[NYTimes] Joe Tsai Is Big in Business. Now He’s Taking On Women’s Basketball. (Sunday, May 19, 2019 7:00:06 AM)
Tsai, the new owner of the Liberty and part owner of the Nets, has made a fortune as a founder of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. He’s hoping his skills can produce needed revenue for the W.N.B.A.
[NYTimes] In the East, It Has Been All Bucks So Far (but Not All Giannis) (Saturday, May 18, 2019 4:34:17 PM)
Milwaukee is just two wins against the Raptors from its first N.B.A. finals appearance since 1974 behind the play of Giannis Antetokounmpo and a solid supporting cast.
(Saturday, May 18, 2019 7:45:32 PM)
It has aged like fine wine. The artifact lies in Houston, in possession of 63-year-old Knicks fan Rick Wrabel, who obtained it as a 12-year-old living in Norwalk, Conn. The 50-year-old treasure has survived 20 house moves, including one to Australia. This quirky piece of Knicks memorabilia is an IHOP paper placemat. As a Christmas…
(Saturday, May 18, 2019 4:31:42 PM)
This is about how an ordinary man can seize one extraordinary moment, as much as anything. The coming weeks and months will be a glorious celebration of the golden anniversary of the Mets’ golden summer, and all the wonderful memories forever attached to it. For my money, there is one moment that symbolizes what happened…
(Saturday, May 18, 2019 1:32:43 PM)
CHICAGO — Brendan Suhr, the Knicks’ former scouting director and the man who used to run their draft, doesn’t have any misgivings about the club taking 6-foot-7 Duke swingman RJ Barrett as the third pick instead of trading it. “They better pick him if he’s there,’’ Suhr told The Post at the draft combine, which…
(Saturday, May 18, 2019 10:32:57 AM)
Kevin Durant’s mysterious injury and curious future initiated the narrative. By taking down the Houston Rockets without him and becoming two wins from their fifth Finals in a row, the Golden State Warriors only fueled it. Then Seth Curry, of course Steph’s younger brother, set it ablaze, saying the Warriors “are harder to guard” without…
(Saturday, May 18, 2019 8:55:45 AM)
CHICAGO — Tacko Fall, the 7-foot-7 center who nearly slayed Duke after giving Zion Williamson fits in the NCAA Tournament, has popped onto the Knicks radar with their 55th pick following his head-turning draft combine in Chicago, according to a source. The Knicks met with 30 kids but did not interview Fall. Knicks brass entered…
(Saturday, May 18, 2019 10:48:41 PM)
Before the NBA Draft Combine, 7-foot-7 Tacko Fall wasn’t projected to be selected in the draft. Did his combine performance change the Knicks’ perception of him?
(Saturday, May 18, 2019 7:34:08 PM)
The way the NBA Draft is shaping up, RJ Barrett should be there for the Knicks at No. 3 overall, and a former Knicks exec and assistant coach says the team “better pick” Barrett if he’s there.
(Saturday, May 18, 2019 12:00:00 PM)
Restricted free agent Terry Rozier sounds like he’s ready to move on from the Boston Celtics and the Knicks may be on his radar.
(Saturday, May 18, 2019 10:19:44 AM)
The Knicks’ top free agent target was getting plenty of good vibes when watching high school tape of New York’s likely draft pick, RJ Barrett.
73 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2019.05.19)”
I wasn’t convinced the Warriors Portland series wasn’t close until this last game. Plenty of series have had the home team winning the first two but ended up being close. It’s the same for Toronto Milwaukee. Milwaukee seems much better than Toronto, but I won’t be convinced until they win this next game.
No KD?
I didn’t watch the Warriors last night, but it sounds like they played prettier basketball than they normally do with KD. I remember watching them as much as they were on TV when they set the season record and just being enamored at the ball movement. The times I have watched them since KD arrived seems to be a different style slightly.
Stephen A Smith has been wrong before. He says things with such certainty that people believe him, but it doesn’t mean he is right. No KD is certainly possible.
I agree. I think they play a little differently with Durant. I consider that a compliment to Kerr; he’s flexible enough to change what the team does when his roster changes.
Durant’s brother liking an Instagram comment that said “Nah” about Durant joining the Knicks? That’s not exactly much in the way of evidence.
Boban playing an assassin in John Wick 3 is high-larious. https://ew.com/movies/2019/05/18/john-wick-3-boban-marjanovic/
Stephen A. Smith is a fucking moron, so if you take anything he says as credible or founded in some kind of journalistic or analytical integrity…
I mentioned Smith because he was quoted in the link posted by Bidiong.
So lets say the Warriors win the whole thing and KD never plays. Don’t you think that would seal the deal for him coming to NY? What would be his rationale for returning to Golden State – to win another title with a team that proved it can win without you?
I think we should be rooting hard for the Warriors in the Finals. If they lose to the Bucks, it would be almost like OKC redux after the Warriors blew the 3-1 series to the Cavs and they brought in Durant to put them “over the top”
@8
100% in agreement about SAS.
Man, the media just continues to fuck the Knicks with the Anthony Davis talks. Lots of dismissive takes on Mitchell Robinson. It is quite aggravating.
What is hard for me to understand is how Stephen A. gets the salary he does. What are his skills exactly? All I ever see is someone ferociously defending random hot takes, which doesn’t exactly seem hard to replace. Yet ESPN pays him $10M per year when they are struggling with cord cutters.
There’s no better way that money could be spent? And the average sports fan really finds insight/entertainment in his “analysis”? Not that he’s the only blowhard for sure, but I believe he’s the highest paid and it’s quite confusing.
GSW is great because they hunt the best shot. Draymond knew he’d have drives to the rim and he took them. They didn’t need some amazing run of three pointers. They played three defense first players and the splash brothers. They bottled up Damian and CJ and moved the ball to the open man. They got their role players comfortable. Jordan Bell misses an easy dunk…minutes later Green goes right back to him. Total team effort. LeBron has just never instilled that kind of confidence in his role players, IMHO.
I don’t know if Curry is the most effective player in the NBA but he’s the most talented. Just the space he creates wins games. And Draymond is a fucking beast. Triple double and just two turn overs. Yes, they may actually be a better team without KD (Though I’m interested to see if MIL can take advantage of their lack of depth in the finals…don’t count on it…)
As to NYK, it’s simple. Take Barrett. Don’t trade him. Make offers to Durant or Leonard, Kyrie or Kemba. If that doesn’t happen fold. Sign one years deals, rent cap space, add value contracts, take chances on undrafted FA’s. Next year run Mitch, DSjr, Knox, Barrett, Trier. Hopefully someone emerges as a franchise player.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s a nice guy, I like him just fine
But he’s a mouth breather
Who can / should the Warriors bring in to replace KD? I’m not saying he’s leaving or he’s ours. Just wondering. What about Robert Covington? Trevor Ariza? Do you really need a shot creator?
Over and above his greatness, the Warriors are obviously better with Durant for the simple reason that you can take out any one of either Durant, Curry or Klay and still have 2 top scorers on the court. You are never down to just just Klay or Steph andn the defense focusing on that player. The reason the Warrior can remain so good without him is because both Klay and Steph have the basketball skills to up their usage in his absence without much impact to their efficiency (and they play the right way). The role players can also do a little more because they have more skills than they are generally asked for when all 3 are playing. On a team like the Knicks, Durant’s impact would be wildly larger in a positive direction because the Knicks can’t just shift usage around and get a similar result.
Ever see the Slint doc where they talk about who that song is about?
We’ll have to agree to disagree (from my side, vehemently) on that one. The team was essentially 6 players deep, and their two best players played essentially the same position. They maximized D’Antoni’s system in an era that is perfect for that system. I would take the Payton Sonics, the KJ-Barkley Suns. the Stockton-Malone Jazz and the Isiah Pistons for sure over them, and probably the Price-Daugherty Cavs. Only the Pistons won a title out of that group. And playing by the rules in that era, I’d take the Ewing Knicks over them.
Harden would be great in any era, but he benefits more than any other player from today’s rules.
Cracks me up every time I think about it
I LEAVE MY HOOOOOME
@14
As great as Lebron is, having one player that is a dominant scorer and dominant ball handler that is not a guard looks great in the boxscore, but it can be harder to construct an all time great deep team. You are almost never going to have a player coming off the bench with a similar skillset (albeit weaker) and you are probably going to add guards that fit with HIM as opposed to having more traditional PG skills. So whenever he’s out, you are sort of screwed unless you find a running mate like Wade that can take over ball handing and scoring when he’s out. Most of the time you are going to have guards that help space the floor but can’t run the offense. Even if you have a traditional PG on the bench, you have to overhaul the entire offense to play more traditional when James is out.
I don’t see what being six-deep has anything to do with playoff greatness. They won 67 games and were felled by an epic, odds-breaking cold streak against one of the most talented teams in our lifetimes.
You have to get into some real gut/intangibles/hustle/grit/experience nonsense to put the 57-win ‘88 Cavs over the 67-win 2017 Rockets.
I hope you have a keyboard hotkey with this phrase as a macro
Work smarter not harder
the warriors are great in one sense that probably no team can match. since durant arrived they’ve played 12 playoff games while missing a top 25 all time player. they are 7-0 without KD (included game 5 in Houston where he left early) and 5-1 without Curry. 12-1 while down an all time great isn’t just pretty good, like the bulls in 93-94, it’s dominant.
@22 or that I think the league is more top-heavy now than it was then….
And yeah, depth is a measure of team greatness in my view. Case in point: Houston couldn’t overcome the loss of Paul because then they were only 5 deep instead of 6.
@24 agreed. I just think that they are dominant in a much weaker league with few very good, let alone great, teams…historically speaking. The larger point is that if they lose to the Bucks (who will be by far the most complete team they have faced) then it would put a major dent in the GOAT team argument.
The Bucks are set up to be kryptonite for the Warriors.
The Bucks are #1 in defensive rating, #1 in defensive eFG% allowed, and are #1 in defensive 3pt attempts allowed despite playing the third fastest pace in the league. They snuff out the 3-pointer better than anybody. As extra bonuses they are #1 in defensive rebounding and #1 in defensive FT/FGA, so good luck trying to beat them by getting to the line a lot or getting second chance buckets.
I’ll be pretty impressed if the Warriors defeat the Bucks.
“Don’t get me wrong , he’s a nice guy…”
Is there any actual evidence that Stephen A Smith is a nice guy? Asking for a friend.
Milwaukee is very good, but the Warriors have the experience, versatility, talent, and coaching to beat them with or without KD. It should be a close and entertaining series with the Warriors for a change and a real test for Golden State, Giannis can ball.
If GSW do win, I agree with the idea of asking why he would he go back when they clearly proved they can win it all without him? I still have major doubts that he would consider coming to the Knicks, but if he is considering it, then this would move the needle in our favor.
That’s a quote of a Jesus Lizard lyric about Britt Walford doing a shitty job house-sitting Steve Albini’s house
Best records of the 1990s:
1. My Bloody Valentine – Loveless
2. Slint – Spiderland
(large gap)
3-1000. Other records
Loveless, Heaven or Las Vegas, Laughing Stock for me
Any Robinson Cano fans out there? The Mets trade for him may end up being Eddy Curry-ish bad. Lazy is as lazy does. Maybe worse since they have to pay the 36 year old guy for 4 more years after this…
I’ve never understood the way the Mets ration the money they actually spend. I mean, if you have the ability to essentially dole out a 5 year/$100M deal why is 36 year old Robbie Cano your target? I know he was great in the games he played last year, but he was also bagged for PEDs. Anytime you acquire a 36 year old there’s always a distinct possibility you don’t get a single good year for the duration of their contract. How is that a worthwhile risk for a notoriously cheap team?
@33
The excuse was they get an elite young cost-controlled closer: Edwin Diaz. They also jettisoned some veteran trash, but all with 1 year left on deals, IIRC, like Jay Bruce. Still you are taking on the age 36-40 seasons of a player making big money and coming off a PED suspension. Short term thinking. They actually thought they were the NL East favorites.
The kick in the gut was adding two top prospects as sweeteners in the deal. That might really hurt down the line, esp. if Jarred Kelenic turns out to be anywhere close to as good as scouts think he will be. He’s tearing up A ball right now.
Watching Cano, a notorious slacker, fail to run out two double play grounders in the last 3 games or so is maddening. 4+ more years of this.
The Mets had a chance to hire a stats guy as GM but they went with a guy who is a former agent, and his big splashy move was to make a big trade to acquire one of his own clients. Van Wagenen has no business running a baseball team. The Mets already had Jeff McNeil on a minimum salary to play second base, they did not need Cano. That trade struck me as cronyism, I hated it when it was made and it has taken less than two months to blow up in Van Wagenen’s face.
The Mets have a pretty decent assortment of cost-controlled pieces, but they completely screwed the pooch when it came to spending money and using assets to surround the cost-controlled talent. They did get some money back from the M’s in the Cano trade to offset his ridiculous salary but it’s still like $70M of sunk cost or something like that, because Cano is, as they say, finito.
I’m reading Neyer’s Power Ball right now and given the state of analytics in baseball that he describes in that book, am shocked that there is a single team out there that would pay that kind of money for soon-to-be 37 Robbie Cano. Willful ignorance or wishful thinking? Maybe a little of both?
@35
Totally agree. Some of BVW’s lesser moves have also backfired. Sign D’Arnaud for $3m plus then release him very early in the season. Trade 3 (mediocre, admittedly) prospects for Broxton…he’s now out the door. All his FA signings are minor disasters so far. Familia for 3 years? Why? Jed Lowrie? Why, with McNeil here? Oh, put him in LF. WTF? Etc.
I’m more confident about Knicks management than the Mets and Jets at this point. Gotta love BVW’s ego, too. Might be in the realm of Phil Jackson.
I honestly believe that it’s “Hey, Robbie Cano is my friend, and he can still play! Look at his stats last year!”
He helped his bro get out of a humdrum situation in Seattle and get to back to the excitement in the Big Apple. Meanwhile the Mets already had a much better second baseman who was playing essentially for free, and there were other giant holes on the team that didn’t get fixed, which is why it’s May and the Mets are sending out career relief pitchers with 6.00 ERAs as starting pitchers.
It’s an impressive level of stupid even by Metsian standards.
Yeah, as a Mets fan for over 50 years, I’m flabbergasted with their off-season, especially the Cano deal. The first time I saw Diaz pitch, I thought, “Here we go with another pretend closer!”
Isn’t Jed Lowrie a former BVW client, too? I seem to recall reading that somewhere.
BTW, there were pretty hot rumors that McNeil was going to be in the Cano trade, but fan and media backlash nixed that. Even with a shaky move to LF, McNeil has continued to hit.
Sadly, the huge DeGrom extension is probably also going to blow up as well, as much as I like him…(5 years, 137m).
They need to do a tear down and build around their good young position players, and move Syndergaard and Wheeler for pitching prospects. But on the other hand the GM is a moron, so that’s not really the guy you want orchestrating the teardown.
72 wins forever
Alas, if only you were talking about the Knicks….
It because Both Curry and Durant can do a LOT of what the other can do in higher volume than they are being asked to do it when they play together. When one is out, the other just steps up his usage. If Curry was equally great but a bigger portion of that greatness was elite play making as opposed to shooting and scoring, it would be way tougher for Durant to fill the gap than it is now. Durant is a good playmaker, but he could never just step up and turn himself into Magic Johnson for a few games if Magic was hurt. The team would suffer more.
Before I moved down here to Miami I was born and raised in Queens in the late 80’s surrounded by Mets fans but I was a Yankees fan and refused to jump ship. Best decision I’ve ever made lol.
“As to NYK, it’s simple. Take Barrett. Don’t trade him. Make offers to Durant or Leonard, Kyrie or Kemba. If that doesn’t happen fold. Sign one years deals, rent cap space, add value contracts, take chances on undrafted FA’s. Next year run Mitch, DSjr, Knox, Barrett, Trier. Hopefully someone emerges as a franchise player.”
I totally agree but I fear that would only happen if they were drafting Zion. Even though Mills keeps saying they won’t rush the process and rebuild properly, even Stephen A has said if they strike out on KD and Kyrie they won’t look to use up their cap space on the lesser FA’s, I can’t help but think the pressure from the media and fans will force them into stupid signings. With Zion they could be patient and preach about the future looking bright cause they have Zion, don’t think they’ll be willing to do that with just drafting Barrett.
Form your lips to my bank account.
Here’s the flip side worry.
If you slow down Giannis, you put yourself in a good position to beat the Bucks. The Warriors have the one guy on planet earth that might be able to do that consistently enough to matter. His name is Draymond Green. So while all those aggregate stats seem to indicate the Bucks have a huge shot, the most important matchup for the Bucks is not exactly desirable. Assuming the Bucks get there I may consider hedging my bet on the Bucks if the price makes sense.
strat, did you see that nasty Euro step slam from the last Bucks game? Not a single player in the league can stop that. You might shut him down 2 of 7 games but if the Bucks lose, it’s going to be on guys like Bledsoe and Brogdon and Lopez. I think he’s going to see a higher turnover rate than normal, though.
@45
Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m more worried about the scenario where they land Durant + 1 and feel compelled to mortgage the future to win now and give up so much of our youth, we have almost no future beyond Durant’s window and have to start over from scratch in 4 years.
If they strike out, I think they’ll do some combination of adding players they like long term, roll some cap pace forward, rent some cap space out etc.. I don’t think they’ll do anything too crazy. If it was just Mills, I’d be in total panic mode about that scenario. But even though I don’t trust Perry’s ability to select the best players, I trust him enough to not be crazy.
You may be right. I have no strong opinion on it.
It’s just of those matchups where one team’s best offensive player is going to face off against possibly the best defender in the league. I’d feel better about my bet if the teams were exactly the same but Giannis was being covered by a Knox level defender. 🙂
giannis was born to perform the triple jump…not sure who’s on top in that sport, but, hard to imagine any other human jumping further than him…
Excellent game
Look at the 1:14 mark of this video…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCRIB6ZBSA4
Giannis will most likely get his (like LBJ has against Green in previous finals) but the Warriors won’t cheat off of other guys as much as he’s used to so probably a few more turnovers and tougher shots for the other guys. No Durant and I think it’s Milwaukee in 5 or 6. With KD, GS in 6 or 7.
Feels like Toronto let Milwaukee hang around just a bit too much in the first half. It is cool to Gasol play at a high level though, if he can keep that up it narrows the gap between these teams.
It’s crazy how Milwaukee has assembled what feels like the perfect team around Giannis, short of attracting a fellow superstar. This is very well earned run on their part.
Wilt was a freak, no doubt.
Imagine unleashing Giannis on the 1961 NBA…except taller, stronger, faster, more agile, and more skilled…
Z-man’s high again
If Toronto wins it’s all about the difference in play between Kawhi and Giannis today. That’s the only thing keeping the Raptors in the game, as all their role players are getting outplayed again. Green, Vanvleet, and Ibaka are a combined 4 for 27. At least Gasol has finally stepped up. Giannis is 5 for 16 from the field, 2 for 7 from the line, and with 8 turnovers. And…. he just fouled out.
Thought just hit me, and I’m not sure if anyone here brought this comp up before- but Barrett = DeRozan? Obviously Barrett passes better, but this seems pretty fair. I’ve heard Harden and Wade, but I’m not sure either comp fits. Definitely the Harden one lol, I think folks may have said they see some Harden on him because he’s a lefty
My wife is hysterically crying bc GoT is done.
My wife’s not crying, but seems satisfied. Finale was very slow-moving at times, but okay, just the previous episodes leading up silly. Looks to be setting up a potential spinoff or two. BTW, all of tonight’s events were leaked long ago; all the rumors I read were true.
Why? The writing has gotten so lazy and incoherent that it needs to be put out of its misery at this point.
@61
I wonder if it’s not necessarily a leak but more just with a slow-moving plot that is written over many years all of the possibilities will eventually get speculated out? Maybe there’s just no way to surprise people at that’s point and deliver a strong ending? Just an idea; I stopped watching after season 4.
@63
If only that were the case. It was a slow-moving (and excellent plot) until the show overtook the books, then it was random shit happening at breakneck speed until reaching a bizarre, incoherent conclusion. It’s pretty clear the showrunners just want to move on to their Star Wars trilogy.
Glad I went straight to the last comment. Would have been spoiled. Going to watch the disaster now.
I can’t believe I missed double OT for that ending
Lots of people don’t really care much about plot; they get emotionally attached to certain characters and want to see how they end up. I’m an English degree guy, so plots matter…
12 days until Deadwood
@67
You don’t have to be an English major for plots to matter. Attachment to the characters is all well and good, but what happens when almost every character suddenly starts acting in ways that completely invert everything they’ve been about for years? How can someone attached to a character be satisfied seeing how they end up when said characters are hardly recognizable as themselves?
@68
Because well, some people aren’t super rational about their attachments. Sometimes they just like a character for whatever reason and stick with it, or they don’t care too much about what the character does, but instead focus on a specific type of personality they enjoy etc.
For example, I absolutely hate Interstellar with a burning passion, and I’ve spent countless hours destroying the movie to every single one of my closest friends. And yet some of them, even while recognizing that some stuff that happens on the movie is simply complete garbage, still love it because they grew emotionally attached to the characters / the film moved them in ways that are obviously non-rational.
@68
You’re preaching to the choir!
I remember years ago telling a teaching friend of mine that I didn’t like the 2nd Michael Keaton Batman movie. I complained about the plot a bit, and his annoyed response has always struck me: “He’s a fictional character.”
Kind of hard to argue with that. It’s fiction! Forgive my friend, he was a math teacher.
🙂
Kawahi looks bothered by that quad thing ,tendinophaty but still managing to force a win.
But this looks like it is not going away. How he will manage it thru the series, finals??? and let alone next big contract. If it’s degenerative and it’s said it is than you have to trust your medical staf to really know their game. I am a great fan of Kawhi(my favorite fromKD/AD/KI) but if his leg is uninsurable ala Amar’e i’d scrach him of the FA wish list. Not that he was comming anyway but…when you look at it all FA have some serious medical history. In our FO and MS we trust :s
Unfortunately our FO seems to believe that this is the best FA year we will see for a while and will almost certainly use all of our cap space no matter what. The prudent thing to do would be to develop a good, young, economical team and pile up assets.
Oh well, at least we can root for wins again…
In terms of talent/production it’s true that it’s as good as it gets/once in a decade FA year…but this injury concerns offset some of the joy of finaly getting some transcendent talent.
I’m torn on the this…a look at “bad luck”that was mostly self inflicted=/=razor history we had with our decisions on all levels gives me chills.
I fell that this year the spectrum of possile outcomes is so broad and so unstable so that we could go from perennial contender to another 5 year long ship be sinking again within one week worth of decision makeing.
This june/july we could fuck up much more than Jax was ever given a chance to imagine fucking up in his 3-1/2 years. Let’s see the lucky hand on this FO.