[www.yardbarker.com] — Wednesday, September 14, 2022 1:58:24 AM
Sports Book’s Top Russell Westbrook Destinations Yardbarker
[www.basketballnetwork.net] — Wednesday, September 14, 2022 1:37:04 AM
“He wasn’t flying with that” ? Carmelo Anthony on how his friendship with Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan led to his falling out with Phil Jackson Basketball Network
[heavy.com] — Wednesday, September 14, 2022 12:53:34 AM
New York Knicks Center Sounds Off on Doubters Heavy.com
[nbaanalysis.net] — Tuesday, September 13, 2022 9:25:21 PM
NBA Rumors: This Knicks-Wizards Trade Features Bradley Beal NBA Analysis Network
[clutchpoints.com] — Tuesday, September 13, 2022 7:54:35 PM
Jason Kidd speaks on Jalen Brunson’s Mavs exit, move to Knicks ClutchPoints
[dailyknicks.com] — Tuesday, September 13, 2022 5:00:00 PM
Knicks rumors: New York has expressed interest in Utah’s Bojan Bogdanovic Daily KnicksNBA Trade Rumors: Knicks, Mavs interested in Bojan Bogdanovic? Sir Charles in ChargeSing a New Song? Knicks Interested in Utah’s Bojan Bogdanovi? Sports IllustratedMavericks, Knicks Eyeing Bojan Bogdanovic hoopsrumors.comReport: Suns, Lakers, Mavericks, Knicks all interested in Bojan Bogdanovic trade NBC SportsView Full Coverage on Google News
[www.yardbarker.com] — Tuesday, September 13, 2022 3:42:23 PM
NBA Writer Trashes The Knicks For Latest Media Move Yardbarker
[www.sportskeeda.com] — Tuesday, September 13, 2022 1:31:20 PM
“His career up until that point was a bit of a mess” – NBA insider believes Steph Curry’s 54-point explosion at MSG is one of the most important games in NBA history Sportskeeda
[bleacherreport.com] — Tuesday, September 13, 2022 11:48:35 AM
Donovan Mitchell Rumors: ‘Knicks Know No One Is Coming Close to Them’ in Trade Talks Bleacher Report
[leagueofjustice.com] — Tuesday, September 13, 2022 11:03:39 AM
Knicks’ Nerlens Noel’s Lawsuit Of Alleged Contract Negligence Against Former Agent Rich Paul Must Be Sent To Arbitration League of Justice
[dailyknicks.com] — Tuesday, September 13, 2022 10:00:00 AM
Has former Knicks guard J.R. Smith been blackballed by the NBA? Daily Knicks
122 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2022.09.14)”
Peace and love today, everybody!
Or perhaps — to pull out a very old TV reference — we will have to make like Ralph Malph and Potsie and paint a line right down the middle of the comments section so that certain people stay on one side or the other, never to interact again.
New thread. Posting early in hopes it won’t get hijacked.
TNFH’s deep dive into trading for 2 stars got me thinking if that is even a correct metric. Consider Jayson Tatum–drafted yes, but draft position was not determined by tanking, etc but from a trade with Brooklyn. Or for the Knicks, our potential interest in trading up for Jaden Ivey. If we had done so, and he turned into a star, one could argue that we traded for him.
Interesting article about Brunson. I’m very excited to finally have a good starting PG on the roster, even if he wasn’t the best FA available.
https://www.nba.com/news/film-study-jalen-brunson-brings-off-the-dribble-success-to-new-york
Off-topic question: has anyone been watching Jeopardy since the Mike Richards fiasco ended? And, if so, do you prefer Ken or Mayim as host?
Alan, the Bolt is probably one of the best value EVs out there. Where it hits it’s limit is in long-distance travel as the DC charging speeds are very slow (54kw vs ~130kw for VW ID4 and ~230kw for Hyundai Ioniq5/KIA EV6). If you’re looking for a non-Tesla electric car that you won’t road trip at all the Bolt is a good option. ID4 is workable for trips. Ioniq 5 or EV6 are even better if you will be out on the highways a lot. All of these other options are a bit more expensive but qualify for the $7,500 tax credit this year (while the Bolt currently does not, but will in the new year – VW/Hyundai/Kia will not after the new year). Hopefully this car comes through for you, but if not you may want to consider these other options depending on your needs.
Thanks, KBurt. We’ll see what happens. My assumption is that we would not be using this as our road trip car, at least for now. (It’s also quite a bit smaller than the totaled minivan it’s replacing, but we have slightly less need for a giant car than when the kids were younger.)
Great article, cyber, thanks for posting it. There’s lots of stuff in there to be optimistic about. Things like this caught my eye:
“Julius Randle may need to cede some control of the offense with the addition of Brunson. But the presence of Randle allows Brunson to play some off the ball, a situation in which he should be comfortable, having played 54% of his minutes alongside Doncic last season. While Randle is a ball-stopper, he sees the floor well and only Doncic (486) has more assists on 3-pointers over the last two seasons than he does (474).”
It was also mentioned how the Knicks two most used starting lineups were among the worst defensive lineups in the league:
“Brunson will be stepping into a starting lineup that wasn’t very good defensively anyway. The Knicks’ two most-used lineups — Fournier, Barrett, Randle and Mitchell Robinson with either Walker or Alec Burks at point guard — allowed 116.6 and 113.7 points per 100 possessions last season. Those marks ranked 31st and 28th among the 34 lineups that played at least 200 minutes.”
Schuhmann pointed out that Brunson is pretty good as a 1-on-1 defender PPP-wise but not so good at deflections and stuff like that. It seems that putting Grimes (or Cam?) in the starting lineup is a must. Although Mitch was rusty and slow for the first half of the year…I wonder if the numbers for that lineup improved in the second half.
If there’s any hope that Randle can become a plus player on his contract, Brunson has to be a big part of that. It should be evident pretty early on whether it’s working or not.
Did we lose the character limit with the site update? Oddly, I think the ability to make longer posts may be contributing to some of the contentiousness.
I have not yet butted up against a word limit, no.
I do still miss the formatting options. The blockquote function in particular made heavily-quoted posts much easier to read than how people are doing it now. (I just hand code it, so that you put these kinds of brackets around the word blockquote at the beginning, and around /blockquote at the end. So that things look like this:
But I also know that is more work than most people want to be doing when they are commenting here.
Good idea
Edit: these “brackets” are the less than and greater than symbols.
@BernieErnie
Their draft position wasn’t determined by tanking but that draft pick was acquired by tanking. They traded the core of their team for those draft picks. That’s clearly something this front office is willing to do and, even if they were, what could we trade that’ll bring back unprotected picks?
Ainge deserves lots for credit for being willing to dump stars who still had considerable market value in exchange for draft picks. The closest the Knicks have come to doing that in the last couple of decades was with KP, and even there, the draft pick haul was pretty minimal. Of course, the trade was partially a salary dump for THjr and Courtney Lee, so it’s fair to ask, how many picks could Danny Ainge have wrangled out of KP at that time? My guess is that he would have called KP’s bluff and risked getting nothing rather than take back such a paltry return.
And that’s been part of the issue with the Knicks. There wasn’t really a time when they could get back the draft pick haul for any of their assets that Ainge got for unloading Pierce or KG or Mitchell or Gobert. Maybe Melo at his peak, but that wasn’t happening so soon after they gave up so much to get him.
If the Knicks sold off their entire roster right now, I don’t think they could get what Ainge got just for Mitchell or just for Gobert. Hopefully we won’t be saying that after this season.
Oh, right. I used to know this.
Regardless, I am hoping that now that Mike K has gotten the overall site modernized, he can restore some of that old functionality.
I will even give up my quest for gif-posting powers if we can more easily quote and insert links.
I hope so, too. Also hope you didn't think I was scolding or pedantic. — just putting the info out there for all.
okay al, after teasing us with a taste of the car battery story, ya gotta know we’re gonna want more 🙂
I think I’ve asked you this already, if so I apologize – have you written any works of fiction?
Bernie, you may recall that we did not in fact trade up for Ivey. We didn’t trade up for Ivey for the same reason we didn’t trade for Mitchell–Leon Rose quite reasonably determined that the cost was too high, given that we’d almost certainly have to make another big trade to bring in another high-level player.
I’m thus not sure what your point is to be honest. The anecdote seems to speak to the difficulty of making two blockbuster trades.
I also don’t know what the Tatum anecdote is supposed to prove. Obviously, if we had the ability to acquire an asset package the likes of which Boston acquired from Brooklyn and thus potentially outsource our tanking, it would behoove us to do so.
The problem is the player with the highest trade value on the roster is…I really don’t know, Brunson? Maybe RJ to some teams? The “outsource your tank” option is self-evidently not available to us.
Since two blockbuster trades are basically undoable, we’re left hoping:
1) we sign at least one star as a free agent, which basically doesn’t happen anymore and is likely a dead avenue at least for the next few years.
2) we draft a star with a late lottery pick, which is extraordinarily rare and is not something Leon Rose even seems interested in trying to do, given his propensity for trading picks and picking fairly low-ceiling players like Grimes and McBride.
3) we make a “diamond in the rough” trade a la the Middleton trade, wherein we acquire an unknown future star on the trade market or through free agency for minimal value. This is a silly thing to rely on, and again, I don’t see evidence Rose is even trying to do it.
If you gave Leon Rose truth serum, I think even he would say his plan is to pull off two blockbuster trades. This was the rationale behind not trading for Mitchell–we needed enough assets leftover for the second trade.
If he pulls it off and the Knicks become contenders, he’ll have done something that literally no other contender has done.
I promise to give him all of his flowers if that happens! I really will! I just think we should all make a deal in which no one is harangued for Rose-skepticism until he wins one (1) playoff series. Does that seem fair?
I don’t have a problem in getting only one superstar, and then try to build around him. Dallas won a title with one superstar. Denver is another example of a one superstar team, we’ll see if they can do it. It isn’t looking great right now, but i think they’re having really bad luck with injuries and all. Let’s hope they can get healthy to see what they can do. Toronto had exactly one superstar for only one season, and did it too. Let’s not make the grab 2 superstars be the be all end all of roster building. For the next step i’d like to grab a superstar, and then we’ll see what we have to continue building.
And if we only grab one superstar and fail to bring in a second, we’ll be the 90s Knicks with Ewing. I’d love very much if we can have a decade like that again.
When I was on Partnow’s podcast, he asked if Herring’s book gave me painful memories. And I said that, no, I would kill for us to just be a perennial tough out in the playoffs again. The Ewing/Riley team was not aesthetically pleasing in basically any way, but the sheer toughness and unwavering identity nonetheless made them fun to watch, despite the annual failure to win a title.
“Brunson will be stepping into a starting lineup that wasn’t very good defensively anyway. The Knicks’ two most-used lineups — Fournier, Barrett, Randle and Mitchell Robinson with either Walker or Alec Burks at point guard — allowed 116.6 and 113.7 points per 100 possessions last season. Those marks ranked 31st and 28th among the 34 lineups that played at least 200 minutes.”
So I found this to be really interesting. I spent last season bemoaning (well, yelling at the screen) over the turnstile defense of Kemba and Evan, and thinking that somehow the second team was doing much better than the starters in general, but it wasn’t clear just how bad the starters’ defense really was overall.
While there were clearly starter problems with the offense as well (looking at you, RJ and JR…), it’ll be interesting to see if Thibs can tweak the starter D to improve matters (e.g., starting Grimes over Fournier might be a good place to begin).
TNFH, cannot argue with your logic with regard to Leon and the Knicks. I liked your in depth team by team post which raised all sorts of issues for me, not just why no current team has been able to do it without a lot of luck. Despite the evidence (ie, your list), I am convinced it could work…but do not know why or more importantly how.
My point was merely to question the list where the stark line is between draftee and player received in a trade, whereby some drafted stars have a quasi-trade heritage.
The issue was that Phil got to the Knicks, saw the roster, said, “We need to retool” and not rebuild, and thus traded his second-most valuable player, Chandler, for nothing, and then refused to trade Melo for anything, when Melo clearly would have gotten the Knicks at least a decent return at that point (and still would have netted them a decent return as a sign and trade). Then when he did gut the roster, he prioritized cap space over anything other assets, which led to him turning down a first for Shump so that he could instead use Shump to dump JR’s $5 million salary (he also traded a second to save Dolan some money for a year).
I guess, in other words, Rose sure does look a whole lot better in comparison. Can’t say that he is not an improvement over Phil’s abject failure.
@TNFH
Totally fair; not a harangue here — at all. Just some thoughts:
Exactly. No one does. I think Leon valued all our young players higher than Ainge did, so now he wants our guys to prove him right. We hope they will. TBD
I think Leon hopes this is Brunson.
I think Leon hopes IQ is this kind of star (had hoped?). Mitch has also been talked about as (maybe?) this kind of star. We hope they are. TBD.
I think Hartenstein is Leon’s attempt at something like this. Likewise, Reddish. Again, both TBD.
Point being: important outcomes are still unknown, but Leon *seems* to be trying some of what you advise. And, yes, our collective hope for the Knicks is always irrational.
kburt8:
I tend to not read real long posts on any forum unless the “lead” hooks me. So, I tend to skim and use the scroll wheel on my mouse. Often.
🙂
I can’t wait until the season starts and we can debate who should be starting. There are going to be some interesting debates that will go beyond individual stats and into which position the player is better at and which players fit together the best.
These debates about how to rebuild become tiresome because people pretend like there’s only one right way to do it and if you don’t follow that path (my way) you did it wrong. That’s simply not the case.
This has been studied by a lot of people. There’s plenty of data out there. The probabilities are fairly well known. Just look at it.
IMO, the only variables that change things significantly are the city you are in (some are clearly less attractive and may have some limitations) and the age of the team (there are times when it’s clear the window is closed and you have to start over from scratch). After that, the results are mostly a function of execution and luck. We’ve had quite a bit of both bad luck and bad execution in a few key DRAFTS. That’s why we are where we are. Take a deep breath and move forward. Things are still OK.
KBA, your response is the most compelling I’ve seen so far. Bravo from me, for whatever that’s worth.
I’ve said in the past I’m cautiously optimistic about Brunson’s ability to make one more leap if given more usage. I doubt he can get into TNFH’s Magic 4+ BPM Range, but I wouldn’t rule it out entirely.
My issue here is it’s very, very hard to see him pulling this off with Randle still on the roster, because I’ll believe Randle is going to ditch the ball-dominant/stopping style play he’s been rocking for three seasons now when I see it.
If/when we’re unable to trade Randle, I hope Thibs at least has the good sense to put Brunson in lineups in which he has the opportunity to show this off. Brunson-Grimes-RJ-Obi-Hartenstein could be quite compelling, though this, like just about everything else, hinges on RJ improving. By a lot.
I’ve also said I’m *very* intrigued by Hartenstein, who ironically enough already is technically in TNFH’s Magic 4+ BPM Range. Those numbers simply do not lie. The ultimate questions are 1) whether he can sustain them in more minutes, though his 1200+ MP sample size from last season isn’t nothing and 2) whether he can get his usage in the mid 20s range. It’ll be one of the more interesting things to watch this season, at least for me.
Something that has been a little frustrating for me is I often feel like my previously expressed, substantive opinions on these kinds of things are ignored because folks have decided I’m a full time Pessimist and ascribe a whole bunch of opinions I don’t actually hold to me accordingly. Again, this isn’t the first time I’m expressing some optimism about these guys.
I’d have no problem talking more about interesting things like Brunson potentially increasing his usage or Hartenstein being a potential diamond in the rough. I’ve even tried to start these conversations in the past!
These topics really are ignored in favor of more macro-level stuff that I guess makes for better internet argument material, so I’ve basically stopped trying.
Raven, we know Mitch is good defensively, even if he still has some mental lapses even after four seasons. We know RJ is usually good defensively, and can sometimes be even better than that, but that he also doesn’t/can’t always give his best effort on that end if his offensive usage is really high. We know that Randle can be at least a decent defender, despite his lack of vertical and shot blocking, but he has to be willing to put in the effort, which was sorely absent last season. Brunson is a willing defender, at least, even if he, like the 2020-21 version of Randle, has physical limitations. And if Grimes starts at SG (which I believe he will), he’s the best point of attack defender we have among rotation players. (Deuce might be better, but he’s not playing without a rash of injuries. And Grimes is taller, anyway.)
So if — a big, big if, I know — everybody is trying on that end, the starting group should not be as much of a disaster on defense as the group with Kemba, Fournier, and a disinterested Randle was. Although then the question becomes what inserting Fournier into the bench mob will do to their own defensive rating. (I think he’ll actually fit swimmingly with them on offense.)
The thing I wonder about Hartenstein is whether he’d be a better fit offensively with the starters than Mitch. He doesn’t need to hang right around the basket, which causes problems on offense for Randle especially, but also for RJ. Mitch makes the spacing tougher overall in a group where the three highest-usage guys all prefer to operate inside the arc. Hartenstein’s not exactly the second coming of Steve Novak, but he can operate much further out, and can sink the occasional 3.
And then the question is whether Thibs would be willing to have Mitch come off the bench despite him having the bigger contract. He did a lot of starter/bench juggling with Mitch and Nerlens when both were healthy, but Mitch was also younger then and the lower-salaried player. I could see some chemistry issues if he’s asked to be a reserve again. Maybe if the minutes split is largely even, it won’t be a big deal, but Mitch is a weird, unpredictable guy.
“and thus traded his second-most valuable player, Chandler, for nothing,”
Just to be fair on this one, Chandler had a bit of reputation for injuries at that point in his career and was coming off an injury plagued sub par year at age 31 for NY. His market was not anywhere near what it was earlier. Dallas squeezed one more productive year out of him, but everyone knew he was close to done. Plus, he wanted out because he didn’t want to be part of a multi year rebuild around Melo. He wanted one last shot in Dallas with Dirk. So NY sent him there. Unfortunately NY wound up getting nothing out of the DRAFT picks we got (as usual) or Larkin. But we did get rid of Felton’s contract who was radioactive at the time because of gun issues. Getting rid of Felton and JR Smith were priorities.
Alan, concur throughout. It’s going to be really interesting to see how this plays out, assuming no more roster changes.
TNFHMFPBPMR. My new favorite acronym.
And we were allowed to dream, at the time. Also we were very very close, being 3-2 against the Rockets in the 1994 NBA Finals. With some luck, because Jordan thought he’d be good at every sport he decided to play, but it’s the same as if he’d get injured for the season. That’s how good we were.
Strat, not to attempt to relitigate the Phil era again, but that trade was very clearly made out of a belief that the team could still be competitive. He thought Calderon would be a good triangle PG, that Dalembert could provide a decent enough approximation of Chandler’s rim protection, and that maybe Larkin or one of the second rounders would be useful down the road. Regardless of Chandler’s injury history, I am certain that if Phil was looking to genuinely rebuild, he could have made a deal that brought back a first-round pick and/or better young prospects than Larkin.
And there was just NO excuse for using Shump as a sweetener to unload JR’s contract, as opposed to getting a real asset back for him.
I think the problem the Knicks have is being misstated. There have actually been a few times we’ve had a player who could have fetched a huge package on the open market.
Our problem is that whenever we have one, we go all in on him too soon. We are the premature ejaculators of team building, so to speak.
Take last summer, for example. Julius Randle, coming off an All NBA season, with one year left on his deal, and with a meager $21mm cap hit, could have been auctioned off for a tremendous haul. That is what Danny Ainge would have done.
Likewise if we had hired Masai Ujiri instead of Phil Jackson, Carmelo Anthony would have been traded for whatever we could possibly get. But we gave him a max contract and a NTC.
It takes an experienced GM (or a blog of Knicks fans, apparently) to know when it’s time to sell high. All these inexperienced guys lack conviction and they hold onto their assets until it’s too late.
TNFH. Haha. Don’t stop. I read you every time! I love (your idea of) the 4+ BPM range, and I absolutely love reading all the so called Pessimists on the board, b/c I tend to be too optimistic. I called 50 games last year (hahaha).
IMO we are all just angry and starving for new game data on IQ, Grimes, Obi, Hart, next-level-Mitch, even Reddish. But the sticking point, as you say, will be Randle and how he is used. I have to believe (optimist again) that Brunson’s arrival *must* signal to all the end of Randle-dervish-ball.
And I still think Julius has the physical tools to play a bit like Anthony Mason: a beast inside, surprising touch from outside, and a lock down defender if called upon. Randle’s headspace, though? I’m not so sure. It’s up to Thibs.
EDIT: Mason always said he wanted to play point guard, so Julius has that in common as well 😉
Hubert, you’re not wrong that Rose has not been as clever or as ruthless as more experienced GMs like Ainge or Masai would be. I have very mixed feelings on this administration so far, and am not trying to be an apologist, because there have been some very clear mistakes made.
That said, Randle was coming off a huge season, the best one any Knick had had since relatively early in the Melo era, and had led the team to its best and most exciting season since 54 wins. And where that squad’s success was largely on the backs of older players who were about to turn into dust, and an offensive strategy that the coach and management hated for some reason, Randle was a young guy who had worked his ass off and was acting like a model teammate and leader, and the team was winning with the exact scheme our coach wanted to run.
In hindsight, it is easy to say that they should have sold high on Randle, or at least let him play out the option year to be sure 2020-21 wasn’t a mirage. And maybe Masai or Ainge would have done that. But I think a preponderance of NBA execs would have made the bet Leon did: believing that the character and work ethic Randle demonstrated that season would continue, and that even if the shooting regressed a little, it would be mitigated by the fact that we were signing him to what at the time was considered a relative bargain for a guy coming off that season.
I want Randle nowhere near this team anymore, but of all of Rose’s moves from the summer of 21, that extension was by far the most reasonable, and the one most likely to have been made by a seasoned POBO.
Is it unreasonable to expect Jalen Brunson to be considered a star player this year? In games without Luka he was a 20 point, 7 assist guy, and was without question the 2nd best player on a team that went to the Western Conference Finals after beating two excellent regular season teams in Utah (56-26 Pythag WL was 3rd in the NBA) and Phoenix (59-23 Pythag WL, 1st in the league). Brunson should also have no problems getting assists with Fournier, Grimes, and Barrett as all of those guys are good catch and shoot players.
Even with Julius Randle being who he is, I don’t think it’s crazy to expect Jalen Brunson to compete for an All Star selection. He should be at least as good as Fred VanVleet.
This year’s future outlook is largely dependent on one of RJ Barrett and Jalen Brunson becoming a star player, which has maybe a 35% chance of happening. That’s pretty poor considering that we’re locked into those two for the next 4-5 years, but if you’re gonna bet on two guys I don’t mind one being the 2nd best player on a team that lost to the eventual champs, and the other guy being a homegrown blue chip prospect.
Every time I want to be negative about this team, I remember we had a Pythag of 41-41. We’re adding Jalen Brunson and Isaiah Hartenstein to a .500 ball club, subtracting Kemba Walker, No-Hands Noel, and the Alec Burks point guard experiment. All of RJ Barrett, Obi Toppin, Quentin Grimes, and Immanuel Quickley should be better. Evan Fournier coming off the bench, if that happens, should be dynamite in that 2nd unit which looks like an early contender for best bench in the NBA.
This team reminds me of the 2019 Clippers (48-34 actual, 43-39 Pythag). If you go back and look at that group, a rookie SGA led them in minutes, and their best players by VORP and WS/48 were Gallo and Trez. They gave 1463 minutes to Avery Bradley, who graded out negatively in all advanced metrics. They had a similarly overrated head coach to ours in Doc Rivers, and ended up being a tough out for the KD and Steph led Warriors. Maybe they don’t end up in the playoffs if the Lakers don’t have bad luck with health and if the Pelicans (who just swept the Blazers in the prior post season) didn’t have AD drama, but that’s the NBA for you.
If things break right for us and other teams aren’t as lucky, there’s a world where this team is an 8th seed heading into the draft with 2 1st round picks, one of the youngest rosters in the NBA, and a player coming off a 1st all-star appearance. For that to be a best case scenario in year 3 of the Rose regime is pretty weak, but it’s still a good situation to be in. I’m cool with that.
I’m not so sure. We just witnessed Danny Ainge throw in the towel on a team that is better than any we’ve had since 2000. I suspect he would have done the same with Randle and RJ, especially after that playoff series. Ainge knows the playbook and I don’t think he would commit to a team that had a visible ceiling.
But mind you, I do not fault Leon for this at all. It doesn’t factor into my opinion of him at all. This is a Dolan critique. Leon would have had to have balls of steel to make that kind of move. And it’s unfair for anyone to expect him to have.
What is fair, is to expect our owner to put “prior experience required” on the job description. Because I do think experienced GM’s know that when you get to a team and it has no real star or a clear path to one, you *have to* tear down immediately. Whether your best player is the MIP or Donovan Mitchell.
I don’t think Thibs will have any problem benching Mitch and promoting Hart because one makes more money than the other. What i’m not sure is if he sees the big picture. He didn’t even try Obi and Randle together, except for some short spurts that don’t allow to draw any conclusion. Did we hire a AC dedicated to offense?
The sunsetting of the Ted Nelson Character Limit coinciding with Z-Man having an extra 12 hours of free time every day was kind of a perfect storm, but we here at kb are tough, and we will weather it together. Personally, I think we should all put our ire into a common foe. And that scapegoat should be Dave Gebroe. He’s the real enemy here. (Remember when he said Before the Flood was a better live album than the Last Waltz… that’s worse than anything Leon Rose has said or done).
In fairness to Rose, he does have baseball contracts for Steph, KD, et al., but they only kick in after we get our second star with the +4 TNFHMFPBPMR
Brunson’s per-36 numbers without Luka:
2021-2022: 1,170 minutes, 22.1 PTS, 7.4 AST, 4.5 TRB, 27.5% USG, .319 3PT%, .542 2PT%, .565 TS%
2020-2021: 964 minutes, 19.6 PTS, 6.6 AST, 5.4 TRB, 23.2 USG%, .384 3PT%, .573 2PT%, .604 TS%
Combined: 2,163 minutes, 21 PTS, 7.1 AST, 4.9 TRB, 25.8 USG%, .352 3PT%, .555 2PT%, .581 TS%
No argument from me to anyone who’s optimistic Brunson has another leap in him!
***Toronto had exactly one superstar for only one season, and did it too.***
The definition of superstar is largely subjective and based on public perception, but when Kyle Lowry won his ring he was a 5 time all-star at the top of his game. There are only 6 players in the entire league that can say that about themselves right now.
been listening to chris cornell a bunch this morning, this was a smooth transition for that – a bit of a sobering thought i hadn’t considered before…sadly it is true…even if if ainge didn’t have a lot to do with their roster up until now…no hesitation though to break it down and start over…
“The sunsetting of the Ted Nelson Character Limit coinciding with Z-Man having an extra 12 hours of free time every day was kind of a perfect storm”
11 hours, but who’s counting?
Hubert, I’m not saying that no GMs would have signed Randle to that extension. But I do believe the majority would have, for various reasons related to their franchise. To pick one name, I think Kevin Pritchard would have, because until things became untenable with the Sabonis/Turner pairing, his owner had given him a mandate that the Pacers should attempt to be competitive every year. (Conversely, I doubt Presti would have, as much because he is overtly not trying to win as because he’s a more ruthless GM in general than some others.) I suspect even Daryl Morey would have, because his philosophy in general has been to collect talent — and Julius very much seemed like that at the moment — and worry about fit later.
Re: The Tyson Chandler trade and Shane Larkin. We didn’t trade for Larkin, he was a throw-in to make the salaries match. He didn’t even make it to training camp before Phil declined his 3rd year option.
11 hours, but who’s counting?
Retirement tip for Z-man from a fellow retiree. Ditch the golf. The 11 hours will quickly turn into 6 hours and get 30 minutes smaller every time your handicap improves. Believe me I have been there!
Likewise, Geo, it was not easy for Ainge to disband that Celtics team. He was pilloried for making the trade of century. Remember Bill Simmons excoriating Ainge live on ESPN when it happened?
As a rule of thumb, if you’re selling when people think you should be selling, you held on too long. You have to sell when it hurts to sell. When you’re afraid you’re leaving upside on the table. And it’s too much to ask an inexperienced GM to do that.
Sure, Kevin Pritchard probably would have, Alan. Again, though, it’s not a criticism of Leon so much as a reframing of the problem.
We bemoan the fact we never have prime assets to trade like Danny Ainge does. But Danny Ainge only gets those deals done in the face of major backlash from his fanbase. We don’t empower our GM’s to do that. So even if we have the assets, we’re not going to trade them. And Julius was one such asset. Melo was another. Porzingis. Chandler to a lesser degree. These are all guys who could have fetched a pretty price.
He was pilloried for making the trade of the century.
The trade of the century was probably him getting Garnett for Al Jefferson and a couple of firsts. How times have changed.
But I agree trading the core of a championship team when there are a few productive seasons left in the core takes an amount of confidence an inexperienced GM will never have.
“Something that has been a little frustrating for me is I often feel like my previously expressed, substantive opinions on these kinds of things are ignored because folks have decided I’m a full time Pessimist and ascribe a whole bunch of opinions I don’t actually hold to me accordingly. Again, this isn’t the first time I’m expressing some optimism about these guys.”
I share your frustration. Seems like whenever I offer a less negative (or god forbid positive) take on a Leon move, I get painted by some as a yes-man for this regime. I’ve said a million times that I think the Vegas O/U is legit, and that’s hardly a rosy number. I’ve criticized the hiring of Thibs and his substitition patterns since a million times and get called a Thibs apologist. I was for drafting Hali over Obi and Bane over IQ and was annoyed by all the trade-outs get called a draft-day fan bois.
As to your optimism, as I said, I know you are at heart a diehard Knicks fan and would be thrilled if any regime…Isiah, Phil, Leon, DRed, Z-man…turned them into perennial contenders no matter what the path. I’m just skeptical that you would look back and say, “you know, Leon’s approach was not “directionless” after all, he was right about the hybrid method all along.” Which you shouldn’t! People get lucky doing the wrong thing all the time! So I didn’t say that as much as a criticism as a compliment. I actually agree (and have all along) that this is not the correct way to build a team. Where we differ is in a) is this a way that has a reasonable chance of being successful and b) the level of “detrimental” to achieving the goal that certain developments rise to, whether drafting Obi over Hali, or punting on #19, or keeping Randle and trying to rehabilitate his value rather than dumping him at rock bottom.
We also differ on the likelihood that a path to having 2 “stars” on the roster will develop in the reasonably near future, say the next 3 years. I see stars changing teams reasonably frequency, you see free agency as dead and trades prohibitively expensive. I see a ton of guys on your posted contender list drafted outside the top of the lottery, or not in the lottery at all, and see hope there, especially since a lot of the guys we are most excited about were acquired via the last 4 drafts.
As I’ve said many times, we agree on most things. Our disagreements are mainly about a matter of degree.
(As to the 2000 character limit, there were always a workaround so it wasn’t all that much of a deterrent anyway.)
okay then hubie, my apologies because you’ve probably mentioned it already, how would you handle julius and evian from a valuation standpoint…
I’m not sure I understand the frustration of not being understood, or having your opinions/thoughts misunderstood…
you both are exceptionally talented at communicating…
the audience is what it is…
cuz it’s my favorite line for expectations:
aim low sheriff, they’re riding shetlands
***Melo clearly would have gotten the Knicks at least a decent return at that point (and still would have netted them a decent return as a sign and trade)***
In both hindsight and in real-time-sight, Phil should have S&T’d Anthony to the Bulls in 2014. That said, even if he’d ainged them, the return would have been: Boozer, Taj Gibson, the rights to Mirotic, their just drafted #11 pick (Doug McDermott), and their next future pick (which became #22 Bobby Portis). Most of these guys eventually became shitty Knicks anyway, so it’s not like Phil would have rebuilt the franchise over-night or anything. But it was still the right move to make, and it would have been better to play with those diverse assets vs being married to MMM.
Hartenstein might be able to shoot but he didn’t really provide any floor spacing for the Clippers. He took like 15% of his shots from outside 10 feet. If you attempt 1 3 point shot per 36 minutes you can shoot it like Steph Curry and the defense isn’t going to care. The shooting is definitely intriguing, but just playing him isn’t going to do much for our spacing unless he changes how he has played thus far in his career.
***If you gave Leon Rose truth serum, I think even he would say his plan is to pull off two blockbuster trades…If he pulls it off and the Knicks become contenders, he’ll have done something that literally no other contender has done.***
Literally no other? I thought we’d been discussing how Ainge did it with Allen and Garnett? Am I missing something?
It’s not the shooting threat as much as it’s the passing and even the ability to take a dribble and attack the basket with a full head of steam. If Mitchell Robinson can’t throw the ball into the rim from the place where he caught the ball, he’s not really a concern for a defense and that’s the problem.
‘People get lucky doing the wrong thing all the time! ‘
When do I get a shot at this?
Kevin McHale did his teammate Ainge and his NBA alma mater Boston Celtics a favor with that KG trade. Ainge definitely pulled off two blockbuster trades in 2007 but the 2nd one was maybe as unique as you’d ever see.
https://nypost.com/2022/09/14/knicks-free-agent-options-with-major-trade-still-possible/
Berman of the Post says that at the moment, regarding Melo, Blake Griffin, and LaMarcus Aldridge, “the Knicks don’t see any of those vets a good fit at the moment.” More interestingly:
It’s not just where he takes his shots from, but literally where he is standing on the court. The Clips often used him to pass out of the high post or from the elbow. Mitch is largely stationed in the dunker’s spot, because he can’t shoot from outside at all, and because he can’t really pass. So he is pretty much always in the way of Randle operating in spots where he might be most efficient with the ball (and where he liked to operate in LA and NOLA). Whether or not the defense considers Hart a threat to shoot from outside, he will still be moving around to different spots in the halfcourt, which clears more of a path for Randle or RJ to work around the basket.
I’m pretty much down with the idea that Hartenstein should be the starter but if the guy you picked up for 2/16 is going to start then you probably didn’t need to give Mitch 4/60. Just saying
Who would be the prototype Hartenstein should aspire to? In other words, who’s a rim-running/shot-blocking big without much post polish who can pass a bit and shoot an occasional 3 if left open? Daniel Theis seems too low of a bar, anyone else?
Anyone watching this Adam Silver press conference…he is scrambling to justify the Sarver decision…
The Reddit guy said it best; a 7 foot Draymond Green (with the positives and negatives of being taller).
(1)Part of the Hartenstein shooting bullish-ness is that the team didn’t give him a green light until the last 5 or 6 games of the season. He went 8 of 13 in those 5 games, hitting 2.4 threes per 36. Uselessly small sample but still an impressive streak during the only run he was allowed to shoot them.
(2) My phone now auto-suggests ‘blockquote’ anytime I type ‘<'
VICTORY!
Also, my phone has learned to suggest “blockquote” after I type “blo,” and sometimes just “bl”
iHart passing accumen from elbow extended entrigues me. Mitch is not capable of this at all,
https://twitter.com/KnickFilmSkool/status/1550082737847078913
fyi donnie just so you don’t feel unappreciated i’ve enjoyed your slow burn cherry from i’m gonna git you sucka performance over the last couple days and it’s been beautiful. you almost had me with the elon sellout but you got cocky and pushed too far with today’s kyle lowry’s a superstar bc forrest gump disproved semantics bit. i’m impressed and also relieved to know you don’t really drive a tesla.
z-man as a long time hartenstein groupie i’ve given some thought to a good aspirational comp and came up lacking. the guys who could all really really pass and also rim protect and be a roll threat all had too much extra stuff like young vlade, m gasol or sabonis sr. jack sikma was sort of like this even though he didn’t block a ton of shots, he was a decent rim defender. i actually think he’d be a much more valuable player today bc he’d probably shoot a ton of a threes way more effectively than a guy like i hart.
I do think Hartenstein will deserve to start, unless Mitch dominates on defense and the boards more consistently.
The concern with Hartenstein is he leaves after 2yrs having become MVP because we can’t afford to keep him with his early bird rights.
iHart passing from PnR for wide open 3s or dunks is pretty remakable too. I can see him choosing between an Obi dunk or an Evian 3.
https://twitter.com/KnickFilmSkool/status/1550082856877170693
A couple tweets down from there is iHart’s outlet passes, and he’s playing with Obi…🤯
First let’s see how the team looks with Brunson and (hopefully) Grimes, along with RJ, Randle and Mitch. And then if Hart shows he’s as valuable as we think he is, then Thibs can start him and bring Mitch off the bench. On game 1 Mitch should get the starting job.
Odd Different Advanced Stats, Paul Millsap Doctrine, Authority Logic Falacy…learned more about Advanced Stats from iHart than I care to admit. But just using eye test and breaking down these plays make me think this dude is primed for a classic NYC type Linsanity season. Unless Mitch turns into Hasan Whiteside 2.0, iHart will start before Thanksgiving.
I want to know who on our staff brought him to Leon’s attention?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmfgkF-5tmw
***you almost had me with the elon sellout***
You know ELON is an anagram for Leon, right?
I think comparing the way contenders of yore built their teams to modern strategies isn’t all that useful.
NBA front offices have gotten much better at evaluating players, picks, determining their place on the win curve, etc. The prices paid for genuine superstars as recently as the mid 2000s look downright comical right now.
I mean, Ainge got *Kevin Garnett*, a bona fide MVP level player, for…Al Jefferson, salary filler, and two firsts, one of which was already known to be the 28th pick in the upcoming draft.
This is, what, 30% of what it currently costs to get Donovan Mitchell, who is a very good player and also not in the same universe as Kevin Garnett?
I know that was regarded as a sweetheart deal of sorts but it’s far from the only example. The original Dwight Howard trade is pretty hard to untie, but the substantive pieces the Lakers traded for Dwight, one season removed from 3 consecutive DPOYs, were Andrew Bynum and a single first-round pick.
I think what’s happening here is teams trading stars are less inclined to try to remain competitive with the Jeffersons and Bynums of the world and the cost of stars in terms of *future* assets is going up accordingly.
So if we could trade for Mitchell or whoever else at these prices, then sure, two large trades would be perfectly doable. Those days are over though, and there’s not much in the way of modern precedent for the “two major trades” approach.
Question: what is the most that Hartenstein can be retained for beyond his current contract, both years and salary?
Here’s what seems to be the applicable clause in the CBA:
“Contracts covering 1 or 2 seasons (including any option year) cannot be extended.”
Does that mean that he has to become a UFA that that we have to go under the cap to sign him? And if yes, that he can be offered up to his max if the cap space is available?
It seems that we were able to re-sign all the 1+1 vets we signed in 2020 to 2+1 deals (Rose, Noel, Burks). Is that the case with Hart?
I’m asking because in the event that Hart outplays Mitch, maybe Mitch becomes traid bait and keeping Hart requires us to pay him starter’s money (say $10-20M AAV). Is that even possible?
Don’t read into any of this, I’m just curious about possibilities.
In Spain it’s El On and in France it’s Le On. 😀
Does that mean that he has to become a UFA that that we have to go under the cap to sign him? And if yes, that he can be offered up to his max if the cap space is available?
zman this is like that time you asked who the mr meany was everyone kept praying for and only one poster was allowed to answer.
also count me out on the i hart as a 7 foot draymond comp. it only takes one reddit post these days to go from outrageously optimistic on an esoteric player to notably lukewarm on a future hofer.
“z-man as a long time hartenstein groupie i’ve given some thought to a good aspirational comp and came up lacking. the guys who could all really really pass and also rim protect and be a roll threat all had too much extra stuff like young vlade, m gasol or sabonis sr. jack sikma was sort of like this even though he didn’t block a ton of shots, he was a decent rim defender. i actually think he’d be a much more valuable player today bc he’d probably shoot a ton of a threes way more effectively than a guy like i hart.”
Jack Sikma? Come on pt, cut it out. But seriously, dude had a killer fadeaway from behind his head, haven’t seen an analog to that since, the closest being Robert Parish. I didn’t think of him as much of a rim-protector or rim runner, more of a drop it in to him on the baseline 15-18 feet and get out of his way. And agree, he’s be a great stretch 4-5 in today’s game. Here’s some film for you young’uns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-CF39f-U3c
Marc Gasol is a really interesting comp. Their stats from early on in Marc’s career match up pretty nicely. I remember that he was considered to be a throw-in in the Pau Gasol trade, which seemed crazy lopsided at the time, and the 3-pt show was late in coming.
Hopefully he moves his feet a bit better, Marc might have had some issues with today’s small lineup-positionless basketball. But that would be a helluva outcome.
Well, that is the internet. Moderate takes do not get the same level of engagement as extremist takes. It is on everybody not to fall for extremist takes (as writers) in order to get engagement, and to take consideration and appraisal for moderate opinions (as readers), and not engage only in what opposes our views.
I appreciate the posts from all sides of the arguments, especially when they deal with the nuances which are difficult to rebate and that require some thought, and make me feel I cannot easily respond because I have to investigate more/see more games/analyze them more deeply. So, thank you for your effort!
The long lost age of 2019:
(1) Kawhi Leonard- Trade
(2) Kyle Lowry – Trade
(3) Siakim – 27th pick
(4) FVV – Undrafted FA
(5) Marc Gasol – Trade
(6) Danny Green – Trade
We just have to let time tick away until they each become less toxic. And don’t compound the error by paying a premium price to move one unless there’s a big reward.
The next opportunity to do something about Fournier is the 2024 trade deadline.
With Julius, I’d shop him on every hot streak (like when Donnie Walsh trade Zach Randolph). But I think it’s likely we’ll have to wait two seasons before we can afford to dump him with picks.
What is his defense for the clear double standard compared to Sterling?
The obvious reason is that Sarver is part of the club and Sterling wasn’t. I’m curious how he’s spinning it.
There’s a very real world where Charlotte could talk themselves into Julius Randle by this winter. That roster is awful and they need to get serious in a hurry or else they’ll be on Melo Ball trade demand watch
The message is that you can only afford to trade for one superstar at their full market value, i.e. you can’t pull a Mitchell trade and then two years later get Zion.
If you can buy low on one like Kyle Lowry, then yes you’ll be the exception.
I think the story is that Charlotte wants to wait for some more clarity on the Mile Bridges legal situation before deciding what to do. He pleaded not guilty. I’m not sure how long that will play out, whether there will be jail time, suspensions, or whether Charlotte even still wants to make a push for the playoffs and would consider a trade.
Echoing Hubert, the Raptors paid a single first-rounder for Kyle Lowry, who was coming off a 4+ BPM season (drink) having played 1500+ minutes. It was an absolute heist. If Leon Rose can pull something like that off, then sure, he can pull off two star-trades.
Even the price they paid for Kawhi was laughably low and people said so at the time. It reflected the Spurs’ misguided desire to stay competitive post-Kawhi, rather than get a haul of future assets. They also refused to deal with the Lakers, further limiting their options.
My point is it’s going to be very, very hard, perhaps impossible, for Leon Rose to pull off two trades for stars that everyone knows are stars. He’ll either have to find one or more of his own through the draft, which he hasn’t even seemed interested in doing to say nothing of the likelihood, or he’ll have to try to try the diamond-in-the-rough approach.
I don’t hate the idea that Brunson could be our Lowry in this regard, as if he can match his non-Luka numbers from the past two seasons with us he could be an example.
I just don’t see what we’ve gained by playing the game on hard mode i.e. by avoiding the most tried and true way to get stars without crippling your team. We’ve locked ourselves into having to make Masai-level moves to reach contention, except we don’t have Masai.
Some of the smartest GMs in the league who have a great record when it comes to identifying talent don’t do this to themselves–Sam Presti acknowledges the benefits of picking high in the draft instead of insisting he’ll simply outsmart everyone else late in the lottery.
It doesn’t help that both trustworthy reporting and a look at all of the moves in the Rose-era leads one to the conclusion that people in the front office, or who influence it anyway, have very different ideas as to how to manage all the tradeoffs and contradictions inherent to this “hybrid” model. That’s not what you want to see when you’ve decided to pursue an approach that leaves you no margin for error.
I’m somewhat nostalgic for the character limit. Too easy to get carried away now, though I’ll almost certainly be on better behavior in that regard once I start work this Friday.
I think there’s very good chance Robinson and Hart are going to more or less split most of the 48 minutes.
If Hart is outplaying Robinson or the team just looks better when he’s on the court because of their individual skillsets, I think there’s a very good chance he becomes the starter. But he’s going to have to prove he can protect the rim and be as productive for more minutes. If the team starts looking a lot better with him, Mitch can be put on the block. But there’s along path from here to there.
“The obvious reason is that Sarver is part of the club and Sterling wasn’t. I’m curious how he’s spinning it.”
He spun it, by first, saying Wachtel did the “leg work/assessment” (so plausible deniabilty)…and that they found “no animus” in his atrocious/neanderthal behavior…and
Then he said that he (Silver) had further access to more info (not available in the publicly available report) and therefore he had more context to evaluate the behavior and blah, blah, blah (see Alex Lifeson Rock n Roll Hall of Fame acceptance speech) and he saw some things that suggested it was perhaps not as bad as one who just read the public report ….and so…
He decided that a one yr suspension and 10 million was adquate…
Howard Beck asked the best questions and Silver answered but in my mind didn’t give great answers…
I think Sarver probably negotiated it by saying he would litigate anything more than what was handed down and Silver probably caved based on what his lawyers told him and then Silver just went about crafting his spiel for the press…
Unsavory all the way around…
i should have described his behavior as racist/sexist in lieu of atrocious…as that is what the law firm said that although he behaved in that manner it was without animus…he was just acting sophomoric…
I can’t even believe they paid millions of dollars to a law firm for them to reach that conclusion…that as long as you are just being like John Belushi in Animal House…it’s all in good fun..
Can anyone guess which method did Masai choose after not being able to trade Lowry for picks (thanks Jimmy D!!!) ? Yeah, the hybrid method.
It’s very hard to compare trades of old with trades done now.
IMO, the intrinsic value of draft picks (at least at a minimum of relative to each other) changed when the lottery odds flattened and when teams started drafting more teenagers. The whole process became more of a crapshoot and you have the added risk of having to extend players before you know what you have. So not only are you not getting mostly rookie bargains, you are often getting stuck overpaying.
I know I always repeat myself on this, but the intrinsic values are clearly changing. So the compensation for established star players in terms of picks should change and probably has based on recent deals .
Congrats on the new job!! I take it you’ve gotten your bar results back with good news?
Z-man, with early bird rights you can pay up to 175% of the previous salary, which in Hart’s case is around 14M. I think that will be enough to re-sign him, if we want to. Unless he indeed proceeds to reach MVP status, in that case we’ll have to supermax him using cap space. 😀 Oh man, this is bringing Anthony Randolph memories. Let’s hope Hart isn’t the main candidate to KBA’s Remember When We Were Talking About award.
Congrats on the new job, Noble. The drinks are on you! 😉 😀
“Sam Presti acknowledges the benefits of picking high in the draft instead of insisting he’ll simply outsmart everyone else late in the lottery.”
Same Presti works for the Oklahoma City Thunder not the Lakers, Bulls, Knicks, or Heat. He has only one option for rebuilding. He has to hope his amazing luck and record in the draft continues so in the years to come when his players have matured he has another contender.
I’m pretty sure if he was running the Heat and Riley was in Oklahoma, they’d both be doing things differently, but both would be very good at it anyway.
Instead of trying to convince the world we are doing it wrong, just look at the data on rebuilds and figure out what we should do from here.
The main thing we have done wrong so far is have horrible luck in the lottery and draft when we tanked twice and then made a series of smaller missteps in signings when we had a ton of cap space but no one wanted to come to NY when the team still sucked (same lesson again and again).
Appreciate all the congratulations, but actually I don’t hear about the bar results for at least another month! Until then I can start work, but there are some things here and there I’m not allowed to do without supervision. A J.D. is kind of like a driver’s permit.
“Instead of trying to convince the world we are doing it wrong, just look at the data on rebuilds and figure out what we should do from here.”
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn.
This is pretty much exactly what I’ve been doing.
“Sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes the bar eats you.” 😉
I’m surprised we haven’t had more discussion about our open roster spots. Having open space on the rosters gave the Knicks trade flexibility to take more players in than they sent out, but I don’t see them needing that anymore. The Post suggests a bunch of known names, but I’m not sure the Knicks will go in that direction. It’s very possible they pick some summer league standouts, some other young guys who came close to being drafted or some international candidate and give them a chance to make the team. So those of you who followed the draft, are there any players you thought slipped through the cracks?
Knicks Fan, I’ve been pondering who’d be a decent back-up for Obi if they did trade Randle. That list of Blake, LaMarcus, and Melo made go look at them in fear and loathing and I am horrified to say that by far Melo is the better choice of the three. They’re all cooked, but Melo actually reinvented himself as a stretch-4 (10 years too late, thanks for that).
I sort of threw up in my mouth typing that. I so don’t want Melo back on this team. Hopefully there’s some decent young version of a stretch-4 who could fill that role. Anyone. Shane Larkin even.
Of course if Randle stays I’d use the spots to check for wing hopefuls.
Speaking of lower profile guys who might fill one of our open roster spots:
Alan, that makes sense. I think Jeffries was on our summer league team and did pretty well there.
It also occurs to me that some player may be cut by other teams as they pare rosters and the Knicks could hire such a player for the end of our bench.
Alright then. Who wants to the hear the home invasion story?
I sounded a bit harsh yesterday talking about the city’s homeless. It’s not really about the homeless, though.
If you go to 14th St between 1st Ave and Ave A, you will see a “flea market.” These “merchants” set up crude shacks and shelters to sell goods on the street and they live there 24/7.
The city comes around often to offer them food and shelter. They can stay an indefinite period at local hotels. The problem is that if they decline, our Mayor has instructed the NYPD to recognize their right to squat on the land and grant them full jurisdiction.
Now there are two ways these merchants get their goods. At night, they tear open all the garbage that’s put on the sidewalks and search for treasure. Loud fighting usually ensues and the next day the stench of garbage is overwhelming.
The other way is they piggyback into local buildings and steal all the packages in the hallway. I moved here in March and I’ve had 6 packages stolen already. But much more significantly, a woman in my building was sexually assaulted in the lobby by someone who followed her in from the market.
The reason I called our elected officials craven is that from time to time they will order the police to clean up the area and then stand in front of it for a photo and proclaim that they’ve done a great job. The market returns within 24 hours.
So Monday night/Tuesday morning, I’m asleep. I’m woken up by the sound of my neighbor screaming for help. I run out to the hallway in my underwear (fortunately I was wearing some on this occasion) and go towards the screaming.
I push open her ajar door and I see someone ransacking the apartment. I froze like an ice cube. I wasn’t sure I was even awake at this point. The intruder decides to run away but I’m standing in the doorway so he knocks me down.
We tussle on the ground. I’m just trying to protect myself, not capture the guy. I’m not Batman. He pounded my face pretty good, got up and ran away. We called the police.
The police kept me up for hours in the middle of the night waiting to take my report. Do you know what they had the audacity to write this up as? Petit Larceny!! (Which, up until I signed the report, I always thought was “petty” larceny.)
Anyway, that explains my disgust with the city at the moment. It wasn’t a bob neptune thing or about the homeless crisis at large.
Jeffries is another 6’5″ guy, so not ideal for the type of player we could use at the back of the roster.
I wonder if we will bother to fill either of those open spots, or at least 1 of them. There are some slight advantages to having an open roster spot when it comes to trades
I would expect that some decent players are going to shake loose around the league so having open roster spots is fine. We could use more tall wings and a third string 4.
I hope we don’t sign any of the washed up vets like Blake, Melo, or Dwight. The only vet I’d be interested in having on the very back end of the roster is Iggy, and he’s probably going back to GSW.
There seems to be a bunch of teams with 15 or more guaranteed contracts who are going to have to dump some guys before the season starts. Must be a keeper in there somewhere!
Hubie, that sounds like quite the horror story — especially after the petit larceny! Sorry you had to experience that whole thing.
Used to live on 4th between A and B, back in the day when A was funky and dissolute and B was an apocalyptic wasteland. I had to step over a chalk body drawing outside my door one fine spring morning. This was back when heroin was king, something of a gentler if not kinder world. People mostly just killed themselves.
The Knicks probably haven’t signed anyone because they’re looking to keep roster spots open in case of a lop-sided trade.
And speaking of the homeless, am I the only one to recognize that Sterling, Sarver, and Weinstein all looked like hideous homeless fucks? What is up with billionaires deciding that their facial hair style should resemble that of an itinerant ax-murdering drifter?
I feel like it’s a tell.
that’s fucked up hubie…
complicated feelings in the homeless thing…it ain’t just altruism that makes me wanna see the issue lessened (much more an issue for them than me, but still)…
yeah, that market thing don’t sound like no good situation…if I owned some shit close by I’d be really pissed…
glad you’re okay, but, sounds like y’all need some kind of building defense system…
fuck, hopefully they go to infest some other area…
I’m pretty compassionate until something gets in my way, or runs me down, then not so much…
just stay safe, hard to win against folks whom have little to lose…
judging from the chatter, seems I’m one of the few who see some promise in feron hunt…
I’ll take a look tomorrow at his stats to see if I can justify…
Geo, I thought Hunt looked good in Summer league. He’s only 23. I think of him as already on the team, so I didn’t mention him as a candidate for a roster spot. He is our third string power forward the way the team is set up now.
hi KfniNJ…
feron looks a little lean for the 4…he seemed to be mostly used in the backcourt during the summer…
I remember him handling the ball okay…mostly I liked his size and energy…
no doubt cam has a lot more skill and potential…I’m just doubtful he gets there…
I’d rather have someone like feron in practice if he won’t be playing much anyway…
Whoa, your neighbor really is a recurring character on this blog now. Sorry to make a joke of it yesterday. Sounds like a real ordeal, glad you were there to act.
He signed a four-year/$52 million contract after his year in Dallas, so I don’t believe everyone knew that he was close to done. He was still a very valuable trade asset for a team willing to rebuild.
Wow, Hubie. A true dystopian nightmare. I have been sucker punched once while doing cardio and have had three recent encounters where an ostensibly homeless person has tried to accost me. I now drive my daughter to work because she has been harrased and threatened on the subway several times. In my memory, NYC has failed to address issues concerning people with mental health issues, but the problem seems worse than ever.
“He signed a four-year/$52 million contract after his year in Dallas, so I don’t believe everyone knew that he was close to done. He was still a very valuable trade asset for a team willing to rebuild.”
I used the wrong word when I said “knew”. I should have said “thought”. Then he had a bounce back year for Dallas. So he got paid. Then everyone figured out they were right the first time. lol
We did get picks as part of it and more importantly dumped the radioactive Felton contract that no one wanted at that time.
That’s been one of the problems. We’ve had some bad contracts. In order to move them we’ve accepted less than fair value on the decent assets. We did that to move Felton with Chandler, JR Smith with Shumpert and then under new management with KP to move Hardaway and to lesser extent Lee who was shorter.
In hindsight, Kemba was a bad gamble. If you research it, there were articles in the Boston papers at the time where medical experts were saying he was “done” and would not recover.
The Nerlens contract was similar to Chandler in that he’s had injury issues in the past and was hurt all last year. It’s wasn’t that the contract was bad or that he isn’t a good player. It’s that no one wanted a hurt player.
In both those cases it cost us value to move them, but I think only the Kemba deal was a mistake.