Comments on: Knicks Morning News (2018.06.01)

By: The Glass Half Rebuilt

The Glass Half Rebuilt — Sat, 02 Jun 2018 02:49:42 +0000

Right, but there’s the issue of fit and building a team of useful players. Personally, I think Ball, Hart, George, Kuzma, Cousins, Thomas, Lee, and Zubac is a better team than Ball, Hart, George, Kuzma, Cousins, Ingram, Deng, Zubac. Then again, if the Lakers give George and Cousins $25M a year to start, they’d have the money to retain one of Isaiah Thomas, Brook Lopez, and Julius Randle. Imagine having the money to keep two though, AND you add Courtney Lee into the fold? Ball, Hart, George, Kuzma, Cousins, Thomas, Lee, Randle, and Zubac? Again, depending on the progression of Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, and Kyle Kuzma you’re talking about a team that could compete for the championship in 2020. All for the price of sending Brandon Ingram to the Eastern Conference. There’s the threat of Ingram becoming an All Star, but he probably wouldn’t be able to do that in Los Angeles anyway if the Lakers are giving a majority of the minutes at the 3 to Paul George.

Of course they could always stretch waive Deng, keep Ingram, and re-sign Isaiah Thomas and Julius Randle. That would be way less fun for us, though.

By: Bruno Almeida

Bruno Almeida — Sat, 02 Jun 2018 02:16:34 +0000

While obviously the Lakers would like to unload Deng, they don’t really need to. If they just don’t re-sign any of their free agents including Randle they would have 61 million in cap space, should be more than enough to add George + Cousins for example.

By: The Glass Half Rebuilt

The Glass Half Rebuilt — Sat, 02 Jun 2018 01:55:41 +0000

I don’t think LeBron ends up in LA, but do the Lakers have enough cap space to sign two max free agents? I think they’ll end up targeting (and landing) Paul George and DeMarcus Cousins, but maybe they don’t have all the money to do that. Or maybe Brandon Ingram doesn’t want to come off the bench and demands a trade out of LA because of it. I’d offer the Lakers Courtney Lee for Brandon Ingram and Luol Deng. It gives them $11M in extra space to maybe keep KCP or Isaiah Thomas, they get rid of Luol Deng, and they get a starting quality shooting guard in Courtney Lee. I think that would make a lot of sense for the Lakers. You lose Brandon Ingram (who’s more promise than production at this point), but you get a depth chart that looks like:

PG: Ball, Thomas
SG: Lee, Hart
SF: George
PF: Kuzma
C: Cousins, Zubac

Add in a vet minimum guy or two to fill out the bench and that’s a really good team that could be elite depending on the progression of Ball and Kuzma in their second years. The Knicks get another young wing to add to our group, and the Deng thing isn’t the biggest issue because he and Lee expire in the same year. I wonder if this is a plausible trade or if a) LA loves Brandon Ingram or b) the Knicks are dead set against adding any salary to the 2019-2020 cap.

By: Bruno Almeida

Bruno Almeida — Sat, 02 Jun 2018 01:54:30 +0000

JR is so delusional that I do believe that he believes he knew the score was tied even when it’s obvious he didn’t.

By: Donnie Walsh

Donnie Walsh — Sat, 02 Jun 2018 01:46:52 +0000

Interesting quote from JR. He said he knew the game was tied but expected the coach to call a timeout to set up a play instead of him immediately shooting over Durant. I actually buy that.

You buy it, even though he said “I thought we were up” for 18,000,000 national viewers to lip read from multiple angles? Okay.

By: Owen

Owen — Sat, 02 Jun 2018 01:26:08 +0000

If having Simmons and Bron on the court at the same time is wrong I don’t want to be right.

By: Bruno Almeida

Bruno Almeida — Sat, 02 Jun 2018 01:10:43 +0000

How can anyone watch this Cavs team and say that LeBron wouldn’t benefit from another playmaker like Simmons is beyond me.

Yes, their skills overlap, but like djphan said very well, they are hugely important skills like great passing, court vision and creating efficient shots for themselves and their teammates. I don’t think you can ever have enough of those skills. You can never forget also that LeBron has turned himself into a pretty damn good shooter, and a LeBron who was a much lesser shooter still found great success with another guy who wasn’t a shooter in Wade (and Bosh who eventually became a long range threat but wasn’t one in his early Miami years).

There’s zero chance LA is a better basketball situation than Philly now, unless both Lonzo and Ingram become superstars right away with James on the team. I do think Lonzo will eventually be great but it certainly will take some time for him to get there.

By: DRed

DRed — Sat, 02 Jun 2018 00:23:31 +0000

Maybe they have a rule that JR isn’t allowed to call his own time outs

By: Knick fan not in NJ at this time

Knick fan not in NJ at this time — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 23:35:14 +0000

Interesting quote from JR. He said he knew the game was tied but expected the coach to call a timeout to set up a play instead of him immediately shooting over Durant. I actually buy that.

By: Ntilakilla

Ntilakilla — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 23:16:11 +0000

The Curse of the Kardashians is real and Kendall Jenner is one by family bonds. Simmons will have a down season now.