Graham is not a kid, he’ 26 years old and has never had a FG% higher than 38%…he’s terrible from 2 and at 26 I doubt it will get much better. He tops out at 37.5% from 3 at a very high rate. He’s a statistical negative on D. So the excitement with him is more new car smell than anything else.

The margin is so narrow for such a thing to happen.

Let me put my Macri hat on and posit this: what if Rose’s strategy is to leverage the irrational optimism of Knicks fans and the media attention a decent Knicks team will get in order to trick superstars into coming here? I call it the “Potemkin Village Contender” strategy. Looking at r/nba to gauge the average fan’s reaction, and pretty much every Knicks fan and even fans of other teams like what the Knicks did. They’re excited to run it back plus Fournier. They think securing the vets on 3 year market rate deals makes them moveable pieces. People eat it up with a spoon when Leon Rose makes low-upside marginal improvements. So maybe someone like Damian Lillard won’t automatically rule out NY.

That makes this the formula: The Knicks being decent + having the assets to make it work on the NBA Trade Machine + irrational fan & media hype + ???? = superstar forces a trade to NY. That’s all I got. My head hurts now. I’m taking off the Macri hat.

Fuck.

Meh. M-E-H, meh.

New post!

http://knickerblogger.net/remember-how-cool-that-game-2-win-over-the-hawks-was-then-boy-do-i-have-good-news-for-you-the-knicks-2021-offseason/

I think the point is that these aren’t albatross contracts that tie up cap space and then cannot be moved if/when you need to put together a large trade package and make salaries match. And if you get continuity and some wins in the meantime then you remain a more attractive destination.

When’s the last time a star maneuvered themselves on to a team in a situation that you described?

It’s just some major straw-grasping by Macri.

Alan: I remain underwhelmed but not despondent. This seems like a Do No Harm offseason in a slightly different way than last year’s. Fournier is better and more versatile offensively than Bullock (though not nearly as good on the other end as Reggie), there looks to still be a move left, and most of these deals should be tradeable if/when a star wants to come to NY. But until/unless that happens, the roster’s upside rests entirely in the young guys, and who knows how many minutes will be available for some of them?

Well said. The folks who are despondent fall into a couple of camps, it seems.
-the DRose haters
-the Opportunity Cost police
-the FO of Christmas Past PTSD folks
-the “PG, when will we ever have a PG?” crowd
-The Thibs is running the show theorists

All legit beefs, and I feel their pain. Nothing that the FO did required much imagination or inspires confidence. It felt very The Olive Garden-y.

But that said, there is still a lot to look forward to and I’m still excited about the season. Noel, Burks and Rose were all fun for me to root for. I know Fournier’s game from watching him kick our ass at MSG years ago, he’s a strong offensive player. RJ, IQ and Mitch are still core pieces. I still think Obi has upside and liked what he showed in the playoffs. Vildoza should be a quality rotation player. McBride and Grimes were reasonably high on my list compared to where we drafted them, and Sims is an interesting project at #57.

Brian Cronin: They could theoretically be traded, but for what? No one is trading a star for a bunch of decent veterans signed to market rate contracts. So you’re going to, what, trade Alec Burks for the equivalent of Alec Burks on another team?

Plus, if Alec Burks is playing well enough for another team to want him, the Knicks won’t move him and if he is playing poorly enough for the Knicks to want to move him, other teams won’t want him. These deals are not putting pieces together to trade for a star. That’s a pipe dream by Macri designed to make these deals seem more palatable.

I think the point is that these aren’t albatross contracts that tie up cap space and then cannot be moved if/when you need to put together a large trade package and make salaries match. And if you get continuity and some wins in the meantime then you remain a more attractive destination.

E, all merc’d out:
I don’t get the “the contracts are movable” thing at all.If Portland trades Lillard, for example, it will be to start over.Why would they possibly want to take back Nerlens Noel’s or Alec Burks’s or Derrick Rose’s shitty contracts?

I think you could argue that if the highlights of a Knicks package (RJ, a healthy Mitch, IQ, and/or picks) were attractive, and a star and his agent were making an Anthony Davis-esque play for him to go to NY, then Noel’s, Burks, or Rose’s contracts wouldn’t stop the deal.