(Friday, February 15, 2019 4:40:00 PM)
CHARLOTTE – Rick Barry, the NBA Hall of Famer who is never shy about expressing his opinion, made it clear where he stands on the most important decision of the NBA summer: In short, Barry believes Kevin Durant would be a lunatic to leave the Warriors for New York.
“He has a chance to be part of…
(Friday, February 15, 2019 10:48:24 PM)
With cap space for two max contracts, the Knicks will try to land two of the six Special K’s on the free-agency market: Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, Kemba Walker, Klay Thompson and Khris Middleton. They’re all in Charlotte for All-Star Weekend, and likely to face those kinds of questions during Saturday’s media availability….
(Friday, February 15, 2019 7:10:12 PM)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the Hall of Famer and Power Memorial graduate out of Harlem, took a jab at the Knicks in marveling at their championship drought dating to 1973. “The last [time] they won a championship, I was playing in Milwaukee,’’ Abdul-Jabbar cracked at Friday’s ceremony announcing the 2019 Hall of Fame finalists….
(Friday, February 15, 2019 3:26:13 PM)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Dennis Smith Jr. has already had his conversation with Nate Robinson, who was a great champion with the Knicks. Slam-Dunk champion, that is. Robinson was a three-time winner. “Nate The Great” was never charged with leading the Knicks out of the wilderness of what will be six straight seasons without a playoff…
(Friday, February 15, 2019 8:10:26 AM)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Kyrie Irving was head coach of Team USA in the Rising Stars Challenge and sounded like he took special interest in one of his charges — Knicks rookie Kevin Knox. “He told me to keep staying aggressive, keep playing hard,’’ Knox said after scoring 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting in 16 minutes…
(Friday, February 15, 2019 11:48:26 PM)
With impending free agent and possible Knicks target Kyrie Irving coaching him, Knicks rookie Kevin Knox scored 11 points Friday in the NBA Rising Stars game.
(Friday, February 15, 2019 8:23:32 PM)
The Knicks are laying out the groundwork to sign Kevin Durant this summer but Rick Barry has no idea why he would want to leave the Warriors.
(Friday, February 15, 2019 9:05:44 AM)
For as much as Duke freshman phenom Zion Williamson has wowed with his athleticism on the court, his attitude off the court is what strikes LeBron James.
[NYTimes] D’Angelo Russell Is Poetry on the Court. Take It From a Poet. (Saturday, February 16, 2019 5:01:04 AM)
The Nets’ All-Star point guard has a fan in Mikko Harvey, an award winner. They see the parallels in their crafts, sharing the tension between daring and safe.
[NYTimes] Pelicans Fire General Manager Dell Demps Amid Anthony Davis Trade Drama (Saturday, February 16, 2019 5:54:46 AM)
Demps had been under a fiery spotlight since Davis requested a trade in January. His standing only grew worse in recent weeks as Davis stayed put.
[NYTimes] On Pro Basketball: Finally, the N.B.A. Comes to Charlotte (Friday, February 15, 2019 11:30:05 PM)
A divisive bill restricting the rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people, passed in 2016, caused sports organizations to abandon North Carolina. A partial repeal brought them back.
[NYTimes] Keeping Score: Knicks Come Up Short Again: Not Even the Worst Team of Last 20 Years (Friday, February 15, 2019 1:57:00 PM)
Just a little context for a dreadful season: By some measures, the Knicks have a ways to go to sink lower in the N.B.A. cellar.
[NYTimes] On Pro Basketball: LeBron James Was Supposed to Make the Lakers Great. But When? (Saturday, February 16, 2019 5:44:55 AM)
Behind James, Los Angeles is embarking on the road back to N.B.A. dominance. But injury, erratic play and months of drama have a young core wondering when the fun begins.
70 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2019.02.16)”
Anyone know if we could, hypothetically, go over the cap to retain DeAndre if we were magically able to sign two max free agents?
Youth movement or not, dude is the best Knick in a long while.
He’d have to agree to sign for the room exception.
Thanks, Alsep. That clearly isn’t happening… I guess if they get one but not two max players (a la the Lakers) he could stay. Hopefully Mitch Lob can give us that level of productivity consistently (and an outside shot, pretty please) sooner rather than later.
BTW if the Pelicans hire David Griffin it certainly won’t help us make deals with them in the future.
What does Griffin have against the Knicks?
We tried to hire Griffin but insisted he couldn’t clean house of all of Dolan’s sycophants to bring in his own people.
Also, because no one will see it in the last thread, I have to share this disturbingly plausible dream: Had a nightmare that we released Mitch because the FO didn’t think his game fit with their vision for the team. Woke up sweating.
The beautiful part about MitchRob is that his game fits with any vision a FO may have for their team so long as it involves winning games at a very affordable price. He plays elite level defense, doesn’t need to dominate the ball, and is an efficient inside scorer. Guys like that can be found on every championship contending team in one form or another.
I agree.
We don’t know how far Mitch will be able to expand his offense, but generally you need at least two real superstars or one real superstar and two all stars to contend. Then you put the defensive, rebounding, 3 point shooting, play making etc.. specialists around them and on the bench to fill out the team depending on what it needs.
The prospects look good that Mitch can at least get into that all-star category eventually. He’ll probably be a 3rd option on offense, but as long as he’s efficient inside, rebounding, protecting the paint, and switching well, that’s a dynamite player. We’ll still have find the tough pieces (which is the efficient volume scorers to be option #1 and option #2), but baby steps (and cap space).
We really do need to give props for Perry for the Mitch contract. I understand that Mitch had little leverage with his lack of track record, but still it was a genius contract, he’s already outperforming his deal as a rookie.
It’s not even so much about the low salary, but the guaranteed 4 years of control is what makes it a genius move.
I would really love to know who pulled the trigger on picking him, if it was the scouts on the team, Perry or Mills themselves etc.
I don’t know much about Monty Williams’ coaching ability, but the story about him consoling Ryan Anderson when his girlfriend died by suicide nearly brought me to tears. He’s exactly the kind of person I would want in my front office.
I really like Monty even though he was a mediocre Knicks player, although that was a terrible draft after Kidd and Grant Hill.
Serious question (don’t crucify me!) Is Boogie on a $20-25 mill AAV deal better than Kyrie (FA) or AD (trading Mitch and lots more) on a super max? Has Boogoe matured enough to trust as a second FA (say we get either KD or Kawhi)? I’m not proposing this, just curious as to what others here think…
@9 tbh, Mitch was probably a no-brainer pick from #25 on…and certainly with pick #31
Boogie is Carmelo a year after an Achilles tear. Blame the perennial mismanagement of the entire roster, but there’s no way I’d hitch my wagon to a guy who’d never been on a team better than 33-49 until teaming up with Davis. Seriously, that’s Cousins’s legacy: 24, 22, 28, 28, 29, 33, 32 wins with the Kings, 27-21 with the Pelicans (who improved in a small-ish sample after he went down).
I don’t want any >$10M player where you have to hope for him to “return to form,” on top of this one being overrated to begin with. Might as well try to get Hayward and Isaiah Thomas while we’re at it.
@13
I agree it was, but still, many teams passed on him right away, the Lakers even drafted Mo Wagner ahead of him. Locking him up to a 4 year deal is certainly very praise-worthy.
On Cousins, hell no. If he was killing it on the Warriors already I could see an argument for it, but he’s not even playing well or shown he’s fully recovered. As scary as it could be giving that much money to Kyrie given that he’s crazy and has a injury history, his production this season has been at a superstar level, better than anything Cousins has ever produced. Also, his best position is definitely Center and if we don’t trade Mitch for AD, he’s the starter at the position.
I am still in wait and seee mode on Perry but ‘Mitch’s contract is a career accomplishment and the KP trade looks pretty great. I am a Knicks fan so I don’t know what good management is unless I am on the other end of an Ujiri deal but so far so good.
A big No to signing Demarcus Cousins.
Being an idiot has a negative impact on a player’s game.
In the 4 years before his injury, Boogie posted a BPM of 4.7, 4.7, 2.6 and 6.6. He posted a VORP of 3.9, 3.4, 2.6 and 5.3. Before his injury on NO last year he posted a BPM of 5.5 and a VORP of 3.3.
His achilles injury is a factor, but if he heals completely and plays well for GSW for the rest of the season and in the playoffs, I think Melo at his best is a good comparison, and he would have been good value at 1/2 of the supermax
I actually think mitch is a good enough perimeter defender to play the 4 with Boogie on the defensive end, and for Boogie and Mitch to have decent spacing on the offensive end. Again, i’m not advocating, just curious because on a purely stats-based argument, a healthy 29yo Cousins at 1/2 the supermax is a valuable piece.
Rasheed Wallace was thought of as an idiot loser. Then he became an incredibly valuable piece on the Pistons championship team. Is this a valid comparison?
I was never a big fan of Boogie.
I’m less of a fan after the injury.
I’m still less of a fan with Mitch here.
The Robinson selection was probably scouts informing Perry and Perry loving him too. Gaines has written glowing tweets about him since the start and included the fact that Knicks management was well aware of his talents. Gaines usually focuses on the guys he likes (Frank, Robinson, and Trier). He almost never says a word abut Knox. I’ve even asked him about Knox. He just told me, “I’ll say something in time” (or approximately that). My guess is that scouts informed Perry who was immediately on board after seeing him and then did a great job on that contract. So much so, I actually feel sorry for Robinson.
It’s the only thing Perry has done in 2 years that I actually like. The rest was either bad or a waste of time.
“Cousins at 1/2 the Supermax” – I’m guessing he wants a little more than that
To me he’s like a 6’11 JR Smith and we’ve seen that movie in NY already
So now we completely ignore what the stats tell us and say that Boogie is a 6’11” JR Smith (Career BPM=0.2, best year=2.9)?
Last I checked, Perry got great value in the Melo trade (including the pick that became Mitch), signed Trier as a UFA, found Vonleh and Allen, got great value for KP in a bad situation, and committed to a full-bore tank. But whatever, some people are pretty hard to please.
@20
He absolutely was not. He was considered a guy with a bad attitude that would hurt his team with techs and suspensions but no one thought of him as a loser and everyone thought the Pistons made a great deal trading for him. Hell, every team he played on after his rookie year with the Bullets finished over .500.
I mean, Cousins is a productive player, his BPM would put him around the level of what guys like Jusuf Nurkic and Nikola Vucevic are doing this season. But he’s 28 and coming off a major injury, which would mean we would be paying him until his age 32 year. I’m not comfortable with giving this guy a 4 year 100+ million deal, specially when he has a history of not fitting well with coaches and front offices. It could work out but it’s a huge risk, I wouldn’t want him unless it’s a major bargain (say, something completely unrealistic like 10 million AAV) and someone else comes with him like Durant or Leonard. That’s never happening as so many teams have cap space this season, he’ll get a better deal elsewhere.
Rasheed was a piece for the Pistons but he came to a team that was already set, and had three players who were better than him in Billups, Prince and Ben Wallace, plus an assortment of good role players. I don’t think it’s really comparable with the Knicks getting Cousins to be their 2nd best player.
I’m not sure what kind of deal he will get coming off of his injury and playing a much more limited role with GSW. I wouldn’t be shocked to see him signing a less than $20 mill AAV deal, and maybe even staying with GSW if Klay leaves. But the attitude here seems to be that he shouldn’t be signed at any reasonable price because he is an idiot and a loser. I get that, but doubt that it’s any more risky to the long-term outlook than signing Kyrie to a John Wall deal or trading all of our assets for the right to supermax AD.
Well if we keep Mitch then Cousins is no better than the 3rd best player. And if we draft Zion, he goes down to 4th.
I also think that Rasheed was very underrated, especially defensively and basketball IQ-wise. He was inefficient as a scorer, but very clutch. His Pistons teammates and coaches raved about him.
Boogie’s perceived value has always been higher than his actual value. Tough to get surplus production in that kind of situation.
Some will disagree, but strategically I disagree with the consensus here. So be it.
The Melo trade was a waste of time. It brought us Kanter. Kanter was never part of the long term plan. He created problems at C that contributed to us losing Willy and KOQ and havoc with Noah. The pick we got was fine, but if we were that interested in Robinson, we could have gone out and bought or traded for a 2nd round pick. We could have bought Melo out at the start and saved some of the headaches.
Trier was a great find for an undrafted player, but I think he’s overrated now and he’s not super young.
Everyone knows I like Vonleh’s defense, rebounding, handle/playmaking and energy as a role player, but he’s less significant without KP and we probably won’t keep him anyway.
Trading & allowing decent players to leave and bringing in players like Mudiay, Hezonja, & Kanter (before that Hardaway from Mills) is why we are so bad & why KP wanted to leave to begin with. We went backwards. Good players don’t like playing for trash teams with a 4-6 year rebuild plan. As to value, that depends. So far imo DSJ is barely better than Mudiay even if he has more upside. The picks are good assets, but Dallas is positioned to be VERY good in coming years. Cap space is an asset, but it depends what you put into it and for how long. IMO, KP is likely to become a very good two-way player and either the #1 or #2 scoring option on a very good basketball team (what we still need).
Too soon to judge Allen.
Knox?
On a net basis I don’t feel terrible, but there are a number of paper cuts and strategic errors that made us worse and set us back instead of moving us forward. We’ll see what he does with the cap space.
@31
This is the problem. At a 4 year 80 million deal you’d probably be getting fair value out of him, but still facing the issues of in checking out, fighting with someone or just plain declining after the injury or with age.
I really don’t think it’s realistic he’ll take less than that, unless he really only wants to come to New York for example.
With Anthony Davis, yes the price is steep, but he’s a mega superstar top 5 player in the league, and he’s younger and with less injury worries. I would gladly take AD at 35 million instead of Cousins at 20. With Kyrie it’s harder but his production is also at a higher level than Cousins, and he plays a position I think it’s more important for a contender.
I can see the argument that there’s a sweet spot where signing Cousins would be on equal terms at least in the value sense to getting those 2 guys under the circumstances they would come, but Id still rather have them than Cousins.
Agreed, although factoring in the assets that AD would strip from the cupboard has to be factored in.
Holy shit Strat galaxy brained himself into “the Knicks should have kept Melo”
Maybe if he keeps repeating that the Knicks had decent players that they allowed to leave, the past will be changed or something I guess.
I did like O’Quinn and Hernangomez and even McDermott but man, this is starting to get cuckoo. How can one person be so salty about a dude who thinks he’s a mega star when he’s not wanting to leave his team. I’d get this constant meltdown if we were on Pelicanblogger, because their “actually a mega star” player wants to leave because his front office has been garbage for 7 years, but it’s just Porzingis we’re talking about.
He’s getting increasingly unhinged as it becomes more and more obvious that the current front office is simply doing what Phil Jackson should have done 5 years ago.
Robinson was the 36th pick. Picks that high in the second round are almost never sold for cash or added as throw ins to a trade (unless Phil Jackson is desperate to keep the Wear Bear).
What caused the “havoc” with Noah was signing Noah. He was suspended, injured, bad, or all of the above every day he was on our roster. It’s nice that he’s been able to get his BPM all the way up to a solid 0.0 in spot minutes with Memphis (where he’s apparently much less lit, really glad the Zen Master fixed our broken culture), but that contract was doomed to be a disaster the second it was signed (as everyone on Earth knew at the time).
If Trier was signed by Phil Jackson I can only imagine the gushing we’d see from Strat.
I am very glad that KP wanted out as it very well may have saved us from a catastrophic, extremely Knicksy contract.
Strat, you are really reaching when you refer to the Melo deal as a waste of time. Getting rid of him without having to give up an asset, much less getting one back,. is a huge win. He had a NTC and was totally done as a positive player, as OKC and HOU both learned. This stuff about “we could have bought a 2nd rounder” is also ridiculous. Please tell me how many #36 picks or better have been individually sold in the last few years…you’ll probably find that the list is zero players long. And trading for one? What would the #36 pick in an unusually deep draft have cost?
Kanter was at least in terms of production worth something close to what he was getting paid, there’s simply no disputing that. That we didn’t need his production was besides the point. And he didn’t have a fucking NTC.
And it drives me insane when anyone suggests that we “sold low” on Hernangomez. I would be willing to bet that Charlotte would jump at the chance to get the 2 picks they traded for him back. He almost 25 years old and can’t stay on the court with a team that has lousy players at his position because he fucking sucks. Getting two 2nd round picks for him was a fucking steal. It’s shocking that anyone would think otherwise.
Quick question: where was this thought process back in the days when you were hitching your wagon to 2009-2014 Kevin Love and his 24, 16, 17, 26, 31 career record?
@39 ouch!
As a thought experiment, Boogie at 4/$60 would be amazing value. For the team I (inexplicably) root for, no thanks. Also, while there is a chance we can just sign Durant and draft Zion, it would make no sense. We would be too weak elsewhere, with a glut of big men.
If, however, we get no other FA, draft 2 or 3, and could get him at 4/$60, I don’t see how you say No to that. Unless DJ would sign the same deal.
I don’t think many people were hitching their wagon on Love, to be honest, as he was very criticized for the same reasons Cousins is, and continued to be criticized even when they did win a championship. But Love had at least one year where he performed like a real superstar, his last one in Minnesota, and had very solid production in his 3rd and 4th years in the league. It’s a similar situation, but I’d take Love over Cousins when they were both traded (and I’d take neither right now).
It’s also a little ridiculous because Merry & Pills said they were planning on drafting Trier with that pick and were expecting Robinson to go in the first round. Not sure who we’d buy a late first from. Not sure how we’d manage to buy an early second at that late juncture. Wouldn’t be prudent.
This whole thing about how the FO supposedly fucked up is hilarious to me. In Perry’s introductory press conference they said 3-5 year plan to get into contention. You have to ignore everything about what they’ve said they were doing, while also holding on to win-now as the only possible strategy the Knicks could possibly pursue. Like, I get being skeptical about what they say, that’s the only sane move to make. But when their actions conform with their stated plans and Strato just pretends they’re trying to pull Jackson-esque summer of ’14 moves? You guys, I don’t think Strato is okay.
Getting mad at Merry & Pills because they fucked up their chance to sign their very own mega-max Melo deal is sort of amazing.
What’s the plan for this though? It would make a ton of sense for a team that was already buff on the guard and wing ends but I don’t see where that gets us to a good spot.
I’m willing to concede that the Knicks may wind up winning the Willy trade in hindsight (though I’d say the jury is still out, for the love of god get this man to a coach that will play him for the sake of settling this tedious debate), but the process behind it sucked and always will.
1) He was traded to accommodate players with no future on the team in Kanter and KOQ in a year we obviously weren’t competing for shit
2) His value was almost definitely higher at the beginning of the season before we made a conscious decision to sabotage it
I know this is sort of accepted wisdom, but didn’t he ask to be traded? Also we made KOQ an offer that he turned down for, eventually, the same money (less money?) on a better team where he hardly sees the floor. I’m kinda agnostic on the Willy trade, I just don’t think this was a primary motivation.
ik, r?
I mentioned us having the 2/3 pick, meaning no Zion, but a good guard or wing. In which case having another value big would be ok. Not great, but ok.
#archives
I’m pretty sure all he said was he wanted to play, whether it was with the Knicks or anyone else. The reason he wasn’t playing on the Knicks was because of KOQ and Kanter, one of which was on an expiring contract and the other, well, was Enes Kanter.
It was just a really poor way to manage Willy as an asset even if the eventual goal was to trade him.
I think we should draft this Zion guy if he is available.
Also, how is Dick Vitale still a thing. Do people really like him still? I thought he would have gone out with MTV….
I don’t like what management did with Willy, I’ve voiced my complaints about it many many times, but to act like he would be helping this team to many wins is absurd. Also absurd is to think that if the Knicks kept any of the players they traded or let go over these past 3 years they would be winning many more games.
Just look at the list of players the Knicks have had since the start of the 2016-17 season. The guys let go or traded were Melo, Rose, Noah, Lee, Justin Holiday, KOQ, Willy, Jennings, Kuz, Baker, Beasley, Burke, Kanter, THJ, McDermott, Troy Williams, Jarrett Jack, NDour, Marshall Plumlee, Chasson Randle and Sasha Vujacic.
How many “decent” players are even on this damn list? Willy maybe, KOQ (racking up DNPs for an actual good team) THJ, I guess? McDermott maybe? How would any of those guys change anything about Porzingis wanting to stay?
McDermott is probably the best player on that list all things considered and he obviously would’ve made no sense for us at 3/$21M. Strat regularly complains about letting Justin Holiday and his .507 TS% walk for some reason, but he sucks.
I am a little confused as to why we’re even entertaining the idea of Cousins. He plays the same position as our best prospect, is coming off one of the more significant injuries in sports and hasn’t looked the same with the Warriors, and there were perfectly legitimate questions about how conducive he was to winning even before the injury. It’s like Knicksy contract bingo, so I guess it’ll probably happen.
are we really discussing cousins? theres really no contract that would make that work out well for us…
Strat, I am usually in agreement with what you write, but you are praising Phil a little too much. He was better than many Knick GMs, but he wasn’t good. He couldn’t negotiate a market value contract to save his life, nor come close to winning a trade. But he wanted two way players and a non-iso offense, which was good. Perry is the opposite. His contracts and trades are market value or better, but his taste in players and maybe in coaches is questionable. Unlike previous Knick GM’s, neither gave away first round picks. In the non-Pantheon of all historical Knick GM’s, they could both be in the middle. But Perry could end up the best or the worst GM in years, depending on what he does this summer. Honestly, he seems a bit like Donnie Walsh, who can negotiate contracts and do trades, but never in his long history came close to building a contender. I’m hoping not, but time will tell.
I maintain Willy wasn’t traded to accomodate KOQ or Kanter. He was traded to keep space for Kornet.
Donnie Walsh built a Pacers team that was a contender/pseudo contender for a decade.
I would say Pseudo
I put up a “root for DSJ in the dunk contest” thread!
6 eastern conference finals and one NBA finals is “pseudo-contention”? Wow, that’s a ridiculously high bar for contention. I don’t think any other franchise had that kind of success during that era without either Jordan, Hakeem, Duncan, or Shaq on their team.
This was nonsense at the time, and it has proven to be even more nonsensical at the current time. Willy didn’t play because he sucked balls on defense to the point of being an utter embarrassment on that end of the court. He never had more trade value than 2 of Charlotte’s #2 picks, and to think that his value somehow could have been built up by playing him more than Kanter’s or O’Quinn’s could have been built up by playing them is either disingenuous 0r delusional. If anything, not playing him might have actually increased his value, as there was less opportunity to see how terrible he really was.
If you want to argue that they missed the boat on trading Kanter and/or O’Quinn, who were actually, you know, good players, then fine. Kyle O’Quinn, who could probably have been re-signed for a pittance more than he got from IND and who now is glued to the bench there, is 10x as good as Willy, and yet he found out the hard way that he was not worth anything more than what he gave up by opting out. So once they dumbly didn’t trade him at the deadline, it was at least smart not to overpay for O’Quinn.
In summary, what we got 2 decent second rounders for Willy was a stroke of genius.
Donnie,
Fair enough; I’m happy for the Pacers your namesake did better for them than for the Knicks.
Eh, maybe? He doesn’t seem to add much in wins which is fine but it feels like treading water. If we miss out on all the big K’s we should just keep trying to develop. The Pels are probably trading Davis to someone else (I really hope we don’t clear the cupboard without having Durant and Kyrie on board) but he’ll still be up for FA in another year and the chances that Boston or LA implode in the face of already existing powerhouses isn’t negligible. Keep building a core you can slot FAs into. After all, most of the failure teams built around stars were predicated on not having that core.
I remember it as asking for a trade because he wanted to play, but I could be wrong. I don’t think they planned to trade him though. I also don’t really think that two seconds was a bad return. Trad big men who are good defenders don’t have much perceived value in the league and as noted above, Willy was and still is trash on defense.
So Phil Jackson truthers are apparently a thing that exists.
I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s because Phil is a Baby Boomer or something and other baby boomers identify with him and feel sorry for his doddering old ass. I can’t really understand why anybody would waste time typing letters into a box in an effort to defend his pitiful tenure as Knicks GM.
Or maybe it’s all the ringzz, or the fact that Phil was a member of the team 50 years ago when they were good. I really don’t know. I had some hope for this team when Phil got hired, I thought for sure he must know a thing or two about putting together a winning team. I was wrong. He didn’t know jack shit. He was here for three years and left five years worth of a hole to dig out of.
Arguing for Phil’s competence is like arguing that Jar Jar Binks was one of the better Star Wars characters, or that the best ever member of the Grateful Dead was Bruce Hornsby, or that durian is an underrated fruit, or that Eric Trump has a great smile.
Phil wasn’t a good GM, but we were in less of a hole when he left than when he took over, mainly because he drafted Porzingis.
@66 this is a somewhat reasonable point, but you really have to squint to draw this conclusion. You could argue that Phil cured the cancer of trading #1 picks prematurely, but at the cost of leaving behind a mutilated, crippled body that would take several years of rehab to get back to reasonably full health. For example, we have a $6+ million charge on the books for the next 3 years as a result of one of the dumbest FA signings in history.
Sure, he drafted KP who wound up netting a nice return in a smart trade. But that very important decision was surrounded by a ton of horrible ones both before and after that draft. I won’t go through them one by one, but will remind you that at the most pivotal moment in his tenure, he made an inexcusably foolish decision to sign Melo to the near mega-max/NTC/trade kicker deal. The decision to commit to building a winning team around an overrated, aging, and selfish player led to one terrible decision after another. I still contend that some of the deals (e.g. the Derrick Rose trade, the DWill and Afflalo signings) were not as bad in a vacuum as some made them out to be. Bnt the moves were never made in a vacuum, they doubled down on the original sin of the Melo re-signing.
So yeah, we could have had more bad long-term deals than just Noah and Lee, and fewer #1 picks, and the trade value of Mudiay or Hezonja instead of KP. But to say that Phil left us better than he found us requires rose-colored corneal implants, let alone glasses.
We were in less of a hole because the new CBA restricted the lengths of contracts, creating less garbage for other teams to dump on the Knicks. It had nothing to do with Phil Jackson or anything he brought to the table. In fact, he single-handedly created the worst contract that the CBA could possibly allow in his absolute best effort to emulate all the other fools before him.
ahahahahahahahahahahaha
You’re right that I do have a similar response to this Jackson argument as I do when someone tells me that there’s no real quality difference between gluten-free and semolina pasta.
Well, we have been discussing as a fan base who’s better between Mudiay and Ntilikina and other really important arguments like this, so I guess we’re used to discussing which pile of garbage stinks less.