Knicks Morning News (2023.11.15)

Patience is the key. The Knicks are a competitive team with lots of good players on market value or better deals. They don’t need a chemistry-killing overpaid faux-savior at the cost it would take to bring one in.

That said, I do worry that they have built a team where making any kind of trade is going to feel weird. Really, there shouldn’t be a single untouchable player on the roster. But Brunson feels untouchable. And because of that, Josh Hart and DDV also feel untouchable. But should Brunson be untouchable? If we can land Spida, might it make sense to trade Brunson for a really good player at another position? How would the fan base react to that? Or is that idea a non-starter because Brunson is Brunson and Leon is Leon?

Then you have 3 guys that are in contract limbo…IQ, Grimes, and iHart. Who knows what will happen with them going forward?

And then there are the 3 players from prior regimes signed to long-term deals…RJ, Randle and Mitch. Depending on the star you target, one or two of these guys pretty much has to go out. If it’s Embiid, it would likely be Mitch. If Zion, it would be Randle. If OG, it would be RJ.

It will be interesting to see what shakes out as the season goes on and teams start facing their realities, including ours. If we are hovering around .500 or even below that come February, things could get dicey.

Zion is not my cup of tea, and wasn’t even at draft time…in the sense that I did not see him as a “transcendent” star. Folks were throwing comparisons to LeBron, Barkley, Malone, and other all-time greats.

Zion has some major flaws. He’s not especially long, has a shortish wingspan, can’t reliably shoot FTs, can be allowed to shoot pretty much anywhere outside of 15ft, and doesn’t seem to be a high-IQ player or a high-motor player except in spurts. If the definition of unstoppable is Giannis, or Embiid, or Durant, he’s pretty damn far from unstoppable. And that’s not even getting into his health/fitness issues.

Will he get better? Who knows, both if and how much? I’m very bearish on him ever becoming a true max player, and only a degree less so on him ever being worth what he will be getting paid. At best, he’s a prime Melo-level player, and even that is pretty far from where he is right now.

I wouldn’t touch him with a 10ft pole unless I could get him for virtually nothing and he was on something like a Randle-level deal. I would WAAAAAY prefer a guy like OG or Mikal or even decline-phase Kawhi to him.

This team needs defensive length and consistent perimeter shooting. Again, see what the Celtics did, and what the Thunder are doing. When you have Brunson as one of your Big 3, you can’t afford another undersized/subpar defender in the starting lineup, especially one that can’t shoot. The hardest of no’s on Zion.

“Charles Barkley was never out of shape. He was a shorter power forward and his nickname was the “round mound of rebound” but that was more because he was just shorter for a PF and was incredibly strong. Google image search Barkley when he played for the 76ers. He was never “fat.””

Barkley was fat the same way that Doncic and Jokic were fat, or going back, guys like Mark Jackson and Mark Aguirre. Barkley was a poster boy for durability, playing nearly 40K minutes and 5K playoff minutes. From age 21 to 32 he never played less than 2298 minutes in a season or averaged less than 35mpg, and usually played a lot more than that. He also had a great motor on both ends.

Zion will never, ever, ever be close to the all-around player that Charles Barkley was, no matter what kind of shape he gets into. That ship has sailed.

I just watched Obi’s highlight reel from last night. He did an excellent job of slashing, catching, and finishing in halfcourt…mostly not dunks but close to the rim. He also scored running out in transition. Seems like Phily’s D just couldn’t catch up to Indy’s pace.