Here’s another thing. If Kyrie Irving and Jimmy Butler decide to come play together in New York, it won’t be because of whatever record the Knicks have this season. It will be because of KP being here and this being, well, you know, New York (plus those guys being cocky/confident – depends on how you look at it – enough to think that them plus KP plus a bunch of scrubs would be enough to be a good team, with opportunity to add more players later). So if that is the case (and that is the case), why are the Knicks even interested in winning at all this season? Shouldn’t this season be strictly about playing young guys who will be assets beyond this season? So why even sign someone like Hezonja, who will help you only this season?

Man, the more that I think about it, the more I dislike the Hezonja signing. The best sort of realistic case with him as a Knick is that he plays well and they get a second round pick for him. All while he plays big minutes without any chance of being part of the future of this team. It makes a lot of sense for him, as the other team interested in him, Portland, was going to have him come off of the bench. Here, he gets a lot of minutes, but to what end for the Knicks?

I just don’t like these moves where there doesn’t seem to be a real plan behind it beyond, “Hey, he’s a good player. It’d be good to add a good player to the team, right?”

PG Burke (beating out Ntilikina and Mudiay)
SG Hardaway (beating out Lee)
SF Knox (beating out Thomas)
PF Hezonja (beating out Vonleh)
C Kanter (beating out Robinson and Kornet)

If Vonleh and or Hezonja is really bad, maybe Kornet or Robinson will beat one of them out for backup or starting power forward

My starting line up would be:
Ntilikina
Hardaway/Burke
Hezonja
Knox
Robinson

With Kanter, Vonleh, Baker and Dotson rounding out the ten man rotation.

Stretching him isn’t the best move but if he has to be gone by the start of the season then I can see the logic in stretching him. Not stretching him limits a lot of our choices next summer. So while stretching him is my second choice it’s not some disastrous decision.

So what are we doing about a power forward until KP returns? Is Noah Vonleh our only experienced 4? Isaiah Hicks? Can Mario Hezonja handle it? Who starts?

Vonleh might play his way into the starting lineup during training camp. Otherwise, I think that Fiz plans to go with Hezonja and Knox as two generic forwards, with the matchup determining which of the two is the “power forward” on any given day.