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.
88 replies on “TheAthletic: Aldridge: How much better is your team since its season ended?”
i wonder if either perry or mills ever noticed that…
there were some numbers showing just how much everyone around jones sucked at duke (dropped balls, pressures)…
what was interesting about his game yesterday was that on the passes he completed – supposedly none of the receivers were considered “open”…not really sure what the criteria for that is, but, it’s a good sign for him…
if we ever do make it to the playoffs again – i think it bodes well having a guy like jones in there…
was watching that free solo movie a while back and it was discussed briefly just how hard it was for Alex Honnold to be stimulated:
“That kid’s amygdala isn’t firing.”
sure, skill is important, there is something though to be said for being “cool under pressure”…hell, eli has two rings to show for it…
i love this thread
The Mets’ offensive core of McNeil, Alonso, Conforto and Davis can really rake. I’ve been very critical of Brodie Van Wagenen but he does deserve credit for two very good moves: he got JD Davis for nothing, and he stole an extra first round quality pick in this year’s draft.
hey man
@1
People have been memeing this do death but it’s not actually true. Portis will play Center, as will Gibson occasionally, and then there’s Randle at the 4 with them and then Morris occasionally, who will also play 3 with Knox. It’s one player more than I think they should have, but considering injuries happen and Gibson shouldn’t be expected to play much anyway (and we can expect Mitch to be in foul trouble sometimes still), it’s not so crazy.
I don’t get the point of signing some of those particular players, but the problem is not that they’re forwards, is that they don’t provide much value or upside.
OMFG that Mets game
I’m really happy with how the Mets have been playing as of late. Call me crazy, but I’m not ready to give up on the division. The Braves are really good but our pitching and hitting is heating up at the right time, and we might have stolen an upgrade over Cano in Joe Panik (don’t quote me on that because I’m still not comfortable with baseball analytics). I’m really enjoying these Summer Mets, and it’s making the NFL/NBA offseasons easier to deal with.
Panik has completely gone south with the bat over the past two seasons, he has a feeble batted ball profile and doesn’t hit anything but singles, and not even very many of those. But he’s still pretty good in the field according to defensive metrics and he’s a lefty bat, so hes probably an upgrade over Hechavarria at least.
The real value to come out of developing Mudiay last year, both offseason and inseason as well, was to refine the process of developing a 1. I’m seeing that refinement in how DSJr is developing this offseason, as acquires pieces large (improved jump shot) and small (more fit and better bbIQ).
I can see both DSJr and Payton are both going to have good seasons, which is a good problem to have. And they will complement each other well.
Watching the end of the Mets game last night, I pretty much expected them to win. Quite an amazing run, but you wonder when it will all come crashing down. Have they “peaked too early?”
They have enough starting pitching and maybe enough hitting to stay in it. Panik might make the up the middle D better since he’s not a statue like Cano was (and will be again, next year).
I hope BVW noticed how the run is being fueled by home grown talent. Please stop giving away prospects for garbage (i.e. the 5 he gave away last offseason, inc. two blue chippers).
I was kind of shocked the Nats left Doolittle in for all of that 9th inning. I mean, wow.
I know there are some fed up with the politics on this site, but I can’t believe I’m the only with serious doubts about the Jeffrey Epstein “suicide” that happened last night.
I’m not into conspiracy theories, and dude had a lot of reasons to kill himself.
It still smells bad.
@12, Nillakilla, I’m with you. After the first “suicide” he was on “suicide watch”. So how’d they miss the “suicide”?
@14
Because they supposedly took him off “suicide watch.” How convenient, huh?
Oh, he was killed for sure. Who can doubt that powerful people involved with a paedophilia ring would do that? He might have committed suicide, but the amount of pressure that would be on him by those guys is very likely the reason if that was the case.
I’m not totally sure. If he wanted to die, he could have bribed people to take him off suicide watch.
Except that the reports before his “suicide” show he was in good spirits in recent days, and that he reported to authorities that “someone tried to kill in a previous incident weeks earlier.”
And there was the issue of this meathead assaulting and nearly killing him beforehand. Said meathead, who was a dirty Westchester cop with underworld connections, had a cell phone hidden in his cell, BTW.
Here is an interesting three part series of articles (1, 2, 3) running through the documented record of Epstein’s decades long connection to a whole host of figures in both sides of aisle in Washington, the international intelligence community, organized crime, scummy law firms, and Wall Street. The problem isn’t that one powerful figure like a Trump or Clinton wanted him dead, but that many did.
So fucking good to gut punch the Nats!
I’d say the Mets are hot at exactly the right time- this is the most important stretch of their season with just one series outside the NL East going into September. If they continue winning series, anything including the division is possible.
It would be great if the Mets could get Nimmo and Dom Smith back at some point. Right now their starting position players are quite good but their depth is abysmal.
Totally agree on the Epstein. Come on.
Makes me wish there was an afterlife so that all those who escape justice in this world hey it in the next… All those people who he would have implicated… The absolute worst human beings.
That Cano injury is gonna help, too. They needed to get McNeil back in the infield to play any of the guys coming back
Mitch bought his mother a car. That’s the only positive thing I have seen today on Twitter….
Holy shit the Mets are on fiyah! Guillorme just became Roy Hobbs.
Mets win again!
The much welcome recent Mets surge ( Luis Guillorme hits a game-tying homer; wtf) gives rise to two Knicks’ connections:
1. Relative Deprivation (adapted from sociology)- As a fan, it is awesome to witness late-season meaningful games. At the same time, it brings to mind that it has been five years since Knick fans have been rewarded with a meaningful game. This feeling has to impact players in varying degrees.
2. Impact on existing core players and potential free agents. In an interview, Keith Hernandez talked about the positive impact of meaningful games on the Mets’ young core and lauded BVW for being a buyer at the trading deadline. Because the Knicks do not have a young core to speak of at this moment,FO has a much tougher row to hoe in trying to at least be on the path to meaningful games as a means to be a destination for free agents. One only has to look at BK to see the impact of meaningful games, and their impact on the perception of potential free agents. As much of a diva KP was the absence of a road towards meaningful games seemed to inform his decisions and impact the perception of Durant and others.
Brodie seems to have kind of stumbled into the success the Mets are now having. He inherited a lot of cost-controlled talent and didn’t do a lot to add to that core. He did steal JD Davis though, which turned out to be a huge coup. And really nobody could have guessed Edwin Diaz would be this terrible.
And he didn’t pull the trigger on sub-optimal Wheeler and Syndergaard trades, so he deserves some credit for that. Maybe he’s getting better at this.
If you’ve been following that story for a long time, you the know some of the names already connected to his plane and island. You can imagine the names we don’t know.
Since everyone with a brain predicted he’d never live to testify, then was either attacked or tried to commit suicide, and then still didn’t have proper 24 hour security, it’s kind of obvious he was either killed or allowed to commit suicide. Sometimes occam razor is appropriate!
There are still plenty of victim witnesses, but there will no longer be a criminal trial to drag out more names and crimes. There’s going to be a civil trial where victims will be more concerned about getting a piece of his estate than “committing suicide” also.
If you’ve been following the Epstein story for a long time, you the know some of the names already connected to his plane and island. You can imagine the names we don’t know.
Loads of people predicted he’d never live to testify. Then he was either attacked or tried to commit suicide and still didn’t have proper 24 hour security. It’s kind of obvious he was either “silenced” or allowed to commit suicide. Sometimes occam razor is appropriate!
There are still plenty of victim witnesses, but there will no longer be a criminal trial to drag out more names and crimes. There’s going to be a civil trial where victims will be more concerned about getting a piece of his estate than worrying about making it to the next day.
Well can’t win ’em all I guess
Edwin Diaz sucks very reliably
And you can imagine how much political pressure will be placed upon the executor of the estate from the politicos who don’t want any “discovery” in this sordid mess.
I’m sure there won’t be any “Avenatti’s” trying to breech any confidentiality agreements the victims will be forced to sign…..
And no “Grand Jury” testimony will “leak” to the NY Times….. The innocent must be protected yadda, yadda, yadda the double standards will be pretty loltastic.
What cloud are you yelling at today, bob?
And now Al Gore’s former lawyer David Boies reps the Epstein victims. The latest tranch of documents from yesterday shows Gore partied with Epstein? Weird coincidence, huh?
.
OMFG that Mets game
I was at the sports book at the Philly casino at the time. The reactions from both sides of the betting during that inning were insane.
Yeah, Epstein is the most obvious fake suicide since D’Angelo Barksdale.
That’s pretty funny coming from you. Aren’t you the guy that bet your soul that the 2016 election was won through a cabal with Russia that Weismann and he merry band of Clinton donors couldn’t substantiate??????????? L O fin L……
BUt yeah…. a bazillionaire pedophile that has had everyone with him from British Royalty to Bill Clinton to a gaggle of rich Americans on both sides of the aisle, who just happened to try “suicide” last week somehow commits “suicide” in solitary right under the noses of everyone……
It appears Mayor deBlasio agrees with me for the first time in his life. From the BBC:
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said it “way too convenient” that Epstein could no longer incriminate others.
“What a lot of us want to know is, what did he know?” Mr de Blasio, who is also running for the Democratic presidential nomination, told reporters in Iowa.
“How many other millionaires and billionaires were part of the illegal activities that he was engaged in?
“Well, that information didn’t die with Jeffrey Epstein. That needs to be investigated, too.”
Ntillakilla made a pretty good point about Epstein the other day: it wasn’t just political figures who might want him dead, that scandal has tentacles into the worlds of organized crime and the international intelligence community too.
So many people would benefit from him being dead this is practically a “Who Shot JR” scenario.
Epstein was told when he would be taken off suicide watch. That much I am willing to wager.
I’m taking the under on that one. A guy tries to commit “suicide” less than a week ago. Through what process can anyone make a tangible argument that 5 days later he is no longer a suicide risk???? I mean come on! There were so many people that could be “off the hook” now that he can’t testify against them they well need Sherlock Holmes to find who is responsible.
They guy claimed he survived an attempted murder. The state called it an attempted suicide and 5 days later he is off suicide watch???? The excuse is the guards worked so much overtime the neglected to check on him. AND the camera wasn’t trained on public enemy #1’s cell.
That’s quite a fairy tale…. with a lot of rich/powerful people benefiting
Assuming Epstein knew he now had many enemies, wouldn’t he think to insure himself by encrypting data on them and stashing it somewhere safe? I wonder if there’s a treasure hunt already under way.
There’s probably a screenplay idea here.
You always hear about this “kill switch” sort of thing but that seems more like it’s something from the movies. Supposedly Julian Assange has something like this, and also John McAfee. At any rate, if Epstein did have some sort of “kill switch” thumb drive or something it certainly didn’t save his life.
It sure didn’t.
He also had an incentive to destroy as much evidence as possible to save himself, so maybe no stashed away kill switch.
Damn. True
I bet the suicide was fake. He’s into the ether. Now they’ll come for Maxwell and she’ll catch the worst of it. Cause you know its always women and POC who take the brunt in the patriarchy .
Yeah but, if it weren’t for all his dangerous connections this would sound a lot like a lot of the other stories that have come out of the MCC. It’s a poorly run hell hole and has been for years.
Who thought I would be wishing for a rowdy dust up about libertarianism….
Our FIBA squad is pretty lackluster. Bagley has some balls dropping out after they cut Bam to put him on final roster. Not that I blame him for not wanting to play – I don’t want Mitch to play, just seems strange.
In other news, I have absolutely nothing nba related to bring to the table this monday morning….
I was thinking that for a moment also, then I thought about mitch getting to work with that excellent USA coaching staff…really good opportunity for him to learn basketball working with pop and kerr….
My guess is there are probably losses Epstein’s partners are willing to accept after his black book was leaked to the press. The term “limited hangout” is used in spy circles to describe a concept whereby intelligence agents whose operations have been exposed resort to leaking some of the truth while keeping the most incriminating facts hidden as a way of baiting the public away from the entire story. Whether or not intelligence agency figures were involved in this, I think the concept applies. A whole trove of documents have been unsealed for us to look at while Epstein dies under very suspect circumstances. Meanwhile, his known associate and co-trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell is a ghost, nowhere to be found for prosecution.
There were reports of sex tapes by one of his accusers. Who knows what happened to them? My own guess is that there was no saving Epstein since he was already nabbed for the worst crime you can possibly charge someone of. And since he has no family or anyone to threaten him with, the guy had nothing to lose by blackmailing co-conspirators.
If he wasn’t dealing with what appear to be minor recurring injuries I’d be excited about this.
Some of the folks who looked into his finances came to this conclusion. His investors being coerced was the simplest explanation for his wealth since his funds didn’t produce.
Even dealing with minor injuries, it’s gotta be good for Robinson to be around all the good coaches and good players.
Schedule drops at 3 today?
Hey, here’s a nice article on one of Epstein’s girls success stories.
Well, i don’t see the link posting. Just search Gulfstream pilot Epstein, aks Golbal Girl.
that’s kind of what i was thinking also…i mean, you can’t stick the kid in a bubble…he’s gonna be somewhere doing something…might as well be around pop learning about fine dining and the art of wine…
i’m actually a little surprised that with all the numerous injuries and players declining to participate young mister knox never got a call…
actually, no i am not surprised at all 🙂
if you are out there reading this kevin, we kid because we care…
hey, i just checked the team roster – what was mitch doing there anyway – just helping them scrimmage?
I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do
They’re really saying I love you
I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more than I’ll never know
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world
Interesting stuff, @50, @51, @53, thanks.
@59 what a horrible thing this is. I wish it turns out to be fake news but it’s probably not.
His whole history as a billionaire hedge fund manager is one of the most bizarre stories in this whole bizarre affair, the type of stuff you’d read in some kind of Len Deighton spy novel. Here was a guy who, despite dropping out of college twice by the age of 20, was hired to be a math teacher at a very exclusive Manhattan prep school run by Donald Barr (father of Trump’s current Attorney General Bill Barr), a former officer in the Office of Strategic Service, the WWII intelligence agency which was the precursor to the CIA. While teaching for a couple of years before being canned for creepy leching Epstein was hired by Allan Greenberg, Bear Stearns CEO and the father of two of his students, where rose to rank of limited partner in just four years. After leaving Bear Stearns Epstein opens his own consulting firm where he tracks down and covers up embezzled funds for high-powered clients, like Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi businessman who was the middleman in transferring American weapons from Israel to Iran as part of the Iran–Contra affair. During this time Epstein told multiple witnesses he was an intelligence agent, even possessing an Austrian passport that had his photo but a false name, showing his place of residency in Saudi Arabia. By the time Alexander Acosta handled Epstein’s criminal case in 2008 as Florida District Attorney, he stated that he had been told that Epstein “belonged to intelligence”, was “above his pay grade” and to “leave it alone”.
where’s the fucking schedule?
i guess my point was – that while as morbidly fascinating as the epstein stuff is – man, the absolutely enormous mind numbing tragedy of the issue it touches is pretty damn depressing…
more so, cuz it’s just one issue among many that touches on the very complex concept of human rights and where we are as a species…which who knows – may not even fit in with “intelligent design”, evolution and all that…
oh well, at least we’re not using each other as a food source – yet…
https://twitter.com/NY_KnicksPR/status/1160992200144150529
At Cleveland on MLK day???
What the fuck! Why are they fucking with our tradition??
Kinda want to go to NOLA for the Pels game in March. Figure Zion will be in shape by then
The Knicks invented the idea of basketball games on Christmas and MLK day. It’s fucked up that now we have neither.
Go ahead and promote other teams, if you want, but let MSG hold on to its traditions. What do they gain by pissing off old Knicks fans?
I want a game on Christmas, but I can understand the networks might worry about bad ratings for a premiere tv day, but I don’t understand why that would apply to ML K day.
Rough opening of season: @SAS, @BKN, BOS;
Getting shitfaced in NO with a bunch of Knickerbloggers as we watch the latest generational talent wasting away in another uniform, despite us being the worst team in the league last year? Sign me up.
Yeah, that is a disappointing schedule. The Lions have never been good and the NFL still lets them loose on Thanksgiving. Then again, does the Lions’ ownership present the same risk of a PR gaffe as our James Dolan?
Giving the Knicks an MLK Day away game in Cleveland is insult to injury though. If the Knicks were totally excluded you could understand it as the league co-opting the holiday as a showcase event and emphasizing their best players, teams, and rivalries, with the Knicks belonging in none of those conversations. Exclusion also shields the Knicks from the inevitable negative press during that type of event. It’s so pitiful watching the Knicks get waxed on Christmas while the national narrative around them is always, “The Knicks: Still Terrible.” Maybe less bad publicity helps the Knicks get out from under their sad sack image.
in the first 20 or so we do see cleveland, and chicago twice each and charlotte once…maybe we’ll reach 7 or 8 wins by the start of december…or, maybe sometime by the all-star break 🙂
i see a total of six nationally televised games this year…i think we were around 2o something last year (actually i think that included league pass free previews)…
we may finally be bottoming out as far as franchise perception…we’ve eliminated a lot of the drama around the club…but, we’re still really bad at basketball…
Man, how great would it be to torch the Celts in our home opener? It’s the 2nd game of a back-to-back for both teams. Celts will have played @ Philly and home vs. Toronto so maybe they’re more road-weary than us?
Well I will say I like our first three games better than the Celtics schedule.
The Knicks not playing a home matinee on MLKJr Day is a goddamned travesty. I’m legitimately fucking angry right now.
I’m sick of watching the Knicks lose on Christmas but the mlk game in Cleveland is bullshit
IIRC didn’t the Knicks miss a Christmas game in about 08/09? I could be wrong about that though. Upside is I won’t have to get up at 5:00 am on boxing day morning to watch the Knicks get demolished nursing the traditional yuletide hangover. That being said, I would really love to see the league set up some real rivalry games for Christmas. The last few years it seems to be pretty arbitrary match-ups for the most part.
The Knicks have missed a lot of Xmas day games. We invented the tradition in the late 1940s. Then for three years straight in the 80s, the Knicks had memorable Christmas games that drew a lot of national attention (including the famous Trent Tucker game and Bernard King scoring 60 pts). That’s when the league realized its potential. And then Jordan happened, and the Xmas game became Chicago’s annual showcase. Fair enough, that’s smart as hell.
I’m not saying the Knicks need to be showcased. But you can let us play a locally televised game while you showcase your other teams.
Not having a home game on MLK Day is really depressing. I used to take my son every year, and during a timeout they’d play “Happy Birthday” by Stevie Wonder and put MLK up on the big screen and I’d get goosebumps.
A sad day indeed.
I was understanding of not putting this shitshow of a team on national holiday TV until d-mar’s post
This aggression will not stand
I was the opposite. My dad took me every year as a young boy. As I got older I would take him. We didn’t go every year, but I’m 41 years old and I’d wager I’ve been to 25 MLK day matinees with my dad.
One of my favorite moments of my sports life was Knicks Suns, MLK day 1993 when Barkley went nuts after the game. That was a great game.
I went to a bunch of Christmas day games because my fellow season ticket holders all celebrated Christmas and I wasn’t married to my catholic wife yet. The best one by far was the 1985 double-OT win vs. the Celts. We had just gotten our season tix (section 333 row 4 in the Greens for $12 each) the day after Ewing was drafted, and the Celts were in their heyday. We were getting stomped and were down 25 in the 3rd Q. MSG was loaded with insufferable Celts fans and one in particular a couple of seats away was being a complete asshole, rubbing it in after every Celtics basket. It was unbelievable how things turned around, and a very key player in that comeback was Ken “The Animal” Bannister. Knicks fans in attendance got unmitigated joy in watching shellshocked Celts fans skulk out of the Garden (especially the asshole next to me who was being unmercifully taunted.). The next year’s game vs. Bulls wasn’t too shabby either!
I was also at the Trent Tucker rule game on MLK day 1985
Maybe we can start a new tradition of not sucking
I’m just back from Yankee Stadium where I saw Gleyber Torres hit his 25th and 26th HR of the season. Those also happened to be HRs #12 and #13 vs the O’s this year. His 5th multi-HR game against the Orioles this year. Then I saw this on Twitter. I’ve watched it several times. I want to feel like this about a Knick one of these days.
Decent return for a quarter season of Aroldis. I am sure the Knicks will do that kind of deal some time. Oh wait, it’s never happened in my lifetime….
Also, I am with d-mar
On MLK day in 2002 I decided to take my daughter to the game, who is totally not a sports fan. They lost 111-68 to the Hornets, and the game was pretty much a boo-fest from start to finish. (This was the game where Latrell said afterwards he had trouble waking up for day games or something like that.)
Needless to say, it was the last Knicks game my daughter ever attended