[www.yardbarker.com] — Tuesday, October 11, 2022 6:35:17 AM
Kobe Bryant Trolled Phil Jackson When He Was Being Criticized For The Job He Was Doing As The President Of The Knicks: “This Is All Just Karma For Writing Literally 3 Books About Me” Yardbarker
[www.sportico.com] — Tuesday, October 11, 2022 6:06:57 AM
Knicks, Lakers Dominate NBA’s Most In-Demand Games for 2022-23 Season Sportico
[www.si.com] — Tuesday, October 11, 2022 1:15:06 AM
Boston Celtics Waive Former Knicks And Spurs Forward Sports Illustrated
[www.tapinto.net] — Tuesday, October 11, 2022 12:11:00 AM
Knicks Legend John Starks Assists in Just Collect’s Grand Opening TAPinto.net
[www.sportskeeda.com] — Monday, October 10, 2022 7:52:47 PM
Who was the first Native-American basketball player to have played in NBA? Here are all the details Sportskeeda
[hoopshype.com] — Monday, October 10, 2022 6:52:22 PM
Quentin Grimes understood why Knicks head coa? Hoops Hype
[dailyknicks.com] — Monday, October 10, 2022 5:00:00 PM
Should Knicks tank for 2023 NBA Draft phenom Victor Wembanyama? Daily Knicks
[www.si.com] — Monday, October 10, 2022 4:15:36 PM
Will Knicks Play Quentin Grimes? Tom Thibodeau Provides Update Sports IllustratedKnicks’ Quentin Grimes back from injury, ready to earn playing time NewsdayKnicks ‘hopeful’ Quentin Grimes can play in final preseason games New York Post Knicks hopeful but cautious about Quentin Grimes’ return in final 2 preseason games Empire Sports MediaQuentin Grimes (foot) participated fully in practice, may play Wednesday Posting and ToastingView Full Coverage on Google News
[www.thecoldwire.com] — Monday, October 10, 2022 4:14:05 PM
Kemba Walker Makes A Heartfelt Plea The Cold Wire
[news.yahoo.com] — Monday, October 10, 2022 2:00:09 PM
The It List: Backlash surrounding Barney the Dinosaur explored in new doc, a look inside the life of Jeremy Lin of New York Knicks, and ‘The Watcher’ premieres Yahoo News
[www.si.com] — Monday, October 10, 2022 11:00:04 AM
Knicks Preseason Profile: Julius Randle Seeks Another Breakout Sports IllustratedNew York Knicks preview: Predictions and analysis for the 2022-23 NBA season The AthleticKnicks’ Complete 2022-23 Season Preview and Predictions Bleacher Report3 scenarios Knicks should desperately hope to avoid in 2022-23 Daily KnicksNew York Knicks roster: Projected starters, key moves, predictions for 2022-23 NBA season DraftKings NationView Full Coverage on Google News
[dailyknicks.com] — Monday, October 10, 2022 10:00:00 AM
Here’s why Knicks could want to start Evan Fournier over Quentin Grimes Daily Knicks
78 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2022.10.11)”
They should show Cam some Eason videos.
It’s weird to me that Samanic can’t catch on with any NBA team (he was just cut by Boston.)
Idk about the defense, but he seems to have a pretty complete offensive game for someone his size.
I promised a topic to let the other conversations on the last thread, so here’s the topic. KFNINJ brought this bit from Hollinger.
And i think we should debate if Obi will ever be starter level, or if his defense, rebounding and 3P% will prevent him from reaching it?
Samanic seems like another version of Cam Reddish…
This essay about what the mental health of adolescents reflects about society NYTis a very good read:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/11/opinion/teenagers-mental-health-america.html
I have to disagree with Hollinger on Obi. He’s got a higher ceiling than that.
Obi put up a .153 WS/48 in his second year. Yes, he’s old. Yes, he probably gives a lot back on defense. But if you let him run he can be a destructive offensive force in the NBA. I hope Thibs gives him space to do that. It’s not the best pairing of coach and player.
I also love Obi because he is the kind of high flying, gravity defying athlete we have never seemed to have on the roster. I am racking my brain but I don’t think there has ever been a more athletic Knick. Certainly since 1980. Which is kind of crazy.
Also crazy, Ben Simmons shooting jumpers. This just made me giggle.
https://twitter.com/AnthonyIrwinLA/status/1579830100018987011
Obi is either going to take step forward this year and start to broaden his game or he’s probably going to stay in the “energize” role off the bench. His game is way different than Kenneth Faried’s, but back in the day Nugget fans would debate Faried’s role in the same way. Faried never expanded his game. So he stayed in the same “energizer” role in limited minutes. That’s not the end of the world. He’ll be one hell of a bench player. It just means we still have issues at PF/C with spacing.
Obi was better than Julius Randle by any metric you can imagine last season and the discussion around him is that he needs to prove he can play. He’s played 2000 minutes in the NBA. He’s at least an average NBA player, and likely better than that.
What Eason can do during the regular season should be interesting. He’s very much a hustle hard guy so he might have an advantage in the preseason
“I am racking my brain but I don’t think there has ever been a more athletic Knick. Certainly since 1980. Which is kind of crazy.”
Maybe Marcus Camby was in the same ballpark, but with a totally different game.
Some of the in-game stuff Obi does is ridiculous. There’s a wide range of all-around games to go with these kinds of players. He’s at least as good as Aaron Gordon, which is not a bad floor. How close can he get to Dominique? Larry Nance? Connie Hawkins? Amare? He seems like that archetype, and has some real physical coordination. Can he develop a midrange game? Back to the basket game? 3-pt game?
I don’t ever see him being a plus defender, but he’s definitely improving there…that between-the-legs dunk was triggered by a shot he blocked on a closeout. He’s put on muscle and seems to hold his position under the boards a bit better.
I think a B-version of Amare is the best upside comparison. I remember seeing Amare as a very young player and being amazed by his combination of length, power, speed and grace. Obi has that same “it” factor. He may not be better than Randle, but he’s so much more fun to watch and root for.
I think Hollinger is underestimating him.
Here is my non-data take on Obi. He brings a lot of positivity to the court: dunks, smiles, energy, and hustle. It sort of rubs off on the team. His body language always seems to be fine, even when he is not getting large minutes. I think you need players like this throughout the season. He can give the team a boost when they need it. Also, it seems like he is way more confident in shooting 3’s. He doesn’t hesitate.
Nate Robinson was an all world athlete. Being an okay NBA player at 5’8″ is incredibly difficult and he was a very good college football player as well.
I posted these Eason highlights yesterday:
https://www.nba.com/rockets/videos/highlights-tari-eason-posts-17-points-14-rebounds
He has probably benefitted so far from playing against scrubs and outhustling everyone, but the numbers are really impressive. I still question his offensive game…most of his hoops are either in transition, uncontested straight line rim attacks, or of the garbage variety. But when you consider that his calling card is defense, the floor seems pretty high right now.
I’m not playing the L card just yet, but it’s definitely on my mind.
Porzingis has an ankle sprain and Beal has a non-COVID illness. Looks like we won’t be getting the A version of the Wiz on Friday, meaning that we will have played 4 scrubby teams in preseason.
Then shit gets real pretty fast. @ Memphis should be an electric first game. Then 3 lottery teams at home to tighten up the rotation before a brutal 7-game stretch against likely playoff teams. I actually like that scenario, it should define who we really are and how Thibs will approach the rest of the season pretty fast.
“Obi was better than Julius Randle by any metric you can imagine last season and the discussion around him is that he needs to prove he can play.”
Those metrics in part measure whether you stay within your best skillset and try to maximize your efficiency (role player) or have a broader role.
Last year we needed a player with a more diverse skillset than Obi. That’s why Randle played ahead of him. He rebounds, can make plays, can create his own shot, can shoot off the dribble etc… His decision making leaves a lot to be desired (to put it mildly), but he can do more things at an acceptable level when his head is on straight.
If we tasked Obi with Randle’s role his stats would look a lot different (worse).
The team needs what it needs and the guy best equipped to do the job has been Randle even if we need improvement from what Randle was giving us. We need less from Randle this year because we have Brunson and RJ may take on a bigger role. Maybe Obi can expand his game too. Things could change this year.
It’s pretty rare for people to do this in preseason and then disappear when the regular games start. I think Tari is going to be a guy in the NBA for a while.
Athleticism is difficult to define and Nate being able to win a dunk contest three times at his height is amazing. But if you watch a youtube clip of his dunks you won’t see him going through his legs much on a fast break.
Yeah, I was going to mention Nate Robinson as well. A couple of other guys off the top of my head are: Trevor Ariza, Kenny Walker, and Micheal Ray Richardson. Also, Ewing early in his career, like pre-1990, was still pretty athletic before his knee problems totally robbed him of his athleticism.
Effross getting Tommy John. Brutal state of affairs for the Yankees’ bullpen.
At a bare minimum, Randle’s 2021-2022 season should completely oust him as the incumbent between him and Obi. Realistically the incumbent should be Obi since he was much better last year, but I can begrudgingly live with it if Thibs simply goes to Obi whenever he would obviously be the better option in a given game.
Last season that would be roughly 100% of the games, so hopefully Randle makes it a tougher decision this year.
@owen
Didn’t see anyone answer in the last thread, but Jeremy Sochan was probably the “new Rodman”.
I don’t buy it. If Sochan didn’t dye his hair evoking the Rodman comparison even more, then I don’t think he’d be a lotto pick.
Also, he’s definitely not Rodman on the boards.
—-
Taro Eason is the new Kawhi Leonard without the passing.
Racking my brain thinking of Knicks who have been standout athletes during my lifetime and literally Iman Shumpert was one of the first names to come to mind, which tells you all you need to know.
I would honestly shut up about so many other issues if we just played Obi 30+ minutes per game. The other issues wouldn’t magically disappear but the games would be so watchable I could live with it all.
I’m not a Thibs hater but I am very much looking forward to the next coach.
DRed, Randle was better at assists and rebounds than Obi last season. So Obi didn’t beat Randle at everything. I am actually amazed at how much scoring Obi does in limited minutes given that he scores effectively in limited ways. But still, in something like a playoff environment where defenses are good and don’t allow transition buckets much, I have a hard time imagining him getting so much scoring.
If you guys promise not to hyperventilate about every Eason PRESEASON game, I promise I won’t when Obi puts up 30 tomorrow night vs the Wiz
Randle is better at a bunch of things than Obi, but holistically Obi is probably a more effective NBA player. He certainly was last year.
Again, athleticism is very subjective. Mitch is incredibly athletic for instance. Bigs don’t block threes on the perimeter like he does. It’s just not normal.
Just saying that in terms of generic NBA style slammin’ and jammin’ in the Julius Erving, Nique, Kemp, Amare vein, I think Obi is already the best in Knicks history.
I have heard of Michael Ray but slightly before my time.
Seems like if the team is in a game where they’re struggling to score, you put in Obi. He’s an easy basket machine and we don’t have anybody else like that.
You gotta get the kid at least like 1800 minutes. He’ll get you buckets.
Wow, no love for Marcus Camby?
Another guy not mentioned: J. R. Smith
For a decent chunk of his rookie season, Obi looked lost and like he wouldn’t stick in the NBA. By end of the season he dispelled that, and entering last season there was uncertainty whether he could become a decent rotation player. By the end of last season, that was not in question. Entering this season, we are uncertain whether he could become a decent starting-level player.
My point is that he continues to develop and other than the disappointment of where he started from, has never disappointed. Put me firmly in the Obi camp. Also extremely easy to root for.
Ok, JR Smith is a good call. That’s some competition. Hard to get past what a knucklehead he was so often but he had some amazing game dunks.
“I have heard of Michael Ray but slightly before my time.”
He wasn’t an in-game dunk machine, but really talented all-around player, maybe top-5 most talented in Knicks history. Lots of demons, alas.
blew my mind every time i watched anthony mason dribble the ball up the court…6’7″, 250 lbs…that man was wide and thick, great dexterity, he also saw the floor well…
he had a really good season in ’95…
There’s lots of great athletes whose skillsets don’t quite fit the NBA or any other sport.
Anthony Randolph, tremendous athlete & terrible NBA player.
Thanasis Antetuonkompo, terrific athlete & terrible NBA player.
Mitch is a top tier athlete even if his skills only translate to above average NBA player. Same with JR.
Amare, maybe not while on the Knicks though…
Randle is an incredible athlete, he just can’t shoot the ball and his ego is made out of movie stunt glass.
Marbury?
other than clyde and bernad…sugar ray was one of my favorites…that backcourt of him and ray williams was awesome….
on obi…I still see they send him into the freakin corner every possession…can’t they design one play for him…try to post him up?
although we got him at the end of his career..Sprewell was a great athelete…
Nate gets my vote simply because pound-for-pound (or inch for inch) he was pretty much super-human. JR probably gets second place, grudgingly because of his likeability quotient, which was so low. Obi’s not in their class because he’s still oddly stiff. Runs like a deer and jumps like a kangaroo, though.
One thing I’ve been noticing recently with Obi is the occasional breathtaking move down low, which was rare to non-existent his first 1.5 years. I want to see more of that, please.
Spree was world class in his early years. But by the time he got to the Knicks his burst was gone.
I love Nate but his best in game dunks are, well, just dunks.
come to think of it…we get a lot of washed up guys who were great athletes/players early in their career..
the human eraser webster, kiki, blackman, mcdyess, x man mcdaniel, francis, mcgrady and on and on and on…ahh..the good ol’ dayze…
Amar’e’s first three months were extraordinary. And I miss having to deal with the apostrophe conundrum of using his name in the possessive sense.
Sprewell had enough left to rank high, too.
I’m a converted Obi believer but I can’t kill Hollinger for his take because Obi is a quite idiosyncratic player so questioning how his good play translates to a larger, more prominent role is fair. It’s an open question, and one we really need to start getting answers to this season. Unfortunately I think we’re probably not going to unless Randle gets injured.
Sure but he was 5’8″ which is below average for men in general; he’s like a full foot shorter than the average NBA player. The fact that he could regularly dunk in games, and blocked a shot by Yao Ming, means he was extraordinarily athletic.
“But still, in something like a playoff environment where defenses are good and don’t allow transition buckets much, I have a hard time imagining him getting so much scoring.”
IMO, that’s exactly it.
No one ever game planned to stop Obi last year. They game planned to stop Randle from getting to the basket and tried to double him and force him into uncomfortable positions where he was more likely to turn the ball over. They were trying to win the game. That meant stopping Randle not Obi. If Obi had to deal with that, he’d almost never get a transition basket, almost never get the WIDE OPEN 3s he’s still getting now, and they would force him to dribble to get his shot off.
That’s what happened to RJ to some extent. He was not seen as a 3 point threat. They even gave him wide open looks from the corner. Then he started making enough of them that they started taking some of that stuff away last year.
How Obi will score in a playoff environment is something we don’t exactly have to worry about at the moment, but I’m nearly certain he’ll do better than Randle did in that regard.
they didn’t game plan to stop randle…they game planned to take advantage of the fact that he is a human turnover and he was the easiest person to get to turn the ball over…
I enjoyed X-Man on the Knicks. He was solid for that short period of time! It brought back good memories reading about him and the other bruisers in “Blood in the Garden.”
I posted the long version of this a few months ago in response to djphan’s assertion that RJ was the best young player on the team, but here are the three plus players on the Knicks last year, in descending order:
Mitch
Obi
IQ
That’s it (at least of players remaining on the team). Rose was positive, but didn’t play enough minutes to qualify, and Randle, Fournier, and RJ contributed to wins, but only because they played so many minutes. Grimes was neutral – fantastic for a first-year player – and Sims was slightly bad, which is fantastic for a 58th pick.
It was obvious Obi was better than Julius. It was obvious that IQ was better than RJ. And it wasn’t just garbage time – though the end of the season numbers definitely helped a lot. Those two simply did more to help the team win.
The good news is that Brunson and Hart instantly become our #2 and #3 players in terms of contributing to wins. It’s almost a starting lineup:
Brunson
IQ
Obi
Hart
Mitch
I don’t know if Obi can play the 3, but if he could, and if Hart’s outside shot is for real, that could be a very interesting lineup.
I’d love for RJ to put it together this year, but I don’t know if I’d even bet on him to outproduce Grimes. I do think Randle will be better…but how much better? That is probably the most important factor in us improving (beyond the addition of two more plus players).
Well it’s a small sample, but Obi Toppin HAS played in a playoff series (65 minutes against Atlanta) and he did, well, what Obi does.
per 36 – 17.7 points, 7.1 rebounds
TS 62.4 on a usage of 19.5
WS/48 0.120
net on/off of +13.8. –> in a series in which we were outscored by an average of 7 points per game
Randle has more skills than Obi, but he’s not good at those skills.
Starting Obi with Brunson, RJ, and Fournier/Grimes makes so much more sense – it’ll never happen but it makes the most sense to have the ball in Brunson’s and RJ’s hands and have play finishers/shooters around them.
And I don’t know what I did to prevent me from being able to post, but creating a new WordPress account is irritating AF.
As for Hollinger, whoever said his “analysis” was lazy is right – Obi is already an effective starter, albeit limited. (Edit: and effective in the playoffs, per Frank above.) More importantly, our defense wasn’t really #21 or whatever – in the last four months of the season, once Mitch was healthy (and Kemba was mostly not playing), we had the 11th best defense. Once Julius was sitting (small sample alert!), it was #3. There’s no reason to expect we’ll be worse this year, and a lot of reasons to expect we’ll be better. I’d wager serious cash on a top 10 defense.
“How Obi will score in a playoff environment is something we don’t exactly have to worry about at the moment, but I’m nearly certain he’ll do better than Randle did in that regard.”
This made me snort my coffee, although thanks to Frank for his follow-up stats.
“I love Nate but his best in game dunks are, well, just dunks.”
Nate Robinson was Human Flubber.
Adding to ramahawk above —
if you delete the Kemba Walker minutes last year (leaving us with a 5800 possession sample) — the Knicks’ defensive rating was 109.2 which would’ve been good for 4th in the league last season (using cleaning the glass stats)
And from the day Kemba played his last game with the Knicks (2/16/22) to the end of the season, the Knicks had the league’s best defense (per NBA stats page).
It is crazy how badly that move backfired – a move that if I remember correctly, most people were behind here (with caveat that he would likely be injured a lot).
Since we’ve been on the “nobody admits they’re wrong” lamentation, I’ll happily (sic) admit I was wrong on Kemba. I loved the guy from the start, thought he was basically the smiley version of Dame at his peak, and was happy that he finally came to the Knicks toward the end of his career, so we’d at least be able to root for him for a bit.
Not so much, that last part.
Did you delete a post? I think that’s the cause of this glitch.
Taking a flyer on Kemba seemed like a decent risk at the time, considering it seemed impossible that he’d be worse than Elfrid Payton. Kemba got some buckets here and there but I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a player die on a screen so easily.
Also, we were counting on Kemba to at the very least be able to organize the offense, taking that burden away from Randle because the playoffs series against Atlanta had already shown Randle’s point-forward limitations. But he did none of that. His Knicks tenure was a total disappointment.
I take the L on this move, i thought his defense was very bad but that he’d compensate for that on offense, which turned out to not be the case.
Count me in, i loved his effort and defense, and the way he helped us get to the 1999 NBA Finals when Ewing was out. Great player.
Yeah, Spree was great. And i didn’t check this, but he certainly lead us on fastbreak points. I’d bet on that.
I loved that team, Allan, LJ, Ewing, Spree, Camby, they were great. But hey, every time a Knicks team wins the east and gets to the NBA Finals, they get a special place in my heart. 🙂
the most wrong I’ve ever been is to not have bet my life’s savings on the 2014-15 under
Kemba made sense as a flier depending on how much due diligence was done on the injury. I was OK with it as a low risk gamble, but noted that we had two PGs that were both injury prone and didn’t have a 3rd string PG.
However, in the days that followed the deal I started reading old articles from the Boston papers talking about his injury and the prognosis. One of his doctors flat out said there was no chance he was going to recover and the best you could hope for was pain management that at least allowed him to continue playing basketball. So basically, what you were seeing at the end of his season in Boston was what he had left. That was pretty bad.
It’s not my job to review medical records and know what they mean, but in the 10-15 minutes it took me to do some research, I knew it was likely we screwed up. So that has to be considered a “fail” on the part of multiple people in the Knicks organization.
My idea was to add Lonzo Ball at PG. That seems to have turned out even worse, but freak injuries are out of anyone’s control. Not knowing what kind of shape Kemba was in was a big fail.
I think everyone was ok provisionally with the Kemba deal as long as adequate due diligence was done. I am not sure that due diligence was diligent.
https://nypost.com/2022/10/11/kemba-walker-waiting-for-nba-team-to-call-after-knicks-falling-out/
seems like he is in denial stage
You can bet on the 2022-23 over, i’ve been reading it’s easy peasy. 😉 😀
We have to define what “good” means.
There are role players that are very good at a limited number of offensive skills. A good example of that is Mikal Bridges. On the right team, he’s going to be very valuable due to his high level defense and high efficiency in certain areas. However, if you tried to make him the #1 option it would be an epic failure because of his limitations. Also, if the defense focused on him (which they would rarely do because they have bigger fish to fry) he could be stopped fairly easily.
There are also players that have a much broader range of offensive skills, but they are not very high level at anything. A guy like that may or may not add a lot of value depending on how he is used, but he’ll do a better job in a high usage situation than the role player.
So you ask yourself, “What does this starting lineup need given the roster we have now?”.
The Knicks had no PG, no one that could create their own shots, no real #1 or #2 option etc…
So to start the season, Randle was clearly a better option than Obi because he could handle more responsibilities and there was no one else among the starters that could do it.
On another team, Obi might have been the better option.
On this year’s team, Obi could be the better option. We’ll see.
It’s not a matter of agreeing on who the better player is. It’s a matter of figuring out what the starting lineup needs to function its best at any given time. That’s partially dependent on the skillsets of the other players.
and lemon breezy…
The reason there aren’t more guys 5’8″ in the NBA is you have to be an absolute outlier athlete to compete in the NBA at that height. There are so many more guys who are 5’8″ to 6′ than there are guys who are 6’10” and you have to be more athletic and better at basketball than essentially all of them to make it to the NBA. There are plenty of more exciting athletes than Nate in the NBA, but playing averagish NBA basketball giving up 4 or 5 inches in height to the next shortest guy on the floor every night is an extraordinary accomplishment.
“Obi’s not in their class because he’s still oddly stiff. Runs like a deer and jumps like a kangaroo, though.
One thing I’ve been noticing recently with Obi is the occasional breathtaking move down low, which was rare to non-existent his first 1.5 years. I want to see more of that, please.”
In the limited pre-season ball I’ve watched Obi seems to be moving more fluidly than when he came into the league. That could be some sort of bias on my part though.
“In the limited pre-season ball I’ve watched Obi seems to be moving more fluidly than when he came into the league. That could be some sort of bias on my part though.”
I heard him allude to it being a continual point of emphasis in his off-season training. My guess is that the stuff you hear about in scouting reports for draft picks tend to get addressed, whether by diet, PT-type training, etc.
Watching the Redeem Team on Netflix and I got goosebumps.
Still don’t know how the heck Carlos Boozer made that team, but still. Goosebumps.
Two guys I never liked (for vastly different reasons) are Kobe Bryant and Coach K. Watching them in this, though, it’s hard not to be impressed.
Ahead of the ARgentina game, Coach K basically made the whole team rabid attack dogs trained to go after Manu Ginobli.
ugh, i do not like the houston astros…
Yordan is a scary scary hitter who just hit the most clutch home run in MLB playoff history. Holy hell he he crushed that ball.
Geo – I think Mikal would be good on any team in the league. Especially the Knicks.
I don’t really know why we should care that Randle is a better bad first option than Obi even if we accept it for the sake of argument, because we all agree Randle is indeed a bad first option. We’ve basically been begging Randle to play…more like Obi. Maybe just play Obi.
It’s like pointing out that Monta Ellis would’ve been a better first option than Mikal Bridges. Like, sure, I guess, but there’s a “why I should care” aspect missing. No one wanted Monta Ellis to be the first option, and no one wants Julius Randle to be our first (or second, perhaps not third) option.
By the way, an embarrassing IKF error was the lock of the playoffs but even I didn’t think he’d check it off in the first inning of the first game.
Not a Yankees fan but if I were I would be pretty angry at Josh Donaldson, who seems like one of those “play the right way” guys
hopefully the yanks come up with a better option at 3rd next year…
get judge home!!!
edit: that’ll do it…
I don’t remember the last time I this openly rooted for a Yankee player to fail, no matter how much it hurts the team. Donaldson is just a complete garbage human. Hate him.
it’s gonna be interesting to see how the yankees get those last 9 outs…
who’s left in the bullpen…
Wait, what’d Donaldson do? Dislike the Yankees, hate Donaldson, hoping for a giddy baseball Karen moment. Fill us in.
I had no faith whatsoever in Gerrit Cole but he did a nice job.
Donaldson hit a ball to the short porch in right. He assumed it was a home run and began trotting around the bases. Instead, the ball bounced off the top of the wall and right back onto the field of play, making it a live ball. And because he was doing the kind of self-promotional theatrics that he would yell at any other player for, he got thrown out stuck between first and second. Complete jackass.
And then it kind of happened again a few innings later, where the Cleveland third baseman dropped what seemed to be an easy line drive out. Donaldson assumed it was caught and kept his foot on the first base bag, and thus got caught in a double play.
The latter was slightly less egregious than the former, but still: clown getting clowned.
So realistically, assuming everyone is healthy, what are the likely rotation minutes distribution when the season opens, for like the first 20 games? Here’s my guess for average minutes and (range):
RJ 32 (28-36)
Julius 30 (26-34)
Brunson 28 (26-30)
Mitch 26 (24-28)
Fournier 26 (20-30)
IQ 22 (18-22)
Grimes 20 (16-24)
Rose 20 (16-24)
Obi 20 (16-24)
Hart 16 (14-18)
Deuce, Sims and Cam will be situational
The situation for Cam is losing by 40
***I was going to mention Nate Robinson as well. A couple of other guys off the top of my head are: Trevor Ariza, Kenny Walker, and Micheal Ray Richardson. ***
You guys are forgetting that Qyntel Woods was OAKAAK.
As for Robinson, I once saw him block the shot of a 7’5” Chinese dude. Like, in a game, playing on the same floor.
The Knicks have had no shortage of electric athletes pass through the Mecca. In fact, there are more Slam Dunk Championship banners up in the msg rafters than there are actual championship banners. Yay athleticism!
Organized it by position for better reading. With subtotals.
Highly doubt the following:
1) Randle only playing 30 MPG; I’m taking the over;
2) 6 mins without a rim protecting big; I’m taking the under; And who would be the center? Randle?
3) 4 mins in excess of RJ/Grimes; RJ at the 4? With an old school coach? I’m taking the under;