Knicks Morning News (2018.07.06)

Nice try, Totes. I doubt that they would deal for Melo under any circumstances, even if the deal was favorable.

I get the fear that the Knicks are going to repeat the whole Amare/Melo disaster. But this feels very different. If you recall, we entered the LeBron sweepstakes by dealing young players and draft picks to clear salary (Tracy McGrady ring a bell?) There was such pressure to sign LeBron that when we didn’t, the great Donnie Walsh had to make a splash, hence the Amare signing, and then the Melo debacle. Is anyone really feeling that we are on that path right now? I’m certainly not!

So this is the last day of groping for optimism in complete darkness. Tomorrow we’ll get some real data on newbies Knox, Robinson and Trier and the “new and improved” Ntilikina. I’m also excited about learning more about Troy and Dotson. The best possible outcome is that all six of them become rotation players this season.

I’m irrationally excited about Robinson. I think we lucked into the next Hassan Whiteside, except without the delay. He’s a mobile athletic freak with great timing and seems to be in a great place, both physically and mentally. I like that Fiz is focusing on getting the young players to finish at the rim, as that is so critical to running a modern P&R-heavy offense. If Robinson is who I hope he is, he’s the perfect rim-runner for a PG like Burke, who I think is gonna have a breakout year. I’m already imagining a time around the All-Star break where Burke and Robinson are running the high P&R and 3 of KP, Kornet, TH2, Knox, Dotson, Trier, Frank, Baker, Troy are spotting up at the 3-pt line.

We may still only be talking about 20 wins, give or take, but if I can see that, and I can see a coaching staff and front office committed to developing that, I’m cool.

That’s what I mean, though. Dolan finally traded so many first rounders that it’s not going to happen again. So we don’t have to worry about a Melo-style deal again, because the main assets used in those things are first round picks and the Knicks don’t have those assets to trade anymore.

Kyrie looks like he’d join the Knicks no matter how they’re playing (KP probably would have to be healthy). He did put them on the list of teams to which he would be traded when we looked like crap. If Kyrie signs, then it gets interesting if another star like KD/Kawhi/Butler wants to complete our Big 3. That would probably require a S&T where we send Timmy/Courtney (to match salaries) and one or more players like Frank/Knox/Dotson/Robinson/pick. If star is planning to leave team regardless, Knicks shouldn’t have to give up too much.

Oh, sure, I have very little faith in them avoiding signing terrible free agent deals. However, so long as you don’t deal first round picks, you’ll probably still get slightly better as the years go by. Like Phil was awful as a GM, but he didn’t trade any first round picks, so as terrible as he was, the team’s situation still slightly improved because of the first round picks that they added during his time. What dooms a team to having no hope at all is when you trade first round picks. Circa 2005, this team had no hope for the future at all.

So I’m not at all confident that they won’t screw the team up in some other way, but they won’t be damaging the team in the style of the Curry or Melo deals.

I think differently about picks than a lot of people (I think they are overvalued). Trading away 1st round picks does not doom a team. Trading away 1st round picks for bad and/or older players dooms a team. The Knicks made bad trades. Now we view those failures as meaning we can never trade a 1st round pick. I’d be happy to trade away a 1st round pick as long as we got back a player back that was relatively young and better than the average expectation from the pick I gave up. I feel the same way about giving up players for picks.

Of course age and things like that are also part of the thinking, but I think picks have become overvalued – especially because we draft kids now. You get them cheap while they aren’t even fully productive yet. Then once they do become productive you have to pay to keep them – sometimes more than they are still worth.

I’d love to move him, but I don’t think it’s fair to call Lee’s contract a Noah level albatross. he’s a skilled vet, he’s of some use to someone. Hes like the 100th highest payed guy in the league….he makes less than Austin Rivers, Kody Zeller and Ken Faried. He makes 2/3 of what Noah does, and he actually like…you know…..shows up.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/250600/Kings-Will-Pivot-To-Trades-With-$17M-In-Cap-Space

Man, it would be great to figure out a way to fleece this dumb management group…

Lee is a fine player on a fair value deal but he’s damaging to the team’s goals. He’s worth two wins too many and his contract expires a year late. If the Knicks don’t need to get “value” outside of cap space. back for him to improve the team long term.

The problem with Lee is that he’s too good to bench, and he takes away minutes from young players who need to play. He’s a great locker room guy and all, but he only gets in the way right now.

The hope is that a playoff team (like the Lakers?) discovers that they need a smart, knockdown 3-pt shooter and are willing to take on Lee without asking for picks or dumping salary. He’s highly respected around the league and is a team-first guy. I’m hopeful that he will be traded w/o sweetener, but I’d rather keep him than unload him in a one-sided salary dump.

The big change is Dolan himself. Even before Phil, he had decided to no longer let first round picks be dealt. I totally agree that if they had their druthers, Mills and Perry would be dealing first rounders left and right (Mills literally tried back in 2014 but Dolan said no), but with Dolan putting them off limits, I’m more optimistic.

It’s hard to trust Dolan about anything, but there is definitely cause for guarded optimism.

I agree that 20 wins seems a bit too optimistic for this team. I’m thinking 30, due to them beating up the other teams trying to lose at the end of the year.

The upside of the lottery odds flattening is that at least the Knicks won’t be hurt as much by their unwillingness to tank.

AD and KP together would work out amazingly. Defense, shooting, spacing with the right schemes may turn out excellent. Switching and rotations on D would even be acceptable.

Imagine a Frank/Timmy/X/KP/Davis lineup after giving up, I don’t know, 2 first rounders and Timmy or something. Defense could be incredible.

Everything has a price, INCLUDING PICKS, and if they want two #1’s for Davis, who is EXCELLENT, I would definitely consider it.

Ron Baker should be worried about his minutes because I see Trier taking those minutes away from him. Dotson should be worried also. Trier can defend and he can score especially from downtown. If he was a little taller he would have gone in the late first round or early second. I have watched Trier play and he can defend and he definitely can score. It will be interesting to see how much run he gets in Vegas. He is the type of player who could shock everyone.

@21 + 22

I tend to agree that a sub-20-win projection for this team is probably too low, but I actually think as many of those extra wins could come at the beginning of the season as at the end. While it’s true this team never tanks and tends to win games against tanking or resting teams late in the year, I’ve also noticed over the last few years that the first two months of the NBA season are pretty chaotic. There’s always a “has this team turned the corner?” team (last year’s Orlando Magic from the first month come to mind) and a “will this team ever get it together?” team. Crappy teams steal wins off good teams early in the season all the time; guys are fresh and good players and good teams are really just settling in. We’re not the only team that pushes .500 into December and always falls apart.

Plus I think everyone expecting KP to miss most to all of the season are ignoring facts and basically engaging in wishful thinking. I agree with Strat that KP will come back basically when he says he’s ready to, obviously pending the team’s medical evaluations. Still, expecting him to be out for a full calendar year or more is pretty “optimistic” on the tanking front. Al Jefferson once tore his ACL in February and returned for the next training camp. KP has recovered pretty quickly from injuries and the little bit of footage we have shows him moving around well. I don’t expect him back for the start of the regular season, but no one should be surprised if he’s in our starting lineup before Christmas.

To move Lee we have to get involved with taking a bad contract which could work with a team like the lakers.
I proposed yesterday ,
butler to the spurs,
Kawhi to the lakers,
Timmy to Minnesota with either lonzo or Kuzma,
Deng to knicks with either lonzo or Kuzma

There was such pressure to sign LeBron that when we didn’t, the great Donnie Walsh had to make a splash, hence the Amare signing, and then the Melo debacle.

I mean, I know it’s part of your Z-Man schtick to make up a narrative and keep reatating it for all eternity (Frank, Lin, Walsh, etc), but, for the record, this is not what happened in 2010.

Donnie, we will never agree on this, but whatever. I will never back off of the position that if Donnie Walsh had any integrity (as a GM, not as a person) he would not have agreed to make those deals if he thought they were terrible moves and should have either resigned on the spot (he certainly didn’t need the money or the job security) or publicly stated that he was adamantly opposed to making those trades, either then or in retrospect. Since he never did either, he has agreed to own the entire the process and can’t pin it on Dolan or anyone else. If he took the job with the agreement that he was to do Dolan’s bidding regardless of whether he thought that it was stupid, then shame on him. He made all the dumb deals to free up space, he represented the Knicks at the LeBron sales pitch meeting, he signed Amare and he traded the whole team and its future for Melo. I don’t get why that is that so hard for you to accept.

Dam!

Koq to pacers one year for $4,5m
That sux

Isn’t that the same as what he declined from us by opting out!

Z-man, you and others are forgetting Hezonja is now on the team.

I thought we signed STAT before Lebron signed with Miami as an enticement to get Lebron bc Cleveland had tried to trade for STAT the previous season per Lebron’s request.

@ 41 – was there an actual deal reported for KQ last year? Cause if you have no proof that a deal was out there, you can’t really call the Knicks stupid for not making said deal. If its all an imaginary deal that is in your head, then no, you can’t call the Knicks stupid.

…they couldn’t offer nothing even if they wanted to, by the way.

I know they cut down on allowing teams to offer conditional second rounders where the conditions are likely to not be met, but they haven’t completely eliminated those types of deals, so you can still technically offer nothing by trading a conditional second rounder where the condition will never be met. That said, yes, of course the Warriors were not calling to offer that.

I thought we signed STAT before Lebron signed with Miami as an enticement to get Lebron bc Cleveland had tried to trade for STAT the previous season per Lebron’s request.

Correct. (But that’s not the way Z-Man likes to remember it).

I want the tank as much as anyone, but my strong feeling is that this team is going to do everything it can NOT to tank because their goal is to look enticing to FAs next summer. I also have a feeling that KP is coming back earlier than we think – like around the turn of the year. There are some stories online about basketball players with a simple ACL tear like KP’s (no cartilage/meniscus damage) being back on court for basketball activities in as little as 6 months. Now whether he and the team take it more conservatively than that (which is what I would do if I were both sides – KP especially since he so far has not signed his big extension) — that’s another story.

I think we’ll win more than 20 games because KP will be back sooner, but also because it’s really hard to win fewer than that when you’re actually trying to win. With the mega-tankathon that last season was, the WORST team in the NBA (PHX) STILL won 21 games. Atlanta, Memphis, Dallas, and Chicago were putting out some truly embarrassing lineups and they still won >20 games also.

We have actual NBA players on the team — Kanter is a real player if flawed. THJ is a real player if flawed. Courtney Lee is a real player. I think we will see significant improvement out of Frank and Dotson. I’m predicting the same old 26-30 wins.

WTF? They’d rather have the roster spot for Mudiay or Lance?

If/when Mudiay busts out the way Fiz envisions, I plan on holding that over y’all heads forever on being wrong on the 22 YO that has gotten crap support before Fiz got hired.

That’s what I mean, though. Dolan finally traded so many first rounders that it’s not going to happen again. So we don’t have to worry about a Melo-style deal again

I don’t know, Brian. If Devin Booker has a another 70 point game or two, Dolan will do whatever he can to get his hands on that shiny new contract of his…

That O’Quinn contract is mindboggling to me. What an absolute steal for the Pacers, who have had a quiet but pretty decent offseason. They added a lot of depth with McDermott, Tyreke and O’Quinn.

I have really mixed feelings because losing O’Quinn is good for the tank but man, did I like him on the Knicks and for such a cheap contract…

I really liked KOQ and I’m really pissed that he didn’t choose to sign with us,
Indiana has had a sneaky good offseason, I like their moves but… Lance!
😀

@57
You’re right, sorry, bad choice of words (and another example that the word “Humor” must be banned from the header), still fighting with my italian T9

🙂

Edit:
I really liked KOQ and I’m really pissed that he didn’t came to an agreement with the NY Knicks (for reason unknown to us).

that’s why KOQ went to Indy, to throw those passes to McBuckets. I really wish him the best, he’s a great guy. i wonder if GS would have preferred him to Boogie? I also wonder how many Bar Mitvah’s he will get to in Indy.

If James Dolan were found to have been the guy who ate the tainted chimp meat and brought HIV to the countless masses, I wouldn’t be surprised. In fact, prove it’s not true.

“AIDS was first clinically observed in 1981 in the United States”

So it must be Eddie Donovan (I tend to absolve Red Holzman) that served the chimp to a 16 year old James Dolan.

😉

If/when Mudiay busts out the way Fiz envisions, I plan on holding that over y’all heads forever on being wrong on the 22 YO that has gotten crap support before Fiz got hired.

Why don’t you look up the number of players who posted a negative WS/48 and average bpm of -4.2 in 4500+ minutes in their first 3 years and then went on to be average+ in their 4th year? I know stats don’t have any place on this site but maybe you could contribute in this regard for the first time since you’ve been posting here?

Sources: Thunder, Carmelo Anthony to part ways this summer

Oklahoma City can use the stretch provision on Anthony’s $27.9 million contract to eliminate a staggering $107 million off the team’s 2018-19 payroll and tax bill, but the Thunder first plan to pursue trade possibilities with teams looking to acquire a massive expire deal to salary cap space in July 2019 free agency.

Also says that Melo would be amenable to basically any trade, understanding that the trading team would just want to waive him. If that’s the case, a Lee + Lance or Hardaway + Lance deal might actually be feasible.

Wait, let’s not get silly here. KOQ didn’t have to get an offer. He could have simply opted in for virtually the same money and situation. There was no reason to offer KOQ the same contract he opted out of, since the assumption is that he opted out to get significantly more. And once he opted out, no one predicted that Boogie would do what he did, throwing the market for lumbering bigs into the trash heap.

What’s funny is that many here were advocating that we offer him a multi-year deal in the $6-8 million range, even thinking that he would get more than that somewhere else. Shouldn’t we be giddy that we didn’t tie up $16 million in cap space over the next 2 years in a guy that sat on the market for over a week without a sniff and was had for a 1-year $4.5mill deal?

Since Kanter predictably opted in and became the de facto starting C, we essentially gave KOQ’s 1-year rental money to Hezonja and have chosen to roll with Robinson and Kornet. Is that so bad? I like Kyle, but not enough to pine over what could have been. Now if Robinson totally sucks, I’ll feel differently, but until then, whatever.

Remember when we traded doug for Mudiay, and KOQ tweeted “do you cut back door?” and Mudiay was like, ‘to be honest, i’m really not sure what that means’

Anthony, a 10-time NBA All-Star and four-time Olympic gold medalist, would be pursued vigorously among contenders on the free agent market.

“Other free agent targets for these contenders include 10-time NBA All-Star and Finals MVP Paul Pierce, 15-time All-Star and 2004 MVP Kevin Garnett, and NBA All-Rookie First Team and former overall #1 draft pick Andrea Bargnani.”

Any contender who signs Carmelo deserves to lose like a motherfucker, and they will. You hear that, Lakers?

Also, do other team’s fans hand wring over every little move or non move that their team makes?

You ever have a friend who complains about money problems, but when you’re out, they can’t help but get the $2 upcharge on curly fries, the clearance-rack piece of seasonal home decor from Target, or the $5 grande latte from Starbucks?

It’s like, yeah, sure, it’s only $2 today, but over time, you’re going fucking broke.

Knickerblogger 2019:

“Man, if only we hadn’t won that handful of meaningless games we’d be choosing between Nasir Little and Zion Williamson right now instead of trying to get excited about Lamont West”

Vlade at Sacramento wants picks because he struck out in free agency.

Give him a top 3 protected 2019 1st rounder and 2nd round pick for Noah and Lee, respectively.

I’ll miss KOQ. He was one of my favorite players these last few barren years. There really aren’t too many guys in the league who are both good passers and excellent shot blockers. I hope he gets some burn with Indy. Turner’s a good shooter; they might even be able to play together a little against the right lineup.

If Houston ends up with Carmelo and MCW in the same offseason it will officially be the most bizarre development of the offseason.

Indiana has a nice roster and with Evans (39,9%) and McBucket (42,6%) added reliable shooters to a team already in the top half of the league in 3PT% (10th last season).

The West’ll be a slaughterhouse, the East for seeds 3-8 could be a drunk brawl.

Give him a top 3 protected 2019 1st rounder and 2nd round pick for Noah and Lee, respectively.

Pretty sure this is a Russian bot account trying to divide us.

@46 you are correct in the sequence, but that’s not what we argued about….it was about how culpable Donnie Walsh was for running the Knicks into the ground.

That’s an opinion that I’m not arguing with. You misstated a fact to belie your opinion and in this age, I’m in the mode of calling out misinformation when I see it. Amar’e was signed before LeBron decided against joining the Knicks, not because of it. Whether it was the right move or not can be debated, but the facts can’t be.

@77 I know we could have had both, but did we need both? Why have 5 centers on the roster? (6 if you count KP)

– Well Enes is not part of our future, at least I hope not. he could be waived or bought out.
– Noah will likely be stretched in September since that’s kinda been what’s reported and we haven’t heard the front office say anything about him rejoining the team.
– Who knows if KP will be able to handle playing center for 30mpg or even want to. I suspect he’ll tell them he’s willing to play center in the 4th quarter for 8 minutes but not much more than that.
– I know you’re ready to induct Mitch into the HOF but maybe wait until he survives a blizzard of questions from beat writers after a poor game or vanishes never to be heard from?
– I like Kornet more than most but I’m not convinced he’s a rotation player plus he might play some 4.

So KOQ/Kornet/Robinson are all potential pieces for the next 3 years. They deserve the bulk of the minutes. Notice GSW carries quite a few centers on their roster. It wouldn’t have cost the Knicks anything to sign KOQ for 1 year except a roster slot and then watch how Kornet and Robinson perform. You’ll then be in a better position to make a decision next summer. Regarding the roster spots, I’ve said Lance, Mudiay and Kanter should all be on the chopping block.

Here’s a 16 man roster. You could add one of Mudiay/Lance/Enes or somebody else (my preference) to bring it to 17. Does this not look better to you than the alternatives?
1: Frank/Burke/Baker
2/3: THJ/Dot/Courtney/Knox/Frank/Troy/Baker/Trier
4: Hez/KP/Knox/Troy/Hicks/BAE
5: KOQ/Kornet/Robinson

“On the Dunc’d up last week they talked about OKC tax situation, with Melo on board they’re going to pay a new record of over 280 Mil between salaries and taxes… and this is the team that sold Harden for economic reasons…”

I correct myself, with the Felton re-signing OKC is over 300 Mil!
Poor Melo… 🙂

88, no robot here other than girls best friendtoy…lol

Concentration of investment builds wealth. Diversification preserves it.

Point is that at some point we have to turn optimistic and just go for it. Otherwise, we going be poor forever. Not gonna compete for a ring with Frank, KP, Robinson, Burke, Kanter and Knox, I can guarantee you that much. It’s like that person who lost at a lot during last 15 years and now is scared to play so they put in one chip out of time at roulette table and slowly continue to lose.

We picked enough young kids on team, now its time to add two veteran All-stars and hope they have Championship DNA or Pedigree. I know Kyrie does for sure cause he lit up GS for 40= in teh finals every game but he always gets hurt. So, during draft Perry was scared to move up and go get generational talent like Luka and Bamba so he went with Knox becasue of a gut feeling and a great 3v3 workout. Where and when is he going to take his chance? After anther tank season and another 18 or 19 yr old?

In first round Ainge picked bums like Olynik, Young, RJ Hunter, Yabusele etc..Other first rounders like Smart and Rozier are just one dimensional bench guys; Ainge turned it around by signing Hortford and getting coaching right. Coaching matters. If Fiz is a stud than we’re going to win more games than most realize.

Again, assuming Fiz is a difference maker, we already have KP who is a top 5-15 player in the league potential; all you need is anther center piece so depending on who that is then we go on to filling roster with complementary veteran type players.

Dump Lee and Noah this summer and pay price to do it. Let KP come in and pick up where he left off and with $70m cap space…we get a 2 studs and likely a veteran player or two on minimum wage who are chasing a ring. Most of these young 18-22 yr old kids most likely gonna have to go anyway.

my strong feeling is that this team is going to do everything it can NOT to tank because their goal is to look enticing to FAs next summer. I also have a feeling that KP is coming back earlier than we think – like around the turn of the year.

This is my feeling also.

I am willing to buy the idea that the Knicks didn’t trade KOQ because they originally intended to sign him back. After drafting Robinson and taking a look at Kornet they may have decided to go in another direction. The problem is that we went from KOQ, Willy, Kanter, and Noah (2 very good values and 2 terrible values) to keeping the terrible values and getting very little in return for the good values. That’s a sure fire way to not get better. Furthermore, I’d argue that both Willy and KOQ are better than Kornet.

At the prices, Kornet is supposed to be in the G league, we are supposed to still have Willy, and KOQ should have re-signed for 1 year. It wouldn’t have been so difficult to give Willy a few extra minutes to keep him happy. I’m fine with Robinson. I like the idea a lot.

The Knicks might not be intending to tank. But we always have the one ace up our sleeve: the accidental tank. Never underestimate this team’s ability to win 20 games when they’re trying to win 30.

Oh wow, Charlotte signed Tony Parker to a two-year deal! How does that make sense for anyone involved?

Oh wow, Charlotte signed Tony Parker to a two-year deal! How does that make sense for anyone involved?

Maybe getting rid of Parker is an effort to mend fences with Khawi??? Reports say he was upset with some of the things Parker said about his injury. Parker was becoming a backup for the Spurs anyway.

In first round Ainge picked bums like Olynik, Young, RJ Hunter, Yabusele etc..Other first rounders like Smart and Rozier are just one dimensional bench guys; Ainge turned it around by signing Hortford and getting coaching right.

Nah. Ainge stockpiled assets. One of the things you can do when you stockpile assets is flip them for other useful things.

The Celtics’ leader in win shares was Kyrie Irving. Irving was acquired for Jae Crowder (acquired in a trade that sent out Rajon Rondo), Isaiah Thomas (acquired for Marcus Thornton and a low 2016 first round pick that ended up being Skal Labissiere) and Ante Zizic (drafted by Celtics in 2016 first round).

Second on the team in win shares was Al Horford, who they signed as a free agent. So hooray.

Third on the team in win shares was Jayson Tatum. Tatum was acquired because the Celtics acquired a pick swap with the Brooklyn Nets out of the Paul Pierce/Kevin Garnett deal. They also squeezed an extra 2019 pick out of the deal when they traded out of the #1 spot to #3.

Fourth on the team in win shares was Terry Rozier, selected with the Celtics’ own first round pick at #16 overall. He was very good value at #16 in that draft.

Fifth on the team in win shares was Jaylen Brown, acquired in the Paul Pierce/Kevin Garnett trade.

Sixth on the team in win shares was Daniel Theis, signed as an undrafted rookie. He had a .178 WS48 before going down with injury.

Seventh on the team in win shares was Marcus Morris, acquired for Avery Bradley.

Ainge built that team by assembling an incredible constellation of assets, then flipping those assets for useful pieces when the time was right. In other words, he did it the right way. He did NOT do it by throwing a shit ton of money at free agents.

I think nothing for a lot of our present roster is a better outcome than something, depending on what that something is. I can see why O’Quinn would opt for a one year deal with IND rather than a year of Knicks tank. Good luck too him, though it’ll hurt to have him come in and kill us 4x/ year. We need to play players only with unknown upside, not those who’s upside we know. We need to be combing the sea floor of the player ocean for guys that are on our schedule. I like O’Quinn but he’s not that. A future second rounder would have been good at last years deadline but I’m not crying about it. I’m happy to have the roster space and see if Mitch Robinson can be Dr. J 2.0. How great would it be to just get cap space for Noah, Lee, TH2 and Kanter? This is what it’s come to as a Knicks fan. What do I want for Christmas? Nothing!

My basic concern with NYK is that it’s just a fashion show for those that run the joint. Put fannies in the seats with a name player. Carmelo? Amare? They fit the suit… the new Johnny Bravo! Such a mismanaged bullshit franchise. I’m nearing the end. If they don’t get it right in the next ten years or so I’m OUT OF HERE!

Trading Otto Porter for Carmelo would be the dumbest trade in NBA history

Jesus, Parker at any salary is terrible unless you’re actively trying to tank and want “veteran leadership.” He’s a reminder that when players age, they usually fall off quickly. In 2013, he was anywhere from good (2.7 BPM) to a star (.206). Last year, he had a -4.1 BPM, a negative VORP and below-average WS48 at .065.

Nope, no thank you. He should have taken a vet’s minimum in San Antonio and retired a Spur after a HOF-worthy career. Instead, he’s going to cost the Hornets wins next season. Makes no sense.

Can we all agree not to overreact to Knicks players’ summer league performances tomorrow, good or bad?

(Oh never mind, this is Knickerblogger!)

Can we all agree not to overreact to Knicks players’ summer league performances tomorrow, good or bad?

If Knox did shred Miles Bridges in 3-3 workouts, then we should witness some of that in Summer League which is just a 5-5 workout where most of the players should be worse than Miles.

That’s ridiculous JK47.
He’s the worst player in NBA history because of THREE summer league games.
I’d hate to be the Hawks’ GM taking a call from owner at end of that 3rd game.

@112

Dumb trades are done all the time.

Washington doesn’t strike me as forward thinkers and could easily get swayed into a narrative that they’re a “star” away from Finals contenders with Dwight there to cover Melo’s defensive lapses. Melo, with his Baltimore ties, could be swayed. It’s all about the narrative, to be honest. Washington’s in a place where they’re going to blow up the team if they don’t show real progress this year. That makes them desperate. Melo’s desperate to get to the Finals, but the West is a bloodbath. Boston nor Philly would be that desperate. Toronto might be, but they don’t strike me as willing to buy into Melo. No other East team strikes me as attractive destinations for Melo.

I don’t understand how anyone could still think that Melo is anything but the most overpaid player in the league and a minus player in every sense.

That Kyle Anderson match is a no brainer. He’ll probably be better than LaVine for less than half the price.

Maybe it’s not a great idea to have Melo play 2500 minutes for your team at this stage of his career

Carmelo Anthony is not more overpaid than Andrew Wiggins if you don’t take age into account.

i predict Chatlotte will hire him to go with Parker

Is it ok to have an OPINION about guys in summer league? No one is saying Trae Young is the worst player in NBA history. He is, however, playing like shit. He’s not creating any separation because these guys are better athletes. He’s small and doesn’t look so quick. It’s concerning. Sexton does just look like a player. Bigger, tougher, making good passes. I’m going out on a limb and saying Sexton will be the better player. Sometimes you can just tell. It’s easy to be the all knowing, condescending basketball expert and come down on someone for saying “I have a feeling this guy sucks” or “this guy looks like he knows how to play”. Do you have to wait a certain amount of time before you can do that? Why not have a set of balls and say it when you think it?

He’s in there battling for rebounds with the big guys. Tough dude. Gonna be rooting for him.

The Suns summer league squad is almost better than their roster last year, they’ve been fun to watch.

This Elie Okobo kid also looks like a player, he’s made some very nice plays so far.

In 16 minutes so far, Bridges has 14 pts. on 5/6 shooting, 4/5 from three. Also 3 rebounds and 1 block.

Very nice start. He’s no Trae Young!

@143

Dallas is still negotiating his buyout with Real Madrid

He may get in before the end of summer league but no guarantees

142 and 144 – thanks. Frank checking Trae tomorrow. Can’t wait to see Knox, Robinson and Trier. Maybe we finally get some luck and all three can really play.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/250617/Jusuf-Nurkic-Agrees-Upon-Four-Year-$53M-Deal-With-Blazers

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/n/nurkiju01.html

So why didn’t the Blazers offer KOQ this deal, as he is a far superior player on paper?