(Friday, December 28, 2018 9:05:24 PM)
The Knicks are tanking, but is head coach David Fizdale doing it the right way? The DNL crew debates.
(Friday, December 28, 2018 8:32:44 AM)
Second-year forward Luke Kornet impressed head coach David Fizdale by tying his career high with 23 points in his first start of the season on Thursday.
[NYTimes] Hornets 100, Nets 87: Hornets, Never Trailing, Avenge Overtime Loss (Saturday, December 29, 2018 3:01:30 AM)
Charlotte lost in double-overtime to the Nets earlier this week.
(Friday, December 28, 2018 10:52:58 PM)
SALT LAKE CITY — Luke Kornet will start at center for a second straight game when the Knicks face the Jazz on Saturday night, coach David Fizdale said. In his first start of the season — and second of his career — Kornet shined Thursday in Milwaukee, tying his career high with 23 points and…
(Friday, December 28, 2018 4:22:20 PM)
SALT LAKE CITY — Knicks center Enes Kanter was still fuming a day after his ejection in Milwaukee, calling his combatant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, “childish,” mockingly branding him “the golden child’’ and demanding the NBA fine Bucks assistant coach Darvin Ham for his role in Thursday’s fracas. According to a source, the NBA would look into…
(Friday, December 28, 2018 7:01:10 AM)
SALT LAKE CITY — Five observations from the Knicks’ chippy 112-96 loss to the Bucks at the sold-out Fiserve Forum Thursday. 1. The Knicks’ hot-shooting rookie lottery pick Kevin Knox saw his string of scoring 15-plus points in eight straight games come to an end. He was 4-for-15 for 12 points and zero assists. After…
(Saturday, December 29, 2018 12:41:58 AM)
A day after Thursday’s skirmish with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Enes Kanter called for Bucks assistant Darvin Ham to be fined and suggested that Antetokounmpo got preferential treatment from the refs.
61 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2018.12.29)”
Wiggins going for the “JR Smith Memorial Trophy!”
https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/1078821198555885568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Regarding Dennis Smith Jr.
He’s not good on offense (at least yet), bad on defense, and a bit of an injury risk. The scary part is that he’s exactly the type of player Mills/Perry might like. He’s athletic, gets pointz. doesn’t defend, and has a low basketball IQ.
I’d like to see a little of Kornet, Vonleh, Dotson, Frank, and Mudiay.
I don’t think Luka was pissed off with DSJ; I think he was still pissed off that the refs stole a critical possession from him on a blown kickball call.
What were we saying about average GMs appearing like good-to-great GMs?
DSJ is not my kind of player and I would trade very little for him (Frank and a second), but I feel like there’s a bust narrative taking hold that is unsupported by the numbers. He has made fairly significant leaps in his second season:
2PT%: 43%–>48%
3PT%: 31%–>36%
FTr: .188–>.239
STL%: 1.7–>2.2
TS%: .473–>.528
His rebounds and assists are down but that seems attributable to playing with Luka. For all the low basketball IQ talk (much of it valid), he takes 70% of his shots either at the rim or from 3. It’s not hard to see a productive player in there somewhere if he can clean up his FT% and continue to make improvements in the above areas.
They’d be foolish to trade him. He’s definitely improving — he’s a valuable player next to Luka if he keeps upping the efficiency numbers — and under contract for two more years. If he were due a contract extension this year, I’d say move him for what you can.
He was never going to be a true PG, so I say put the slasher next to a ball-dominant point forward and let him move.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/aai25y/lonzo_behind_the_back_pass_after_almost_turning/?st=JQ9OP2PO&sh=233556a3
Lonzo may never learn to shoot, but you also can’t unlearn this kind of innate talent.
I’d like to see a Frank/Mud backcourt a bit more. In theory they could cover each other’s problem areas.
They might not be very good, but we could try it out until Ja Morant gets here at least.
@9
Me too, but we probably have to see a significant THJ injury for that to happen. Even then, they probably just slot Lee in until/unless he can be dealt.
Tanking is brutal. I really hate it and hope we get Zion and Zion is the goods and we never look back for twenty years.
The problem is that it’s hard to believe in any of these guys if they don’t win.
As to the present mess, I feel like Kornet might be on a future playoff team and I’m happy to split the job between him and Mitchell Robinson once he returns.
I’ve completely lost interest in Mudiay, Kanter, Thomas, Lee. I can still see Hardaway in a reserve role one day but for now he has to sit and get healthy.
So here’s who starts for me:
Kornet, Ntilikina, Trier, Vonleh, Knox
Bench:
Robinson, Dotson, Burke, G leaguers and waiver pickups
The vets on this team are just deodorants. I mean, the team above might lose by 100 points. Kanter makes it smell a bit better by getting a couple of buckets.
@11
LOL!
Actually, though, to modify your analogy, I see the vets as the smelly armpits. Fiz is the deodorant!
🙂
Maybe someday the team will start bathing regularly…
Changing completely subject, did any of you catch up with Bandersnatch?
Have not but people keep telling me to check it out….
I hope we get Zion also, but mostly out of desperation.
We tanked a disappointing season to get KP, picked up Frank on the way back up, landed Knox partly because KP was out, and now will get another good lottery pick because we let a couple of good players go, didn’t add anyone good in 2 years other than Vonleh, and because KP is still out.
For all that cap space and tanking, KP is still out, Frank hasn’t made much progress, Knox stinks so far, Robinson is ridiculously raw, and we have the worst team in the NBA.
Maybe we can build the team around Vonleh. lmao
Spent about 3 plus hours last night watching it and thought it was pretty fun but only as a novelty. I would not want TV shows to be like that most of the time. But some of the endings were pretty funny.
They’d be foolish to trade him. He’s definitely improving — he’s a valuable player next to Luka if he keeps upping the efficiency numbers — and under contract for two more years. If he were due a contract extension this year, I’d say move him for what you can.
He was never going to be a true PG, so I say put the slasher next to a ball-dominant point forward and let him move.
I think he’s closer to worst-case for the type of player you want next to Luka. His still-poor TS is helped by shooting 36pct from 3, but that may not be real, probably isn’t. It’s 83 attempts and he’s a terrible FT shooter. He stops the ball on offense even when he’s not the primary and when he and Luka play together (almost all of DSJ’s minutes) TOV per 100 jump to 18.8 (would easily be worst in the league) while assist/100 actually drop 2.5 / 100 (would be bottom 3 in the league). And they are both weak on defense. If you want to put a shitty guard next to Luka you’d be much better off with an Avery Bradley type and save your slashers for the bigger guys who can actually make a difference doing it and don’t use up a bunch of possessions turning it over or shoot sub 60pct at the rim. 75pct of his 2s are still unassisted and that’s not a good Luka pairing.
Washington might be a sneaky tank competitor. Wall has been out with a foot injury and is now visiting a heel specialist. You could see an already bad season fall apart completely with a 9-game losing streak. Then they clean house by trading Ariza and even Beal, sitting Wall the rest of the season, and firing Brooks and Grunfeld.
Yikes. Okay, trade him.
Frank would be better fit with Doncic than DSJr. That’s what frightens me. I still think Cuban actually wanted Frank. He went through too much trouble for it all to be a smokescreen. With Frank’s stock down a little in NY, he might try to swap those guys figuring he needs a guy like Frank even more now and the Knicks may still value DSJr the same way because they like athletic scorers that don’t defend and don’t know how to play basketball.
I think an optimistic team might look at Baron Davis at 20 and 21 and say that could smell a lot like DSJ if he wasn’t being muzzled by Doncic so maybe he’s worth a bit of a price. While that seems to make a ton of nominal sense, two 6 3” somewhat sloppy athletic freaks who aren’t great shooters but can get to the rim almost at will, it also seems almost fundamentally wrong. Like Baron was always simultaneously a really smart but unwisely overconfident player while DSJ seems almost entirely the latter. Donovan Mitchell is more the guy with that general makeup. It’s just hard to see him becoming the kind of potent player who makes up for low efficiency with playmaking and defense Baron became. If Haralabob has a real voice in Dallas I can’t help but think DSJ is out the door the minute a team like PHX is willing to feel that kind of optimism.
It’s kind of crazy that DSJ has already had more dunks in a season than Baron ever did. He really is a beast, but I doubt that will be enough, especially as his athleticism wanes.
Frank isn’t a good fit with anybody cause he sucks.
Tell us how you really feel Al! 😀
Yeah, you don’t have to worry Strat. If Cuban goes for a Frank-DSJ swap without significant sweetener on our end I’ll eat my hat.
DSJ has plenty of flaws, some may even be fatal in terms of him being an NBA rotation player. But there’s something there. I think it’s more likely that Frank becomes a quality rotation player for Strasbourg than the Mavs.
All the discussion the other day and the lack of other players who were point guards in the NBA at his age makes me think the jury is still out on Ntilikina. When he is only 23 years old, he will already be a fifth year veteran, assuming he is still in the NBA. If he improves modestly each year for five years he will be a decent player by then. The trouble is, I can see the Knicks giving up on him long before that.
Frank is theoretically a better fit with Doncic. A defensive team first guy who won’t try to out hero ball Doncic is someone the Mavs might be tempted to acquire.
Theres a reason why teams were calling us about Frank when he got benched.
Frank would be a good fit with the Washington Generals
Michael Ray Richardson was a rookie at 23 and made a huge leap at age 24. There’s downsides to essentially drafting kids out of high school.
Frank is theoretically a better fit, but he’s still a godawful basketball player. The Mavs would be better off drafting some no-offense guard out of the UFA pile if they’re solely concerned with a guy who won’t take touches away from their future MVP winner.
If Wall really is out for the year we can’t take it sitting down. It’s time to let Mario out of the dungeon.
Trey Burke back to Washington.
Man, if that contract was nearly impossible to trade before, how about after he misses the season due to a foot injury?!
How is Chasson Randle the only other PG on the Wizards roster?
I’ve been worried all year that Washington was going to out tank us.
I wonder if we’ll ever say this about Porzingis’s max. A lot of people gonna eat crow that day.
Isn’t the Knickerblogger consensus that KP isn’t worth a max? I did not think there was any dispute over that, it’s basic.
Nope. Let the voices ring out. Identify yourselves.
You wanna know how bad this team is? 12 point underdogs against a 17-19 team. Horrific.
I’ll say this much, if…KP came back healthy for 200 minutes and looked as normal as could be expected and we had only two choices (i.e. trade was impossible), sign him to a max deal or lose him for nothing… I would sign him.
I’m down with that, as well. They’ve put themselves into a horrible position, really.
I don’t mind rolling the dice on KP. He’s a younger player with a less expensive max plus he’s got upside as a defender. What’s the physics of signing him? This summer we could to extend him, if we don’t he’s unrestricted in the summer of 2020?
They skipped on extending him. He’ll now be a restricted free agent this year. So they won’t be extending him, per se, as he will be a free agent. He can agree to play for just his qualifying offer this season and become an unrestricted free agent next offseason.
His options are:
1. Take the qualifying offer and become an unrestricted free agent contract next year
2. Take whatever free agent offer the Knicks offer
3. Sign an offer sheet from another team (and then the Knicks can choose to match or not).
Best case scenario is he enters restricted free agency due to his injury concerns and signs a sub-max sheet out of an abundance of caution, which the Knicks match.
More likely is he signs the QO and the Knicks extend him so he never hits the open market, or he rides it out (like if they select Bol in this year’s draft and he’s unhappy about that), Knicks offer him a 5-year max at $157M and he gets to field competitive offers at 4 years.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Knicks made a handshake deal to extend him after they use their cap space this summer. They’d lose $10M in space if they extend him before the July FA period, IIRC.
KP has max value around the league, so signing him to the max at his age is fine because unlike Wiggins, he will continue to have that perceived value as long as he doesn’t suffer a non-recoverable injury. He will likely bring back reasonable value in a trade even on a $30 million per year multi-year contract.
If the question is whether he deserves a max contract based on his play, the answer is clearly no.
If the question is whether he will ever play like a deserving max player (multiple all-star games, MVP or DPOY consideration) I think it’s a roll of the dice. But based on my first point, I’d roll the dice.
With that in mind, though, Z-Man, doesn’t it seem like the best bet would be to trade him? Unless they secretly know that KD is signing here, of course.
If he has max value out there and it is unclear if he will be worth that, when you factor in the win curve of the current team, wouldn’t it make more sense to just trade him for the max value he’s valued at around the league?
Again, though, if KD will sign here, then disregard that.
I think a max is inevitable. I also think there’s no way his production will be worthy of the max, so best case scenario is we trade him at some point for fair value. It’s sad but that’s the way things go for media darlings in NY.
I’d be very surprised to see him signing the standard QO. If the Knicks don’t make a max qualifying offer, he can retain a lot of flexibility without taking QO risk. He can almost surely get someone to give him a three year max deal with the third year as a player option. This gets him to UFA only one year later but guarantees him $72 million against disaster, $65 more than signing the QO. One year less flexibility for $65 million would be the best policy in the history of Lloyd’s.
The Knicks could match that deal, or a similar deal that is 3 years plus a player option, which allows him to opt out as a 7th yr player in a higher ufa bracket. I think it’s obvious that you’d rather have him on a 5yr 8pct raise deal to a 3 & 1 4 pct deal. In the former you are paying about $3m more and taking one extra year of risk. But the cost of the put option is high; you chop off two years of upside if KP makes good.
THJ is the reason why a KP max would be dire news.
By the way, can you imagine getting promoted, making a huge mistake and a smaller one on your first month in the new position, and retaining your position like nothing happened? In the real world (politics notwithstanding) you would get booted very quickly. Steve Mills is living the dream, you guys.
Can we wrest Washington for some first rounders for any combo of our PGs? They will be bad for quite some time and some GM will take advantage
I would gladly take a second for Trey Burke.
I can see them biting on Burke and Mudiay for at least a first, plus any filler. This year’s pick will be good.
On top of Mills being fired from a lesser job years ago.
How could they possibly trade a first rounder now? They just lost nine straight!
You also have to look at possible trades from the Mills/Perry point of view. As of now they’ve given zero hints they’re open to trade “their” guys, and Mudiay is one of them for sure. I’d say Washington would be a willing trade partner for Mudiay, but I don’t think they’d give us anything more than Sam Dekker, another scrub and a second (which I’d take immediately). There’s no way that Perry is taking that offer.
It also has to be said that, if we tried, honestly we could get more for Mudiay. Point is we won’t try.
The Wiz need to blow it up, but who’s going to give them anything for Wall? Is there a sane offer for Beal that nets them a pick?
@50
Be still, my heart!
Nah, no way that’s happening.
Well, maybe the Sixers? Chandler + Fultz and a first round pick would work.
The Wizards are not a smart franchise, and have been win-now for a few years- look at their cap structure. With Otto, Beal, and Wall taking up that much space, I don’t see them selling low, and I don’t see them tanking. They likely think they need a young stopgap PG. I think they need less of a project than Fultz. I wish they would take Tim but they have no need of a wing right now. I would even add Frank if it gives another pick.
I can see them taking it. I just don’t see Perry offering.
WWMD. (What would Masai do)
The Wizard’s pick this year could easily end up being pretty valuable.
Any max for KP is real sketchy at this point. We’d be better with a sign and trade for picks. But that’s not going to happen. A max for KP that doesn’t include big injury protections for the Knicks would be really fucking stupid.
The Wizards are not smart, true, but I don’t think even Isiah would trade a first rounder when they’re 13-23 and just lost their star player for the season.
A max for KP that doesn’t include big injury protections for the Knicks would be really fucking stupid.
a max QO can’t have injury protections under the cba so this is a non sequitir.
I can see them taking it. I just don’t see Perry offering.
if we threw in Chris duhon and the pick was protected 1-29 and then automatically convert to a cat (mixed breed), I think the wiz would at least think about it
If Washington has their second rounder this year, I’d be THRILLED to get that for Mudiay or Burke. But no way should Wash even do that.
Edit…just looked. They don’t have it.