Knicks Morning News (2024.01.05)

Getting another scorer would give the Knicks someone else who can create advantages that can then be capitalized on, but is any “minor” piece, as Alan puts it, really going to be a better option than Julius?

this isn’t the right question. the question is can another scorer make it easier for randle to do his job by alleviating defensive pressure. if it doesn’t and randle is swarmed, then they would almost guaranteed be a better option unless we reacquire rj.

Far better would be to get someone who can put Randle in advantageous situations, like getting downhill, or at the very least, not having to navigate a thicket of bodies to attain good post position. Simply acquiring a ball handler who a) knows how to run a pick & roll, b) teams can’t sag off of and c) can punish teams for going under screens should be enough to unlock enough efficient possessions to make these minutes tenable.

lean against almost all of this. i think it largely imagines who randle is as a player. he is not a roll man, and he isn’t suddenly going to become one if we acquire a non-legendary pg. as fantastic as randle has been, his game hasn’t changed tremendously. for years he has not been a guy who primarily benefits from someone else getting him the ball going toward the hoop. since jalen came randle has scored 40 per 100 with 26.4% rim freq and 71% fg% at the rim with jalen off and 33 per 100 with 27.1% rim freq and 67% fg% at the rim with jalen on.

i think a guy who is more playmaker than scorer (but isn’t a stud) would in important part lose marignal value relative to cost with either randle or jalen and we would get a significantly better value focusing on someone who can score while, crucially, minimizing (or better) their defensive cost.

Okay, so who is a microwave scorer who would 1)be relatively cheap to acquire, and 2)can play competent enough defense to satisfy our stubborn hardass coach?

it’s not easy.

brogdon makes sense as a consensus target because he at least minimally hits all shoot/drive/defend bigger guards touchpoints. the downside to brogdon is that the cost might get bid up, he eye-tests as aging and he comes with a lot of injury risk. if he becomes a net liability due to injury than you have $22mm in 24-25 that goes from matching salary to a potential burden in a critical year before brunson and randle re-up. but it also might work out just fine.

still, it’s important to think in terms of net and not gross cost. bogdan would be more expensive but has a great contract and is somewhat lower risk. he’s arguably a better fit defensively in recent years, though i could imagine brogdon proving this wrong in a playoff run, and is an elite floor spacing who also brings shot creation. it is very possible that his value in a reflip would end with a lower net cost than many ostensibly cheaper guys like brogdon or rozier. of course he might not be available at all, but he’s a 31 year old on a flailing team who appears to be in all-hands-on-the-trade-machine mode. it might be there.

i mention rozier as an example but i wouldn’t do it. i think he gives you what you need on offense, but too much contract left and a far worse defensive pairing with jalen to play much together in the playoffs. if you don’t like jalen and iq you fucking hate jalen and rozier. in fact i would rather pay a little more to get sexton than rozier, because while both are smallish and pretty shitty team defenders at least sexton can at least bulldog guys and the contract is much more flippable. definitely wouldn’t pay whatever ainge is charging, though.

but paying something real for a guy like tyus jones (who i really like for many teams, but can’t play with jalen and provides excellent playmaking but little shot creation) or spencer dinwiddie because they have playmaking seems like the absolute wrong move for this team.

if all else fails, now that we are frenemies again, we could out of desperation try gary trent jr in a nearly no cost deadline giveaway situation. he’s been quite bad and in some ways feels like an ersatz grimes, but his career usage is more like low 20s and he has the size to play next to jalen if needed. think of it as the pistons trading greg kesler for the actual microwave.

a highly strange idea is keldon johnson. he really doesn’t tick our boxes and he actually is the closest thing imaginable to reacquiring rj. like rj he’s not really a spacer, though he’s also not-not a spacer and his shot creation rides atop just enough less bad decision-making to be useful as opposed to malignant. admittedly this is a bit knife edge. but he’s also, in my opinion, a more useful defender. he just got benched on the spurs (though still playing a ton) and seems behind vassell and sochan in their future plans and his reflip risk is much lower given his contract. really, though, not quite the guy you’re looking for given his desultory shooting.