(Sunday, October 07, 2018 11:41:25 AM)
OCTOBER 7: The signing is official, the Knicks announced on Twitter. The move brings New York back to the training camp limit of 20 players. SEPTEMBER 20: Forward Jeff Coby will sign a contract with the Knicks, according to Nicola Lupo of Sportando. It’s unclear whether the Knicks intend to add him to their 20-man […]
(Sunday, October 07, 2018 9:28:40 AM)
The Knicks once again opened a spot on their training camp roster by waiving a player who appears destined for their G League team, tweets Ian Begley of ESPN. This time it’s Paul Watson, a shooting guard from Fresno State who signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the team Friday. Watson follows Tyrius Walker, John Jenkins and Billy Garrett, who […]
[NYPost] Knicks already fixing concerning Jeff Hornacek trend (Sunday, October 07, 2018 9:03:08 PM)
Good coaching takes so many forms — even seemingly simple ideas such as getting off to better starts in the third quarter. Knicks coach David Fizdale has made it his obsession. The Knicks were one of the worst clubs coming out after halftime last season and Trey Burke indicated the club wasn’t prepared — an…
(Sunday, October 07, 2018 7:19:40 PM)
The best preseason performance so far by a New York-area point guard belongs to Kyrie Irving, who claimed at a Celtics fanfest he will re-sign with the team and forget about free agency. Right, and the Earth is flat — another one of Irving’s pronouncements. To date, none of the three Knicks point guards has…
(Sunday, October 07, 2018 11:36:49 AM)
The Knicks signed former Columbia F Jeff Coby, the team announced on Sunday.
68 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.10.08)”
Would be nice to see Mitch recovered in time to go against Markieff again tonight, but I don’t want to push it in preseason.
Nothing is impossible Knicks fans.
Via DRF
LEXINGTON, Ky. – On paper, the Grade 1, $500,000 Breeders’ Futurity on Saturday at Keeneland appeared wide open, even more so after Hopeful Stakes winner Mind Control, the morning-line favorite, was scratched after being treated for a temperature.
But then, Knicks Go took a wide-open race and blew it wide, wide open, blitzing the field for a 5 1/2-length victory and returning $142 as the longest shot on the board.
Knicks Go has now earned an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 2 at Churchill Downs, and also picked up 10 qualifying points toward the field for next year’s Kentucky Derby. In the process, he gave trainer Ben Colebrook and jockey Albin Jimenez both their first career Grade 1 wins.
@2 that’s funny! Sort of like the odds of scoring a go-ahead TD, only to get beat by a 63 yard FG!
@2
So you’re saying the Knicks are going to win the East by 5 games? Then I’m off to Vegas!
Per Shams, the Suns just fired their GM. Weird timing.
I’ve been thinking about the Knicks under/over. I have no opinion other than if the Knicks win ether lows 20s or upper 30s it wouldn’t shock me much. So much depends on young players whose productivity is difficult to predict. That’s a lot different than the typical team with mostly veterans whose form is established.
Let’s not forget that Devin Booker just got paid $158M for absolutely fucking nothing, and is so integral to the long-term strategy of the Suns that their Wikipedia page calls it the “Devin Booker era.” McCullough’s illustrious draft history includes such studs as Josh Jackson, Dragan Bender, T.J. Warren, Tyler Ennis, and Alex Len. Of the 14 total draftees who have played NBA minutes since he took the reins, exactly zero of them have a positive BPM.
He got paid millions to be totally incompetent. Surprising that it took this long.
The question is really whether the rookies will be godawful or just normal-bad. They’re going to get routinely dominated by 80% of the league’s teams and occasionally put together a “sleeper” game against a mid-level playoff team that will make half of this board fully tumescent.
There’s literally no chance that this team totals in the high 30s. Zero.
That’s a shame. I had Phoenix pegged as one of the few teams stupid enough to trade for Courtney Lee.
I hope the new guy likes overpriced guards.
EDIT: we may be in luck…
Jowles, you forgot to mention trading an unprotected first and Zhaire Smith for Mikal Bridges. And to think, that wasn’t even dumbest draft-day move this year!
I disagree. There’s at least a 1% chance.
Evidence? See: Elon University.
I don’t think it’s likely but it’s not outside the realm of possibilities. If Kanter is able to drag this team to a decent record against the dregs of the league (Atlanta, Orlando, Chicago, Cleveland, Sacramento, etc) then a normal bad record against the rest of the league could get us right there.
The only way this team wins more than 32 games is if Porzingis comes back early and isn’t rusty. The roster without him is incapable of going over 32.
High 30s for me is impossible. The east is bad but most teams will be somewhat competitive, we can easily drop games to the Brooklyns, Orlandos of the world. Low 30s is what I’d call a fair optimistic take, unlikely to happen but feasible if many things go right.
My prediction is somewhere between 24 and 30 wins, but this season is so rough to predict because so much of the win total is going to depend on how many games Porzingis plays. I’d say if he stays out for most of the season it’s around 24-25, if he plays most of the season around 29-30. I don’t think Porzingis by himself is worth 5 wins, but he’s the best big man defender on the team and will have some big games here and there, plus the team is likely to focus more on winning as much as possible if he’s healthy.
I wouldn’t necessarily give it a zero chance, especially if KP comes back earlier than expected, but …. yeah, I would set the over-under at about 30. or even less.
I’m not predicting high 30s or I’d be betting the over. What I am saying is we won 29 last year with KP and Hardaway missing significant games. I could see 22 this year just as easily as 37 depending on how it all shakes out with the young players and injuries. Most teams don’t have ranges like that because there are way fewer unknowns.
I think we are going to win a handful of games early we have no business winning and then we’ll settle in as one of the worst teams in the league. My guess is that KP will return between New Years and the all-star break. At the all-star break we will have a bottom 5 record but then when other teams start tanking we won’t and by sheer fact that we will be the only team dumb enough to not pack it in we will go around .500 to end the year and we will end up with around 32-35 wins.
I hope I’m wrong and we do pack it in and glide to that bad record but I just don’t see it.
Dejounte Murray has a torn ACL. Damn, poor guy, so young and so promising. These injuries to young players suck so much.
I think our youth and conditioning will win us some games we have no business winning especially when we face tired teams on back to backs. I think we might be better than people predict but maybe not by much.
A shame about Murray. He was a guy I thought provided a decent comp to Frank.
If you’re going to win games you’re going to need productive players and I don’t see very many. How many players on this roster are good bets to rack up a .100 WS48 or higher? Kanter will. Burke is a maybe. Maybe Porzingis plays something like 1500 minutes. Other than that, you’re looking at a roster made up almost entirely of below-average players.
I wouldn’t be upset about it, Knicks homers. Once Lee and Noah are off the books, and Porzingis is flipped for 8 future firsts, the team has nowhere to go but up. Trying to be bullish on a team mostly comprised of fringe NBAers and solid D-Leaguers is silly.
The one thing this team has going for it is physical tools. This team is built to run and to exert maximum energy on defense. On hot 3-pt shooting nights, I think they can compete with any non-elite team. I know it’s hard to think of this collection of players as a good defensive team, but I liked what I have seen so far in preseason. They are very active, lots of hands in the passing lanes, nice balance of switching and going over screens, etc. Lance has looked very good on both ends. Frank is a menace on D. They’re contesting 3-pt shooters. Kanter is moving his feet better. Vonleh and Mitch are fouling too much but are at least active and willing defenders. Dot, Trier and Ron all play hard. Knox is playing better D than feared.
Obviously they have to get rid of Mudiay if they want to win. He is by far the worst player on both ends. Hezonja has looked pretty bad too, I hope we see something different out of him or that he gets benched until he starts playing the right way.
Hi I’m Jowles. I like to belittle people on the internet who support the team this blog was named after.
Andrea Bargnani
Yeah, it’s tough to predict us with many above average players. Definitely Kanter, I’m actually pretty sure MitchRob will put up an above .100 WS if he plays. After that, maybe Burker, maybe Hardaway.
We shouldn’t even think about measuring this team’s success this season in terms of wins, that is unless you mean our success in tanking to get a shot at Zion. Nah, we’re going to have to measure success in terms of individual player development and how Fizdale will mold this team into something resembling a cohesive unit with a plan.
Mitch and Lee are still out. More important: Frank is starting. Attack the basket, son.
I’m sure a certain tousled-hair two guard is feeling a little bit betrayed right now.
One could argue those are 3 of our best players when healthy. 🙂
Unless KP comes back 100% and continues his upward trajectory, Knox is the real deal, and Fizdale and the developmental coaches are all they claim to be, we are still going to be discussing tanking 5 years from now. So far we ARE getting younger, but we are also getting worse. I still think the idea is to get better while you are trying to get younger.
Robinson is going to be a beast, but he’s also going to average about 10 fouls per 36 and probably turn the ball over a shitton, relative to his FGA/poss. Rookie centers with athletic gifts and aggressive defensive style = guys who can’t play more than 15 MPG because of foul trouble.
I agree here. But I just don’t believe we should measure this improvement according to wins at this stage in the rebuild. We’re just too young all around.
I loathe that long range 2 pointer Frank settles for off the screen. He needs to cut that out of his repertoire.
“Other than that, you’re looking at a roster made up almost entirely of below-average players.”
“Trying to be bullish on a team mostly comprised of fringe NBAers and solid D-Leaguers is silly.”
“Yeah, it’s tough to predict us with many above average players.”
Talk about a buzz kill going into the season… So, it should be easy to tank without even trying and secure a top 3 pick. That will be the payoff for sucking all year. I can live with that.
@34
Knox also stepped into long 2. Bad idea.
I’m fine with this team being young and not very good. I ain’t complaining. There’s a difference between trying to assess how many games the team might win and complaining.
What is Hezonja’s problem? He doesn’t look like he’s mentally checked into the game.
You can see why scouts were enamored with Hezonja. He’s pretty fluid for a dude his size.
Bosh should go vegan to help with his blot clotting issues.
Vonleh sets some good screens. I think some people mentioned this here the other day— if he’d just slow his roll and stop trying to do too much he’d probably make a pretty decent reserve big.
No Kanter. No fun.
Vonleh also decided to double team randomly leading to an open 3, then the very next possession decided to put the ball on the floor under the basket while surrounded by three defenders.
It’s not his skills at issue, it’s his decisions. Both of those feel like things you could coach out but he’s not that fresh of a face.
There are gonna be a lot of regular season games like this one, might as well get used to it.
Definitely a pickup game feel to this one. The guards were all garbage, nobody was able to initiate any offense.
That was a hell of an outlet pass. Let’s not cut Mudiay, those are fun.
What the heck happened in the 3rd quarter? I got distracted by the Yankees shitting the bed
Hmmm…getting interesting.
That was ugly. Knox in particular looked exactly like the guy we hoped he wouldn’t look like.
I hate to say it, but the sooner we can dump Kanter’s expiring to a contender, the better. Without him, we don’t have a prayer to win 20 games, which would put us on the Zion Express.
Pretty fun 4th quarter. I’d watch a season of that. Mudiay showed some very nice outlet passes. Hicks played surprisingly well for being Hicks. Knox played some decent defense and Trier enjoys scoring.
Maybe most impressive was Baker playing the refs. Not many guys his age can flop that effectively. He was also impressive when he lost the ball out of bounds and instead of the normal one hand pointing to indicate possession he very casually whipped out the two handed ref version.
Very mad I missed the Allonzo Trier show to watch Aaron Boone wave the white flag in a 3-0 playoff game
When we play our scrubs vs. the other team’s scrubs, we’re pretty good!
And then use Chad Green in the inning after it was 7-0. I don’t think I’ve seen a Knick coach make a move that inexplicable and I’ve watched every game Woody coached (note that Woody was far from their worst coach in the last 20 years, but he was also the one who did the weirdest shit, strategically. Brown did the weirdest shit period, like starting guys based on whether the Knicks were playing in that player’s home town).
Frank actually drove to the rim more than once so that’s good
Problem is, out scrubs are everyone but Kanter, TH2 and Lee.
And then use Holder when it was 10-1, despite tomorrow almost certainly being an all hands on deck situation. Mike Woodson absolutelty would’ve managed this baseball game in a superior way.
Yes, but did Beno have to pass him the ball there?
#BlameBeno
The AL East is big, man.
A thing we never talk about is Beno did not, in fact, have to throw him the ball.
So with four preseason games left and one to go, it’s reasonable to suspect that the last one will have starters sort of like the regular season might. Reading the tea leaves of minutes played and substitution patterns, my guess for the front court is that Kanter will start, with Robinson as his backup. Thomas will start at the four with Hezonja as backup and Knox will start at the three. Who Knox’s backup is, I have no idea. Maybe it will some version of a three guard line up, where Ntilikina is one of the guards and he defends the other team’s three. The back court still seems wide open, despite four preseason games. No one has distinguished themselves enough, and Courtney Lee still hasn’t played. I guess Hardaway will start at the two. After that, who knows?
Any thoughts?
I think Burke will start at the one.
I’m not on a Yankees board so it’s nice to see other people expressing one of my two biggest issues with Boone. The other is that he still saves his closer for when his team has a lead on the road. I thought we’d completely eliminated that from baseball. How has there not been an intervention with this guy? He’s so incredibly stupid with bullpen mgmt but it’s so easy to correct.
Burke, Hardaway Jr, Knox, Thomas, Kanter is the starting line up. Ntilikina, Lee, and Trier should be the guards off the bench, Hezonja the first wing (by default), and Robinson/Vonleh should be the back up depending on who Fizdale wants to go with.
What are the chances the Knicks don’t stretch waive Joakim Noah this season? I think the front office is content to pay him his full salary to stay away from the team and won’t agree to a buyout unless he gives us the same money back Luol Deng gave back, or maybe even more. I find it odd that Noah and the Knicks haven’t come to terms as yet.
Yeah, this is more what I expected to see this year. Let’s go NY Kanter’s!!!
It’s super odd. I’d prefer them to just keep him, but it’s pretty darn late for them to not have a decision either way.
I think the stance the Knicks need to take is one where if Noah doesn’t agree to a reasonable haircut on his salary, then they will be content to keep him on the inactive list for the entire season. Noah should be content to steal their money and train all year
You guys could be right about the starters. I don’t know about Vonleh, though. He had one really good preseason game, I don’t think that is enough to beat out Robinson as backup center. And Burke has to play really well to make that team click. I’d love for that to be the case, but I am doubtful
I’m sure this is what has actually happened. Noah must have rejected whatever they offered so far. Either he is being difficult, which would not surprise me, since he did apparently turn down an olive branch offer from Fizdale, or he just doesn’t have a team to go to. I mean, if you are going to sit around anyway, you might as well take all the money instead of just some of it.