(Thursday, March 21, 2019 11:05:40 PM)
If nothing else, the Knicks have enjoyed a “Who’s Who” series of guest speakers with strong franchise ties throughout this lost season. Coach David Fizdale may have saved the biggest and best boldfaced name for last, with Hall of Fame big man and team legend Willis Reed addressing the lottery-bound Knicks at practice Friday in…
(Thursday, March 21, 2019 1:21:09 PM)
The Knicks still haven’t fully committed to Frank Ntilikina’s return to the lineup. The second-year guard took part in a light practice Thursday at the team’s facility, but David Fizdale wasn’t ready to say Ntilikina would make his first appearance in nearly two months Friday night against Denver at the Garden. “We didn’t do a…
(Thursday, March 21, 2019 11:52:16 AM)
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Next Big Thing is a basketball Pied Piper. You will place your life on hold for a chance to gawk at The Next Big Thing. The Knicks certainly have, and will. So I asked Duke freshman phenomenon Zion Williamson if he is aware that long-suffering Knicks fans are starving for him…
[NYTimes] 5 Places: Five Places to Visit in Minneapolis (Friday, March 22, 2019 9:00:15 AM)
The NCAA Final Four basketball tournament is in town, and the local chef Brenda Langton serves up five new spots in the Downtown East neighborhood just four blocks away.
(Thursday, March 21, 2019 7:42:56 PM)
Zion Williamson to the Knicks has been the dream scenario for them, but after Murray State’s Ja Morant put up a triple-double in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, it seems ending up with Morant would suit Knicks fans just fine.
(Thursday, March 21, 2019 12:26:36 PM)
In a night where the Knicks lost to the Jazz by 21 points, there isn’t much good that came out of it. But Mitchell Robinson, who has been one positive out of a dismal season, made history on Wednesday night.
(Thursday, March 21, 2019 11:58:06 AM)
Former Knicks guard Jimmer Fredette is back in the NBA, signing a two-year deal with the Phoenix Suns.
85 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2019.03.22)”
Soooo… If we don’t pick 1st or 2nd, would anyone be ok with trading up to get Ja?
Say the 4th pick + the unprotected Dallas one + a young guy not named Mitch (ideally Frank or DSJ) for the 2nd?
I’d probably do it. I think Morant is for real.
When Dallas traded up for Doncic, they just gave a future pick to pay for the swap. When Boston swapped the number one pick to Philly so Philly could draft Fultz, they also gave up a future first round pick and nothing else. So if we traded up for Morant, one of the Dallas picks and no young guy should be enough. I don’t know College basketball to make a good call on this, but from what I’ve read here trading up for Ja could easily be worth it.
@2 that’s fair but those teams got the guy they wanted anyway in Young and Tatum. I doubt there’s going to be a team that values Reddish over Morant, so the price will probably be higher.
If we miss out on the top 3, I’d go all in on the free agency route and trade the pick for an affordable win now player who could complement Kyrie and Durant. It’s hard to find such a guy, though… the #5 pick for Covington and a future #1 seems like bad value for us… I’d do the #5 pick for Buddy Hield on his rookie contract but that seems like bad value for Sacramento.
I don’t know, a bird in the hand… I mean, if such a trade was on the table it’d be before free agency. If Morant was available for that price (which I don’t consider too high, but I might be wrong) I think you snatch him and try to figure out things later. If you sign Kyrie and Durant you could employ Morant like OKC is employing Schroeder this season. It would be like Kyrie/Dotson/KD/Vonleh/Mitch with Morant/Trier/Knox/?/Kornet and spare minutes for Frank/DSJ until a good trade comes along. It’s a good team? Well, not really, but you could make some noise and get to 2023 with a real young core in place while your good young guys grow organically.
Hubert, I know what you mean, but no team would trade away from Ja if they weren’t still able to draft someone they really like.
@5
Not sure about that; say the Hawks get the #2. They obviously don’t need another young PG, and maybe they’re not awe-struck by RJ Barrett, Jarrett Culver, Rui Hachimura or Cam Reddish (welp). While they’re at it, they pick up another pick, a young guy to give a look at and the same player they’d have drafted at #2 (sans RJ Barrett, probably).
morant is def worth trading up for but culver is probably his equal… if it were me id be ok with either…
if the choice were barrett or reddish or langford … then thats pretty easy… you give whatever you need to get morant… but pretty sure culver will likely be there when we pick…
After yesterday??? (recency bias alert) Yes! Even the 7 TOs he had in the game weren’t an awful outcome for a guy being double and triple teamed all night.
I also loved his post game interview. He seems like a bright guy.
After last night (recency bias/small sample size, and all), I’d be disappointed but not devastated if we got the number two pick, because he seems like a really fun and productive player to have on this point guard-cursed team. It’s if we drop down to 3 or, worse, past that, that my stomach would really start to churn.
I will not get tired of Ja Morant dunking two handed if we luck into him….
It’s a little crazy we only have a 3% better chance at Zion than Dallas.
I would trade up for Morant, he seems like the real deal. Not to mention the Knicks have needed a competent point guard for 2o+ years now.
Say Ya to Ja
I wouldn’t want to pick Ja Morant. We’d have to actually be patient and keep him for 2+ years.
Picking Ja Morant would be a tacit admission by management that Mudiay and DSJ are not the answer. Not that I think they are, but do they and will they be willing to let it appear so. Also, that makes Kyrie superfluous, to which the same logic applies + he is less of a sure thing to come than some would have one believe.
Take Ja and worry about Kyrie later. If Kyrie wants to come here, trade Ja.
I don’t know if I’d trade up to do that, though.
lmao
Isn’t Culver more of a combo guard?
Not that I’m opposed to combo guards, but we keep making a point about players like Mudiay and Frank not being true point guards. We need to decide what we are building here. If we are building a team with a traditional PG that has an excellent handle and terrific passing skills, then we should get one. If we are open to a more team oriented play making approach or a player at another position handling the ball and being the primary playmaker, then guys like Frank and Mudiay just need to get better at what they do and Culver would be fine.
For example, if we got Durant (but not Kyrie), giving the ball to Durant and making him the center of the offense kind of changes what you need at PG a little.
Culver is a wing. Should be a switchable 2/3 in the NBA. Not a PG.
As I mentioned in a recent thread, of the high lottery teams, there’s a mix of need at PG.
PHX is threadbare at PG: Melton is horrible, Okobo is even worse, and Jawun Evans is irrelevant. They probably have the worst mix of players at the most valuable position in the modern NBA; maybe Cleveland competes, there. With even a league-average starter playing a good volume, they could see an increase of 8+ wins overnight.
I don’t think PHX would trade Morant for anything. Barrett is something between Booker and Bridges, and even though you apparently can’t have enough wings in today’s game, I don’t see them passing up on a franchise-caliber PG prospect to add more depth at wing.
Sexton’s late-season surge might help us with Cleveland, too. He’s been an All-NBA player on the offensive side of the ball this month, and hopefully that will give their front office enough hope to spend a pick elsewhere. If we fall to #4 and Zion and Barrett are picked 1/2, they could be a blessing at #3 if they don’t think Cedi Osman, LeBron’s abandoned pet labradoodle, is a starter long-term.
Atlanta will not take him.
Chicago is the one I worry about, since I think they’d take him over anyone else not named Zion. Kris Dunn is a borderline CBA player and has shown no improvement this year: TS% is the same, usage is down. Makes no sense unless you believe he’s a garbage player, which he is.
Still, the odds are against us. Sucks to finally, after years of late-season irrelevant Ws, have a competent tank right now.
Ntilikina would fit in on the Iowa squad right now. Drive in the paint, pick up the dribble, kick it back out, repeat.
What if this happens the other way? say we pick 2nd, and phoenix and/or Chicago pick after us. Zion goes 1. One of those teams offers us the 4th pick and another 1st to move up……would you do it?
It seems that Zion is a lock to go #1 and then one of either Barrett and Ja Morant will go #2 depending on the rest of the tournament, team workouts, need etc… Then the other will go #3. Let’s assume our preference will Zion, Ja Morant, and then Barrett.
I’m not really worried about that even though ideally we want Zion or Ja Morant. It’s 4th or 5th I am worried about. We already tossed around the idea of trading up using the Dallas pick. But assuming that’s not available either, who do we draft 4th or 5th?
I wouldn’t unless there’s someone after Ja Morant I like as much or better.
The idea behind tanking is to give yourself an opportunity to get a star player via draft instead of just via free agency or trading assets/picks to get one. I’d rather have a really good chance at a star player now than a lower level chance twice (one being a future pick in a draft with unknown quality and depth). If you were kind of assured that the second pick would also be a very high lottery pick (which won’t be the case), that might be different.
I’m sold on Ja as the 2nd pick, no matter who picks. Barrett is good, but I have Ja a half a tick over Barrett. It’s almost like he plays the game slightly ahead of the defense and he’s always in team 1st mode. If we land at 2, I’d say move DSJ to a team like Phoenix, Chicago, or Orlando and give Ntilikina one more shot. If he doesn’t develop by the trade deadline, move him.
Yeah, this is going to be a stressful as hell offseason, it literally will define the next 5 years of this team. The scary part is that it can go perfect, 10/10, or be a complete unmitigated disaster that sets us back 5 years, or even simply nothing happens and it’s another transitional year next season.
I’ve decided to believe that once in my life as a Knicks fan something good will happen to us, but I’m so definitely not confident.
Nope. Those future firsts, even unprotected, have plummeted in expected value. Maybe you win big and jump to #1. More likely outcome: something like pick 5 through 7. I wouldn’t trade Morant for Reddish and Langford, so I’m not going to trade him for Reddish plus next year’s Langford.
We’re going to draft #1 and get Zion. Odds be damned, we’re due.
The Suns might possibly take Morant over Zion, though I imagine they’d try to trade down to #2 to do so.
Picking 4 or 5 will be, strange. I’d say unless there’s someone you really like available then try to pick up another first to trade down. It might be difficult to trade down in this draft though, with how slim the pickings look to be. So far Mills as been pretty good about finding talent later in the draft.
Who’s BPA at 4? Is there anything remotely like a consensus? Do any of the options seem worth the 5/yr contract?
Agreed on Morant, but would you trade Reddish for whoever and next year’s seven/eight/nine who could easily be a better prospect than Langford?
Culver seems like BPA at #4, and he’d make sense for us since our wings are all very bad. Worst case seems to be if we pick #5 and Zion, Ja, RJ and Culver are all off the board. At that point I’d consider a trade down to try to acquire an asset or two. Doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of difference picking #5 or #10 this year.
Unfortunately, and I’m sure most of us think this way, the only scenario that works well for us is getting number one because the front office can’t find a way to mess that up unless they trade the pick.
If we’re on board of the Ja train the Knicks have 27.4 percent of getting an exciting player. 14% #1, 13.4% #2. So tanking is not without rewards even with the new system.
I cannot believe I’m into this again. I thought I’m done after the KP trade. You guys are terrible.
Comp for Zion… I haven’t seen anyone say this one – How ‘bout a Jeff Bezos’ version of Anthony Mason? Body type, lefty, defense, court awareness/passing, ball handling… Zion more explosive offensively.
Zion reminds me of a large version of Derrick Rose. Same explosion. Same incredible finishing capability around the rim. I do not like Derrick Rose, but they look so similar to me offensively. Eye test.
I wouldn’t trade up for Ja if Culver was still on the board. Ja probably has a higher ceiling (I mean if everything comes together for that dude…), but Culver might have the second highest floor in this entire draft. If he can get his jump shot together (doesn’t look broken to me but what the hell do I know) he’s got a chance to be a ridiculously good player.
I stayed home from work today because I have to catch a flight later, and Culver is looking pretty damn good at just about every facet of the game.
Realistically but in a disappointing way I’d be fine with either Barrett or Culver, yes. They’re both flawed prospects with issues that are not a sure thing to improve in the league, but they’re good prospects and certainly more promising than out last two picks by a mile. I just don’t want anything to do at all with the next batch of projected guys, Reddish, Hunter, Hayes, Langford etc
Tankathon’s mock has Brandon Clarke going 8th, after Reddish, Hayes and Hunter. If we end up picking 5th, I’d surely trade down for Clarke plus any asset even if it’s a low value one. Maybe Darius Garland is intriguing too? I have no idea.
Culver is on now. Looks like an NBA player.
There’s no way Culver is 6’6” as listed. He has got to be at least 6’8”.
Jimmy Butler seems like a good best (or close to it) case scenario for Culver. Certainly wouldn’t mind getting Butler with a top-3 pick.
I’m pretty sure every time Mills finds himself alone he breaks out in an huge evil laugh.
Yeah, Zion’s play is more reminiscent of a guard. But, he should be more efficient than Rose.
UVA should probably tank for a lower seed going forward…
Those Gardiner-Webb boys are plucky.
Where the hell is Gardiner-Webb?
So Culver looked like he had a helluva game. How did his defense look?
So I doubt UCI is going to make any kind of run, but let’s track their coach’s voice. If it’s that level of Doc Riversesque fucked-up after one game, let’s see what happens if they make the Final Four.
Right now, the 5th spot looks like a spot we should trade out of. My next best are probably Hachimura or Hunter, but neither scream “star.” Keldon probably has the next best upside. I don’t think we’d get much in a trade down from 5 scenario – maybe a very distant 1st or a lower 1st. I just don’t want another project like Kevin Porter or Horton-Tucker, although those are the guys that kill it at 3-on-3.
My Colgate raiders hanging in there versus Tennessee!
I’m probably forgetting something obvious, but when has trading down ever been a good idea? edit: I just remembered Fultz/Tatum- fine, but any other time? Like, odds are trading UP is almost always a good move. If picks 4-8 are all similar, and you have 4, there’s a couple that are probably going to be stars, and you want a better shot at that, no? So picking earlier is still a good idea.
Not all super recent but Mayo/Love, Traylor/Dirk, Jamison/Carter were trades where the lower pick was the better player
I’m not confident that there’s a couple that are probably going to be stars.
Right of first refusal is important and valuable, but we’ve pretty much established that NBA front offices would likely do as well to pick blindly from a pool of 30 players. Brandon Clarke, e.g., is a player that any team in desperate need of a paint player should consider drafting with any pick they have after the #1, but if you can get him at #10 and pick up draft assets while deflating his AAV, it’s a no-brainer.
It’s all about picking the right player, not the draft slot itself. Of course, players drafted higher are often given more minutes (due to name recognition, overall poor team depth, and higher expectations), but ultimately, if you can get a better player at #8 than you can at #4, you do it.
Going to the game tonight. Can’t decide whether to wear my Mudiay or Hezonja jersey.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t higher picked players have higher chances of success? I mean, I’ve seen so many mock drafts done by “experts” look horribly wrong the next year, people who know more than I ever will about talent evaluation, that I agree that front offices don’t have a clue. But to say that you can “know” in advance a player at 8 is better than a guy at 4 just tells me, ok, so make sure you get that guy at 4.
Suns interested in Kevin McHale and Jim Paxson for GM gig. It’s like a perpetual cycle of stupidity for a lot of these teams, huh?
Most of the draft analysis I’ve seen uses PER and/or WS for its assessment of player value. We know what the issues will be with those analyses.
The point is to trade down to get BPA at a lower salary and pick up assets while you do it. If Cam Reddish were there at #4 and there were three players still on the board I’d rather have, I’d field offers for anything up to the #7 pick.
It would be silly to pick Brandon Clarke at #1 just because he’s there, knowing that he is probably going no earlier than #8. And hopefully, if I’m an NBA executive, I am connected enough to know what some other teams are thinking before I make a decision on drafting a player I intend to keep.
don’t tell sarver that david kahn is available
Well, it took awhile but the facts have vindicated all of us who saw the witch hunt for what it was:
Man, I am fucking sick and tired of this Ntilakilla asshole.
Look on the bright side, we get to see the real Frank Ntilikina play defense and brick 3s tonight!
Anyone want to guess Zion’s line tonight?
I’m going 25 points on 10-14 shooting, 10 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 blocks, 2 turnovers and 0 busted sweatshop sneakers.
Duke taking a while to get warmed up….
Zion pretty quiet so far….
Check that, massive dunk as I typed…
“Culver seems like BPA at #4, and he’d make sense for us since our wings are all very bad. Worst case seems to be if we pick #5 and Zion, Ja, RJ and Culver are all off the board. ”
Worst case seems to happen a lot around here. Let’s hope this year is the year our luck changes, we are so fucking due
You can’t stop Mudiay. You can only hope to make his life difficult. 🙂
Most of the time I watch Barrett and just think he’ll be trash in the NBA. He defends ok and fills the box score but he just doesn’t seem that good.
Reddish is trash in the NCAA
3 on 3 phenom
Coack K not looking so hot. Don’t let him near Zion.
The Frank/Robinson combination looks pretty good so far.
Don’t shoot the messenger, dude. Be intellectually honest enough to admit you were wrong and move on. The country will be better off for it.
Notice how the Knicks defense finally got a few stops once Frank, Mitch, and Lance entered the game.
Really seems that they should give the ball to Zion more. Knicks are on? Slipped my mind.
Any chance I can read the report before some Young Turk douchebag tells me to “admit [I was] wrong?” Any chance of that, asshole?
How about you shut the fuck up for another 48 hours. How’s that sound?
That was an insane play by Zion.
Frank is the best all around guard on our team bricks and all.
This is a bad look on you, not me, pal. We don’t have to resort to personal attacks and name-calling here. I presented the fact that, regardless of whatever is in the report, Comey won’t indict the POTUS on any charges of treason related to Russian collusion. You don’t have to like it or Donald Trump (I hate the guy myself) but we should all really stop to consider what this means after two years of an investigation where that charge was repeated as if it were fact. And for what? To retroactively provide a cover for why the Democratic Party blew the 2016 election and pressure Trump to take a hardline against Russia? Naw. So much news time and political capital wasted that could’ve been devoted to addressing real issues our nation is facing and nothing accomplished there. It’s real sad. Don’t make it worse by getting nasty.
Shut the fuck up and wait for the report. And stop posting, forever. Shut the fuck up.
Jesus, wow. I guess this guy was right after all.
You’re a garden-variety troll, nothing more. Only you wear a Nader button instead of having an NRA bumper sticker. Go seek attention somewhere else, and fuck off.
@76
You’re being very churlish here. But I forgive you.
P.S. Please don’t tell me you buy into that horseshoe theory nonsense…
Yeah, uh, there’s kind of the whole problem that Mueller believes that sitting presidents can’t be indicted, no matter what.
There may very well be a lot of very damning shit in the report, which the White House will try their damndest to suppress.
Also, Bernie Sanders will never be president.
DO shut the fuck up, Nt-wt.
Bernie Bros are worse than MAGA fucks
Um, forget Trump. There were 0 indictments on this issue. Even if I were partisan enough to buy this sorry excuse that Mueller won’t go after a sitting president, how do you explain he ended his investigation without indicting a single American for conspiring with Russia to influence the election?
I hope not. The country will be the worse for it at time when it needs someone willing to move it in a more progressive direction on the economy, health care and environment. Especially now that those responsible for this fake neocon intrigue got a new Cold War, record defense budgets, and a McCarthyite political atmosphere to denigrate opponents of permanent war. Sad.
Yeesh. This is not a good take at a time when the ChristChurch shooter praised Trump. Thank you for belittling white supremacy and hate crimes like this. You’re really showing us “Bernie Bros” with this hyperbole.
Apparently he hasn’t shut the fuck up yet
And apparently you’re still in the middle of a mental breakdown. I still forgive you though.
Oh, man. Looks like I picked a bad time to visit KB. I haven’t been around in a while. I was hoping to escape the maga vs mueller kerfuffle with a little “Dolan is the worst” sidetraction. Alas.