Plus his name is top-five mellifluous.

If we cut Payton & Rivers, whatever, no big loss. But Burks & Noel have been good, and we’d be lost right now if we didn’t have Noel while Mitch is out with an injury.

Trading Randle for CP3 doesn’t make us much better than we are today. Plus we wouldn’t have any cap space.

So yeah, I still think it was right to pass on the CP3 trade. We’re currently in a much better position for having passed on him.

PG Lonzo Ball
SG Immanuel Quickley
SF RJ Barrett
PF Julius Randle
C Mitchell Robinson

That’s a saucy starting five. Add two 1RPs to that, maybe bring back Nerlens Noel, fill out the rest of the roster with some decent Burks/Bullock type role players…

That might not be the foundation of a chip winning team but it sure beats the hell out of wishcasting on Langston Galloway and Ron Baker.

anyway… I’ve been sleeping on Lonzo Ball. His numbers look better this year, but I’m reluctant to trust he is the player ntilikilla assumes we’ll get.

You doubt Ball could be a volume 3 point shooting PG who would compliment Randle?

but i’m not making this up. many of our smartest posters thought adding chris paul to this team would still keep us in the lottery.

anyway… I’ve been sleeping on Lonzo Ball. His numbers look better this year, but I’m reluctant to trust he is the player ntilikilla assumes we’ll get.

Anyway, this has little to do with the price of gas, just a reminder that not everyone thought this team was doomed.

Sure. Heck, I predicted 32 wins, after all!

Or did I go 31? Whatever, you know what I mean.

I think people have been too quick to jump on the Chris Paul saving the Suns narrative while ignoring that they legitimately have pretty good talent on their team. Booker is pretty good when he’s shooting a 600 ts% like he’s been, Bridges has become a monster 3 and D player, Ayton has improved and they have many quality role players like Cam Johnson, another lights out shooter, Crowder, Saric, even Kaminsky and Payne have been solid.

Some of it is certainly related to Chris Paul, but there’s a lot of talent on the roster. They’ve won games where CP3 did not play well, and they were already flashing potential when they went on a tear in the bubble games.

I mean, Paul is having another phenomenal year. It’s hard to not give the guy credit when he’s 90 and still the best player on the team.

But yes…Mikal Bridges…sigh.

Lonzo Ball is the guy we always talk about but I really see him as a Prigioni/Kidd 1.5 guard and not an actual point guard.

The beauty of having a point forward like Randle and a secondary ball handling wing like RJ is that you don’t really an “actual point guard” but a guy who can create his own shot from 3 complimenting them. That was the major takeaway from the Tjarks article arguing for IQ to start:

That should be the takeaway for the rest of the league. Quickley wouldn’t be this good if he were on a team that forced him into a more traditional role where he had to balance scoring and passing. He needs the freedom to bomb away from deep. But the converse is even more important. Playmaking bigs like Randle need volume 3-point shooters like Quickley. Both kinds of players were rare a generation ago. They will be commonplace in the years to come. The NBA has more point forwards and point centers than ever, and players who can shoot off the dribble with unlimited range are coming out of the college game at increasing rates.

Now, traditional point guards are the ones caught in the middle. A team has more flexibility when it builds an offense around a 6-foot-8 player like Randle than a 6-foot-3 one like Payton. Quickley would have been stuck in a sixth man role not too long ago because he isn’t a primary ball handler and doesn’t have the size to guard wings. But the Knicks can benefit from his elite 3-point shooting for nearly the entire game if they wanted to. They lucked into a weapon that warps defenses with the no. 25 pick. It’s time for them to use it.

You add Ball to the mix and you have two of those types of guards to compliment what Randle and RJ do on offense.

from TNFH:

The other outcome (and I find this one more likely) is that you’re wrong, as in the current Knicks aging Chris Paul aren’t a playoff team.

Owen:

I believe Thibs, Paul and this roster would be toxic disasterpiece theater. No way you can convince me it would work out.

Jowles predicted we’d be a 20 win team with Chris Paul:

maybe we should just get even more inured to the words, “And with the 9th pick in the NBA Draft, the Knicks select…”

Anyway, this has little to do with the price of gas, just a reminder that not everyone thought this team was doomed.