NY Daily News: The Knicks’ new strategy, whatever it is, requires some explaining

Stefan Bondy actually talks about the Knicks a bit:

It’s hard to blame the Knicks for going radio silent since free agency. Sometimes it’s easier to avoid the uncomfortable questions.

But frankly, the team’s new strategy, whatever it is, requires some explaining. It certainly puts coach David Fizdale in a difficult situation.

The Knicks had a curious offseason, leaving success, or failure, hard to measure.

Are they gunning for a playoff spot?

Are they prioritizing the rebuild and a higher draft pick over winning again?

Are they tiptoeing around both and hoping for the best?

New York spent last season trying to develop its young players and it came at the expense of winning, alienating the veterans while trudging to the worst record in franchise history. Some called it tanking. The Knicks called it developing. There was no identity or consistent playing style, but Fizdale sold the plan as the first stage of a rebuild. Many of the players who the Knicks patted themselves on the back for developing — Emmanuel Mudiay, Noah Vonleh, Trey Burke and Luke Kornet — signed with other teams, leaving us to ask about New York’s 2018-19 campaign: Aside from Mitchell Robinson’s impressive emergence, what was the point of all that?

The front office also billed itself as a culture changer and appealing to great players, a description that felt dubious when they didn’t even get a meeting with a superstar.

Team president Steve Mills then signed several short-term pieces in free agency, including players accustomed to significant playing time and shot attempts. Statistics show that some will have reduced opportunities, and navigating that disappointment will require delicate ego managing from Fizdale. History suggests Fizdale’s on the clock because, when it comes to the Knicks, only Mills and James Dolan are timeless. Mike D’Antoni, who was five coaches ago, is the previous Knicks coach to last beyond his second full season. Fizdale is entering season No. 2 with a record of 17-65.

Not a whole lot of questions we haven’t already asked, but hey, it’s a new Knicks article, which has been a rarity this past week (believe me, I’ve looked!).

SNY: Knicks Q&A: Julius Randle looks ahead to 2019 season

Ian Begley continues his fine work at SNY with a great Q&A with Julius Randle. Some choice quotes…

Speaking on Mitchell Robinson:

Bobby Portis said in an interview with the New York Post that he expects to come off the bench behind Robinson this season. So Randle should play alongside Robinson regularly this season. He’s looking forward to it. “I’m excited man, that kid is going to be amazing,” Randle said. During his free agency meeting with the Knicks, Randle recalls telling Fizdale, “‘When we played I was like, ‘who is this kid?’ Cause every time I went to the basket he was coming out of nowhere. I’m like, ‘Yo, what’s going on?'” Randle said with a grin. “I had no clue who he was. He has so much potential now he’s only scratching the surface and I’m excited to get, on the court with him.”

On his three-point shooting:

“From high school on I’ve always been able to do that. It was just all about opportunity. Sometimes you have to sacrifice and I got to new Orleans and had a great opportunity to do that. I’m just trying to build on that.

So obviously this offseason I’ve been doing a lot of that, trying to build on that and become an even better 3-point shooter. I know what my bread and butter is at the same time though, I’m not going to leave that.”

There’s lots more great quotes. Well worth the read.

NY Post: Development-focused Knicks add ex-Westchester coach Mike Miller to staff

Brian Lewis at the Post brings up an interesting point regarding the Knicks’ promotion of their G-League coach to a position on David Fizdale’s coaching staff (replacing Howard Eisley, who went to go join Juwan Howard’s coaching staff in Michigan).

He notes, :

Miller — not to be confused with the sharpshooting former NBA champ with the Heat — won G League Coach of the Year in 2017-18. Now he gets a promotion to the NBA, filling the last vacancy on David Fizdale’s bench. Miller neatly fits the player-development ethos the Knicks are trying to instill.

“Mike is an accomplished and respected coach who has been an integral member of the Knicks family the last four years with Westchester,” Fizdale said in a statement. “Mike is a great addition to the staff, a relentless worker who shares our approach to the game with an expertise in player development.”

The interesting thing is that, for a team that is supposedly all big on player development, they didn’t seem to have a whole lot of guys known for player development, no? It makes you wonder if there is an avenue here for Miller to make a real name for himself if the Knicks falter out of the gate.

SNY: Mitchell Robinson, Allonzo Trier talk expectations for Knicks’ 2019-20 season

Ian Begley continues his fine work at his new digs with a quick interview with Mitchell Robinson and Allonzo Trier about the upcoming season at the NBA Rookie Development Program.

Trier talked about shooting more threes and Robinson discussed his recurring foul trouble, noting, “I slide my feet more than I did (at the beginning of his rookie season). The game kind of slowed down for me at the end of last season. So the only thing I can do now is pick up where I left off last season, which is continue to stay out of foul trouble and get better.”

TheAthletic: Aldridge: How much better is your team since its season ended?

David Aldridge did his “offseason rankings” of all of the NBA teams at TheAthletic (subscription required and recommended).

Aldridge is very much an “old school” guy when it comes to evaluating teams, but he’s also been around the block so long that it is still somewhat interesting to hear his thoughts (and I’d prefer there be a more recent post than Mitchell Robinson’s knee injury), so I’ll quote you a bit from his Knick write-up. He has them #19 out of 30 teams (strictly in how he viewed their offseason, not based on how good they are – he thought Memphis, for instance, had a great offseason even though they’ll likely suck in 2019-20 and he has the Warriors very low on the list despite them still being a good team, but because they lost one of the best players in the NBA).

No way this was a “successful” offseason, given the Knicks’ ambitions at the start of it. The idea/goal, no matter the spin of the team’s front office now, was to sign Durant and another superstar and start winning immediately, not to fill out the roster with the cap room for two max players on a bunch of solid if unspectacular vets.

Having said that, New York did a good job getting those SIU vets who will at least play hard every night, starting with Randle, while keeping maximum flexibility for 2020 and beyond by not signing any of them, save Randle, for more than two years. David Fizdale will at least be able to coach this team hard and not worry about future repercussions — but, there sure are a lot of forwards on the roster.

The jury’s out leaguewide on Barrett, with some not at all enthralled with his game, while others believe he’s built for the light and heat of Gotham. At the least, the Knicks should put out a product more worthy of the mega-prices fans in the Spike Lee seats — including, of course, Lee — shell out every year.

He also noted that Kevin Knox is the key man for the Knicks, as he is one of their few players who have upside still.

Knicks Morning News (2019.08.09)

  • [SNY Knicks] Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson nursing knee injury at Team USA camp in Las Vegas
    (Thursday, August 08, 2019 6:48:49 PM)

    Knicks fans received a bit of a scare on Thursday when it was learned that Mitchell Robinson has been dealing with a knee injury at Team USA World Cup training camp in Las Vegas.

  • [SNY Knicks] Former Knicks free agency target Kevin Durant: ‘If I was leaving the Warriors, it was always going to be for the Nets’
    (Wednesday, August 07, 2019 6:21:55 PM)

    Kevin Durant offered his thoughts on signing with the Nets and playing with Kyrie Irving for the first time in an interview with Yahoo! Sports.

  • [SNY Knicks] Experts weigh in on the potential silver lining of Kevin Durant’s Achilles injury
    (Wednesday, August 07, 2019 12:51:33 PM)

    As you’d expect, the Nets aren’t providing any timetable for Kevin Durant’s return to the court. What do the experts think?

  • [NYPost] Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson dealing with knee injury at Team USA camp
    (Thursday, August 08, 2019 10:48:58 AM)

    There is online footage out of Team USA’s Las Vegas scrimmages of Knicks center Mitchell Robinson disrupting a De’Aaron Fox drive to the bucket, resulting in a turnover. However, Robinson mostly has been on the sidelines during his week as a member of the US Select Team, which is a group of young NBA players…

  • [NYPost] Kevin Durant tell-all: Hard Knicks truth and Warriors relief
    (Wednesday, August 07, 2019 2:49:01 PM)

    Kevin Durant finally has broken his silence. And his words likely will trigger Knicks fans’ pain — and delight Nets fans big time. “If I was leaving the Warriors, it was always going to be for the Nets,” Durant told Yahoo Sports in his first comments since his stunning free-agency decision. “They got the pieces…

  • [NYPost] Kenyon Martin: Knicks’ free-agency disasters start with James Dolan
    (Tuesday, August 06, 2019 12:21:26 PM)

    Kenyon Martin’s 15-year career included a brief, 54-game stint with the Knicks. It was enough to see why they have the NBA’s worst record this century. Following another disappointing offseason, in which two of the best free agents in years (Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving) chose to play in New York, but bypassed the city’s most…

  • [NBA] Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson dealing with knee injury at Team USA camp
    (Thursday, August 08, 2019 10:48:58 AM)

    There is online footage out of Team USA’s Las Vegas scrimmages of Knicks center Mitchell Robinson disrupting a De’Aaron Fox drive to the bucket, resulting in a turnover. However, Robinson mostly has been on the sidelines during his week as a member of the US Select Team, which is a group of young NBA players…

  • [NBA] Kevin Durant tell-all: Hard Knicks truth and Warriors relief
    (Wednesday, August 07, 2019 2:49:01 PM)

    Kevin Durant finally has broken his silence. And his words likely will trigger Knicks fans’ pain — and delight Nets fans big time. “If I was leaving the Warriors, it was always going to be for the Nets,” Durant told Yahoo Sports in his first comments since his stunning free-agency decision. “They got the pieces…

  • [NBA] Kenyon Martin: Knicks’ free-agency disasters start with James Dolan
    (Tuesday, August 06, 2019 12:21:26 PM)

    Kenyon Martin’s 15-year career included a brief, 54-game stint with the Knicks. It was enough to see why they have the NBA’s worst record this century. Following another disappointing offseason, in which two of the best free agents in years (Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving) chose to play in New York, but bypassed the city’s most…

  • NY Post: Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson dealing with knee injury at Team USA camp

    Marc Berman freaks us all out:

    According to a Team USA source, Robinson suffered a knee injury and missed the first two days of practice, beginning with an informal workout Sunday. He returned for two days, but re-injured the knee Wednesday.

    Robinson was expected to miss Thursday’s set of scrimmages and practice. A member of the Knicks training staff is in Vegas with Robinson. According to a source close to Robinson, he’s been experiencing “just soreness,” and the team and his camp are being extra cautious after an MRI turned up clean. The scrimmages end Friday.

    The Knicks were set to have a member on the main Team USA roster, but power forward Julius Randle was a last-second pullout, citing a family issue.

    Robinson, after being named second-team All-Rookie in the spring, is coming off a solid summer-league showing in Sin City. Robinson played all five games and was named to the first-team All-Summer League.

    Not dire, but certainly concerning!

    By the way, I love the idea of the Summer League having a “First Team.” “Oh yeah, well, I was first team in the Summer League!”

    Knicks Morning News (2019.08.08)

  • [NYPost] Kevin Durant tell-all: Hard Knicks truth and Warriors relief
    (Wednesday, August 07, 2019 2:49:01 PM)

    Kevin Durant finally has broken his silence. And his words likely will trigger Knicks fans’ pain — and delight Nets fans big time. “If I was leaving the Warriors, it was always going to be for the Nets,” Durant told Yahoo Sports in his first comments since his stunning free-agency decision. “They got the pieces…

  • [NYPost] Kenyon Martin: Knicks’ free-agency disasters start with James Dolan
    (Tuesday, August 06, 2019 12:21:26 PM)

    Kenyon Martin’s 15-year career included a brief, 54-game stint with the Knicks. It was enough to see why they have the NBA’s worst record this century. Following another disappointing offseason, in which two of the best free agents in years (Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving) chose to play in New York, but bypassed the city’s most…

  • [NYPost] DeAndre Jordan plans on adapting his game to fit with Nets
    (Sunday, August 04, 2019 2:18:07 PM)

    The NBA is like evolution. And Nets center DeAndre Jordan knows it’s adapt or die. Last season with the Knicks wasn’t Jordan’s best, in terms of either playing time or production, and scouts told The Post he’s not as mobile at 31 as he was at 21. But Jordan said he’s learned from last season,…

  • [NYPost] Knicks’ Julius Randle joins long list to withdraw from Team USA
    (Sunday, August 04, 2019 6:37:07 AM)

    While Team USA remains the favorite to win the FIBA World Cup, the odds of a Knick helping defend the back-to-back titles just got slimmer. Due to a family matter, Julius Randle withdrew from the team’s training camp roster a day before practices began Sunday in Las Vegas, USA Basketball announced. The Knicks’ top free-agent…

  • [SNY Knicks] Former Knicks free agency target Kevin Durant: ‘If I was leaving the Warriors, it was always going to be for the Nets’
    (Wednesday, August 07, 2019 6:21:55 PM)

    Kevin Durant offered his thoughts on signing with the Nets and playing with Kyrie Irving for the first time in an interview with Yahoo! Sports.

  • [SNY Knicks] Julius Randle withdraws from USA Basketball’s FIBA World Cup training camp
    (Sunday, August 04, 2019 6:32:11 PM)

    Julius Randle has withdrawn from USA Basketball FIBA World Cup training camp due to a “family matter.”

  • [SNY Knicks] Experts weigh in on the potential silver lining of Kevin Durant’s Achilles injury
    (Wednesday, August 07, 2019 12:51:33 PM)

    As you’d expect, the Nets aren’t providing any timetable for Kevin Durant’s return to the court. What do the experts think?

  • NBA.com Canada: How RJ Barrett can impact the New York Knicks in his rookie season

    Gilbert McGregor makes the case for the Knicks’ newest great hope

    At Duke, Barrett averaged 4.3 assists per game, a mark that was second on the team and sixth among all players in the ACC. With even more talented players around him in the NBA, Barrett will continue to be able to create for others.

    In Summer League, Barrett’s playmaking ability was on full display in one game as he flirted with a triple-double by recording 21 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds.

    Thanks to his rebounding and ball-handling ability, Barrett will have plenty of opportunities to lead the break in transition with a team full of young athletes capable of running the floor.

    In these instances, there will be no shortage of highlights as Barrett’s assist numbers are sure to benefit.

    In half-court situations, Barrett has shown the ability to be patient in pick-and-roll situations. During the Blue Devils NCAA Tournament win over Virginia Tech, he was aggressively hedged and trapped after high ball screens on multiple possessions.

    His response? Calmly escape, finding the open men for easy buckets

    Is it mostly wishcasting? Yeah, probably, but the big thing is that Barrett is the first Knick since Porzingis that you reasonably could wishcast a superstar career on, and this is the first wing that we could do this about since…uhmmm…Bernard King? It’s been quite a while!

    So I’m all in on Barrett being a great playmaker and a transformative player! You sort of have to to have any hope for this particular Knicks team.

    Knicks Morning News (2019.08.07)

  • [SNY Knicks] Julius Randle withdraws from USA Basketball’s FIBA World Cup training camp
    (Sunday, August 04, 2019 6:32:11 PM)

    Julius Randle has withdrawn from USA Basketball FIBA World Cup training camp due to a “family matter.”

  • [NYPost] Kenyon Martin: Knicks’ free-agency disasters start with James Dolan
    (Tuesday, August 06, 2019 12:21:26 PM)

    Kenyon Martin’s 15-year career included a brief, 54-game stint with the Knicks. It was enough to see why they have the NBA’s worst record this century. Following another disappointing offseason, in which two of the best free agents in years (Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving) chose to play in New York, but bypassed the city’s most…

  • [NYPost] DeAndre Jordan plans on adapting his game to fit with Nets
    (Sunday, August 04, 2019 2:18:07 PM)

    The NBA is like evolution. And Nets center DeAndre Jordan knows it’s adapt or die. Last season with the Knicks wasn’t Jordan’s best, in terms of either playing time or production, and scouts told The Post he’s not as mobile at 31 as he was at 21. But Jordan said he’s learned from last season,…

  • [NYPost] Knicks’ Julius Randle joins long list to withdraw from Team USA
    (Sunday, August 04, 2019 6:37:07 AM)

    While Team USA remains the favorite to win the FIBA World Cup, the odds of a Knick helping defend the back-to-back titles just got slimmer. Due to a family matter, Julius Randle withdrew from the team’s training camp roster a day before practices began Sunday in Las Vegas, USA Basketball announced. The Knicks’ top free-agent…

  • [NYPost] Forgotten Yankees: Honoring the one team that nearly had it all
    (Saturday, August 03, 2019 1:03:13 PM)

    They will never have an Old-Timer’s Day set aside for them. There are times it seems the season they had and all the games they won didn’t happen in real life, but in a movie, some direct-to-video sequel of “Major League.” But for those who remember the 1994 Yankees, Saturday was a seminal anniversary. Because…