I still worry about his defense and shooting, but man… he would be so so so so fun to watch with Obi and Mitch. I don’t know how he works with Julius either. But his ability to get into the lane is so great — who knows if it’ll work in the NBA, but the dude doesn’t need a screen at all – he just goes by you and the millisecond the help even thinks about coming, it’s lob city.

In the range we’ll be picking (barring a trade up, which Wasserman confirmed on Macri’s pod this morning is still a strong possibility…blech), there might be no more bankable NBA skill than Cooper’s playmaking. I simply see no way it doesn’t translate to the NBA–the man is going to have a career as a change-of-pace guard at the minimum and perhaps something a lot more than that.

Everything else is a bit of a Rorschach test. Do you look at his 3PT% or FT%? The frequency with which he got to the rim, or his meager conversion rate when actually there?

Some notable numbers:

-His finishing rate at the rim was an unsightly 49.5%…but this was with a cartoonishly low 8.7% of his shots there assisted.

-He took 93 shots at the rim in 12 games. For reference, Immanuel Quickley took 50 shots at the rim in 30 games his last season at Kentucky.

-He hit 38% of his non-rim 2PT shots, which actually isn’t a bad figure. Especially considering that literally zero of them were assisted!

1. Jalen Suggs
2. Jalen Green
3. Cade Cunningham
4. Evan Mobley
5. Scottie Barnes
6. Josh Giddey
7. Jalen Johnson
8. Alperen Sengun
9. Franz Wagner
10. James Bouknight
11. Moses Moody
12. Jaden Springer
13. Jared Butler
14. Jonathan Kuminga
15. Sharife Cooper
16. Keon Johnson
17. Josh Christopher
18. Ayo Dosunmu
19. Chris Duarte
20. Cam Thomas
21. Miles McBride
22. Nah’Shon Hyland
23. Tre Mann
24. Usman Garuba
25. Davion Mitchell
26. Charles Bassey
27. Neemias Queta
28. Jason Preston
29. Isaiah Jackson
30. Trey Murphy III
31. Mckinley Wright
32. Justin Champagnie
33. Corey Kispert
34. Joel Ayayi
35. JT Thor
36. Aaron Henry
37. Day’ron Sharpe
38. Isaiah Todd
39. DJ Steward
40. David Johnson
41. Matthew Hurt
42. Kai Jones
43. Kessler Edwards
44. Jose Alvarado
45. Daishen Nix
46. Greg Brown
47. Ziaire Williams
48. Scottie Lewis
49. Joe Wieskamp
50. Jay Huff
51. Isaiah Livers
52. Santi Aldama
53. Juhann Begarin
54. Luka Garza
55. Trendon Watford
56. Joshua Primo
57. Gabriele Procida
58. Quentin Grimes
59. DJ Carton
60. BJ Boston

There was that day where he was listed at 6’4″ and now it’s not listed at all. I honestly wonder if the dude is even 5’10”. He looks like a kid playing out there even on a college court.

Early Bird: Honestly I prefer Queta & Bassey to a lot of Cs looking like rd 1 guys. If Garuba fell to us I’d strongly consider gambling on him learning to shoot.

Now we’re talking. 😉 I like Bassey a lot too, and think he can be productive. Garuba i wouldn’t take because he’s such a raw project, i don’t think a player needing 2 or 3 years of development would be a good choice for this win now approach of Leon/Thibs.

1)PG/SF/C
2)PG/SG/SF
3)SG/SF/SF
4)SG/SF/C

and if we assume that a tradeup is unlikely and that some players are out of reach… there are a lot of possibilities but maybe a smaller universe than you would think… we’re looking at (in no particular order):

1)Jaden Springer
2)Ayo Dosunmu
3)Jared Butler
4)Tre Mann
5)Chris Duarte
6)Chris Bassey
7)Neemias Queta
8)Isaiah Jackson
9)Sharife Cooper
10)Trey Murphy
11)Usman Garuba
12)Nah’shon Hyland
13)Cam Thomas
14)Josh Christopher
15)Miles McBride
16)Quentin Grimes

After this we’re looking at the 58 pick most likely…. and that could be anyone… I’m probably forgetting someone but I think this is probably 95% of our board at the moment and it’s just a matter of how you order them….

Honestly I prefer Queta & Bassey to a lot of Cs looking like rd 1 guys. If Garuba fell to us I’d strongly consider gambling on him learning to shoot.

I’m looking more at roster construction and want 1 strong wing and a backup C. I’m not thrilled with the wings or guards at 19 & 21 if we keep the picks. So if there’s enough solid wings in rd 2 I could live with it.

options: Jaden Springer fills the scoring.. shooting.. and defense… and may even be able to play some pg…. he would be a solid pick based on fit and role and he’s a pretty good player at a young age also…. other strong picks in this category would be Tre Mann… a lot of creativity with the ball.. strong midrange game… Chris Duarte… great allaround shooter and solid defense with size to play the 3… Josh Christopher I also think is seriously underrated and has a ton of scoring ability…. James Bouknight is a great tradeup target but seems unlikely we can get up that high… Some lesser talked about names include Aaron Henry.. Terrence Shannon.. Kessler Edwards… all fit the 3 and D mold…

3)Backup C – i’m not positive that the knicks think this is necessary.. but thibs does value the C position… and we saw how nice it was having a defensive presence on the court at all times.. it’s really great in the regular season at least… we could just bring Taj back cheap so this could just be another 3 and D wing so it’s debatable we’ll spend a pick on one…

options: Charles Bassey.. i made my feelings known earlier.. i have a mid first grade for him so he would be a steal at 32… Neemias Queta has got a lot of skills.. little on the slow side but i have little doubt he can stick in the league…

Shouldn’t we be talking about what draft strategy, and what specific players, we think the Knicks should go for?

I think our draft strategy is pretty clear and almost straightforward even… we should be aiming for a 10-man rotation…. we really only have 5 guys returning that are definitely part of it… and we want to keep a max slot free for next year…. right now it looks like:

PG: open / maybe IQ maybe Vildoza
SG: Barrett / IQ if he’s not playing pg
SF: open / open
PF: Randle / Toppin
C: Robinson / open

Given that we have three picks…. it’s pretty easy to visualize how those three picks slot in to the rotation:

1) backup pg – in actuality this guy will be competing with vildoza and IQ and in the event this guy can’t break through the rotation.. or someone else rises to the occasion… then you have the gleague to put him on ice .. maybe we go big for a pg this summer and just forego one… but it’s going to be a long term need as anyone we sign will have enough risk attached to it that we would not be able to afford to go into the season with only one actual pg… the cupboard is also bare for a pg next summer as well so we should shoot our shot this year….

options: yes i stan hard for ayo dosunmu… sharife cooper is also an option…. there’s also josh giddey on a trade up… and i believe that’s it… some of these ‘maybe pgs’… like butler.. springer… hyland are basically redundant with what we already have… vildoza and IQ are also basically ‘maybe pgs’ and it would be awkward to shoe horn another with that profile… that’s why i think if we draft one.. it’s going to be one who’s actually played the position and doesn’t have too many questions about filling that role at the next level…

Early Bird: If we grab Dosunmu or Grimes at 32, I’d be okay reaching for a C at 19 or 21. I’ll be nervous as hell for 11 picks though.

But who? Isaiah Jackson? Unless you think he’s a future all-star, we’d be much better selecting Queta at #32, he was one of the four finalists for defensive player of the year, he’s 22, he can play right away and give us great defense (that’s just about what Noel gave us). And then he has potential on offense, he even is a very good distributor, meaning Thibs can use him like he used Noah, which he couldn’t do this season with Mitch and Noel being our centers.

Max: Yes, yippie!!! Thanks Cyber 🙂

Let’s go then… 😉
We have two routes – use all three selections or combine two for a trade up and only use two selections.
I’m ignoring pick 58 because that one only serves to guarantee a guy for a 2-way deal.
Now about our routes:
If we select 3 times, i’d take Jaden Springer and Jared Butler in the first round, and Queta with pick 32 (no need to re-sign Noel then).
If we trade up, i think we can’t go very far, as we all have discussed, so i hope it’s for Bouknight or Kispert (players most likely to produce right away). And then Springer again, with the other first round pick.