(Sunday, December 23, 2018 12:40:02 PM)
The Knicks don’t see an urgency to sign an elite free agent next summer and believe their rebuilding plan will be fine if they have to wait another year, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post. The organization’s priorities are landing a top-five draft pick, getting Kristaps Porzingis healthy again and developing rookies Kevin […]
(Sunday, December 23, 2018 10:27:12 PM)
There will be no Kristaps Porzingis for the Knicks, but Enes Kanter and his teammates certainly are looking forward to their showcase matinee on Christmas Day. Kanter dressed up as an elf and handed out presents to his fellow players alongside team legend Bernard King for a television spot after practice Sunday. He evidently not…
(Sunday, December 23, 2018 2:13:06 PM)
If they are expecting any Nutcracker carryover on Christmas from the last time they faced Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, the Knicks aren’t saying. Mario Hezonja declined to speak to the media after practice Sunday, but the Greek Freak had threatened to “punch him in the nut next time” following a step-over altercation earlier this…
38 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.12.24)”
Clips-Warriors was a festival of offensive efficiency. I saw Harris and Galliari’s lines and thought how the heck did they lose and what happened to the Warriors defense. They combined to go 20-32, 11-12 from 3, 6-6 ft, for 57 points with just three turnovers.
Of course, Durant and Curry combined for 77 points on 41 shots (and 28 fits) with one turnover.
When do we stop saying Lonzo Ball will be good, just wait?
Lonzo should be traded to a team where he can be the primary ballhandler. He’s a bad fit on the Lakers. He can’t score for shit but he fills the box score in other ways, and if you take the ball out of his hands you’re taking away his main strength.
He’s an odd player but he’s not a complete bum. He can pass and rebound, and he gets steals, but he’s very ill-suited to be the “stand in the corner and knock down open 3’s when LeBron kicks out to you” guy.
Can he throw lobs to AD?
He’s below average but not a total loss and there seems to be plenty of room for improvement. I thought he would be better by now though…
i remember watching Lonzo in summer league so sure he would be better than this by now. I still think he might turn out better than it looks like, but not what I thought then.
Lonzo for Mud straight up. Who says no?
Lakers! I would do mud and frank for lonzo in a snap. Anyone else?
I’d do it too. Lonzo is a better defender, rebounder and passer than Mudiay.
Lonzo and KCP for THJr
I agree.
Lonzo is a terrible fit with Lebron. He’s not a scorer that can play off Lebron. He’s a playmaking PG that can get defensive rebounds and start the break. He needs the ball in his hands to be as productive as he’s capable of being.
This is the trade off of having a non traditional PG dominating the ball (James, Simmons). They are big guys that can rebound, pile up assists, and fill up the boxscore, but you have to build around them differently than you would with a traditional PG. That also makes them way more critical to their teams because they are very rare. Once you’ve built around them, the team is barely functional without them. As great as James is, when he leaves his teams don’t just suck because he’s gone. They suck because they are built horribly to function without him.
@9 lakers aren’t doing any deal that increases out year salary commitment
Lonzo for Mud also clears $8.7M from the Lakers’ books, and Mud looks kinda decent these days. It won’t happen, but hey. The Lakers will eventually realize that nobody in the Western Conference will trade with them and they might get desperate by February.
If I were the Lakers, I’d be very patient with Lonzo. He’s 21 and playing well enough given their current team. He’ll be 25 when LeBron is on his way out, and he will have less pressure on him and can work on developing a more advanced an all-around game, starting with shooting. If they are looking to move him, I’d give up anything short of a 1st round pick or KP…maybe not Mitch either although it would be tempting.
I think it’s legit to wonder how playing with LeBron in his second year might have affected Jason Kidd’s development. Not to say that Lonzo is the next Jason Kidd, only that their games are similar and they need to have the ball to show how good they are at making other players better. Lonzo has like zero opportunity to do that right now.
Well at least he’s better than Fultz!
I think if Lonzo were good enough LeBron would be happy to conserve energy and let him be the primary ball handler more often. He was cool letting Kyrie use more plays than him in Cleveland.
Simming tankathon and not dropping to 8th feels really good right now.
I just simmed tankathon for the first time in my life and we got Zion. I’m done.
One big red flag about Lonzo though is his microscopic FT rate, and his inability to make his free throws on the rare occasions on which he gets to the line. That was a problem even before LeBron came to town. Lonzo is ALL secondary skills, no pointzz, and that pitiful free throw rate is not a harbinger of good things.
@16 and 17
Unfortunately there is still a long way to go before the draft order is set. Plenty of time for them to fuck it up and end up drafting 8th………again.
On the other hand we are so overdue for some good luck (like Timmy getting traded or injured before he goes off and wins 3 meaningless games down the stretch, KP comes back healthy but too late to stop the tank, Kanter and Mudiay get traded, etc….)
@18 yeah it’s not good. it’s like his upside has become old Jason Kidd, except old Jason Kidd learned how to shoot.
Mudiay for Lonzo makes a lot of sense for both teams. Whatever we think of him, Mud probably looks like a promising young player to the league right now. More importantly to the Lakers, he fits better with LeBron, who can’t have more than 2 or 3 great years left.
And in terms of “ready to take over when LeBron is done,” it’s just as easy to convince yourself Mud will learn to play D as it is Lonzo will become an efficient scorer.
Wow, I never realized the incredible shape Brooklyn’s cap is in.
They’re probably a playoff team. And somehow despite having none of their own picks they have a better core of young players than we do.
From top to bottom (coach, owner, roster, future) pretty much the only area we’re ahead of them is arena.
And KP.
Welcome to Knickerblogger, where hyperbolic bullshit gets jacked on roids…
The Knicks are currently a team of talented raw young players. That does not make for a good team right now, but rather one that requires time, effort, and patience.
Knickerblogger: where patience comes to dies a most painful and torturous death. Y’all don’t really do patience well.
They’ve got Allen and LaVert making $5mm next year. We’ll have KP & Hardaway making over $50mm.
Even at even money you can make a strong case for the Nets top 2 over ours. At $45mm less, it’s a pretty clear edge
Yeah but do they have a 20+ ppg guy?
Pointzzz guys!
Happy Holidays, everyone!
Happy holiday my friends!
lonzo will be fine… i never thought his upside was all that big to begin with but he’s making underlying progress… particularly his conversions near the rim…
the nets have a much better collection of young talent than we do… even if you assume kp will be a fringe allstar type….
kurucs and levert .. their last two 1st rders are currently running circles around our last two…
Without shedding too much salary the Nets can sign two max FAs and run out a starting 5 of Dinwiddie, LaVert, Kawhi, Durant, Allen. AND they’re playing good basketball now. If we were in that position I’d be ecstatic.
I’m lucky to have found Knickerblogger. I get more than I give for sure. Best, most informed, basketball conversation on the web. I appreciate you guys.
Happy Holidays…
Haha. I’ve been visiting this site since the mid-2000s and the Knicks have been the worst team in the league, bar none, since that time. We’re not talking about a slow rebuild here… we are talking about no-rebuild.
The Nets made one of the worst trades in NBA history not that long ago. A franchise crippling, fan crushing move worse than anything the Knicks have done. And yet, here they are, rising from the dead through decent management and they layer development.
And the Knicks struggle on.
Don’t confuse impatience with disdain. One is for the passionless. The other is for that witching moment when love turns to hate.
Knickerbloggers know the difference.
Would you take Jarrett Allen and Caris LeVert over Kristaps Porzingis and Zion Williamson? I know, 14% percent chance at best of that happening, but either way Porzingis, a top 3 pick, and Fizdale is better than what Brooklyn has.
Merry Christmas guys!
Happy holidays everyone!
@33
It’s actually less than 14% because there a non-zero chance we do something stupid like passing on Zion when he’s available to take Barrett instead.
The Mavericks might be looking to move Dennis Smith Jr because of a belief that he can’t play alongside Luka Doncic, according to a report by Marc Stein. Opposing GMs are monitoring the situation.
I guess Dennis Smith Jr is an okay prospect (aside from not being productive), but it feels like the Knicks’ thing to do to not tank properly, end up missing on Doncic, and then trading Frank Ntilikina to Dallas and watching him thrive off the ball next to the guy we should have been aiming to draft last year in the first place.
That sounds like something a GM would say about a player when they want to trade him but don’t want to diminish his market value by saying how they really feel about him.