Knicks Morning News (2023.02.13)

It’s a big, big game. We haven’t beat the Nets in forever and they are 3 games up on us in the standings.

More generally, the 6 spot is there for the taking and the 5 spot is well within reach and we play Miami 3 times after the break. Atlanta is crawling up our ass, so a loss will really hurt. It would suck to go into the all-star break in 8th place, which is what will happen if we lose these next two. OTOH, if we can win both and then get Mitch back after the break, that would be huge!

At the very least, getting this one tonight would be massive.

Seems like Portland committed a significant bargaining infraction in the GPII swap by not disclosing the extent of that injury. I wonder if the league will a) force POR to give an second rounder or something to GSW and b) will heavily fine POR.

“The trade should have been rescinded, but because it involved two other teams and completed so close to the deadline, I see why it couldn’t be.”

Actually it seems like GSW could have backed out or at least litigated it but chose not to because GPII legitimately did not pass his physical, which is required for trades to be approved. Also sounds like they are pushing the league for additional compensation. However it turns out, I can’t imagine that the league isn’t going to penalize POR in some way.

I think that you can make a “glass half empty/glass half full” argument for every player and contract on our roster, except maybe for Brunson although his D is not a plus.

For example, Randle is vastly outperforming the $24.7M he’s getting paid this year and there is little reason to believe that his production is unsustainable (unless you think his floater game is an illusion…I dont, he was documenting specifically working on them all summer.) But it’s not unreasonable to think that his value in a trade is limited by both the PTSD of 2021-22 and his questionable value as an alpha or co-alpha.

Still, the larger point of Director’s bullet-point analysis is that:
1) we are pretty good and generally playing inspired, drama-free team basketball.
2) we are devoid of contracts that hamper further improvement and have contracts that could be assets
3) there is further room for internal development of young players
4) there are considerable assets for opportunistic trades and cap maneuverability

As to what that means, these next 24 games will say a lot about where we are positioned relative to our future, barring injury of course. If we go:

14-10, we end up at 45-37, probably a 5 or 6 seed.
10-14 we end up at 41-42, probably a 9 or 10 seed
12-12 we end up at 43-39, probably a 7 or 8 seed

The most outlier (but not impossible) outcome would be to finish 17-7 like we did in 2020-21 for a 48-34 record where that #4 seed might hinge on the game @CLE on 3/31.

Somehow I think we are going to hit that 14 win mark which would surpass that defining line as to whether this was a satisfying season or not in terms of moving forward with the hybrid strategy. The acquisition of JHart is a big reason for my optimism. He makes our bench a more sustainable energy unit rather than one dependent on RJ’s plodding or Deuce’s jumper.That should allow Randle and Brunson to be more rested in 4th quarters.

“He’s as predictable as my mom’s biennial tangerine tree.”

Does she also have a sour grapes vine?