Knicks Morning News (2023.10.25)

I was very impressed with Denver (shocker!) last night. Teams are going to need size to compete with them. Their bench is somewhat weaker than last year, but their starting lineup is just impossible to stop with that monster running the show. And KCP looked phenomenal last night.

Meanwhile, the Lakers are clearly a work in progress. At least LeBron and AD looked healthy for now. But I just don’t see them beating the Nuggets in the playoffs because they had absolutely no answer for Jokic. Maybe they should just put LeBron on him…

In a weird way, we might match up better with them than most teams in the NBA because Mitch is at least a physical obstacle for Jokic and our bench is better than theirs.

Even though we have continuity right now, I think it’s pretty clear that the Knicks are not going to keep all of IQ, Grimes and DDV past this season. The first half of the season might be an audition as to who stays and who goes. DDV’s contract probably makes him the strongest candidate to stay, although he could be outgoing salary in a deal for a wing. If Grimes improves a lot, maybe that makes IQ expendable, although that creates a void at backup PG that DDV and Deuce are not ideal answers for

So is it Grimes that goes out? I would say only if they are committed to IQ, meaning that they would match any offer he receives as a RFA as last resort.

It’s really a murky problem, but probably a good problem to have.

The only thing that concerns me about OG is the enormous price Masai would need to extract for trading him to the organization that is currently suing the Raptors. It is simply not going to happen unless OG opts out and goes the free agency route with specific designs on the Knicks. There is zero possiblilty that Toronto does any business with the Knicks unless it is an absolute steal for them.

There were a number of considerations in the paltry return for Obi…salary cap space and staying below the first apron, extension eligibility, playing time vs. fit on team in Thibs’ schemes…I think it really was viewed as a “trade” of DDV on a market-value deal plus two shitty seconds for Obi on his current $6.8M expiring way more than “Hey, let’s do Obi a favor.” Meaning that if they kept Obi, had a team offered them the equivalent of DDV on his new deal plus 2 shitty seconds for him, the Knicks would have made that trade.

“fred the axe says he thinks offer to quick was in the $16-20mm range. too low.”

Unless we know what the minimum Quickley was willing to accept, this is not all that useful. In other words, let’s say the Knicks were willing to offer the top of that range…5yrs/$100M, player option 5th year. Was the counter-offer $22M ($110M), $25M ($125M) or $27M ($135M, Jaden McDaniels money)? If option 1, the Knicks were stupid. If option 3, then they did the right thing. Even option 2 seems high enough for the Knicks to balk, given the poison pill consideration.

My guess is that the gap was $5M+ AAV ($25M total) That’s probably to far of a gap to bridge. But maybe there were some reassurances that it was more of a cap-space/flexibility thing and IQ’s patience will be rewarded….just like it was Josh Hart and Mitch.

Or maybe IQ doesn’t want to play behind Brunson and wants to test restricted free agency for a starter’s spot…and set the bar artificially high for that reason. In other words, he thinks he can not only get starter money, but a starting role, which he is unlikely to get here. If that’s the case, what is Leon supposed to do?

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“Jokic is an unsolvable problem the likes of which I’ve honestly never really seen”

I don’t think anyone is “unsolvable” in the team context….all of the greatest players…Wilt, Kareem, Jordan, Shaq, LeBron….were largely unsolvable but still needed the proper supporting casts. But he is #6 in the line of truly unsolvable players, individually speaking. I personally would not take Jokic over any of those 5 in an all-time draft…maybe Shaq…but would not feel like I had a mismatch against him either.

I struggle to consider whether Durant belongs in that group…at his peak, he has been pretty unsolvable as well…he’s just so unlikeable, and sharing an era with LeBron has hurt him.

“I don’t see any team doing that, but pretty sure that’s more or less the max another team could offer.”

That seems logical. Teams do tend to overpay RFAs out of fear of being matched…so I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets offered something like 4years/$120-130 (maybe descending if that’s possible?).

I still think that the most likely outcomes are that a) IQ is traded before the deadline, b) the Knicks work out an extension for him after the season.

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