that might actually make our offseason moves look decent in hindsight

I said this before reading Brian’s epic post in @131. I recant my statement.

Everyone keeps calling Morris a rental, but he keeps screaming as loudly and as often as possible that he wants to stay in NY and be part of turning the franchise around.

Maybe we should take him at his word?

If Morris wants to be part of turning the franchise around, the best thing he can do is go play for another team for a few months, get us some assets, and come back in the summer.

Then I would trade Randle in the summer for more assets and play Morris as a stretch 4 with Robinson.

If you got a bevy of assets for Randle and Morris and ended up with a Morris-Robinson frontcourt duo to start next year, that might actually make our offseason moves look decent in hindsight.

The idea of reacting to Marcus Morris’s contract year and full liberty to chuck by giving him a 3 or 4 year market value deal is absolutely cookoo talk and I can’t believe it’s actually being seriously contemplated.

He’s not as good as some models suggest yet.

No shit….. he’s 21 FFS…..he has gaps in his game, yet he is incredibly efficient and his on/off the floor numbers suggest a value far beyond Mr. KP…..

The Morris situation is like some recovering alcoholic friend of yours accidentally stumbling upon a 1970 bottle of The Macallan whisky, and some of your friends are like, “No, no, trust me, this is going to be good, he can put that whisky up for sale online and eventually, someone will buy it for a lot of money. It’ll be good.” And you and some of your other friends are like, “Okay, there is a chance that this could work, as while that bottle isn’t the most expensive bottle of whisky, it is popular enough that you should be able to sell it for a good amount. The only problem is that that dude is totally going to drink that whisky.” And the first group of friends are like, “No, that’s in the past. He’s not going to drink it. He’s going to get something for it. It’s going to work out.”

And then, a few months later, while it is still listed online and some people have sent him messages indicating that they’re willing to buy it, those first group of friends who were telling you why this was going to work out are telling him, “Dude, you should totally just drink that whisky. It’s such good whisky!”

And then of course three straight wins over teams with losing records (we haven’t beaten a team that’s currently over .500 since Dallas nearly 2 months ago) has people howling about playoff hopes and how this is some changed team on a whole new trajectory.

What I find the most amusing about the Marcus Morris stuff is that it was so predictable. I know I wasn’t the only one who said when they signed him that at least here was a guy who had actual value that they could actually trade, but if he played well, they’d be too dumb to trade him and any decent play would lead to people saying, “Hey, let’s keep him!” So it’s not just stupid, it’s so predictably stupid.

Like how all you need is, like, two wins in a row for it to be, “Hey, maybe the Knicks should try to make the playoffs!”

It’s kind of amazing after all these years that people are still advocating for terrible ideas like this, but, well, here we are. I look forward to the “when does Marcus Morris’ contract run out again” conversations in 2021.

Even if he does want to stay, why would we even want him back? Most of his value comes from shooting 45% from 3 on 6 attempts a game, and that’s a guy who never even reached 40% one single time before in 8 seasons, his best previous mark is 38%.

I get some of you are just desperate to watch any type of competent player on the Knicks, but this seems like a terrible decision any way you slice it. He’s already 30, his numbers scream outlier, he’s playing his best in a contract year, he has shown already he’ll follow the money over other loyalties… every possible red flag against keeping him is in place.

I don’t think it’s a franchise killer if we give him a 3 year 45 million deal, but it would be just as bad as giving Courtney Lee or Arron Afflalo the contracts they received. Just trade him as soon as possible so we can get some long term value on him and that’s it, keeping him is a big mistake and would be a disaster if he just walks away for nothing in the summer.