[Daily Knicks] – Wed, 17 Jan 2024 20:38:41 GMT
- Raptors-Pacers trade nearly created wild Knicks ripple effect
- Pacers acquire Pascal Siakam in trade with Raptors, Pelicans
- Indiana Pacers rebuild almost complete after trading for Pascal Siakam
- The G League helped me a lot with that, he said. The game slowed down for me offensively. I
- Woj on the SIAKAM TRADE: Pascal is EAGER to stay with the Pacers – Woj | NBA Today
[New York Post] – Thu, 18 Jan 2024 05:02:00 GMT
- Garden blossoms as Knicks dominate in what could be sign of things come
- ROCKETS at KNICKS | FULL GAME HIGHLIGHTS | January 17, 2024
- Knicks 109-94 Rockets (Jan 17, 2024) Game Recap
- N.Y. Knicks 109, Houston 94 – Sports
- Scenes from a welcome back Brunson win
[USA TODAY Sportsbook Wire] – Wed, 17 Jan 2024 17:09:00 GMT
- Houston Rockets at New York Knicks odds, picks and predictions
- Houston Rockets vs. New York Knicks: 3 Best Bets – Sports Illustrated Houston Rockets News, Analysis and
- Rockets vs Knicks Picks, Predictions & Odds Tonight – NBA
- Rockets vs. Knicks NBA expert prediction and odds for Wednesday, Jan. 17
- Game Preview: New York Knicks vs Houston Rockets, January 17, 2024
[New York Post] – Thu, 18 Jan 2024 00:20:00 GMT
- OG Anunoby an ‘absolutely perfect fit’ for Knicks: Fred VanVleet
- Former OG Anunobys Teammate Calls Knicks Trade Absolutely Perfect
- Teammates with OG Anunoby for six seasons, including the Raptors’ NBA title in 2018-19, Fred VanVl
- Knicks Are 6-1 Since Picking Up OG Anunoby
[Posting and Toasting] – Wed, 17 Jan 2024 12:00:00 GMT
Julius Randle: Im just under a different microscope here in New York
[Winners and Whiners] – Wed, 17 Jan 2024 17:20:49 GMT
Washington Wizards vs. New York Knicks Prediction, Preview, and Odds – 1-18-2024
[New York Post] – Wed, 17 Jan 2024 06:54:00 GMT
Josh Hart joins Jalen Brunson as questionable to play against Rockets
[Cavaliers Nation] – Wed, 17 Jan 2024 22:26:00 GMT
Report: Cavs snagged Knicks No. 1 target in 2023 NBA free agency
131 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2024.01.18)”
This is a pretty interesting read from Hollinger at The Athletic.
It essentially says two things that are relevant to the Knicks:
1) The bottom five teams…DET, POR, SAS, WAS, CHA…are historically bad and most of their paltry win totals are against each other-and they aren’t even really tanking!
2) Because of this, there are more teams (like the Knicks) that have winning records on the basis of beating up on these teams.
The Knicks are thus far 9-0 against these teams and 15-17 against the rest of the league…and you can probably throw the depleted MEM team we played into that mix. I would guess that the story is the same for many of the teams that are less than 10 games over .500.
We have 7 more games vs. the 5 “bad” teams, plus one more against MEM. I could see CHA being tougher now that LaMelo and Bridges are back, and MEM will probably have JJJ the next time we play them. But assuming that we go 7-1 in those games, that would mean that just going .500 vs. the rest of the league would get us to 47 wins or so. But that would probably not bode well in the playoffs.
I know this isn’t Alanblogger but he posted an excellent review of the Fargo finale yesterday:
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-recaps/fargo-season-5-finale-fx-jon-hamm-maga-sheriff-juno-temple-noah-hawley-1234947475/
I did not realize that Munch was literally 500 years old until I read this. I thought he was being figurative this whole time.
Thanks, Hubert!
I felt the flashback to Wales 500 years ago (back in episode 3) was pretty explicit about that. This is a show that has featured UFOs and the Wandering Jew killing a guy in a bowling alley that doesn’t really exist on earth. So the notion of a centuries-old killer — especially one so clearly modeled on Chigurh, who also felt less like a person than a force of nature — felt right at home to me.
Still early and the player is notoriously streaky, but it’s looking a lot like being liberated from Thibs’s moshpitty, ISO-heavy hellscape served RJ Barrett quite well indeed.
(Read Alan’s work; it’s fantastic. I assume he and Hubert and whomever won’t spoil things for people who had The Curse and another binge of The Prisoner (*) ahead of Fargo and are only five episodes in.)
(*) The original. It’d be interesting to see what Number Six would make of today’s internet.
Thanks, E. And no, I would not spoil things. But please report back after you have seen The Curse finale.
Loved this latest season of Fargo. Thought it was a nice recovery from season 4, which started out well and had some good things about it but was overall not nearly as good as the first three seasons.
not sure where I would rank this one but I still think seasons 1 through 3 are the best. I personally love season 3 the most because I think it is the funniest. My wife thinks I’m crazy and season 2 is the best (hard to argue).
It’s been a decade(!) since I watched season 1. At the time, I thought it was incredible, but then I liked season 2 even more. I’d probably go…
1. Season 2
2. Season 1
3. Season 5 (the last scene alone could vault it to second)
4. Season 3 (which I found really uneven, but had great parts)
5. Season 4 (mostly bad)
I enjoy reading Alan’s reviews and use them as benchmarks for my own grokking of shows. Just finished binging Fargo’s 1-3 and 5. Don’t know if I’ll do season 4. As for The Curse, while the finale was technically fascinating, I found it to be gratuitously transgressive.
Since Peli’s gave away Kira Lewis for a mere pittance to get below the lux tax, shouldn’t Leon have thrown a low 2nd rounder at NO?
I do not expect or want Brunson to play tonight. I also want Randle to play maybe half the game tonight. But..if Brunson plays he better not crack 30 minutes. I think we can afford to get those 2 guys some sort of rest against the Wizards
At exactly the halfway mark of the season Knicks are on pace for 48 wins while their point differential says they should be on pace for 52 wins. Of the 41 remaining games 24 are at home.
Barring injuries and with some reinforcements by the trade deadline there is no reason the Knicks shouldn’t finish between 48-50 wins.
I absolutely hated the finale of The Curse. I thought it was a cheap out that completely undercut all of the interesting ideas and themes the show had set up. But I will say…while I generally loved that show, I did find it losing steam the last few episodes compared to the amazing start.
But that ending…it felt like they didn’t know how to end it so they were just like “let’s make it crazy!”
Dear knickerblogger, I am not a fan of The Bear. I watched season 1 and it was ok minus, and episode 1 of season 2, which was boring, and then bailed out. What’s wrong with me? Am I too old?
In hindsight, absolutely. I think I binged the first 3, though, and was not fully paying attention bc I had completely forgotten about that.
Season 2 was way better than Season 1 so stick with it. There were some iconic episodes in Season 2 and they get way more into character development
“At exactly the halfway mark of the season Knicks are on pace for 48 wins while their point differential says they should be on pace for 52 wins. Of the 41 remaining games 24 are at home.
Barring injuries and with some reinforcements by the trade deadline there is no reason the Knicks shouldn’t finish between 48-50 wins.”
I want to share in this optimism but there are definitely some things that give me pause:
I’m not a big fan of this way of looking at things. Our team rarely gets blown out…and has blown out some opponents…so its the kind of team that can lose close games like we did vs. ORL and DAL without much impact on our overall point differential.
While this is true, opponents get fired up to play at MSG in front of celebs than at other venues. OTOH, we have lots of fans at visiting arenas and sometimes it feels like we’re the home team. I think our schedule is generally lighter in the 2nd half, but not enough to overcome our roster vulnerabilities. We need help! Which brings us to…
These 2 things are contingent on each other…the longer we go without reinforcements, the greater the chance of injury to a key player on our currently very thin roster. Not to mention that our bench is capable of blowing leads in a hurry, which causes Thibs to not trust them. After tonight, we head into a stretch of very losable games…Raptors, Nets, Nuggets and Heat. We should go at least 2-2, but might have to play Brunson, Randle, OG and iHart 40+mpg to do that. And as we know, Thibs ain’t managing minutes. So the longer we wait, the more risk of piling up more close losses against middling teams because a key player is out.
https://twitter.com/TheStrickland/status/1747976520608485852
Who has more power Thibs or Dolan 🤣
Grimes for a ham sandwich coming soon
The Knicks are playing stifling defense since the trade, rising rapidly up the ranks in terms of defensive rating. Opponents have managed less than a .500 eFG% collectively in these games.
The Strickland
@TheStrickland
Knicks players and their league-wide EPM percentile:
Jalen Brunson: 95
Isaiah Hartenstein: 93
Julius Randle: 87
OG Anunoby: 86
Mitchell Robinson: 80
Donte DiVincenzo: 75
Quentin Grimes: 57
Miles McBride: 44
Precious Achiuwa: 30
Josh Hart: 29
Malachi Flynn: 12
Jericho Sims: 3
Yep, Thibs is (inevitably) going back to his comfort zone of trying to “win with defense” and loading up his narrow-mindedly selected guys with major minutes.(*)
I’ll stay optimistic and hopeful, but I can’t see it working. It never has. And it’s tougher to “win with defense” in today’s association than it’s ever been.
(*) And usage/creation issues. And piling more onto Julius Randle’s plate only increases the overall risk if he has another bad playoff spring.
I mean yeah Z-Man they’re gonna lose their share of close games to middling opponents, that’s why they’re on pace for 48-50 wins instead of 58-60. But just feels like too many people on here don’t trust this team and are always looking for reasons why they will underperform. It’s why every loss on here feels like the beginning of a long losing streak. It’s OK if they have a bad loss here and there, this is still a very good team.
Yup Thibs only wins with defense despite having a Top 5 offense last season and a Top 10 offense this season.
I’m talking about the playoffs.
“I mean yeah Z-Man they’re gonna lose their share of close games to middling opponents, that’s why they’re on pace for 48-50 wins instead of 58-60.”
Right, but combined with what Hollinger pointed out, 48 wins is not much of an accomplishment, since 15 or so of those wins will come against glorified G-League teams.
If we expect to get out of the play-in and win at least a series, we have to play a lot better without our key players playing 40+ minutes. I see no reason right now to believe that we are “likely” to finish in front of any of BOS, MIL, PHI, MIA, CLE, IND, or ORL. We can, and we might, but my feeling is that to do so, we have to upgrade the bench, like, now.
Lol
I’ve always felt that the best way to describe Thibs’ style is not about defense/offense, but rather one that prioritizes physicality and low variance. Their great offense last season was atypical in that it was not conventionally around good shooting, but about ORB, low turnovers and attacking the paint (FTAs). We tend to associate physicality with defense but I think he translates it to offense too. Interestingly this year’s offense is a bit different than last year’s- better shooting, more turnovers, fewer FTAs (the ORB remains). I don’t see anything about it that would not translate to the playoffs – other than the fact that you are playing good teams and so you are more likely too lose anyway.
Why does teams like Miami, Orlando and Indiana get the benefit of the doubt and not the Knicks?
Knicks had a better record than them last season and this season their underlying numbers say the Knicks are much better than all those teams.
I’m gonna go 5 > 2 > 1 > 3 (I missed 4).
I’m giving Season 5 (and Juno Temple in particular) a ton of extra credit for bringing focus back to the accents.
Not gonna lie, it kind of offended me that Ted Danson, Jesse Plemons, and Nick Offerman didn’t even try in season 2.
Irrational? Perhaps. But it’s Fargo, man. Don’t show up in your regular Tuesday voice.
Speaking for myself, the answer is that the record of Thibs’s offense in the playoffs is one where his team’s offensive rating plummets dramatically from the regular season.
I can’t see how doubling down on the thing(s) that causes that problem will cause that trend to all of a sudden reverse.
Why does teams like Miami, Orlando and Indiana get the benefit of the doubt and not the Knicks?
I think Miami easily gets the benefit of the doubt given their play-off record, Indy gets it because the trade should make them better going forward, Orlando shouldn’t get the benefit of the doubt, and the Knicks still need to make a pre-deadline move to give them (or at least evaluate whether it is warranted) the benefit of the doubt.
My favorite thing about BBA (and I mean this sincerely, with genuine affection) is the difference between Game-Day-BBA and non-Game-Day-BBA.
In the middle of a game, for instance, we could be up 20, the lead slips to 15, and all his faith goes out the window immediately. He has no trust. This is going to be the worst loss of the season, for sure.
Then as soon as the game is over, he’s cool as a cucumber pointing out ye of little faith who overreact to one little loss.
I have never known someone who handles a three game losing streak like Marcus Aurelius but gets shook by a 11-5 run in the 3rd quarter.
Season 2 of The Bear is definitely better than Season 1, but I will say I also enjoyed Season 1 and am not confident someone who didn’t will like Season 2. If the characters aren’t doing it for you, that’s a lot to overcome.
Never seen Fargo, but am finally taking The Wire plunge for the first time. Looking forward to catching up with Alan’s writings on that front–I looked forward to his Succession episode reviews almost as much as the episodes themselves.
——————————
Begley says we’re interested in Bruce Brown, and while we’re primarily targeting players with multiple years left on their deals, we have “at least one player on an expiring deal” on our radar.
I have no ability to evaluate Brown as a target objectively. I went to the University of Miami. I call him by his first name. I haven’t bought a jersey in years, but might buy a jersey if this happens.
Hope the expiring guy is Alé Burps.
Yeah, if you got to the end of Da Bear season 1 and didn’t like it, stop. I think season 2 is better — and much less stressful most (but definitely not all) of the time — but the fundamentals that weren’t working for you are the same.
Took a quick look, not a whole lot to this.
9 playoff series in Chicago, offensive rating actually increased in 4 of them, and in one of the ones where it didn’t the Bulls won the series anyway (2014-2015 first round against the Bucks).
Definitely a decline in the 4 post-Bulls playoff series he’s coached, but again one of those he won anyway.
Unless you can show his offenses decline more than the average coach’s, and that you’ve properly accounted for noise and injuries, gonna say this is weak.
Miami got crushed last night at full strength by the guy we couldn’t wait to get off our team and the rest of the Raps… and Indy added the player who led the Raps to a 16-25 record.
I agree that we need to re-conceptualize our bench, but we are a legit good team when healthy. Right now, it seems like we will fall somewhere within the #4-#8 seed range, but I like our chances of landing in the top half of that group.
And if/when we trade for another “star,” we could break into the East’s top 3 and make it a top 4.
Yeah, I tend to not talk about things from 10 years ago with a different team. With the Knicks, his offenses have plummeted in the playoffs.
Not gonna get between people and their hope. Typically that hope resides in the crevices and interstices of perceived “lack of accounting for” this and that — and so it is here.
Ha, I’ve always maintained Hubert that game threads are for reactionary heat of the moment emotional posts! But the next day or heck even an hour after the game we should go back to rational thinking lol
BTW you should see the texts I send my brother during Knicks and Yankees games, I’m super calm on game threads compared to my venting texts.
Looking forward to you going on record with a prediction about our offense in the playoffs this season!
I mean, every team in the NBA gets to play those shitty teams. If it’s not impressive we get to 48 wins because 15 of them are against shitty teams, then the records of Philly, Bucks, etc..are also less impressive because they also play those teams.
Every year there are teams that absolutely suck that every team gets to play. You still have to play them, still have to beat them and the W’s count.
We need reinforcements though, no doubt. Hopefully our starting 5 can continue to crush opposing teams so we can build up leads, etc.
https://hoopshype.com/lists/nba-trade-deadline-intel-lakers-knicks-nets-mavs-hawks-pacers-blazers-pistons-wizards-pelicans/
Only if when like last year I do exactly that and lay out the reasoning and that reasoning plays out almost exactly as predicted, you remember!
This. And isn’t there some quirk bc of the in season tournament that we actually have one “extra” game against “good” teams? 😉 Or did I hallucinate that?
On the other hand, not so excited by my cousin from Toronto crowing this morning about his “New Era Raptors.”
Refresh my memory with the post wherein this happened please, all I remember is your confident prediction we wouldn’t win a series.
Well yeah of course that’s all you remember, even though that didn’t really happen either though there is some linguistic distinction necessary to get to that conclusion that I won’t bore the audience with.
In terms of your primary question, it’s far too self-referential and self-involved for me to add to, so I’ll just leave the comment as is. If you’re interested, your archive skills appear impeccable.
Dammit, Noble, you beat me to the punch.
I still think Brogdon makes the most sense out of all the options. Rozier might give us more shot creation, but that contract is long, whereas we could trade Brogdon as an expiring over the summer.
The math on Burks, meanwhile, feels too complicated, on top of him being an expiring contract that wouldn’t help us with salary matching for The Star Trade. Fournier makes too much, so the Pistons would have to give us a second player. (Though if they’re ready to cut bait on Jaden Ivey, the math works, and we know Leon once upon a time coveted him.) And if we’re not using Fournier, and we’re not using DDV (which we never would), there’s no real collection of salaries that works, since we can’t aggregate Precious or Evil DDV with each other, or anyone else.
Yeah KBA, thanks to the in season tournament the Knicks have 5 games each vs Celtics and Bucks with both of the extra games on the road.
The quality of opponents plus their pretty good point differential is why currently the Knicks are sporting their best SRS since the 1994 Knicks. Surprising that the 1995, 1997 and 2013 Knicks didn’t have an SRS above 4 considering their win totals but their point differential wasn’t that great.
You be the judge!
Another beauty from that thread:
Interesting looking at RJ and IQ’s numbers in Toronto. RJ’s usage is alot lower than it was in NY which could help explain a bit the better efficiency. IQ has the exact same usage rate but his efficiency is a bit worse and his overall advanced stats say he’s actually playing a bit worse in Toronto so far than he did in NY.
Could be a 3-teamer where we send one of Precious/Evil Donte to the Pistons, and the other to a 3rd team with a TPE or who actually prefers one of those guys to a similarly paid player on their roster.
If the Pistons are really dumb enough to be looking to move off Ivey, I would love that for us. That seems too dumb even for them though.
Interesting detail above. Thx. I haven’t watched them actually play, yet, to get an eye test of how/if the Raps offense “moves” differently than ours.
My cousin is thrilled with his new young guys. And I’m def excited for the Knicks v Raps just to see what happens. Like most here, I wish both RJ and IQ well, just not against us.
I enjoy The Bear. Great acting, storytelling, intense, and also love the music. Especially REM. Another show that I have really enjoyed and finished recently is Slow Horses. Anyone watch?
Loved Slow Horses, Gary Oldman is superb as always.
One negative (not a spoiler), but the shootout scene at the end was pretty ridiculous
Still laughing at “Of course you didn’t mean to kill him … if you’d meant to kill him, he wouldn’t be dead.”
https://twitter.com/FrankBarrett119/status/1748030416525656556
Gary Oldman has so many great one liners…especially about his team. haha
I enjoy The Bear but it does bug me that it’s considered a comedy. It’s rarely funny.
Knicks get: Burks, Rozier
Pistons get: Evil Donte, draft goodies we can bicker about
Hornets get: Fournier, Archie, either Sims and draft goodies we can bicker about OR Grimes
I agree. I don’t like how The Bear and Barry get nominated in comedy categories. Way more towards drama.
More trade hot goss from the very plugged-in Ian Begley: https://www.sny.tv/articles/knicks-mailbag-dejounte-murray-evan-fournier
He also says the team really wants to move Fournier before the deadline rather than keeping him and picking up his option, in part because, “When teams treat players as trade filler and ignore the human aspect of the business, players notice. It can lead players and agents to view a front office in a negative light.”
I have a feeling The Curse being mentioned isn’t actually The Curse of Oak Island…
Now, that is a great show.
You all have some weird tastes 😜
I don’t understand why we would want Rozier, he will make 24.9M in 2024-25 and 26.6M in 2025-26. Anyone here wants a backup making this kind of money?
Rozier is sporting a .586 TS% on high usage and shooting 38% from 3 on 8 attempts per game. 6.7 assists per game too. He’d be a “backup” for us because of Brunson, but he’s absolutely starter quality this year, and while it’s a career year he’s been good in 3 of his last 4.
That’s everything E says.
Rozier is quietly having a very good year as TNFH mentioned, scoring efficiently and racking up assists while keeping his turnover rate low. He’s small though at 6’1″ and he’d need to share the floor with Brunson at least some of the time, so defensive concerns are valid. I’ve always found Scary Terry to be a bit “meh” but his numbers don’t lie, he is productive.
“Why does teams like Miami, Orlando and Indiana get the benefit of the doubt and not the Knicks?”
How does this statement imply that someone is getting the benefit of the doubt and not the Knicks?
Maybe I need to clarify that the only teams that I think are substantively better at full health than the Knicks at full health are BOS, MIL and PHI. I think that Miami is probably better both talent and coaching-wise, but need to see them at full health, which seems to be a constant issue for them. But if they stay reasonably healthy, I would be very pleasantly surprised if we finished higher than 5th.
From there, I think the Knicks are very competitive with CLE, IND, and ORL. If I had to bet right now, I’d say that we finish behind CLE and duke it out with IND for the 6th spot. Siakam should really help IND on the defensive end. We have a couple of games coming up against them and Hali should be back soon, so will have more info shortly. ORL sort of seems like a bad matchup for us, but they are young and probably need more seasoning, but with their defensive length and deep bench, they can beat anyone when Paulo and Franz have it going.
Again, not giving anyone the benefit of the doubt, just not agreeing that we should consider the Knicks as any kind of favorite to nab the 4 or 5 seed based on current numbers.
Terry’s having a good year but his contract is worrying to me. then again trading Quentin for Bruce Brown would be annoying to me on a bunch of levels.
I approve and agree with this.
Brown doesn’t feel like he fills enough of a need. Yes, he’d make it easier to weather a Julius injury or slump, with him playing the 3 and OG sliding to the 4. But our biggest needs by far are another playmaker, especially for the second unit, and a backup center who won’t require Thibs to kill Mr. Kourtney Kellar. Though I suppose Brown would make it easier for Thibs to avoid doing the same to OG?
It’s a strange, albeit common, misconception that pessimism is akin to realism—reality has no bias towards either hope or despair.
Perhaps the irony is that pessimists are overly optimistic about the accuracy distilled by their brooding negativity.
It seems to me that those on this board with this self-inflicted downtrodden attitude spend too much time in the cracks and crevices and have missed the big picture—the Knicks are good.
Not only have the Knicks surpassed gloomy half-empty analyses, they’ve
soared above the predictions of most optimists.
I know some humans who would prefer getting $19,000,000 to be trade-filler to getting the vet minimum as bench-filler. Leon may want to consult him before leaping to any conclusions about the negativity of light.
EB bringing the Truth to brighten my lunch hour.
Damn Early Bird, that first paragraph was pretty deep!
Its funny cause Hubert is 100% correct about my emotions during a game but afterwards I can be totally rational and usually more optimistic than most. I’ll rip the Yankees or Knicks during a game to my brother then the next day he’ll talk shit about them and I’ll immediately defend them which makes him laugh cause the previous game I was ripping them to shreds.
I’m late to the party, but RE: TV shows..
I’m mad no one I know ever mentioned this show because I just found it last week and I think it’s really good..
Hunters
I’m enjoying the twist of the premise and watching Pacino as a lead character on the small screen. Apparently Jordan Peele EP’s it too, and that dude is phenomenal with his work. Does anyone else here watch it?
My analyst calls that “Knickholm Syndrome” — a variant of, well, you know … 😉
it sure does though lean heavily towards chaos…with everything being held together by – we don’t even know what…
i’m not so sure reality is the preferred default, of anyone…seems we all spend a good bit of time trying to opt out of that situation…
As happy as it would make me, I don’t see the Brown fit either. He’d be pretty duplicative with Hart, and not in a DDV-esque “we’d have too many good shooters” way but a “we’d have too many guys who don’t really like shooting the ball” way,” which unlike the DDV “redundancy” is a genuine problem.
I thought the exact same thing reading the Begley piece. I’m about 95% sure Fournier is rooting for that option to be picked up even if it means more pine riding. I don’t think he makes another $19M in his entire career if it isn’t.
Plus, he prolly gets his second ring, right? 😉
PS — Basketball Reference shows E4 with 0.0% Hall of Fame probability, which feels kind of mean to me.
Fournier’s comments at the end of the season and in the summer suggested a guy who was not happy at all to be trapped in the dungeon, however lucrative it might be.
Spotrac has his gross career earnings at $145 million. Even when you take out taxes, agent and management fees, etc., I think he can probably survive without the $19 million. (He can also likely do okay for himself going back to play in Europe whenever he hangs it up in the NBA.) I know that the answer to almost any question of why people do things is money, but it isn’t always money.
I hadn’t thought about the Euro route for Fournier but you’re right. He would most likely be able to get Vet minimum here, which for the rest of his career would probably not amount to 19 million. But over in europe he might be able to get a pretty decent contract that would get close to that.
19 million though. For one season. I might tough it out!
Also..NO to Bruce Brown. How asinine would it be to replace Grimes with a non shooter who doesn’t create much offense to pair with Hart on the 2nd unit?! Leon better not. BETTER FUCKING NOT. We need an offensive player. Honestly I don’t care if he sucks at defense..whomever it is will be fine playing with Deuce, Hart, and Mitch when he’s back on that 2nd unit. If you can’t get Brogdon for cheap enough, I’m ok with guys like Burks, Mook Morris, Sexton(highly unlikely with the way Utah has played with him starting), Caruso(not offensive but the trio of he, Deuce, and Hart would be 94 feet of hell for the other team), or AJ Griffin. As a matter of fact..I kinda prefer Griffin or Caruso almost as much as I prefer Brogdon
“I kinda prefer Griffin or Caruso almost as much as I prefer Brogdon”
You can’t really “prefer” either Griffin or Caruso if you prefer Brogdon more.
Griffin was a guy I liked in the draft, and who played very well as a rookie, but he has fallen off a cliff this year and has been unplayable. So, an intriguing buy low kind of candidate, but not a guy I’d be counting on to provide useful minutes this season. He’s only 20 and has shown flashes, but doesn’t seem to really be the piece we’re looking for.
Brown seems to be not as good as Grimes in terms of either quality or fit, and it would be a disturbing sign if we give up any meaningful asset for him. We already have plenty of guys like that who are better players.
The Knicks’ defense is looking quite good since the OG trade, in fact it has looked elite. We can defend just fine. We need an offensive oriented guard and a better backup center than Achiuwa, who looks like clearly the worst player in the rotation.
Not unless his name is Quickley
Griffin been among the worst players in the league (1st percentile by EPM), but similar to Giddey there’s reason to think it’s a temporary issue resulting from off the court strife.
AJ’s 2yr old nephew died and the mother of the child wanted to pursue legal action against AJ’s brother for the infant’s death. Obviously I don’t know his mental state, but that’s a lot for a 20yr old to handle emotionally.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/atlanta-hawks-adrian-griffin-jr-testifies-prays-at-church.html
Bruce Brown has some ball skills, he’s averaged over 5asts per game since Hali went down. He played PG for a season in DET and a bit in Brooklyn, though playing PG for DET isn’t exactly an endorsement.
So I’m not sure exactly how strong his PG game is, but there’s some evidence he can solve that issue while having enough size to keep Deuce defending opposing PGs.
It wouldn’t be crazy for his 3p% to go up to his numbers from recent seasons, though it wouldn’t surprise me if it stayed this low either.
FWIW Rozier has a funky clause in his contract that makes the final year a team option if he doesn’t meet both of the following conditions:
1. Make the 2nd round of the playoffs
2. Play 70 games in one of the first three seasons
He played 63 games last year and has already missed 11 this year.
I’m a little concerned Begley says we haven’t checked in on Brogdon but I’m hoping it’s like how I don’t check airfare on expedia bc I know they charge more if you check the price often.
Brogdon just makes much more sense than all these other guys and Portland has a couple of project centers we could go after, too.
The trade I would like to see is Fournier, Precious, and barely adequate draft compensation for Brogdon and Duop Reath.
Bruce Brown was the effectively backup Point Guard for the Nuggets last year as EB pointed out, so the appeal would be that he’s a guy who can fit everywhere in the lineup while also providing secondary ball handling.
I’m not the biggest fan personally as I find him to be a very streaky player and his best skills are redundant to some extent with Hart and others as people have already pointed out. I’m still much more interested in Brogdon as I feel he simply makes us a better team without any of the drawbacks the other options present, and he’s a guy who can simply be inserted as a starter if Brunson ever gets injured again which is not irrelevant.
I didn’t realize the turbulence in the family. AJ Griffin played really well last year the times I watched him. I’ve also been kind of hard on his dad this year, he got off to a rocky start too.
I don’t think it is.
E is a card-carrying pessimist. No one would put him in the realist bucket.
The realists are the ones you called pessimistic for disagreeing with you when you declared the Knicks were “already a title contender” after like 7 games. And who point out that statements like this:
are just cockamamie lies.
We’re on a 48 pace. The optimists predicted we’d clear 50 wins, and I think they have a decent chance to be right but that’s only because we spent heavy capital improving our station.
We’re not “soaring above” shit, and there’s not a shred of pessimism in pointing that out.
sitting at the VA getting ready to get some bloodwork done…
frightening glimpse of the future: white hair, limited mobility and poor fashion choices…
on the positive side though, lots of folks here and there talking to themselves…that makes me feel right at home…
But he has 24.9M guaranteed, right? So if you waive him, you’d be saving 1.7M and now you’d need a new player to replace him.
I think it’s going to be someone cheap, maybe Burks, Devonte Graham, or Tyus Jones… Maybe even Schroeder?
I don’t think Clarkson or Sexton are on the table because Ainge always wants too much.
Brown just seems too expensive over too many years, but I guess he’s a possibility… I just think saving our firsts for a star trade is too important to Leon to try and outbid other teams for a Brogdon-level guy.
Me too, Geo, me too. 😉 That’s why we need a pet, when someone catches us talking to ourselves, we can pretend we were talking to the pet. “Who i’m talking to? The cat! Where is he? He must have gone away while i was talking to him” 😀
ess-dog,
And honestly, I agree with Leon here. I think cheap is the way to go.
I mean, obvs if a real needle mover is out there that we can get for the right price you go and get them. But EOD right now it just feels like we need some bodies. We sent out 2 rotation guys and got back 1, our starting center got injured. So regardless of what you think of Mitch vs. IHart and RJ/IQ vs. OG, we’ve lost a rotation player.
Our starting 5 kicks ass. Full stop. Hart off the bench is great. Mitch might be back for the playoffs. The goal right now should be to not wear out Brunson, Randle and iHart. We need bodies.
Prior to last season, how many people predicted the Knicks would take the 5th seed? How many predicted that they’d make the 2nd round of the playoffs? How many saw Brunson rising to this level?
Even among the optimists, the count would be low.
Heading into the Cleveland series there, again, was a lot of hand wringing as we faced one of the best SRS teams in the league. Would the board have honestly bet on the Knicks winning that series? I doubt it.
The point isn’t really about showing the optimists are right, the point is that statements like E’s are wrong.
Geo, you can be a well-dressed white hair dude who occasionally talks to himself. 😉
You deserve to age like fine wine, my guy.
Prior to the season no one knew we’d make a very costly deadline trade to make a run at the 5th seed. Even still, I said 44 wins and the 7th seed. Wasn’t very far off.
I bet the Knicks in round 1 and I’m pretty sure a lot of people here also predicted a Knicks win.
But E is a full blown pessimist who thinks the sky already fell. No one thinks he is “akin to realism.”
A highly conditional one. Change the coach and everything changes … although the time to open up the lane and otherwise modernize things for the two now-Raptors and the still-Knicks has unfortunately passed.
They ain’t winning with Thibs. That’s the extent of my pessimism.
Thanks for The Bear insights. I think I’ll stay out of this one.
Watching Slow Horses with the lady, both of us enjoy it. For me Season 2 is better than 1.
Right, so the phrasing ‘a costly trade’ is pretty Debby downer despite admitting it had quite the beneficial effect. If we don’t make the trade and end up with the 7th seed, we likely get bounced in the 1st round.
And of course, post-trade there probably weren’t many people betting on our 5th place finish and playoff victory.
And then again assuming the Knicks wouldn’t make such a trade in the first place is also an oversight, likely committed by everyone, but it’s an assumption made in spite of prior evidence that Rose is willing to make such trades and that he values 1sts less than the KB board.
I’m the full-blown pessimist who says the sky fell roughly 25 years ago. But the sky, allegedly, was Harvey Weinstein’s wing-man in the rather recent past, so there’s some hope for the sun to rise once again on 33rd and 8th. Sterling said racist stuff about Magic Johnson, so maybe he was worse (pending the full Dolan deposition), but the stench of Weinstein is impossible to get off whether there’s fire there or not).
I truly don’t see the logic in acquiring Bruce Brown. He is just another version of Josh Hart, maybe with a bit more ball-handling and a bit less rebounding, but he doesn’t come close to providing what this team needs. Grimes should be kept until we find just the right antedote for what ails us, and that’s not Bruce Brown.
Well, when you’ve already obsessively insisted on six players of the very same essential archetype in a mere three years of nagging the front office, four of whom are still on the roster, what’s the big deal about a seventh?
“Well, when you’ve already obsessively insisted on six players of the very same essential archetype in a mere three years of nagging the front office, four of whom are still on the roster, what’s the big deal about a seventh?”
E, if you agree that it’s a bad idea given the circumstances, say so. If you think it’s a good idea, say that. Everyone knows what you think of Thibs, of the roster we now have, and of the team’s chances in the playoffs. We fucking stipulate, for the billionth time.
In other words, can you possibly refrain from repeating yourself ad nauseum? After a while it sounds like the kid in the back seat whining about having to go to smelly Aunt Thibida’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. There are no other options, don’t you get that?
Now, I beg you, within the framework of what can possibly occur and without reminding everyone AGAIN how you feel about Thibs and his preferred players and schemes, do you think Bruce Bowen is the way to go, or do you have another idea THAT IS WITHIN THE REALM OF CURRENT POSSIBILITIES, given Dolan, Leon, Thibs, our cap situation, the cost, etc.?
Brogdon
They were smart enough to understand that OG was the perfect 3&D+ wing to give us the size and defense we needed against the best big wings in the league and to give space to Randle and Brunson. Hopefully they’ll be smart enough to replace Quickley with someone that makes sense.
I assume as some have mentioned that Brown would be acquired as basically the backup PG who could play in the backcourt at times with Brunson. I wouldn’t do it, much prefer a true PG like Brogdon or even Rozier, but I think Brown would be looked at as acquiring another ball hander not as a 3 and D guy to replace Grimes.
https://twitter.com/NBA_NewYork/status/1748107744098365676?s=19
I know some have already mentioned not wanting Clarkson but I think he might be a decent pickup and the type of player this bench needs.
Oh no, the horror!
(The Heat finished 7th, btw. They made the finals and drafted Jacquez.)
now that was interesting – well E?
🙂
Josh Hart is out tonight. Looks like everyone else is playing.
Aunt Thabida????
I think it’s a bad idea. They need a usage creator to replace the usage they recklessly gave away for OG. Shifting that all to Brunson and Randle is a terrible idea that runs far too high a risk of being shut off in the playoffs.
It would be nice if the new usage creator was young, but those guys are tough to come by and probably unrealistic and given the guardrails on the question, probably isn’t happening. I could squint and pray that Clarkson turns his efficiency back up to where it was (not high to begin with). That’s probably the best of the realistic options.
I don’t support trading for a 6-1 guy with a bunch of money still coming to him. Thibs hates those guys and it doesn’t work with Brunson. The deadline is still a few weeks away. This isn’t an urgent problem. No one should give a shit whether they win 47, 52, 50, 46 whatever games. Let the deadline process play out. Negotiate properly for once.
Why do I even bother reading E’s posts?
yep cdiggy, just got to let go a little of that dignity when you start realizing – your body, ain’t really your body no more…someone switched out the good one for some poor knockoff unit at some point…
like the hair stuff, whatever, shit, what hair i do got seems to wanna do its own thing and point straight up anyways, that’s not what i want, good riddance…
losing strength, okay, i can deal with that a bit, maybe at some point go full rocky and juice my way forward in to older age (hormones should be your friend)…not that crazy about dropping stuff out of my hands more frequently these days…
made worse by the fact all these uninvited noises escape my body whenever i bend down now…i can tell myself – don’t make the goddamn old man noise every time you get to the ground and back up…to no avail…
here’s one for you, was playing against the boys in basketball and things got a little testy, the 12 year old (soon to be 13) just looked at me and smiled…
yeah, that diffused me pretty quickly…
so tell me cdiggy – i know you stay busy working, how’s the dad and hubby business going?
Ivey’s been mentioned earlier and I think he might be gettable. He’d be my first choice. (Assuming Matheson isn’t gettable.) The Pistons are in complete flux and may be exploitable.
Generally speaking, I’d still like to take a swing on a young guy with upside. This isn’t really a contending roster now and it isn’t getting to that point paying retail.
I’ll let Z-Man decide whether this fits within the “guardrails.” It might not.
Broadly speaking, if I was running the team, I’d get a new coach and try to get “back into” one of the past couple drafts by taking advantage of a bad situation one or more of the teams in the higher points of those drafts find themselves in. (OK, the coach thing isn’t happening. I’d still do the second part.)
I give them full credit for the OG move but there remains a 20% possibility that he was just the best CAA client available and he happened to be perfect. I think the next move needs to be in the same vein before I’m convinced they are smart enough to target exactly what we need. If they acquire Bruce Brown, for instance, I won’t be so sure.
E, I appreciate the only slightly tainted response (see: d-mar).
I wouldn’t want Jordan Clarkson for free, and certainly would not go anywhere near Danny Ainge to address our current issues. Rozier is too rich for my blood. I sort of agree with E in that our win total this year should be secondary to making sure we don’t squander our last flesh and blood trade asset for a sloppy patch job. If there isn’t a smart deal before the deadline, see what drops on the buyout/waiver market and keep rolling with what we have. Or how about pulling Fournier out of mothballs?
utah is on the serious rise right now…
okay then…straight no to anyone plus 30…taj was an odd exception…
and the answer is – i don’t have an answer either…someone whom is able to create shots for themselves and others is a valuable commodity…
if i had to choose someone: terry rozier…i know – he’s 6’1″ and on the books for about 25 the next couple of seasons (caveat there’s some stuff in his contract where perhaps he doesn’t get it all)…i like watching him play…
heard dejounte murray speaking after the game last night…i don’t know – perhaps he stays and trae goes…
i think i would do that if i was atlanta…i don’t care how many jerseys and tickets trae sells…
i kind of want to try and resign quik this off-season…maybe get a cheap price for donovan…
i wish mitch was back, because we still don’t have a backup center right now…
BTW, I’m reading comments on B/R. Seems like some folks are mixing up the fears of yesteryear (trading away precious young talent, making “win-now” moves) without the context of where the team and organization is today. One of the things I like about the current team admin is that they’re staying liquid in how they’re handling their trade assets, young players and contracts. I get the echoes of starvation for homegrown talent – we also have to be honest about what a player’s ceiling is. Some folks looked at RJ as a “bucket-getter”, but we know what his limitations were, and he was ultimately never going to be what the Knicks needed him to be.
I know the talk is about getting the depth pieces we need through trades. I’d also like to see it addressed in the next draft too.
“I’ll let Z-Man decide whether this fits within the “guardrails.” It might not.”
Sure it does, because it’s within the realm of possibilities! (highly unlikely for sure, but I digress…) I would not see that as a positive move because if a bad team like DET is dumping a top-5 pick after 2 years, that player probably is either terrible or dumb. Still, it would be worth the due diligence to find out what they would want for him and what ails him. That said, I would prefer Burks because he is good and helps right now with no strings attached for the future.
Ivey was a guy the Knicks wanted in the draft. If I remember correctly they were willing to give up two 1sts for him.
I could see Detroit wanting to pair Cade with Thompson making Ivey expendable as a 3rd bad shooter. They have Sasser to fill a backup role too… I guess Killian Hayes still exists as a player on their roster too.
I’m not sure why we sound dead set on trading Grimes… he’s a cool dude who can shoot and play excellent defense. I get that we have bench needs, but I think keeping Grimes might be a better move in the long run than getting Clarkson or whoever for a half year.
We have two first round picks this year. It would not shock me if they traded one of them, but I fully expect them to draft someone with the other.
I looked at AJ Griffin’s stats. They really did fall off a cliff. If I knew it was because of family , I’d be interested in him, but it still would be a big risk.
Yes. Draft. We waited a long time to sort the RJ/Randle muddle with OG. And that was a worse problem IMO than lacking a shot creator for the second unit.
Unless we get someone fun for Fournier+nothing, we should let this roster gel for the rest of the season. Get more data for us and for trade partners on Deuce, Grimes, Precious, Flynn, maybe even Hart and Devo. Who knows. As many have opined, the win totals shouldn’t matter, in spite of my prediction above 😉
Yes, I hear this draft sucks, but I’d still rather improve our chances to get a good player there than take on Alec Burks, for example. Mitch is back next year. Let’s see what the off-season and the draft make clear, not to mention the rest of *this season.
I really hope we don’t lose tonight because I don’t want to read a 5000-comment shitscreed on this blog tomorrow.
LOL. If only the players knew what was *really at stake.
I’m not worried about tomorrow, imagine this place on Sunday if they lose the night before vs Toronto!
On Sunday E will either post 100 times or 0 times.
Also, it brings me no pleasure to point this out but…getting two seconds for Obi isn’t aging badly.