Knicks Morning News (2019.07.20)

  • [YahooSports] Report: Spurs ‘pissed’ over Marcus Morris signing with the Knicks
    (Friday, July 19, 2019 6:27:39 PM)

    Expect the San Antonio Spurs to ratchet up the intensity when they take on the New York Knicks next season. The Spurs were reportedly “pissed” that Marcus Morris spurned them to sign in New York, according to Frank Isola of The Athletic. Morris and the Spurs reportedly had a “handshake agreement,” but no contract had been signed yet.

  • [Newsday] Report: Spurs ‘pissed’ over Marcus Morris signing with the Knicks
    (Friday, July 19, 2019 6:27:39 PM)

    Expect the San Antonio Spurs to ratchet up the intensity when they take on the New York Knicks next season. The Spurs were reportedly “pissed” that Marcus Morris spurned them to sign in New York, according to Frank Isola of The Athletic. Morris and the Spurs reportedly had a “handshake agreement,” but no contract had been signed yet.

  • [NYPost] RJ Barrett’s Knicks summer league breakdown: ‘He’s not the savior’
    (Friday, July 19, 2019 5:28:57 PM)

    Knicks rookie RJ Barrett completed summer league last weekend with a Las Vegas bang, posting 21 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. After looking horrendous in the first two games, the former Duke stud got better with each one that followed. But as his 33.8 overall shooting percentage in the five games showed, there were…

  • [SNY Knicks] Spurs may be angry over Marcus Morris, but sources explain how bad blood could go back to Kristaps Porzingis
    (Friday, July 19, 2019 11:07:59 AM)

    The Spurs and Knicks are both pointing the finger at each other for acting outside the acceptable NBA norms in different situations.

    • 41 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2019.07.20)”

    Sounds like it. Perhaps they were pushing to get him to just take the QO from the Knicks and join them in 2020.

    Can’ t wait to see the new move Harden has that is NOT traveling. Lol

    I’ve been thinking Chris Paul a lot as a possible trade option. With the team we have, it might make sense to bring him aboard after December 15 or whenever the new FAs can be traded. I know it ties up mega cap space in an aging star, but for the next 2 years we might have sort of an oddball big 3 and a very deep team with a lot of options. I wouldn’t offer anything beyond the current PGs and vets to make the salaries match. Maybe could be talked into including the protected Dallas pick. Thoughts?

    Count me in as a giant “no” for trading assets for aging stars on toxic contracts.

    I wouldn’t take the Chris Paul contract even in a trade for Portis, Gibson and whatever other short term contracts we have kicking around. He had a 100 point dropoff in WS48 last year, and he has three years left at $40M+ AAV, for his age 34, 35 and 36 seasons.

    That’s a really good way to buy yourself three years of irrelevance. Not that we’re not irrelevant already, but it’s a good way to lock in the irrelevance.

    I think Paul can still be moved without assets, so I wouldn’t mind him if it was just DSJ and some of the pointless free agents. I don’t think it puts the team in a worse spot and we get to see Paul/Mitch play together, which would be ay-mazing.

    Then Paul could be traded later.

    To trade Paul later you have to find a team that can take on $40M of salary. I’d rather just stick with a rebuild but that’s never gonna happen so whatever. We’re stuck in Pistons hell and that isn’t going to be changing.

    Yeah, big difference if the deal has assets coming back vs. going out. The good thing is that there is virtually no chance for a deal before we will have gotten a really good look at the PGs we have. If either DSjr or Payton or even Frank (god help him!) steps up, much better to roll with what we have.

    but I think Paul still has a lot left in the tank. Not $44 mill per year worth in year 3, but possibly enough to make sense if a couple of #1’s come back.

    Owen is right. The only reason you trade for paul is if you think it entices Giannis which I don’t think it does.

    If none of our pg’s look promising, I’d look to put together a package for D’Lo. He doesn’t fit the Warriors, but could work well here with Mitch and Randle.

    I also think that Paul was never a great match for D’Antoni’s system at this stage of his career, especially with a highly ball-dominant Harden as the focal point. But his b-ball IQ is so high, I could see him having a massive positive impact on the right team, and that includes the current Knicks. He would turn Mitch into an absolute monster, might turn Knox into a legit dive threat, would teach RJ the ropes, and would get Randle the ball in the right spots.

    Chris is not worth even half
    Of that salary for his injury prone twlight years

    The team should have made an aggressive bid to sign D-Lo in the first place. I’d feel pretty good about this offseason if they had signed D-Lo to a minimax, then given the contracts to Randle and maybe a couple of the other short term pieces. A lineup of Russell, Barrett, Morris, Randle and Robinson might have been kind of saucy to watch.

    Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that….again, unless there are a couple of the #1’s OKC picked up attached to him. Then I would think long and hard about it.

    We’re stuck in Pistons hell and that isn’t going to be changing.

    JK, I normally respect your opinions, but this comparison is over the top. Here’s a list of Pistons players under 23 years old:

    Jordan Bone
    Bruce Brown
    Sekou Doumbaya
    Thon Maker
    Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk
    Deividas Sirvydis

    Griffin, Drummond and Jackson make a combined $79.4MM

    We have Mitch, RJ and Knox (and Frank, but he’s kind of a lost cause) and a ton of cap flexibility going forward. Not saying we’re in basketball nirvana or anything, but I’d WAY rather be in our position than Detroit’s.

    I also think that Paul was never a great match for D’Antoni’s system at this stage of his career, especially with a highly ball-dominant Harden as the focal point.

    I was listening to someone’s podcast and they said CP’s per 36 points/assists with Harden on the floor was 12/8 and with Harden off the floor 22/12…. read into that what one might.

    I don’t think we ever had a shot at D’Lo because he was part of the Durant deal. I’d give GS any players except Barrett, Mitch or Randle and one of the Dallas picks in a heartbeat. How could they say no?

    Even though he’s short, I think CP3 will age like Jason Kidd. Not worth anywhere near the max or even above $15-20 million but a very valuable player at the right price.

    again, unless there are a couple of the #1’s OKC picked up attached to him. Then I would think long and hard about it.

    Oh, I thought that you meant just giving up DSJ and some useless pieces for him. I didn’t know you were looking for picks from OKC in the deal. I don’t think Presti plans on including picks to get rid of Paul. I think he’s willing to wait until someone is willing to give him assets for Paul rather than him using assets to dump Pail. He has so many picks that he can let Paul expire if need be.

    Wishful thinking re: players >32 ain’t a viable rebuilding strategy

    It’s just that third year, when you’re hoping Mitch is a star and some of the other pieces have developed, you’ve got that big fat $44M salary sitting on the books for a 36-year old point guard who was hobbled at age 33. I don’t really see it but honestly it would probably be better than what this front office eventually ends up doing. So there’s that.

    #DolansRazor

    Getting CP3 seems to me like buying a vintage Lamborghini from the 80s and bringing it on the mountain farm for the farm works.

    I think Paul is the #3 point guard of the modern era, after Magic and Stockton. But you have to watch him play (on top of the numbers, which, as others have noted, have already plummeted) to get a sense of what’s changed in the last few years. The guy still has brilliant vision on the floor but he struggles mightily to get to the rim like he used to, and he’s not finishing efficiently anymore. It’s only going to get worse, and it can get much, much worse. Chris Paul without dribble-oriented separation ability is going to be a horrendous basketball player, and he’s already lost that step. A bit harder to see is that he’s diminished as a shooter from everywhere on the floor.

    Is he bad? No, but remind yourself of Melo’s final two seasons — he wasn’t nearly that bad as a Knick, and yet was a shell of his former self not six months later.

    I was listening to someone’s podcast and they said CP’s per 36 points/assists with Harden on the floor was 12/8 and with Harden off the floor 22/12…. read into that what one might

    Kind of makes you wonder how this Westbrook Harden combo will work out. The two most ball dominant guards in the league, together. Doesn’t seem ideal.

    Kind of makes you wonder how this Westbrook Harden combo will work out. The two most ball dominant guards in the league, together. Doesn’t seem ideal.

    The only way it makes sense if if they play them both 34 minutes a game with them both on the floor the first and last 5 minutes and have one of them on the floor by themselves 24 minutes each totally dominating the game and both fresh at crunch time (which has been Harden’s bugaboo the past 2 seasons)

    Playing with season finders show some interesting stuff for an aging Durant. He will likely miss next season and will play for the Nyets his 32, 33, 34 and 35 year seasons. :lloing at players selecting for 28 mpg, 20 ppg with efficiency ws/48 = .160 or better we get:

    https://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/psl_finder.cgi?request=1&match=single&type=per_game&per_minute_base=36&per_poss_base=100&season_start=1&season_end=-1&lg_id=NBA&age_min=32&age_max=35&is_playoffs=N&height_min=78&height_max=83&birth_country_is=Y&as_comp=gt&as_val=0&pos_is_g=Y&pos_is_gf=Y&pos_is_f=Y&pos_is_fg=Y&pos_is_fc=Y&pos_is_c=Y&pos_is_cf=Y&c1stat=mp_per_g&c1comp=gt&c1val=28&c2stat=pts_per_g&c2comp=gt&c2val=20&c3stat=ws_per_48&c3comp=gt&c3val=.160&order_by=ws

    Cliffs notes…. The Nyets better win big in 21 or 22 because only one player has produced at this level one single season at 35. Lebron will probably make it 2 soon.

    It appears as Wooten has been signed to an Exhibit 10 contract so he can be stashed in the G league and play a lot of minutes and the after the Knicks dump/trade some of their 1 + 1 players or deem a two way player less valuable, then they can sign him to a regular mitch-esque contract…. if he pans out.

    I am so happy that Wooten got that deal and that the Knicks have him in the organization, even if it’s at Westchester.

    So 50 years ago my mother took her 11yo boy to Times Square to watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. I remember it as if it was yesterday, One of my best and most memorable kid moments. Thanks Mom, miss you!

    I’m watching the CNN Apollo 11 documentary right now..I didn’t recollect that the Ted Kennedy Chappaquiddick incident happened at that time.

    The Spurs thing is kind of a spicy meatball. We traded a player they wanted, probably bad. Signed a player they had, maybe good. And we have a front office possibly vengefully sticking it to another organization.

    It doesn’t feel on brand but I am kind of getting a major kick out of us having screwed the Spurs. Even though it was dumb. I think the heat is getting to me.

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