[NBA.com] – Wed, 03 Jan 2024 16:29:08 GMT
Chicago Bulls vs New York Knicks Jan 3, 2024 Box Scores
[New York Post] – Thu, 04 Jan 2024 04:22:00 GMT
- Julius Randle, Jalen Brunson go off for big nights to lead Knicks in rout of Bulls
- Knicks 116-100 Bulls (Jan 3, 2024) Game Recap
- NBA Wednesdays on ABC tips off with Bulls-Knicks
- Knicks vs Bulls Prediction, Picks Tonight | Best Bet for Wednesday
- Scenes from Julius and Jalen pasting sixty-six points on the Bulls
[Posting and Toasting] – Wed, 03 Jan 2024 18:00:00 GMT
- Is Malcolm Brogdon the third ball handler the Knicks desperately need?
- Brogdon ‘Checks Every Box’; Trade with Rockets Coming?
- Who Can the Knicks Add as Their Last Shot-Creator?
- Bill Simmons name-drops volume shooter as potential Immanuel Quickley replacement for Knicks
[Daily Knicks] – Wed, 03 Jan 2024 22:00:03 GMT
- Multiple front offices share harsh truth about Knicks’ trade of RJ Barrett
- Report: RJ Barrett’s Contract Called ‘Toxic Asset’ by NBA Insiders After Knicks Trade
- Recently acquired Raptors forward labelled as ‘toxic asset’
- RJ Barrett’s Contract Considered ‘Toxic’ By Some Front Office Exes, Coaches
- Goobye, RJ. Goodbye, IQ.
[NBA.com] – Wed, 03 Jan 2024 22:01:00 GMT
- Knicks Sign Duane Washington Jr. to Two-Way Contract
- Knicks Sign Duane Washington Jr. To Two-Way Deal
- Knicks agree to two-way contract with Duane Washington Jr.
- Knicks’ latest roster move amid massive OG Anunoby trade
- Knicks’ Duane Washington: Rejoins Knicks
[New York Post] – Thu, 04 Jan 2024 08:16:00 GMT
New-look Knicks show more positive signs in win over Bulls
[Sports Illustrated] – Thu, 04 Jan 2024 07:09:26 GMT
A Trade The Knicks And Warriors Must Consider
[New York Post] – Thu, 04 Jan 2024 08:47:00 GMT
Knicks’ Isaiah Hartenstein dominates with rebounding masterpiece
[New York Post] – Thu, 04 Jan 2024 06:29:00 GMT
- Knicks’ Josh Hart makes comically bad pass into stands, jokes he can play in NFL
- Knicks Josh Hart Made the Worst Turnover of the NBA Season and Fans Were Amused
- Knicks Star Jokes About Quitting the NBA for Magic Johnson in the NFL: Holla at Me
- “Commanders, holla at me”: Josh Hart comes up with Tweet of the Year already, mocks his wayward pass
139 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2024.01.04)”
Didn’t catch this game, but reading the game thread and checking the box score it looks like we cruised to the win. Nice!
I have one solution for the 2nd unit, but Alan won’t like it! What if we bring back… VILDOZA? 😀
We’re tied for 6th with Cavs and Magic, and we’re only half a game behind the Pacers (5th) and one game behind the Heat (4th). I think we’ll be on this fight for the 4th spot for the season and so i think this is going very well until now. I also hope we can bring in Brogdon, Tyus, or some similar player to up our chances to be in the 2nd round, maybe ECF with some luck. Right now i’m very happy with how the season is developing.
“Right now i’m very happy with how the season is developing.”
As you should be! OG is a stud and will make a huge difference. We need an intermediate move though.
My understanding is we cannot offer him an extension in season bc he’s on a two-year deal but I am not positive. Does that sound right?
The team to be afraid of re: iHart is the Oklahoma City Thunder. They are in the market for a center and he would be perfect on that team. They project to have around $15MM in cap space this summer and can easily create more.
You can probably get something like Josh Giddy and first round picks for him if you made the trade now. That would kill this season but if he’s going to walk at the end of it, be smart.
Our Question of the Day revolves around our dismal bench mob. Pretend for a moment that Leon is not going to make an all-in move before the deadline, or even a significant move like trading for DJM or Brogdon. So we’d be trading a minor asset for a useful but flawed player. Considering all of that, which is more important for this roster: a good facilitator, or a good scorer?
Speaking of the Thunder, Jalen Johnson dominated them last night: 28 pts, 7 rebs, 3 ast, 4 steals.
You could make a strong case right now that guy would be our missing piece. He is a much better trade target than Dejounte Murray. Pairing him with OG would make us incredible on the wings.
Scorer, I’d say. Someone who can create his own shot on the second unit. Not sure I want anyone facilitating Josh Hart & Precious Achiuwa, you know?
Tyus Jones is my guy for the job. If not him, someone in that mold.
Yesterday there was a lot of debate on who would fill in the missing Barrett usage. It actually seems to be Brunson and Randle. And before you say it’s just chance in these two games, consider this. When Brunson and Randle play together they probably limit each other’s usage to a certain extent. Before the trade, they played together almost all the time. But now they each play significant minutes without the other on the court so that one is on the court all the time. During those minutes their individual usage should be higher than when they play together, so their overall usage for a game should each increase. Watching today’s game, that seems to be what is happening.
I don’t like having Brunson and Randle apart even if it’s against a 2nd unit. Unless there’s another threat on the court, they’ll double team whichever one is playing alone. IMO we need another move before the deadline. I’m just not willing to give up much unless it’s a player that can be part of the long term plan (at least a few years).
I’m going to lean facilitator. Seemed like we struggled just getting the ball to Randle in good post position.
Fitting new offensive pieces together is rough though. It should still get better, they’ve only had 2 practices together at most. The 2nd unit may never get there and would make it a lot easier if they had a high usage player.
I think the only reason it hasn’t affected the first unit is that we’re effectively just ignoring OG/using him like Grimes in the corner.
One encouraging sign is that Thibs is experimenting, pulling Randle so early in the first and having him run the second unit really didn’t work, but it was important to try. The Bulls have some decent defenders and they just swarmed him every possession and forced a million turnovers, because Julius is still very clumsy at passing out of double teams.
I’m very encouraged so far, the defense looks so much better with OG and we haven’t even really integrated him on the offense at all.
I think the best plan might be to make a smaller move for this season, for example trade Fournier’s contract and a pick for Brogdon, Tyus or even Clarkson if he comes cheap, see how the playoffs go, then try to re-sign Hartenstein in the offseason and use Mitch plus the picks, Grimes, etc to chase for another star, that’s if Hart plays himself into a bigger role the rest of the way.
FWIW, I think it’s facilitator. We know what Julius can do when he gets the ball in the right spot. Grimes can fill up the stat sheet if someone’s feeding him the ball, Hart can be a useful offensive player if set up properly, etc. Deuce is just not at all a point guard. If we had someone who could make the proper pass and, run pick and roll, and drive and kick, I don’t know that the second unit would be nearly as potent as the version run by IQ, but it would at least look competent. And given how much better our starting unit is with OG, competent bench play is all we need.
Through 2 games:
Randle 36.5% USG
Brunson 27.4%
Donte 22.1%
McBride 17.1% (??)
Grimes 15.9%
OG 13.8%
Hart 11.3%
Achiuwa 9.1%
iHart 7.4%
Part of the problem with Deuce is he can’t initiate offense for anyone, including himself. The bench mob needs someone who can make a defense have to react, whether it’s by scoring or playmaking.
here’s the usg numbers for the game:
Randle 32.6
Brunson 28.9
DiVincenzo 22.0
Grimes 21.4
OG 12.0
Hart 11.5
it’s actually been Randle taking up almost ALL of the usg vacuum (40.4 usg last game)… with Brunson mostly maintaining where he’s at…. some of this is coming from the fast breaks that are generated from the defensive stops on the other end so possibly noise… we’ll see where things end up but he is headed towards embiid… doncic.. giannis.. edwards … sga usg territory…. and he’d be the least efficient with that workload so we’ll what blinks first…
everything else seems to be inline with expectations altho OG is probably going to shoot more but again… it’s hard to generate shots when you rely on others to feed you dunks and 3s…. donte’s usg is mostly jacking up 3s as soon as he gets it to…
one of the best developments is brunson’s distributing… which we haven’t seen much of but he’s more than capable… it’s going to be key because we have a bunch of guys who need others to create shots for them… it’s been a problem of ours since ball movement hasn’t been a thing but it’s been since the trade… hope that akeeps up….
Only two games but a couple of interesting trends.
Brunson with 14 assists and then 13 assists. Maybe having a third high usage ISO scorer in the starting lineup who is also super inefficient was holding back Brunson’s PG skills? DDV runs around and cuts more and it feels like OG is a willing passer and cutter, screen setter, etc. So maybe it wasn’t Thibs running a simplistic offense as much as RJ just being such an ISO guy and having three ISO dudes made it all ISO all the time.
Randle has been attacking the rim like an absolute mad man but I’m also really loving how he is getting down the court faster for some easy transition buckets. I LIKE THIS RANDLE A LOT!!!
Second unit has definitely taken a big hit. But I think we should exercise a little patience. You may remember there was a stretch 2 seasons ago when IQ played horribly. He also played pretty poorly the first third of last season before taking that big leap.
We’ve got increased roles for Grimes and McBride but increased usage for Hart, DDV…Precious now off the bench, etc. I hope Leon waits until the trade deadline to make a move and gives these guys the next month to figure it out. Maybe they just need a little time to play together.
Not opposed to getting Brogdon or someone like that but I think we should wait a few weeks before we make that move.
i think that you can survive with only two options who can create is a false assumption…. most of the best offenses don’t really operate this way… and those that did… the pacers… hawks and mitchell jazz teams… were very heavy on the spread pnr and one guy running that… or they have embiid… jokic or doncic….
everyone else has multiple playmaking options because usually teams are good at shutting down your first option enough times that makes you go to your other ones…
the offense hasn’t actually been all that great… better yesterday…. but we’ve won cause our defense was like all-time great… thanks to all-time great play from ihart specifically…. if ihart is doing more of that it doesn’t really matter what our offense does… but more than likely the offense will need another scorer sooner than later…
Sadly I think that’s right, Dred. Deuce rang up a good part of that 17% USG just aimlessly dribbling at the top of the key for an entire possession before dropping it off to Randle as the shot clock ran down.
I was mildly excited to see Grimes and JHart take it into the paint now and again, even if it led to floater air balls, as it sometimes did. JHart should be at least as successful as Barrett doing it (!), given his fast break excellence, and Grimes is super quick — feels like they just need repetition. With Deuce the question is still out there — we’ve seen him successfully go to the rim, but it’s so rare it feels like an optical illusion when it happens.
I mean it’s not going to stop us from getting to the finals if we try to see if some combination of lineup tinkering and guys getting used to new roles can make the bench more viable but I am skeptical at least.
We’re probably going to get fucked up by Philly so if anyone wants to do some negative panic posting there’s a something to look forward to Friday
The last 2 games are Exhibit A as to why it makes sense to wait to see what we have before we make any next move, and I am not saying this because they were very nice wins. iHart’s play has changed a lot of the dynamics about how we should approach missing Mitch, slotting DDV and OG into the starting line up is affecting the way the offence moves, and Deuce looks like he is in way over his head. Deciding on OG as a missing piece was pretty easy (who couldn’t use a player like that, especially if replacing RJ minutes) but the next piece (should it be small or large or as Alan posits shooter or facilitator) needs a lot more time to evaluate.
I think we clearly need another usage soaker regardless of how the team plays going forward. It makes sense that things are disjointed in the immediate aftermath of a major trade, but these minute totals and usage allocations are not sustainable. I like watching Brunson and Randle cook, but also want them to save the bullets for the playoffs.
I need to see Hartenstein keep this up for a while before I’m comfortable saying we should plan on him being our starter moving forward…but the fact that I’m even entertaining the idea as a proud Mitch stan is telling. His game last night was one of the best games any Knick has had this season. Still want to see if we can involve him more offensively, and it sounds like Thibs is amenable to that.
Sequence of the game for me last night was the possession where we missed like 3 threes but kept getting tip outs and oboards until finally OG flushed home the jam.
That was a thing of beauty. IHart then OG then IHart then OG!
We’ve added so much size to our starting line up with OG. Increased rebounding, better pick setting, better defense and I think DDV can play the passing lanes more for steals now that OG is there.
We all know we need another usage soaker. There’s no need to keep discussing this unless we want to talk about possible options. The OG trade JUST happened. Maybe let’s let Leon watch the team for a few weeks to see exactly what we need.
But speaking of possible options – what do people think about trading for Colin Sexton? I know he’s a bit of a wild card but timeline wise, he’s younger and he can be a very explosive scorer.
Haven’t seen any games but the OG era seems to be off to a great start. Tyus Jones in his Memphis incarnation would be an ideal fit.
Tyus would be great, but would also probably come at a cost that would hurt our ability to swing a star trade at least a little. Balancing that consideration against the fact that it seems like the current team could be pretty good, though still not a contender, with a reasonable amount of help will be the name of the game for Leon until the deadline.
My best guess is we do something small-ish i.e. no first-round pick involved. Aleg Burnes had a good game last night, would love to snag our old friend for a couple of seconds.
Giving the Pistons their pick back for Bojan and Burks arguably splits the baby very nicely, but making the salaries work is hard. Annoyingly, Fournier + Sims + Arcidiacono seems to be a few hundred thousand short of a match and there’s no other pure filler package I can see. Achiuwa and Flynn can’t be aggregated in a trade until after the deadline and McBride’s extension takes him out of the running too.
I see someone is leaking to Shams that the Lakers are unhappy with Darvin Ham, I wonder who LeSource could be
I wonder who LeSource could be
So Cam is stirring the pot.
In the post OG trade podcast Lowe & Pelton did they were both pretty adamant that the Wizards couldn’t get one first round pick for him.
Hey wasn’t there someone giving us Cam Reddish updates after he scored 7 points on opening night? What happened to that? How’s Cam doing, can we get another update?
Brogdon or Tyus would be ideal but if they’re too expensive the following are all options:
Someone mentioned Delon Wright before and I think he’d be a great buy-low candidate. He’s just starting to get burn with the Wizards after coming back from injury. He’s not a scorer, but he’s a hellacious defender and a good distributor. He’s also much bigger than Deuce. He’s a UFA after this year however.
Some other good buy-low candidates: Markelle Fultz (UFA after this year) and Devonte Graham (partly guaranteed next year).
I’m also thinking we should trade for/sign another center (Mo Bamba! Andre Drummond! Anyone but Sims!) unless Precious shows something stat…
Tyus for less than a first would be great, he’s a perfectly averagish NBA guard.
He and Frank were placed in bubble wrap and sent to assisted living where they can get physical therapy and try to avoid injury for more than a week.
Today I found out that Devonte Graham somehow makes 12 million this year… what the hell. I’m intrigued by the idea of Markelle Fultz but I don’t know if he’s ever going to be truly healthy.
I wonder if Thibs and the FO have any intention of looking at Malachi Flynn when he’s healthy, I mean, I can’t hurt right.
You could trade Achiuwa for a slightly more expensive player or absorb someone via the Obi exception and then trade for Bojadon and Alexei Burkov separately.
If you do use the TPE, then you need to send out a couple extra million to stay under the hard cap.
Kira Lewis would be a good candidate for it because (1) he sucks, (2) he’s a FA after this year, and (3) it would get NO under the lux tax. We might even squeeze a 2nd rounder out of them.
If Tyus can be had for less than a first it’s a no-brainer, he does a bit of everything we need. Sexton too, but it’s Danny Ainge and he’ll probably ask for Grimes + 3 1st rounders to start the conversation.
Tyus Jones left Memphis because he wanted to be a starter. I doubt he’s going to want to come to NY to be a backup again.
I think we also got a trade exception from the Toronto deal, no?
Yeah, $5.2M according to fanspo trade machine. That could also get it done.
The best option is Brogdan assuming he’s healthy. He can score, make plays, is starter quality if necessary, and will be around this year and next at least. That’s long enough to be worth something but not so long we have to worry about his contract.
Previously, if Brunson missed games Quickley could step in and we’d lose some things but gain other things. Deuce is highly suspect to handle backup duties, let alone start. We need a quality backup that can score eventually.
I actually peeked at Cam after Noble’s comment, and man, 18 minutes, 0-1 with 4 turnovers. Must have been some hellacious defense, I guess.
Obi actually had a semi-decent game, 15-8-4. Meanwhile Hali gets 31 and 12 assists with 3 blocks and, um, no turnovers…
As Hubert notes, I don’t think they can extend iHart. If they could, I’m sure they would have tried by now. If you’re iHart, though, you probably want to play out the season and see what the market looks like. I think he wants to return to the Knicks, but if he can get, like, $25 million from some team (I doubt it, but who the fuck ever knows, right?), then obviously he’d likely prefer that.
And the Knicks are restrained in how much they can give him. But hey, better to have a player that you’re worried about losing than having a player you’re upset you’re stuck with, so that’s a relatively good problem to have!
He left via trade. He’s a FA after this year, which is part of the price being so low. I’m not sure he gets a starting gig after this year if we want to re-sign him, he’s not Immanuel Quickley.
The NBA is hilarious, where $5.2 million can get you a pretty good player in the final year of their rookie deal, or can get you a quarter of the salary of a shitty veteran player. 😀
not to say i know sexton personally…but watching him …doesn’t seem like the personality this FO group would want to introduce to the locker room….how ’bout a return trip from Dennis Smith Jr…he appears to have embraced the backup role and is putting up some decent numbers…
Excellent caponomics EB. Getting NOP under the luxury tax by taking Lewis off their hands seems like the best way to do this, and if they give us a second for our troubles we can use that to grease the wheels with Detroit.
We could actually do it via a standard three-way with only Flynn going to NOP–they can slip under the LT by sending out Kira and Zeller.
NYK gets: Burts, Bojan, Lewis (waived)
NOP gets: Flynn
DET gets: their pick, Fournier, Arcidiacono, Sims, Zeller
As I think you pointed out last night, Brian, iHart’s wife is a model who would probably be much happier to stay in New York (unless one of the LA teams was able to sign him). So that might help, on top of him loving Mitch and seeming to be very happy here. This isn’t a typical bench player situation either, as he pretty much splits time with Mitch and often plays more due to matchups or foul trouble.
That said, it might have to be a significant hometown discount, and at a certain point, you just go for the money. In which case our options become:
1)See if you can get real value for Mitch (probably by making him part of The Star Trade Package) and then re-sign iHart as the new starting center.
2)Get what you can in a sign-and-trade to his new team.
3)Let him go for nothing and sob gently.
I watched some of the highlights, Hali threw a couple of no look passes that were Magic-esque. Plus he’s feeling his oats from 3 point range, putting up (and making) 28+ footers. Currently at 41% from three
But his form is really terrible!
Or the Nets
Hali is reaching Steph territory on my list of Knicks what-ifs, and he’ll probably will end surpassing Steph because in Steph’s case we were going to select him and the problem was that the previous team took him. In Hali’s case it’s all on us for not having him.
He had been complaining about being a backup for a couple of years. He was not going to stay to be Morant’s backup. They could have really used him this year given Morant was going to be suspended for so many games. IMO it’s very unlikely he’ll come to NY to become a backup again. Maybe he’ll just stay in DC.
For iHart, you have to hope a team doesn’t throw a $20M+ Bruce Brown-type deal at him. It’d be hard for him to say no to that.
If it’s within a few million, I think we could convince him to stay on a 1-and-1 player option with the promise of a big raise after 1yr and putting his locker right next to Mitch’s.
As a side note, do we know who reps his wife and how much money CAA could get her for gigs based in NY?
I still think Brogdan is by far the best “win-now but not at the expense of having the ability to acquire a better player in the future” solution out there, except for the injury risk. He is a starter-quality combo guard with size and defensive chops, the kind that can play both on and off the ball and guard both up and down in size. He gives you all the Brunson goes down with a sprained ankle insurance that we lost with IQ being traded and more. If that were to happen right now, yikes!
Burks is not anything close to a PG, and I don’t really recall him being all that good of a shot-creator or facilitator. I like him as a fallback, but more as a future analog for Grimes than an urgent intermediate replacement for IQ. He’s a good egg JOATMON-type, so he would help, but I think there’s an opportunity for a much bigger boost here.
Yeah Brogdon makes a lot of sense. He has the extra year on the contract, so if you want to move him in the offseason to bring in another bigger fish, that should be easy as he’s both a good player AND an expiring contract.
The sense I get from IHart’s mom whom I see a few times a month in my shop is that he is/was mildly unhappy with Thibs. That is why when Thibs started Sims instead of him after Mitch went down I felt it was very disrespectful. IHart had earned that job and wanted it. Especially so, being that he is in a contract year.
Now whether or not that is water under the bridge now that he’s starting, playing great and being better utilized I don’t know. But I’m going to ask.
I wouldn’t put a lot of stock on the idea that his wife will push him to stay in NY. I’m sure she goes wherever she is needed for her own job.
Two games is way too small of a sample size for any logical conclusions
Hope Leon goes back to sleep for a month til trade deadline. But his track history with CAA players says that he will likely sacrifice 2024 Dallas 1st round pick + Fournier to make a win 50 games now move by getting Malcolm Brogdon. Malcolm will be an expiring this summer and this solves outgoing salary problem for an all in Donovan Mitchell type trade.
I don’t like Leon continuing to burn picks he inherited but have to be realistic that this is likely our base case scenario and the only reason it didn’t happen yet is because Portland thinks that it can get more in return.
On another note, Randle is truly on an all-NBA-level run. In his last 18 games, he has had a .600+ TS% 13 times, and in 4 other games he was at .597, .560, .590, .543, and .505, so no disastrous clunkers. Only the turnovers stand out as a negative, and maybe the 3pt%.
brogdon is with klutch and so same issues as with lavine and murray….
they really do need more of a caris levert type… backup pg is a ‘need’… but the bigger need is having more scoring options…. backup pg is only going to be playing like 8-10 minutes in these games anyway…. whereas you want options to play together with the starters replacing donte when they have a tough time creating shots which is going to happen….
brogdon would theoretically fit that well but the agency fit isn’t right….
But we also need someone who can start in place of an injured Brunson for a game or two without our offense going completely to shit. Maybe that’s Malachi Flynn. Maybe it’s Delon Wright or someone else we can get for a second. I’m terrified at the idea of Deuce having to play significant minutes at point guard.
Here’s my all in move – 2 moves actually. This isn’t getting us another “star” but it’s gonna make us a super complete team.
trade for Brogdon
trade for Caruso and Drummond
Brunson/Brogdon
Caruso/DDV
OG/Hart
Randle/Precious/Taj
IHart/Drummond
This team would be hella deep and defensively no one is gonna want to play them in the playoffs.
Caruso keeps good 3 point shooting and great defense in the starting line up and moving DDV to the bench gives us the scoring punch we need with the second unit. Brogdon is great back up PG option. Can keep Brunson fresh. Drummond gives us our back up Center and great rebounding.
Only weak spot would be back up PF but you have 2 options and Taj will never embarrass you.
Brunson/Brogdon
Malachi seems to have some skills as a distributor but that’s not super useful when there’s nobody to distribute to. He’s a small, under-the-rim guy who has just lacked the physicality to succeed in the NBA. He’s still worth a look but really we need a combo guard who can both score and pass a little.
I suddenly find myself quite annoyed that we didn’t just give iHart a 3 year deal in the first place.
I believe (but I’m not sure) we could sign him to a one year deal this summer and then get his full bird rights without that being shady. I think that’s what the Lakers did with KCP not long ago.
My bad. I thought he was with Austin Brown @ CAA.
Obv that carries a lot of risk for iHart and might not appeal to him.
There’s no way iHart would’ve taken a 3 year deal at his current salary. The idea was to do exactly what it looks like he is doing–prove he can take on a bigger role and get back on the market at age 26.
We can re-sign him to a wink-wink 1+1 to get his full Bird Rights. KCP did it, and so did Bobby Portis IIRC. I still think the 4/$64M we can offer him gets it done at the end of the day, but the more games he has like last night the less likely that gets.
Agree, I’m less concerned about trading for an additional primary ball handler per se than I am about trading for someone who can handle usage more broadly. Obviously there’s overlap between the two and if we happen to get a distributor type that’s just fine, but someone like Burks who can get off half-decent looks without needing plays run for him would do a lot for our bench despite not being a point guard.
Yeah, iHart’s deal is working out exactly the way he wanted it to. He can either return to the Knicks on a variety of deals (wink-wink 1+1 or a 4-year deal for $64 million) or can get a nice deal elsewhere.
I’m not loving the gossip that he was irked about Sims starting over him, though. That seems like a pretty big unforced error, then.
Part of Hartenstein’s ascendence may be due to OGs defense. When he removes the opponent’s best player from the equation it becomes that much easier to defend the rim.
There’s a big difference between challenging DeRozan at the rim versus Caruso, Ayo, and White.
But iHart is challenging Gobert at the rim (and rejecting him twice, if memory serves). And other bigs, and big wings. Seems he’s doing something different these days. No idea what, but I’m liking it.
With all this talk about usage isn’t the simple, best answer is for Brunson and Randle to both up their usage a bit? Having your 2 best offensive players shoot more isn’t a bad thing.
Look at the usage leaders, I believe the Top 13 are all over 30% with Brunson and Randle both right now slightly below 30%. The Top 13 are basically the best players on their teams with guys like Embiid, Giannis and Luka approaching 40%. If the answer to making up for RJ’s usage is more Brunson and Randle that should be a good thing.
Also, going to keep highlighting this until it stops being absurd–Randle from game 7 on:
26.6 PPG, 9.3 RPG, 4.6 APG, .603 TS%.
Eye-test alert, but it also seems like he’s busting his ass on defense. Amazingly he’s only shooting 31% from 3 in this stretch, so it’s not some hot hand situation.
The sample is what it is, but it has made me more confident he can have a key role, if not a leading role per se, on a contender. It’s not like he’s been dominating the ball during this time–he’s at 3.2 seconds per touch, well-behind both Brunson and Quickley.
Dude has been playing his ass off and we’re lucky to have him.
What difference does it make what agent represents Brogdon? He’s not a free agent. Players, especially journeymen like Brogdon, have zero say as to where they get traded. If it’s a good deal for Portland and for the Knicks, Rich Paul can sit back and continue to lap the gravy off of Brogdon’s deal until it expires.
But that’s the rub, right? Embiid, Giannis and Luka have those usages because they’re Embiid, Giannis and Luka. The 2000-01 Pistons gave 35% usage to Jerry Stackhouse.
Or to use a more modern example, is Kyle Kuzma and Cam Thomas having a 31% usage a good thing?
Randle being out of the top 10 in fan voting in the East is pretty embarrassing for the fan base
Yes Brian I think Randle and Brunson are good enough to have usage rates above 30% especially for the current roster. Much better than RJ having a 27% usage rate!
Honestly the disrespect this dude gets from a huge chunk of the fan base is disgusting. He’s one of the best players the Knicks have had in a LONG time. It cost us nothing but cap space to get him and he resigned on a super team friendly deal. He’s THE reason we’ve marched back to relevance (Brunson came after Randle was already here) and a huge chunk of the fan base just doesn’t appreciate that because he isn’t Jokic or Giannis.
Exactly. Klutch can’t veto a trade between two teams. This is overblown.
“Also, going to keep highlighting this until it stops being absurd–Randle from game 7 on:
26.6 PPG, 9.3 RPG, 4.6 APG, .603 TS%.”
I don’t think he magically flipped the switch at Game 7, his ankle probably took longer than that to be at 100%. He continued to be inefficient until game 15. In games 8-15 his ts%s were:
.511
.589
.524
.583
.533
.523
.493
.505, which was 11/24 vs. Miami.
Since then, his numbers are phenomenal. For the 14 games in December: TS% .629 on 29% usage (14 games)
January: TS% 663 on 37% usage (2 games)
If you add to that his last 3 games of November, you have a 19-game run of MVP-type stuff. (not for winning but for being mentioned).
And not having RJ around might actually help his efficiency, and at higher usage.
the problem is that having two guys with over 30 usage is not very common…. even the heatles did that only once and then settled in to more normalish usage patterns.. and the next team to do that was durant and westbrook…
it’s pretty difficult to do even if you have players that good and maybe randle and brunson are better than they’ve shown… but they’re never gonna reach that stratosphere…. which is why i highlighted it as a problem… it’s going to gravitate towards the other players in all likelihood…. or at least most of it…
The sense I get from IHart’s mom whom I see a few times a month in my shop is that he is/was mildly unhappy with Thibs
Cgreene with by far the most informative post of the week (I am not kidding). And if the press that follow the team indeed do read KB, expect an article shortly quoting mommy IHart or a source privy to the family’s thinking (our very own cgreene!),
It does feel like something has clicked for Randle, either someone on the staff finally got through him or he himself realized it, that there’s very few PFs and even Centers who can stop him going hard to the rim.
We’ll have to live with some turnovers here and there because he’s just generally a clumsy guy who doesn’t have the best handling ability, but more often than not him shooting in the paint and drawing fouls will help us massively.
well educated, think about it…
many of us here who’ve seen what he can do game in game out…see how when he asserts himself and he’s healthy – you have to double team him…
he can play some decent defense when he has the energy for it…
and, with all his stats – he still drives us 🤪
plus he has a bit of a surly persona and stern countenance – often…
i like him, but i can also see how he may not exactly be “mainstream”…
yeah, that’s code talking for his complexion may play in to his reception…the combination of the two, may make a bunch of folks a little uncomfortable…
cgreene our knickerblogger on the inside – oh yeah 😏
may i ask, no chance you have a market/deli – do sandwiches perhaps? just wondering…
Agree completely. I’ve only said something in game threads, and then usually something snarky about how we need to trade him so we can build around RJ – but he’s just crushing it. Also seems to be having fun and smiling a lot.
Geo, speaking of complexion, I’m not sure what you want to know about orchestras but yes, it was mostly white people and Asians when I played. Wasn’t paying a ton of attention, to be honest – it was fine, but not my passion, and I played trombone so I sat in the back row and counted rests, mostly. Not a lot of fraternization with anyone beyond the horns. Strings were a foreign country.
Yeah, I’m sure that’s the only reason. 🙂
Brunson maybe hasn’t hit 30 usg technically, but an extra ~6 asts/g or whatever is effectively the same thing.
I’ve always felt there should be a statistic that adds assists to usage.
Seth Partnow had something he called “true usage” or something along those lines at his site before he joined the Bucks, I don’t know if he tracks it somewhere anymore
You know what?
Fuck it..I’m all in on trading for Murray as soon as possible. Why?
1. He’s a good enough player to help the team now, if Thibs uses him correctly.
2. Devin Booker. Crazy, right? My gut feeling is the Suns are going to underwhelm due to health and chemistry. Sure, they’ll look good when their big 3 are all on the court. But KD pointed out a major problem that should be talked about more. Remember what he said after Brunson’s 50 piece? Yeah..not having a PG or a playmaker that can recognize where the ball needs to go more consistently is gonna be a problem. No shade to Booker in that role because he’s putting up great numbers- but he is best as a secondary playmaker when it comes to running an offense. I think they fall short and won’t be able to easily move off of KD or Beal, and that *should* open the door for us to move Murray (who is a PG by trade) for Booker.
That’s my stance. Go get Murray. Then go get Book.
CAA BABY!
It seems pretty clear to me that both Randle and Brunson will benefit from OG replacing RJ in the starting lineup, as they both have probably benefitted from DDV replacing Grimes.
I think it’s possible that they are also benefitting from this version of iHart replacing Mitch. In fact, it could be the best Knicks’ starting lineup of 21st century.
I think Hart may be better in the starting lineup than DDV – or at least the closing lineup. The defense was outstanding, and they got all the boards at the end of them last game. I wonder as well if DDV to the second team would help with creation.
Plus Hart at the 2 makes it a very big (but still quick) lineup.
Randle named Eastern Conference player of the month for December- is he going to get the all-star nod over Brunson again? For the Knicks to get two guys I think they’ll have to move up in the standings.
what’s the other reason?
FACTS!!!!!!!
It’s gonna end up being the best net EPM rated starting five for the rest of the season in the entire league, including Boston.
But if Mitch didn’t get hurt we would have proved nothing. You’re suggesting he knew he’d get a 60 game run as a starting center.
Seems unlikely. Literally days ago you (and everyone else) thought he was going to end up with the same salary he is currently (adjusted for cap inflation).
Much more likely we just offered him the most money and could have gotten him for three years but we didn’t offer it bc we didn’t think he had this in him.
He’s playing more like he did when he came into the league (and was efficient) than he has in recent years trying to become stretch PF. Of course he’s more skilled and probably stronger at this point. The more space we can get for him, the better he’s going to do at this.
Hi rama, I hope the day is moving along smoothly for you 😊
Was it a super competitive environment?
What’s the difference between performers in a orchestra versus a “regular” band? In terms of personality. Or is there really no difference?
Do you believe it is important to maintain/continue the study and play of orchestral instruments and classical music?
It seems like a very expensive endeavor. Watching it though, it just seems like it’s culturally important to support.
I’m not sure if that’s really true though, or if it’s legacy stuff that’s gonna fade away in a few decades.
So far in 38 mins the new starting lineup is a +36, not sure what’s their rating though with Hart instead of DDV.
I think Thibs has to do a better job of drawing up things to get OG involved and Randle and Brunson have to do a better job of trying to get him the ball. Randle and Brunson have a bit of tunnel vision at times.
I know it’s only 2 games and he has a lot to learn, but we can’t allow OG to turn into Grimes #2 where he’s standing in the corner waiting for kickouts and doing almost nothing else besides that and leaking out once per game. He’s not going to want to stay on a team like that and I wouldn’t blame him.
One thing I know about classical musicians is that they absolutely cannot play anything unless it is written down on a page in front of them. I witnessed an extreme example of this.
I was once musical director for Idina Menzel of “Let It Go” fame, this was before she had the big hit with that. We did a concert at Town Hall where we hired a string quartet. These were all high end players, one guy was first viola for the NY Phil. It was being taped for PBS, and we only got one crack at everything because there was another show taping right after ours.
One of the songs we played with the quartet was “Defying Gravity” from Wicked. There was a problem though. Idina sometimes would start singing four bars into the song, and sometimes eight bars. On their charts it said four bars. So I told them, you have to listen for her vocal– if she does not come in on bar five, you have to rest another four bars.
They started looking at me, and each other, with confused and stressed out faces. Like, it says four bars on the page, therefore my robot brain must come in after four bars. I tried everything: if she doesn’t come in after four bars, I’ll give you a hand signal… More confused looks. I just hoped and prayed she came in after four bars.
So we play the show, and nope, she didn’t come in after four bars. And of course all four of them just jumped right in playing after the four bars without any hesitation despite my wild gesticulating, so they were four bars off for the entire song. They just went ahead and sawed through the whole thing four bars ahead of everybody else. We had to overdub another string quartet over their performance.
What in the fucking world kind of rumor is this?
Why are we even talking about Towns’ fit with Mitch right now?! Mitch is gone for the year and Towns is on one of the best teams in the NBA at the moment. NBA rumors are so dumb sometimes.
If he didn’t start, they’d still re-sign him at a raise. He’s clearly an important part of the team as a starter or as the second head of a two-headed center monster.
JK47
Good story. In some ways it’s surprising that musicians of that caliber weren’t more flexible but in some ways it’s not. If you are trained to play one way and one way only, you might be great at that but woefully inadequate in other ways. I guess it would be the opposite of trying to get an acoustic blues player to play a song note for note the same way every time when he typically plays different licks in different spots every time.
That KAT rumor seems like pure, unadulterated BS.
fascinating, like crazy fascinating, thank you for sharing that jk…
wow, not to be too weird, but while watching a recent performance I noticed one of the folks involved had a fairly noticeable “tic”…I like to watch the individual performers a lot…
occasionally they’ll smile, mostly though, as you say – they are transfixed on the music sheet…
i think of a band as a fairly social structure, not so with such a large group of players though – it’s like a machine…
one thing though that is visible is the joy some of the folks have at playing their singular part in such a grand composition…
Zero chance he would’ve taken a three-year deal at his current salary. There was just so little in it for him to do that. He may have preferred a one-year minimum deal to that. The idea that we liked him enough for a cheap two-year deal, but not a cheap three-year deal, makes no sense.
We were having this discussion even before Mitch got hurt, because iHart was playing well and often closing games over Mitch. Obviously Mitch’s injury has benefitted him, but it’s not the difference between him getting a raise on his current salary and him not. That’s been baked in since the second half of last season.
Mitch being out for the year is kinda murky.
Hart was making nothing on the Clippers. We gave him real money, a chance to be on a big stage and at least a significant backup role with a fair shot at starting, either on his own merits or if Mitch got hurt (and we know the odds of that are solid). He got some security for himself because he made 17 million dollars and a good chance for a big payday next deal. Very much a win-win. I guess he could be annoyed that Sims was starting over him, but I doubt he’s upset he signed with the Knicks overall.
I’m listening to Ian Begley’s Putback podcast today, where he has Macri and Jake Fischer as his guests to talk about the trade. Only partway through, but Ian — who’s as plugged into the front office as anybody on the local or national level — said he heard that our offer last year before the deadline also involved Quickley, in addition to multiple firsts. So this version of the deal is much more palatable than that, even if the Detroit 2nd is as good as a 2nd can be.
You really have no business being this confident over something we’re both speculating about.
He accepted a 2-year $8mm AAV role to be a backup on a 37 win team. Clearly a market for his services never developed. What was in it for him was this was possibly going to be the biggest contract of his career.
It makes perfect sense. If you’re taking a flyer on someone you’re not sure about, you do everything you can to limit your downside.
If Hartenstein wanted to bet on himself he would have taken a one year deal to be someone’s starter, not a two year deal to be a backup. The guy didn’t have a market. Teams weren’t excited to bid on him, and we probably did the minimum it took to get the deal done.
Bruh:
Occam’s Razor is instructive here. Two possibilities:
1) Leon Rose cleared out cap space for iHart and offered him more money than anyone else, but didn’t like him enough to offer him a third year.
2) Isaiah Hartenstein thought it was possible the situation would play out exactly as it has played out.
Some iHart facts from before we signed him…
– drafted in the second round
– waived by the 2020 Rockets
– played on 3 teams in 4 years
– accepted the vet’s minimum salary every year of his career
– total career earnings $5.5mm the summer we signed him
– didn’t receive an offer from his incumbent team (the Clippers)
– couldn’t get a single NBA team to offer him the full mid-level.
You’re telling me there is “a zero percent chance” that guy would’ve wanted three years? Because he knew his breakout was a fait accompli?
That guy probably would’ve given his kidney for a third year.
Man can’t we just be glad we signed IHart in the first place and he’s playing so well now instead of second guessing a year and a half after the fact that we didn’t offer a third year and now might lose him or have to pay him more next year?
IHart was a great pick up by Leon at a great price. Period. Pretty sure if we gave him a third year at the time people would have gone ballistic about it like why are we giving this unknown back up center so many guaranteed years?
Does everything have to be relirigated and nitpicked after the fact?
He’s on our team now. Can’t we just enjoy that?
What happens next summer is an offseason problem. He likes playing here and is having success. That puts us in the driver’s seat to retain him if we want. Leon will figure it out.
Leon Rose cleared out cap space for Jalen Brunson and then went shopping in the bargain bin when he had change.
And there’s your reason why it makes sense we didn’t offer him three.
Teams weren’t excited bc other teams didn’t see what we saw and missed out on him. We gave him his shot when others didn’t. But why would Leon risk committing three years to him especially after he had just gotten burned resigning Noel?
IHart started out injured and pretty bad for us last season. Imagine the opposite scenario happened. Mitch stayed healthy and IHart got injured and never reached this level with us but we’d given him that third year. Then what’s Leon supposed to do? Use a pick to get rid of him? Cause if he’d done that you’d be the first to crucify him.
It’s like you expect him to have a crystal ball or something. Shit happens. He gave him a reasonable deal that gave him good money but didn’t overly commit us to him long term. Why are we complaining about this?
Wow that’s another good reason for us not wanting to offer three years. Hadn’t even thought of that. Good work, Swift.
I don’t know, man. Between “Leon was being cautious” and “iHart knew that the 37 win team would become a 47 win team and then their starting center would get injured for 60 games and then he’d have a breakout year on a good team”, I don’t think Occam’s Razor favors the second scenario.
How quickly will iHart pick up his firsr 2 fouls tomorrow night vs Embiid? The entire game might come down to how long iHart can stay on the floor vs Embiid.
“How quickly will iHart pick up his firsr 2 fouls tomorrow night vs Embiid? The entire game might come down to how long iHart can stay on the floor vs Embiid.”
Don’t worry, Jericho “Jumps higher than anyone in the NBA” Sims is back!
Good game here…Wemby holding his own!
Giannis with a conventional 3pt play followed by two huge 3’s…
Wemby with the sensational block and then a 3 to tie!
OMG Giannis!
OMG Wemby! Just stoned Giannis!
That Wemby block on Giannis with 20 seconds to go. Oh my.
Tre Jones left me jonesin’ for a tre…
Now that was entertaining!
Seems like the Lakers are imploding, maybe LeBron wouldn’t mind being our shot creator off the bench? I suppose you could start him over DDV but you’d be giving up some 3pt shooting in the starting lineup…
Yeah this Bucks Spurs game was so fun, Wemby is an all NBA defender as a rookie and Giannis is still that guy. Once Wemby has a team with more than 2 NBA players on it were all fucked.
Wemby either has to get a log stronger or a lot more polished from 3. You can get away with being skinny if you can shoot. Wemby is only a plus shooter at the rim.
But it’s a great problem to have when you are 9 feet tall with a 10 foot wingspan. Some of the plays he make are like from outside the field of view.
Scoot Henderson has played 24 games and has not shot better than 50% from the field in any of them
Scoot currently has a -8.2 BPM, I didn’t even know the number could go so low. He has a 6.4 PER!
Portland should definitely trade us Brogdon for nothing to give him more minutes, clearly he needs consistent minutes to grow!
Hi I’m nobody 👋
I’ve been worried we’d lose iHart because we only have EB rights ever since we signed him, then Thibs decided to use him as a Mitch clone and I stopped worrying as much about that (though maybe he’d leave for a team that actually featured his passing).
But recently when he started getting starters minutes and I once again said that he might leave to chase more money/bigger opportunity. Pretty sure you scoffed at me when I suggested it too.
Hartenstein put up an absurdly effective half season for the LAC. He quite credibly could’ve believed he’d receive a large pay raise after 2yrs even if he played as a backup, especially as a backup for the injury-prone Mitch.
Heh, looking at our 2022 Free Agency Thread, I noted, “[H]ere we are with Brunson, Mitch and Hart, the best trio of Knick free agents…ever?” I think the question mark can be removed!
OMG Jokic banks in the game winner from 35 feet
Warriors blew an 18 point 4th quarter lead. Devastating loss.
But Mitch wasn’t a free agent
doing a movie triple header this evening, started with The Green Knight, beautiful and artsy, visual feast, mercifully not too preachy…
next up was The Creator, beautiful and sort of science fictiony, not really too preachy, kind of goofy and fun…
finishing with Nomadland, had this one on the warchlist for a while, I must be bored…
interesting to see what the rest of you get up to in times of boredom…
Pretty sure he was unrestricted, meaning yes, he was. Anyone could have signed him. Thus the consternation on the board. (Some of the board)
Geo, as JK indicated, classical musicians are kind of robotic. In orchestral playing, once I wasn’t a kid I stopped counting rests and just came in when we got to my part. Pretty simple, but most classical musicians can’t do it. Which is ironic, because in Beethoven’s day improvisation was a sign that you were the shit – many piano pieces built in cadenzas as a chance to solo and show off, for example. Today the solos are written out. But I grew up in a house of musicians, so I was improvising and writing when I was young. (Somewhere there’s a tape of a PBS show about kid composers featuring me playing a little piece.) Piano was my main thing, and I practiced a lot of hours a day – in jazz it’s called woodshedding, in classical it’s just you and a metronome and repetition. It’s not really competitive, at least not with anyone but yourself.
I didn’t practice like that for the orchestra, though, because I didn’t particularly care for the trombone – I just got stuck with it because the first band I wanted to join was in military school, and the conductor saw my long arms and decided trombone was the thing for me. I was OK, but really, trombones do very damn little most of the time. So I kind of hung out in the back row and made fun of the strings. It was a treat when we did a piece like the Firebird – that was fucking glorious and thrilling, but very, very rare.
All that being said, yeah, I think it’s important to continue to support classical music! But I think that about all music. Is there anything that makes us more human than art and expression?
Man, it’s hilarious that the Pistons are only three games “up” on the Wizards in the standings!
Yeah, I think Macri draws the wrong conclusion from the correct idea that Randle will usually have the ball when he’s anchoring bench units. From my POV, that cuts in the direction of us acquiring a scorer who can deter and/or punish double teams, not a playmaker who will not be given the ball.
If someone like Tyus Jones is available on the cheap, sure, get him, but it feels like a major waste of his skillset to give him the 12-14 non-Brunson minutes and have him playing off the ball for a lot of those minutes.
I keep coming back to OAKAAK Alecque Burps because at least the idealized version of him really does strike me as the kind of guy who can take just enough pressure off Randle without dominating the ball himself (and without costing us too much to acquire, crucially).