(Thursday, December 13, 2018 8:24:49 PM)
Despite being unhappy with his playing time in October, Furkan Korkmaz has received more opportunities in the past few weeks with the 76ers. Korkmaz has played in 15 of the Sixers’ last 16 games, scoring 18 points in 34 minutes against the Nets on Wednesday. Korkmaz admitted that he wasn’t ready to see significant playing […]
[Hoops Rumors] Knicks Sign Trier To New Deal, Waive Baker (Thursday, December 13, 2018 2:26:40 PM)
1:26pm: The Knicks’ new agreement with Trier is now official as well, the club confirmed in a press release. We went into more detail on Trier’s deal earlier today. 9:52am: The Knicks have officially waived Baker, the team announced in a press release. 8:55am: The Knicks and two-way player Allonzo Trier have reached an agreement […]
(Thursday, December 13, 2018 12:44:54 PM)
Allonzo Trier isn’t the first two-way player to receive a new standard NBA contract this season — Gary Clark earned that honor when he signed a new deal with the Rockets last week. However, Trier’s new contract with the Knicks will establish some new benchmarks for undrafted free agents and two-way players. As we outlined […]
[Sports Illustrated] Report: Knicks Sign Rookie Guard Allonzo Trier to Two-Year Deal (Thursday, December 13, 2018 10:43:16 AM)
Trier went undrafted out of Arizona in June before signing a two-way contract with New York.
(Thursday, December 13, 2018 4:00:03 PM)
Allonzo Trier took a winding road to the Knicks – grade-school acclaim, failed drug tests at Arizona, going undrafted – but he’s thriving now. Trier is scoring 11.3 points per game, one of the highest marks ever for an undrafted rookie in his first professional season. About to run out of NBA service days on his two-way contract, Trier is cashing in.
(Thursday, December 13, 2018 4:05:00 PM)
Joakim Noah was undone by partying in New York City.
The center made that startling admission two months after he was released by the Knicks, ending a colossally disappointing stint after signing a $72 million contract.
“I can look back at it and say I was ready for New York City, but I wasn’t,”…
(Thursday, December 13, 2018 7:15:00 AM)
Allonzo Trier got a new contract and Ron Baker was sent packing.
A source confirmed the Knicks will use their bi-annual exception to sign Trier, with ESPN reporting that the deal includes a team option for next season. Trier will receive roughly $3.4 million this season, according to a source.
…
(Thursday, December 13, 2018 6:09:40 PM)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Rev up the Luke Kornet hype train again. Having escaped the roster guillotine Thursday, the 7-foot, 23-year-old center out of Vanderbilt has a new lease on his Knicks career and coach David Fizdale has promised to use him more. Fizdale already spotted Kornet on Wednesday in a 113-106 loss to Cleveland, playing…
(Thursday, December 13, 2018 5:41:59 PM)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — If David Fizdale needs an assistant coach in the distant future, he wouldn’t hesitate to call on Ron Baker. And that’s what he told Baker when they spoke on Thursday morning. The Knicks cut Baker on Thursday, ending his 2½-season Knicks run to make room for Allonzo Trier’s two-way contract conversion. The…
(Thursday, December 13, 2018 3:11:00 PM)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Knicks’ conversion of Allonzo Trier’s two-way G-League contract into a standard NBA deal for two years and $6.8 million — completed Thursday — could eat into some cap space reserved for Warriors’ free-agent-to-be Kevin Durant. According to a source, the second year of the deal is a team option, but the…
(Thursday, December 13, 2018 1:40:17 PM)
It would be kind to describe Joakim Noah’s time in New York as tumultuous. Now newly with the Memphis Grizzlies, the big man has opened up about what he thinks went wrong with the Knicks, and at least some of it has to do with enjoying the New York City night light a bit too…
(Thursday, December 13, 2018 9:23:13 AM)
NEW YORK, December 13, 2018 – The New York Knicks announced today that the team has signed guard Allonzo Trier
(Thursday, December 13, 2018 6:23:36 PM)
Nothing went well for Joakim Noah with the Knicks, and on Thursday he finally revealed why.
(Thursday, December 13, 2018 11:31:34 PM)
A coaching job may not be what Ron Baker is looking for after being cut by the Knicks, but David Fizdale says the guard has what it takes.
(Thursday, December 13, 2018 6:29:02 PM)
The Ron Baker era is over for the Knicks, and the love is now pouring in for the fan favorite.
(Thursday, December 13, 2018 10:27:51 AM)
The Knicks will sign undrafted guard Allonzo Trier to a two-year deal after his impressive start to his rookie season.
(Thursday, December 13, 2018 10:25:04 AM)
Allonzo Trier, who has averaged 11.3 points for the Knicks, has signed a new deal with New York. Sources tell ESPN the signing is the biggest contract to emerge out of the brief history of the two-way contract format.
63 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.12.14)”
Out of boredom/hope, I’ve been running the Tankathon simulator a lot lately. Every now and then, we drop down to seventh or ninth or something else awful. But most of the time, we either stay where we are or move up all the way to one or two. It’s a good feeling.
Watching the Lakers last night Lonzo Ball is playing like some serious azz for the #2 pick playing along side the possible GOAT:
https://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.fcgi?request=1&sum=1&player_id1_hint=Lonzo+Ball&player_id1_select=Lonzo+Ball&player_id1=balllo01&player_id2_hint=Frank+Ntilikina&player_id2_select=Frank+Ntilikina&player_id2=ntilila01&idx=players
The only real issue I can see in Lonzo Ball is his shooting.
If he could ever fix that he will be an amazing player.
That’s kind of a pretty big issue for a basketball player with a broken Jamal Wilkes slingshot release who shoots < 50% from the ft line and 30% from 3….. He does rebound and pass very well
It’s like Fox, Wall, Rose, etc. Pretty much every super athletic point guard coming out of college couldn’t really shoot and you have to hope that they learn. If they learn, they’re superstars. If they don’t…well, yeah, it’s an issue. A lot of them do eventually figure it out, though, which is why teams keep picking them, hoping that the one they pick is the one who does learn to shoot and not one of those that don’t (like Mudiay for most of his career, for instance). That’s why Fultz was picked #1, because he didn’t seem to have the same shooting problem and, of course, he ended up having the worst shooting problem.
@The Honorable Cock Jowles
I said:
You said:
How is that a bad take?
Do you consider Ball a “super athletic” point guard? I always considered his best quality to be as an instinctive passer, not a freakish athlete….
It’s an issue worth noting but I wouldn’t lose my sleep if I were a Lakers fan. He’s having very similar numbers to Jason Kidd at the same age for exemple.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.fcgi?request=1&sum=1&player_id1_hint=Jason+Kidd&player_id1_select=Jason+Kidd&player_id1=kiddja01&y1=1995&player_id2_hint=Lonzo+Ball&player_id2_select=Lonzo+Ball&player_id2=balllo01&y2=2019
He doesn’t have to be Kyle Korver to be useful, just improve a little bit his %.
Because the New York Knicks agreed unconditionally to pay him $72 million dollars. The onus was 100% on them to investigate his health, production level, character, etc. before choosing to do so. You can’t “steal” that which you’re contractually owed.
If you sign a 72 million dollar contract, fist fight your coach, get suspended for using PED and spent the whole time high then… yeah, he stole the Knicks.
Yeah, he really didn’t steal anything. Phil Jackson gift wrapped him that money when we all knew it was a stupid idea and it’s totally rightfully his.
It’s not like it was a huge surprise, like Gilbert Arenas having a huge contract and bringing a gun to the locker room.
The Genius Who Has Forgotten More About Basketball Than Any Of Us Will Ever Know could have insisted on any language he wanted in the contract, including voiding it under certain circumstances and making it contingent on health. In his infinite wisdom, he didn’t do any of that. That means as soon as the contract was signed, it became impossible for Noah to “steal” anything.
We got we deserved out of that contract.
But Lonzo Ball isn’t a super-athletic PG, certainly not on the level of guys like Fox, Rose, and Wall. There were a ton of questions about Ball’s jacked-up shooting form working in the pros when he was still in college. As it is now, it’s hard to imagine he’ll ever reach his full potential unless he spends a full offseason rebuilding his jumpshot from scratch.
Outside of Bruce Bowen, I can’t think of a single player who was a terrible FT shooter but could put it up from behind the arc. I think Lonzo has a low ceiling for that reason. I like a lot about his game — the vision, defense, size, instincts — but it’s not Jason Kidd’s NBA anymore. You can’t shoot .500 TS% and be a star player.
I understand the gripe with Noah on the PEDs (which could be construed as fraud), but the Knicks offered him a guaranteed contract and he accepted it. Given his injury history and age, Jackson should have offered him 2 years guaranteed plus a team option in the 3rd and a contingent player option in the 4th. They didn’t, and Noah is under no obligations to return money beyond that which he forfeited for the PEDs.
If I’m hiring a contractor to renovate my bathroom, there’s no way in hell I’m paying him all the money upfront, with no regard for progress or output. And I’m definitely not accusing him of theft when I, by my own hand, remove all incentive to produce his best work.
Noah certainly didn’t steal money, but upon taking the money it was his responsibility to act like an employee. He fought his coach and created so much bad will that the Knicks decided stretching him had less negative consequences than keeping him. You can argue that was a bad decision, that they should have just told him to go away. But the fact is Noah purposefully forced them to choose between paying him for a whole season to not be on the team and stretching him.
We overpaid Lee, too. Do you remember his press conference this summer? “I’m a professional, I’ll do whatever the team needs me to do.” That’s why we can employ the correct strategy with him.
Agree with Jowles that Ball’s best asset is his vision.
Per Noah….I’m no lawyer (actually the farthest thing from it) but how is a professional athlete not in material breach of his contract when he admits he was “partying too hard” and attacked the coach? I’m sure there is some wording in each contract or the Basic Agreement spelling out player’s responsibilities…. I’m curious what it is….
I always liked Noah as a player in Chicago, but he revealed himself to be a real POS by accepting his pay and not making even a minimal effort to actually compete. And that’s why we are attracted to sports…. people competing at the highest level. It’s why I trained race horses competitively for > 40 years. He just partied like it was 1999….
Strong collective bargaining by the NBPA and player-friendly language in the NBA constitution. I am pro-union, but of course, sometimes the blanket protections they afford make for “unjust” dispute outcomes. (They also protect against the systematic exploitation of their players, a la the NFL.)
It is wild to me that there was no legal recourse for the Wizards to void Gilbert Arenas’s contract, but if that was the case, there’s no way that partying and abusive behavior could be such a vehicle.
http://www.espn.com/espn/commentary/news/story?page=munson/100121
No illegality, it just makes Noah a two-faced dirtbag of the lowest order. One thing I can’t stand is a hypocrite and you can’t possibly be more of one than him. Oh, wait…there’s that guy with the orange hair…
Between “buying low” on Derrick Rose and Damyean Dotson in the midst of highly disturbing rape allegations and backing up the brinks truck for a guy who partied his way off the team, I am very grateful to the Zen Master for fixing our broken culture.
There are moral parallels between the Rose and Dotson signings (I personally felt the Rose thing was more egregious given his age and income at the time, and generally tend not to be too judgmental as a sports/entertainment fan since I assume that a significant percentage of the guys on any team/stage I root for has done reprehensible things at some point) one was at least a value signing while the other was a gross overpayment.
My problem with Noah is that he sported his reputation as a team-first lunch pail guy who was going to be an “animal” for this city and yet he betrayed his organization and team from day 1. I guess the animal he meant was a hybrid of a fox, weasel and dog.
It’s not mutually exclusive. Phil could have been an idiot for giving a high-mileage, oft-injured player a big contract. But also, I would have predicted an Amare-like arc, not a ‘lit’ guy who is too ‘lit’ for New York. I mean, what the actual fuck. You make 72 mil, and your whole career of blue-collar hard-nosed work is out the window, because you’re fucking LIT?
If you blame that on Phil, you’re just piling it on at this point
@22
Well, you say that, but maybe Noah’s intentions were always to simply get the money for a last big contract he clearly did not deserve as a basketball player and go have fun. You can’t give a player a huge contract his production obviously does not match and then expect him to play like he’s fighting tooth and nail for his next deal.
Andrew Wiggins got paid and he doesn’t bother to take two steps to the side to collect a rebound, it happens all the time with players much younger than Noah. Tyson Chandler and Trevor Ariza went to the Suns with reputations of being tough defenders and hard workers and look at what they done / are doing there.
That is 100% Phil’s fault because even if Noah did come wanting to play as hard as he could, his production and health status was not worthy of the contract, and if you’re a GM you absolutely have to consider the “is this guy still going to care after he signs a huge contract when we’re a losing team?” factor.
It’s a business, guys.
Noah did what is best for him. Phil Jackson acted stupidly, as should have been expected of a guy not qualified for the job.
In the end, Dolan outsmarted his fans with his usual, successfully time-tested formula: sell ‘names’ to gullible NY fans. Lots of them defended Jackson on this forum. Lots of them are defending giving the house for Durant – before it happens! Some even want Kemba Walker maxed-out in orange and blue….
The contract was a huge mistake because it was too much, for too long, for a too injured player with old legs. Not because he was a party animal. I don’t remember anyone talking about that when he was signed. If he got injured the entire stretch, that would have been solely Phil’s fault. But it isn’t:
He took the money, got high, fought with the coach, leaked negativity to the press, refused to show up. All of that is on him. The fact that NBA contracts don’t have language stipulating that any of the above have consequences is the systemic problem here- these are kids in their 20’s and 30’s.
But this labor-first attitude that gets Noah off scott-free for fucking taking 72 million and not doing shit to improve the team is nauseating.
If Melo came out today and said, man I was lit the whole time, the attitude would be very different here.
“Change The Culture” was part of what The Genius Who Has Forgotten More About Basketball Than Any Of Us Will Ever Know (TGWHFMABTAOUWEK) was going to do when he came here.
Somehow we ended up with Derek Fisher, Derrick “I Don’t Know What Consent Means” Rose and Joakim “Lit” Noah as part of this culture change. We got rid of JR Smith doe!
Sure, Joakim Noah was old and broken down and hadn’t had a good season in several years, and quite clearly had the mobility of a one-legged mummy. But when you can sign a guy who can pass out of the pinch post, you simply have to do everything it takes to sign him.
Yeah, how dare we draw a clear line between “theft” and “failure to produce commensurately with pay.”
I hate to tell you this, but if your employer pays you $100k this year and you, within the bounds of the law, suck at your job next year, they don’t get to take this year’s pay from you.
I think we can agree that Noah and Phil are both geniuses…both figured out how to fleece Dolan for oodles of undeserved cash and ride into the sunset with no accountability. Phil was a bad GM with a bad character. Noah was a bad player with a bad character. I, for one, did not expect Phil to be the incompetent buffoon he turned out to be. Nearly every one on this blog could have done a better job as GM in our spare time for minimum wage than he did.
@26
I really don’t think so. I don’t know if Melo was “lit” or anything but he didn’t make an effort to adjust his game or to try harder and he was definitely criticized about it, but the consensus was much more that offering the contract was the issue. We also all knew he sucked beforehand and didn’t deserve a mega max contract and it was Phil’s fault for giving it to him, not on him accepting it.
I can tell you for sure that I never blamed Melo for signing the contract or slacking off, but always Phil for enabling that. He did what he was supposed to do, and I hated it, but the Knicks enabled him.
I know it’s yesterday’s news but I’m very happy about the Trier signing. It gives us a core of 5 promising young players. Not bad, after years of misery.
KP (the one, if all goes well)
Robinson (please learn to shoot. Please!)
Frank (finally looks like the potential is coming out)
Knox (I like him more than most here. I don’t think he’s a bust)
Trier (I’m not sure yet. I could see him fading, or becoming a solid two. I hope he gets back soon)
If we add Vonleh (not peak Draymond by any stretch, but still good) in the offseason, and a top pick that’s seven players to build on. Exciting!
It sounds like Noah was going out partying too much, which is maybe not stealing money, but it’s also not what the Knicks paid for. Tbh I think he was probably would have been hurt and shitty most of the time even if he wasn’t hung over, but the partying probably didn’t help.
I never said theft.
Sucking at your job =/= going out to party, and whining after you’re fired (with pay) that you used to “recover faster” in Chicago. This is not sucking at your job, that is refusing to do your job. Sucking would be if his play got worse. But he didn’t play. Because he was busted for PEDs, fought with a coach, partied, etc. How is that NOT his fault??
I am calling him out for being a douchebag, taking money and partying with it. Taking that out on Phil is ridiculous, especially since he didn’t see it coming- there was no history of this shit.
Andre Iguodala is a guy who has had some really lousy years shooting FTs while generally being an acceptable 3 point shooter. Rondo has had some good 3, bad FT years.
@34
Are you kidding me? Seriously, there was no history of Joakim Noah partying hard?
I really suggest you search google images for “Joakim Noah party”. It would be more research than Phil Jackson did already before signing him. He probably has more pictures where he’s drunk at a party than I have taken in my entire life. I even found in about 3 clicks a LeBatard segment where they talk about his crazy partying while in Florida. To think a GM that was brought to this franchise because of his experience and his connections would have no indication at all of this is even more stupid than offering Noah that contract.
howdy GoNy (go-nee :)…i was being sarcastic yesterday – noah totally fucked the knicks and their fans…
sadly though, it was our own gm who pulled down our pants…the ironic thing in the situation being – getting “stoned” and being a “social” guy is what got him the contract in the first place:
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2650955-joakim-noah-once-visited-phil-jackson-in-montana-unannounced-stayed-3-days
i don’t know what phil’s real deal was – but, he was most certainly a prime example of being too smart for your own good when it came to being an nba executive…
Noah seems annoying and I have no love lost for him. I support the protections that exist for players because the comparatively weak ones in the NFL pretty conclusively show you what would happen if they weren’t there, but it sure seems like Noah abused them to an extent that was unethical if not illegal.
That does nothing to deflect responsibility from the person who agreed to give him $72 million dollars.
Again, Phil Jackson could’ve asked for all kinds of language in the contract that would’ve prevented this. Based on the non-existent research he conducted he either concluded that wasn’t necessary, or wasn’t worth the risk of losing out on the great Joakim Noah.
Partying too hard to play or practice? Not that I know of. I couldn’t care less what these guys do off-hours as long as its not rape or something… oops.
Phil Jackson did not fleece Dolan. At all.
Dolan simply considers paying lots of money for a ‘name’ as part of conducting his very profitable, very successful Knicks business. Unlike his team’s fans, he is more interested in money than sporting results. So, he knew Phil Jackson would be welcomed with open arms by the average, gullible, rather stupid Knicks fan (“What are you talking about? Phil has forgotten more about basketball than you will ever know”). That’s exactly what happened. And Phil accidentally delivered the next ‘name’: Porzingis. Money well spent.
It’s a surprising admission from Noah, I will say that. I think he will have a hard time living this down and it’s a totally self inflicted wound. Would have been very easy to spin it a completely different way or just keep his mouth shut but he chose to damage his reputation for everything but speaking his mind the maximum amount.
Might need to get a new PR person.
Phil did not fleece Dolan, because it was a shitty hire, so he was shitty at his job. Noah fleeced Phil, because he partied instead of doing his job. Questions?
it wasn’t so much his terrible play that made him such an albatross for the team…he just wasn’t a very good soldier about it all – PEDs, getting in to it with his coach (for which horny is as much to blame)…those really killed even the remotest possibility of us figuring our a way to unload him and his contract…
there’s a bunch of players (all i can think of at the time though is mosgov) that can still get shuffled around despite a bad contract and poor play…
at least melo handled his business in a professional manner, and, we were able to ditch him…
@39
“Aside from the fact that now it’s a dad joke (he is a dad) for the 33-year-old to use the word “lit,” Noah also said that it was different from his turnt days with the Bulls. “We were lit in Chicago but I was young so you recover faster,” Noah said almost wistfully.”
That’s Joakim himself saying it, that he basically did in New York pretty much the same he did in Chicago, but he was older so his body couldn’t handle it properly anymore.
I don’t care what they do in their free time, that’s precisely why I’m saying it was Phil’s fault and not only Noah’s fault. So the zen master, experienced NBA personality, who also happens to have coached for decades in Chicago, is not capable of asking one person “hey, how was Joakim, is he done? Does he party too much, does he care about his health?”, and I’m supposed to believe that and absolve Phil? Or blindly believe that Noah would somehow learn to pace himself on the partying playing for a 30 win team in New York?
Come on.
Noah could have been a teetotaler with a great attitude and that still would have been an idiotic signing. It was obviously a horrible signing from the second it was announced, because Noah was rather obviously washed up. Everybody here with a shred of common sense knew it was a ridiculous signing that was headed for “worst contracts in the NBA” listicles the moment it was announced.
His being “lit” all the time and acting like a general clown asshole is really just the cherry on the sundae.
on to better stuff: NBA League Pass Free Preview – now through thursday, december 20…
here are the games the knicks will be playing:
Fri, Dec 14 @ Charlotte – 7:00 PM est
Sun, Dec 16 @ Indiana – 5:00 PM est
Mon, Dec 17 vs Phoenix – 7:30 PM est
Wed, Dec 19 @ Philadelphia – 7:00 PM
that’s cool – counting local nba broadcasts (lakers and clips) that now makes 24 games this year that’ll be “free” to see…cuz, ya know as big bank hank so eloquently put it: I got a color TV so I can see the Knicks play basketball
hopefully there’ll be at least one more nba league pass free preview this season…
Without taking a side I feel obliged to point out that it’s hilarious that this whole conversation is taking place while the majority of commenters (myself included) are presumably reading/posting on a Knicks blog during work hours.
@32 – i’d also add Dotson to the list. The issue is that of those 7 guys (6 you name, assuming for a minute Vonleh comes back, and Dot) its a lot of building blocks who should or could become solid rotation pieces. But only KP and MAYBE Robinson stand a chance to become real all-star type guys. Wherever we pick this year we could really do with nailing a top-tier guy for the rest to become role-players around…
Imagine if you replaced Frank with Mitchell and Knox with SGA in that list… a shame we seem to outperform draft spot in the second round but underperform it in the first!
I can be lit as much as anyone this side of the law but I guarantee that my productivity never slipped because of that. It’s all about productivity. The vast majority of players, rockstars, actor, etc. love to party (what’s not to love?) but in the end it’s productivity that matters. As JK47 said, the problem is that Phil gave a totally washed player a huge contract that made no sense. If Noah behaved professionally it would have been just a little bit easier to swallow it, but the failure is not in how lit he was.
Donovan Mitchell is kind of ass this year
yeah well t-sam – at least i’m not on drugs and arguing with my boss…
okay, you may have a slight point…
Haha jokes on you, I’m unemployed!
But yeah, I’m just thankful overall that Noah is gone. I didn’t see a point to stretching him now, but at least we don’t have to endure him anymore. Soon all of Phil’s egregious mistakes will be out of the roster and we’ll be left crying about Mills’ possible egregious mistakes next year, but at least it’s a fresh take.
english_knick @48 thanks yes I forgot about Dotson. So it’s six guys plus maybe Vonleh and our pick.
I think Knox could also be an allstar. The type that doesn’t deserve it but scores a lot of points.
100%. Defending Noah is nuts.
Was it a terrible contract? Of course it was. But even if the NBAPA agreements protect it legally, it’s still completely ethically wrong to accept that deal and then fail to give a crap. He admitted he was “too lit”!? Unbelievable. Dude is making more in one year than the average person makes in 200 years ($50k * 200 = $10 million < Noah's $18 million per) and he can't even bother to show up. I'm pro labor too, but that's disgusting.
@ 49 – Farfa, I don’t know, man. Noah even said that things were “lit” in Chicago too but that he was younger then so it was easier for him to “recover.” So you know…when you’re 22 or 24 years old you can go out and get wasted and the next day not be hungover or whatever but by the time you get to your late 20s and early 30s that all changes and Noah is obviously smart enough to know this is true but didn’t care enough to cut back on the partying to make sure he was ready to go for games the next day. And if you’re playing a high level professional sport like NBA basketball hungover or whatever, that could not only mean you play like ass even if you aren’t injured but it could also lead to more injuries because your body can’t party like it could when you were 22.
In conclusion, Fuck Noah AND Fuck Phil for signing him. Phil as dumb enough to sign him but Noah was assholish enough to not give a shit and still take the money from his contract.
I support unions in general but when you’re talking about million dollar athletes, I think its pretty shitty that there is no recourse for a team to get some of their money back if the person isn’t in good faith trying to fullfill the contract. STAT’s contract was a bad idea too but he didn’t spend all of his time off the court partying and he didn’t attack his coach. Its pretty damning that the FO felt the need to keep KP and Frank away from Noah when he was supposedly brought in for his veteran influence. And it also shows me that this whole idea that Noah was just mad at Horns and its all Horns fault for not playing him is BS. Horns might have sucked as a coach but NOah had no right to attack him.
He did punch a pane of glass during a temper tantrum because he didn’t get to take the last shot in a playoff game and then was pretty much unavailable for the rest of the series. Not really a great look for a guy making eleventy-seven quadrillion dollars per year.
I think Noah is using the “lit” thing as an excuse. He was washed up, he wasn’t “lit.” Is he still “lit” this year for Memphis, where he can’t get on the floor and has a negative WS48 when he actually does play? Remember, he’s still in year three of Phil’s four-year contract. Is Beale Street too “lit” for Noah? Or is he maybe– just maybe– old and washed up?
I’m sure NBA owners would use such a clause in good faith. Also, does anyone have any bridges for sale?
The point is, if anyone cared about what’s ethically right or wrong in terms of giving a fuck in the NBA, Noah is very far from an exception.
Vince Carter is being celebrated for his long ass career but he literally gave up during games so he would get shipped out of Toronto. Many players have stopped giving a fuck about their current teams, have slacked off during practice or anything else. Who’s gonna be the judge of all those cases?
Nobody is saying Noah is an angel that must be protected. Fuck him, I have zero sympathy for him. But to absolve Phil Jackson saying “he couldn’t possibly know” or crucifying the guy just because he randomly decided to be the only honest player in the league in this subject seems completely unnecessary. Phil should have known and could have known, but he didn’t because he was a shit GM that was desperate for a passer out of the pinch post in fucking 2016. None of that is Noah’s fault, he was offered a contract and signed on the dotted line.
with Dotson, trier and Burke out and Courtney Lee signing up for a 630pm men’s league scrimmage in Fort Lee, we might have to call back Ron at halftime tonight.
Bingo.
I just bought a ticket for tonight’s game. I will tell Willy the blog still loves him and misses him. Section 116 if anyone wants to grab a beer.
I also said “Fuck Phil” in my post, so I don’t think I absolved him of anything. But both can be blame for the situation. It isn’t an either/or thing.
I do think it kind of absolves Horns, though. Many people on this blog tried to make the argument that Horns brought the attack upon himself by playing mind games with Noah and refusing to play him. I think this shows that Horns really wasn’t to blame for the situation. Noah was injured, washed up, and partying so much that the front office was actively trying to keep him away from KP and Frank.
Where’d you hear that from and why would Amare have been mad because he didn’t take the last shot? He punched the fire extinguisher after a game we got annihilated in.