(Saturday, May 19, 2018 8:19:02 PM)
CHICAGO — Harlem’s Mohamed Bamba set a wingspan record for the NBA Draft Combine, measuring at 7-foot-9¾. The shot-blocking center who played at Texas has helped his stock so dramatically the Knicks know they have no shot at Bamba falling to No. 9. Bamba, a probable top-five pick in June’s draft, was born and raised…
(Saturday, May 19, 2018 4:43:30 PM)
CHICAGO — Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo, who worked alongside David Fizdale in Miami for eight-plus years, said he believes the Knicks need to let Fizdale be Fizdale. After working under Miami president Pat Riley for 22 years, McAdoo is as old-school as it gets. The former Knicks All-Star center from the late 1970s still…
[NYTimes] Cavaliers 116, Celtics 86 | Boston leads series, 2-1: Cavaliers Turn the Tables and Dominate the Celtics in Game 3 (Sunday, May 20, 2018 4:06:40 AM)
LeBron James had 27 points and 12 assists, and Cleveland looked like a different team on its home floor, tightening the Eastern Conference finals with a 116-86 victory.
[NYTimes] The Liberty, in Transition, Make a New Home in the Suburbs (Saturday, May 19, 2018 2:41:17 PM)
The Liberty have a new coach, a new arena and an owner who wants to sell the team.
(Saturday, May 19, 2018 6:46:32 PM)
CHICAGO — Oklahoma guard Trae Young met with the Knicks at the NBA Draft Combine, but he isn’t sure if he’ll work out for them. He said he’ll let his agent decide that.
[NYDN] Knicks coach Fizdale meets up with Porzingis’ agent: source (Saturday, May 19, 2018 9:58:45 PM)
Knicks head coach David Fizdale took the first step toward building a relationship with Kristaps Porzingis.
(Saturday, May 19, 2018 11:45:09 AM)
There’s no certainty that Oklahoma G Trae Young will work out for the Knicks if they request one as expected.
(Saturday, May 19, 2018 10:05:29 AM)
Keith Smart will reportedly join David Fizdale’s coaching staff in New York, after working with him in Miami and Memphis.
29 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.05.20)”
The past 2 years, the Knicks start strong and then fade badly, looking sluggishly slow in the process. Doubters should compare random mid-November to mid-January games.
I can’t help but wonder if the team’s S&C is lacking (Both off-season and in-season). I’m hoping that Fizdale, with that Miami pedigree, can reverse that.
Kp definitely responded to Melo trade and started out redhot then faded .but yea if fizdake can keep us competitive throughout that’s great but I’m afraid he won’t. It’s going to be hard for him starting the season with the same team that lost 50 ish games.
Do you think the Lakers would bite on a Timmy for Deng + 1st rounder (#27) swap? We need to clear out the backcourt.
Then I would trade or stretch Lee and bring Noah back into the fold.
I think we’re drafting Sexton, so he can learn behind Burke and we can groom Frank as a 2. There’s plenty of backup there with Dotson and Baker.
We’ll probably let O’Quinn walk and roll with Kanter/Noah at the 5.
So we’d have:
pg: Sexton/Burke/Mudiay
sg: Frank/Dotson/Baker
sf: Deng/Bates-Diop/Williams
pf: kp/Thomas/Gary Clark
c: Kanter/Noah
Then we suck a lot, get a high 2019 pick, KP moves to center, and let our bad contracts run out.
Man, I’m kinda on board with full tanking, but that would be UGLY to watch hahahah.
A starting lineup of Sexton, Frank, Deng, Lance and Kanter for the first few months of the season before KP comes back might take the title of worst Knicks lineup of all time.
I’m ok with cutting the cord on Hardaway as I’m not confident at all he can still develop, but I think it’s not necessary to just dump him right now for a super late 1st plus Deng. It’s not like he adds many wins anyway, so why not keep him for a while, let him chuck it without KP and see if we can get something more.
i don’t think the lakers go fir that. It doesn’t give them cap space. we are waiting till September on stretching Noah. Stretching Lee is not what they are thinking.
Sexton makes no sense for us. We are taking one of two bridges unless carter falls through the cracks.
We must speak Sexton to the Knicks out of existence.
I remember when Lee and Eric Gordon were both on the table and both went for basically the exact same contract. Two years later, it’s interesting that Eric Gordon has had two of his healthiest and most productive seasons of his career while the Knicks are trying to get out from under Lee.
Is it because of Houston’s system, and him being a good fit next to Harden and Paul?
Nope.
The answer is obviously #DolansRazor
Im With you on no Sexton.
Lee is still uselful, a savy vet with playmaking skills to tutor our young guards. We don’t really need him but he is not a bad situation by any means.
We don’t need thjr, that is more of an albatross. That was a stupid overpay when we were committed to Lee, they play the same position. Ugh life as a knicks fan.
I’d be really surprised if we took Sexton. Mills pretty much came out and said we’re drafting a wing, and then Perry had to walk it back with “we clearly have a need at the wing but we’re drafting BPA”.
Perry is much more disciplined than Mills. Mills basically vomited up the room exception to Baker and the overpay for THJ because he just couldn’t wait to do something. But Mills already let the cat out of the bag that all things being semi-equal, we’re taking a wing.
Porter
Mikal
Miles
Knox
Troy Brown
would be my guess as the order but who knows?
Hardaway is still a useful player. It was a poor signing because of redundancy but at this point, he is only marginally overpaid, and easily our best wing player. Plus his age fits with our timeline. If we could move him for straight cap space or an asset then sure but for Deng would be an Isiah Thomas level bad trade.
I would love to move on from Lee since he should no longer be a starter and is not on our timeline at all but stretching him makes no sense. Why keep him on the cap for an extra two seasons we don’t need the cap space now.
As for Sexton let’s just pray we don’t take him. Also Frank is a PG people need to stop treating him like a wing. Maybe he turns out to be a bust but until then we need to keep trying to keep him at his natural position.
First off, Fiz talks about “guards” and seems very likely to want lots of 2-pg lineups, so Frank as an off-guard is not a big deal in the system. Call him a “secondary ball handler” if you will.
Second, I’m not advocating taking Sexton, but I do think they’ll take him if he’s there and Porter/Bamba are not. I don’t think they’ll go for a big like Carter, and I’m guessing they’ll opt for the “upside” of Sexton over Mikal.
It’s possible that Sexton will already be off the board though, which could be great if we could then grab Porter.
And for those that don’t know yet: THJr. sucks. He’s not getting significantly better, and Deng at one less year plus a pick would be great. Doubt LA goes for it though.
I think carter makes more sense but I doubt he will be available I’ll admot I don’t know that much about Sexton other than he is good but not great as a shooter.
Isn’t Sexton more of a “scoring guard” in a PG’s body than a point guard? He had some rather pedestrian assist numbers in the NCAA. How many two guards are we gonna have on this team?
If no one (Young, Porter Jr, Bamba) falls then I’d be down taking Zhaire Smith over Mikal Bridges. He is a pure 2 guard but only gives up 2 inches in height and wingspan to Bridges and is young enough to maybe grow another inch or two. His defense and athleticism are elite and he actually averages more rebounds and assists. Right now Bridges is a more complete player but Smith is a full 3 years younger.
Luka has quite a resume now. Youngest Euroleague MVP ever. It’s hard for me to see the team that rode Steve Nash almost to a title passing on Doncic but we shall see.
Whenever you think that the Knicks are “one or two pieces away,” remember that the Warriors are currently playing a lineup in which Klay Thompson is — by far — the worst ball handler/point-man on the floor right now (Curry, Thompson, Iguodala, Durant, Green). And the Rockets still might take them to 7.
I really like Smith too. I just can’t imagine us taking him. It would be great to trade down with the Clips to get him – or up to grab Doncic, who seems to be dropping, for that matter – but I can’t see us doing either. I guess you could just draft Smith at 9 and make some trades or juggle lineups a lot? Carter and Smith are the guys I want that could conceivably be at 9. And Tre, but I doubt that happens.
It’s being reported that Sac and ATL are likely to pass o Doncic. If the draft indeed fell Ayton, Bagley, Bamba (which sounds dumb as hell but you’re talking about three players with franchise level ceilings), I’d trade Tim Hardaway Jr, the #9 overall, a top 7 protected 2019 1st that turns into swap rights in the 2020 draft, the draft rights to Ognjen Jaramaz, and Dame Dotson for Chandler Parsons and the #4 overall selection.
I’d even give them the 2019 pick unprotected, the 36 overall pick, and 2020 swap rights if we could keep the 9th overall. I’d be jumping for joy if we got Luka Doncic and Michael Porter Jr on the same night. Trey Burke, Frank Ntilikina, Luka Doncic, Michael Porter Jr, and Kristaps Porzingis would be so much fun with David Fizdale as the coach.
So Memphis gets a pretty heavily protected first round pick and a bunch of shit that nobody wants for Luka Doncic. Yeaaah, I think they could probably do better than that.
They should give us Doncic AND at least 2 more picks for future HOFer Jaramaz smdh…
I think you are going to be able to trade up only in drafts where there is genuine disagreement among teams on who is the best player. Look at Philly’s trade with Boston where they traded for the number one pick. Boston did the trade because they disagreed with LA’s and Philly’s opinion on who was best. And even so, Philly paid a high price to move up two slots in the draft. This coming draft seems like that draft in that there is no agreement on who is the best pick. So maybe a deal is possible.
From what I read here, it seems that all the top prospects except Doncic have some flaw that might mean they might not be good in the NBA, despite having obvious talent and/or skills. So, contrary to my usual instincts, I would be willing to trade next year’s number one to get him. What else we have to give is the question. I am hoping that the league will value our next year’s number one very highly (because Knicks, of course). But i don’t want to give up next year’s number one and this year’s number nine to do the trade. I honestly doubt that is doable, but if wishes were horses . . .
I keep looking for reasonable deals to move up in this year’s draft, but I can’t find any. The problem is that the teams at the top of this year’s draft are going to want picks rather than players because they are all trying to do the process that Philly did. If Doncic fell as far as Dallas, maybe we could do something with them. For example, Kanter and next year’s top two protected first round draft pick for Matthews and their this year number five pick.
If Cuban gets rewarded with Doncic falling to them I will be so angry. I would instantly be on board with Hubert’s idea of just contracting those stupid ass franchises.
I’m pretty sure Memphis would jump at swapping Chandler Parsons for Tim Hardaway Jr considering Timmy is younger and more useful. Would they give up the #4 pick? Maybe not, but it’s possible. Then they get a 1st round pick, on draft night where deals are more “take it or leave it” considering the time to negotiate. To move back 5 slots they replace Parsons with a younger and more useful player, they get more draft capital, and they get two young guys who are decent gambles. Sometimes you have to have the balls to lowball a team on the spot and let their reasoning fail them.
And I’m starting to think Donte DiVincenzo is going to go in the lottery. He’s a good athlete, a knockdown shooter, a three level scorer, a good rebounder, and a good passer for an off guard. I think he goes as high as 8 to Cleveland but doesn’t get past LA.
If Doncic signs a 4 year deal with Real Madrid, how far does he fall in the draft?
Doncic is currently on a 4 year deal with Real Madrid.
I dunno, though. I just don’t see any point for Luka Doncic to leave Madrid to come play in Phoenix, Sacramento, Atlanta, or Memphis. It makes sense for him to skip this year’s draft if he can’t go to New York, Boston, LA, Chicago, or Miami.
Realistically, Frank + #9 + Chicago 2nd rounder maybe gets you the #4 pick. It’s a trade I don’t think anyone would laugh at. It all depends how Memphis feels about whoever they think will be there for them at 4 vs. 9.
As far as Parsons’ contract goes, I support getting assets by absorbing bad contracts, but I don’t see why Memphis, which is probably just starting a rebuild (maybe they try for another year of competitiveness if Conley seems healthy), would care about shedding salary. If they legit blow it up, they have a long road ahead of them before cap space becomes a relevant asset.
If that #4 pick is Doncic, I can see doing that. We then rely on Mudiay and Burke as our point guards though, which scares the hell out of me. I am a believed that in two years, Ntilikina will be very valuable.