Knicks Morning News (2019.07.03)

Jowles – very much enjoyed your song – thanks for posting a link to it!

Re the Knicks –
interesting how they’ve set up flexibility

The only players that are likely to have guaranteed money past 2020-21 are Knox, Barrett, and Mitch. Will still have Joakim Noah’s $6MM stretch (*eyeroll*). Assuming Mitch continues his trajectory, it’s likely the Knicks will decline the 4th year team option for 2021-22 and instead make him a restricted free agent after the 20-21 season. His cap hold will be miniscule. Assuming they’re still on the team, they’ll also have some level of bird rights on DSJ and Frank. Assuming they pick up team options on some of the 30 people they signed to 2-1 (team option is the -1) they will have EB rights on those guys too. So despite striking out on Durant (which as others have noted might actually have been the most prudent outcome), we will have tons of flexibility both next summer and especially the summer after that. While I REALLY would have liked to have been the team that took Harkless + a pick (instead of signing Portis, for instance), fact is we still have a likely high lottery pick coming next draft, a high 2nd round pick from Charlotte, then both NYK and DAL 1sts in 2021 and the high CHA 2nd rounder in 2021. We are set up reasonably well — now it’s on Fizdale and co. to develop the players and show some progress.

I didn’t think it would turn out this way, but the flattened lottery odds really have changed the dynamics around tanking. It still makes mathematical sense to tank, but the psychology around it is so different after 3 of the “top” 4 teams dropped down, and in the cases of CHI and PHX dropped down a lot.

@177 I don’t think “athleticism” in the raw sense separates Simmons from Knox.

no way. Simmons is one of the fastest player in the league.

According to private data provided to SB Nation by NBA Advanced Stats, Simmons’ top recorded speed this year was 19.7 miles per hour, which translates to him racing the length of a court in roughly 3.25 seconds. For a bit of context, Kings’ point guard De’Aaron Fox, who declared himself the fastest player in the league, recorded a top speed of 18.6 miles per hour just before the all-star weekend.

https://www.sbnation.com/2019/5/9/18554193/ben-simmons-philadelphia-76ers-fast-speed-highlights

knox had two pro days at kentucky and ran 3.22 and 3.37 in the 3/4 sprint. ben simmons ran 3.05. ben simmons’ combination of speed and strength is a big part of who he is and knox is not close.

Disagreed with some of the points in the Ringer article by Sherman (e.g. that trading KP was a blunder and that this strategy of trying to attract big FAs might actually be better than doing a traditional rebuild), but this passage was great and worth sharing:

The Knicks seem to be in a Catch-22. They could land a star free agent if it weren’t for the fact that they’re a toxic organization whose incompetence turns off star free agents. If they landed a star free agent, they could start winning and shed the reputation of toxicity, but they can’t land a star free agent because of their reputation of toxicity. The Knicks are the Knicks because they’re the Knicks, and their plan to break the cycle is perpetually foiled by their inherent Knicksdom.

But seriously, despite what you posted, I don’t think end-to-end speed is all that relevant to the larger point, which is that Knox is plenty athletic enough to be an all-star player, his problems are about other things. I’m not sure how often whatever Simmon’s speed and athleticism advantage is comes into play when comparing him to Knox. In looking at his game film, I mostly see a guy who is beating guys with his brain.

Knox is a better 3-pt shooter than Simmons, so there!

I will again compare our FO to a stroke victim, you have to adjust your expectations accordingly. It is impossible for them to make the deeply cerebral moves, so you temper your hopes to “I know you’re gonna do some dumb shit, but please don’t make any truly catastrophic moves. ” Sucks as fans to be in that situation, but as long as Dolan is at the helm, it’s pretty much the reality we will face. I, for one, am not going to bang my head against the wall because we squandered $25 million in 2019-20 cap space on Gibson and Portis (the rest of the deals really aren’t that bad.)

Has anyone noticed all the guys who left huge amounts of money on the table this offseason? The league rigged the salary system as much as it could to favor resigning with their current team but the top players make so much they feel comfortable foregoing tens of millions of dollars in order to control where they play.

It’s also interesting how the top guys are all signing four year deals after the popularity recently of shorter term contracts. Nobody cares about the mega max but they do care about not winding up like Boogie or Isaiah Thomas.

Mike

Mudiay to the Jazz!!! makes me feel better about the Portis deal. Him at $15M per isn’t that bad when you consider Mudiay is getting paid to play basetball.

Then again, my argument in sorta support for the portis deal is that he’s only 23…..which is how old Mudiay is.

Mitch switched to #23

Randle has played better at C so I don’t know what we’re going to do with lineups-I guess the smart thing to do would be to stagger Randle & Mitch as much as possible. It’s going to be an awkward team.

Will the Friday matchup between the Knicks and Pelicans be the most over hyped summer league game in history?

No matter what happens, just keep repeating “it’s only summer league, it’s only summer league” and remember Kevin Knox

@19 I’m totally buying the hype! Kool-aid, anyone?

ESPN/Tim Bontemps article on the Knicks:
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27106207/sliding-doors-how-knicks-did-did-not-botch-free-agency

From late in the article, if you don’t want to read through the whole thing:

Despite already having six first-round picks over the next four drafts, this team needs as many assets as it can possibly get. More first-round picks are more bites at the apple, more chips to throw into potential deals down the road. The Knicks could have gotten involved in the trades that sent Maurice Harkless to the LA Clippers (as part of the Jimmy Butler sign-and-trade to the Miami Heat) and Andre Iguodala to the Memphis Grizzlies (as part of the D’Angelo Russell sign-and-trade to the Golden State Warriors). Both the Clippers and Grizzlies landed future first-round picks for their trouble. The Nets made similar moves — and drafted key pieces such as Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen, among others, as a result.

Perhaps these picks will wind up having low value. But facilitating these bigger trades were shrewd moves by the Clippers and Grizzlies, acquiring useful players on expiring deals with room that wasn’t going to be better spent elsewhere.

So yeah, as many of us say, it could’ve been better, could have been worse.

After watching some video of all the talking heads in the sports media, I wonder if the Knicks are hoping that maybe AD in LA does not work out and they have a chance at him next year. There are guys in the media far more thoughtful than SAS who argue that the Knicks were wise not to spend big, even on KD.

I wonder if the Knicks are hoping that maybe AD in LA does not work out and they have a chance at him next year.

I posted yesterday that I think that’s their plan with all the 1+1s. It could very easily not work out for the Lakers and AD will want out.

I don’t think Randle’s best position is at the 5. His lack of shot blocking is a problem at the 5. His best attribute as a defender is he has good lateral quickness so playing on smaller players shouldn’t be a huge problem. He was best playing the 4 next to Davis last year so Playing next to Robinson shouldn’t be a huge problem.

Hey Djphan, you make some interesting points so i decided to do everyone’s favorite verification method here…… the Eye Test!!

These are Giannis’s rookie highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6LRt2pU76g

These are all Kevin Knox’s dunks from last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMI4u2ni3pQ

First of i forgot how much a twig Giannis was, he is all arms and legs….. that’s the real lesson of this exercise, knox can still transform his body

Anyway from watching the video you can tell that Giannis really increased his vertical with his muscle growth, as a rookie though he looks a lot faster than knox… The main concern with Knox is he only had 18 dunks apparently, we need to be a team that runs every possession… I want us to play like the kings and just run…

The other thing i noticed was that the bucks had Luke ridnour as their pg who was medicore but he was a pass first guy who rarely looked to shoot. In a lot of those highlights he was getting the ball to giannis in great spots unlike dsj and mudiay who were gunning for themselves. i know payton sucks but i hope having him run some at point will help Mitch and Knox

Maybe that’s why Knox plays so much Fortnight? To improve his spacial awareness.

I have no idea what Fortnight is.

I Look at this off-season in totality and I think they added two long term pieces in R.J. and Randle. They brought in competent if not spectacular veteran help in the form Gibson, Bullock, Ellington, and Portis. They brought in Elfrid to push Dennis and form a pg duo with some upside.

They are clearly not tanking and a more naive me, perhaps when I was 40 and a cockeyed optimist in love, would say, maybe win 41 games, lose a tough series to the Raptors in the first round and snatch AD off a bad year with the Lakers.

Problem is an NBA game is hard to win. Will us being incrementally better than last year mean we’ll actually win more of them? Say we’re playing Indiana at home. Are we favored to win? To be a .500 team you need to be the favorite at home on a nightly basis. I’ll believe that when I see it.

I like that we can get out a lot of deals in as soon as a year, though as many have said it would have been nice to get an extra pick if we anticipate having to do that. The bigger problem is that AD isn’t coming if we stink again.

Remember that scene in Rounders where the guy says, “You don’t want to take four cards, you want to fold.”?

My guess is we win between 32-35 games next year but our team has a lot of variance so I think it could easily be 10 wins better or worse than that. I wouldn’t be shocked if we won 25 games and I would be shocked if we won 42.

I look at the Eastern conference after the top 5 and no one is good. I could see any of Miami, Brooklyn, Detroit, Atlanta, or Orlando missing the playoffs and if Mitch is a star and RJ is productive I could see us being as good as any of those teams. Most likely we won’t be but if Mitch is for real it’s possible. He was truly a superstar last year in limited minutes.

On the flip side if Mitch struggles and we don’t mesh, being in the bottom 3 wouldn’t surprise me.

Interesting factoids on foot speed for Simmons. What’s the number on the eye blinks for Harden? Never heard of that before.

Any super young player deserves and will get the benefit of the doubt. Knox really is too young to write off. I agree that his jumper sometimes seems totally pure (except when it isn’t). He’s good in transition. But I just don’t see a high basketball iq operating. He seems like an AAU guy who can’t quite figure things out. I hope he does.

Also, re Cousins, looks like there isn’t a market for him. At least we didn’t sign him.

How long till Noah’s stretch provision is the longest tenured Knick? Can we name it team captain?

The Madison Square Garden Company

For immediate release: July 1, 2022

“History has taught us of the insidiousness of Gotham’s myriad siren songs and the perils their ubiquitous tendrils may obtrude upon those young men newly initiated into the ranks of the lucreferous. No more than a short float back upon the magic carpet of reminiscence is required to reveal manifold instances of erstwhile men of high estate cut low by prolonged dalliance on the well-trodden primrose paths of our fair metropolis. Our own ‘Stretch’ Noah was one such man. Notwithstanding the nearly four year absence of his physical manifestation from these premises, the haunting penumbra of his fiscal essence has consistently delivered the veteran counsel we have recently come to prize within our organizational bosom. The tireless guidance conferred by ‘Stretch’ played an incalculable role in dissuading our young charges from succumbing to the temptations of the alehouses, fleshpots, and other dens of iniquity to which he once sadly fell prey. Today, after his years of long and meritorious service, ‘Stretch’ will finally be departing our ranks. He will be grievously missed but never forgotten. In honor of his much appreciated – and longstanding – contribution to the Petri dish of our once culturally deficient franchise, we shall henceforth dangle his number – $6,400,000 – from yon hallowed rafters alongside those of 10, 12, 15, 15, 19, 22, 24, 33, and 613. Congratulations, “Stretch” and Godspeed.”

The roster they put together is well constructed, they have most of the roles set and there are options for different play styles at every position. It seems like their bet is that last years team was too much of a mess and it didn’t help the young players development, so they’re bringing a lot of structure and decent role players everywhere to help that.

I don’t love it because I don’t put too much importance in that sort of stuff, but at least there are no more excuses for Fizdale and the young guys. There is a passing oriented PG, there are shooters and rebounders and even some guys who can play some defense, plus some depth so they aren’t forced to play guys who are totally overmatched. It’s just that there’s not a lot of talent in this group, which should keep them from reaching more than 32-33 wins.

Any super young player deserves and will get the benefit of the doubt. Knox really is too young to write off. I agree that his jumper sometimes seems totally pure (except when it isn’t). He’s good in transition. But I just don’t see a high basketball iq operating. He seems like an AAU guy who can’t quite figure things out. I hope he does.

Yeah Knox’s brain just doesn’t seem to process very fast. He gets backdoor-cut on defense multiple times per game, and every offensive move he does seems predetermined. Compare that to Draymond whose brain seems to be 3 steps ahead of everyone else’s.

I just don’t think that kind of stuff can be taught. My guess is that Knox’s median-75th percentile outcome is Jeff Green or Jonas Jerebko. But definitely too early to give up on him.

All these “worst rookie in history” stuff is really not fair to him — and what I mean is that every previous rookie who was as body-wise and skill-wise unprepared to play in NBA games as Knox was would never have gotten an endless green light and 35 minutes/game — he would’ve gotten spot minutes in garbage time and/or have been in the g-league, then at age 21-22 would’ve started playing heavy minutes.

Whenever I’ve been asked in a job interview, “What is your greatest accomplishment?” I have to lie. The truth: I’ve never played “Wonderwall” in tacit exchange for sex

On that last point, I wonder whether RJ will have the same green light that Knox had, or whether they think they mismanaged that whole thing?

on the eye movement thing… i was actually at some karaoke bar for a friend’s bday awhile back and we were having a conversation with some owner of a performance tracking company… think something like what p3 does…

and one of the things they do is time and track eye movements… not like blinks… but how fast their eye tracks a fast moving object or multiple objects… horizontal/vertical/angular… and then react … this skill is obvious in something like baseball where hitting is basically all about this… but it’s very relevant in all sports… football… hockey… soccer… boxing… etc… his theory was that high eye movement speed is a trait shared among all elite athletes in their sports… and there’s applications outside of it also…

i’m probably explaining it wrong since that whole night was hazy but it makes some sense….

I think people have gone a bit overboard with the small ball thing in the NBA. It is a good way to win but not the only way. When people look at Randle, Portis, and Gibson and think center I think they are looking wrong. I am more worried none of them can really play center long term than they can’t fit next to Mitch. I see Mitch+Randle as something similar to Griffin+Jordan/Drummond or Randolph+Gasol. You can be effective playing a traditional PF, it doesn’t have to be all large wing stretch 4s.

More of my worry is how do both Portis and Gibson get enough minutes and which one can effectively protect the basket when Robinson sits. I would have really liked us to get another rim protector over 2 backup ground-bound 4s behind Randle and Robinson.

I thought the Ringer article was pretty much spot on, but incomplete. It could have gotten more specific about some of the recent poor decisions that lead to subsequent events, that in turn lead to rejection this year. But the media gives some people a pass and blames others for everything.

On that last point, I wonder whether RJ will have the same green light that Knox had, or whether they think they mismanaged that whole thing?

I’m going to guess “no”.

Last year it felt like they were pushing each of the young players to do things they weren’t ready to do just to get the experience and try to develop the skill. This year I think they are going to try harder to win games. So I expect each player’s role to be more closely aligned to what he’s actually capable of doing competently at this stage of his development. Unless RJ comes out rocking (which to be honest would not totally shock me), I expect a tighter leash.

One of the major points of the Ringer article was that the Knicks approach seems to be to roll over cap space and try for big name free agents again in a year or two and why should the Knicks expect it to work this time when it hasn’t worked in the past. I think this is partially true but not the whole story. This year the Knicks had money to spend but lots of others did too. In one or two years, many fewer teams will have money to burn. That makes the strategy more likely to succeed.

The article also thinks the Knicks should have taken on bad contracts for assets, rather than just taking on short term players. But the writers can’t have it both ways. If the short term contracts don’t work out, then the Knicks are tanking again and getting more good picks. Or, if some of the short term contracts work out, then the Knicks probably did acquire young talent (by acquiring whichever player it was that outperformed his contract). Either way the Knicks get more young guys, which is what the writer claims they aren’t doing enough of. You can argue that you think getting an asset by taking on a bad contract is more likely to get you a good player than the chance of one of the recent signings, but I think there’s not a strong case for that.

Nice tunes, Jowles! I love the bedroom chillwave vibe. I’ve covered “Thirteen” myself and the third Big Star album is one of my favorite records of all time.

@58, I agree about Vonleh. It would have been better to have him instead of Gibson. Gibson doesn’t fit either the Knicks stated strategy or the Ringer’s one. But my major point was that the Knick’s strategy wasn’t as insane as the Ringer article implied. Of course, implementing it has lots of practical difficulties. You can’t negotiate with everyone in the compressed mad house of the initial free agency period, there just isn’t enough time and competitive pressures force some decisions to be quick. And not all your targets will be interested in the sort of deal you want. I thought they did okay, all things considered.

That cover is a reminder that there’s only one basketball…
🙂

As Ric Bucher said, the “Nets won the press conference.” Let’s see what happens when the games start.

it would be nice if some of that ferocious attitude found its way into the backcourt. the guy is 6 11 with a 7 2 wingspan and had a lower block % last year than kyrie. 1 charge drawn in 5000 nba minutes.

Omg..I didn’t realize TJ McConnell was a FA!
I would have much rather signed him than Payton.

@65
The last line of this article in reference:

Knicks coach David Fizdale, who is close with Wade, is said to love Portis’ passion.

I never said I agreed. Portis does need to player better defense. OTOH, the article does point to his insane work ethic. It just doesn’t translate. I can’t see how Portis is better than Vonleh. I want to know why they didn’t resign him. Maybe HE didn’t want to return?

Since we made it musical…
Any Psych/Prog/Space/Krautrock fan out there ?
Cd/vinyl junkies ?

A week ago i posted that the Suns didn’t want Jackson and wanted someone to take him. Apparently, $7M was too much for us.

Fave Krautrock albums:

Can – Tago Mago
Can – Ege Bamyasi
Can – Future Days
Faust IV
Neu! – s/t
Neu! – 2
And then like every Kraftwerk album

The 7million I referred to is his salary. I made it clear they would give him away or pay to get rid of him.

Didn’t Josh Jackson get his infant a contact high? Hard pass

Josh Jackson’s a real problem off the floor, I agree with Jowles: hard pass.

https://clutchpoints.com/suns-news-josh-jackson-accused-getting-4-month-old-daughter-high-marijuana/

https://valleyofthesuns.com/2019/05/14/the-phoenix-suns-need-to-kick-josh-jackson-to-the-curb/

https://www.inquirer.com/philly/sports/sixers/josh-jackson-kansas-off-court-issues-sixers-2017-nba-draft-20170616.html

All you cool kids playing/having played in bands n having musical talents.

And here I am, just an employee of the ol’ gub-ment (though I once was an upcoming radio personality).

Melton and Carter switch is a little surprising, they’re considered solid picks in last year draft.

Phoenix is a rudderless ship, nobody understand what they’re doing… They make our FO looks like Nobel prizes.

@86 I play a lot of wargames but I started in the 90’s on PC games (Talonsoft Napo and ACW series, Age of Rifles and so on), not tabletop.

And some of those early Yes albums are legit great, I’ll say that even if it causes my punk rock credentials to get revoked

Since we’re bragging and/or outing ourselves, Lin-Manuel Miranda is reading one of my books right now.

I’ve tried Genesis and all that, but it never clicked for me. I like Neu and Can and all that, but mostly as an omnivore of nearly every genre’s finest cuts (corporate country doesn’t even count as a genre; it’s more a variety of frozen dinner entree IMO).

Closest I’ve nerded out to tabletop war games is Civ 3-6. Does that count?

@92 Unbelievable! 😀

And some of those early Yes albums are legit great,

damn near everyday i gotta play and listen to starship trooper…heck, i just put it on now…

actually spent a good bit of time today mixing some jowles, dan and AP in to my musical listening repertoire…

Since we’re bragging and/or outing ourselves, Lin-Manuel Miranda is reading one of my books right now.

oh wow didn’t know you were you. have enjoyed gobs of your writing.

memphis move was smart. i haven’t given up on you de’Anthony! (i do think carter is one of these guys that sticks around as a backup longer than it seems like he should for defense and grit).

The Kawhi Leonard saga’s becoming more and more ludicrous:

“Day four of the Kawhi Leonard Watch took an unusual turn today, as word leaked out that the private plane belonging to MLSE – the group that owns the Raptors – was bound for Toronto from Los Angeles.

While there was no official confirmation that Leonard himself was on board, Canadian news network CP24 captured video of the plane touching down in Toronto, with its occupants piling into a pair of SUVs and driving downtown to a hotel where president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri had reportedly been spotted earlier in the day — and where a crowd of Torontonians gathered hoping to catch a glimpse of the Finals MVP”

High end espionage!

Alsep, next time you’ll meet him could you please punch Simmons in the face for me?
I’ll send you a check…
(I listened your B.S. podcasts… And years ago I loved his book so much)

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2019-nba-free-agency-five-sneaky-good-signings-you-may-have-missed-amid-the-madness-of-opening-night/

Look at number 3…

LOL!

Yes and Genesis and King Crimson are considered among the best prog bands ever rightfully so, but their writing most of times is too complex and quite elitistic and hard to relate to sentimentally. Their musicianship are TOP in Rock music tho.
Camel, Pink Floyd and VanDerGraafGenerator are my cup of uk prog tea mostly due to their writing !

Eno is a BEAST !

I like Melton quite a bit. I didn’t know about the off the court stuff with Jackson, I’d steer clear of him knowing that.

I like Neu and Can as well, I enjoy Krautrock much more than most prog, but my favorite for that kind of stuff is This Heat, their second album Deceit is brilliant. It’s more experimental than anything else but there is a pretty strong Krautrock influence.

I’ve never done much wargaming but I do like board games a lot. I could never get into the time it took to wargame. I like shorter strategic experiences.

By the way, it looks like we won’t get to see Ntilikina play until the FIBA tournament and probably in preseason after that.

What happened now?

What happened now?

He’s not on the summer league roster — probably because he’s prepping to play with the French team. A Berman article after the draft and before free agency suggested the Knicks will be watching how he plays in the tournament before deciding whether to pick up his option for next season.

Since we’re bragging and/or outing ourselves, Lin-Manuel Miranda is reading one of my books right now.

Holy crap! Loved your Sopranos recaps in the Star Ledger and your The Revolution was Televised was great.

Wow. How did Scott Perry not end up with Josh Jackson? That’s his type of player.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/254721/Grizzlies-Trade-Kyle-Korver-To-Suns-For-Josh-Jackson-DeAnthony-Melton

I’m assuming this was a salary dump and Phoenix didn’t actually trade for Korver. Would have loved to get in on this trade. Josh Jackson is obviously a POS but Melton is a guy I really like. Would have absolutely done this deal instead of Ellington and Portis signings.

If you’re in the City, NY has very nice psych scene going on. I’ve found myself going to more of those shows nowadays than the loud sweaty five band basement punk shows. Maybe I’m just getting old but that’s def where I’ve been at these past few years.

Berman:

As it played out, when Kevin Durant turned up his nose at the Knicks, the club realized any chance of nabbing Leonard without KD was a long shot.

According to a source, Leonard agreed to meet with the Knicks, but not until Wednesday after finishing with the Clippers and Lakers.

That plan was scratched by Knicks’ brass over logistics.

The Knicks had spent almost all of their $70 million cap space in the first 20 hours of free agency, knowing if they waited until the Leonard meeting Wednesday, the players they did sign could be off the market. It was too big a risk, knowing they likely would finish fourth behind the Raptors, Lakers and Clippers.

Also:

As of Wednesday, the Knicks still held $4 million of cap space and then a $4.8 room exception. They had only one spot left, though, on their 15-man roster. Lance Thomas is the favorite, as The Post reported, to fill the final spot. Vince Carter has also been mentioned. The Knicks could sign two players and cut one after a training camp battle.

According to a source, the Knicks still plan to exercise the $1.5 million team option by the July 15 deadline on 2017 draft pick Damyean Dotson despite signing shooting guards Reggie Bullock and Wayne Ellington and point guard Elfrid Payton.

I don’t think we were getting Kawhi but I’m laughing at being unable to run the risk of someone else signing Bobby Portis et al

i can’t wait till next may when we finish 29-53 and put out a press release announcing we have decided to remove ourselves from playoff consideration

Interesting that Clarence Gaines like both the Randle and Portis signings and is most disappointed that the Knicks didn’t bring Kornet back. I guess that latter makes sense because Kornet was a Phil/Gaines attempt at a two way stretch bargain big man.

My wife has only ever seen one episode, Jowles: “Ozymandias,” and that was only because I had nearly died earlier that day from a ruptured appendix and she wouldn’t leave my hospital room. She was rightly appalled by the whole thing. I’ve recognized that some of the darker stuff I write about is just not for her.

Out of all the gnarly stuff in The Sopranos, and the real-life pain of The Wire, and the deep existential dread of Mad Men, and the wild shit from GoT (I did not see any of the early plot twists coming), “Ozymandias” is the only episode of TV that’s put a palpable knot in my stomach. I want to share that (cathartic) hurt with others.

Thank god we snatched up Portis, Taj, et al before anyone else did. If we had waited for Kawhi to make his decision, we would have lost the chance to pay those guys $43 million for leading us to the 11th seed!

There’s a video floating around on Twitter where Randle supposedly hit 25 3s in a row moving around the court in a recent workout. The version I saw was abbreviated to about 10 from different spots, but if it really was 25, Randle with a consistent 3 point shot is a damn good offensive player and a way better fit than without that range. At that point, he’s good enough offensively that you live with any defensive liabilities and figure out how to make it work.

How does Portis’ butt look in the pinch post?

I can’t tell you you much about his butt, but I have no fear using my line from the day before. Gaines has already forgotten more about basketball than anyone here knows. If he likes Portis’s skill set, that means he’s watched a ton of game film and a very smart man thinks he has the potential to be a very good basketball player.

I agree with him.

It’s the price that’s the problem. Mills paid for the potential for him to keep improving his 3 point shot and defense when neither is assured. That’s exactly what MIlls did with Hardaway. He paid for potential even though the player already had a few years in the league.

Sooner or later he’ll get one of these right by accident. Maybe Portis is the guy.

breaking bad wise – for some reason – this was the scene i’ll most remember and love from the series…i seem to have a weakness for maniacal laughter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf8GaDkFm3E

my favorite cook scene…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT4hfNL4SKY

@130
Mike, a bit of a long story there, but self pub on personal internet site and/or Boardgamegeek.com. I’m getting close to putting three games up on the Geek. Earlier versions are already up for free PDF downloads on my site, along with samples/teasers of some of my fiction. I’ll probably set up a “Game Company” place on Consimworld.com, too.

I guess a question for everyone: I have a personal web site up with lots of my projects, including game designs, fiction, non-fiction, etc. I also have a relatively new Youtube channel with a video of an alternative rock band I was in back in 1985-6 (I was the drummer). I’m about to upload a second video of a music/slideshow of our 5 song studio demo.

Is it appropriate to post such links here? Like Jowles, I’m a bit uncomfortable about self-promotion/spam on a forum like this. I don’t see any way here on the site to send personal messages, or I’d just offer these links to Mike or anyone else who’d want to PM me.

Should I post an email address here for anyone interested?

@136
I used to play Magic with my wife some years ago, but not recently. I’m more of an old-school rpg and board wargamer guy. Computer games, too.

It’s the price that’s the problem. Mills paid for the potential for him to keep improving his 3 point shot and defense when neither is assured. That’s exactly what MIlls did with Hardaway. He paid for potential even though the player already had a few years in the league.

If you genuinely believe Portis was a good target (I don’t), the cost should barely register with you. He either has a one year deal, or a two-year deal if he plays well (I don’t think he will because he hasn’t in the past).

Gaines has good opinions on non-basketball issues which is always good to see but he comes across as a bit of a grifter when it comes to basketball. I’ve never heard him say anything particularly insightful, mostly just praise for guys he was involved with in some capacity.

Big King Crimson fan. I just turned my son (who fancies himself a fledgling songwriter) on to the original 21st century schizoid man.

Saw King Crimson at Lehigh University in 1970-1…. I think Lee Michaels opened for them…. quite a night 🙂 Jesus that was a long time ago…..

Since we’re outing KB posters, you guys should know that Early Bird is actually Cleanthony Early, Z-Man is Zac Efron, and Stratomatic is George W. Bush.

This blog is really the best. We deserve better than this shitty ass basketball team. I hope one day we win some games.

@137 Thanks for the tips! I’ll look into that once I have a functional ruleset that’s intelligible to anyone other than me.

I do play some MtG every once in a while, though the current state of Modern kind of makes me not want to. At least Arena is colorful and pseudo-free.

I tried finding pictures of Portis’s ass but pickings, like his body, were slim. He’s no Kyle Lowry, that’s for sure.

@147 JK, if we ever win a chip, can we count on you for musical entertainment at the KB bash? Wherever it is, if I’m still alive, I’m in!

How the fuck

When it comes to self-awareness, Kevin Knox is in the right organization.

Kevin Knox said he used All-Rookie snub as motivation this summer and that will continue through next season: “Yeah, of course I deserved to make it.”

Does he realize that he was ranked 120 out of 120 qualifying players in the entire NBA in FG%?

But pointzzz…

I used to play MTG a lot, like semi-pro level going pro. I used to play a bit with a guy here in Brazil who ended up winning the MTG world championship in 2002. But then the prices for new cards really spiked up a lot when the Brazilian real got devalued related to the dollar and I gave up on going pro because of it, and well, also how much time it took and how much dedication was necessary. I still love the game but I mostly keep away from it in fear of getting dragged in once again.

@153 I want to physically be in New York if and when the Knicks finally win it all. I want to cry and exude unreasonable, intergalactic joy and watch the join in as whole city goes crazy.

No one here in LA would ever understand that level of joy, because they don’t engage in, or understand the concept of, collective sports misery.

When I lived in Syracuse, I didn’t do tabletop but i did play some RPGs. D&D yes, also Palladium/Rifts. Even Deadlands once or twice.
When I was in undergrad, I heard rumors that dudes were losing their academic scholarships over becoming Civ addicts.

Playing modern here too. Im playing HUMANS 😀

@153 I want to physically be in New York if and when the Knicks finally win it all. I want to cry and exude unreasonable, intergalactic joy and watch the join in as whole city goes crazy.

As one of the few serious Knicks fans in Melbourne (outside of a sea of Lakers, Warriors and Heat fans), I can confirm I will be on the first flight to LAX then on to NYC when we win it all.

As one of the few serious Knicks fans in Melbourne (outside of a sea of Lakers, Warriors and Heat fans), I can confirm I will be on the first flight to LAX then on to NYC when we win it all.

Melbourne is a great city. I love it there, could live there happily.

Is it appropriate to post such links here? Like Jowles, I’m a bit uncomfortable about self-promotion/spam on a forum like this. I don’t see any way here on the site to send personal messages, or I’d just offer these links to Mike or anyone else who’d want to PM me.

Should I post an email address here for anyone interested?

Go right ahead.