Knicks Morning News (2018.06.20)

I still can’t believe that we would go Knox over Miles, who is better at literally everything but is a few inches shorter. I’m hoping this is just a ploy to trade down and pick up an extra asset.

Bamba is now falling to 8th on nbadraft.net. I’m offer Cleveland the 9th pick, the 36th, and anyone they want other than Frank and KP.

What development infrastructure?

Someone yesterday quoted Givony as saying Young had a bad workout with us and thus we won’t take him. That bums me out. He’s far from a perfect prospect, but if he slips to 9, I’d take him all day over any of these wings, regardless of our stupid roster construction. He and Frank seem like great complements.

Givony tweeted that JJJ refused to work out for Memphis and will not provide a medical either. So JJJ, Porter, and Bamba have all indicated they don’t want to play for Grizz. However, so far no reporting that Doncic would be averse to playing there. Maybe we should therefore hope that Hawks take Luka. Grizz might not want to draft a player who doesn’t want to be there so if Ayton, Doncic, JJJ, Porter and Bamba are not options, a trade down might make some sense for them.

Givony or Woj is reporting that Clips are adamant in not wanting to take Parsons contract so there might be some hope for us. KP and JJJ would be so awesome together. Both are PnPop guys on offense and JJJ could be main screen-setter and dive guy on PnR. They could flex between the 4/5 on defense. JJJ could cover the guy who’s more lethal in the PnR. The rim protection might be the best in NBA history: both of these guys had incredible block rates playing the 4.

I think the max offer I would make is #9, 2019 top 3 protected, #36, Timmy (or Courtney if they prefer him), Troy, Baker. I’d be reluctant to include Burke or Dot in any deal. They’re both above average reserves at a minimum and Dotson offers potential when you consider how he played in April when given regular minutes. I even view Dot + Burke > 2019 pick.

I still can’t believe that we would go Knox over Miles, who is better at literally everything but is a few inches shorter. I’m hoping this is just a ploy to trade down and pick up an extra asset.

…and a few years younger…

Why are the same people who were so high on Frank Ntilikina despite him not being particularly good at anything in France are so down on Knox? Isn’t it virtually the same story?

I know people are trying to convince themselves about Knox as a swing for the fences type pick because he is so young with good size, but I don’t see it. Two other players projected in or around the lottery are about the same age JJJ (one month younger) and Zhaire Smith (two months older). Both of them are also raw with offensive games that need to develop the difference is that both of them, do some things at elite levels. The things they do at elite levels are things that age does not effect like athleticism, motor, and defensive effort. Knox is missing those things and being young is not an excuse for not getting after it defensively or not having a great motor or not having great quickness.

Being young isn’t enough of a strength when there are no glimmers of upside to go with it. I look at Jackson or Smith or even Frank and I can see how they could become all-stars, I can see the path to them being elite players. The chance of that happening is debatable and ultimately determines their value but I can imagine it. When I look at Knox with not a single elite strength and real weaknesses (effort, motor, quickness) in areas that being young does not excuse and I struggle to even see a path to him being great.

Please no Knox. Ultimately that’s all I ask. There are other players I don’t want but Knox is truly the worst possible outcome.

I’m not making a deal with Memphis unless Doncic is there. Hardaway Jr and Mikal Bridges to Memphis for Doncic and Parsons.

Frank’s passing was hardly “good” in France. It was mediocre at best. His D was also overrated, he made plenty of mistakes. Most of the good stuff about his D was based on “upside” rather than accomplishment.

This is not to defend Knox, only to say that we should be consistent in our values.

Wasn’t a lot of the “hype” on Frank based on him being MVP at the European U18 Championship?

Why are the same people who were so high on Frank Ntilikina despite him not being particularly good at anything in France are so down on Knox? Isn’t it virtually the same story?

It seems to me people have a tough time seeing shades of grey or nuance about anything these days. Everything is one extreme or the other.

We should not be looking exclusively at current production because projections sometimes don’t work well.

We should not be looking at just projections because we have to swing for the fences.

We should be looking at current production, making projections, and trying to evaluate the probability that our projection will be correct (because that varies from player to player also based on IQ, work ethic, athleticism, age etc..).

It’s an overall appraisal process.

It’s worth keeping in mind that NBA teams lie a lot this time of year. Still, if we’re going to draft a project to develop I’d rather start with someone like De’Anthony Melton, who seems like a very good defender and you hope you can get him to play offense than a guy who might be good on offense and try to develop the rest of his game. Knox is fine for the late first round, don’t waste a good pick on another guy who has to get better at everything if you can take some kid who is also still young but has demonstrated better production.

It seems to me people have a tough time seeing shades of grey or nuance about anything these days. Everything is one extreme or the other.

Are you speaking of the Knicks or politics 🙂

@23

I don’t have a strong opinion on Knox. I’ve been a big Mikal guy all along, but now I’m kind of wondering about that. A buddy of mine has sort of convinced me there’s not a huge difference between Mikal and Dotson in size, player profile, or on upside to think we have to take Mikal. So I am starting to think about alternatives. But I’m not a huge fan of Young or Miles for different reasons. So I think the Knox idea is at least worth investigating.

@27

I think all the box score models are flawed in different ways and can occasionally misvalue players with certain profiles by a significant amount. I also think they are measuring a player’s productivity given his current role on that team, with those teammates, and in that system now. At the margin those things matter and can be changed.

So I see the middle ground here too.

I understand that KP has not been as productive as the most extreme hype, but I also know the models are undervaluing his defense and can’t capture how easy it would be make him more productive.

Concerning Knox, the problem is we’re not privy to a lot of important information. For example, Schmitz is very high on him; he’s been following him since high school and says he was a tenacious defender there and is a smart kid. Then there’s the workouts. Apparently he’s been killing it in group workouts so I’d imagine he’d have to look decent on defense. I’d rather take Carter at #9 but after him all of the options have issues. If NYK take Knox, I would have to trust that front office did its due diligence and talked to Knox and all of his previous coaches to figure out why his college stats were so blah. Was it a combination of it being a Kentucky thing, his age, playing out of position? I have no idea but I’m not gonna be too broken up because it’s not clear Miles/Mikal/Walker…and so on are *that* much better bets. Knox is at least very young and plays a position of need so if its a crap shoot I’m not gonna lose sleep if they pick him.

I’d much prefer a Grizz trade up, a Clip trade down, or Wendell Carter but if none of those are options what are you gonna do? We just have to trust that the front office did its due diligence. The front office that gave THJ that contract. The front office that took so long to call Burke up from G-league. The front office that looked at Denver tape and thought Mudiay was worth a 2nd round pick and should take minutes from Burke and Frank. The front office that let Hornacek play crappy vets last season instead of giving guys like Dot, Luke, Hicks, etc more burn. Ugh…I’m depressed.

@32 +1

@ 33 – I don’t completely agree with this. Last year, yes, it was basically the consensus that the Knicks were going to take Frank BUT also last year it was much more set in stone what the draft order was going to be. Also, if you went back to the day to day articles that came out in the few weeks leading up to the draft, there absolutely were articles about the Knicks liking this prospect or that prospect.

Also, one KEY difference. Last year Phil Jackson was still technically running the show up until I think maybe today was the day he was fired?

Zanzibar you need to chill out. You’re focusing on minor moves that the front office supposedly made that are in your eyes so awful. So if Burke came up a week earlier, would that have been good enough for you? Seems silly to focus on when we brought up Burke as to some empirical proof our new front office is incompetent. How many people kill the D-League and then suck in the NBA (cough cough Jimmer).

@ 39 – I’m from Tennessee (Nashville) and have spent A LOT of time in Memphis. Great food, cool music history, Beale Street is fun…its a fun place….to visit for a long weekend.

I would not want to live there and I can see why a lot of NBA players wouldn’t want to live there. Its a third tier city. There’s a ton of poverty and racism in Memphis. And unlike other mid sized cities its size…its not growing at all. The population is declining (people moving away when they grow up) and their tax base is shrinking. Again, super fun place to visit. Graceland, Beale street, Sun and Stacks Records…and it does have some old southern charm factor to it. But there’s a lot of problems there too.

I think last year everyone thought we’d take frank IF the picks ahead of us went as expected.

I suspect it’s the same this year. IF those players expected to be there at 9 are – Bridges x 2, Sexton, SGA etc, it looks like we’re going Knox. But I still think if a top 8 guy falls, we’ll pick him. I’m not wild with that but I think I’m ok with it. I’d still explore dropping a couple of slots because I think Knox will be there for us if we do.

I have to say, every word that Michael Porter Jr. utters makes him sound more and more like a complete douche. It’s a real concern.

I’m not making a deal with Memphis unless Doncic is there. Hardaway Jr and Mikal Bridges to Memphis for Doncic and Parsons.

I don’t understand this thinking. Parsons contract is nothing to us. We’re currently staring down the barrel of Kevin Knox at 9. At 4 I’m guaranteed to get one of Luka, Jackson, Bamba. I’m doing that trade today and I don’t care if Luka is there.

@47

Yeah, I saw that, it’s incredibly fucked up if true. I’d tell the team rep to forget about drafting me if that happened to me.

https://twitter.com/JakeLFischer/status/1009464319036313602

If NYK take Knox, I would have to trust that front office did its due diligence and talked to Knox and all of his previous coaches to figure out why his college stats were so blah.

This is where we diverge. I don’t trust Mills and Perry. I think they think they’re in love with athleticism, aesthetics, and other things that don’t matter if you can’t produce.

EDIT: sorry, I should have kept reading!

The front office that gave THJ that contract. The front office that took so long to call Burke up from G-league. The front office that looked at Denver tape and thought Mudiay was worth a 2nd round pick and should take minutes from Burke and Frank. The front office that let Hornacek play crappy vets last season instead of giving guys like Dot, Luke, Hicks, etc more burn. Ugh…I’m depressed.

Dallas apparently wants to move to Memphis spot, I have no idea why.

To the Knox – Ntilikina thing: the reason I don’t want Knox is precisely because we got Ntilikina last year. We can’t have too many projects who we are unsure of their futures as the strategy, it gets to a point where you keep trying to swing for the fences and it is very hard to pull off the development necessary.

I liked Ntilikina because the defense seemed a sure thing and he reportedly had elite work ethic and a good basketball IQ. I still think it was a good pick even though I’m disappointed in his offensive game, simply because I didn’t see any other prospects at the time that were more guaranteed to have success (I didn’t see Mitchell being good this early). This year, there are veritable prospects who have shown better production like Mikal and Miles or Carter and Knox only has the body, he’s not shown anything to tell me he’s going to be good at anything specific in the NBA. He’s too much of a project for my taste, for a team that already has a couple of guys to develop in that sense.

Kevin Knox is a full year younger than Michael Porter Jr.- if he’d spent last year beating up on high school kids he’d probably have gone into next year as a preseason consensus top three pick so just think of drafting him as trading up without having to give away anything!

You know what I don’t get? How can Vegas be taking bets on when players will be drafted? Isn’t that information that people have access to?

It is kind of odd, but I have to assume they adjust the odds very quickly if they get too much action on certain players and probably also limit the bet sizes so no one crushes them with inside info.

Seems like he’s just a dick to everyone.

Look I think everyone knows that whoever we draft is going to be bad next year, hell it has been mentioned many times here that Durant wasn’t good his first year statistically and he was way more accomplished then any of these guys coming in. A lot of these guys make huge jumps there second and third years, knox has a great physical profile but is he willing to work as hard as PG, Giannis, KD, Kawaii or hell even Tobais Harris. Our scouts need to make that call, I’ve liked most of their picks.

What do guys here want the knicks to do draft good players with low ceilings and build a playoff team that can attract a marquee free agent to put us over the top? Or to gamble in the draft tell we hit a blue chip? I’m more inclined for the second route because I’m okay with us being bad for a couple of more years but the first strategy merits value. Ideally Frank comes back next year as a much better shooter(showing our player development is good) and our rookie sucks but shows potential landing us a top 3 pick.

Kevin Knox screams to me of a Malik Monk type. Terrific shooter, limited handle, no creation, and putrid defense. Count me out.

I ran a query on NCAA freshmen considered guard/forwards with steal, block, and assist rates less than or equal to Knox’s. To say the results aren’t pretty would be an enormous understatement. 95 players came up, zero of them became NBA contributors. Hi Travis Wear!

Seriously this guy is going to be a bust and if we take him we can go ahead and fast forward the next 8 seasons or so.

Re: Frank – the reason some of us (I think me?) were high on him is because of yes, his physical frame, but also his reputation as a defensive-minded high IQ player. We were most worried about drafting guys like Monk and DSJ who are/were basically the definition of empty calories — dudes who put up big numbers on bad teams. That’s what the Knicks have prioritized over this last 17 year disastrous stretch – guys who put up empty numbers. Drafting Frank was basically the opposite of the usual “Knicks gonna Knick” ethos. DX’s draft profile basically called him the most polished defensive guard in the draft — that was not something we had to project. They also said he was a high IQ player with a strong feel for the game with good passing ability and a promising jump shot but that he would require several years to mature on the court. I think they were basically spot on in that analysis.

Re: Z-man’s post above:

Frank’s passing was hardly “good” in France. It was mediocre at best. His D was also overrated, he made plenty of mistakes. Most of the good stuff about his D was based on “upside” rather than accomplishment.

Wow I did not realize you watched Frank since puberty in France like the DX guys did?

Now Knox is actually 2 weeks younger for his class than Frank. DX is saying similarly good stuff about him, and like someone posted above, they’ve been watching him since age 15 or earlier. It seems they probably have a better handle on what his projection should be than armchair scouts watching youtube highlight videos for the last 5 days. I’m nervous about his lack of statistical production, just like everyone else is.

But – the one thing this franchise has done well even during the last 10 years is draft well. Clarence Gaines is still there. The European scouts are still there. John Gabriel is still there. I have a little hope they know what they’re doing, and I think it’s justified.

Re: Sacramento – I actually spend a fair amount of time there — it’s really not that bad. The downtown area is pretty nice and there really are some nice neighborhoods. It’s 2 hours from SF and and 2 hours from Tahoe. It’s certainly no worse than OKC, Atlanta, San Antonio, Cleveland, Detroit, Memphis, or any number of other cities in terms of the actual city.

I wonder if they really would benefit from dumping Vlade. Not sure any agents / players trust him to build something the right way.

Shit..why did we not get on the Howard trade? We need to find someone to send to Charlotte asap! I get the value in the picks..but Howard was an expiring! An expiring they traded for a lesser but more expensive player and 2 2nds! Considering that they have younger bigs they want to get in the rotation, I would think they’d take back Noah and the 30 for Howard. That would be worth it to me especially if it causes Kanter to go elsewhere

@67 hey wait, there’s some other interesting names on that list:
David Robinson (not the real one)
Basil Smotherman
Lasse Gummerus

Howard to the Nets is the big move of 2012, only in 2018!

Just noticed I typed 30 and not 36 in both comments…
iStoopid

Why doesn’t knox show up in that querry?

I personally think this is Howard’s last chance. He’s 32 and still productive, he’s going to a young team that can focus their offense around him and who needs badly the rebounding and blocking he can provide if he’s focused. If he fails to make an impact again, there’s no way he ever gets a big deal anymore.

I like the deal for the Nets simply because if Howard is terrible, they finally have their own pick and are he’s gone next year. If he’s good they’re finally respectable and still have a lot of cap space to work with. The Nets have been clearly fishing for players who are at their lowest value possible and trying to see if something comes out of it.

Lin / Russell / Hollis-Jefferson / Carroll / Howard should be a pretty competitive team and they have a lot of depth. That’s also good news for the Knicks if we do indeed suck as it’s a rival for the lottery getting better (and unless the Hornets trade Kemba away they’ll still be mediocre)

I wish Phil Jack or even Mike Maccagnan was in charge for this week only; Don’t trust Perry and Mills combo leading the negotiation with Memphis.

Luka and/or Mamba could be in HOF.

Trae, Begley and JJJ, Ayton are all stars in the making…

Perry and Mills are lillygagging and window-shopping with Dolan’s deep pockets.

Noah + 36 for Howard’s expiring is much better than Jordan gave and got from Brooklyn.

I have to admit that I’d feel more secure about this draft if it were Phil in charge. The deal to Timmy, the trade for Mudiay, the buzz around Knox…I’m worried.

That said, I’ll reserve judgment until we see what happens. If it is indeed Knox, it’s just another nail in the coffin of my Knicks passion. Not that it’s impossible he works out, but that would contradict every available bit of information.

Best case is that Chicago or someone takes Knox before he gets to us….

Jesus, I think Frank is getting up to 6’8 based on that picture with the other youngbloods.

If this keeps up we’ll have to move KP back to PF and use Frank as the Point Center. 🙂

@87

1. Yes.

2. Mills and Perry giving Fisdale a lot of input makes me trust Fisdale less.

It might be happening!!! Hoping against hope, but also hoping we trade up for not MPJr or Bamba.

Members of the Knicks organization met in-person with Texas’ Mohamed Bamba in New York today, team sources told ESPN. The meeting is an indication that the Knicks are considering trading up from the No. 9 pick. Bamba is projected as the fifth pick in ESPN’s latest mock draft.

https://twitter.com/IanBegley/status/1009541642389516288?s=19

I have to say that the Knicks scouting is probably the best thing the organization does. And I’m definitely one of those armchair guys that’s only been watching Knox highlights for a few days. But his stats are pretty terrible (someone comped him to McDermott based on statistical profile). I’m just extra cranky about the latest Knox love (according to rumors) bc I think there’s a real chance Trae or WCJ are on the board at 9. And I haven’t heard a single report about Knicks having any interest in Wendell and it sounds like they didn’t like Young at his workout. Someone posted that we’d only go Knox if “The 8” are gone but I’m not so sure. If Magic draft Trae, Bulls go MPJ, and Cavs go Mikal or Sexton (very possible), do the Knicks leave WCJ on the board bc he’s not an athletic wing? I have no confidence we pick him even tho he’s obviously BPA.

I don’t understand why Luka is not the 1st pick of the draft. KP barely got playing time at 19yrs for a mediocre 14 win Sevilla team and he made the All star team here 3 years later. Not your Darko and Bargnani type weak Euro. Dont judge a book by its cover. Not all Euro’s are the same. Is KP weak mentally? kid turned super loud boos into cheers quickly and took on a boss with the legendary stature of Phil Jack at 20 yrs old. KP walks the streets of Manhattan without the bs fake flash or security team but with character, authenticity and his head up high.

Luka too is full of that “NY GRIT”. He quit school and left his home and country at 13yrs old to pursue his dream; Played professionally vs men who tried to bully him since he was 16 yrs old. Coaches and Spanish Madrid media who said he was to slow, too green after every bad game at 17 yrs old. Two yrs later he was the toughest man on the court, Champion and MVP.

Now he’s done with that league. Luka is more naturally polished and further along than LBJ was at 19. If healthy, I guarantee you he makes the all-star team in his rookie year.

Givony just tweeted:

Ian’s report is accurate. The Knicks are reportedly exploring the option of trading up to the #4 spot in the draft, currently owned by Memphis. The Grizzlies have been adamant about shedding Chandler Parsons’ contract in any deal.

I’d be over the moon if we could get Doncic at 4, and pretty excited if we got JJJ. If we’re moving up to 4 to get Bamba I’m less excited. Not sure he’s much better of a prospect than the guys who will be available at 9 (leaving aside the issue that we currently seem to be looking at the wrong guys at 9 to my eyes).

I guess the Knicks are afraid that the Bulls will take Knox at #7, so they are trying to move all the way up to 4 to get their guy.

🙂 ?

I love the way Doncic plays on the offensive side of the ball, but DeAndre Dayton is the clear #1 pick. MVP potential.
Someone unexpected is going to drop to the #9 spot that’s higher risk than Mikal. Will the knicks pull the trigger?

If it’s just a pick swap with say Lee and Thomas and we eat Chandler’s contract we’d be stupid not to

My guess is that the Knicks would at least have add #36 to the mix. That I’d still do. If you have to add another pick (or swap) or Frank I’d pass unless Doncic is there. I still think Memphis will get a better offer though with lots of teams looking to create cap space for next year maybe not.

If it’s just a pick swap with say Lee and Thomas and we eat Chandler’s contract we’d be stupid not to

Might be time to take our 5.5m cash out of the vault and dangle it in front of new Memphis owner.

moving up to 4 could be anywhere from great to horrible. so, probably horrible.

According to my translator which projects trades based on Mudiay deal, NYK will offer #9/2019 pick/Frank/Burke/Dotson for #4/Parsons/McLemore.

In other news, 76ers bringing Knox in for a 2nd workout.

Porzingis, Bridges, Williams, Frank and Baker. Let’s shoot 3s and steal the basketball.

Absolutely! And block it.

I can’t tell if I think the #9 + Timmy or Lee is a good deal for Memphis because I’m a Knicks fan or it actually is…but it does seem like a playoff team to me, and reportedly that’s what Memphis wants (along with getting out from under Parsons’ deal).

I’m in favor of trading up to any spot as long as it involves someone presently on their roster except for KP.

If they include next year’s first, it better be for Luka and the hype better be real…

Otherwise, get the best available talent at #9 and work on getting the veterans off the team or at least out of the lineup.

Yup, I said it.

Hey, if Frank and Dotson lead us to forty wins I won’t complain. If we get thirty we add another #9 to this years #9 and last years #8.

Maybe we sit KP all year…Win 10 games. Pick 8th again.

Love yas. Thanks for the knowledge. Peace.

I think the reason a potential Memphis deal has gained some steam is Atlanta is settling on Doncic and thus the #4 pick has lost a decent amount of value. I’d definitely accept a Parsons-THJ/Lee swap to move up and probably would surrender #36 as well, but not sure adding much else makes sense if we know Luka is gone. That said, picking from JJJ/Bamba/Young/Carter is a lot more appealing than picking from The Brothers Bridges/Kevin Knox/Lonnie Walker.

It’s funny to me to remember that in 2010-2011 we had a 3-way MVP race between 22 year-old Derrick Rose, 25 year-old Dwight Howard, and 26 year-old Lebron James. Look at what Lebron is still doing and where the other two guys are. Dwight was basically the same age as Lebron and had a legitimate case for being as good or better (more legit than Rose’s case certainly). That’s crazy when you see where they’re at now.

It’s actually Mitch Kupchak who just traded for Mozgov. He’s the same guy who gave Mozgov the big contract in LA. So besides getting under the tax, another motivation may just be that Kupchak thinks Mozgov is good.

Mozgov is another example of good Knicks scouting. We hired him as a free agent for very little when no one had ever heard of him.

If we give them THJ and number 9 to move up, they get a good player. Maybe overpaid, but still good. I see no reason to give them more.

Mclemore is just like Knox during the draft preview in his time.

KOQ opts out

Shit. there goes Kyle

I love the idea of Bamba, and I think he’d fit next to KP just fine. The amount of length you’d have with Frank, KP and Bamba in your starting lineup would cause opponents some real problems.

You could basically play KP as a stretch 4 and Bamba as a 5, and then switch them on the other end, because Bamba moves surprisingly well laterally for a guy his size. He’s a good pick and roll defender, not a lumbering type guy that can’t guard stretch 4’s. I think the concern that Wendell Carter might be a bad fit with KP because he’s a bit slow-footed is a legit concern, but Bamba is definitely more fleet-footed than Carter.

His intangibles are outstanding and he’s by all accounts an intelligent, high-character guy. He was able to block an awful lot of shots in the NCAA without racking up fouls. I like this idea a lot.

If Doncic wants to come to the Knicks (and I’d be willing to bet anything he wants to come to a big city like NY to play with KP and Frank), he should be threatening to not come to the US for certain teams. That way if the Knicks can grab that 4th pick, there’s a better chance he gets past Atlanta.

I recall some people thinking trading KOQ for anything of value wasn’t imperative despite the fact that he racked up wins and was probably gone sooner rather than later. Oops!

@132

KOQ hasn’t gone anywhere yet. If the Knicks draft Bamba, then he’ll probably be gone. Other than that, he has to find out what his market value is. Then the Knicks can decide one way or other what they want to do about him depending on who they draft, what they think of Kanter long term, and what they expect to do with Noah. KOQ wants to stay in NY. He said it a million times. He even tweeted about the possibility of giving us a home discount.

Honestly KOQ opting out is probably best for us at this point. He’s worth a handful of wins alone and it gives us a little extra flexibility to try to score an asset. This is all assuming of course that we don’t re-sign him to some hilariously stupid deal that makes no sense given our place on the win curve.

But yeah, sure does look stupid as hell to not get something for him!

I don’t think we have any chance to make a deal with Atlanta, and that sucks. If someone is moving to the 3rd it would most certainly be for Doncic.

I’d still ship THJ for Bamba really fast but I want to believe we have a true chance at Doncic.

No surprise that OQ opted out. Of course he was always going to do so.

KOQ is a good player and still young enough to be productive at a high level throughout his next contract. We are going to sign him back UNLESS there is a better value move to make.

And even if, for the sake of argument, we assume this is all true, we still would have the exact same chance to sign him as we do now had we traded him for a second rounder or whatever.

Call it nitpicking, but guess what? The good organizations nitpick! I cannot comprehend that anyone thinks we’re in position to willingly pass up on literally any asset.

I hate the idea of Bamba.
For starters, he weighs about 110 lbs. I don’t think he’ll be durable enough for the NBA. He’s likely to miss more than 20 games a season.
He has limited offensive skills, duplicates a lot of KP does, And looks like another project.

Agreed on Bamba. He’s talented but too duplicative of what Zing does. Neither one of them is going to be able to guard wing 4s like Tatum, Saric, LeBron, Giannis, Tha d Young, etc. This team has so many needs, we can’t be taking guys who give us what we already have.

We don’t have rebounding, because Porzingis rebounds like shit. So that’s kind of a problem. Pair him with a speedy 4 who is really a 3 in disguise and prepare to get worked over on the boards on a nightly basis.

I think of it this way. I want my center to be able to do four things:
1. Score efficiently, get easy baskets
2. Rebound
3. Protect the rim
4. Set screens

Porzingis does one of the four. He doesn’t really do some of the key things you need your center to do, which is why I believe in the long run for him to be a truly useful player he’ll need a “caddy” to take care of some of that stuff for him.

The other argument would be that nobody was offering anything worthwhile. He’s a good player but it’s not like his position is tremendously valued around the league.

But what’s worthwhile for a guy who was going to be a free agent this year no matter what? It’s not like having his Bird Rights should help the Knicks any. So even if it was just a shitty second rounder, that’s one more shitty second rounder than they would have that they didn’t have before.

I almost never watch college basketball, but from what I have read and heard about the prospects, I think it’s worth trading up for Doncic or JJJ. Either one sounds like a really good player with a high floor and the possibility of more. Bamba I honestly don’t think so. The risk is that he turns out to be a defensive specialist who is limited offense. I don’t think it’s worth giving up Hardaway and number 9 for him. Number 9 is likely to be a good player too.

I just don’t know why Atlanta would pass on Doncic to make this even a viable thing, ya know?

Bamba is the only guy who is virtually GUARANTEED to maintain his trade value based on who he is right now. Doncic may turn out to be a huge liability on defense and his athleticism overall might not translate to stardom. Ayton will be gone for sure, so he’s not even worth discussing, but if he’s not as good on O as advertised, he is never going to be a DPOY candidate. JJJ has a fugly offensive game right now and is all upside. Bagley migt be the safest bet to be a stud two-way player, but not sure if his perimeter game on either end is real.

At worst, Bamba projects to be Dikembe Motombo with a bit more offense, and that’s an unbelievably high floor. He has multiple DPOYs written all over him. He will be worth multiple #1 picks in the trade market for a long, long time. If he and KP seem redundant, you could trade either one and get a stud at a different position or a couple of lottery picks. So while I’d be thrilled if we trade up and snag Doncic, or wound up with Bagley (I really, really don’t like JJJ!) I would definitely be a bit more nervous about him being the real deal than if we pick Bamba.