Banking on Giannis or Embiid becoming available.

This is the confusing one to me, because it sure has seemed right from the start of his tenure here that he was specifically targeting Giannis, right?

It seems like such an oddly specific strategy when, as it turns out, it’s not like he had some sort of back-channel connection to Giannis, he just sort of wishcasted that Giannis would come to the Knicks (and then, more recently, when that was obviously no longer going to happen, he’s pivoted to Embiid).

1. Hiring Thibs in a situation that called for a non-win-now interim or a young up-and-comer.
2. Drafting Obi over Hali.
3. Running back the mercs from 2020-21.
4. Prematurely extending RJ.
(5. not offering IQ enough, but that is TBD)

He has largely compensated for those fuck-ups by:

1. Stealing Brunson from Dallas
2. Not dumping Julius at his lowest value
3. Extending Mitch on the most team-friedly deal imaginable
4. Pouncing on iHart before anyone else did
5. Fillling out the rotation with JHart and DDV at the cost of a lottery-protected pick.

Leon lucked out by being rebuffed by Ainge. I give him no credit for accidentally avoiding all-in disaster.

Other potential fuck-ups: Making enemies with the Nets, Raptors, and Klutch. Banking on Giannis or Embiid becoming available.

Nah, you just see it that way because of intransigence. There were other considerations…dumping (poorly conceived) merc salary, signing Brunson, and signing Mitch while a) keeping a modicum of cap flexibility and b) avoiding dead cap. More reasonable skeptics (e.g. TNFH, ptmilo) had a more nuanced understanding of the overall picture. You seem pretty dug in on the “it was an unqualified fuck-up” take.

But hey, if you think Jalen Williams (who almost certainly wouldn’t have been picked anyway) and his -0.5 BPM was our ticket out of the mezzanine, more power to you!

Note: *Not* Glenn Robinson, who was pretty damn good for a bit of time, but Glenn Robinson, who was really never all that good. I sadly concur.

I like both of those guys! Sadly, Jaden McDaniels extended for 5 years/$136M so he’s not even remotely in this category. And Precious plays for an organization that we are suing for $10M.

I tend to think that whatever it was, missing out on Jalen Williams (not that Leon would have drafted him anyway)was worth it.

And unless you are among those who would have traded Mitch on 60% of his salary plus protected firsts for Jalen Williams, you might want to re-think your objections to what happened in June 2022. Because iHart is essentially Mitch…unless we want to throw out all advanced stats…EMM, BPM, WS48, etc.

Acquiring iHart gave us 48 minutes of Mitch-like C play…and gave us a guy who could help make possible a 3-2 road trip with wins over Durant’s and Booker’s Suns and LeBron’s and AD’s Lakers after losing Mitch by putting up Mitch-like numbers in extended minutes.