts). He obviously is not a good defender and is overall a goofball, but put some good defenders around him and it’s ok especially with bench units.
I think we hold onto Lance unless we can get a true expiring for him – his 2019-20 contract is only guaranteed for a small amount. Jack needs to go unless he’s brought on as an assistant coach.
I just hope the FO is smart enough to know that 2018-19 has to be a developmental year. We need to figure out what Mudiay, Frank, Dotson, and Burke are. We need to see if KP is healthy. We don’t need to make any dumb win-now moves.
@16
That’s a reach. Willy can’t be compared to Aldrich. Willy’s a better player, and if he were a Knick as opposed to Willy at the time of the trade- we’d be lucky to get back one 2nd. If Willy was devalued for the new age C spot, how much more do you think Aldrich is devalued as he isn’t as skilled as Willy?
I’m not a fan of keeping Beasley. I wasn’t a fan of signing him, eventually warmed up to having him on the team, but I’m reversing course now that next year is probably more of a tank year than this year. I don’t see much upside. He’s not going to be part of the long term future and I don’t see us signing him to some super attractive contract that could be used as part of deal later to roll up into a really good player. If we do sign him, it better be a short team friendly deal that doesn’t impact cap space much.
I like Bridges a lot for where we’re drafting. He’s not a superstar, but he’s the 3rd or 4th guy on a really good team. Like Klay Thompson. We’d be lucky to draft him.
The thing is, we’re dumb. I’m afraid we’re more likely to swing for the fences and take a guy who has a 5% chance of being Steph Curry (Trae Young) than a guy who has a 60% chance of being Klay Thompson (Bridges).
The Knicks are like a baseball team down 5 runs in the 9th with a runner on first. That’s when you take a single, not swing for the fences. If we were drafting 4th, I would not recommend Mikal Bridges. But we’re likely drafting 8th or 9th (again). In that case, we can’t afford to strike out.
Not making an out is more important than hitting a home run. If you’re drafting 9th and can take a guy who can be your starting 3 for the next 7 years, you should do it. If you swing for the fences (UPSIDE!), you’re more than likely going to strike out.
I agree that that needs to be what next season will be, but in that sense, I’d prefer to not bring the Beaze back. He doesn’t seem like he’d be part of the development process.
But sure, if you think he can be used better by a different coach to shoot more threes, I guess I’m fine with him on basically his current contract.
Signing Beasley for a another year and trying to trade him at the deadline wouldn’t be terrible. But certainly don’t give him a multi year deal.
@16. What is the basis of your assertion that Willy is a “bad player?”
I have actually come to like Beasely a lot and would not be surprised if he has a late-career renaissance and becomes the PF version of Jamal Crawford on the Clips. I’m just not sure we need that. He’s the kind of guy who will f*** up our tank. Like that game where he beat the Celtics almost single handedly.
Courtney Lee is a prime example of why it’s a bad idea for crummy teams to pay market value for veterans in their thirties.
On the front end of his contract, all Lee was doing was helping the Knicks win meaningless games. Now, on the back end of that contract, he is no longer even playing at market value, so he’s a negative asset. If your team wants a Courtney Lee type player, you can find one for cheaper than the price of the actual Courtney Lee.
He’s entering his age 33 season and essentially has a 2/25 contract. Guess what, NOBODY wants 33-34 year old Courtney Lee at that price, not even for second rounders. So that means we have about $30M per year in dead cap space in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 that has been oh so wisely invested in Courtney Lee and Joakim Noah.
Thanks, Phil!
Perry & Mills could have absolved us of the Lee mistake when he was playing well this year, so he’s on them now. The problem was they didn’t view getting out of the last two years of his contract as valuable.
Even if you have data that suggests Willy is not as good as some models say, it’s still too soon to give up on him as a solid role player on a good contract or as part of a future deal to roll up into a better player. I guess you could counter that the 2nd round picks could also be used as part of some roll up deal, but I’d still rather have a bird in the hand that 2 in the bush when we are talking about 2nd rounders.
I actually could totally see him serving that purpose…on a good team. Here, he’d just be fucking up the development of everyone while occasionally getting hot and having them win a game they shouldn’t win.
I maintain that they kept him because they wanted to play meaningful games this year, take a shot at getting playoff experience for KP, Frank, Hardaway etc.., and move the team closer to a more serious playoff push next year.
Now that the timetable is pushed back one year due to KP’s injury (which could be a blessing in disguise in that it’s going to get us a better pick this year and next year), they have no reason to keep him (other than they like him). I think he’s gone this off season. If not, then at the following trade deadline. If the market is as bad as some suspect, then he’ll be off the books on the same timetable as Noah and Lance Thomas when the young players will hopefully be coming into their own anyway. It’s not until 2019/20 and 2020/21 that we wanted cap space to add quality experienced players anyway. If we had it sooner we would have filled it with more trash filler. Worst case is that we blew a 2nd round pick or two by not moving him sooner.
They took a shot at the playoffs. If they had somehow pulled it off with a healthy KP and Hardaway for a full season, we would have gained developmental playoff experience we are going to need eventually anyway. These kids are going to “dog it” for a couple years until they get hardened and experienced. Really young teams need that experience or you eventually have to bring in solid vets to go with them like the T-Wolves did.
It will be interesting to see what they do now that next year is a tank year.
I didn’t watch last nights game but I like what I’ve seen from Kornet so far(in that could be decent when the 3 ball starts falling). Decent passing, rim protection and better defending the perimeter than you would think from a guy like him.
Yeah, Beasley is actually kinda good, but he really doesn’t fit.
My fear for next season is actually the coach they hire. The Knicks are capped out in most of the likely scenarios, since I don’t think Kanter is ever opting out. The biggest decision is whether to re-sign O’Quinn or not but the rest of the roster should be what we have now plus the picks.
Who they hire as a coach will say a lot about what the Knicks will try to do. Best case scenario, we hire a young coach with contemporary ideas that focuses on youth development and comes guaranteed to last for at least some years; worst case scenario we hire Mark Jackson or some other locker room incompetent coach to instill a winning culture in the locker room and we’re going to be both bad + not bad enough for the lottery.
I’m sure Beasley is a good guy but I do not want him on the team next year. His effort on the boards/defense is down right pathetic sometimes.
Last game he let the opponent get 3-4 offensive rebounds of of FT’s which should’ve got him benched for the rest of the night.
I don’t know which is stranger, that the NBA still penalizes positive marijuana tests or that Noel would do anything right now that might conceivably cost him money in a couple months.
Pretty incredible that Sefolosha isn’t granted a medical waiver as he recovers, or that anyone is concerned about NBA players using marijuana, ever. For the worlds “most progressive” league, they’re real into fightin’ the devil’s weed like a bunch of Southern racists.
Get them some edibles or vape pens and save their lungs. That should be the extent of NBA involvement in players’ use of THC.
I would feel bad for Noel if he didn’t bring this on himself. What’s his market value this year? $24M over 4?
The basis of my assertion is that Willie can’t even crack the rotation on one of the worst teams in the NBA. He is getting the same results, including being called out by the coach, on a different team.We can’t pin this one on Hornacek, who might suck as a coach for all I know.
When given limited minutes with the Knicks, Hernandez-Gomez looked pretty bad. At some point we need to acknowledge that in the cases of Cole Aldridge and Willie, other teams, too, have failed to realize their ‘potential’. Because they are, at best, end-of-bench players on a decent team, perhaps second-unit men on a bad one.
https://sports.yahoo.com/set-sidelines-nba-executives-weigh-next-generation-head-coaches-165549990.html
Were those the reasons provided by the team or just some baseless speculation by a couple of fans? Very different scenarios.
In any case, and fwiw, Kornet does look like another talentless character in a Knicks uniform.
ORtg 128
DRtg 104
BPM 1.4
WS48 .254
WP48 .369
VORP 0.2 (0.54 wins against replacement, absurdly high for a guy who’s only played 182 minutes)
I would never post these numbers given the sample size, but you’re telling me that he’s playing like shit, as always.
So wrong! I mean, like — could you be any more wrong?
And you want to defer to the leadership of the Hornets? The franchise that’s never had a season with an SRS over 3? The capped-out 34-win team of the present? The head coach who’s one Kemba Walker injury away from a bottom-3 team? Haha, what?
Yeah, if anything, Clifford is coming off looking like a petulant doofus in all of this. “He didn’t have the right attitude,” he says, as he buries Willy. Then injuries force him to play Willy and he’s the same effective player he always was.
I would like to take a shot on Hezonja next summer. Still hasn’t improved his 3P% but his shot distribution is much improved. He’s shooting better and more often in the pain and less from mid-range. He’s also a big wiing who can play 3/4.
@46
Yikes, reading that made me depressed.
Noel’s contract is such a hard question. I think someone will pay more than $6m per but I have no clue. Actually there are a bunch of hard questions this year. What does Derrick Favors get? How much do Jabari and Aaron Gordon get overpaid? I think Gordon will get a minimax offer even under the tighter purses. Thaddeus Young is maybe the second best player on a a good team (maybe the least talked about good player in the league) at an age that usually means last good contract — if you’re his agent with no whisper number do you tell him to opt out of $13m?
Other RFAs.
Randle: gets paid near minimax
LaVine: no idea but almost any poaching offer will be too much but he’ll probably get one
Nurkic: Same, but he might not get one
Payton: ???
He’s not that good long-term, but I take issue with anyone who says that a player is playing like shit when his numbers look like that.
Like Kanter — does he suck at defense? Of course he does. Does that mean he’s a total scrub? Fuck no. When you’re one of the most efficient players in the league, just put your hands up and deny easy layups and dunks and you can be a solid NBA starter. I’d prefer Joel Embiid but truly, Knickerbloggers cannot be choosers.
I didn’t like him that much coming out because of his defense, but I never thought he would be so unable to hit the three. I’m totally down with picking him up as a reclamation project.
If you could guarantee his health and some development, I’d take Embiid over any big man I’ve seen not named Kareem, Shaq, Hakeem, David, Patrick, Moses, Bill, and Willis (and I only threw Willis in there because, well, it’s Willis). Before it’s over, I might have to take a few names off that list. For the record, I also saw Wilt and Bill, but that was the tail end of their careers and I didn’t see much.
Noel is sort of interesting. Clearly a great defender, not sure what he does on offense although he has had reasonable usage (17ish) and an ok TS. Is he a better fit than KOQ next to KP? My guess is their price will be about the same, although maybe Noel gets more just for being younger and a higher draft pedigree. I think I’d rather have Noel due to the age issue and also that he’s so fleet of foot that maybe he could be the guy guarding stretch 4’s and let KP guard the rim primarily.
I’m going to guess he’s high on their list of possibilities.
@53
Hell with health guaranteed, I’d take Embiid over pretty much any player outside of the top 5 in the current NBA.
this free agency season has the potential to be a gigantic shitshow and all I hope is that the Knicks aren’t an active part of it. There’s so many question marks players with interesting cases and there’s also huge bust potentials.
Interesting to see Kyler’s mock on bball insiders today – Sexton and SGA in the top 7 and us choosing between Mikal Bridges, Carter and Trae at 9. Sign me up for that!
Sexton is also gone ahead of our pick on nbadraft.net, leaving others to drop. Clearly there’s MASSES of movement in the mocks to come over the next three months, but as of right now I’m definitely pretty optimistic about what might be there at 9…
Now I’m scared of the Knicks dropping lower than the Bulls and the Nets, getting the 7th pick and promptly picking up Sexton.
Orlando coming off losses to Hawks and Bulls? Masterful tankers. This loss seems impossible tonight. I just know if we finish 9th we get jumped and pick Sexton or Miles Bridges 10th.
SI.com has Sexton at 12 (updated this morning), Tankathon at 15. Its not a lock he moves up. He’ll prob go 10th to the Knicks.
I was one of the posters who thought it wasn’t bad to have Kornet instead of Hernangomez. It’s not that Hernangomez was awful, it’s just Kornet has a more modern game. But I thought Kornet could shoot threes much better than he is doing. So, as I said above, I’m disappointed
The whole league is trying to go young. But, the mentality in this forum to go 0-72 with a bunch of young guys that suck is a bad plan. Especially for a team that has perfected the art of losing.
Personally, I want to watch “somewhat” meaningful games. And I don’t mean checking the standings everyday to see if they can get a notch closer to a better draft pick. I’d rather the knicks go the route of Miami, trying to build a team that can make the playoffs, and improve upon it, maybe make a deal or two that can get them into the top four. It takes several steps to the top. The idea is to make the team better, not worse. That’s antithetical to the concept of sports. Adam Silver should come down hard, very hard, on the tankers. All of them.
For the knicks, another tank year is another season of no basketball And of course, the herd here will scream for another tank year after that.
I don’t watch college, but if last nights game is representative of Mikal Bridges, he’s not going to move the needle.
Exhibit A: A clown with balls.
How long do the Knicks have to be terrible for people to stop assuming there’s some super secret genius logic behind all of their moves? Clearly, “the better part of 20 years” is not enough. Does it have to be 30? 40?
The Knicks traded an intriguing player in Willy because a team historically prone to dumb reactionary mistakes made a dumb reactionary mistake.
But whatever, keep telling yourself we have advanced practice analytics, or that a guy who was essentially saying “I’d really prefer to play” was an irredeemable locker room cancer, or that a guy signed to a minuscule contract must be a perfect 5 tool player at age 23 or else he should get traded for nothing.
@63
I’m missing your argument. Those rooting for the tank since the KP injury want the team to get better, not worse. In the NBA, teams that finish lower in the standings get an easier chance to land a better player via lottery. Who gives a shit if the d-leaguers currently on the team finish 12th from the bottom vs. 9th this season? How does that benefit the Knicks? Now even tho the difference isn’t that significant in draft position, it is a difference. Picking earlier is mathematically better than picking later. A lot of us would rather have a shot at a player we think is better (Mikal, Wendell, Trae) than one that we think is worse (Sexton, Miles). How is that clownish or ballsy?
Those that wished we tanked the whole season (which certainly was the minority at the start of the season and definitely not myself) wanted Ayton or Doncic, who not only move the needle but are potentially game changers. That might have been a bit more ballsy to root for, but after a couple games of playing with Doncic, KP would have been very very happy. So not very clownish imo.
I read that Knox might go back to school. So my new Dolans razor prediction is that at 9, Young and Mikal are both there. We trade back with LA so they can take Young. Mikal goes 10th and we pick sexton and Miles Bridges. Then we pick Knox next year.
A.
C’mon knicks, win.
No I mean lose. yeah, lose.
No, check that, win.
B.
Let’s pick Miles. Let’s pick Knox. Let’s pick Sexton. Let’s pick Trae. What about this guy. No that guy.
C.
Miles Bridges is not worth 55 losses.
D.
The sound here was tank since very early in the season. People condemned individual players for every win. (And then, condemned the same guys for playing bad when the knicks lost.)
Herd mentality of hypocrites.
I know this is a basketball blog, but when you get a chance, check out Ronaldo’s incredible bicycle kick goal against Juventus today. Just an extraordinarily athletic feat by maybe the greatest soccer player ever.
What’s wrong with Knox?
Herd mentality of hypocrites.
hippos herd because they know there is strength in numbers. clownist haters heard mudiay keeps his head up so spread out in search of win # 29 and the deep honor of white knuckling Courtney Lee right into the abyss. damn hippos with their heads down.
When you guys bash prospects like Kevin Knox, Collin Sexton, and Miles Bridges, are you doing it after you’ve seen some film or just off of a quick glance at their stats on Sports Reference?
People were clamoring for a tank at the beginning of the season because we were a capped out team that would be lucky to scrounge for the 8 seed, and the 4 games of “playoff experience” that we’d get to play against Toronto where courtney lee and lance thomas play 40 minutes while KP bricks 20 footers with Jakob Poeltl’s hand in his face wasn’t worth picking Kevin Knox as opposed to 1. someone like Mikal Bridges and 2. the increased chance of getting lucky and jumping into the top 3, where we would have a high chance of drafting a bona fide star player like Luka Doncic.
In this day and age tanking is almost 100% necessary to be a contender unless you’re Danny Ainge (who, mind you, tore a championship winning team down and rebuilt a fringe contender in the span of a few years–and he would’ve been in a similar position even if Billy King hadn’t sold the farm) or have a chance at getting Lebron. It’s not the early 2000s anymore, the league is more top-heavy then ever. If you’re a (competitive) 4-5 seed, then you might realistically be one or two FA signings or canny trades away. We are light years from being a competitive 4-5 seed, and the only possiblity of us achieving that is either KP turns into a mega-superstar or we get hit on a few draft picks in the 3-9 range or get very lucky in the 2nd round.
It’s a herd mentality on KB because most of us understand in a rough-and-ready sense basic math and the idea of expected utility, besides the vocal minority who probably cheered on every obviously bad trade the Knicks made for the last 20 years.
You want a model for how to build a team? Look at Philadelphia. That’s the model of how to build a competitive and long-term successful NBA team in today’s market
Fat Ronaldo was better
#messiforever
But that’s a sweet goal
holy fuuuuuuuuuuuuck
For starters, Philly hasn’t done anything yet but become a 4 – 5 seed with no playoff wins.
And Philly was a disgusting mess that had a lot of good things go bad, then worse, and eventually reaped the benefit from it all.
No other team ever did that, and probably never will.
Personally, I’ve seen enough losing to last a few lifetimes. If the knicks had the worst record in the NBA for the next few years, it might be enough for me to stop following this team (I can only hope).
There are a lot of competitive teams that have built through a combination of drafts, good trades and FA signings while not being in the cellar. Even if you’re a mid-level playoff team, as a fan you have hope, and a reason for watching.
Tired of losing.
What I’m saying is I’d rather the knicks try to win with a young team they can build around, along with some vets, rather than throw in the towel for next season, suffering every win, end up losing 55 games for Mikal Bridges.
It wouldn’t be for Mikal Bridges. Mikal Bridges is what the Knicks get because they followed your ill-inspired plan this year (just like they do every year), choosing only to start tanking once Porzingis was hurt and every other smarter team (small bar to hurdle, to be fair), had been tanking for months, so that they get to draft the real game-changers while the Knicks have to be lucky to get “just” a good player like Mikal Bridges.
You’re tired of watching them lose and yet you recommend that they do the very thing that we have all seen them do repeatedly and see it fail constantly! And yet you want them to keep doing it, the thing that constantly leads to losing, because…you’re tired of losing? How do you not get how ill-conceived that sounds?
They just tried to win with a young team along with some vets and we’ve all seen how thay went.
I can’t believe you won’t understand it’s a matter of talent, not just organizing pieces. Nobody, not Popovich or Brad Stevens or playing 6 years together would make this roster a contender ever.
You call everyone part of a herd mentality yet you’ve been preaching the same bs that Perry and Mills have been saying, we just need to gel, we need to develop these guys, we need veterans to teach the young guys to win. That’s nice and pretty to say, but the NBA is about talent and the Knicks are at the very least in the bottom 10 in that category in the league. It reflects perfectly our current position and it will still be the way it goes unless this team magically adds talent somehow.