Knicks Morning News (2018.04.07)

  • [NY Newsday] Banner outside Madison Square Garden dares LeBron James to sign with Knicks
    (Friday, April 06, 2018 10:35:13 PM)

    The Knicks won’t be raising any banners inside Madison Square Garden anytime soon, but one has gone up outside the building, challenging LeBron James to join the team.

  • [NY Newsday] Tanking has become a problem in the NBA
    (Friday, April 06, 2018 8:12:01 PM)

    A Knicks player sat at his locker March 19 with his eyes fixed on the TV. He was watching a tape of that night’s opponent. But some of the players he saw would not be at that night’s game.

  • [NYPost] Frank Ntilikina’s strength training starting to pay dividends
    (Saturday, April 07, 2018 12:03:35 AM)

    Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek knows Frank Ntilikina needs to get stronger next season. But his physical growth already has started. Hornacek revealed the skinny 6-foot-5, 19-year-old Frenchman has put on eight pounds since the start of the season. That development, he believes, has helped him on the offensive side, too. “You could see some of…

  • [NYPost] Dwyane Wade talks up old coach who may succeed Jeff Hornacek
    (Friday, April 06, 2018 9:59:58 PM)

    Dwyane Wade believes the Knicks have a better shot at his former assistant coach, David Fizdale, than his former teammate, LeBron James, when those two become free agents this summer. Back with the Heat after the Cavaliers traded him to Miami in February, Wade heard about a new billboard hanging from a building near the…

  • [NYPost] Knicks’ other rookie pours in 30 in blowout win over Heat
    (Friday, April 06, 2018 6:28:49 PM)

    The Knicks’ other rookie guard lit up the Garden in historic fashion. Shooting guard Damyean Dotson, the Knicks’ second-round pick last June, erupted for a career-high 30 points in 32 minutes, and hauled in 11 rebounds as the Knicks destroyed the listless Heat, 122-98, Friday night. With the crowd buzzing when he got the ball…

  • [NYPost] Knicks find levity with unpredictable Michael Beasley
    (Friday, April 06, 2018 8:31:22 AM)

    While the season’s last edition of “The Hornacek Experience” on MSG Network finishes up Friday night, the Knicks have a new online show with an unlikely host: Michael Beasley. The “Walking Bucket Show” — crafted after Beasley’s self-proclaimed nickname — features small forward Troy Williams as Beasley’s first guest. Beasley asks him several offbeat questions during…

  • [NYDN] Dwyane Wade on Knicks signing LeBron James: ‘Good luck’
    (Friday, April 06, 2018 10:24:45 PM)

    The billboard near Madison Square Garden courting LeBron James says “King of New York? Prove it.”

  • [NYDN] Tim Hardaway Jr. leaves with injury as Knicks beat Heat, 122-98
    (Friday, April 06, 2018 6:11:55 PM)

    Hardaway Jr.’s season may have ended prematurely.

  • [NYDN] Billboard goes up near MSG challenging LeBron to join the Knicks
    (Friday, April 06, 2018 6:41:21 AM)

    As Wayne Gretzky said, you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.

  • [SNY Knicks] Beasley, Mudiay among Knicks who left with injury in Friday’s win
    (Friday, April 06, 2018 10:39:56 PM)

    Despite the Knicks dominating the Heat at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, several players sustained injuries.

  • [SNY Knicks] Dotson drops career-high 30 points as Knicks rout Heat, 122-98
    (Friday, April 06, 2018 10:14:40 PM)

    Knicks rookie G Damyean Dotston had a career night, finishing with 30 points in New York’s dominant win over the Heat, 122-98.

  • [SNY Knicks] Michael Beasley (left knee contusion) questionable to return vs. Heat
    (Friday, April 06, 2018 7:56:05 PM)

    Knicks F Michael Beasley is questionable to return to Friday’s contest against the Heat after suffering a left knee contusion in the first quarter.

  • [SNY Knicks] Tonight’s game: Knicks vs. Heat, 7:30 p.m.
    (Friday, April 06, 2018 6:00:55 PM)

    The Knicks host the Miami Heat on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

  • [SNY Knicks] The Knicks should be targeting Mikal Bridges in the Draft
    (Friday, April 06, 2018 12:00:05 PM)

    The Knicks’ upcoming Top 10 pick is essential for their rebuild. They can not miss on this one.

  • [ESPN] Sign here: New York joins LeBron billboard fray
    (Friday, April 06, 2018 12:39:16 PM)

    A billboard near Madison Square Garden is challenging LeBron James to sign with the Knicks as a free agent with the phrase “King of New York? Prove it” and a hashtag #KingJamesNYC18.

  • 57 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.04.07)”

    I’m thinking that tonight, Lee should start over Ntilikina so that we can see what a Dotson/Ntilikina perimeter tandem looks like. I’d like to see Hornacek throw them in there and tell them to just play aggressively without worrying about the consequences as far as fouls, turnovers, etc. Those 2 should be fun to watch on defense…switches, recovering, deflections..

    Even the new thread bot woke up after this glorious victory. The BB Gods just exposed Hornacek and the front office. Who knew……just sit the 3 worst defenders on the team who are net minus players and voila? Let’s hope the front office is not so dense to draw the wrong inference here. It’s fine to play vets but if they’re all net minus players and we’re not competing for a playoff berth, there are other obvious prIorities. Hornacek and the front office are morons for not recognizing this early on. It took a spate of injuries forcing them to do the right thing.

    I’d be stoked if our rotation next year is: Burke/Frank/Timmy/Dot/Mikhal/Troy/KP/Kornet/KOQ. That’s 9 guys right there! Lots of 3 Ball. Lots of Spacing. Lots of 2-way Players. Lots of willing cutters. Lots of guys willing and able to play defense. Sign me up! What about the others?

    > Fire Hornacek
    > FIRE Hornacek
    > Mudiay works on his game in G League
    > Tell Enes we’re not re-signing him and if doesn’t opt out he could just sit in a Turkish bath all year
    > Either waive Lance or keep him but limit his minutes
    > Let Walking Buckets walk right on outta here
    > Do whatever to dump you know whose spectacular contract; if not possible limit his minutes
    > FIRE HORNACEK

    Life would have been so much better if the Knicks got rid of Kanter and Lee and kept their 23 year old selves in Hernangomez and Dotson, huh?

    KOQ starting these last three games has helped bolster the argument that his productivity would extrapolate well if he got more minutes:

    Per 36
    15.2 pts 17.8 reb. 2.6 ast 3.9 blk 57.4% TS

    Hornacek and Mills are obvious morons but many think Perry’s done a fine job. I give him a C+, his only achievement – and it’s terrific – being Burke. Here’s the negatives (in no order):

    > Should have picked Troy off waivers (no negative to that). Maybe Perry didn’t realize CBA permits using a trade exception to take a player off waivers?
    > Should have paid Dot a bit more to give him the WHG deal – would have him for 4 years cheap.
    > Shouldn’t have given up a 2nd round pick or anything of value for Mudiay who was last in RPM across all positions at the time of the trade (i.e., worst player in the league). Pick swap OK, put him in the G League and hope switch flips. And don’t start the guy – looks bad to rest of team.
    > Most GMs want to let the coach determine minutes but, at a minimum, once we were eliminated from the playoffs, guys like Dot, Kornet, Hicks should have been getting 15+MPG. That’s on the front office to provide direction to the coach. Dot and Kornet are like 23yo, gotta let them play to determine what we’ve got.
    > Should have brought up Burke from G League sooner. Perry was ready to pull the trigger on a Payton deal before even watching Burke in the NBA. And why abandon Frank so soon for Payton? For Kyrie yeah but not Payton.
    > No playing time for WHG and then trading him cheap. If you’re gonna trade WHG, maybe package him and Chicago pick to try to land a player like Harkless, Bertans, etc.
    > We didn’t win the Melo deal and neither did OKC. It was revealed that Melo would have waived NTC for Portland. Who knows what any Portland deal might have been but we never got to find out. Had we kept Melo, he could have played the 4/3 and we would have been just as bad. WHG and Noah would have gotten some burn.

    KOQ starting these last three games has helped bolster the argument that his productivity would extrapolate well if he got more minutes:

    Per 36
    15.2 pts 17.8 reb. 2.6 ast 3.9 blk 57.4% TS

    As a doubter I have to absolutely agree the trend is good while the sample size is small. He looked quite fluid out there last night and is such an excellent passer when wings are actually moving. Other than drafting well, he was the only good thing Phil did…….

    @Bucks
    Tonight’s Injury Report vs Knicks:

    Giannis Antetokounmpo – Out (right ankle soreness)
    Malcolm Brogdon – Probable
    Sterling Brown – Out (personal)
    Matthew Dellavedova – Out (right ankle sprain)
    Shabazz Muhammad – Out (right ankle sprain)

    Ah, r/nyknicks: where people get real excited over a lottery team’s late-season win over the very next team in line for a better pick — and tell you that the draft is completely random and there’s no difference between picking #1 and #10 because Greg Oden was bad.

    Kill me.

    Oh, there’s definitely a difference between picking 1st or 10th. It’s 8th or 9th that’s probably too small to matter. I’m still upset about the win last night even though I probably shouldn’t be. It’s just that sometimes I’m crazy enough to think I can tell the difference between the players in our draft range and I want 1 specific guy. Losing one spot feels like the end of the world even though it could actually push us towards the better player.

    Other than that, we should be happy Frank had 9 assists and Dotson was playing exactly like we all hoped he could by shooting and rebounding well.

    The more “live” pieces we have the easier it’s going to be to attract or trade for our next “star”. We have a few “live” pieces on good contracts now. The Willy/Mudiay trades did not help, but Burke was a clear winner and maybe Dotson will turn into a solid 2 way rotation player. We drafted VERY well over the last few years.

    I definitely wish we had that Willy trade back, but maybe we are good enough at drafting that we “will” find another gem with those 2 picks.

    Giannis Antetokounmpo – Out (right ankle soreness)

    Oh boy. smh

    It’s 8th or 9th that’s probably too small to matter.

    Again: “It’s just a pawn… no big deal!”

    [30 moves later]

    “Fuck, I wish I weren’t down a pawn.”

    @9
    Lots of people are ruled by anecdotal examples. It happens here, too.

    Bucks-no Giannis

    Knicks-no Timmy, no Kanter, no Mudiay, no Thomas

    That’s even right?

    I looked on r/Knicks and well

    I don’t think you understand the Knicks salary cap situation and how awesome it looks for 2020.

    that’s where I stopped

    I mean, r/nyknicks is insanity. The amount of random optimism for some stuff is absurd, and then one loss happens and they all collectively freak out, it’s just complete chaos.

    I think the average age for reddit users is certainly lower than here and that could explain the insane volatility, but to find any sort of basketball analysis there is like swimming on a swamp of overreaction and hot takes.

    Killer win for the tank last night, but if you’re going to win meaningless games, it may as well be because your young guns played well as opposed to Jarrett Jack, THJ, Beasley, Kanter, and Courtney Lee playing well.

    WTF are we going to do with all these shooting guards.

    Lee
    THJ
    Dotson
    ~Frank
    ~Baker

    interesting that Hornacek said that Dotson could play the 4.

    Again: “It’s just a pawn… no big deal!”

    In a game between equally matched experts where a pawn can and often will be decisive, I’d be very upset about being down a pawn.

    In a game where a bunch of people are guessing about players and the results will often be the opposite of expectations, it’s trivial.

    Would I rather have 8 than 9?

    Yes.

    If we made 20 picks at 8 and 20 picks at 9, would we definitely do way better with the #8 picks?

    No.

    We’d probably have a small advantage long term, but it might take a larger sample than that to show up. I’m not going to lose sleep over that. I’ll lose sleep over bad trades like Willy.

    interesting that Hornacek said that Dotson could play the 4.

    If he can play the 4, then we can use him and Troy Willams at the 3 also.

    People in the actual NBA thought Andrew Wiggins was worth 150 million dollars for 5 years.

    Yeah, it’s just mostly the common sense, ppg based analysis and hot takes. I’ve read far too many times there that DeMarcus Cousins is the best Center in the NBA or that there is a legitimate debate about Mitchell or Simmons for ROY. Wiggins averages 20 ppg and that’s the benchmark for good for many people still.

    I mean, it took 80 games for people to realize Melo was not an upgrade for OKC at all, so the standards shouldn’t be very high.

    The WHG trade was NOT a bad trade. It was okay because that’s his actual trade value. Thinking otherwise is ignoring the direction with which both league play as well as the Knicks team vision are moving.

    For a 1-way big that neither defends, blocks shots, or shoots 3’s, 2 2nds are about as good as you’re going to get.

    Plus, if you don’t trade Willy, that roster spot does not become Troy Williams. And TW >>> WHG, because 2 2nds and a 2-way player that fits a team’s needs (as well as vision and direction) trumps a 1-way player any day of the week.

    @27

    And the stats don’t even show him as this terrible defender. It’s obviously a small sample but he has a positive DBPM for his career and has a positive DRPM (37th in the league, Kanter is 70th in comparison).

    How to be both wrong and stupid / offensive in just 2 posts.

    I love Willy but he definitely was a terrible defender from the eye test alone.

    He’s smarter than Kanter so I think he has more potential on that end.

    Nah, we ain’t dropping that low. Doug Chu commands it, and we obey.

    Henry, don’t be a baby just because you have dead-wrong opinions about basketball.

    Boban’s line:

    10 minutes
    3 FGA
    6 FTA
    9 points
    8 rebounds
    1 assist
    2 TO
    2 PF

    How in the fuck does this dude not stay on the floor?!

    WHG small sample size theater:

    WS48 .272 (would be 2nd in NBA if sustained)
    BPM 2.2
    VORP 0.2
    TS% .610 (top 25 if sustained)
    TRB% 24.2 (3rd in NBA if sustained)
    ORtg 132 (1st in NBA if sustained)
    DRtg 103 (13th in NBA if sustained)

    What a scrub!!!!!

    Plus, if you don’t trade Willy, that roster spot does not become Troy Williams. And TW >>> WHG, because 2 2nds and a 2-way player that fits a team’s needs (as well as vision and direction) trumps a 1-way player any day of the week.

    Yeah, god forbid we cut Jarrett Jack!

    Guess we have to root for Chicago tonight against Brooklyn. Catching Brooklyn is pretty unlikely now. Two games back with 3 to play.

    Guess we have to root for Chicago tonight against Brooklyn. Catching Brooklyn is pretty unlikely now. Two games back with 3 to play.

    I’m not too concerned with who wins as long as they don’t split these two games.

    I’m not too concerned with who wins as long as they don’t split these two games.

    Assuming all three teams lose their season finale, if Chicago beats Brooklyn twice then we’re guaranteed to finish 8th as long as we don’t win again. If Brooklyn won both then we’d finish in a tie for 8th.

    Of course if we beat the depleted Bucks tonight then we absolutely need Chicago to sweep Brooklyn.

    I’ll say this about ruruland: we agree on important shit. His Twitter (whose address I will not divulge) is full of anti-Trump, anti-racist stuff. You won’t find him on here using dog-whistle bigot language. I appreciate that about hi.

    The transition from ruruland to reub and co. was definitely a downgrade.

    I can confirm that ruru’s twitter is pretty conclusive proof that he’s a good guy with deeply misguided basketball views. It’s a mix of good political/cultural opinions and, sure enough upon a quick search, some talk of Carmelo Anthony’s catch and shoot numbers and a confident prediction that his change of role in OKC will bring out the “real” Melo. Whoops!

    Dotson looks like a potential rotation player. It’s too bad he’s a detestable human being.

    J A C K G H A Z I
    A
    C
    K
    G
    H
    A
    Z
    I

    At least Lance is back being his usual terrible self so Mudiay’s absence hasn’t been too terrible.

    The young guys are actually kinda fun to watch but I really wish Troy Williams’ jaw was intact

    I don’t care about Willy getting traded all that much, I don’t care that much about him not getting playing time. I’m incredibly pissed that we’re so bad at developing guys who need a little more to get there. The Willy shit is a side show in the bigger picture, but the Knicks failure at development is going to doom us to topping out at mediocre.

    To be fair, the team did use the extended garbage time that was their post-KP season to get an extended look at some guys and may have found a useful player or two. The Willy trade just seemed bizarrely personal/petty.

    True. The way they talk about though, sounds like they want guys to bootstrap themselves up. Which, great if it happens, but investing some effort in your cost controlled players isn’t just warranted, it’s critical.

    Jack is playing because Mudiay has a concussion and Hardaway has a sprained ankle, I guess.

    If KOQ walks not getting anything for him at the deadline is going to look just as bad as we all knew it would. The dude is a damn good player and there’s zero chance no one was offering at least a couple of seconds.

    It’s easy to write off the marginal mistakes but when you have to make up as much ground as we do they add up.

    That was some ugly shooting from Trey, but he did pass the ball well and he almost never turns it over. Frank had some nice moments, Dotson too and O’Quinn is on a mission to get paid.

    Cavs want the wins, yes? Pretty confident we’ll at least tie for 8. Hell, if the bulls and the nets split the series and the nets beat Boston in their last game we’ll tie for 7.

    Since the Nets’ pick is the Cavs’, the Cavs could essentially ensure the 8 spot by losing a game or two to the Knicks. I think we are getting #9.

    Unless Philly somehow loses to the Bucks, Mavs or Hawks, Cleveland is locked in the 4th seed anyway. I see then resting most players specially in the last game when the Sixers will probably have beaten Dallas and Atlanta already. It’s very likely we could win at least the second game and clinch the 9th spot. At least there’s no coin flip this time to drop us even further I guess, beggars can’t be choosers.

    Well, ninth was most likely from the ASB anyway. Being upset about it kind of like being pissed you didn’t hit on a scratch-off ticket. Failure is always the most likely outcome.

    Comments like that earlier stuff that I deleted, well, don’t make comments like that or you won’t be able to post here.

    I don’t care what the market says or thinks about Willy. I don’t care which direction the NBA is going. The chances the Knicks are going to get a player out of the 2nd round as good as Willy are very low (and I’ll grant we are pretty good at drafting). That makes it a bad trade. You keep good young players on attractive contracts and develop them. Even if he was never more than a backup, he would have been a good backup on a good contract.

    I care a little bit, but only in the sense that if the market says that Willy’s only worth two picks, then the market value of Willy is not nearly enough to make sense to trade him. If the market is saying that you can only get two future seconds for him (one of the least valuable assets in the NBA, above only seconds that are unlikely to vest), then you don’t trade him.

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