My position on wanting a teardown for the past three seasons is implied. 😉

But in any event, the Knicks played a two guard 40 minutes last night who literally did not hit a single outside shot.

I’d be perfectly fine with them trading Barrett in the right deal, but they’re still significantly talent deficient and, without belaboring the point, still in purgatory. So we wind up with all the Knickerblogger back and forth about angels dancing on pinheads and overreactions to a series of 13 shots while the bigger picture goes entirely unaddressed.

They’ve needed all-star first halves from Randle and Brunson just to be mediocre. If a team like the Raptors can be seriously contemplating a teardown path, so absolutely could the Knicks. That’s pretty much the staggering reality of Knicksville.

Also, while you have to give Thibs props on playing IQ over RJ for the last 11 minutes of the game (counting OT), this is also the downside of enabling RJ for so long, as you know this isn’t going to go well now if Thibs keeps doing it. What player in RJ’s shoes, based on how he has been treated by the Knicks up until this point, would accept being treated like this?

It pisses the shit out of me that when one of those “Guys who just need to put it together” guys go to the Knicks high in the lottery, it has to be a guy who is, as Strat notes, “undersized at SF, too slow at SG.” The whole point of the dudes at the top of the lottery is usually that they have unreal physical dimensions and they just need to put it all together (like Ingram, for instance, who is 6’8″), and the Knicks don’t even get that when it’s their turn to take one. Imagine a 6’5″ Melo! Blech.

That was a really bad basketball game. Just shitty play on both sides except for the overtime period, where the Lakers were good. Man, I know the Lakers are missing two key rotation pieces in Austin Reaves and PatBev, but holy shit, that roster is garbage outside of LeBron, Brow and Schroder (and I guess Rui is interesting and Bryant isn’t actively bad). Troy fucking Brown? Max Christie? Westbrick being an actually important part of the rotation? It’s madness. What a ridiculous roster. And my god, how bad was Lebron down the stretch of the fourth quarter, when the Lakers were nursing a lead and yet he just kept chucking threes instead of driving? What a weird series of plays that was.

Thank goodness for IQ, Hart and Brunson. Everyone else was highly disappointing, as were Thibs’ schemes (nothing more embarrassing than that final possession in regulation. Hole. E. Shit). I do like that Grimes is at least taking it to the rim while his three point shot is off.

E and djphan would disagree. RJ is a potential future star, doncha know!

I know he’s still young, but the utter lack of any development is pretty remarkable. It’s like he walked through the door a fully fledged mediocrity and hasn’t changed one iota.

Just find some sucker and trade RJ!!!

He’s probably eventually going to become a pretty good scorer, but he’s a negative defender, undersized at SF, too slow at SG, too concerned about his own stats, and doesn’t do anything really well. I’ve been as patient as anyone with his development as a more efficient scorer. But I’m pretty convinced at this stage that even if I am eventually right about that, he’s not going to be a significantly plus player anyway. He’s not developing anywhere else. Just get him the hell out of here and find a legitimate SF. Maybe we should just bite the bullet and overpay a bit for OGA on the assumption that RJ plus whatever picks we have left will be enough to bring in another player later (I’m assuming Masai won’t want RJ even though sending him to Canada makes the most sense).