(Friday, July 20, 2018 3:00:00 AM)
The judge had confidence, but it appears the Queens man only had a con.
Brooklyn Federal Judge Jack Weinstein thought Tyran Trotter deserved a chance at life without the authorities watching his every move on supervised release.
Now it’s all going up in smoke after Trotter was arrested Wednesday…
(Friday, July 20, 2018 3:00:00 AM)
A classic stage and screen score has been reworked as a Latin jazz opus – with part of the proceeds going to help Puerto Rico’s hurricane victims.
Veteran bandleader Bobby Sanabria has put his own stamp on “West Side Story,” the 1950s Broadway musical that was turned into a beloved Oscar-winning…
(Friday, July 20, 2018 2:00:00 AM)
Last Thursday, as their S53 bus crossed the Verrazano Bridge from Brooklyn to Staten Island, one passenger turned to her neighbor and screamed “You f—ing speak English? ICE is here for you.” The reason: Her fellow passenger was Muslim, wearing the hijab, a head covering.
The tirade, which was…
(Friday, July 20, 2018 2:00:00 AM)
The World Trade Center Health Program has seen a massive spike in new patients sickened by exposure to 9/11 toxins — forcing the organization to open up a new office in lower Manhattan that will see an estimated 750 patients a month, the Daily News has learned.
The new clinic, expected to open…
(Friday, July 20, 2018 1:10:00 AM)
Having lost the battle and probably the war to City Council members captive to the hotel industry and its unions, Airbnb will soon be forced to turn over to the city details on thousands of apartment listings, many of which are surely in violation of state law banning whole-apartment rentals of…
(Friday, July 20, 2018 1:05:00 AM)
Better shamefully late than never. Thursday, more than four years after a banned chokehold by Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo ended Eric Garner’s life, the NYPD announced that the gears of disciplinary action will finally start to turn.
Blame Washington for the fact that the surprise announcement…
(Friday, July 20, 2018 1:00:00 AM)
It was a preposterous notion from the start: that the city of New York, which burns loads of oil and gas itself, would take the likes of Chevron and Exxon to court, demanding billions of dollars in damages for causing climate change and putting our coastal city through the ravages of Superstorm…
(Friday, July 20, 2018 12:25:00 AM)
A duck boat packed with dozens of tourists in Missouri’s Ozarks capsized amid rough weather Thursday night, killing 11 people, according to local reports and authorities.
First responders with the Southern Stone County Fire Protection District rushed to Table Rock Lake around 7 p.m. local time…
(Friday, July 20, 2018 12:00:00 AM)
Manhattan: As Cold War scholars know, Finland was a highly symbolic location for the Putin-Trump summit. Finlandization, meaning formal independence but political domination to the Soviets, was the fate of Finland. It was the only former-Tsarist country that Stalin invaded, but could not absorb…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 11:40:00 PM)
BOSTON — For a few minutes, a Boston woman says she was a millionaire.
Ellen Fleming says she received a voicemail from a TD Ameritrade financial consultant Wednesday afternoon that a deposit had been made into her account.
The 26-year-old opened the company’s app on her cellphone and was surprised…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 11:35:00 PM)
TOPEKA, Kansas — Two luminaries in the democratic socialist movement — one its national leader, the other its new star — are descending on solidly Republican Kansas on Friday, taking their emboldened liberal message to an unlikely testing ground before next month’s congressional primaries.
Vermont…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 11:00:00 PM)
HOUSTON — Police say a 3-year-old boy has died after being left in a hot day care center van for 3½ hours parked outside the center in northwest Houston.
A statement from the Harris County Precinct 1 Constable’s Office says the child was found unresponsive when his father arrived at Discovering…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 11:00:00 PM)
PITTSBURGH — Authorities say a Pennsylvania woman was driving drunk when she struck and seriously injured her 15-year-old sister, who had apparently jumped on the hood of the moving vehicle and was hit after falling off.
Pittsburgh police responded to the scene around 10 p.m. Wednesday.
The teen…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 9:50:00 PM)
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Police in Memphis say a man stole his date’s car and drove it to a date with another woman.
Police say a woman reported her car stolen after Kelton Griffin went to her house to take her on a date. WMC-TV reports that Griffin stopped at a gas station and asked the woman to get him…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 9:25:00 PM)
And baby makes three.
Reality star Jinger Duggar, 24, gave birth to daughter Felicity Nicole early Thursday morning, she and husband Mike Vuolo announced.
”God is so kind! Jinger gave birth to Felicity Nicole Vuolo this morning at 4:37 am. Felicity weighs 8lbs. and 3oz. and is 19.5 inches long,”…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 9:05:00 PM)
A Brooklyn gangbanger who killed a romantic rival will spend another nine years behind bars for his role in a vicious slashing on a Rikers Island correction officer in 2015.
Darnell Green choked correction officer Ray Calderon from behind while another inmate sliced his face from cheek to ear and…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 9:00:00 PM)
They were gunning for his older brother, but they settled on killing him instead.
A 24-year-old ex-con ganged up on and murdered a Brooklyn teen a day after his 16th birthday because they had a beef with his older brother, who was in the Crips street gang, prosecutors said Thursday.
Ralief Bradford…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 8:50:00 PM)
Not again.
Clint Frazier was pulled from Thursday’s Triple-A Scranton game for precautionary reasons related to possible concussion symptoms, according to The Times-Tribune.
Frazier may have suffered the injury while diving for a ball in the first inning, which he couldn’t catch, according to the…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 8:35:00 PM)
OREM, Utah — A 22-year-old Boy Scout leader drowned saving a struggling young boy during a practice exercise in a Utah pond on Wednesday.
Wesley Robert Kratzer pushed the boy to safety then dropped under the water and disappeared, said Salem police Chief Brad James.
“We don’t know if it was fatigue,…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 8:10:00 PM)
He’s the kind of drug dealer you don’t want to piss off, the feds say.
A Queens meth kingpin ran his drug operation out of gambling dens, threatened his rivals with a high-voltage cattle prod and, in one bizarre incident, broke into a man’s house and urinated on his bed.
Federal authorities arrested…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 8:00:00 PM)
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A 71-year-old Sarasota man who ate a raw oyster at a Sarasota County restaurant died from a bacterial infection two days later, according to the Florida Department of Health.
The man and the restaurant were not identified, but health department spokesman Steve Huard said…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 8:00:00 PM)
Former President Barack Obama was a “total patsy” for Russia, President Trump said in an interview Thursday, but he, on the other hand, would be “far tougher on Russia than any President in many, many years, maybe ever.”
On the defensive after his disastrous press conference with Russian President…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 7:55:00 PM)
Long before he became a President who pushed for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S., and railed against Caribbean and African immigrants from “s–thole countries,” Donald Trump called for a return of the death penalty after a group of black and Hispanic teens were arrested and charged in a sexual…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 7:15:00 PM)
The NFL is taking a knee when it comes to implementing the league’s new national anthem policy.
The NFL and NFL Players Association have come to a “standstill agreement” regarding the NFL’s revised anthem policy and the NFL’s grievance against the league, the two sides announced in a joint statement…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 6:30:00 PM)
Amy Powell, the president of Paramount TV, was reportedly ousted Thursday for making inappropriate comments.
Paramount CEO Jim Gianopulos announced the firing in an internal memo, acquired by the Hollywood Reporter, that said “multiple individuals” had raised concerns about “which they believed…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 3:15:58 PM)
A “very accomplished” NBA player could be plotting to join Kyrie Irving and Jimmy Butler in 2019.
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 4:56:05 PM)
The Thunder have traded Carmelo Anthony and a protected 2022 first-round pick to the Hawks.
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 10:55:20 AM)
It is apparent Knicks’ first-rounder F Kevin Knox wasn’t fazed by his first taste of NBA basketball. Just look at what he did in just a few games out west in the Summer League.
[NYTimes] Keeping Score: In the Carmelo Anthony Trade, Everyone Wins (Friday, July 20, 2018 12:33:03 AM)
The former All-Star is headed to Atlanta — and is expected to be quickly released — in a trade that involves two teams and several players.
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 8:43:12 PM)
The Knicks’ decision to waive small forward Troy Williams on Monday has provided undrafted Arizona guard Allonzo Trier a puncher’s chance at making the 15-man roster following his solid — if overlooked — summer-league performance. Trier is on a two-way G-League contract, allowing him to be on the Knicks’ roster for a maximum of 45…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 11:13:40 AM)
Knicks fans should be thrilled the organization’s higher-ups didn’t listen to them. On draft night, they were chanting for the Knicks to draft Michael Porter Jr., who was at one point considered the top prospect in his class before dealing with health concerns over his bad back. Instead, the Knicks took Kentucky wing Kevin Knox…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 8:43:12 PM)
The Knicks’ decision to waive small forward Troy Williams on Monday has provided undrafted Arizona guard Allonzo Trier a puncher’s chance at making the 15-man roster following his solid — if overlooked — summer-league performance. Trier is on a two-way G-League contract, allowing him to be on the Knicks’ roster for a maximum of 45…
(Thursday, July 19, 2018 11:13:40 AM)
Knicks fans should be thrilled the organization’s higher-ups didn’t listen to them. On draft night, they were chanting for the Knicks to draft Michael Porter Jr., who was at one point considered the top prospect in his class before dealing with health concerns over his bad back. Instead, the Knicks took Kentucky wing Kevin Knox…
107 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.07.20)”
Anybody else pissed about the Korver for Bayless deal when a perfectly good Courtney Lee is available?
Is that a confirmed deal already?
Mills/Perry really need to get on the horn about that deal. Lee is more versatile on offense than Korver (if not as good a shooter) and won’t get played off the floor on defense in the playoffs like Korver does.
btw – really excellent article from Newsday about THJ.
I know we all want to get rid of him for the chance at 1 or 2 maxes next year, but honestly I sorta like grouchy Timmy. I would not be crushed if he stayed on the team throughout his contract, especially since it’s likely we would have to send him with an asset in order to get off his contract.
I think a reasonable and measured plan would be to target one max player next summer – ideally one of Durant, Kyrie, or Kawhi (the latter 2 if healthy of course). Then theoretically we could target another one the following summer. Trying to get to 2 next summer seems like we’d have to send out some pretty significant assets.
sorry here’s the link on the Newsday article:
https://www.newsday.com/sports/basketball/knicks/tim-hardaway-jr-knicks-1.19863013
Frank, stop making me like Timmy when all I really want is him and his ill-advised contact our of here!
Morning swift. Remember when I said fining or throwing people in jail for using a straw was a ridiculous abuse of State power, and you responded that no one is doing that?
Well, welcome to Santa Barbara!:
“Santa Barbara, by contrast, has banned even compostable straws, permitting only drinking tubes made from nonplastic materials such as paper, metal, or bamboo. The city also has made any violation of its straw prohibition both an administrative infraction carrying a $100 fine and a misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum fine of $1,000 and up to six months in jail. Each contraband straw or unsolicited plastic stirrer counts as a separate violation, so fines and jail time could stack up quickly.”
http://reason.com/blog/2018/07/19/santa-barbara-bans-plastic-straws-proscr
@2
Main reason it’s dumb to get desperate to trade Timmy right now is I think last season was basically the lowest his value will dip. He’s never been a knockdown 3pt shooter, he’s more of a streaky volume guy, but even for him 31.7% represents what’s likely a realistic bottom. I suspect next year he bounces back closer to 35% and gets up aroung 56 TS.
I agree with you that aiming for 1 max guy next summer and another the following summer is a more realistic path making dumping him less of a necessity. I also would guess dealing him would be an easier proposition next summer. With just 2 years left on his deal, with that last year being a player option when he’s 28 and with the cap likely to jump, he may be a decent candidate to opt out in search of another long term deal, so it’s possible he could even be an expiring contract.
Either way I’m not in a rush to trade him right this instance unless a deal comes along where we can move on from him at zero asset cost for an expiring deal or just into SAC’s space. That seems like a long shot right now so I’m okay with waiting things out.
Korver and Bayless is being discussed but it’s not a sure thing to happen. I think Korver is only guaranteed $3.4M next season so the cap implications make more sense, but Korver isn’t as good a basketball player as Lee, and he can’t play beyond the 1st round of the playoffs. We should be looking to make that happen.
i’ve come around on th2…. I don’t think he’s a foundational piece but he could be a decent sg…
his value will just be very volatile since he’s not a consistently good 3p shooter… if he ever decides to take it to the hole more… something he’s capable of…. instead of jacking up difficult 3’s… then I imagine he will make a mini-leap…
Yeah that’s something that’s plagued him since college. If he was consistently around a 38% 3 point shooter he’d be a good player, but he’s not.
Also a cop threatened to ticket me for jaywalking once in Santa Barbara, so fuck that place.
Even playing out of position for much of the year and having one of his worst shooting years, he was 10th in the league in ORPM for SFs and had a +1.7 OBPM. DBPM didn’t like him much (-1.8) but he was roughly average by DBPM.
I dunno – I like his attitude, I like his work ethic. He’s very athletic and you can imagine in a system tailored more to his skills he could be a lot more valuable. Timmy is fantastic in transition and we were bottom 8 in the league in transition possessions last year. Bump that up to average or a little better and he could see a bump in efficiency just from that. (of course you need to play D to get into transition so maybe harder than it sounds)
Ha, when my grandmother moved from the Bronx to the L.A. area many years ago, she did get a ticket for jaywalking.
Re: Timmy, I don’t think anyone isn’t rooting for him; we just hate the stupid contract.
also… he is not a SF…. his rebounding is really poor for that.. and you really handicap the team if you play th2 there….
we have a lot of guys that fit th2’s profile too… poor rebounding… limited creativity…. would be a lot better if they took it to the hole… it’s sort of uncanny at this point… even knox and hezonja epitomize this…
I can’t help but feel that this isn’t a coincidence… and maybe it’s the pointzz mentality but this is a very weird way to build a team….
@Frank
Per Cleaning the Glass THJr finished in the 73rd percentile for all wings in net on/off, 78th percentile in offensive on/off and 49th percentile in defensive on/off.
Also, this is the 2nd consecutive season in a row he’s finished in 10th in ORPM for SFs.
I think it’s really just that he’s improved enough in his all around game where he’s capable of not being a total waste of space when he’s not scoring efficiently and is average-ish for a wing, despite having been physically outmanned at the 3 for the last two years.
I’d still lose the contract if we didn’t have to take on long-term salary, but he’s not a bad player, just an overpaid one.
I think this is the drawback of being singularly focused on “modernizing” the roster, specifically with playing small and tbh I don’t think this mindset is indicative of our FO being dumb, at least not relative to alot of “smart” NBA media and opposing front offices. We see these guys talk endlessly about KP having to play the 5 and how it’s clearly the best thing for him and us long-term, yet I almost never see any discussion about how his anemic rebounding makes that untenable for more than situational instances within the course of a game.
In general, I think rebounding is a skill that gets glossed over a ton over other skills and player archetypes which are currently en vogue around the league.
I think the inevitable signing of Kyrie Irving (which I’m all for) and the emergence of Frank Ntilikina’s turnaround jumper and elite defense is either going to push TH2 to the bench or to another team in a trade. If TH2 can raise his 3P% to his career average and take one less dumb shot a game he’s a valuable player worth his contract, and I do think he’s in line for a 21/5/4 stat line this year. Trading him today would be a mistake when we can either keep him and get decent play from the position or we can trade him in December or July 2019 for some valuable assets.
OKC is all defensive roleplayers after Russ/Paul George so a 3rd guy like Schroeder that can create offense is going to help a lot imo.
Got OKC 4th (Jazz 3rd, who with me?) in the West right now, even if not by much. Melo addition by subtraction, added Noel/Schroder two young guys careers at a crossroads, re-signed Grant. Decent offseason.
Although I still do think Presti is overrated.
Also Nets just made a trade??
My grandma got followed onto a bus by a cop in Eugene, OR in 1950, where he threatened to cite her for jaywalking.
Yeah, 2FOR18, cops are bad and law enforcement can be frivolous. There are better ways to fix the straw problem than regressive, punitive criminal charges. You got ’em! Wow. Great job.
Btw I’m being facetious about Frank Ntilikina’s turnaround jumper. I do have hope that he’ll become a decent shooter to compliment that defense and passing ability, and that his style would make more sense next to a high usage guard like an Irving or even Trey Burke.
I could see a situation where Minnesota, Philly, and Memphis are interested in an inflated value TH2 at the deadline. That’s when we should be pulling the trigger on him and not today.
Nets and Phoenix traded 2 guys I forgot were in the league. The interesting part is the Nets got a top 35 protected 2nd round 2021 pick. I never saw a 2nd round pick come with a protection.
lol Schroder is a bum, he’s going to create a .515 TS% sized hole in that offense just like Carmelo did — they’re fucked
Seems like teams are finally realizing what we’ve known for years: that the early picks in the 2nd round have outsized value due to team-friendly terms like no guaranteed salary, no guaranteed length of contract.
The problem is, if Timmy is tearing it up this year, will the Knicks be smart enough to trade him at the deadline? Magic 8 ball says: “Outlook not so good”
20,
Last season, Schroeder averaged 1.09 points per possession on isolation-based plays. Among those with over 100 opportunities, he had the highest field goal percentage (48.9 percent) in the NBA. Schroeder scored on 50.9 percent of the 216 plays he ran in isolation, which was the second-highest percentage in the league behind only MVP James Harden.
Also wtf are Suns doing. Give up a second rounder just to save 2 million? They aren’t even in the tax
That’s amazing. What a talent!
Come on, Jowles, he’s just providing evidence that in the right situation Schroeder provides value. A fair argument, especially as the kind of thing he’s good at is also the kind of thing Russ is good at, so as a spark on the second unit allowing the team to run similar plays with possibly even better efficiency….it ain’t crazy.
Or, you know, they could just have tried to convince Melo to stand in the corner and keep shooting threes at a below-average percentage, while paying tens of millions in luxury tax.
Schroder is an upgrade from Melo, but he’s still a scrub.
Incidentally the player with the lowest isolation PPP with at least 100 attempts in each of the last two years is Andrew Wiggins and the margin between him and the second worst is enormous. His isolation EFG over those two years is 34%.
I wonder if Presti really is this bad of an executive or if ownership is forcing his hand here. Dennis Schroder is a guy I really liked coming into the draft but he’s been a bad defender and his offense is pretty bad, too. They have no high efficiency scorers on their roster and Westbrook is turning 30 in November. They look a lot like a team the Knicks would have tried building with all those volume scorers.
There was an admittedly very brief stretch early last season where Tim was playing really well, and a preponderance of Knickerbloggers started suggesting his deal might actually be reasonable, given the way the market had gone. Soon after, he got hurt, slumped, and otherwise reverted to the streaky guy we remembered so well, and he again became an albatross.
So my question is this: leaving lottery odds out of the equation (since Tim has a history of screwing those up for us), if he plays really well this season and shows that the improvement in Atlanta wasn’t a Bud-specific thing, is that still a contract we’re better off without at any cost? Or is Good Tim at significantly less than a max plus the one max player we could afford without dumping him a better investment?
I assume we’re better off trading him for an expiring, but what this comment presupposes is: what if we’re not?
Presti is certainly nowhere near as good as media and others think. It’s just that there are so many pathetic awful GM’s that make him look much better. It’s also interesting how now their turd owners are cool with paying a big luxury bill but couldn’t be bothered to step up when time was needed with Harden.
Is Paul George not efficient enough? I think he’s got some efficiency in his blood
Their team is interesting, they really lack 3point shooting. But I think their strategy will just be to out defend and lockdown teams + crush them on offensive glass.
My buddy is really good at eating a ton of Oreos in one sitting. Great talent. Useless though.
My buddy is really good at eating a ton of Oreos in one sitting. Great talent. Useless though.
damn there is no buddy and this is an Escher painting of an allegory that intertwines the ‘context matters’ camp with the ‘but he sux’ camp into a single vegan hating glutton whose useless talent consists of binging exclusively on a diet of black or white
The most important player for OKC is Jerami Grant.
*yawn*
You didn’t read the article you posted.
To be clear, I’m not even a big fan of initiatives like these because I think they miss the forest for the trees. Noticeable positive change with regards to the environment and climate change won’t happen until we harshly regulate every major carbon emitter and tax the hell out of fossil fuels.
But I mean, you still shouldn’t just, like, lie about them…
okay POTY submission season for 2018 is over, see you guys on Jan. 1
@35, where did I lie?
I live in LA but lived in NYC for 13 years. When I first moved out here, I had to get used to the no jaywalking thing. Its part of the culture of NYC that you can jay walk but pretty much anywhere else you can get ticketed for it and here in LA, you are WAY more likely to get hit by a car. Traffic here is no joke and drivers give zero fucks about hitting pedestrians (even when you have the walk signal).
Luckily I bike to work most days so its all good.
I think I made my overall point about the straw debate clear. I want the gov’t to put the burden on the companies that make one use plastic, produce guns and bullets, waste, oil, etc…to change their behavior instead of putting all the onus on the individuals to change their behavior. Even if everyone in this country started recycling everything it still wouldn’t be enough bc companies produce far more waste than individuals. But I have no problem giving up a plastic straw esp if I’m given options to use a biodegradable one.
I get that it seems ridiculous to fine or jail someone for using a plastic straw. But think about this. 40 or 50 years ago people were probably thought it was ridiculous to be fined for littering or throwing garbage out of their car. Now we don’t really think of that as being a bad thing to fine someone for littering bc the overall social behavior towards littering has changed and that’s bc the laws changed behavior.
No one is going to jail for using a plastic straw. The law applies to distributors.
@39
But, but, but my “slippery slope” arguments!!!!
I don’t see that distinction being made in the article, but if I’m wrong I apologize, and will say that it’s an insane law even if it only applies to distributors of “contraband straws.” Locking someone in a cage should be reserved only for crimes against someone’s person or property.
@38, since I’m far from a perfect libertarian, I will admit that I like the dog poop scooping laws.
@40, you can mock, but the ratchet does only turn one way.
Like how our forefathers granted the right to execute citizens to the state, and it’s been that way ever since. Right?
Yes
Edit: I’m honestly not sure where you’re going with this. I’m against capital punishment by the State.
just finished catching up on last night’s thread…glad i did:
that is some genuinely new yorkish funny shit right there…okay then – that’s one to bookmark for future use…
well, Jowles likes people who agree with him and hates/ridicules people who disagree with him, so that quote is unsurprising.
@42
I don’t know, as an outsider I just find it incredibly amusing how Americans are obsessed with slippery slopes and losing personal freedom and stuff like that and how narrow minded the arguments generally are.
While americans were discussing this sort of bs my country was getting an elected president deposed, with decisive influence from american groups, and replaced by the bloodiest, most fucking twisted dictatorship we’ve ever had. The dictatorship that protected american interests for decades in South America and created a legacy of authoritarian institutions that live to this day in our legal system and specially law enforcement. It wasn’t a damn slippery slope that led to the loss of all freedoms and the death of thousands of people, it was a foreign government and major companies that simply wanted to keep pillaging our country while selling liberal economic discourse as a recipe for recovery (from a situation we would never have been in the first place wasn’t for the outside influence).
You guys never experienced what the loss of personal freedoms really is, and you’re bickering about the sacred rights to use plastic straws and Russian hackers. So yeah, I guess you could say I’m a bit skeptical about this sort of arguments.
@47 That is exactly why I mock the OMG RUSSIA HACKED THE ELECTION nonsense! The U.S. has their nose in everybody’s business, and we’re supposed to go to war with Russia because they use bots on Facebook and hacked into the DNC? It’s ridiculous. We do this type of shit, and much worse, all over the world.
honestly, for years i was sure jowles had to be older than me – nobody could be that curmudgeonly, that consistently without putting in a whole lotta years in life…
then, one time he was describing some experience from the 90’s and i was like – what, he ain’t really even that old…
part of the problem though was i had that image of ned beatty from the streets of laredo stuck in my mind every time i read his posts (even read it in ned’s voice)…the tone of the posts and mostly the whole ‘the honorable’ monikor kinda was kind of throwing me off…
i got no idea what jowles may look like – but, i’m guessing ned beatty may not be the most generous comparison…
sorry for talking about you like your not here jowles 🙂
I like to read Jowles’ posts in my head with the voice of Stewie Griffin. It’s more entertaining that way.
p.s. – that Nets/Suns trade is a real shitswap, no offense to those gentlemen involved.
@47, I meant to add, what you’re describing is a thing I make fun of American progressives about, which I call first world problems. I can’t imagine how silly the things Americans argue about must seem to people with real problems.
@51
The president I voted for in 2014 was impeached from her duties under the grounds of a “crime” that
A) has been done by every government in the modern era of this country.
B) is not a crime.
C) was done in her previous term and not the current one, meaning she couldn’t be impeached of this term for something done in the last term.
This is what losing personal freedom looks like, when your vote gets rescinded unilaterally by power groups that defend the rights of the very top.
What I’m trying to say is that my experience has shown the slippery slope argument to be nothing more than an excuse for conservative thinking to keep things as they are. While I do agree with you on the US role in other countries and how silly it seems to complain about Russian influence after all of that, it does not mean I agree with you on the other end of the spectrum. Just trying to bring some perspective to the discussion.
@51 First world problems like education, healthcare, poverty, homelessness, global warming, and corruption? So silly.
@53, it’s like you didn’t even read the discussion
I took offense to this: there are plenty of very real problems in America. Maybe you wouldn’t notice by watching cable news or reading newspapers, but plenty of real Americans are arguing/discussing real issues every day.
When everyone does something that makes it OK. Let’s move on. No need to investigate. No need for soul searching. Incremental improvement? Nah…
This site is awesome, we get politics, vegan diet recipes, best cities to live in commentary, straw laws explained and debated, Dolan bashing, etc… oh and a little basketball talk thrown in.
It’s a real smorgasbord of ideas and topics
Bruno, if you took a look at our raw vote count vs who actually is in power, you would probably change your mind about the US.
Statistical Analysis. Humor. Knicks. Whatever else comes to mind.
@58
I wouldn’t say change my mind about the US so much because I do think I agree with you ultimately, in the end every country is governed by what I would call conceptually a small majority, meaning a very limited group of people who dominates the means to get to power positions but create a political narrative that paints themselves as a majority (or at least representatives of said majority) when they obviously aren’t. My posts were intended more as a general reflection of an outsider’s point of view on the debates I see and the positions taken than an indictment about American people or anything.
We’re about to elect our very own Trump around here so there’s not much difference in the end.
@55 – that’s all a guy like Bruno has to go by, which is the point you’re missing.
The Resistance, folks!
@60
What the right-wing oligarchy did to Dilma was criminal. Even more criminal was replacing her with Temer, the most corrupt politician in contemporary Brazilian history – which is saying a lot. In many respects I greatly admire the Brazilian democratic system where it is mandatory for adult citizens to vote. But if such an open assault can made against the will of the people by a small clan of oligarchs with no repercussion then one must shudder to think of what awaits us in the future.
For my entire life, the American left has mocked anyone who said anything bad about the Soviet Union, and then Russia. Reagan was gonna start WWIII if he didn’t shut up about the Soviet Union!! How dare he joke about calling them the Evil Empire! Milquetoast Milt Romney was ridiculed by everybody for calling Russia our biggest threat.
But now all of a sudden there are Russians under every bed and bots on every thread! OMGZ!!!!! won’t someone do something about the Russian menace!!!
@64
100 percent correct. The real dirty little secret no one in the Democratic Party talks about is the fact that Obama had a friendlier relationship in terms of actual policy decision with Putin than Trump has displayed so far in his presidency. Obama supported the nuclear deal with Iran with Putin’s support while Trump is scrapping it, Obama refused to erect a no fly zone in Syria despite his SoS calling for it because he didn’t want to antagonize the Russians while Trump bombed Assad strongholds, Trump also expelled more Russian ambassadors than Obama ever had in his two terms, and Trump actually has armed the rightwing Ukrainian government at the Russian border. And the Democratic Party supported Obama because he was right on each of these issues.
@61 I’m not missing anything. I was directly responding to your implication that Americans don’t have real problems. Pretty sure he’s talking about people like you who are obsessed with straws and Russia. You’re buying the narrative the people in power are selling. These sorts of useless culture and race wars help maintain the status quo and prevent real change from actually happening.
Also, please don’t call Democrats the “American left.” And obviously politicians will do whatever they think is in there best interest. Not surprising in the least.
@65 I understand what you’re saying. I am mocking the straw thing and the Russia thing.
@ 63
For my entire life, the American right has mocked anyone who said anything good about the Soviet Union, and then Russia. Democrats were going to lose WWIII if they didn’t shut up and let Republicans handle the Soviet Union!! How dare they not take the Evil Empire seriously!
But now all of a sudden the Russians aren’t a threat and we shouldn’t worry about them fucking with our elections! OMGZ!!!!! Why are you freaking out about Russia!!!
If it was just Russian meddling, it wouldn’t really be that big a deal honestly.
The problem is the potential quid pro quo, and the bizarre events of the last week raise even more eyebrows in that regard. We give you dirt on your opponent, you maybe look the other way on Crimea, maybe ease some sanctions, do what you can to break up NATO, maybe we throw in a Trump Tower in Russia.
I’m not saying that’s what’s happening here, but… I mean it kind of looks like what’s happening here. Trump acting like a fawning kissass sycophant when it comes to his buddy Putin just does not smell right. There is not really a good explanation for the constant reacharound that Putin gets from our POTUS on a daily fucking basis.
Beasley Lance and Javale teaming up and it’s not the Big 3
its like you guys make excuses to lash out others instead of recognizing the failures in your judgment and view on reality….
its ok to admit to being wrong every once in awhile…. thats actually a good predictor of intelligence if that means anything to you guys…
making enemies everytime youre wrong is no way to live life…. its pretty transparent and you aint fooling anyone…
Lakers are assembling a monster team for the casual NBA fan of 2007.
There are going to be a lot of good LeBron memes next season with all the questionable characters on his team.
Can’t wait for Rondo and Lebron to get in a fight during a game.
The Lakers could conceivably run a lineup of Rondo, Stephenson, Lebron, Beasley and McGee in the 2018-19 season.
This is the most bizarre development in years.
Its going to be fucking glorious. I hate the Lakers and I might just have to buy season tickets.
Or they win 70 games and a championship. Its gonna be feast or famine with them.
If there’s any left, the cost should be ridiculous.
For the past few years I’ve had a suite for the Knicks/Lakers game but this year I’m just going to assume I’m priced out.
More likely a starting lineup of LeBron, Rondo, Kuzma, Ingram and McGee with a bench of Lonzo, Hart, Lance, Beasley, Wagner and Caldwell-Pope?
Laugh as much as you want, but I think that is a good team with a bunch of physical bad-asses. LeBron and Rondo are two of the smartest ball-dominant players in the league, and if they can get McGee, Lance and Beasley to play to their strengths and give the young kids some confidence, they are going to win a lot of games. I think they’re much better than the Cavs team LeBron just left, especially defensively.
I would say that we’re all mature enough here to discuss politics in a civil and classy tone – but I know better. We’re vicious when it comes to something far less important, basketball. That being said, I’m a centrist. I have voted for Republicans and Democrats as late as the latest election. However, I have come to believe that the entire GOP was bought with Siberian oil money. Those congressmen who weren’t are worried about continued employment. Enough about that horrible topic. I love you even if I disagree with everything you say 😉
The Lakers need to trade for LeBron’s favorite, JR Smith. Oh, and I hear that Lamar Odom is looking for a reboot. They liked him there, didn’t they? Rodman wants to coach too. This will be the first team that actually uses 5 balls at the same time.
@ 78 – ZMan, I actually agree with you. I think they could either explode or be amazing. The thing is those players all do have amazing individual talents, so if they can find a way to work together they could be good. Really good. If they find their way and make the playoffs they’re gonna be a scary team to face. But its also gonna be high drama.
The Lakers do seem to have a lot of professional shot-missers on their team. It’s like LeBron and then a cornucopia of low TS% players. I could definitely see them being a pretty saucy defensive team, although they are sorely lacking in size up front and have no viable big other than Javale McGee.
Yeah, I think they don’t have enough efficient scoring. They need some of their younger players to take a leap (in the case of Ball) or another leap (in the case of Ingram).
The Beaze, though, is useful on a good team. So if the Lakers are good, he’ll be useful there.
I’m hoping for some Ball-Pope-Hart-Ingram-LeBron closing lineups. There’s a lot of positional flexibility, so it’ll be interesting what they do with it. Based on the recent front office decisions, I’m not so confident—there’s the potential to play a lot of lineups with no spacing and no defense to compensate.
Shit I agree with Zman. I think the Lakers are going to be much better than people think. They will make the WCF.
Edit: and swift. Jeez maybe this Russian straw menace is for real.
I think Beasley got a decent contract. It’s something like twice what he was paid by the Knicks. And he will help them.
.The West is going to be tough as usual next season
The Lakers really lack a good big man, but if they do plan on going small a lot it shouldn’t be a super big issue. Realistically their rotation should be Ball, KCP, Ingram, Lebron, McGee, then Kuzma, Rondo, Hart and Beasley in order of importance with Stephenson and Wagner playing some spot minutes here and there.
It really comes down to how much Ball and Ingram improve to me, they’re the key pieces to the puzzle. If they improve, and they should, the Lakers should be in the playoffs. I just think it’s realistic to imagine a scenario in which they don’t, the veterans on one year deals suck and Lebron is stuck carrying everybody else again, and that’s gonna be 3x harder this year as the west is legitimately 10 deep with good teams.
Here are the projections per CARMELO for 2019, in WARP and MP:
Rondo 0.2, 1336
LeBron, 11.5, 2764 (goddamn he’s so good)
Ball, 5.8, 2481
Kuzma, 0.5, 2319
McGee, -0.1, 700
Stephenson, -0.6, 1163
BeEasLy, -0.2, 1235
Ingram, 0.8, 2328
Hart, 1.6, 1767
KCP, 3.4, 2389
Wagner, -0.6, 487
Deng, lol
So assuming they play zero overtime periods, these projections capture 96.3% of available LAL minutes, with a grand WARP total of 22.3. Assuming that everyone just scales their minutes up to reach 100% of available minutes, that’s 23.1 WARP. I couldn’t locate a win total for a team made entirely of replacement players, but overall a replacement player has a +/- of -1.5.
Obviously, this is using the median of their confidence interval, so this does not account for upside (or, haha, downside).
You have to be bullish to see this team as a playoff contender, but if you think that Ingram is more Giannis than A. Randolph, okay. If you, like me, think that Ball could be the second coming of Kidd, you can see them as a strong team.
But the thought of this team going to the WCF is downright laughable to me. Utah and OKC (sans Carmelo) would punk them off the floor, to say nothing of GSW or Houston.
I might be doing this wrong, but a team with a MOV of -7.5 (5*-1.5 +/-) would win, according to pythag. wins, about 25% of their games. So this is a 43-win team, according to CARMELO.
I don’t expect them to win any more than high 40s, agreed. I think the next year is big for them, when they can add a second star.
I mean from what I can tell Lebron is cool with them not being great this year if they can then add another big name next summer like Kawhi or whoever.
And I think one thing we’re forgetting…Lebron has coasted in the regular season the last few years but maybe he’ll kick it up a notch earlier in order to insure the Lakers win some games early and are assured to make the playoffs.
Jacob Goldstein’s PIPM-based team projections have them at 44.6 wins right now, 110.4 ORTG, 109.0 DRTG. That puts them at 8th in the West, a step above the Spurs, Blazers, Grizzlies, and Clippers (all predicted between 35-38 wins). The likely win range is 36.4-52.5, and that seems about right to me: somewhere between out of the playoffs and a solid playoff team, but a step below the best.
(Also check out the predicted DRTG for the Knicks: 113.1, worst in the league by 2 points.)
Seems slightly optimistic tbh.
@94
I think that’s very accurate, I said 45-47 yesterday and I still keep my prediction. The Cavs last season with similar talent and in a much, much easier conference won 50 games and that was with Lebron playing all 82 games. One small injury that makes him miss 5-7 games and it could be much worse.
I do think Lebron won’t miss the playoffs and he’ll play 48 minutes down the stretch if necessary to ensure it doesn’t happen, but in the end the other 8 or 9 dudes have to do something too and there’s very little talent between those guys.
Lebron doesn’t really care if the team struggles as if only furthers his position as the de facto general manager again. If everybody sucks they’re all on 1 year deals or very movable rookie deals and he can revamp every single piece of the roster as he sees fit. The LA move, as soon as Kawhi and PG were not options anymore, has turned into preparation for year 2 and I’m pretty sure Lebron is aware of this. I just think he’ll give his all to reach the playoffs for honor / legacy purposes, lose right away and then he holds the narrative of “Lebron surrounded by scrubs he needs help” again (which again wouldn’t be false). And well, if the young guys do develop it’s less moves they have to do in the future.
My Lakers WCF call is predominately based on Ball, Hart and Ingram leaps, melo for Ariza /inevitable Paul injury re: Houston, and LeBron not being human.
It’s all conjecture, but I’ll put a wager on it.
Yeah, unfortunately, the Lakers have set it up so that they can use this year as a tune-up year before getting another max guy and having the kids blossom. Ball should become a legit PG and Hart could surprise a lot of people (because he’s the guy that can actually shoot.) I have no idea about Ingram, but people seem to like him, and Kuzma and Caldwell-Pope should be good bench guys. I guess they are OK having a journeyman center and/or playing a lot of small-ball.
And with their positional flexibility (and a well of guys that want a shot at a chip on a one-year contract) they should be able to contend even if one or two of the young guys end up busts. We’ll see I guess.
EDIT: Beat me to it, Bruno.
Not sure what to expect from the Lakers.
My guess would be somewhere between out of playoffs and the 4th seed. It’s the West after all.
Despite Lebron’s durability, last season was his first playing 82 games. It’s reasonable to expect him to miss some games and the Lakers roster sans Lebron is top lottery material.
Lebron will do his thing winning a lot of games by himself, but I belive the success of the season will rely on the development of the kids.
On paper, the Lakers definitely struggle to make the playoffs. The question is: Does LeBron make other players better? Will Walton’s coaching system (if not commandeered by LeBron and Rondo) make the individual players better in a team context? LeBron has young guys with athleticism and upside, and veterans with some valuable skills and toughness mitigated by terrible flaws.
Anyone who thinks LeBron and Magic are throwing away this year is nuts. They are going to go all out to win with what they have.
It also wouldn’t surprise me if a Kawhi trade is engineered mid-season, once Kawhi has proven that he is healthy.
People keep crowing about how strong the West is, but is it really? There’s GSW and then a steep dropoff to the next team. Houston lost Ariza and Mbah a Moute and Paul is another year older and more injury prone. Utah can be very good, but are they better than the Lakers w LeBron? The Spurs? Please. OKC is hardly better than Toronto, Milwaukee or Washington. The Pels, Nuggets, Wolves and Blazers all have issues. Clippers are rebuilding. Mavs? Not yet.
Who should the LeLakers be afraid of, other than the Dubs?
It seems like LeBron thinks the “LeBron and 4 guys who can shoot and do exactly nothing else” model is played out. It has a reasonably high floor in the regular season, but requires LeBron to expend ridiculous amounts of energy and will never hold a candle to the elite teams in the West.
I didn’t like the Lakers’ offseason much (in particular I think letting Randle walk for peanuts was a catastrophe), but if you think of it as one big push to give LeBron a different kind of team than he had in Cleveland it kind of makes some sense.
Between LeBron LeBronning, Ball/Hart/Kuzma/Ingram all making at least some improvement, and my perhaps irrational feeling that LeBron will drag as much as there is to give out of Rondo/Lance/KCP/JaVale I think they’ll win around 47 games.
@101
My argument about the west being much stronger than the east is not so much about a 7 game series between the Lakers and any of those teams, but about the Lakers and Lebron playing 52 games against those western teams instead of 30. You might not be very high on the strength of those teams, but I’m sure anyone would win more games playing more games against the overall weaker conference. We were discussing the Lakers regular season record.
I wouldn’t be afraid of the Blazers, Spurs, Jazz, Clippers or the Nuggets if I was Lebron, but I sure as hell see more of a chance of them losing games in the regular season to those teams instead of the Pistons, Wizards, Bucks, Hornets, Bulls of the NBA. It shouldn’t change much on the top and on the bottom ends of each conference but it is very relevant for the regular season.
I think 47 games is reasonable, but given how much the Spurs, Clips and Rockets seem to have regressed a 50+ win season wouldn’t surprise me, nor would a top-4 seed in the West. And if they land Kawhi…
Just to add this, the Cavs record against the west last season was 15-15, and they went 35-17 against the east. Even if we factor in he Spurs, Clippers and Rockets all regressing, it’s still a lot harder to face those western teams constantly.
bonus: every western team except the Wolves and the tanking Kings, Mavs, Grizzlies and Suns went positive against the east last season.
In some ways, the Lebron effect is very hard to understand. The simple explanation that he just puts out more effort when the games are more important just doesn’t explain everything. The Cavaliers defense got better in the playoffs, but that wasn’t, and couldn’t be, just Lebron playing harder. One guy does not make a good defense, you need a whole team. If the whole team played better that implies they were dogging it during the regular season. If they were dogging it, that is the opposite of being inspired, and maybe LeBron had something to do with that.
This makes predicting the Laker’s performance next year very hard. I can see them not playing very well, and being “uninspired” for most of the season. They could be like Minnesota, an apparently unhappy team. That would ceetainly put them in the bottom half of the playoffs. They have some young talent, but who knows how it will affect the play of that talent to have Lebron there. So I think they are likely to make the playoffs, but be worse than Houston, San Antonio, Golden State, OKC and probably Utah. There is a lot of uncertainty.
Also, I’m not buying that the Spurs are regressing yet. They lost Parker who was absolutely garbage last year, Kyle Anderson (who I like) and Danny Green who was also garbage, and replaced them with DeRozan, who had a pretty good regular season, Poeltl, who was quietly very good and Belinelli who is a very good shooter, plus whatever Lonnie Walker can contribute.
They won 47 games without Kawhi and now they add DeRozan in his place. I hate the fit with Aldridge and Murray, but they have good shooting with Belinelli and Bertans and I really wouldn’t put it past Popovich to coach the hell out of DeRozan on this team.