(Wednesday, May 01, 2019 10:57:20 PM)
Enes Kanter had a solid game in helping the Trail Blazers to a 97-90 win over the Nuggets in Game 2 of their Western Conference semifinal on Wednesday night. Not that you would know it if you live in Turkey. Kanter, a former Knick, reignited his fight with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdo?an after discovering…
(Wednesday, May 01, 2019 4:24:00 PM)
Madison Square Garden CEO James Dolan is paying himself way too much money for a job he’s barely doing, a lawsuit filed on behalf of his shareholders claims. The Knicks owner is spending too much time on stage with his blues-inspired rock band — and not enough time in the boardroom, according to the suit…
[NYTimes] Golden State’s Klay Thompson is a Different Kind of Dangerous (Thursday, May 02, 2019 9:00:09 AM)
Thompson, the Golden State Warriors’ All-Star guard, is known for his long-range 3-point shooting, but his defense keeps opponents on their heels and bricking shots.
[NYTimes] On Pro Basketball: Warriors Are Rolling and Rockets Are Rocked After Game 2 (Thursday, May 02, 2019 4:15:17 AM)
A series that threatened to devolve into complaints about a referee picked up when Stephen Curry and James Harden fought through injuries to inject some much-needed nobility into the proceedings.
[NYTimes] On Pro Basketball: Giannis Antetokounmpo Wanted More. That Was Bad for the Celtics. (Wednesday, May 01, 2019 4:59:12 PM)
Emerging from a short-lived funk to help defeat Boston in Game 2, the Bucks star also showed the continuing growth of his game.
(Wednesday, May 01, 2019 7:52:44 PM)
Some bad news surrounds Knicks owner James Dolan, as Madison Square Garden shareholders are suing him for spending too much time with his band while being overpaid.
(Wednesday, May 01, 2019 1:14:28 PM)
Kyrie Irving can be a free agent after the season, and the idea that he could team up with fellow free agent Kevin Durant on the Knicks this summer has picked up steam. Here are the latest rumors…
59 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2019.05.02)”
Going back to the working from home conversation: I can work from home whenever I want, but I go to the office every day because I won’t get half as much done at home. Plus the office is only 5 minutes away from me so I can go back home for lunch or anything I like. I have the best of both worlds really.
I don’t like the idea of working from home much, but I do love the idea of not commuting. Commuting is arguably the most miserable part of any human being’s day. At my last job, when I discovered my office had a bike room and a gym, I switched out cramming into the L train to get from the East Village to Midtown West in favor of riding a bike to work with my suit carefully folded in my backpack. I’d shower and change at the gym before heading up. (I’m not the kind of guy who can ride a bike to work and not be a sweaty mess when I get there.)
I gotta tell ya: swapping out the most miserable part of a working human’s day with an activity that recalls childhood joy was one of the biggest upgrades in quality of life I ever made, even considering the occasional temptation to develop bike rage when negligent cars or pedestrians nearly kill you.
Hey guys – my son and I are leaving today for a long planned trip to London , the main purpose of which is to see a Premier League match (we’re both big fans) We’re not going to be there very long, and since he’s never been there we’re gonna hit all the top attractions – Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, etc. But if any of you guys have any suggestions for interesting “non-touristy” activities, please send along. Also, live music venues (blues, R & B) in the Chelsea area if you know any.
One of the cool things about this board is we have posters from all over the world. English Knick, you out there?
Thanks everyone!
I’ve found working from home terrible. I never get anything done. Others can do it no problem though. I always think I could if I dedicate space specifically for it, but I’m easily distracted so I don’t want to risk it.
What team are you going to see, d-mar? I did a trip like this circa 2010 to see Tottenham Hotspur play Arsenal in the NLD. It was the first time my Spurs beat Arsenal in 12 years. Then a volcano blew up over Iceland and grounded all air travel in Europe and my short trip to London became a 3 week sojourn during which I went on 3 dates with a lovely former B movie actress and interviewed at multiple banks while I strongly considered never coming home.
EDIT: never mind, I see you said Chelsea. Not sure I can help you then 😉
I didn’t watch Portland last night and the box score in nonconclusive. Is this tongue-in-cheek? I’m just curious if the narrative is holding up or crumbling.
We’re seeing West Ham v. Southampton. Tottenham is away. We were originally going to see Chelsea, but the dumb Europa League caused them to reschedule. Should be fun anyway.
Last time I went to a match was decades ago. I was in London as part of a study group, and my roommate and I showed up to an Arsenal match that was not surprisingly sold out. We were ushered to a standing room area, and my roommate (who had major cojones) says “follow me” and produces a fake press card from the NY Times. He shows the card to the bobbies, who escort us down to field level where we sit with the other photographers (he had a fancy camera). We literally sat 20 feet from the keeper! It was surreal, I had my little Instamatic and took a ton of pics. Crazy experience.
D-mar, that sounds like a great experience
I think Kanter is an example of the phenomenon that players can look better and seem more productive on good teams that play team ball than they do on bad teams.
@6
He’s definitely holding his own. His defense was catastrophic in game 1, but better on game 2, even had 2 steals and 2 blocks. Definitely not unplayable.
@5
So, who is the B-movie actress?
🙂
Kanter has been legitimately good for Portland so far in the playoffs. He’s got a .243 WS/48 and a 5.3 BPM. Some of it could be luck, and I would bet on him to get roasted by GS if they get to the next round, but getting to the western conference finals is a good season. Player X can’t play against the best basketball team of all time is an extremely stupid way of evaluating players. The Warriors are 16-1 in playoff series in the last 5 seasons.
Kanter is still a flawed player, and maybe if Portland had different matchups his weaknesses would have been exposed already. But he’s also a useful player, and as you’re seeing in this playoffs a good team can find effective ways to play him.
@3 – D mar if you and your son like WWII history I suggest visiting the Churchill War Rooms. Everything is pretty much in tact from the era of the Germans bombing London. My family and I found it very interesting. Seeing a soccer match abroad sounds like an awesome experience, I’d love to do that sometime. I’m sure you will have a terrific time.
Re working at home, I do it a lot during tax season just to get out of my office and while it’s a good change of pace my production is definitely impacted. Overall I’d hate working from home exclusively, human interaction is good.
Portland tried desperately to give that game to Denver last night but just couldn’t do it. That series is very evenly matched, I can see it going 7. I can’t see either of those teams presenting a serious challenge to Golden State or Houston.
As weird as it sounds the Blazers appear to play better with Kanter on the floor. I haven’t looked at the analytics, but that’s sure what it looks like ( as he waits to get blasted by the next post listing the plus/minus showing the opposite)
Kanter has definitely had several good games (and a couple of terrible games) in this sample size of 7. He also has an entire career of playing terrible defense; not bottom ten percent, but bottom one percent. There is no player in the entire league with as bad a DRAPM over the last four seasons. Last night he sure looked better than usual, anticipating a few plays really nicely by actually getting in position; nice, and also totally out of character. Of course, I remember Amar’e once had 10 blocks and 4 steals against Utah but he still woke up the next morning as one of the worst defenders in the league.
Kanter isn’t the worst possible player but his defense is still a good bet to take away most of his value and not just against the warriors.
The Kanter situation may be team and strategy specific.
The problem Kanter has is that he doesn’t defend the paint well and if you get him to switch onto a smaller faster guy on the perimeter, he’s in trouble.
But you have to have the players and style to do that.
Jokic killed him in game 1. They made an adjustment last night. They were double teaming Jokic more often. That doesn’t say much about Kanter doing a better job on defense. It means Portland felt the need to double team Jokic because Kanter could not defend him 1 on 1 and they did a better job. Now it’s on Jokic to both make plays out of the double team (which he can) and for the Nuggets to actually make an open shot (which they did not last night) to make those double teams a bad strategy.
Also, to get all those switches, you have to run pick and rolls. Denver runs their offense through Jokic who is effectively their PG. I’m not paying close enough attention, but they are probably not attacking Kanter to force switches like Golden State would do practically every time down.
I’ve had the option of working from home from time to time. By far the best part of it was getting more sleep. Instead of getting up at 6:30, taking a shower, getting to my express bus, and then dealing with NYC traffic so I could be in by 8:45, I woke up between 8:00 and 8:30, took a shower (or not lol) and logged on to my computer.
Same thing the other direction.
Instead of leaving at 5:00, dealing with traffic, and stumbling home exhausted at between 6:30 and 7:00, I turned off my computer at 5:00, did my errands, and was done for the day before I typically even got home.
i’ve mentioned this before, but, i totally understand that the primary focus of knickerblogger, and most other public forums, is to inspire and host “vigorous” discourse…basically folks exercising their wit and will with one another…
personally i just find it so much more fascinating to discuss our commonalities…even more so in this particular environment, because there’s a lot of really cool, fairly sharp minded people who’ve chosen to engage with others here…
i’ve only done a plus 30 minute commute a couple of times…one of those times i was working in downtown pittsburgh and only lived about 15 miles away – it would take me over an hour to drive though…after a few months, i gave up and just started taking the bus most days – you see some really interesting stuff using public transit…
back to the list of shit i should have started doing a while ago:
1). go to yoga classes
2). work a bit from home and clock a few more hours
the door to my home is less than a half a mile from the door to my office (yes, a not so humblebrag) – however, i still drive about 90% of the year…i know that’s wrong, there’s little excuse for me not to walk…
i’ve had a few significant health challenges over time… about 15 years ago, after one of those periods, i had this shift in mindset towards ensuring each day i was happy, and, for the most part (commitments/responsibilities aside) to live each day doing what i want…
which is not necessarily a bad thing – just not a real recipe for long term success (like planning on kd, kyrie and zion to be on the roster next year 🙂
in many regards, my biggest challenges in life now are complacency and comfort…
whew, got that out there in the world – i feel healed…i understand if anyone feels the need for some type of reimbursement for having read through all that…
Z-man in the event that you are still feeling frisky and it wasn’t clear at the time, I do not actually think that people who miss the ‘03 Spurs are literal sociopaths, although I reserve the right to walk that walkback back in the event that DSM VI turns out to have a more empirical claim on the matter
Yeah, and Amare was also on some really good teams. The point I’m trying to make isn’t that Kanter is a good defender. He’s a terrible defender. He’s at best a mediocre player overall. The point I’m trying to make is that he can still be useful, even in the playoffs. I would very much want my team to have better bigs than Enes Kanter if we were trying to win a title, but you can also do much worse, because Enes is really good at some valuable things.
from what i’ve seen of the blazers these playoffs – zach collins has looked really good at times…i think him and kanter together can get it done for portland against most of the teams still left…watching them play against gasol or embiid would be funny though…
It seems like Kanter just needs to be paid properly. If you’re paying him $17mm, he’s a waste of limited resources. But if you can secure him at the price of what most nonelite centers get (between the minimum and the MLE), you’ll find a a time and a place to get the most out of his talents.
I never knew her last name but her first name was Valerie. I had no idea until my friend (who had set us up in London) told me about it 3 months after I returned home.
A good coach with the right personnel should be able to exploit Kanter on defense. Denver did a good job of it in game 1. Despite Kanter’s insanely efficient game 1 numbers, he had a terrible plus/minus. Obviously there’s sample size issues, but it generally fits into the greater perception and so probably isn’t that biased.
Kanter is bad on defense and Portland made the adjustment to hide it. Denver needs to make the appropriate counter adjustment. I think Denver adjusts and kills kanter when he’s on the floor, but what do I know. One of the problems with having Jokic be your entire offense is that it is difficult to adjust (I assume).
Denver shot like 35% from the field and still didn’t lose by much, so I don’t think they have to do much… they were missing open shots all game long.
It’s never been about Kanter being good or a decent defender or anything, I keep bringing it up because for me, the narrative of him being unplayable is stupid and has been absurdly exaggerated. He’s definitely playable, it’s just a matter of when to do it and how to do it.
The flip side is that Lillard had a bad game and Portland still won. That’s pretty scary too.
They look pretty close to me, but neither of them is going to scare the Warriors.
Having a non traditional PG seems to open up some theoretical and practical questions.
Not that I consider having Jokic a problem, but how do you take him off the court? It’s not like you are likely to have a backup C that’s anywhere near as good a playmaker so you can run your offense through him when the 2nd unit is on the court.
If you go traditional with your 2nd unit do you run a completely different offense with a traditional PG?
How do you mix and match players from the starting unit and backup unit?
Does everyone have a different role depending on whether Jokic is on or off the court?
I’d still rather have Jokic and figure it out. It just feels like it creates some issues for team construction, the 2nd unit, and substitution patterns.
I think Kanter is generally unplayable, but I’ve been proven wrong so far. Even then, I’d say he really limits your team’s upside. He may be fine for a team like Portland, but not okay for a team making the next jump to contender.
My predictions:
1. Bran/The Three Eyed Crow is the Lord of Light. He has warged throughout time and space to set events up in the ASoIaF world to defeat the Night King. It was he who spoke to Mellisandre, he knew to give the dagger to Arya, etc.
2. Arya is really a Faceless Man. She was killed by the Waif back in Bravos.
3. The Hound will end up killing the Frankenstein monster version of the Mountain.
4. Jaime kills Cersei.
5. Bronn kills Jaime and Brianne kills Bronn in retaliation.
ha, i was just reading some reviews of the battle of winterfell…more and more i’m able to separate the show and books in my heart and mind…
i’ve read a number of different series over the years (all time fave: lonesome dove), this is the first one though where i started reading before the final book had been completed…grrm is a very cruel story peddler…
i do enjoy having a visual reference from the stuff which i’ve read…some of the other stuff (like how the show portrayed dorne or euron) i’ll try to conveniently look past…although to be honest – i may never get over barristan selmy dying to a dozen or so sons of the harpy’s, even at 60 plus – just not happening…long live barristan the bold…or, at least til grrm shares a more suitable demise…
bold prediction: i think we see Winds of Winter sometime in the fall, maybe as late as november…
As complex as the show is, I feel there is at least one clear structure: there is a three-pronged hero’s quest for the young Stark children. It began with them being uprooted from their happy lives, and it will end with all three of them on top after terrible trials. Sansa as Queen, Bran as whatever the fuck he is, and Arya as the baddest warrior alive. I tend to ignore all predictions of their demise. They’re a package deal.
Their parents and older siblings (both real, half, and figurative) are not as fortunate. Jon will join the rest of them in death soon enough.
Ive seen the Arya is the Waif theory before and it makes absolute zero sense other than shock factor. It serves no purpose to the story.
1. Wtf are you people talking about?
2. This could be a great 2nd round of the nba playoffs. I hope 2 or 3 or the series go 7 games.
i’m hoping for a blazers and bucks series (which only means it ain’t happening)…really hoping against the celts and warriors – pretty much, mark it down…
not having a dog in the fight though, tempers my enthusiasm a bit…i am watching the games, and enjoying them…you’re right, some very competitive basketball…
God I hope so.
Bran’s arc is actually the reason I am more open to accepting the Arya/Faceless Man theory. “Bran” as we knew him at the beginning of the story had actually “died” when he was jacked into the Weirwood net, his consciousness assimilated into that hivemind network of past beings and he is now something else, The Three Eyed Raven. The show has mentioned it, but fans continue to brush over it despite the fact that what seems as Bran has been a completely different character ever since the White Walker raid at Bloodraven’s base. I mean, even Meera noticed it and Bran explained to her that he’s completely something else from the boy she knew.
Having a Faceless Man at Winterfell did serve a purpose for the plot, it helped to defeat the Night King and his army. And killing off Arya so her identity could be assumed by a fanatic death cult of assassins serves the larger theme that having Bran assimilate into Weirwood hivemind serves – the idea that war comes at a great human cost. What better way to drive home the message in accord with G.R.R.Martin’s anti-war beliefs than to have the Stark children either completely dead or dehumanized by the end of the saga?
@ 32 – This
holy crap…that’s a lot of trouble to go through for a quarter ounce…guess they don’t have vape pens or gummies available in new york…or, better yet – find that shit in the blue grass state when you get home with your people…
i wonder how they found it…
edit: oh shit, my bad , that was actually almost 2 ounces he was carrying – what the fuck was he thinking…that shit must have stunk right through the can…i thought you couldn’t bring cans into an airport?
That is quite a bit, it would probably get him processed as a dealer in Brazil, but we’re not a good standard for decent laws anyway. So I guess the narrative that Russell has matured will change again on the media, it could maybe cost him some money this offseason.
d’angelo russell’s money and life is none of my business – but, yeah that was my first thought…
i’m gonna have to tmz this one…you would think he fly’s frequently and know’s better…
“um sir, you can’t bring that can past the checkpoint area” – “nooooooo”, as he clutches desperately to his can…
i mean, if you absolutely gotta have the flower – you better be able to suppository that shit…with the new scanners – i don’t even know if that would work these days…
turns out it was a checked bag…
damn…note to self – do not party with that motherfucker…
probably will have little if any impact on his free agency…
hell, OBJ was in paris smoking “primo” blunts, and still got paid…
whew, thank goodness for that bit of somewhat interesting basketball related news…okay, now back to more kanter talk 🙂
I’m pretty exhausted with the last GoT episode. Most of the places online where I go to talk GoT or ASOIAF have just devolved into circlejerks either unconditionally praising the show and bashing on those incel neckbeard book readers that couldn’t appreciate such a masterpiece or endlessly vomiting up the same criticisms about how it betrayed the show and how seasons 5-8 are just badly-written fanfiction sacrificing story and consistency to churn out badass visuals for the mindless Twitter crowd. It’s nice to see that that’s not the case here.
It would be really weird if they don’t do anything else with Bran, since we’ve just kind of been left hanging on the whole TER thing. I’ve accepted that we’re not going to get anything else on the White Walkers and that Hardhome will forever remain their best moment.
It really does seem like we’re going to get a build-up, gather-the-forces episode and then a climactic battle between Team Cersei and Team Targaryen episode (and yeah I think you guys are spot-on with Cleganebowl and Jaime killing Cersei). I think it’s pretty much a lock that Yara will show up with a fleet magically stronger than Euron’s (which, being the Iron Fleet, is pretty much all of the ships the Ironborn hypothetically have) at a dramatic moment to save something or another. Then we’ll have a denouement episode where people talk a bunch and the surviving cast gets to go on to happy futures (I can already imagine Brienne, Pod and possibly Jaime riding off into the sunset like Don Quixote and Sancho, on their way to wacky future hijinks across the Seven Kingdoms). Or maybe the throne room collapses due to centuries of Hands of the King paying off safety inspectors and everyone dies. Idk.
As a resident of a state where it is legal to walk into a store, buy weed, smoke it, and walk out without any record of my being there, I get upset to see that young black men are still being arrested in this country for possessing it.
That said, I think there are maybe 8 teams that play in recreationally legal states. As a free agent, he may request to his agent to target on of those.
“Z-man in the event that you are still feeling frisky and it wasn’t clear at the time, I do not actually think that people who miss the ‘03 Spurs are literal sociopaths, although I reserve the right to walk that walkback back in the event that DSM VI turns out to have a more empirical claim on the matter.”
Nah. My claim is simply that basketball from the Bird-Magic to Jordan era was far more aesthetically pleasing to me than the current brand of 65+ 3PA per game mixed in with a bunch of alley-oops we have now. . Two elements I loved that have been savaged by the analytical revolution are the back-to-the-basket post game and the mid-range game. Nowadays, the space between 10-23 feet is basically a dead zone where efficiency goes to die. It’s not like there were no 3’s or dunks back in that era. But the premium was on FG% rather than eFG% and as a result, there were fewer missed FGs. Interestingly, if you look at the top 10 ORtg seasons, after the last 3 years, 11 of the next 12 seasons were from that era. And the 2018-19 season was only 16th all-time in pace, 11th in PPG, and 18th in Asst/gm (the top 5 were all during the Bird-Magic era.) Respectfully, I doubt that anyone born after the mid 60’s could really appreciate how well the game was played by the conference semi’s-level teams back then, especially the truly great teams. That’s why I scoff at suggestions that the current GSWs are the GOAT team. There really isn’t any competition for them today. All of the LeBron teams they faced in the finals were extremely flawed, and the recent WC teams have not been all that compared to what the EC and WC were in the late 80’s-early 90’s.
Anybody keeping up with Philly/Toronto? I really hope Toronto wins that series just because I don’t give Philly a chance in hell against either Milwaukee or Boston. Philly’s playing tough but you just know they can’t actually win a championship.
If Embiid is 100%, Philly has as good a starting lineup as anyone in the NBA not named the Warriors. That does not bode well for my Toronto wager. That’s especially bad because the Bucks are struggling with Boston. I may not get out of the 2nd round.
Kyle Lowery is bad. I excused a lot in the past because he was being asked to be a co #1 option with Derozan and he’s just not that player. But on a team with Leonard and Siakam, if you can’t be a consistent 3rd option you are either washed or bad. Gasol looks washed in this series too.
#TrustTheProcess
#TheNetsAreBetterDoe
it’s hard for me to root for a philly team, but, I do enjoy watching embiid play…
lowry looks like crap…
Sweep the leg!
I don’t really have a rooting interest in this series, but as possibly the word’s biggest James Ennis fan this game has made me happy
@41 it’s been a while since I checked on it – but, the cost of having marijuana as an illegal substance in terms of the impact it has on the judicial and penal systems is obscene…
I think the NBA guys get drug tested like 3 times a year…
right now I believe the NHL is the only major sports league which doesn’t test for weed…
Embiid is solid
i’m probably in the minority but i do love 90s style ball…. it was much more engaging and physical which wasn’t exactly aesthetically pleasing most of the time but made those great moments better…. alley oop today isn’t all that special….
i share a lot of the GoT sentiments as most on here…. but if you look at any tv show it’s very hard to get consistently get good writing and acting through even half the seasons that they’ve gone through… the only one that i’ve watched that’s managed to thread the needle through as many story lines and characters was The Wire… so i do cut them some slack but at the same time they have do have a responsibility to land this plane…
there’s a popular theory that’s circulating about a really big twist left…. i don’t think it’s quite what ntilikilla is capturing but it involves one of those characters…. if that theory is true i think that should wrap up the stories fairly well but we’ll see…
turns out the nba has the toughest pot drug testing policy amongst the major US sports leagues…
4 times during the season, 2 in the off-season…
the MLS has the most lenient policy…
https://www.google.com/amp/s/grandstandcentral.com/2018/sections/drugs/testing-marijuana-varies-major-leagues/amp/
IMO, when Embiid is healthy he’s an absolute terror on both sides. He can become an all time great player. But when you are always hurt, in the out of the lineup, and can’t practice enough to stay fit, that’s a problem. He was clearly less than 100% against the Nets and in the first two games of this series. This was the first game in awhile he looked like himself. That’s bad for me. I thought he was going to struggle the entire playoffs.
The 76ers are very good. The addition of Butler put them over the top as far as being competitive with the best teams in the league goes. They needed that 3rd player and got a legitimate star with experience.
Lowery is going to have wake up out of his coma for the Raptors to win the next game unless Embiid comes up lame off this game.
Not that I think professional athletes should be drinking and getting high regularly, but pot is legal in a number of states and these are mostly grown men. I see no point to tough marijuana rules. I’d be way more concerned about performance enhancers.
At least you didn’t bet on Houston, Milwaukee, and Toronto.
Classic.
Ok I get you don’t want to spoil it but at least tell me what a guy can google to find out what theory you’re referring to.
d&d referenced three big wow type of twists provided to them by grrm… one was the shireen burning… the other was hodor and one comes at the very end…
this is where i read it…
now i don’t think it’ll turn out 100% the way he portrays it since there’s some gaps which he acknowledges but it’s a solid theory which would tie up some loose ends in the story up to this point… and a lot of the weirdness of this season… and it does provide some satisfaction that it’ll end in a not so terrible way….
in any case… if they do fuck it up… i can at least imagine a different ending…
I think Lowry is just washed up at this point, his numbers this season seen to clearly indicate a player in heavy decline. The Raptors also emptied their bench to get Leonard and Gasol, and now their bench has been completely trash, being outperformed even by the Philly one who has very little depth. The game was sorta close, then Leonard sits for like 3 minutes and Philly doubles their advantage.
I think if Embiid is healthy the Sixers have as good a chance as any of the other teams to win the east. Butler is really showing up for this series and Simmons has played well too. Obviously I don’t see them beating the Warriors, but the east seems completely wide open, whoever gets on a good streak will take it.