Knicks Morning News (2023.05.13)

The regular season is pretty much all we have had for the last 22 years so I’m not going to write off regular season success.

If Thibs wasn’t coaching this year’s team we either lose in the play-in or get swept by either Milwaukee or Boston…unless the coach was Spo or one of the very few coaches on that level. Thibs has flaws but he is a top 5-10 coach in the association. Getting rid of him right now because you don’t love the way he coaches in the playoffs would be nonsensical. Even discussing it is pointless, since it is almost certainly not going to happen.

I also disagree with those who felt this was truly a “winnable” series as a way of knocking Thibs. The better team won. Part of the reason they are the better team is due to Spo’s coaching and playoff experience. For all Thibs’ warts, the playoff experience he has given these players is incredibly valuable for their development, both individually and as a team. It also gives the FO a clearer sense of this team’s ceiling…something that they should have had two years ago…hopefully this time they won’t foolishly run it back. Looking forward to whatever the offseason brings.

It’s early to have this discussion, but I was dead-set against trading Julius Randle last year because it would have been bad business to unload him with sweetener (probably a lightly protected first at minimum) before attempting to rehabilitate his value.

NOW seems like a much better time to consider trading him. Even though he absolutely sucked for the majority of the 11 playoff games (did he have 4 or 5 good quarters?) he is still a 29yo all-NBA regular season performer…and probably on the smallest non-rookie scale contract of all the all-nba guys. That’s got to have some value out there somewhere, right? Right??

Seriously, I don’t know if anyone wants him, but it should be looked into. If we are stuck with him, it’s not the end of the world…he is a huge reason for our regular season success and favorable playoff seeding, and that’s not nothing.

“They have also demonstrated mental toughness in these playoffs by winning a close out game and an elimination game.

I suspect there will be opportunities to make a major move this off season. The good thing about overachieving in both the regular season and playoffs is that Leon is not under pressure to deliver a star at any cost.”

Excellent post.

My son and I were discussing how fortunate we were that the Spida trade fell through. That was the ultimate case of negotiating from a position of weakness after a disappointing season. I don’t really credit Leon for that, though. He was lucky that Danny rejected his best offer. I will credit him somewhat for not sweetening that offer, but really, he was bailed out of a terrible mistake. I hope he will internalize this season’s relative success as a “fatal” bullet dodged, and it will factor into how he approaches the next blockbuster situation.

“I think a KAT for Randle deal would take mild sweetener and possibly none at all given the contract difference and position Minnesota is in.”

I couldn’t disagree more with this. I think KAT will garner at least a Spida-level return, and it would be suicidal for Minny’s FO to trade him for anything less than that.

I will begrudgingly agree that if you simply replaced Julius with KAT, the team would have a much better chance of getting to the conference finals than currently constructed. I just don’t think there is any chance that a non-fatal trade for KAT can happen.

Yeah, Ayton is just another version of Julius. Hard pass.

Randle has 3 years left on his deal (last year a player option) at $25.6M, 27.5M, and 29.4M (not sure if there are all-NBA/All-Star incentives.) I can’t imagine that there is no market whatsoever for him, no matter how overrated his peers think he is. We’re not getting multiple unprotected picks for him, but it shouldn’t be a straight salary dump deal either.

Even if he’s mostly an empty-calory regular season innings-eater, he’s excellent in that role. He is an enormous part of why we were in the playoffs in the first place.

One other thing…there are lots of guys who were widely perceived as bums in the playoffs until they weren’t. Kyle Lowry was one of them. And Randle did make a speedy comeback from a severely sprained ankle, and he re-injured it less than 2 weeks ago. That doesn’t excuse his poor performance, but it’s something.

The Grizzlies offered three first round picks for Anunoby, and appear intent on trying to get him again this offseason, so I don’t see Anunoby being a real possibility here. Or rather, I would hope he wouldn’t be a possibility if the cost is three first round picks.

I suppose that should depend on what picks they were and what the confidence level is about where the picks will most likely convey.

For example, if Washington, Dallas, or Detriot hits the Wemby lottery, all of a sudden those picks gain value relative to our own unprotected picks in the short term if the trade is for a difference-maker. So if after trading the 3 picks you still have the equivalence of a first-rounder every year beyond 2023, that might make it worthwhile.

I still have questions about whether OG is indeed that level of difference-maker, but if you still have the capacity to trade for a difference-maker after trading for OG, it might be a reasonable way to roll the dice.

I wonder whether Crazy Mark Cuban would consider trading for Randle…he actually might be perfect for a team with ballhogs like Luka and Kyrie creating space and limiting his usage. I know he’s still fuming about the Brunson heist, but Cuban is the ultimate opportunist and I doubt he’d let his grudges turn into a Dolan-level vendetta.

That hurts