Knicks Morning News (2018.07.26)

I find myself certifiably addicted to watching Knox and Mitchell highlights from summer league. Is it possible that three years from now we are going to have the most dominant front line in the league?

This season is going to be a blast!

My poison of choice is Johnny Walker black and above. I like blended scotch’s. Introduced to them by my dad when I was young. Particularly like the strong smoky flavor of double black and gold label. My dad always took his with 2 ice cubes, half whiskey glass scotch, and 1/3 water. So more then a splash. That’s how I drink it. To me it really brings out the flavor and “opens” the drink. But to each is own. There are many ways to enjoy something in life.

Enes Kanter is an interesting player. I like his attitude and the way he reps his team. Love it. I don’t love his defense. However..

I can live with his lack of shot blocking and P&R coverage if he can become a full enforcer. He already is a top rebounder and he has the attitude. Plus he’s super efficient on offense. If he can play physical defense and get in guys faces, we can live with it right? I really like Kanter for this team.

15 years ago Kanter could’ve been great. He plays decent post defense, but big men don’t post up much anymore. Kanter gets exposed on the fast break, on backdoor cuts, lobs, and when bigs step out to shoot threes. Plus, yeah, the pick and roll blinds him like a solar eclipse.

Great discussion of Knick draft picks now happening at http://www.worldofliquor.com if anyone’s interested.

ILoveVegan.com had a great conversation last week about the ideal time to stretch the Joakim Noah contract.

Kanter is a fun guy to root for. Big men who can only be nimble on offense are pretty fascinating.

I would be fine with Kanter as a starting Center on a good team. Let’s say we had a legit superstar like Giannis and KP was healthy, he could be a part of a very good front court specially since he rebounds well to cover KP’s weakness and his lacking rim protection gets compensated by KP. If your defense consists on players who are not Jarrett Jack and Michael Beasley you can somehow compensate for his very poor defense.

Of course he’s not my ideal Center, as I’d much rather have a Gobert or Jordan, guys who can provide the same efficient offense and rebounding but with great defense, but Kanter has value. He’s just not what we need right now as he has pretty much no upside and gets paid too much for a team that is not in position to maximize his talents.

Another reason to root for Kanter: he loves Brooklyn 99.

He just got lucky with the timing of his contract and OKC was being stupid.

Technically, Portland was being stupid in the way we were with the Timmy contract: giving an RFA a contract so outsized that his current team surely wouldn’t match it. But OKC did.

So I guess they were also stupid.

The problem is that the Nets had the double whammy of being a franchise no one wants to play for + having zero assets.

Their main moves have not really paid off and it’s still going to take a long while until they’re good, but considering the apocalypse Sean Marks inherited he has done pretty well. They’re not stuck with terrible contracts and there’s some hope Allen, Hollis-Jefferson, LeVert or even Russell become something.

That’s what I say about building by renting cap space and gathering assets with young players, at least if this group of players show nothing eventually, they can all be cut or traded away without further commitments, they just return to a clean slate once again and can attempt to restart the rebuild once more.

Yeah, but they are recovering from an at least top 5 all time franchise crippling trade, so it’s kinda to be expected, that’s what I’m saying.

They tried to get those good players on fair contracts, but what can they do when no one wants to play there and the RFAs that did got matched? I don’t know what you expect them to do.

We’re still crying about the assets we lost in the Melo / Bargs trades and even those trades were considerably better then what Billy King did comparing what we lost and what they lost.

If they had simply kept their damn picks and did nothing they would have something like Jaylen Brown, Markelle Fultz, Lonzo Ball or Jayson Tatum and Collin Sexton or Kevin Knox or anyone selected after.

I just don’t think the Nets could have done much better with their situation.

Kanter is a similar player to Greg Monroe. Monroe still doesn’t have a contract, so you figure he’s going to sign for close to the minimum. That should tell us something about Kanter’s value on the open market. I don’t care how many numbers he puts up on this bad Knicks team, we should not be offering him any kind of extension.

@1 – When I got back home from work yesterday, and realized there was no Yankee game to watch, I found myself watching a DVR’ed summer league game.

Yes, I’m kind of excited for this upcoming 20-win season. We have a roster filled with youth. Our draft picks look like steals. If, for some strange reason, the team starts to win, I won’t be upset. We have our 1st round draft picks going forward. We have some diamonds in the rough. We have, what seems to be, an intelligent front office and a management team that understands how to build a team.

If we do well it means that Knox, Robinson, Frank and the other kids took a step forward. If we’re that good, we may be able to attract free agents and become a competitive team.

The problem is that the Nets had the double whammy of being a franchise no one wants to play for + having zero assets.

Wait, nobody wants to play for them? Not even 2011 Carmelo Anthony? In that case, can we have Gallinari, Mozgov, Randolph, Chandler, and Saric back please? Thanks.

Re: Scotch and water, I tend to drink the lower proof scotches straight up and the higher proof ones with either a drop of water or a single ice cube. Some stuff is well over 90 proof, that’s too strong to not water down. The cask-strength can be up to 120 proof.

Personally usually have the OP stuff neat, but a couple of drops of soda water activates the flavour nicely.

Re: Kanter, he is probably the most enjoyable personality we have had on the Knicks in a long time. I wouldn’t have any qualms re-signing him on the right deal. All things seem to indicate he loves NY, so not difficult to see him potentially taking a discount to stay (that said, we all know how things went the last time we thought someone was going to take a discount *cough* Melo *cough*). Ideally you have KP next to him to cover any Defensive deficiencies, which could be some of the reasoning behind the Vonleh was signing.

Nobody wants to play for the Nets because they suck. If they were an even okay team they would be able to sign guys like Enes Kanter and Tobias Harris if they miss on Durant, but they’ve been dreadful ever since Deron Williams forgot how to play basketball.

Look, I like Kanter. But value is based on alternatives and opportunity cost. If I can have monroe at the min, I’m not paying kanter more, ya know?

Based on his comments post signing with the Pacers, I am not sure he would have gone to Brooklyn, if he was wanting to leave the Knicks for a bit more on-court success.

Maybe I’m mistaken, but I didn’t take that comment literally.

I thought it was clear he wanted to stay in NY. He even “liked” a Tweet that asked if he would be willing to give us a discount. I think he was disappointed the Knicks didn’t make him an offer and that was the kind of comment a jilted lover makes. He was saying “You guys weren’t so hot anyway. My new girlfriend is way hotter”. But inside, he wanted a multi-year deal from the Knicks.

I think Marks inherited a truly terrible situation and has improved it to now merely “bad.” I mean, there weren’t a lot of moves he could make. I do agree that picking up a few KOQ pieces would have been good for them, but maybe we see things in those players that others don’t see. I think we’re right – KOQ is a good player making winning plays, usually – but maybe there are other reasons players like that have been undervalued.

Nah, we’re probably right, and they’re probably all chasing the hot thing, which is interchangeable forwards who shoot 3s. Flava of the moment.

Maybe I’m mistaken, but I didn’t take that comment literally.

I thought it was clear he wanted to stay in NY. He even “liked” a Tweet that asked if he would be willing to give us a discount. I think he was disappointed the Knicks didn’t make him an offer and that was the kind of comment a jilted lover makes. He was saying “You guys weren’t so hot anyway. My new girlfriend is way hotter”. But inside, he wanted a multi-year deal from the Knicks.

Maybe so. You can give yourself a decent headache trying to read between the lines of what NBA players are saying sometimes. If he was inclined to give the Knicks a discount or even stay here he could have just opted in to the $4.25 million. I think there was a sliver of truth to his desire to play for a “winner” given he ultimately signed a 1 year deal for $4.5 million. Either that or he and his agent misread the market.

Whether Monroe is worth more or not, the fact is that he’s going to get close to the minimum. Noel, Lopez, and Amir Johnson did the same, and Ed Davis and Baynes didn’t get much more. B ackup centers are available on the cheap.

If Robinson is decent and Zing comes back healthy, they should get the bulk of the center minutes going forward. That makes Kanter a virtual 3rd stringer. Only dumb teams give big extensions to 3rd string centers. If he wants anything more than a near -minimum deal, we shouldn’t hesitate to replace him.

Ahahahahaha Bidiong you got me good with that one