Knicks Morning News (2019.01.24)

I’m no defensive coach, or even really someone who knows the x’s and o’s of basketball, but why don’t defenders try to make Harden go right rather than to his strong hand? I watched about 10 minutes of the game last night and think there was a grand total of 1 play in which the Knicks forced him to go right, and it led to a turnover.

Thought that during that short period I watched that Frank did a great job on him. Unfortunately he didn’t get much in terms of minutes to keep that going, and also couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn on offense.

Ha school canceled and I’m on KB at 7am… 🙂

Serious question (and don’t blow me off because I’m a dumb fan boy)

RJ Barrett really doesn’t look good by the eye test. They’re comparing him to Harden? Seriously? Seems like a big drop off from ZW, so, who’s the pick if we’re at 2. Steve Stipanovich?

On the current evidence, at 2 I would try to trade back a few spots. It’s likely some team is high enough on Barrett to do that, and if we can pick up another pick or young asset I would absolutely do it. If a deal could be made, Morant is probably my preferred guy and by the end of the year, taking him at 2 may no longer really be a reach. But back at 5 or 6, Little, Culver seem like good bets. Picking one of them fifth AND getting another asset is a different ball game to falling to fifth and just coming away with one of them.

It is frustrating though, to say the least, that we FINALLY figured out how to tank properly straight into not only a flattened set of odds but also a pretty weak draft. Landing the second or third worst odds in either of the last two years would have given us a shot at really good players and by now we’d probably be good enough and on a slight upward curve that the 8th or 9th pick would feel like an ok outcome.

According to Second Spectrum, when he was defended by Frank, he only shot 1-6 with 4 turnovers.

If he only had a shot

Ha school canceled and I’m on KB at 7am… 🙂

7AM’s not that early. Mitch Robinson usually has 3 fouls by then.

Who knows if Trier will amount to much but he sure is fun to watch sometimes. Seems like he could make his life a lot easier if he traded some crossover-into-stepback-long-twos for threes. He’s at 37% on the year yet he only shoots 2.7 per-36 minutes. For reference, Frank Ntilikina shoots 4.6 per-36. He also seems to be a more gifted passer than I initially thought, though putting that to good use will be on him.

Relatively encouraging minutes distribution last night. On this team it’s far from clear that playing the youngins even constitutes tanking anyway, so might as well turn them loose.

It’s hard to criticize a guy like Trier after a game like that, but it’s a mistake to use him as the PG, especially when Frank is on the court.

I actually disagree. Giving Trier spot PG minutes seems like the kind of thing that could be valuable from a development perspective even though it’s not his position of the future.

Despite his relative talents in isolation, I don’t think he’s ever going to be good enough to be a fixture in a good team’s rotation based on his scoring alone. If he’s a little more well-rounded and can get in the 58-59 TS% range, then you might be looking at a valuable player.

https://deadspin.com/frustrated-young-knick-allonzo-trier-slides-into-twitte-1832006756

We apparently are not alone in our tanksession….

Quality link, Owen. Looks like Hardaway was easily the culprit on that play. Shocking that all that end-of-game experience we’ve given him at the expense of our younger players hasn’t improved his awareness in those situations.

I wonder if the play was really to switch everything. The screen looked pretty lazy and Trier could have easily gone over it if he didn’t sink back so far (over committing to a Harden double too soon??). That said, Hardaway should have recognized the situation sooner and switched anyway.

The defense was bad all around.

I’d probably trust Courtney Lee or Lance to know what the defense is supposed to be on any given possession. That’s about it.

the funny thing about the last play controversy is that there is absolutely nothing to defend, literally and figuratively.

inpredictable says houston had a 49% win probability starting that possession down 1 with 20 seconds left. this is probably too low, bc it accounts for houston being a favorite but not for harden being a uniquely valuable asset in this particular situation who gets 102% of the foul calls he desires, but let’s go with it. after gordon hits the 3 at 11 secs, they jump to 87%.

Gordon is a career 37pct 3pt shooter (32% ytd). the typical player shoots about 2-3 points worse on open unassisted pull-ups, so let’s say he’s 35pct to hit that shot. so the upside expected value of his shot equals .87 x .35 = .3. the downside is he missed and houston’s wp (weighted for orb chances) drops to .22* .65 = .14. so the total ev of the shot is .3 + .14 = .44 vs. the .49 (or more, probably) before the shot. almost anything you can do to get them to shoot early that doesn’t involve an layup or an open 3 from a truly elite shooter is a pretty good move there.

clearly a brilliant play by two of our most wily defenders who are now ingeniously faking a twitter blamefest so they can sucker in the next guy.

@23 good analysis. Doesn’t really absolve the jacked up inbounds after (pass it into the back court, don’t set up Vonleh to get trapped at half court) but it takes the sting off that three.

From the Athletic:

As the Knicks were playing the Rockets close in the fourth quarter at Madison Square Garden Wednesday night, Enes Kanter sat on the bench alone, away from an ongoing huddle during a timeout […] While the Knicks assembled, Kanter never left his seat. He listened as assistant trainer Anthony Goenaga talked to him, gesticulating, then moved over as Mario Hezonja sat down next to him. Hezonja had not played yet, and would not play, either. He put an arm around Kanter and delivered a message.

“Get the fuck up,” Hezonja said. “And cheer.”

Mario’s greatest basketball moment?

Tim Jr is officially on the trade block. If the Knicks can get rid of him, this season is a success no matter who we draft in June.

And who we draft this summer is vastly more important than whether THj gets traded or not.

I’ll give Kanter this much, this does sound kind of fucked up. Vornukov noted, “Kanter, averaging 14.4 points and 10.8 rebounds per game, claims that his anger stems from being misled by Fizdale. He was told Wednesday morning, he says, that he would start that night against the Rockets. Later in the day, assistant coach Keith Smart told him he would instead come off the bench. Kanter didn’t play at all.”

That’s playing a guy dirty. Not cool.

I’m all for benching Kanter, but don’t tell him he’s going to play when you’re benching him.

If Phoenix, Chicago, or Cleveland calls Perry and asks for his unprotected 2022 1st round pick in exchange for nothing but the right to swap picks this year would you be more mad if he accepts it, or more mad if he turns it down?

Dipo rupturing his quad tendon is insane. Will he even really recover from that injury? So much of his game revolves around his explosiveness.

I think we have a resident ortho who can give expert medical advice, but my guess is no. If it’s a complete rupture, it will have to be surgically re-attached to the patella. What a horrible non-contact injury to have.

Very happy for him that he signed that extension early. This is exactly why I never fault guys for wanting as much money as they can get.

I don’t think a first rounder is worth upping your Zion chances to just 28%, even if that is improving their odds by 100%.

What if all three of Phoenix, Chicago, and Cleveland make the same offer: our 2022, 2023, and 2024 picks for the right to swap this year?