(Monday, January 07, 2019 5:04:23 PM)
Enes Kanter has been promised a place in the Knicks‘ rotation, Marc Berman of the New York Post relays. Coach David Fizdale assured Kanter he’ll be in games and suggested the team will use two-center alignments in the future. â??I want to pull off combinations like that because I want to give them all a […]
(Monday, January 07, 2019 5:50:00 PM)
PORTLAND — The Knicks and Rangers both stink, but James Dolan believes there’s an important difference — one of his teams has Henrik Lundqvist, and the other doesn’t have the star equivalent.
“The real big difference between the Knicks and Rangers is Henrik,” Dolan told reporters Monday. “If the…
(Monday, January 07, 2019 11:45:00 AM)
PORTLAND – ‘Lapdog’ Hedo Turkoglu was told to sit by Enes Kanter.
In the latest twist of the complicated and dangerous feud between Kanter and his home country’s government, the two prominent Turkish basketball players went back and forth Monday concerning Kanter’s fears of assassination if he…
[Sports Illustrated] Hedo Turkoglu: Knicks’ Enes Kanters Using ‘Smear Campaign’ Against Turkey (Monday, January 07, 2019 1:55:36 PM)
Enes Kanter previously said he can’t travel with the Knicks for their NBA London Game because of his fear he could be killed on the trip.
[FOXsports] Jusuf Nurkic paces Portland in 111-101 victory over Knicks (Tuesday, January 08, 2019 12:32:32 AM)
Jusuf Nurkic had 20 points for his fourth straight game with 20 or more and the Portland Trail Blazers beat the New York Knicks 111-101
[Newsday] Jusuf Nurkic paces Portland in 111-101 victory over Knicks (Tuesday, January 08, 2019 12:32:32 AM)
Jusuf Nurkic had 20 points for his fourth straight game with 20 or more and the Portland Trail Blazers beat the New York Knicks 111-101
(Tuesday, January 08, 2019 12:29:10 AM)
The Knicks followed their road win against the Los Angeles Lakers with a 111-101 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday at Moda Center at the Rose Quarter.
(Monday, January 07, 2019 7:36:36 PM)
Knicks rookie center Mitchell Robinson has missed the Knicks’ last nine games with a sprained ankle. Now, he has to deal with a strained groin, too.
(Monday, January 07, 2019 5:10:01 PM)
The Knicks, playing without Frank Ntilikina and Mitchell Robinson, head to Portland off of two days of rest after an exhilarating 119-112 victory over the Lakers in Los Angeles.
(Monday, January 07, 2019 4:05:56 PM)
The Knicks center responded to criticism from Hedo Turkoglu, who works as the chief advisor to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(Monday, January 07, 2019 10:52:53 AM)
Hedo Turkoglu, now an adviser to the president of Turkey, said the Knicks’ Enes Kanter’s reasons for not traveling to London are visa-related and the center’s fears for his life are “irrational.”
(Monday, January 07, 2019 7:42:35 PM)
PORTLAND, Ore. — Five down, Kevin Durant to go. Fresh off their beating the Lakers, the Knicks were beaten by the Blazers 111-101 Monday at Moda Center to fall to 1-4 on their six-game Western swing. Now the Knicks complete their two-week marathon with the NBA champion Warriors and one last look at the superstar…
(Monday, January 07, 2019 1:50:18 PM)
PORTLAND, Ore. — Blame UCLA. Knicks rookie center Mitchell Robinson likely would have made his return here Monday night if not for a mishap at the UCLA gym. Instead, Robinson is out indefinitely with a new injury: a sore groin. At Friday’s workout at a UCLA gymnasium, Robinson was doing sprints as he finished his…
(Monday, January 07, 2019 9:09:26 AM)
Ron Baker’s point-less time in Washington is over. The Wizards waived Baker on Monday, according to ESPN, after the former Knicks guard played just four games without scoring a point in their uniform. His contract was set to be guaranteed for the rest of the year if he had still been on their roster by…
(Monday, January 07, 2019 8:46:13 AM)
PORTLAND, Ore. — Turkish center Enes Kanter called former NBA forward Hedo Turkoglu “a puppy dog” and “lapdog” after his fellow countryman ripped him on Twitter over recent comments about the Turkish dictator in regards to canceling his Knicks trip to London. Turkoglu had said Kanter’s comments are “irrational,” that he’s on a “political smear…
[NYTimes] The Mavericks’ Key to Keeping Players Fresh? Blood Samples (Monday, January 07, 2019 1:55:03 PM)
Dallas works with Orreco, a company that proposes individualized remedies to combat fatigue while trying to identify increased risk for injury and illness.
73 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2019.01.08)”
Guys I’m sorry, it’s a rough day at work and I won’t be able to post my recap today. But anyway, not much to say about this game… I promise you I’ll write the Warriors recap, though!
Sorry again 🙁
Henceforth please refrain from posting any THJ trade scenario unless we’re giving up at least one unprotected first round pick as sweetener. What a disastrous contract.
Leave it to Steve Mills to fuck up an interim GM tenure in which all he had to do was…nothing.
Someone on the game thread asked who has more games shooting under 30% this season, Hardaway or Westbrook. They’ve each got 7 games. If we bump it up to games shooting under 40% then Hardaway has 17 vs Westbrook with 14.
Holy shit… I remember being pissed right as the news came out of the contract, but it’s somehow getting even worse.
Popovich is a WIZARD. It’s not surprising to me that he has that team playing well enough on defense to win “some” games, but he also has them playing efficient basketball on offense lately. That’s mind boggling to me given the players he’s working with.
Apparently, he’s also interested in Porzingis.
https://news4sanantonio.com/sports/content/the-ringer-spurs-have-significant-interest-in-knicks-porzingis
Maybe be we should send them Porzingis, Frank, Vonleh, and Dotson for a big pile of picks. I feel sorry for those guys having to play in NY. If he doesn’t go for it, maybe we can throw in Robinson.
What a weird piece of news by O’Connor. “The Spurs are interested in Porzingis.” It means pretty much nothing. They don’t have enough cap room to sign him. What, are they going to dump players to free up cap room to sign him to a max offer sheet? That doesn’t sound realistic, does it?
@2
But he’s scoring over 20 PPG! Anyone who scores over 20 PPG has to be a good player and worthy of his contract.
I thought THJ played really well before the plantar fasciitis. He is too streaky of a shooter to mesh with Mudiay. Maybe Lee or even Trier should start.
Yeah that O’Connor piece is speculation. Makes you wonder if the Porzingis fam paid him off.
Re: the draft, if we aren’t top two, I’d rather trade down for two firsts and grab a couple solid role players like Hachimura, Norvell, Ponds, whoever. This team is bereft of talent and they need to stop swinging for the fences when it’s not called for. Get some “high floor” guys.
Ringer on the Knicks….
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/1/8/18172835/new-york-knicks-frank-ntilikina-david-fizdale-tanking
Yeah such a weird piece to put in the article. Like even if the Spurs DID clear room and offer him a max offer sheet, the Knicks would just match and then it would be over — and not only would it be over but the Spurs would be barred from acquiring him within the next year. I mean, what is the point of the article? To say the Spurs like a 7’3″ guy who is an elite rim protector and can score from anywhere?
Saw this on twitter- Anthony Bennett is currently annihilating the G-league. He’s averaging 23-9-2 on 75% TS. Let’s roll the dice!
I get that it’s a national outlet covering a team I follow closely so I shouldn’t expect it to provide too much that I don’t already know…but man was that bereft of insight. Not even anything close to a new or unique insight: “The Knicks are bad right now but probably tanking is a step in the right direction for them”.
Dolan’s recent remarks about tanking and needing a star player seem ominous. Wait, isn’t THJ a star?
🙂
Sorry Totes…
http://knickerblogger.net/knicks-morning-news-2018-11-28/#comment-638851
Great line from the Ringer article.
Sadly, for your typical NBA fan, that’s an eye-opening idea.
I love Pau and he’s been a very good late-career player for the Spurs over the last three years, but his contract is onerous. $16M for a guy not healthy enough to play more than 171 minutes, who’s going to be 39 in July? Naaaaaaah.
Still, a >4 SRS with that roster is filthy. I wouldn’t want a single player on the Knicks, yet there they are, 8th in EWL with a 25-16 record. They’re a 2nd-round playoff team at best, but what he’s doing is astounding. They’d probably be somewhere around 28-13 or 29-12 with Kawhi, so yeah, the Pop genius continues.
We would immediately be the butt of some well-deserved lolknicks jokes but this would undoubtedly be a better use of a 2-way slot than Isiah Hicks.
I mean my hope for Bennett would be that he could turn out to be something like Michael Beasley-a good offense, not much defense combo forward that we could flip to a better team next year.
Chris Sheridan had tweeted that Knicks were one of five teams Davis would accept a trade to. If Pop really wants KP, something like the following deal could work at deadline (works in trade machine):
Knicks………..Davis
Spurs………….Porzingis
Pels…………….THJ, NYK 2019 pick (#1 protected), Knox, Bertans, Poetl, Murray
KP would have to agree to not take QO and bolt from Spurs. And, of course, Davis would have to agree to re-sign and may not be interested in Knicks if KP’s not here. However, if we have Davis/Mitch/Dotson/Courtney/Trier/Frank we would have more than enough cap to sign one of Kawhi, KD, Kyrie, Butler which might be even more attractive to Davis than KP. Dump Courtney somehow and we’d have almost 60m in free cap.
It might also be worthwhile to look into trading KP directly to Pels at deadline. Maybe KP, THJ, Knox, 2019 pick (#1 protected). Better than Lakers offer?
Bennett was the most foul ass-garbage those four years, but I’d take a flyer on him. Those numbers are jaw-dropping for a guy with a career .457 TS%.
In 1400 g-league minutes Bennett has shot over 40% from 3. The NBA is nuts for stretch bigs. I would bet he’s not a good NBA player but we might as well take a shot.
Yeah, he sucked for four years on four teams, so I don’t think we can take the “fit and synergy” approach to him. Maybe he stopped drinking? Partying? Maybe he realized that he had to play for a second contract? I dunno.
@15 lol yup..I couldn’t resist the Kool Aid back then. I can’t help it..I WAS THIRSTY! lol
Boy was I wrong
Sorry Totes
Believe it or not, but players do get better, but only if they want to. That holds true for coaches as well.
He also has 56 total steals and 32 total blocks in those minutes, meaning that he averages a steal every 26 minutes of court time and a block every 46 minutes (!). Obviously steals and blocks aren’t all there is to defense but based on what I remember from his NBA minutes I’m guessing the guy isn’t exactly locking people up in ways that aren’t showing in the stat sheet. Bigs that can shoot are always interesting but I have my doubts with him.
Believe it or not, but the NBA is a competitive league with a lot of 99.9th percentile athletes who practice and play very, very hard.
I really want to be better at chess. I study from theory books, practice tactics and watch high-rated players with commentary. I played an absurd number of games last year (the Lady Jowles calls me a degenerate chess player when she finds me playing blitz at 7 AM on a Saturday) and although I’m competitive as hell and hate to lose, I keep coming back to practice the craft because I love the game and I want to improve.
Does that mean I’m ever going to be a FIDE Master, much less the higher ranks of International Master or Grandmaster? Fuck no. There are inherent limits within all of us, and they’re governed by genetics and conditioning. It’s painfully banal to say that a guy with the yips could get better, but only if he wants to. Or that a guy with a 40 FT% could improve, but only if he wants to. Improvement, especially at the highest levels of any game, is far more complex than “try harder.”
No one should ignore his 4 years of suck, but a team like the Knicks, Bulls, Hawks or Suns really have nothing to lose by trying out a guy performing that well in the minor league.
Yeah, I’m all for giving Bennett a shot. As noted, Isiah freakin’ Hicks is currently under contract. There’s very little to lose there. Plus, Courtney Lee could be traded for a first whenever they want, so that could free up a roster spot for Bennett right there!
The New York Knicks: “Give me your tired, your hungry, your lottery busts”
Brook Lopez gets no steals or rebounds (he does block some shots) and shoots ~38% from downtown and he’s the new hotness. Like I said, I have very strong doubts that Anthony Bennett can be a productive NBA player, but if you can sign him to a contract with a future team option or only a partial guarantee, and it turns out he can shoot 3 pointers almost as well in the NBA as he’s done in the G-league, you can probably trade him for something.
The next player that the Knicks acquire and then flip for a future asset will be the first player that the Knicks acquire and then flip for a future asset.
I still think Bennett is worth a flier, but it is unlikely that they actually are able to ever deal him.
You all might already know this, but here’s a take on Bennet being the #1 pick:
https://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/10/ex-cavs-gm-david-griffin-chris-grant-cavaliers-anthony-bennett-pick-nba
He’d be an interesting flyer, but if anyone every gives him significant money again, you wonder if he’d get super lazy again.
This got me thinking… the last time I recall having an interim GM was the 1999 NBA Draft. We were coming off a finals appearance and had the opportunity to add Ron Artest but interim GM Ed Tapscott drafted Frederic Weis instead.
Crazy how much damage two interim GMs did!!
Also, I couldn’t remember Tapscott’s name so I googled it and that led me to this gem:
Frederic Weiss is now a cigarette salesman in Limoges, France
I wanted to post that as a pic, not a link. Brian, you’re the only one I’ve ever seen post a pic here. How do you do it?
It’s interesting the Cavs GM was leaning towards drafting McLemore, who would have been about as big of a bust as Bennett.
True. It took me a couple of years to become a USCF master. Have friends who study everyday and never reached expert. It’s a talent, like music (which I love but suck at).
Chess is one of the most misunderstood disciplines.
JK47
June 27, 2013 at 9:35 pm
Please somebody take Tim Hardaway Jr so NYK does not end up with him.
lol
We should sign Bennett because why not. A 0.01% glimmer of hope is worthwhile for a team going nowhere. But I suspect his G-League renaissance will turn out much like Trey Burke’s.
Really interesting look here from Ben Taylor at trying to evaluate the publicly available “all-in-one” player metrics: Link
Given all the arguments we’ve had hear over the years I’m contractually obligated to point out that Wins Produced looks like hot, hot garbage here. It does a worse job of predicting how teams with low roster continuity will perform than just using points per game (yes read that again, WP actually is less useful than using just naive points per game) and performs consistently worse at predicting team performance than just multiplying a players minutes by his teams SRS (i.e. just looking at how much a player plays and whether his team is good and not even attempting to allocate credit). Basically WP is neck and neck with PER to be the worst metric on the market. Whole article is definitely worth a read.
not a bad life though, right?
limoges looks like a pretty nice place…he has a purpose in life when he wakes…and, he’s tall…
Seven players this year have played >1000 minutes and shot under 40%. Our own THJ is of course one of them. His 6.6 combined rebounds and assists per 36 minutes rank second to last among that group. Anyone want to guess who is last?
Does Frank have 1000 minutes?
It’s more than that: over the last five weeks, the Spurs are #1 in both offensive and defensive rating. Unreal.
yikes, looks like kevin and frank are both on their way to joining timmy in that group…wiggins is nearly there…surprised to see avery bradley and eric gordon not getting more assists…curious to see who gets the answer…
@44
It’s gotta be Wiggins right?
Hardaway is not that far below average scoring efficiency for a wing. His problem is that he sucks at everything else. Compare Tim to Marcus Smart-they’re both somewhat inefficient on offense, but Smart is good at other stuff and he’s a productive player.
The answer is Eric Gordon, who is shooting 38% while averaging a combined 4.9 assists+rebounds per 36 minutes.
I’m OK with this approach. We did get Vonleh this way. But I’d prefer that we give these short term contracts out to replace guys that are clearly bad. We’ve been trading and letting players walk that are better than some of the guys coming in to replace them.
THJ looks slightly better by TS%, where his 53% is merely bad but not awful. Eighteen players have over 1000 minutes played and a worse TS%. Only three of them — Justin Holiday, Eric Gordon, and Wiggins — have a combined total rebound percentage and assist percentage lower than Tim’s.
Sooooo, at least we don’t have Wiggins!
I want to give Timmy a bit of a pass because he’s being asked to do more than he’s capable of doing and is playing with an injury. But even if you add in a little plus he’s not good enough on offense to compensate for his defense. He’s still a 6th man type but we are paying him like a good starter.
He can do more things on offense than Lee, but I still think Lee is the marginally better overall player. It made no sense to overpay to get him and even less because we already had Lee. It’s also clear by his recent comments that Mills is still overrating him. He can create and score and that’s what these guys focus on.
@50
Damn, Gordon has really been trash.
I also went and checked Wiggins and he’s got 6.5 for the season, just below THJ’s 6.6. So we’re paying 18 million a year for two more seasons for the THIRD least productive chucking wing player player! That’s a relief.
All of the smart people here had that figured out a long time ago. Well, almost all.
knicks talk today – sadly, this may be as good as it gets…
okay, so looking over stats to see who sucks worse than timmy – i take a look over mud’s numbers for the season…ts% of 52.8% (i understand 54 to 55% is the league average) and a usage of 24.4%, with an ast% of 25.3%…
in a vacuum – that’s not so terrible a year is it for a 10 and 30 team?
what stats do i focus on which tells me he’s a horrible defensive player – his defensive fg%, or, something else?
also, thanks for the link to nylon-calculus tsam…i was trying to make my way through that article (a little dry for my taste), and, then some pics of shay mitchell started popping up and totally fucked up any sort of focus i may had at the moment…
i don’t think signing timmy was totally a basketball decision…i don’t know if he’s got some kind of link to the music world, or something else – but, the signing never made sense with courtney lee already on the roster…
Mill must have thought that he was getting a young, rising star. I don’t know what else to say…
@42
Insightful article, thanks for sharing.
Z-man is still way more wrong than I am about basketball, so haha ok
Didn’t we retire it five years ago?
@56
I mean, he’s not the worst player in the league, but he’s still wildly overpaid if you consider all his value comes from the scoring, which is inefficient, and taking charges which happen like once every two games. That’s been the issue with Hardaway, he’d be a decent player at 8 million a year for a better team, maybe even a bit more in the perfect situation. If you’re a chucker who won’t play defense, won’t rebound and will barely pass, you got to be far above league average in terms of efficiency for it to matter.
Yes, and we really don’t talk about WP48 anymore. I’ll throw it in there if I’m just listing the all-in-ones, but I’m much more comfortable with BPM. PIPM would be nice. I suspect that the next few years will have a lot more for us. The NBA website has a shitton of information but I hate the layout. BBRef has been slowly (and quietly) adding stuff like dunks, FG% from certain distance, etc.
It will be a beautiful day when we have xPPS and percentiles (and something like ERA+ or OPS+, that adjusts for league-average) in BBRef.
And herein lies the problem for those that say “send frank to the G-league to build up his confidence.” If proven NBA busts are annihilating the competition, what would happen to frank if he goes there and proceeds to get himself annihilated by proven NBA busts? It wouldn’t be good.
@63
Well, the people that say that also think that if he gets annihilated in the G-League it simply means that he’s also a bust, so at least you find out early.
I think the G-League route is mostly not a good idea because a lot of Frank’s issues seem to be confidence related, and he’s not and never will be the type of player to shoot the ball 20 times in the G-League and perform well. If he will find a role in the NBA, which is something I’m really not sure about right now, it’s as a low usage defender who can occasionally hit threes. Those guys don’t shine in the G-League, you don’t expect a PJ Tucker to go to the G-League and start scoring 25 a game.
It would be really easy to build up Frank’s confidence if we wanted to. Just pump him up verbally like they did Mudiay, and ignore the fact that he’s complete shit on one side of the ball the way we do with Hardaway, Mudiay, Kanter, Knox, Trier, etc.
Our whole team is full of extremely deficient players. Frank was at least good on defense before slipping off. Even Mike D’antoni did a better job building up a player who was offensively inept but good on D (Jefferies).
You know that one guy who has played for the Nets and Hornets and Magic over the last few years? Not a specific one, but the athletic wing with good measurables who dribbles hard, and makes a vague feinting move, goes nowhere as his defender easily stays in front of him, and then dumps it off to a teammate before taking a few lethargic steps away and waiting for his next touch? That’s Cam Reddish.
Zion on ESPN. Has 8 of first 12 Duke points. Hasn’t missed a shot of course.
From Bennett’s performance in G-league you can infer either he looks good only because the competition is lousy, or that he got significantly better from where he used to be. Given Courtney Lee’s comments about G-league and our experience with Trier, I suspect that someone who tears it up in G-league is at a level of useful NBA player, but probably not a star. That makes Bennett maybe a 25 year old Noah Vonleh (i.e., two years older). We already have Vonleh, so Bennett seem better for another team. Maybe he would be good for the Wizards or the Lakers.
Zion came back in, caught an alley oop, and then dished for two dunks….
Draft stock not falling
I think you could say both. The talent (/production) gap in the NBA itself is huge — you’ve got Russell Westbrook and Dennis Schroeder playing the same position on the same team, for instance. Even if the top 10% of G-League players deserve to switch places with the bottom 10% of the NBA, you’re still seeing a significant drop in talent below the NBA, on the whole.
He needs to fix the Draymond shot mechanics, but he is going to be awesome on day 1 in the NBA. I cannot wait. I just hope I don’t have to also watch Devin Booker or Trae Young to see him play every night.
Jowles, that is reasonable. The Wizards are missing Morris for six weeks due to injury. They would be a good team to tske a flyer on Bennett. Even at a low NBA level, he could help them.
It involves me using my own personal website to host the image. So probably not an answer for most people.