Knicks Morning News (2018.05.30)

  • [NYTimes] Keeping Score: Rockets and Celtics Are Doomed by the 3-Point Shot
    (Tuesday, May 29, 2018 1:30:31 PM)

    The Celtics and Rockets lost largely because they could not make the long shots at home.

  • [NYTimes] Not at the Game: Over, Easy: A Basketball Aficionado Foresees the Warriors’ Surge Past the Rockets
    (Tuesday, May 29, 2018 1:15:48 PM)

    Fabulous Flournoy, a Bronx native, has been a player-coach for a professional team in Britain for the past 17 seasons.

  • [NYTimes] Warriors 101, Rockets 92: Warriors Dispatch Rockets, Setting Up Fourth Finals Against Cavs
    (Tuesday, May 29, 2018 2:39:56 PM)

    Down 11 points at halftime, Golden State rallied in the third quarter to beat the Houston Rockets, winning the Western Conference finals for a fourth consecutive year.

  • [NYTimes] On Pro Basketball: Look Who Answered LeBron’s Call: Jeff Green, the Former Celtic
    (Tuesday, May 29, 2018 1:23:37 PM)

    Green was a twice a Celtic before rising Sunday night to help defeat his former team in the conference finals and get LeBron James to yet another N.B.A. Final

  • [NYTimes] LeBron James in Game 6: 46 Points, 11 Rebounds, 9 Assists. (There Will Be a Game 7.)
    (Tuesday, May 29, 2018 3:36:55 PM)

    The Eastern Conference finals will be decided on Sunday in Boston. The Celtics are 10-0 at home this postseason.

  • [NYPost] Mark Jackson has nothing but praise for Knicks and new coach
    (Tuesday, May 29, 2018 7:22:40 PM)

    Knicks icon Mark Jackson — in his first public comments since being passed over for the head-coaching position at the Garden — took the high road when asked about being spurned by his former team. Jackson, who played six-plus seasons for the Knicks (1987-92, 2001-02), is still a fan favorite at the Garden and was…

  • [NYDN] Mark Jackson takes high road in discussing Knicks opportunity
    (Tuesday, May 29, 2018 11:18:11 AM)

    Mark Jackson didn’t want to get into hypotheticals or rehash his Knicks coaching candidacy because “that does nothing.”

  • [SNY Knicks] Hawks, Suns among teams looking at Knicks F Michael Beasley
    (Tuesday, May 29, 2018 3:52:19 PM)

    Knicks F Michael Beasley, who is an unrestricted free agent, has been generating interest from a few teams around the league

  • 98 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.05.30)”

    If nothing else, the Knicks can at least say that Steve Mills has the decency to just use reporters as his mouthpieces to voice whatever opinions he wants to have put out there, like a typical NBA executive, instead of this Bryan Colangelo clusterfuck.

    “Oh noes, they’re making fun of my collars! I have to get them to stop!”

    So, did anyone deal with any rabidly pro-triangle offense accounts from 2014-2017? Maybe ones that followed only people with obscure affiliations to the Bulls, Lakers, and the Albany Patroons?

    I am currently scouring the Twittersphere to see if there are “Bill Jackson” tweets from 2014-2017 that have made comments about Carmelo’s game.

    Steve Clifford is an odd choice in Orlando. Isn’t he basically just Frank Vogel all over again?

    Looking more at Mikal, he just seems like such an ideal fit for the current Cavs roster. At his age, he’s ready to contribute right away, he can defend 1-4 like no one else they have besides LBJ, and if they retain Lebron, they won’t need another lead ball handler. On top of that, he’s great in transition and adds to their already excellent group of 3-ballers.

    I suppose the Bulls could take him at 7, but they likely have greater needs. It will be a tough call if Carter falls to us. Not sure he’s an ideal fit with KP but he’d be hard to pass on.

    I bet Bryan Colangelo never thought he was gonna get caught, too.

    The Cavs are about to get wrecked in the finals and Lebron is going to take his talents somewhere else

    If any1 can get Lebron to come to nyc its steve mills. That guy is a true genius, and so humble! I worked closely with him for a long time. Also has a vry distinguished mustache.

    There’s a nice piece in the ringer today that illustrates some of the team-building philosophy I’ve been positing while discussing our draft pick. My belief is that we’ve gotten to a point in the league where players who can “single-handedly transform an offense” but need to be hidden on defense limit your ultimate upside. And while sure, it would be great to have a team that loses in the second round compared to what we’ve had around here, if given the choice, we should take players with lesser upside but greater two-way potential every time (i.e. not Trae Young or Michael Porter). The conference finals highlighted this, as really good players couldn’t be kept on the court. Here’s a snippet followed by the link:

    Conversely, having offensive threats at every position allows a team to punch above their weight. The Celtics’ strength-in-numbers approach allowed them to make it to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals without Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. They hunted down the weakest defender on the opposing team, whether it was J.J. Redick and Marco Belinelli for the 76ers or Korver and Kevin Love for the Cavs. After devastating the Raptors in the second round, Korver was an afterthought by the end of the conference finals precisely because Cleveland head coach Tyronn Lue couldn’t find a place to hide him. It’s no coincidence that his team’s best defensive effort against Boston came in Game 7, when Korver played a series-low 18 minutes.

    The importance of every player on the floor magnifies as the level of competition increases. Golden State was in control against Houston until Iguodala went down at the end of Game 3. The Warriors’ inability to find an adequate fifth option turned the series into a dogfight, even though they still had four All-Stars.
    https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/5/30/17407176/nba-finals-mismatches-3-and-d

    Stratomatic "Porzingis, Ntilikina, and one of the Bridges are going to lead us to the promised land"says:

    It has been very apparent to me (especially this year) that the current basketball strategy is to target the weak link on defense and force a switch. That’s precisely why I’ve been so against drafting Young and am generally negative on Kanter. If you can’t defend they will hunt you down and kill you. Against really good teams, players like that become unplayable.

    Stratomatic "Porzingis, Ntilikina, and one of the Bridges are going to lead us to the promised land"says:

    How do we know Charley Rosen even exists?

    I am Charlie Rosen and I am on assignment here working for Phil. It all makes sense now doesn’t it! 🙂

    Stratomatic "Porzingis, Ntilikina, and one of the Bridges are going to lead us to the promised land"says:

    There is some possibility the Cavs get killed by the Warriors, but then use their pick, the Brooklyn pick, and a couple of the young players they got at the deadline to bring in another star player to team with James and Love for next year to make 1-2 more runs.

    The Golden State Warriors employ a point guard who can’t stay in front of anyone and are probably the best team in NBA history. The just almost lost to a team with a shooting guard who barely tries to play defense, who would have also been a strong favorite in the NBA finals. The only team in recent NBA history to beat the Golden State Warriors in a 7 game series employed a point guard who is one of the worst defensive players in the NBA. Kyle Korver played 20, 25, 26 and 18 minutes in the Cavs 4 wins over the Celtics. He averaged 22:30 minutes a game, which is slightly more than his regular season average of 21:30, conclusively demonstrating the Cavs can’t play him in the playoffs, when the game is different and you can’t hide bad defenders.

    Jonathan Tjarks is the same guy who wrote an article explaining that Chris “Career Playoff BPM 8.2” Paul is too short to succeed in the playoffs. His analysis is shit.

    I still think they (or we) messed up by not making a Courtney Lee trade. He and Hill would have made a good backcourt. And we could have used that 25th pick

    @13 – I think that mostly applies to Trae Young. Porter theoretically could be an ok defender just because of his size and athleticism, whereas Trae Young could pack on 10-15 lbs of muscle and still be absolutely dominated on defense. he’s actually CP3-ish in size but has never shown the same defensive desire.

    I really believe it’s quite possible both Bridges are gone by the time we pick, and it’ll be Trae Young vs. Wendell Carter vs. reaching for another. These playoffs have shown just how valuable wing players are, and so I think after the top-rated bigs (Ayton, Bagley, Bamba, JJJ) and Doncic are gone, it very well may be Porter+Bridges+Bridges with the next 3 picks in some order.

    I guess at that point maybe I’d go Carter, who looks to be a really good player, but just not sure how he fits with KP.

    Can’t believe ESPN still has us drafting Sexton over both Bridges.

    Good thing Pusha T and Drake are filling the gap in the NBA playoff calendar.

    I still think they (or we) messed up by not making a Courtney Lee trade. He and Hill would have made a good backcourt. And we could have used that 25th pick

    They couldn’t afford to lose his veteran leadership.

    @17 – I think the point is that the Cavs would have been better off with a non-Korver 2-way player. Like- wouldn’t they much rather have had Courtney Lee who at least can semi-guard his position and shoot 3 pointers pretty well even though he doesn’t have the fastest 3 point release ever? So if you’re drafting someone to play in a 7 games series against the Warriors or Celtics, wouldn’t you rather have Courtney Lee than Kyle Korver?

    Korver, Clarkson, and Love (otherwise known as the 3 worst defenders on the team) also happened to have had the worst net ratings in the Boston series. The point isn’t that you can’t win with bad defenders, it’s that it’s harder to do so. And that in order to win championships with those players, you have to either play with Lebron James (Kyrie, Korver, Love) or be the greatest shooter in NBA history (Curry).

    So – if Trae Young = Steph Curry, then by all means we should draft him. If he absolutely shoots the lights out in workouts and the FO really does believe he has the kind of offensive upside, then I’d be perfectly happy with that pick.

    Given the dearth of big wing defenders in the league, I think it is sorta possible that Lance Thomas will be a trade asset this year. Not making that much money, partial guarantee on next year’s $, shoots 40% from 3, and has been known to not get steamrolled by Lebron/KD etc…

    Stratomatic "Porzingis, Ntilikina, and one of the Bridges are going to lead us to the promised land"says:

    Kyle Korver isn’t nearly as bad on defense as his reputation and Kyrie Irving/Steph Curry are among the best offensive and clutch players in the league ever. That’s a bit different than throwing Kanter and/or Burke out there or presuming that Young is going to be a superstar on offense. Young may be Isiah Thomas bad on defense and not Isiah Thomas good on offense. That would be a problem unless we are stacked on defense everywhere else.

    Are we really about to give Brad Stevens and his super Celtics credit for exploiting the Cavs defense that ranked 29th out of 30 teams? The 76ers defense didn’t necessarily fold in those games, either. It was more of Brett Brown getting outcoached (why give Dario Saric the ball in the clutch against Marcus Smart, the Celtics best defender) and Ben Simmons’ inability to shoot coming full circle against an elite defense like Boston’s own. You can absolutely win an NBA championship with a Trae Young level defender (about 2 steals per 40) on your roster, especially if you have an elite rim protector and elite pick and roll defender in the fold. We have both of those with KP and Frank Ntilikina. Steph Curry gets beat off the dribble all the time, and Kyrie Irving won a championship while being I think a bottom ten defender at his position.

    The best way to make your team better is to pick the best players available to you in the draft. If that happens to be Trae Young, then you take him. If it’s Michael Porter Jr, then you take him. If you happen to think that Young and Porter have lower ceilings because of their defense, then you’d also have to look at Ayton, Doncic, and Bagley because none of those guys showed too much ability on the defensive side of the ball. The only surefire two way prospects at the top of this draft are Bamba, Wendell Carter Jr, Jarren Jackson Jr, Miles Bridges and Collin Sexton. Mikal Bridges looks to be a defensive ace but his offensive game is limited so you can’t really call him a two way player. That doesn’t mean Ayton, Doncic, Bagley, Young, Mikal Bridges, Michael Porter Jr, or anyone else for that matter is undraftable. You put them into your system and you develop them the best way you know how to.

    The Golden State Warriors employ a point guard who can’t stay in front of anyone and are probably the best team in NBA history

    Curry is a better defender than you give him credit for. Yes, the Rockets targeted him mercilessly. But they only shot 46% when they isolated him as a defender. That’s about league average.

    There is a significant difference between carrying a league average defender and someone who can turn whatever man he’s guarding into Michael Jordan.

    Also, the dangers of having a bad defender at point guard are nothing like the dangers of having Enes Kanter. If your point guard gets beat you can rotate or collapse and live to survive another possession. If you center gets beat, that is two points or a foul every single time. You can move Steph Curry off Kyrie Irving and let Klay Thompson handle that action. Center is by far the most important position defensively because there is no substitute for rim protection. Pointing to Enes Kanter and saying “this is why we shouldn’t draft Trae Young” isn’t an accurate argument. Bad defensive point guards get to the NBA Finals all the time. Jameer Nelson was able to start on a Finals team because he had Dwight Howard on the back end. Clint Capela has people believing James Harden is an improved defender. Defense starts at the pivot.

    Stratomatic "Porzingis, Ntilikina, and one of the Bridges are going to lead us to the promised land"says:

    I’m pretty sure they will move Lee as long as they add a legit SF in the draft or as a free agent. Last year they had no real SF, Frank was supposed to be the PG, and Dotson was a lower level rookie.

    Now it looks like they are going to use Frank a bit at the 2, they know Hardaway is actually a 2, Dotson showed enough at the end of the season to get minutes and seems to be on the Fisdale’s “favored” list, and they still have Baker coming back. They won’t need Lee at all if they also get a SF .

    I don’t think Lee’s value has diminished at all. He had a good year last year and his salary increases are not unreasonable if the cap moves up at all. Plus now he only has 2 years left. The issue is more a matter of what he’s worth. They were holding out for a 1st rounder but they will have to take less.

    Stratomatic "Porzingis, Ntilikina, and one of the Bridges are going to lead us to the promised land"says:

    If you happen to think that Young and Porter have lower ceilings because of their defense,

    I think that’s the issue.

    Unless a player is a mortal lock to be a great offensive player, why would take a take a player that’s pretty much a mortal lock to be a bad defensive player. I see no reason to think Young is a mortal lock to be a great offensive player in the NBA. I’d be willing to bet Burke outplays him at least next year. (Porter I know very little about either way)

    Elite teams need offensive threats at every position. The playoffs have shown that it’s too easy to game-plan pure 3-and-D players out of a series.

    I mean, this argument assumes that getting to the conference finals and losing in 7 games shows that you are not an elite team, unless you are the Cavs, in which case you’re not elite even though you made the finals, so there’s only one elite team in the NBA, except for the Celtics who lost to the Cavs, a team with essentially one good player by the end of the series. It’s just complete bullshit.

    Trae would really benefit from playing with a rim defender like KP, and who’s to say Trae won’t improve his defense to below average? Stranger things have happened.

    I mean, it’s funny that we’re nitpicking when a team that has KD and Curry can barely make it out of the West alive. We definitely need to go BPA/highest upside, because we are many, many steps away. We all know that this season is a wash anyway, so Perry needs to 1. draft bpa, 2. get all these guys quality minutes and 3. be patient and find good trades.

    I mean, this argument assumes that getting to the conference finals and losing in 7 games shows that you are not an elite team, unless you are the Cavs, in which case you’re not elite even though you made the finals, so there’s only one elite team in the NBA, except for the Celtics who lost to the Cavs, a team with essentially one good player by the end of the series. It’s just complete bullshit.

    DRed spittin’ fire today

    Trae Young is about the same size as Conley when he came in. The next highest assist guy on Oklahoma was Christian James with 1.5 a game.

    With the enormous weight that he had to carry on offense its not surprising to see him give lackluster effort on defense at times.

    I mean, this argument assumes that getting to the conference finals and losing in 7 games shows that you are not an elite team, unless you are the Cavs, in which case you’re not elite even though you made the finals, so there’s only one elite team in the NBA, except for the Celtics who lost to the Cavs, a team with essentially one good player by the end of the series. It’s just complete bullshit.

    It’s possible your own point is that Tjarks sucks, in which case, go on.

    But the point I made was very clear:

    I believe we’re getting to a point where, in order to be a champion, you need 5 guys who don’t need to be hidden on either side of the ball (or LeBron). You can still be really good, maybe even elite, with a player who can single-handedly transform your offense. But as long as there are teams like Boston and Golden State who are building the way I’m telling you, there’s always going to be one team better than you because they’re not hiding anyone. I think this is a consequence of our current switch-heavy, positionless basketball trend.

    Frankly, this is why you were way off on Celtics, and why I was picking them from day 1. You can continue to fall back on your “they just made more shots than they should have” point, if you like. But that overlooks the fact that this is the precise reason they got so many good shots! They were always able to find the player who couldn’t defend his position because their 5 guys were interchangeable.

    Stratomatic "Porzingis, Ntilikina, and one of the Bridges are going to lead us to the promised land"says:

    These kind of debates depend on you time frame and goal. If you are thinking in terms of building a future contender for a championship your standards will probably be different than if you suck right now and are just trying to acquire any talent that will improve your team.

    It could also be Colangelo’s wife, I guess, but it pretty much has to be a Colangelo

    Maybe this is just the availability heuristic at play, but doesn’t it seem that Twitter is pretty much the worst thing that has happened to just about everybody?

    To me that ringer article suggests that you SHOULD draft Young or Porter over someone like Mikal Bridges as Bridges lack of offensive versatility will kill you against elite teams. If anything the playoffs suggest you should swing for the fences and take the guy with the highest ceiling because the only way to win is with transcendent offensive superstars.

    Porter Jr makes a lot of sense next to KP because he can dominate on the glass and spread the floor while being tall enough to play the four spot and force KP to the 5. Porzingis makes a ton of sense next to Porter Jr because he won’t fight him for rebounds and he’ll do a great job spacing the floor and cleaning up his defensive miscues. I just imagine teams having to go small ball against our 6’10”/7’3” front court and how unfair an advantage we would have. Then you have Frank Ntilikina who can switch on anybody 1-4 and Trey Burke who teams will not be able to keep out of the paint.

    When you have Frank Ntilikina, Kristaps Porzingis, and to a lesser extent Dame Dotson on your roster, you can afford a below average defender or two. Also, defense is a culture thing; if everybody around is buying in on defense and all you have to do is slide your feet and communicate, you’re going to elevate your play on that end. I think we’re in a unique position to draft a guy with defensive issues and teach him good habits. I’d rather have a transformative offensive player and teach him defense than have a guy who will Lance Thomas his way into a starting job.

    Trump was way ahead of Twitter. Remember how he posed in the 90’s as publicist John Barron on a phone call in order to defend himself?

    At least John Calipari was smart enough to have an intern do it for him.

    @43 great plan, all we need is for MPJ to slide to #9 now…..

    Those meaningless wins are now coming back to haunt

    @39

    I immediately thought about this too, but I think there weren’t as many #stayme7o as Melo himself would do.

    The draft is always a crapshoot but people keep downplaying young’s production. He had one of the greatest freshman seasons for a guard in the history of the NCAA. His offensive potential is the best in the draft and as close to a sure thing that you can get.

    ruruland has got to be Carmelo Anthony’s burner account, right?

    Ruruland would post on game threads, while Anthony was on the court. (The only reason I know this is because it seemed so obvious at the time that Ruruland was actually Carmelo Anthony that I was always surprised when his post would pop up while I was watching Melo holding the ball on the perimeter).

    But Reub, on the other hand, I’m more convenced now than ever, was almost certainly Bryan Colangelo pretending to be Phil Jackson. The similarities between “Eric Jr” and Reub are unmistakeable.

    No chance that the Warriors are the best team ever. The league is more talented now than at any other point but not on a team by team basis. The league has nothing close to a collection of talent on one team that could come close to matching the 80’s Lakers, 80’s Celtics, 90’s Bulls, 00’s Lakers or 00’s Spurs. Not. Even. Close. The 3rd best player on the best regular season team in the league and WCF finalist this year was who? Trevor Ariza? Clint Capela? Let’s take a break. Thanks.

    Stratomatic "Porzingis, Ntilikina, and one of the Bridges are going to lead us to the promised land"says:

    Ruruland would post on game threads, while Anthony was on the court. (The only reason I know this is because it seemed so obvious at the time that Ruruland was actually Carmelo Anthony that I was always surprised when his post would pop up while I was watching Melo holding the ball on the perimeter).

    La La

    The 3rd best player on the best regular season team in the league and WCF finalist this year was who? Trevor Ariza? Clint Capela? Let’s take a break. Thanks.

    Yeah, because Clint Capela is a fucking freak. The guy is one of the most productive players in the NBA. If you’re going to hold Scottie Pippen’s pocket for being the right guy (gritty wing defender) at the right time (90s legal hackathon defense), you need to give Capela credit for being the right guy (tall man who dunks the shit out of the ball, protects the fuck out of the rim and rebounds as well as anyone) at the right time, too.

    ruruland is a real person who has a job in sports journalism. I have verified this, but I’ll never dox him (nor anyone else on this board).

    Stratomatic "Porzingis, Ntilikina, and one of the Bridges are going to lead us to the promised land"says:

    @49

    I agree with your point about the concentration of talent on the best teams vs. the overall amount of talent in the league. However, even though Houston had the best regular season record, I think most people would say the Warriors were injured and coasting for a lot of the season. This Warrior team would give anyone fits at 100%.

    I love it — Warriors are about to win 3 of 4, were a hair away from #4, won 73 games–

    “In my day, we played REAL basketball…”

    GTFOH

    To me that ringer article suggests that you SHOULD draft Young or Porter over someone like Mikal Bridges as Bridges lack of offensive versatility will kill you against elite teams.

    That ringer article was bullshit though. I mean, having better players is always better (like if Trevor Ariza was good at creating off the dribble that would be better), but that Rockets team with the lack of offensive versatility lost in 7 games to one of the 3 or 4 best teams in NBA history after losing their second most productive player after going up 3-2. The Celtics came very close to losing to a team with pretty much zero versatile offensive players and then lost to a team with one. It is possible that you need a bunch of versatile offensive players to beat the Warriors, but the Warriors probably won’t be the Warriors much longer, and in any event you’re not beating the Warriors with 5 mediocre but versatile guys in your starting lineup. You need superstars to beat the Warriors. We need to get Harden and CP3 and Capela before we stress about getting Trevor Ariza but with a better handle.

    One of Maybe Colangelo’s tweets says “I’m a Philly fan but I’d trade the process for the unicorn in a heartbeat. Such a smarter player.”

    Get on the phone, Scott.

    DRed the rockets were getting run out of the conference finals when Iggy got hurt, with a healthy Chris Paul. Without Iggy, Golden State lost the interchangeability that made them superior and it became a slug fest. Otherwise it would have been 6, maybe 5, barely competitive games in which the series outcome was never in doubt.

    You’re unwillingness to even consider this is why you were so off the mark on the Celtics Sixers.

    ruruland is a real person who has a job in sports journalism. I have verified this, but I’ll never dox him (nor anyone else on this board).

    ruru was pretty open with his real name back in the day. Links to article he wrote, stuff like that.

    By the way, one of the benefits of just being me. “Oh man, you’ll never believe it! Brian Cronin is actually…Brian Cronin!”

    DRed the rockets were getting run out of the conference finals when Iggy got hurt, with a healthy Chris Paul.

    They were down 2-1 when Iggy got hurt (they were blown out twice, but they also blew the Warriors out once themselves). That doesn’t seem to be being “run out of the conference finals.”

    No chance that the Warriors are the best team ever… Not. Even. Close. The 3rd best player on the best regular season team in the league and WCF finalist this year was who? Trevor Ariza? Clint Capela? Let’s take a break.

    So what you’re saying is that there is literally nothing the Warriors can do to be considered even close to one of the greatest teams ever? Even if they win multiple championships, while winning the most regular season games ever, while being the statistically greatest offense of all time, while posting the greatest margin of victory of all time over the past three years?

    (Is cgreene the fake account of LaVar Ball, perhaps?)

    Maaaaan listen..forget the draft..forget The Finals..we need to talk about the real issues.
    Like….what in the entire hell is Drake gonna do now. Can Push play SF? If so, Perry needs to draft him at 9 lol.

    No, seriously..just a few random thoughts:
    1. Neither team in the finals shoulda be there. I really feel like both Boston and Houston had their respective series in the bag. In Cleveland’s case, it just shows the all time greatness of Lebron. Golden State’s may be more an example of firepower more so than greatness, because I think D’Antoni outcoached Kerr if only by a little. Houston caught Starks’ Syndrome and paid dearly for it.

    2. At 9, you can probably talk me into Sexton- but only if THJ can be moved or benched. It would be understandably difficult to trade him given his trade kicker, so if Porter doesn’t fall to us then maybe Perry should trade down for Troy Brown or Knox and BPA.

    3. Dubs in 5. Even Lebron doesn’t have enough magic to take this one

    It’s amazing just how much Vegas feels that the Cavs don’t have the slightest chance in hell of winning this series. They’re probably right, but it’s still interesting to see them putting out some historic odds out there. I feel like Lebron’s first Cavs Finals team had better odds against the Spurs than his current team has against the Dubs!

    IRL ruruland is probably a nice guy. He was pretty thick-skinned about being called an idiot all the time and took it mostly in good humor. He was just tragically, pitifully wrong about everything all the time, and it was just a little weird for a grown adult man to have such an unhealthy obsession with a specific player. But as a person he seemed okay.

    Reub was just an attention-seeking troll who was here to undermine and destroy the conversation, and is a piece of crap as a person.

    I think its a shame what’s happening to Colangelo. He’s too classy of a guy to respond to this stuff about him. Especially the stuff about his shirt collars.

    I think its a shame what’s happening to Colangelo. He’s too classy of a guy to respond to this stuff about him. Especially the stuff about his shirt collars.

    The collars stuff is just so amazing.

    He wears normal collars, Brian. Move on, find another slant.

    Stratomatic "Porzingis, Ntilikina, and one of the Bridges are going to lead us to the promised land"says:

    I really feel like both Boston and Houston had their respective series in the bag. In Cleveland’s case, it just shows the all time greatness of Lebron.

    Lebron was incredible, but imo a big part of why the Celtics did not close them out in game 7 was that they are a very young team without experience under extreme playoff pressure. They will get tougher mentally from this and learn how to control their nerves and the other symptoms of pressure over time.

    The same thing is true of the 76ers. They did not execute as well down the stretch of some games because they even less experience than the Celtics.

    Perry and Mills understand the daft math. They also understand that part of player development is playing in important games. Eventually KP, Frank, Dotson, and whoever we draft this year are going to have to go through the “process” of fighting for the playoffs, getting into the playoffs, getting deep into the playoffs, and then finally getting good and mentally tough enough to break through and become a serious contender. The worse we are next year the better the pick will be in 2019, but if we don’t make the playoffs again (and that seems likely with KP out) the longer and further out the developmental process is going to be for the young players we already have.

    Upon further reflection, I hope we don’t take Carter at 9. I know some people here are high on him, but it would doom Zing to playing the 4 permanently. I don’t see how this team can compete in the playoffs with Zing chasing wing 4s (Tatum, Saric, Giannis) around the perimeter. And Carter is too slow to switch around the 3pt line.

    Of the guys that will plausibly be available, my preference is:

    1. Porter
    2. Trae
    3. Mikal
    4. Miles
    5. Carter

    I don’t think Porter and Trae are all that plausibly available at #9. Unless Porter is career-altering injured, of course.

    Stratomatic "Porzingis, Ntilikina, and one of the Bridges are going to lead us to the promised land"says:

    This burner account stuff doesn’t bother me much.

    Public figures are often bashed relentlessly by biased members of the media, incompetent bloggers, trolls, and fans etc… Things that are totally false or spun become accepted as true. It has to be monumentally frustrating to not be able to respond & blow off some steam in defense of yourself when you know what’s being said is false, biased, or not the full story.

    If this Colangelo stuff is mostly true (there’s some evidence one of the accounts may be his father’s), 90% of it is just embarrassing and may require an apology to a player here or there. Unfortunately it sounded like some of it was inside information on injuries and trades. The NBA can’t be too thrilled with some of that.

    By the way, one of the benefits of just being me. “Oh man, you’ll never believe it! Brian Cronin is actually…Brian Cronin!”

    well…i’m actually me…

    crickets chirping…

    Obviously having more skilled threats is better on offense, but Giannis hit 77% of his shots inside 3ft against the Celtics and he can’t shoot for shit and had one guy on his team who hit over 33% of his 3s in that series. And they came very close to beating Boston.

    I just want to totally agree with Clashfan about, well, everything. I mean, he brought this board the knowledge of Deadwood to the uniformed. He’s too classy to ever say this himself, of course, and his shirt collars are beyond reproach. The Brian Cronin guy is not bad, also.

    Furthermore, Masai pretty much has done nothing with Toronto…they haven’t improved an iota since the previous GM. And this whole “Process” stuff is nonsense. The Sixers improved by 24 games this season. Where was Hinkie? That’s right, gone. Tanking does not work.

    Wait, what account am I on right now?

    The twitter sleuths say the burner accounts seem to match up with Colangelo’s wife’s phone number

    @Brian Cronin are you the Brian Cronin from the Comic Books Resources site?

    Jarred Vanderbilt is keeping his name in this year’s draft. If he didn’t get hurt he probably would have gone 9th overall to us. I’d be tempted to trade back into the late first to draft him, but I think his not participating in the draft means he got a 1st round promise. I’d love to have him on the Knicks as a combo forward type.

    That story doesn’t make any sense, though. Why don’t they just ride out the year with Faried, it’s the last year of his deal? Is it really worth the 14th pick to clear cap space for who? Who’s going to Denver so that they can grab the 7th seed and get ousted in the first round?

    Man I would be so excited if the Knicks could land Porter Jr or Miles Bridges with our 1st pick and then land Jarred Vanderbilt with our 2nd pick. Frank Ntilikina, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Kristaps Porzingis would be an unfair amount of length defensively and Vanderbilt, while he can’t shoot yet, can handle the ball pretty well and rebounds about as well as anybody ever according to multiple sources. If there’s anyway we can address our wing positions in this draft, we could target one of Darius Garland or Romeo Langford to head up our point guard position in the 2019 NBA Draft, as both players are regarded as better prospects than either of Sexton and Young.

    Shit I would trade for Kenneth Faried so fast if it meant we could get the 14th pick to use on Jarred Vanderbilt. They owe us one for the Mudiay trade.

    I think most mocks.have Vanderbilt in the mid 2nd. We should definitely reach for him with our 2nd rounder, or acquire a late first via black magic for him. Dude was gonna be a legit lotto pick pre injury and still has all the skills besides the poor shooting.

    We could trade Courtney Lee for Faried and the fourteenth pick straight up. The Nuggets dont lose salary, but they need a shooting guard more than they need Faried. We’re probably going to lose Beasley and O’Quinn to other teams so we probably have space for Faried.

    According to Woj, this Jowles favorite is on the block, with the 14th pick as possible sweetener. What is this world coming to??!

    I know, right? How could an injured 28-year-old undersized PF with no 3PT shot on a $12.5M AAV deal have become less valuable than when he was making $1.5M AAV at age 22-25? Crazy! So weird!

    The Knicks need to get rid of Kanter and keep KO and Beasley. I’d offer KO 3 years and $21M and Beasley I’d probably offer 2 years and $14M. In 2020, we’d have a really solid bench with Dotson, Beasley, O’Quinn, and Burke if we could keep him around and draft Garland or Langford in 2019. I’m already imagining a top 9 of Garland, Ntilikina, Porter Jr/Miles Bridges, Vanderbilt, Porzingis, Burke, Dotson, Beasley, and O’Quinn, and that’s exciting as shit.

    It’s so much fun living in the heads of the haters in here. And rent free too!

    MAGA
    KAG
    Trump2020
    Fuck off

    Haha, he lurks! He lurks this board waiting for his name to pop up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    aaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahh I’m dying

    The Knicks need to get rid of Kanter and keep KO and Beasley.

    I didn’t intend to suggest we shouldn’t keep them, I just think it’s unlikely we actually do keep them. For Beasley, there are already interested teams and I suspect he wants a long term contract. The Knicks are probably not going to want that long a contract. O’Quinn is underpaid and I think it will be the same with him. I’d rather keep him than Kanter, but if Kanter opts in, we may not have space for O’Quinn.

    I’d re-sign Beasley to the vet min for tanking purposes and let him walk otherwise. Dude is not a good basketball player and doesn’t even have the Lance Thomas “intangibles”

    That story doesn’t make any sense, though. Why don’t they just ride out the year with Faried, it’s the last year of his deal? Is it really worth the 14th pick to clear cap space for who? Who’s going to Denver so that they can grab the 7th seed and get ousted in the first round?

    I think it has to do with clearing space to give Jokic his max deal a year early. If they believe that Jokic will not re-sign with them unless they make him restricted and then max him now, then they might be willing to do that. In that case, they might need to clear cap space to do it while making other moves.

    @Brian Cronin are you the Brian Cronin from the Comic Books Resources site?

    That’s the one!

    That story doesn’t make any sense, though. Why don’t they just ride out the year with Faried, it’s the last year of his deal? Is it really worth the 14th pick to clear cap space for who? Who’s going to Denver so that they can grab the 7th seed and get ousted in the first round?

    I think it has to do with clearing space to give Jokic his max deal a year early. If they believe that Jokic will not re-sign with them unless they make him restricted and then max him now, then they might be willing to do that. In that case, they might need to clear cap space to do it while making other moves.

    Probably true, but I think they also see they don’t use him at all and he’s taking up a roster spot, so they would rather get value for him. There aren’t that many teams with free cap space to just absorb his contract, which is why I thought they might like Lee. After all, they probably want to be contenders next year so filling a position of need would help them.

    To see why I think they won’t just trade him into someone’s cap space, take a look at the link below. No team has enough current cap space to take him on. Next year, only the Hawks, Kings, Bulls, 76ers and potentially the Mavericks and Suns will have enough free cap space. That is not a huge market, given that some of those teams will want to spend their cap space on free agents instead of on Faried.

    http://www.spotrac.com/nba/cap/2018/

    The twitter sleuths say the burner accounts seem to match up with Colangelo’s wife’s phone number

    At least now the shirt collar remarks make sense!

    🙂

    Haha, he lurks! He lurks this board waiting for his name to pop up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    aaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahh I’m dying

    I know, I almost spit out my iced tea when I saw his hot take. He thinks he “lives in the heads” of the “haters,” meanwhile he’s outside, peering over the fence, uninvited from the reindeer games, creating burner accounts to occasionally chime in before getting re-banned. Fucking CLASSIC.

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