And as I wrote that, I saw that the Minny/Nets game has been postponed. It’ll be interesting to see if the Knicks and Lakers actually play tonight.

When’s Minny’s next game? I wonder if we’re going to have a repeat protest about the Daunte Wright shooting. Aaron Hicks of the Yankees (who played for the Twins) is sitting tonight’s game out. I would imagine, as we saw with their responses to the Jacob Blake shooting that the NBA players are very on top of this.

If Toppin quickly improves, trading Randle is probably the correct play from an asset management perspective.

This is definitely the other theoretical option but I just don’t think that’s the kind of move this front office would consider. Obviously they’re still very new and they might surprise me, but based on my current assessment it’s not the kind of move I’d expect from them. Coming off this feel-good season, the front office is going to be looking to take what we have and build on it, not move in a dramatic new direction. Trading the teams best player just is not in the cards I don’t think. They’re going to be thinking along the lines of Beal+Randle, not swapping Randle for Beal to take just one example.

Owen: It’s a lot of fun and I hope you make it there in a year the Knicks are finally good.

That’s the plan, and this season is telling me “save the money fast, cause the Knicks are rising again” 🙂

The Ringer piece alludes to us targeting Steph in 2022. Sign me the hell up at any price–that dude is gonna be good at basketball for as long as he wants.

noble is pretty high on him from what i remember also….

Correct. I am not a film expert by any stretch but I like everything I’ve seen. His size doesn’t seem to impede him much when it comes to carrying out point guard duties and his jumper looks perfectly fine for his age. Like you said the NBL is developing a pretty solid track record and his numbers don’t lie.

For his first season, that’s a problem, but not a crisis; but for year 2, for a guy who’s going to be 23 going on 24? It’s not a tenable situation in my opinion, not from an asset management perspective, to take a top 10 pick and completely box him in to a marginal backup PF role. They probably have to trade him this offseason, solely for that reason, putting aside any questions about him as a player.

Yeah, it’s pretty simple–Obi Toppin and Julius Randle are not going to co-exist as key pieces on any team’s roster. If we extend Randle the writing is on the wall for Toppin. If Toppin quickly improves, trading Randle is probably the correct play from an asset management perspective. However that is a a humongous “if,” and my guess is Toppin gets flipped for a late-ish first or as part of a trade up package before too long if he doesn’t shed all of his value.

But thenamestam’s point about playing time rings true. Short of an injury or Thibs radically altering his belief in how this roster and rotation can be constructed, where does Obi get more time? And how much can he develop, even with a great coaching staff, if he’s not getting minutes in year 2?

For his first season, that’s a problem, but not a crisis; but for year 2, for a guy who’s going to be 23 going on 24? It’s not a tenable situation in my opinion, not from an asset management perspective, to take a top 10 pick and completely box him in to a marginal backup PF role. They probably have to trade him this offseason, solely for that reason, putting aside any questions about him as a player.

Doug Chu:
It’s too bad about Obi. Randle taking this big of a leap and crowding out his minutes was one of the lower probability outcomes for this season, but here we are.

And I understand the criticisms about Obi’s draft selection, but this is why I don’t get up in arms about it. I’m OK if folks want to flip him in a good trade, and I still think a full NBA offseason regimen will do him a world of good.