Knicks Morning News (2018.04.26)

  • [ESPN] Bamba: Would have coveted NBA ‘head start’
    (Wednesday, April 25, 2018 5:57:23 PM)

    Mohamed Bamba, a projected top-five pick in June’s draft, said that had the opportunity been in place, he would have jumped straight from high school to the NBA.

  • [NYTimes] N.B.A. Roundup: LeBron James’s Buzzer Beater Provides Yet Another Signature Moment
    (Thursday, April 26, 2018 4:10:17 AM)

    A last-second 3-pointer, immediately preceded by a clutch blocked shot, gave the Cleveland Cavaliers a 3-2 lead in their series with the Indiana Pacers.

  • [NYTimes] N.C.A.A. Panel Proposes Reforms, Including End to ‘One and Done’
    (Thursday, April 26, 2018 12:02:51 AM)

    Condoleezza Rice and her commission have ideas for cleaning up college basketball. But they don’t challenge the longtime requirement that the players be amateurs.

  • [NY Newsday] Knicks interviewed Celtics assistant coach Jay Larranaga, source says
    (Wednesday, April 25, 2018 10:58:53 PM)

    The Knicks’ list of candidates for their coaching vacancy continues to grow. They’ve interviewed Celtics’ lead assistant coach Jay Larranaga, according to a league source.

  • [NYPost] Larry Brown bullish on Mudiay if he gets in ‘unbelievable’ shape
    (Wednesday, April 25, 2018 11:42:45 PM)

    Former Knicks coach Larry Brown, who was close to a commitment from Emmanuel Mudiay to play at SMU, said the only thing standing in the 22-year-old point guard’s way to excellence is getting in “unbelievable’’ shape. Brown still is in contact with the Mudiays. Jean-Micheal Mudiay, Emmanuel’s brother, played for Brown at SMU. But his…

  • [NYPost] Knicks’ marquee coaching target leaves his other team
    (Wednesday, April 25, 2018 6:33:38 PM)

    Mike Budenholzer may have moved a step closer to the Knicks job as the Hawks announced Wednesday night they are “mutually” parting ways with their coach. No compensation will be needed to hire Budenholzer — once thought of as a potential stumbling block to any potential deal. The Post previously reported an NBA source saying…

  • [NYPost] Knicks’ Jay Wright pipe dream is officially dead
    (Wednesday, April 25, 2018 9:47:24 AM)

    The Knicks’ list of eight interviewees could expand, but there will be no interview with Villanova stud coach Jay Wright. According to an NBA source, the Knicks will not speak to Wright to conclude an exhaustive coaching search that has now taken them to Europe for David Blatt. But the search won’t take Knicks president…

  • [SNY Knicks] Nova’s Jay Wright will reportedly not interview for Knicks job
    (Wednesday, April 25, 2018 9:14:53 PM)

    The Knicks will not interview Villanova coach Jay Wright, an NBA source told the New York Post.

  • [NYDN] Kawhi Leonard’s potential Spurs split should interest Knicks
    (Wednesday, April 25, 2018 9:35:15 PM)

    The Summer of Kawhi has a head start on the Summer of LeBron.

  • [NYDN] Mike Budenholzer, one of Knicks’ coaching targets, leaves Hawks
    (Wednesday, April 25, 2018 6:58:51 PM)

    Mike Budenholzer is a free agent.

  • [NYDN] Kenny Smith says TV experience all he needs to coach Knicks
    (Wednesday, April 25, 2018 10:25:32 AM)

    Who needs coaching experience?

  • 92 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.04.26)”

    RE: the Jets – I think I would’ve preferred Rosen but I can’t be upset with Darnold, especially given he’s only 20 and doesn’t need to play in 2018-19. Watching him move around the pocket and make random stuff happen – kinda looks like Big Ben out there.

    Rosen does sort of seem like a dick. The way he responded to all the press crush over the last few days makes you wonder whether the NY media and his personality would have made for a bad combo. Not that that is a reason not to draft him if he’s the best QB, but if it’s close, then I can see that being a differentiating factor.

    Can’t lie though – I kinda wanted to see Baker as a Jet.

    Sam Darnold is the best QB prospect in this draft. I had written him off mentally and settled in on Baker Mayfield, but Darnold is essentially a 6’3” Baker Mayfield with a stronger arm and none of the character concerns. Of course Darnold had a turnover problem this past year, but I’m certain he’ll get the fumble problem under control. Having Darnold, Jamal Adams, and Leonard Williams to build around gives the Jets a great future. I couldn’t be more excited today.

    I want to see the NFL die a fast death so we stop sending our children to its farm systems to turn their brains into mush. But hey, that’s just me, your stereotypical liberal who doesn’t think that adults should conscribe kids into playing a sport whose dangers are so severe that the NFL spent years suppressing research so there would be no public outcry.

    Anyone have any thoughts on that paralyzed linebacker who was brought onstage to announce his replacement? That was some good reality TV, eh?

    I hope I am 1/10th as excited about the Knicks after the draft as I am today.

    We’d have to luck into Doncic for me to feel this good.

    @3 I actually agree with you and haven’t watched an NFL game since 2013, when I got an in depth look at how the NFL was virtually destroying Minneapolis by siphoning ridiculous amounts of money from the municipality and into a needless stadium. I’ve never even seen Odell Beckham play a game for the Giants (though I’ve seen highlights).

    And I’m still excited to see Saquon Barkley.

    Once again, I agree completely with THCJ.

    Head trauma is inherent to the sport of football. I don’t see a current iteration of the sport where direct head to head contact is not an essential and repeated aspect of the game.

    NASCAR is a popular sport, but we would never let children drive cars around a racetrack. Why are we okay with kids playing football?

    Can this message board please enter the post-football era.

    I saw this and had to post. Yes, I know it’s kicking a dead horse and I do feel guilty.
    CBS Sports: Thunder Must Bench Carmelo Anthony in Game 6

    As a long-time Jets fan, I’m hoping that we finally got our franchise QB but I can’t wipe the feeling of impending doom either. It was the player I was hoping they would draft. He seems to have the right make-up for this city. What that all means is nothing. The Jets are going to be lousy-mediocre again this season. I don’t expect Darnold to get much playing time. There won’t be a Superbowl in 2018. Next year’s draft is almost as important as this year’s was. The Jets still have many needs. It’s a process.

    @3 – Football is a very violent game and I was glad that my kids never wanted to play tackle FB when they were younger. I would have had a very difficult time letting them. More and more pro football players are saying that they wouldn’t let their kids play.

    I’m a Jets fan too. I wanted Rosen but I’m fine with Darnold. Did not want Allen.

    It’s kind of like the Knicks coaching search. Some guys seem better than others, but with so many qualified candidates to choose from, I’d be happy with any of Fizdale, Bud, Larranega, Messina, Stackhouse, or Blatt. But now there’s really no excuse for picking Preacher Mark or Kenny Smith.

    I’m pretty sure there are Jets and Giants boards where people can post their enthusiasm. Let’s move on, please.

    The coaching search has been a breath of fresh air. Open minded, broad… but come on, JUST HIRE BUD FFS!!! He’s an incredibly good fit and he wants the job. If Boston beats Milwaukee over the weekend there’s an immediately better vacancy potentially available. Please, please get this done.

    My libertarian perspective is that we should aggressively report all the relevant information on football injuries, head trauma etc… to fans, parents, and participants in an unbiased and non political way so they understand the risks (unbiased reporting is a tough thing to do in a society where everyone wants to ram their values down everyone else’s throats and all the spinning and lying is OK because their theoretically morally superior ends justify their morally inferior means). Then we should hope football in its current form dies a quick death on the merits or the sport is smart enough to transform itself into something safer and better before it dies.

    I have to think the Knicks are pretty much done with their first round of interviews. Let’s say they have it narrowed down to 2-3 now and want to do a 2nd round. It shouldn’t be much more than 7-10 days before they can start negotiating with someone UNLESS their top choice is holding them up waiting to see if another opportunity opens up. #GoBucks #BeatCeltics

    The libertarian (more like classical liberal, since I don’t advocate ridiculous positions like judicial Originalism or the misogynistic Evictionisn) in me says that adults should be free to play whatever brain-ruining sport they want and that there should be enough available evidence to inform that decision.

    The realist in me says that the NFL is a billion-dollar organization with a fundamentally disqualifying interest in the suppression of that evidence and will never give an inch aside from “banning” plays that are unavoidable. It also holds that 10-year-olds cannot reasonably consent to drinking alcohol, owning firearms or engaging in sexual activity, so the idea of asking them to consent to a game in which long-term damage is virtually unavoidable — patently absurd.

    i was rooting hard against the cavs the other night…

    despite no knick participation – these playoffs have had some fun and feisty games…

    it feels so weird rooting for the pacers…

    i figure boston will win game 7…

    hoping the pelicans can pull off the upset out west…

    i don’t really care about the raptors or wiz…

    go jazz 🙂

    Edit: you’re are 100% correct jowles…what’s sad is that you would need to legislate some kind of protective action to ensure the safety of kids – from their parents…

    i understand though – playing football is a big deal, and, a tradition within many families and communities…

    sometimes, the times need to be a changing…

    Apologies for the superfluous poppycock. I’ve never found a Jets message board that wasn’t almost entirely idiots

    if the nfl accepted and worked on the issue… instead of trying to cover it up…. they would be in a much better position today…. doing more work into helmet and concussion science would have gone a long way towards getting some goodwill that they’ve lost over the years… that’s on ownership and the nfl owners of today are some of the worst people to be in a position of leadership and foster long term growth and care for the game… they don’t really care at all about that… the days of rooney and mara are long gone…

    the nba is getting there also…. all these hedge fund and tech guys aren’t exactly in it for the long haul… they are basically tourists… although they are probably a little better than their nfl counterparts…. that’s something to keep an eye on or else the nba will be in the same boat…

    The realist in me says that the NFL is a billion-dollar organization with a fundamentally disqualifying interest in the suppression of that evidence and will never give an inch aside from “banning” plays that are unavoidable. It also holds that 10-year-olds cannot reasonably consent to drinking alcohol, owning firearms or engaging in sexual activity, so the idea of asking them to consent to a game in which long-term damage is virtually unavoidable — patently absurd.

    Who suggested putting the responsibility entirely in the hands of 10 years olds?

    If more parents are informed, more will probably decide not to allow their children to play.

    If more consumers are informed, more will probably decide not to watch.

    If more large companies are informed, fewer will sponsor the sport.

    Change like that is already underway. There is evidence that part of the reason NFL ratings have been plummeting is all the evidence on concussions.

    I also have no objection to independent institutions accumulating evidence on things like gambling, smoking, firearms, alcohol, football, boxing etc… I’d even include being a Knicks fan in that category. 🙂

    If a strong consensus forms, I am not opposed to regulating activities or making them illegal. My standard for that kind of thing is probably just a lot high than yours. I don’t want to put the responsibility in the hands of people that will distort the truth or that think they know what’s good for everyone else and that their value system should be enforced on others before that strong consensus has been reached.

    I can think of a whole bunch of things I am close to 100% sure would improve society if we banned them. Of course, a lot of people would want to string me up. lol I would also hate myself if I ever got so arrogant that I thought I should do it anyway. I’m arrogant enough as it is. 🙂

    The NBA has problems. When half the teams are trying to lose, that’s not good.

    So by that logic, should parents be educated on the dangers of children working in coal mines so they can make an educated decision as to whether they should work in one?

    How fucking stupid can an opinion be?

    I feel like the NCAA and American universities are approximately 100 gazillion times more despicable than the NFL for the role they play in head injuries. At least the NFL employs grown men and pays them lucratively for a risk they know they are taking.

    must poke bear…must…

    hey, is it just me – or, has the site been acting a bit “wonky” lately…

    It’s far more complicated than just a choice. If you’re a poor black kid from Alabama who happens to be good at football, and you’re faced with the choice of potentially destroying your body and becoming a famous multimillionaire at the sport you love, or struggling your entire life with a healthy body, it’s not a fair simple choice.

    Of course it’s not simple, I don’t know whether making football safer is even possible or if the sport is just doomed. But it is on the NFL to treat this as a real issue instead of masking stuff or ignoring the elephant in the room. It’s not as simple as just informing everyone and expecting every choice to be rational and well thought when for some people, it’s literally a choice between working at a fast food chain forever struggling or becoming a millionaire famous athlete.

    So by that logic, should parents be educated on the dangers of children working in coal mines so they can make an educated decision as to whether they should work in one?

    How fucking stupid can an opinion be?

    As it is, I think you have to be 18 years old, but I’m not sure.

    I think people (especially young people) should be informed on the health hazards and dangers of working in mines and we should do whatever we can to discourage young men and women from choosing that line of work by encouraging “sound” investment that will create with more jobs and opportunities for them. That will make the “value” decision strongly favor not working in a mine. But I should not have the power over anyone to dictate to them that they can’t. There are loads of dangerous jobs I would never do that other people do. I’d sure as hell never be a cop in this environment. Fireman? Not that either. But some people are willing to take the risks and should be rewarded for that.

    All sports contain a large element of risk. All sports have injuries. Can you imagine standing in against Randy Johnson, or being a pitcher facing a liner up the middle from Aaron Judge with an exit velocity of 100MPH plus? I don’t want my son doing inverted leaps on his trampoline or riding a double overhead waves. I don’t play chess but I hear even that game can be mentally ruinous.

    Basketball is actually pretty mellow but still dangerous. A friend of mine broke his finger horribly and it’ll never be the same (and he still plays)…We’ve all been there. God, look at Gordon Hayward or PG 13.

    So, as usual, THJC gets it right and wrong at the same time. No, I wouldn’t let my son play football. Yes, they should completely reimagine the game to make it less medieval, it’s particularly bad. But it’s also a sport that fascinates like any other. Both for spectators and players. You can’t stop it or make a moral case for it to be banned. Yes it’s dangerous and yes it probably always will be, but if that bothers you to that extent, you probably shouldn’t watch any sport. I broke my ankle playing cricket…

    @23 The NFL sucks big time for suppressing information. They are almost as bad as the tobacco companies.

    I also agree that it’s not always an easy choice when you are disadvantaged in any way, but allowing people to dictate their values on others (even when I agree with them) is a hornets nest.

    IMO, the idea should be to inform and give more choices to those that might be forced to make a bad one.

    But it’s also a sport that fascinates like any other.

    I actually find football to be quite boring. I think it’s successful because it is effective at creating a spectacle around the game that people enjoy being a part of.

    I’m excited to tune in to the Giants, though, because Saquon might be the 6’0″ version of LeBron.

    @26

    I agree that more awareness is always better, but yeah, its helps a particular part of the population in question (prospective football players) and does very little for the rest of them. That’s my issue with football, just like with smoking for example. Yes, people like it and will continue doing it, but the burden can’t be all on the people making the choices, it has to also be on the ones benefiting the most from those choices too.

    Sports, in general, is a way for poor kids to make it big. The allure of the almighty dollar is obvious. I’ve heard numerous athletes say that they would gladly give up 10 years of their life for a Superbowl ring. Do we outlaw contact in the NFL because it’s dangerous? And if we allow it, where is the line drawn? The insane XFL rules which stunningly didn’t result in death? Gladiators fighting lions with their bare hands?

    Back to hoops. I’m glad we haven’t jumped to pick a new coach. This is a tricky thing. We’re going to suck again in 2018-19. We won’t have enough talent to draw free agents and our best asset (KP) is questionable at best for the season. We need the right coach to install the right system for the young players we’re collecting. I don’t know who is good or bad and I’ll say that I don’t believe any of you do either. Coaching is mostly done behind closed doors, in the gym, in film rooms, etc. Maybe Mark Jackson is a horrible choice, but how would I know? Hearsay about stuff that happened on the other side of this country? Let them take the time to pick a coach that has a good system, will use our talent well and can get along with people.

    I might be wrong here, but I think the risk of serious brain trauma, broken necks, paralysis, etc. might be a bit more likely when playing football than cricket and the vast majority of other sports. Just a bit…

    Should the Knicks nab their coach now before (possibly) the Bucks get eliminated? If they want Budz, why wait?

    All sports contain a large element of risk. All sports have injuries. Can you imagine standing in against Randy Johnson, or being a pitcher facing a liner up the middle from Aaron Judge with an exit velocity of 100MPH plus? I don’t want my son doing inverted leaps on his trampoline or riding a double overhead waves. I don’t play chess but I hear even that game can be mentally ruinous.

    This is a totally fucking ridiculous argument and I will not let it stand without comment.

    How many pitchers have received so many head injuries over the course of normal gameplay that they developed a disease that led them to murder their girlfriend in front of their own mother and then drive to their employer’s office to commit suicide in front of their bosses?

    How many basketball players, having broken their fingers repeatedly, decided to hang themselves?

    There is a common thread among the dead — and incarcerated — players and ex-players of the NFL: chronic traumatic encephalopathy. You are burying your fucking head in the sand if you think that CTE is not a primary factor in the chronic violence that football players display toward themselves and others.

    Add in other cultural factors like the toxic masculinity of most contact sports and the generational poverty of people of color in this country and you’ve got yourself a social ill that haunts virtually every community in this country. It is disgusting that we allow our children to destroy their brains in the name of sport. And it’s disgusting that there are people who claim “all sports are dangerous” in the face of…

    …overwhelming evidence of football’s destructive, inescapable nature.

    There’s a chance of a freak injury doing pretty much any activity. Sure, you can hurt yourself playing cricket. You can probably get pretty fucked up taking a 110 MPH line drive in the face.

    That is not what we’re talking about when it comes to football, where a shockingly high percentage of players suffer from CTE by the time they’re done playing.

    And sure, some kids use football as a way to escape poverty. The most elite football players do manage to make some money. But the vast majority of kids who play that sport from Pee Wee level all the way up to NCAA D1 are frying their brains and never see any financial gain from it.

    Football also has a massive PED problem that is the elephant in the room. Ever notice that pretty much no football player ever gets busted for PEDs? Kind of odd, no?

    Watching Hoop Dreams just once made me see through facade of sports as a noble escape from poverty. It’s like telling kids that they should grow up to be pop singers — totally delusional, totally ignorant of the webs of exploitation they navigate on their way to the “big show.”

    Can we discuss boxing now? 🙂

    I’m sitting here at my desk at work, bored to death, salivating over tonight’s games and those beers in my refrigerator. One hour to go and I’m out of here!

    Why oh why can’t it be the Knicks playing in a huge game tonight?

    Why oh why can’t it be the Knicks playing in a huge game tonight?

    Seriously. It’s just insane that it’s basically been 18 year since we had a real game that mattered.

    This is fundamentally an economic problem as folks with limited career options pursue whatever options they can. If they have athletic potential, they do sports. And if they don’t, it’s either the military or a life of poverty and/or crime. They are essentially forced to make Faustian choices. Until opportunity becomes universal, those will not change for the economically disadvantaged.

    It’s rather ironic that the first serious texts of microeconomics and macroeconomics that dealt with topics like this were written by the real Henry George 140ish years ago in Progress and Poverty (1879) and the Science of Political Economy (1897), both of which should be required reading for anyone who desires a fair, free, self-determining world.

    Florida, Texas and other parts of the Deep South will keep marching their kids off to Friday-night bloodsport and then incarcerate them later when they can’t stop themselves from making bad choices in the streets.

    1.2 million kids between the ages of 6 and 12 play organized football. Million.

    The Knicks went to the conference semis after a 50+ win season five years ago. They seemed to have the eventual champs’ number in the regular season. It really happened.

    The Knicks have been a joke for the better part of two decades but they’ve played meaningful basketball more recently than 18 years ago.

    The most frustrating part of this board is that the usual cast of characters that want to play devil’s advocate and run against the majority opinion have no idea how to do it. Instead of serious critical analysis, they always go for “appeal to authority”, “racism” or, the truly infamous … “EYE TEST”.

    We still have some missing links in the CTE story. For example, do we have enough evidence to overcome causation v relation? How do we know that large, naturally violent, athletic individuals are not prone to naturally occurring brain degeneration? Do we have enough double-blind, controlled samples of CTE scans of brains of an adequate cross-section of the human population to isolate whether football is a statistically significant cause of CTE vs other common activities? From my basic understanding, much of the CTE diagnosis requires the physical examination of the brain, which is currently not possible on living human samples, which makes it difficult to understand the progression of CTE.

    I think we have enough circumstantial evidence to serious limit children from playing football. But a total ban of the sport at all levels probably requires further scientific rigor, studies, and meta-studies.

    I love, love, love Kawhi Leonard on a supermax contract — when he’s healthy.

    Kawhi is not healthy. Therefore, I do not love Kawhi Leonard on a supermax contract. Porzingis is certainly not worth a supermax right now, but he’s young and has potential to become the 30 USG%, .620 TS% we expect him to grow into. Not terribly likely, but possible.

    Also, the Knicks are several pieces away from contending. I’d really like a true max star to join a core locked up for several years, with Bird rights to sign lots of good pre-existing players over the cap. Basically, I’m describing the 2018-19 Sixers when LeBron joins on a 1+1 max next season.

    If I were the Spurs, I’d figure out who wants Kawhi and who wants to give me multiple firsts and solid rookie-contract players for Kawhi’s final year. He is a top-5 player in the league when healthy, but from what I’ve read, that tendinopathy is concerning and he may never fully recover. I’d unload him for several solid pieces and ride their 49-win core into another few seasons of being a 3-seed. With him, they’d have been a contender in the West, which is remarkable since the Rockets and Warriors (when healthy) are such dominant forces.

    I came here for Knickerblogger but got NFLblogger instead

    Better luck next time I guess

    Try Breitbart, might be more your speed when it comes to critical thinking

    @44 Do you have to put any effort into being confrontational and insulting Jowles or does it just come naturally ?

    I’ll be sure to tune in to CNN and MSNBC tonight so my future comments will be more acceptable to you.

    Jack Bauer, how can you complain that Jowles insults people, and then, with the very next sentence, sophomorically insult him!

    All we ask for is consistent, logical, rational thought processes. Why is this so hard?

    @danvt I disagree w one thing you said. I definitely want my daughter to ride double overhead waves. Didn’t think there were too many surfers here.

    I’m all in for Buds or Blatt. I think Blatt would be good. His body of work defies the highly unique Cleveland experience.

    I don’t have cable, but nice try. We’re an Economist/Nation/Reason household.

    I did, however, tune into Fox and Friends yesterday so I could hear someone to whom being insulting and confrontational comes quite naturally. So much so that the braindead mouth-breathers of this country elected him as the Alt-Right Troll-in-Chief!

    P.S. That unhinged lunatic being insulting and confrontational on Fox and Friends — he has the nuclear codes! But please, get bent out of shape about a guy on the internet who reminds you that it’s looking prettttttty likely that your Emperor-God committed some serious crimes!

    I really enjoyed the part where you could hear someone off-camera say “oh god” and “jesus christ” as he was ranting about the “corrupt” FBI. ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

    Football really is too dangerous and many more precautionary things need to be done to make it safer if that really is even possible. I’ve watched much less of it in the past 5 years because of some of the disregard for the people playing it. I don’t watch college at all anymore.

    It’s big business though, so I doubt it will be banned anytime soon.

    Alright I’m done with politics and NFL. Let’s talk about whoever the Knicks plan to fire in 1.5 seasons.

    Trading KP for Kawhi would be so dumb, I can’t even call it Knicksy. Despite precedent like the Bargnani trade.

    I don’t play chess but I hear even that game can be mentally ruinous.

    Yeah, the Calabrian Countergambit is known to have destroyed many a player.

    PREACH!!!

    I’m sitting here at my desk at work, bored to death, salivating over tonight’s games and those beers in my refrigerator. One hour to go and I’m out of here!

    All we ask for is consistent, logical, rational thought processes. Why is this so hard?

    which is probably the antithesis of entertaining…

    I only brought up the giants this morning bc I long to be this excited about the Knicks. We need the kind of player the giants just got. We’re unlikely to ever land him, though, because we’re obsessed with winning 30ish games every year.

    Maybe we’ll get lucky and end up with a top 2 pick and Ayton/Doncic. Maybe the KP injury is a blessing like Beckham’s was and it gets us that guy next year. I don’t know. But hope and excitement is nice. I hope I’m still alive when we have some around here.

    I hope the Knicks draft someone who has “shock in his hands” which seems to be what every other NFL draftee has according to these guys. Maybe Robert Williams would be the closest thing.

    Calderon, love, korver ….you can only get away with. Slow white defender starting if you have lebron, crazy

    Oh man, sweet mercy, Lebron. One of the best first quarter playoff dunks ever. That was NASTY

    I’m a Giants fan and wanted Barkley even though I know picking a RB that high in the draft is not good value cap wise. But the worrisome part was seeing Gettleman mock the crap out of analytics after the selection, I don’t know how important and useful they are in football but it gave me a very Knicksy vibe.

    At least I always have my Yankees!

    I’m a Giants fan and wanted Barkley even though I know picking a RB that high in the draft is not good value cap wise. But the worrisome part was seeing Gettleman mock the crap out of analytics after the selection, I don’t know how important and useful they are in football but it gave me a very Knicksy vibe.

    Yeah. I wanted them to take a QB or trade down, but there are arguments I’d understand for taking Barkley, even if I disagree. But Gettelman’s comments suggest that even if the result works out and Barkley lives up to the hype, the process was fundamentally flawed and will hurt the team in other ways.

    That Wizards Raptors finish had to be the quietest most boring fourth quarter in a legit close game six in playoff history

    Looking at the Playoff Bracket, Philly can probably beat Boston or Milwaukee and then play either Toronto or Cleveland, neither of whom is looking unbeatable. So a real possibility of Philly in the finals — which would be amazing for Philly fans and frustrate Knicks fan here on Knickerblogger no end.

    As long as it’s not Boston I don’t really care much either way who makes the finals.

    Bill Simmons predicted the Sixers would sweep the Celtics if that’s the matchup in the next round he must be reading my good posts.

    You couldn’t pay me to watch that wizards raptors series and I dread having to watch the raps in round two. I’d probably root for Cleveland if that was the match up

    This is a totally fucking ridiculous argument and I will not let it stand without comment

    Before you shine up your social conscience too much, we could save thousands of lives every year by doing two simple things.

    1. Require every automobile be built with a governor on the motor so it can’t go faster than 65 mph.

    2. Require every automobile be equipped with a blood alcohol-sensitive ignition.

    What does that have to do with football? It’s easy to climb up on your high horse when it comes to things about which other people care. But there are plenty of things that would save lives and make the world a better place that people oppose because it would infringe on our freedoms, rights, or just doesn’t fit our view of how the world should be.

    Mike

    the Knicks did not have a player who wouldn’t deserve some burn on this Cavs playoffs roster. It’s amazing how many truly terrible minutes they throw out there. JR, Clarkson, Jose, Green, Hood…these minutes are worse than worthless. You could literally stick Jack and Dotson out there and see an uptick. When Love is playing this poorly, and he’s still a productive player it’s just been a bad series for him, Lebron may as well be on the Suns.

    I really thought Lee/O’Quinn to the Cavs would have made a lot of sense. Lee isn’t exactly a shut down defender, but he’s competent and he’s a legitimately excellent 3 point shooter. O’Quinn can pass and would be the best rim defender on the Cavs by a country mile

    @67

    An easier way to put it would be: some people are fine with saying “I don’t give a fuck if young men are destroying their brains because I like the entertainment”.

    How is it climbing on a high horse to oppose that point of view? Opposing it is a different point of view, and you’re defending people’s ability to choose their own. I can respect a person’s right to have their point of view, and yet oppose it vehemently in any way I can.

    That’s what I simply cannot understand about libertarianism’s defense of free speech. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from criticism. A person is allowed to say whatever they want, and I’m equally allowed to think their opinions are fucking shit and to voice that point of view vehemently in answer to what I think it’s shit.

    And I’m the snowflake.

    But there are plenty of things that would save lives and make the world a better place that people oppose because it would infringe on our freedoms, rights, or just doesn’t fit our view of how the world should be.

    The fuck does this have to do with letting kids play football or not? We don’t let kids drive cars. There are laws against them buying alcohol and tobacco. We actively protect them against dangers it’s unlikely they understand the ramifications of, even if their parents think it’d be okay. There’s an age of consent because, among other reasons, we don’t trust kids to be capable of making fully informed decisions and we frequently don’t trust the adults in their lives to be capable of that either.

    Get off your own damn high horse, Mike. Not wanting children to be running around bashing their brains into scar tissue for people’s amusement isn’t an infringement of any one’s rights.

    if this game was between two lottery teams we’d be screaming for the tank police to intervene

    What an unbelievable quarter by Mitchell. This is absolutely insane, what a gigantic performance.

    Problem is Frank’s nowhere near the athlete Mitchell is and doesn’t have anywhere near as good handles as Mitchell has.

    i know I’ve mentioned this before – but, quinn synder looks like some insane tweaker person…

    he’s got such a great super villian look…

    i was thinking maybe the riddler – but, the riddler wasn’t really that scary…

    quinn synder is scary…

    Every time someone praises Mitchell it is necessary to shit on Ntilikina simultaneously, didn’t you know?

    Frank needs to work
    On his handle I agree. But watching Mitchell play with no fear is reminiscent of Starkso

    very few people knew mitchell was gonna be mitchell…to include, prior to the draft – mitchell…

    There’s almost always going to be some player we could have drafted who looks like they would have been a great steal to get them with our pick. Hindsight is 20/20 after all. What is more important is did we get someone worthy of the pick we used for him. With KP, we clearly did. For Frank, the jury is still out, but I think we did too. Mitchell doing well should not be a knock against Frank.

    That was so clearly a foul, holy shit.

    George played incredibly bad this game, didn’t seem like he wanted to shoot at all in the end. If I’m a team looking at him in free agency I’m very wary.

    Holy crap, Westbrook had 46 points… on 43 shots! What an insane line.

    He took 19 threes! He’s a career .311 three-point shooter!!

    I was think the same thing… can’t help but wonder if OKC would be better without PG. he laid an egg in gane 6

    PG did play pretty well in the other games at least. Melo was obviously terrible.

    I love Westbrook’s fire but he can’t keep doing this sort of shit. There’s no way a guy that shoots his percentages should take 43 shots ever in any situation. I get that George was bricking everything but why the hell didn’t they involve Adams more in the game? Why not go with shooters like Abrines or even Felton or Grant and try to get better shots? This sort of hero ball is just bound to fail.

    It sounds like it was a great game. But it’s a work day here and I couldn’t watch it. I will say there seems to be a changing of the guard in the NBA. Already the Pelicans, Utah and Philadelphia are into the second round of the playoffs, with Milwaukee and Indiana still having chances to make it there too.

    That’s what I simply cannot understand about libertarianism’s defense of free speech. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from criticism. A person is allowed to say whatever they want, and I’m equally allowed to think their opinions are fucking shit and to voice that point of view vehemently in answer to what I think it’s shit.

    I’ll explain this one to you.

    Every libertarian I know would defend your right to criticize whatever idea or speech you choose to (and in most cases they would probably agree with you on the issue).

    The problem is the attempted imposition of those values on others and the effort to silence opposition.

    In other words, imagine some anti immigration conservative wants to make a speech on immigration at a certain college. He could very well be a racist! However, he could very well have data on local school and hospital capacity and budgets, crime statistics, first generation tax revenue vs. expenditures etc.. that support limiting immigration to a level that our resources can handle.

    The idea should be to allow him to speak. Where people disagree with his interpretation of the data or otherwise, counter him. Then after both sides make their case, people should decide what is in the best interests of their community.

    If however that more rational conservative voice is not given a chance to make his case and is instead automatically called a racist, bigot, and xenophobe in an effort to discredit him and bar him from speaking, libertarians will have a major problem.

    His value system may reflect the short term economics and quality of service issues in his community while others may place more value on the human cost of turning good people away. Still others may not give crap about any of that and just want cheap labor for their farm or new people that will vote for democrats. haha

    As long as they all get their say and the market decides fairly, libertarians are fine with it.

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