(Wednesday, October 24, 2018 7:20:07 PM)
As was reported last week, the G League is creating a new opportunity for NBA prospects over 18 years of age to sign a contract worth $125K as an alternative to the one-and-done route in college basketball. And per Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, at least two current Knicks players, both of whom had […]
(Wednesday, October 24, 2018 7:20:07 PM)
As was reported last week, the G League is creating a new opportunity for NBA prospects over 18 years of age to sign a contract worth $125K as an alternative to the one-and-done route in college basketball. And per Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, at least two current Knicks players, both of whom had […]
(Wednesday, October 24, 2018 12:40:00 PM)
For proof the NBA’s draft eligibility rules are flawed and a disservice to certain players, just look at the Knicks roster.
Three players – Enes Kanter, Emmanuel Mudiay and Mitchell Robinson – either chose to forego college or were ruled ineligible by the NCAA. Nonetheless, they all had to wait…
(Wednesday, October 24, 2018 11:23:36 PM)
Knicks coach David Fizdale said he is considering making changes to the team’s lineup after Wednesday’s lopsided loss to the Miami Heat.
(Wednesday, October 24, 2018 9:56:01 PM)
Led by Hassan Whiteside and Josh Richardson, the Heat gave the Knicks their first blow out of the season in a 110-87 loss in Miami on Wednesday night
(Wednesday, October 24, 2018 6:16:53 PM)
MIAMI — When the New York Knicks visit the Miami Heat on Wednesday night, the injury list may be more impressive than the players actually on the court.
(Wednesday, October 24, 2018 4:33:23 PM)
Knicks SG Tim Hardaway Jr. is enjoying early success, but he wants his team to have the same fortunes, too.
[NYTimes] A Rejuvenated Blake Griffin Scores 50 Points in Pistons’ Win (Wednesday, October 24, 2018 1:48:43 PM)
Griffin tied career highs in 3-pointers made (five) and attempted (10), and looked more like a point guard than a power forward at times in a victory over the Sixers.
(Thursday, October 25, 2018 1:15:27 AM)
MIAMI — When he bolted for the Heat via a faxed resignation to the Knicks, Pat Riley’s nickname in New York became “Pat The Rat.’’ Seems like the Heat president became “Pat The Rat’’ in Miami, too. Before the Knicks’ 110-87 loss to the Heat at AmericanAirlines Arena Wednesday, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra and David…
(Wednesday, October 24, 2018 10:22:38 PM)
MIAMI — David Fizdale wasn’t happy with Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. They started their coaching careers by breaking down video together for Pat Riley way back when. They chased rats out of their office and helped build a team that would win two championships and go to four straight NBA Finals. But Spoelstra wasn’t very…
(Wednesday, October 24, 2018 5:59:45 PM)
MIAMI — And the Warriors are next. Oh, brother. The Knicks suffered their first humiliation of this long season, getting whacked by David Fizdale’s former Heat team in a 110-87 blowout loss Wednesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena. Envisioning Friday’s showdown with Kevin Durant’s Warriors at the Garden, Tim Hardaway Jr. said, “It’s going to be…
(Wednesday, October 24, 2018 9:30:47 AM)
MIAMI — The concern regarding Courtney Lee’s mysterious neck injury that has kept him out since the third day of training camp continues to grow. The Knicks’ starting shooting guard last season is on the trading block, but his extended absence appears unrelated. Lee saw neck specialists Monday and didn’t travel with the team to…
36 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.10.25)”
If the previous three games were glass half-full losses (“Fiz has these guys playing hard!” or “KP could’ve been the difference against the Bucks!”), this was very much a glass half-empty loss. We’re definitely going to have these this season. Maybe a lot of them. But I don’t want to let recency bias make me feel too down just yet, especially compared to how good the losses to the Celts and Bucks felt.
Fiz’s postgame comments suggest starting lineup changes are definitely coming, and that the focus will be more on improving that unit’s defense than their offense. If that’s the case, I’d bet on Dotson playing SF, Frank moving to PG, and Burke coming off the bench. It unfortunately also means Lance’s starting spot might be safe, because he’s one of the less-bad defensive players we have.
Random Stuff:
> Gonna sting when Bud wins Coach of Year award. Won’t be as bad as missing out on Kerr though. Fizdale did for the first time draw up a play during a timeout that worked but man the offensive scheme looks terrible. Fiz cut his teeth in Miami where the whole offense was give the ball to the GOAT. Our offense is give the ball to Timmy and now apparently Hez. Strange how results differ versus Cavs.
> Dot’s very versatile shooter, able to shoot off motion. A peculiar thing is that his shot appears smoother off motion, when he doesn’t have as much time. On free throws and some spot ups, there’s a hitch or delay that’s not there when he’s gotta shoot fast. Too often he just stands off to the right in the offense. Instead of Timmy and Hez just freelancing so much, why not execute more SET plays for Dot using both on and off ball screens? He’s been alright in PnR’s – his threat to shoot in PnR could be huge. And let him dash around screens like Korver.
> I don’t think I’ve ever watched a center who’s faster in general than Mitch and faster off his feet. If he’s not brain dead on defense and learns how to set proper screens, he’s gonna be a very special player. That spectacular Frank/Mitch PnR-lob-dunk was a glimpse into the future. Heck, a lineup of Frank/Dot/Mitch/Knox/Timmy would be fun to watch this season and would be working toward the future at the same time.
> My worst fear about the team (Fiz on offense is 2nd) is Frank’s gonna get fewer and fewer minutes at the 1 especially when Mudiay returns. To my eye, he’s a 1. Burst isn’t the be all, end all. He’s not slow and he’s got other skills. In any event, that’s the position to maximize his value; he’s invisible playing off the ball and there’s zero development playing him in that role. I think Frank could be a an effective 1 guard but don’t think Knicks view it this way. Terrible mistake IMO. They should look at how Spurs were developing Murray.
Ooooops…. I put this in the wrong thread:
I think the season is going smashingly:
We are losing and looking to have a top 3 pick. Dotson is looking like a rotation player playing both ends of the floor and shooting and rebounding just like he did in college after an OK rookie cup of coffee. One of the “flyer” players (Vonleh) looks like a keeper . Mitch doesn’t look completely out of place in limited minutes. Other young players are getting the chance to prove who they are and will prove that in the fullness of time this season. A true meritocracy. Kanter and THJr are playing up to the back of their baseball card of slightly better which might make them movable at some point.
Good stuff…. I just wish Fitz would install some semblance of an offence.
There’s this thing called Lasik…
Very different expectations, but compare Fizdale’s attitude with Pat Shurmur’s testiness at yesterday’s press conference. Fiz has about 60 more losses to absorb while trying to maintain positive vibes.
I am hoping that Frank’s evolution mirrors Bernie Williams’s Yankee career – a slow, tentative start followed by a growing confidence and then a breakout.
Frank’s defense does not make up for the fact that he is absolutely abysmal on offense. And if Trey Burke doesn’t start playing better on O, he will be out of the league again. But whatever, we’re tanking anyway…
Bottom line… Frank needs to get his head out of his ass…
I agree with Zanzibar about Frank. I think by playing the three, he gets less touches and so his offense actually suffers. It wouldn’t be great at the one either, but he would get more of a chance to improve it.
Looks like I’m new head of Team Optimism. Z-man’s maniacal hatred of Frank disqualifies him and poster Frank’s spirit has not been up-to-snuff so far. I still maintain that (other than healthy 76ers) we have the best young core in the league if you factor in a high pick this summer. The team stinks but a lot of that is due to driftwood like Lance/Hez/Mudiay/Enes that will float off the roster at end of season and our young guys finding their way.
KP/Mitch/Frank look like they all could be special players. Knox looks too slow to be a star but his shooting motion is pure and if he’s able to knock down shots, finish stronger and be average on defense, he’ll be fine. Trier looks like a rotation player minimum. Dot might be Butler-lite.
Dunno but KP/Mitch/Frank/Knox/2019 pick/Dot/Trier makes 7 players and looks like a nice core to me. Maybe no game changer there but a very deep and promising group. Proper development will, of course, be key.
Another thing I find noteworthy is that it seems like Perry and Mills like guys who can score if they have to choose offense or defense. But actually Fizdale seems to put defense first and be a better defensive than offensive coach.
I’d be ok with putting defense first if our starting PF was actually a good defender. He’s a zero.
Lance just looks like a good defender compared to most of the other guys on the roster. Until KP is back, who is legitimately a better defensive player for his position(s) than him? Frank, Dotson, Baker, probably Mitch (though his fundamentals still take back a lot of what his shot blocking gives), and… ? Vonleh’s a hell of a rebounder, but opponents score much more easily against him than they should for a guy as strong as he is. Tim’s defensive tops out at mediocre when he tries real hard, Kanter is usually a disaster (as Spo figured out in that third quarter), Burke can’t guard anyone (as Spo also figured out), Knox when healthy is in the Hardaway category at best right now… I keep forgetting that Lee is on the team, but it’s unclear at this stage of his career if he’s still even a decent defender. Our roster is really bad on that end, talent-wise, so it speaks to Fiz’s coaching and motivational skills that we were able to stick with Milwaukee and Boston as long as we did. With this group, Lance genuinely is one of our “stoppers.”
I can’t get over the fact that the year we finally decide to do what we should’ve done 5 years ago is the year the lottery odds flatten. If the season ended today we could theoretically get the seventh fucking pick.
I guess it was never going to happen any other way #DolansRazor
Player 1 – 16 points on 16 shots
Player 2 – 51 points on 24 shots
You know who the 2nd player is.
Hint #1 re: Player 1: how’s it goink?
Hint #2 – if there was a stat for most games where points=shot attempts, this guy would be the career leader by a mile
Remember the dog days of summer when y’all were worried we’d win 30 games?
These new odds, though. They’re scary. Even with one of the worst two records in the league, there’s only a 52% chance of getting a top 4 pick.
Egregious tanking triggered too much randomization. The league could have just punished the teams who were making a joke of the sport instead of punishing the truly bad teams like us who deserve good draft picks.
Another observation from the game last night–Tim Hardaway Jr. seems like a nice, hardworking guy but my god I cannot believe there was anything even resembling disagreement about his contract recently. He is pretty much exactly what we all remembered with a small improvement in his on ball defense.
I’m not just trying to stir the pot, I’m sincerely recommending that we try and dump him on some dumb team if it’s possible (I don’t know that it is).
We are a few drafts away from being any good unless somebody we have now blows up. Look on the bright side though, as far away as we probably are from being good, Curry, Durant, Thompson and Green will all be retired by the time we have a contender. So we’ll never have to build a team that can defend against them.
Speaking of the draft, I wonder if Hinkie would bench Embiid and Simmons so he could tank and find his 3rd star and the rest of the bench? 7? 8? 9? years into it (whatever it is) they still aren’t that close. If anything, the loss of a couple of their veteran acquisitions from last year may have set them back a notch.
@16 He has some talent. He’s just clueless. That’s his problem.
@16 seems like there are lot of THJr’s. in the NBA – athletic guys who light it up on occasion but at the end of the day really haven’t contributed much to the success of a team.
I’m too lazy to make a list, but I’m sure none of them are making 18MM/year.
Nice personality comp. Bernie was also very timid and deferential. It’s frustrating to watch someone with all the physical tools be so shy. I suspect Frank will become more thought he’s a guy you won’t see good things from until around his 3rd/4th year in the league. That’s why I didn’t want to draft him, because we rarely have that sort of patience.
When Frank is on the wing on offense at the moment, he’s virtually useless, between his own reluctance to shoot and the other players’ reluctance to give him the ball. When he’s playing point guard with the bench guys, he’s still very much a mixed bag — Clyde rightly called him out a couple of times last night when he passed rather than taking an open shot or an open path to the basket — but on the whole he’s much more confident and aggressive than when he’s playing off the ball. There were a few times where he seemed to be getting into a rhythm as the lead guard, only to have to go to the bench after picking up a foul on the other end.
We’re going to be bad this season and should embrace that developmentally. Fiz should tell Frank that at least half his playing time will come at point guard, and that when he plays the point, he should feel unafraid to shoot or attack the basket, regardless of what happens. His fear of making a mistake is so deeply ingrained, it could take at least a season of play and encouragement to grow out of.
I decided to look it up and a surprising amount of them are making stupid money.
Zach LaVine is at $20mm. Shitty Nic Batum is at $24mm. Evan Fournier is at $17mm. Allen Crabbe is at $18mm. Wesley Matthews is at $17.5mm. Kent Bazemore is at $17.5mm. JR Smith is at $14mm. Dion Waiters is at $13mm. Michael Kidd Gilchrist is making $13mm.
Not coincidentally, everyone except Dion Waiters plays for a team that features prominently on Tankathon.
I highly, highly doubt Hinkie would’ve made the Fultz trade. Giving up an incredible asset in the Kings’ 2019 first in order to move up two spots to draft a guy who had no business being a consensus #1 overall pick even before the weird stuff started is pretty much the antithesis to Hinkieism.
Having said that, the Sixers are fine. Simmons and Embiid are studs, Saric and Covington are great pieces, McConnell is solid, Bolden, Korkmaz, Smith, and Shamet all have some intrigue, Fultz could always work it out, and to top it all off they still have plenty of cap space and a 2021 unprotected Miami first!
I would take their situation over ours any day of the week, and probably over any other team’s other than GSW, Boston, and maaaaaaaybe Toronto and Houston.
Fixed.
AKA The Washington Generals of Knickerblogger. You guys are like 2-11, at best.
The security guard I see at my office every morning made a huge optimistic hullabaloo about the Knicks after they won their first game. Telling me this was going to be their year. When I got in this morning I asked if he watched the game and he said he’s “not that big of a fan” and turned away pretending he had something to check on his phone.
Yes there were two plays where Frank tried to thread a pass resulting in turnover instead of taking the clear path to the rim where he would have had an easy bucket or gotten fouled. It’s maddening and it almost looks like opps are playing him not to drive. His being more aggressive in those situations will up his abysmal FTr and TS. That seems fixable. My greatest concern is not his handle or burst but his mid-range shooting off motion. That IMO will be the make or break skill for Frank playing the 1.
It just makes so much sense to give him more minutes at the 1:
> Burke’s not a future starter because of his defense
> Baker’s not a future starter
> Mudiay’s not a future starter
> Frank might be a future starter at the 1
> We’d be developing his skills no matter where he ends up when he’s playing the 1
> The team’s not going anywhere so what do we care if Burke’s marginally better at this time
> Frank playing the 1 frees up minutes for Dot, Knox and Trier at the 2 and 3
I think it’s plausible that we can trade Tim Hardaway to the Kings, package a few second rounders to dump Courtney Lee, and next year’s starting lineup will be Frank, Leonard, Durant, Porzingis, and either Zion Williamson or RJ Barrett.
So at best you are my Senior VP.
There is one counterargument and only one, but it’s not a bad one:
> If it takes Frank a long time to develop a PG’s mindset, or he just never develops it, it impedes the growth of the other young players.
But it’s not like any of the other options are real playmakers. Mudiay looks like one because he dribbles a lot and can throw a good outlet pass, but Frank’s the only guy on the roster who has the potential to actually become a good point guard. The potential upside of playing him there is so much higher than the downside, I have to hope Fizdale recognizes it.
Next year’s #1 unprotected, Frank and Knox for Doncic. Anyone here says no? After watching a reply of Dallas vs Atlanta I’d do that trade in a heartbeat.
I’ll try to take the demotion in stride. At least the mantle is being passed to another Z…(PS Z, are you still lurking out there somewhere?)
As to “maniacal hatred” of Frank, not true at all. Just pessimistic that he will ever be more than a strong (if not elite) defender with a spotty (if not mediocre) offensive game. I just object to the continuing stream of wishful thinking (some of which is rooted in misguided pre-draft hype) about his prospects as a PG. It’s so painfully obvious to me that he has virtually none. You might as well say that Dotson or Trier are future PGs.
JK47 says as much and no one accuses him of hating Frank. DRed is pretty much in the same camp. So it’s not about being a hater, it’s just keeping it real.
Feeling good about our tanking so far. I agree with some others that there’s a clear top tier of prospects (at this point) in Zion, Little, Barrett, and Reddish.
Unfortunately with lottery reform even finishing with the worst record in the league is no guarantee of a top four pick, now that the top four selections are all decided by the lottery. The worst record has a 47.9% chance of not being picked, meaning they’d get the #5 selection and aren’t guaranteed to have any of those four prospects available. The second and third worst records have the same odds of picking outside the top four (47.9%).
The fourth worst record is still very similar, with a 51.8% chance of the pick being outside the top four. The fifth worst record has a 57.8% chance of being outside the top four picks. That’s where things start to really get worse though, as there’s a 36% chance the pick is #7-9. The sixth worse record has a 62.8% chance of the pick being outside the top four.
Conclusion: We want to finish within the worst four records, but within that group there is not much difference. And unfortunately even finishing with the worst record still leaves us essentially a 50/50 shot of the pick being #5.
I don’t know if he can keep it up, but Zach LaVine is having a ridiculous season so far, with a .695 TS after 4 games.
That T-Wolves trade is looking less dumb every day.
It’s always easier to say what someone would have done when he wasn’t in that position and after we’ve seen a player look bad for over a year.
They should be a decent position. They are probably close to 6-7 years into their rebuild. The problem is at best they are 3rd best team in the weaker east and may only be the 4th best team if the Bucks are actually this good (maybe even 5th if some of the younger Pacers move forward).
Give me 6-10 years of tanking and I’ll come up with a few very good players too. I’m not sure I’d call that success though unless I was a very serious major contender.
@21
I agree.
Frank has more value as the PG than off the ball, especially if they are going to ignore him and not even give him a chance to make some plays. If Burke was playing as well as last year, I’d say it was worth sacrificing a little play making value on offense from Frank to get Burke’s overall better offense from that position. But Burke hasn’t been good so far. So it may be time to put Frank at PG and Dotson on the court instead of Lance to generate more offense. The question is who can you put at PF unless you want to go really small. Hezonja is not any good and I’m not sure Vonleh with Kanter is optimal either.
Remember this list when someone tells you NBA GMs know what they’re doing. I can’t process just how bad those deals are. Dion Waiters shouldn’t even be in the NBA. Wes Matthews got that contract four months after tearing his Achilles! Fournier has a career 2.8 VORP (half of that total in 2015) against $40M paid, $51M remaining on the books. Crabbe has never posted a positive BPM. Bazemore also has a career VORP of 2.8, with $37M paid and $37M remaining on his contract.
Woof. The only reasonable explanation is that these GMs think that if they don’t sign these veterans, they’ll have to play 4-on-5 for the rest of the season. To the best of my knowledge, you don’t need to pay individual players $10-20M AAV to be a perennial lottery team, but what do I know? I’m just a guy in his mom’s basement, letting my pizza rolls cool while I gargle Mt. Dew.
I’m not sure that Frank’s only issue is his mindset when it comes to offense. So far, he has been a terrible shooter in the NBA. He typically only shoots when he’s open, and his results are still poor. What do you think they will be if he starts taking more difficult shots? I do think that he either needs to start playing PG more, or somebody needs to teach him how to be more effective off the ball. I don’t think he’s necessarily ignored when he’s off the ball, because he is a statue when he is in the corner (hardly ever makes cuts, doesn’t crash the O boards). His best attribute on the offensive end is his vision on the pick and roll, and since we are short on point guards, I don’t see a problem with giving him more time to learn to execute more often and gain confidence through what he actually knows how to do somewhat.