[NYTimes] N.B.A. Roundup: With 50-Point Quarter, Rockets Rout the Timberwolves (Tuesday, April 24, 2018 5:37:57 AM)
The Rockets turned a 50-49 halftime lead into a 31-point advantage with a blistering quarter and took a 3-1 series lead.
(Monday, April 23, 2018 9:10:00 PM)
Mike Woodson and Mark Jackson, two of the candidates for the Knicks’ head coaching vacancy, have continued to receive endorsements from third parties as New York continues to interview people for the job.
(Monday, April 23, 2018 10:55:29 AM)
He may be under contract with the Hawks, but Mike Budenholzer wants be the Knicks’ next head coach.
(Monday, April 23, 2018 4:14:25 PM)
All indications are Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer wants the Knicks. And according to a random sampling of NBA scouts and executives, the feeling should be mutual. “He’d be good there,” said one Western Conference scout. “I’m just looking at the [reported] list of the people they’ve talked to, he would have to be at the…
(Monday, April 23, 2018 9:38:06 AM)
It’s uncertain where Joakim Noah’s NBA career goes from here, but his beard game isn’t past its prime. The exiled Knicks forward checked in from the wilderness somewhere, sporting a blond beard and wavy long hair, without his preferred ponytail. The two-time All-Star is almost recognizable from the player who has spent 11 seasons in…
[NYDN] Mike Budenholzer’s connections could make him fit for Knicks (Monday, April 23, 2018 2:48:49 PM)
Connections to Kawhi Leonard, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Josh Longstaff could all factor into Mike Budenholzer becoming Knicks head coach.
[NYDN] Mark Jackson gets endorsement for Knicks job from unlikely source (Monday, April 23, 2018 12:04:23 PM)
Mark Jackson got an endorsement for the Knicks job by an unlikely source: Brian Scalabrine.
199 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.04.24)”
Coaching search went from Anybody but Jackson to Nobody but Bud in a hurry. Odd that our G League and NBA coaches could be Miller & Bud. That would mean we’d have to take Canisius’ Takal Molson in the draft.
RE: Ntilikina and his PNR defense —
I think sometimes the Synergy data is noisy, but it’s undeniably impressive that a player that barely ever got to play with our best rim protector / PNR-defending big (Frank played only 729 out of a total of 3224 possessions with KP) graded out so well.
Oh, and btw, in those 729 Frank+KP possessions the Knicks had a defensive rating of 99 and a +5.1 net rating. A defensive lineup based on Frank+KP is the starting point for an elite defense. Just to put that in perspective —
Klay+Draymond lineups had a DRtg of 105
Holiday+Brow -> 103.3
Simmons+Embiid -> 98.8
Mitchell+Gobert -> 96.5
The idea that Hornacek played them so infrequently together is one of the major reasons he had to go. Like someone wrote in a previous thread, so many teams in the NBA just don’t prioritize defense even though it is fully 50% of the game. I love Lillard but he is an absolute sieve on defense that is targeted over and over again by opposing teams, yet his offense is good enough that he gets all the positive press.
And I’ve said it many times, but the best and most obvious 3 man lineup for the Knicks was and always has been Frank+THJ+ KP, which had a net rating of +14.8 and a DRtg of 98.8. They played only 236 possessions together. Just think about that. That’s 7.3% of Frank’s total possessions. That’s 6.2% of THJ’s possessions. That’s 7.6% of KP’s total possessions. it’s only 3% of the Knicks’ total possessions.
in comparison – in a similar situation in Utah, Rubio (analogous role-wise to Frank), Mitchell (analogous rookie-wise to Frank, role-wise to THJ), and Gobert played 26.6% of all of Utah’s possessions together (2020 possessions together) with a +15.8 net. Mitchell played 38.8% of his total possessions with Rubio+Gobert. Rubio played 45% of his total possessions as part of that lineup. Gobert played 55.4% of his possessions as part of that lineup.
It’s unconscionable.
Most coaches are suspicious of lineup data because of noise and Hornacek didn’t want a 19yo rook to start at the most difficult position in terms of learning curve. That plus KP’s injury limited opportunity to play them together. Still, it’s very promising that KP, Frank, Timmy, KOQ, and Troy all finished the year being raw Net Pluses (individual stats). That’s a potential starting lineup right there. Also Baker finished net plus and Dot was -.7. That plus our 2018 draft pick is a lot of potential to build on.
The key of course is to play these guys (plus Kornet and Burke) and limit the minutes of our crappy or mediocre vets (cue Strat’s lecture on the many factors which force a team to play crappy vets). That’s not Perry’s style though (remember Hill and Z-Bo) so I’m not optimistic. Frank/Trey/Timmy/Dot/Baker/Mikal/Troy/KP/KOQ/Kornet is a total of 1o players right there.
Thanks for the info, Frank. That definitely paints young Frank in a positive light.
How great would Doncic be on this team? He could play the 2 or 3 and handle most of the pg duties so there would be less pressure on Frank at the point.
Frank/TH2/Doncic/pf/KP would be a very good defensive lineup with great ball movement. Then you have Burke backing up at pg and maybe Kanter off the bench where he belongs.
More defense please.
It is just so crazy to me, as someone who grew up idolizing the Riley/Van Gundy Knicks, that we have had a FO dedicated to inefficient, high volume offense for so many years.
New Yorkers love to watch great defense. We went crazy for it for a decade. Our greatest star, Clyde, was as good on defense as offense. With Ewing we had one of the premier defenders in the league as our idol.
Frank can work out if we let him. It’s been clear from the moment he stepped on the court that he has what it takes to some day be the kind of game changing defender who makes you forget how mediocre his offense is. I hope it’s for us and not the Spurs.
@2, indeed. People like Barkley, Larry Brown, and Buds know this as well, which is part of why this job has drawn such such a strong field. Perry’s stable management might be adding to this as well.
I will say this unambiguously: a healthy Frank will win rings for the Knicks (if they can avoid trading him away). And it won’t be just because of his defense.
I know you hate them, but no one is walking through the Celtics. They are, unfortunately, very good. If they get there, I think they will do surprisingly well against Philly.
Every time I watch this Celtics team win games and even series they shouldn’t, I think of Hank Scorpio on The Simpsons watching the James Bond stand-in get away and screaming, “Stop him! He’s supposed to die!”
Hear, hear.
This is why I fear our position in the draft. I really want Bridges because he continues our run of taking players who are good defenders. People are saying any of the top 9 will do, but I fear getting stuck with guys like Michael Porter or Trae Young who are only good on one side of the ball. For all of Phil’s problems (and there were so many), I was comfortable with his draft philosophy. I don’t know what to expect from Mills and Perry. Gaines is still here, but who knows how much influence he has.
The Celtics have a much more talented roster than conventional wisdom seems to think, but having an army of talented, switchy guards and wings is not going to help when the other team is much bigger than you. It doesn’t matter who you switch onto Ben Simmons when he’s bigger than all of them. The Celtics are built to beat the Rockets and the Warriors, not the Sixers.
Considering Simmons never shoots over a smaller defender, I would think lateral quickness is a better attribute to defend him than size. Having multiple talented, switchy guards and wings is probably exactly what you need to slow Simmons down.
Horford isn’t going to roll over for Embiid, either. I expect a competitive series that Philly wins in 6 games, but I would not be shocked if the Celtics take it to 7.
A lineup of Porzingis, Ntilikina, Bridges, and Hardaway Jr coached by Budenholzer is 1 player and 1-2 years away from making a lot of noise.
The “to do” list.
1. Ink Budenholzer and get him working with our young players and Hardaway Jr again. As down as I’ve been about Hardaway’s contract, if Budenholzer can get him back to where he was in Atlanta and he can inch forward just a little more, that’s fine.
2. Pray Pray Pray that Bridges drops to us so we have a defensive trio of KP, FN, and MB anchoring a top 5 defense in 2 years.
3. Find a scoring big man to team with KP that is also an above average rebounder, but not a defensive liability.
4. Celebrate years of great basketball
The Celtics can’t score well enough without Kyrie and Hayward to keep up with Philly imo.
My one question for Budenholzer would be asking him why he kept playing Dennis Schroeder
@12 Wendall Carter might be what we need to fill #3 on your list. As long as we can get either him or Bridges, I think this draft will be a major step forward. But there is a very, very strong chance we dropped too low in the draft to select the player we need.
You can’t stop Redick, Belinelli, and Ilyasova. 🙂
Seriously, a lot of the projections about the 76ers going forward have been made under the assumption that they paid Redick a huge 1 year premium salary so they would have the flexibility to open cap space and add another star player in free agency next year. Not that you would’t want to have some superstar instead, but imo Redick has been a perfect fit for the makeup of that team. They need a scorer/floor spacer and he’s VERY good at both. I wouldn’t be so anxious to let him get away if I was the 76ers. They are close to serious contention. He seems to have enough left in the tank to consider giving him a 2 year deal or maybe even 3 with a team option despite his age. It will be interesting to see what they do with him and how much it will cost.
1) Still not counting out the Bucks to make it in seven, although Joe Prunty is doing strange things with lineups (Shabazz Muhammad and Jabari Parker together make no sense, no length or spacing)
2) Philly wins in 5 against the Celtics or the Bucks and has a real chance to go to the Finals, where it gets steamrolled by whatever team gets out of of F o
@15 I’m wondering if long term Carter is more of a C, but I have no problem with that scenario. Then we’d look for a SF instead.
It really sucks that 2 of the more talented players that look like perfect fits for us are right within our grasp but we could miss them both. I know. I know. Everyone was screaming we should be tanking and predicted this was going to happen. Let’s just hope for the best. I have faith in our scouts. Maybe they have someone else in mind anyway.
I believe Philly can renounce Redick’s bird rights, sign LeBron or George with their cap space, retain Redick with the non-taxpayer exception (~$8 million seems fair for Redick in this market; no one is paying him $23mm again), and then add a good player with the 10th pick in the draft. They can probably move Fultz for the perfect role player, too.
Must be nice.
The ghosts of Michael Sweetney and Jordan Hill are circling around MSG as we speak.
If carter and bridges are gone I think you have to trade down to another team looking to be in the lottery. Get another asset and pick up chandler Hutchinson or zhaire smith, Troy brown is another good sf.
I’ve seen a lot of film on Bridges and he just doesn’t do it for me. Defensively he’s really good but our franchise player is KP. Bridges does not rebound well enough and he’s strictly a small forward in the NBA. He can’t dribble well enough to play the two and he isn’t strong enough to play the four. I get it; he has great shooting numbers but that release isn’t the quickest. I’d rather see the Knicks go for broke with this draft pick and take Porter Jr or Young if one of them is still on the board.
I think it’s vital that Trae Young and Michael Porter go in front of us.
Re: Young, I want us to be patient with Frank and I’m happy with Trey Burke. Plus I just don’t believe the hype on this guy. Seems like an inefficient volume scorer who would be targeted on defense. I’m confident he’ll be selected in front of us, though.
Re: Porter, I think he’s going to drop and one of the guys we want will be taken instead of him. He’s got so many red flags. He’d be a poor fit next to Porzingis bc he’s a bad rebounder and doesn’t project to be a plus defender.
My thoughts on the 5 spot:
Considering that KOQ is gonna certainly opt out..
I fully expect Noah to be healthy and refreshed after basically a year off, especially given his drive and work ethic. That being said, I want Kanter to opt in. We could do a lot worse than a center trio of Kanter/Noah/Kornet. I also want Beasley to return and Lee to be moved. If that happens, and Atlanta is more interested in one of the 2nds we got for Willy as compensation for Bud, then as far as I’m concerned- this would be a winning offseason for MillsPerry. Provided they don’t make a bad pick in the draft, of course
I think picking 9th will be fine. The worry isn’t that who we want will be gone but the small but very real chance we get leapfrogged and slide down to the 10th pick.
As long as we pick 9th we cannot really lose. Bridges and Carter are both good picks. Neither will probably be a star but both look like high floor players. If one of them are gone then a true potential star player has slid down the draft. Young and Bamba might not be as sure things as Carter and Bridges but both have much higher ceilings. Anyone else sliding down would be even better and walking away with someone like Porter would be fantastic.
@22 I tend to agree that Bridges probably has less upside. You are also probably right that we should still be swinging for the fences at this stage. On the flip side I have these fantasies of Bridges being another real stopper on defense. With KP, Frank and him, maybe we could actually have a top 5 defense.
If someone could convince me that Young is going to be more than a “medium efficiency”, “no defense” scoring PG that makes plays, I might not even be worried because if Carter and Bridges don’t fall to us, he might. But he feels like Burke to me. A good player, but nothing special “all around”. I still sort of like Frank at PG. It’s going to take a really good player to convince me that we should move Frank to SG and keep Hardaway at SF. We could also eventually move Hardaway to the bench, but then we still need a SF and big man to team up with KP.
I’ve seen rumours floating around that Redick really wants to stay in Philly and the huge 1 year deal was supposed to be sort of a front loaded offer with the intention of having him sign a larger deal later while maintaining cap flexibility. It was a great deal anyway, he is a very good underrated piece of what they’ve been able to do.
Eight NBA players have played at least 1500 Playoff minutes with a career Playoff BPM (starting in 1970) worse than -2, which is a typical estimate of replacement level. Two of the eight are playing in the 2018 playoffs. Name them (no cheating).
Redick is about to turn 34. Hard to believe actually. He lives in Brooklyn and I think he’d probably take a significant discount to stay in Philly and be part of an ascendant franchise. It could end up being a nice fit for both sides. I was surprised looking at his B-Ref page what a strong career he has had. Pretty good for an 11th pick.
@28 Jeff Green and………Crawford?
@28
It’s gotta be Jamal Crawford and Jeff Green
Everybody needs to slow their roll a little on the Sixer praise. They just beat a Miami team in 5 games whose best player is ???, their center basically checked out and they relied on a 37 year old Dwayne Wade to provide offense.
Yes, Philly has a bright future (assuming Embiid stays healthy) but they really haven’t proven much to me thus far in the playoffs.
the sixers are def going to show you something, get ready. rookie pg putting everything together with first round experience is going to make for a quick learning curve, they could possibly win the east.
I mean, they just went from 10 wins 2 years ago to 52, the 3rd seed and a 4-1 series win without Embiid in the first 2 games of the series, led by a rookie who might just be a generational talent.
I get having high standards but it’s got to be at least a little bit impressive right?
Crawford is right nice job. Jeff Green has too few minutes AND too high a BPM to date but I believe in him. The missing guy is why I asked the question.
if the boston series goes 7 games, they will have a real tough time with a rested, young sixers team.
The Sixers were impressive before Miami. Their best five of Embiid Saric RoCo Simmons JJ was an amazing plus 20 per 100 in 600 minutes together. You don’t see much of that sort of thing period.
We’re the Knicks, so I think we can always lose. To me, we would lose if we’re stuck choosing between Michael Porter, Collin Sexton, and Miles Bridges because the top 8 were Ayton, Doncic, Bagley, Jackson, Young, Bamba, Mikal Bridges, Carter.
I think Carter would be a great fit next to Porzingis, mostly because of his rebounding and defense. But the fact that he hits threes at a nice rate and can pass helps too. Mikal would be nice for different reasons, but I like them both.
I think worst case scenario (picking #10 and not trading down) we take Miles, but this piece is fairly bullish on him: https://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/249656/Prospect-Report-Miles-Bridges-Of-Michigan-State
has anyone seen any games of little brother jontay porter?
Agree about Carter. To me, not that’s it’s worth much, he represents the best case scenario for the Knicks. I would expect him to get taken one pick before ours. #dolansrazor
I for one would be thrilled if Michael Porter fell to us. He’s been injured the whole year but I don’t think people think that is a career threatening injury, right? And prior to the injury he was a consensus top 3 pick? So what if he looked meh after being out the whole year?
He’s a 6’10” combo forward that can shoot dribble pass. I hear guys like that are useful in the NBA nowadays.
I’m only down on Porter because both his stats and scouting reports indicate he is a poor rebounder. We already know Porzingis is, as well. I don’t think you can build around two bigs that don’t rebound well. I’m sure we would light it up offensively with him at the 4 and KP at the 5, tho.
Cleveland will likely think they still have a chance to retain LeBron on draft day. I can’t imagine them thinking this team needs a player like Porter or Young who is unlikely to be a plus defender next year. They are going to want all the guys we do: Bridges, Bamba, and Carter.
@35
Carmelo?
Porter looked like a natural rebounder from what I saw in his limited minutes. Pretty good for a guy coming off back surgery.
I don’t know how great The Ringer’s scouting department is, but this is in their Porter profile:
https://nbadraft.theringer.com/
Those sound like bad attributes next to a 7’3″ unicorn with the similar characteristics.
back injuries are fairly major…. and it was surgery…. for someone who was supposed to be explosive… he was far from that….
there’s outlines of a major prospect… the defensive numbers in (50 minutes) can mean really good things… but he was too perimeter oriented to begin with and if he lacks the explosiveness in the nba then he will never be more than a poor man’s keith van horn….
he’s a gamble and at #9 it might not be a bad gamble… but there are other prospects who are just as good that don’t come with that risk… if they’re taken i might not mind it….
“Not much of a rebounder” is a joke. He’s never had an issue grabbing rebounds and he averaged 15 boards per 40 with a bad back in limited minutes this season. Get me a 6’11” Michael Porter Jr and sit him the first 40 games of the season so he can heal and we can tank in peace. The defensive issues are a concern but he’s not a dumb kid and so I believe he can play well enough in a team concept.
@39
You’re probably right. Our best choices at 9 are probably Williams, Alexander, Knox or miles
@35
Crawford and Melo?
We’d being putting a lot of faith in our ability to recognize talent based on workouts to select Porter. I realize he was a very hot prospect coming out of high school, but there’s a big gap between high school and college and then a big gap between college and the pros. We have no idea how he would be playing at the college level. This is an even bigger guess than Mudiay because at least he had some games in China before getting hurt.
I’m not gonna worry too much about the draft until I know what pick we have. Maybe we get lucky and move up a spot or two. Could happen!
Probably not, but for the moment, that’s what I’ll hope for
If Porter is there, you take Porter. He won’t be there, but if he’s there, you take him.
This is going to be a stressful couple of months. We could end up with Wendall Carter, Jr and Mike Budenholzer or Collin Sexton and Mark Jackson.
Moving up just a spot or two is one thing that literally cannot happen.
We can’t move up a spot or two. We can move into the top 3, or we can move down.
Why? We have no information about him other than that he was highly rated in high school. Skal Labissere projected just as well as Porter coming out of high school. He’s currently the 8th best prospect on several prominent sites. And his skill set seems like a suboptimal fit.
The only draft positions the Knicks can possibly have are 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, 11, 12 with the highest probability of 9 or 10. Every team that is currently below them that wins the lottery and gets a top 3 pick pushes the Knicks down. The odds that 3 such teams do that is astronomical but statistically possible. So be happy with the #9 pick because the normal Knicks luck they will be picking at 10 or later.
I hope Perry doesn’t get too hung up on Bud. Yes, he seems to be a good coach. But if Perry gets obsessed with him, we’re going to end up giving too much in compensation. Atlanta has to believe that we’re willing to go with Fizdale or Blatt.
It’s like Donnie Walsh negotiating vs Jim Dolan negotiating. Walsh told Denver that we wouldn’t give up that much for Melo because we had good alternatives. Dolan jumped in and said “WE ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE A SUPERSTAR CARMELO IS A SUPERSTAR HE WANTS TO COME TO NEW YORK WE HAVE TO HAVE MELO GIMME GIMME GIMME.” We all know what happened next.
We’ll just have to see how Porter looks in workouts. Would be nice if he decided to just workout for us.
The other guy is DeRozan
@62 Wow
Maybe a serious matter is our total roster spots.
Frank/Trey/Timmy/Dot/Baker/Troy/KP/KOQ/Kornet/Mudiay/Courtney/Enes/Lance/Noah/2018 1 pick/2018 Chicago pick.
That’s a total of 16 players and that’s before using MLE or BAE presuming we re-sign KOQ and draft a wing. Aren’t there only 15 available slots not counting 2-ways? Who loses the game of musical chairs? Enes opting out would be terrific in that regard (and in so many other ways). We could dump Mudiay into some team’s open cap for nothing but no way Perry does that after giving up a 2nd round pick. KOQ could go elsewhere but Perry said outright at the press conference he wants to re-sign him. We could just waive Lance. Noah wouldn’t be waived and stretched until September at the earliest (maybe KOQ is signed using MLE after Noah is waived?). I hope they keep Kornet but I’m not sure how Luke’s contract situation would work. It looks like he’s a UFA on some sites but RFA on others.
Maybe we should just attach the Chicago pick to dump Enes and/or Courtney and/or Lance to a rebuilding team that’s got cap space? Courtney would be the best option since we free up not just minutes for young players but also free up cap for summer of 2019.
And the Knicks are picking ninth.I’m not saying take Porter, like, #3 overall, but at #9, if he’s there that means Carter and Bridges aren’t. In which case, you take Porter every day of the week.
Ok, I see. I thought you had a very high opinion of him for some reason. I agree, I would take him if Bridges and Carter are gone. But I wouldn’t be very optimistic. It wouldn’t be Jordan Hill one pick after Steph Curry bad, but it would strike me as a Gallinari after Westbrook and Love kinda outcome.
Sacramento is the team in front of us I think would most likely take him. Hopefully they do, Cleveland gets to choose between Bridges and Carter, and we get the other.
Except the day of the week where you trade down (Clips?) if that’s an option.
If Michael Porter Jr didn’t have back issues Luka Doncic would be the 3rd pick in the draft. At #9 there’s no way you pass on him.
I’d take the two Clipper picks instead of MP. Porter is not Embiid.
@64. If we trade the Chicago pick to dump a guy with one year left or to accommodate a roster spot for Ron Baker I might be done…
We shouldn’t really be looking to use our exceptions this year anyway if we want space for 2019 – KOQ is also a questionable choice in that context though I’d probably love with it if the deal is reasonable.
If we get a promising player with the Chicago pick you find a way to get him in… we should be trading Lee and Lance if at all possible anyway. I don’t think this is the biggest problem.
64
i think we already trade the chicago pick?
69
clips arent giving up two picks to move up three spots
I agree that we shouldn’t use the Chicago pick to get rid of Enes or Lance. Given KP’s injury, Kanter could have some use for one more year. And Lance could just be waived (or maybe bought out depending on how proration would work). I’d consider including the Chicago pick to dump Courtney in the likely event we couldn’t find a suitable trade. Waiving Lance and trading Courtney and Chicago pick frees up roster spots. The MLE could then be used to give some young player(s) a 1 year deal (team option for 2nd year).
@69 Porter Jr doesn’t have to be Embiid to be better off long term for your franchise than the #12 and #14 picks combined. Porter Jr represents the chance at a franchise level shot creator and the ability to play five out with KP and MPJr in the front court. If he’s available at nine you pick him, sit him, tank, and draft RJ Barrett.
Well, the Blazers were cooking in March (13 in a row) and Lillard and McCollum were tearing it up, and look where they ended up.
Look, I hope the Sixers totally destroy Boston and then I’ll gladly call them the Beasts of the East. My point was that the Heat are a truly mediocre, overacheiving team, and beating them in 5 really doesn’t prove much.
I wonder if Budz can make Kanter into a better defender.
Their best five of Embiid Saric RoCo Simmons JJ was an amazing plus 20 per 100 in 600 minutes together.
Where is that Small Sample Size Kraken when you need him?
Seriously, Simmons and Embiid look like absolute studs. Saric and Covington look like legit NBA rotation players. But Philly is essentially running an eight man rotation where four guys are 30 or over and have long been productive players on competitive teams. And all four of those guys are in the final year of their contracts.
Mike
Kanter would either turn into a better defender or he’ll grab some bench.
it ain’t sample size. philly had all of the top 5 best three-man lineups in the league this year with at least 800 minutes. these guys were killer together.
Maybe he can turn water into wine also? 🙂
No, the Knicks traded their lesser second round pick (it belonged to the Clippers). Their big issue with Elfrid Payton is that both the Knicks and the Suns were offering a second rounder, but the Suns were offering their own while the Knicks only had the Bulls’, and the Suns’ pick was the much better pick. So the Knicks instead traded the worse of their two second rounders for Mudiay.
I would take Porter over Carter or Bridges. He is the only one that has a legit chance to be an all-NBA type player. Bridges looks like a very nice role player but not a star and I worry about Carter’s athleticism and ability to guard fours and the PNR. Anyone can be a bust and I’d say Porter is less of a sure thing than Bridges or Carter but we need to swing for the fences not take a surefire double. That said we won’t get a choice and any of the three would be great.
Lebron James has a little left in the tank it appears. What a quarter. Looked like an Abrams tank.
Sadly, his teammates are terrrrrrible.
Is there a stat for and one’s? Because there’s no doubt LeBron would be the career leader by a mile.
How do we know a guy who played 55 minutes of college basketball (and kinda sucked) has a chance at being an all NBA player
Because small sample size means you can’t disprove his potential?
Lebron is such a freaking joy to watch when he decides to take over. I’m just glad to be watching this sort of greatness still. This Cavs team as currently constructed wins less games than the Knicks on a full season without LeBron.
@85
For me the draft has three tiers.
Tier 1 – Superstar potential no huge red flags
Doncic
Ayton
Jackson Jr
Bagley
Tier 2 – Superstar potential with red flags
Young (bad defense, questionable shot selection)
Bomba (raw, needs to build strength)
Porter Jr (injury, no recent play to judge)
Tier 3 – Lower ceiling no red flags
Bridges
Carter Jr
Porter missed essentially his entire season and is recovering so there is no real good way to rate him but coming into this year he was rated as a top 3 pick. Since we don’t have recent info you go back to the last time you judge him and before this season he looked like a sure thing. There is definitely risk but he seems worth it.
I think LBJ leaves once the Cavs are ousted. This team has shown just next to nothing. They should get K Love trades lined up now.
*hits bong* but it also means you can’t prove his potential man
I can’t believe Domantas Sabonis is a guy right now. Clutch shot.
Thad Young. I have always loved that guy. So underrated. That was a massive massive stop.
I kind of love these Pacers.
Sabonis has been great all year, on offense at least. I’d love to have that guy.
Wow. Was that not goal tending against James? Off the backboard right?
All hail the King.
Oh man.
LeBron blocks the game winning shot attempt and then makes the game winning shot. And scores 44.
I mean, can you be any more great than that?
@94
I think it was extremely close but it hit the backboard just after James touched it, from the replay it looked like a clean block.
What a damn player. He was not going to lose this damn game.
I could not disagree with this more as a draft philosophy. Especially for us picking 9th. If you can get a double at 9, take it.
Per Woj
Does this mean that we no longer need to give ATL compensation for Budenholzer? If so, fuck the interviews, just hire the guy ASAP.
Also Lebron is the GOAT
that was crazy he was all alone out there
@99 interesting I think it does probably mean that
Budenholzer just got fired
Woj bomb!
Do OKC not know Joe Ingles is pretty good?
Excellent Budz news. Get er done, Perry!
The ball definitely hit the backboard first. But whatever. Looked awesome.
I honeslty am not sure what the rule is in that case. Does it have to be above the rim after touching the backboard?
I am really digging the Jazz in these playoffs. They are the type of team I hope the Knicks can become, a unit that is greater than the sum of its parts. The contrast with the Thunder couldn’t be clearer. The NBA needs a team like this to do well and succeed to show they have more to offer than a starcentric brand of basketball.
Yeah, I never really know when it’s a goaltending as it hits the backboard.
Rudy Gobert is an insane basketball player. He owns the paint like no one, Westbrook is so flustered right now.
Mitchell is a very wise player beyond his years. I love his nose for the game.
Budz will be our next coach. Just parted ways with the Hawks
The West wound up with such weird seeding. Fully healthy Utah is probably the 3rd best team in the west, but you could also make a good argument that the Wolves would have been the 3 seed if they’d been healthy