And If you want to hear why Cleveland might not end up that good and that NY probably made the correct decision, you can listen the the new Dunc’d On podcast. They expressed skepticism of Cleveland’s new line up much better than I did. Not that they think Cleveland will be bad or necessarily made the wrong decision, they just think they might not be great despite their four really talented players.

The plethora of news and rumors flying around has been dizzying, but I’ve digested it all, and I think I can pretty much sum it all up as follows:

Donovan Mitchell isn’t a Knick because the assets the Jazz coveted the most – distant future unprotected Knicks picks, and to a lesser extent, swaps of the same ilk – were the same assets New York most steadfastly refused to give up1. Leon Rose & Co. valued their ability to retain control of their own future draft equity significantly more than any single player on the roster, and throughout the entirety of this negotiation, attempted to complete a trade on those terms. As such, they tried to force the Jazz into getting their value in this trade from those young players instead of the thing they actually wanted. Utah never relented, refusing to accept New York’s value priorities and terms. The Jazz held firm, believing a) that the Knicks would eventually find their way back to the top of the lottery and b) that they needed to be the ones to take advantage when they did. And if Utah did have to relent on the future picks, they’d only do so on a deal that included both of the young wings on New York’s roster, in part to ensure they’d be able to recoup additional picks by flipping those young players somewhere down the line. When the Cavs gave them what they wanted, they had no reason to go back to the Knicks, as the bridge would have been too far to gap. And if it fucked over the front office who so flagrantly laid bare its intentions by showing up at Game 1 of Utah / Dallas, why, that was just the cherry on top.

That’s it. Anything else you see is conjecture and spin.

Wow. That is not the picture of Cool Hand Luke. That’s the work of a rank amateur.

So we more or less have to hope for the FO and coach’s plan to implode.

On the bright side, it almost always does.

I’m excited for the Shai talk…

It would be fitting if the next guy we target is another player we could have drafted the year we selected a bust.

SGA has missed 12, 37, and 26 games since playing 82 in his rookie season. I haven’t done a deep dive on the reasons but that strikes me as a concern.

Our front office seems to work well with Presti. Our two trades with him were the two best trades this regime has made.

I get the sense that Presti is more of “let’s work together and create a fair deal where no one gets ripped off” kind of guy, as opposed to a “pig” like Ainge. He did set a new market high with the PG trade, but he smartly framed that as “you’re getting Kawhi in this trade, too.” It was a fair deal.

Also lines like this are priceless:

their whistle-clean MOR stylings that pair well with a glass of chardonnay and give off a vague scent of vanilla-flavored Yankee Candle.

Could it be the difference between bands that achieve greatness and those that don’t (at least in the indie-rock world) is the ability to put on a good live show? Like if this is what a polished BTS concert looks like after 30 years of touring, what the heck did they do on stage in the early 90s?

I put BTS into the category of “was around in the 90s, but I didn’t bother learning about them until the 00s” with Luna, and Beulah.

One of my best friends is a Built To Spill fanatic. She doesn’t really keep up with new music that much anymore except for when there’s a new BTS release every five years or whatever. She’s a true believer. She doesn’t even really like any of their post-Keep It Like A Secret albums, but she keeps giving them that benefit of the doubt.

If this isn’t an analogy for being a New York Knicks fan, I don’t know what is.