[New York Post] – Thu, 15 Feb 2024 02:43:00 GMT
- Injuries catch up to reeling Knicks after Jalen Brunson’s hot start in loss to Magic
- Game Recap: Magic 118, Knicks 100
- Scenes from a lousy Valentines Day in Orlando
- Knicks takeaways from Wednesday’s 118-100 loss to Magic, including limping into All-Star break
- New York Knicks at Orlando Magic odds, picks and predictions
[New York Post] – Wed, 14 Feb 2024 08:19:00 GMT
Knicks’ Jalen Brunson taking a beating but are referees hosing him?
[sny.tv] – Wed, 14 Feb 2024 12:39:00 GMT
- Knicks mailbag: Are there plans for buyout market or hints at 2024 NBA Draft strategy?
- 3 Buyout Market Players Who Could Help Knicks Pursuit of a Championship
- 3 Post trade deadline buyout targets for the New York Knicks to monitor
- Knicks: 3 buyout candidates New York must pursue after 2024 NBA trade deadline
- Who can the New York Knicks target in the buyout market?
[hoopsrumors.com] – Thu, 15 Feb 2024 02:59:00 GMT
Lakers Rumors: LeBron, Knicks, Bronny, Murray, LaVine, More
[New York Post] – Thu, 15 Feb 2024 01:29:00 GMT
- Knicks getting reminder of how injuries can unglue a season
- Concerning stats to keep an eye on
- Shorthanded Knicks On Season-Worst 4-Game Skid
- Knicks are being touted as contenders, but first they have to weather the storm of injuries
- Knicks’ rim protection a sore spot created by injuries
[Yahoo Sports] – Wed, 14 Feb 2024 18:45:36 GMT
Why Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau needs to cool it with big minutes for key players
[Bleacher Report] – Wed, 14 Feb 2024 19:27:13 GMT
- Carmelo Anthony Says Phil Jackson ‘Pushed Me Out of New York’ During Knicks Exit
- Melo reveals ‘done deal’ that would’ve sent him to Lakers from Denver
- Carmelo Anthony Spoke About His Trade to the New York Knicks on Dwayne Wade’s Podcast
- “Get me out of here”: Carmelo Anthony dispels myths about his exit from Denver to join Knicks
- Carmelo Anthony says Lakers, not Knicks, were top destination for 2010 Nuggets trade: New York never was the place
[Heavy.com] – Thu, 15 Feb 2024 00:25:00 GMT
NBA Executive Says Top Knicks Target Will Leave Once Contract Ends
74 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2024.02.15)”
So i was hoping to win 1 or 2 of these last 4 games before the All Star break, but with the team so banged up we didn’t manage to do it. Now instead of being tied for 3rd with the Bucks and only 2 games behind the Cavs for the 2nd, we’re 2 games behind the Bucks and only half a game ahead of the Sixers for 4th. But we’re there and what matters is getting the team relatively healthy again. At least now we have one week to give much needed rest to everybody except Brunson. And the All Star game isn’t that much of an effort, i think, so even him will get some rest. Can we get back OG, iHart and Divo when the games resume?
IF… the games resume for them… Trust No One! I’m starting to panic.
I think OG is out at least 2 more weeks after surgery
What’s the status on iHart, and Divo?
They were questionable last night, for a normal franchise that would mean they’d be available after the all-star break.
I think if Brunson, iHart, Hart and DDV are healthy we should be able to beat most teams, most nights.
So hoping this break can heal those guys up at least. We can beat most of the average or bad teams if those dudes are healthy.
The schedule for the remaining 27 games isn’t all that bad, assuming Embiid is out for the 3 games against Philly. We have the Pistons twice and the Bulls 3 times (no gimmes vs Chicago but they do kinda suck)
I think it’s possible to to go 16-11, which would mean a final record of 49-33 and probably the 4th seed.
Of course, it all depends on health and when Randle and OG can get back on the court.
If we win 49 games I’m gonna be even more mad about the Brunson foul call. 50 win teams are much, much better than 49 win teams. I will not be taking any questions about this empirically grounded, true take.
I feel that there is a secular version of Pascal’s Wager that Thibs is engaged in.
Outcome 1: injuries happen to players due to overuse so I don’t overuse them.
Outcome 2: injuries happen to players due to overuse but I overuse them regardless.
Outcome 3: injuries don’t happen to players due to overuse but I don’t overuse them regardless.
Outcome 4: injuries don’t happen to players due to overuse so I overuse them.
Pascal would wager on the outcome with the lowest cosmic downside (outcome 1), but Thibs seems satisfied betting on the outcome with the highest terrestrial upside (outcome 4). I guess Thibs is really just a hedonist in hedonophobian clothes.
It would be nice to win 50 games but at this point don’t care if they just match last season’s 47 as long as they get the 4th seed.
If OG and Randle can return in early March though they’ll have enough games left to make a good run and finish strong which could allow them to win 50.
I counted 16 very winnable games left on the schedule too (assuming reasonable health).
For me the big thing is OG, Randle and, hopefully, Mitch, being able to play for at least 5 to 10 games before the playoffs.
The Wizards suck, but anybody taking notice of what the guy who was picked directly behind Obi is doing..
If Pascal were a Knicks fan he definitely would have been the Knickerblogger kind…
Yes. It’s been difficult *not* to notice what Avdija has been doing this season, thus far.
From an Athletic story speculating on what’s next for LBJ: https://theathletic.com/5276073/2024/02/14/lebron-steph-curry-lakers-warriors-whats-next/
What’s next for Lebron? Retirement.
What do you guys think it will cost to re-sign Precious? I’ve become quite a big fan. His ability to back up both PF & C frees us up to potentially trade Mitch or iHart down the line.
Might as well estimate the iHart market while we’re speculating. I feel like it’s probably cooled off from the couple minutes it looked like someone could make him a big offer.
Definitely love what we’ve seen from Precious of late. It’s still hard to see anyone really shelling out for an undersized, non-shooting big and that includes us if iHart and Mitch are back and healthy.
Something like 4/$32M probably gets it done if things don’t drastically change in either direction.
Just a quick side note on our depth, which was called out last night…
Taj, Toppin, and Brown are our 13-15th guys.
They were getting compared to “the Heat scrubs” from last year but Caleb Martin, Gabe Vincent, and Max Strus were all considerably higher up the Heat’s depth chart.
Caleb Martin got the Heat’s taxpayer MLE, for instance. He was basically their Donte DiVincenzo.
Strus & Vincent were numbers 10 & 11 on the depth chart. Our guys at that level are Precious & McBride, which is not too shabby.
This is a pretty deep team! If Spo had been forced to go as deep as Thibs is he’d have had to play Udonis Haslem, Haywood Highsmith, and Omar Yurtseven.
Highsmith is actually playing this year so maybe it’s a slight edge but it’s not much. No one really has players that deep. Those last 3 spots were basically a bone to the Player’s Association after taking their lunch in the CBA negotiations.
The fascinating thing about this team right now is that they’re so injured that the games don’t mean anything. It’s so strange to see a long losing streak and the most logical reaction is, “Okay, so?” None of these results mean anything. It’s all about the health of the players.
With that said, I’m worried about iHart’s health now, though. Isn’t this basically the injury that sapped a lot of his effectiveness early last year?
I hope we keep Precious! He’s been great and he’s still pretty young! Thibs seems to have a pretty good track record with helping Centers and PF’s find their way defensively, so would love to see what he might look like with a full training camp to work with our staff. And there’s still time for him to expand his offensive game a bit. Maybe add a corner three occasionally?
Obviously there have been more talented players who have tanked their careers worse, but it’s still amazing that Bones Hyland has thrown his career away by apparently just not giving a fuck.
He’s alienated two championship contenders in two seasons. Remarkable.
Fair enough Hubie, it just seems like every time our opponent is playing their 13th-15th guys it’s Edmond Sumner time and they knock down threes like the discount splash brothers. Case in point: Q4 vs. Memphis’ teams of G-league rejects. That doesn’t seem to happen with our roster dregs ever.
On the iHart topic, I don’t think the injury lets us off the hook for the price he’ll command this summer. He leads the league in def EPM still and other teams have noticed his value. I think we’ll be very hard pressed to keep him — and as much as Precious has shown, I think he’s much more valuable.
I just hope we don’t find ourselves reminiscing about how that 15-3 run in 2024 was by far the best and brightest part of the 2020s Knicks…
There, I said it. Debbie Downer I am.
I mean, the Sixers thought they’d be title contenders this season, and now they’re garbage because of an injury. So sometimes that’s just how the cookie crumbles.
I mean, that could happen. But I’m trying to keep the long view of next season in mind. Even if these injuries completely derail this season, we should have a STACKED team next season. One that will allow Thibs to play a 10 man rotation during the regular season with even the option of playing the 11th and 12th man sometimes.
Brunson/McBride
DDV/Burks
OG/Hart
Randle/Bojan/Precious
iHart/Mitch/Sims
Obviously this might all change if we make some huge trade, but if not, that’s a DEEP fucking team. Next season would only be screwed if Randle and OG are permanently diminished by these injuries.
And don’t get me wrong, there’s a path to actual contender-hood this year, where we suck for most of the rest of the season but get healthy and pull ourselves together in time for the playoffs so that the year kind of resembles what happened with Miami last year. That’s what I’m hoping.
But I also hope that Rose and company don’t do anything stupid that could send us into a death spiral for the rest of the decade. I’m not convinced Bogie and Burks was a good move, clearly not enough to get us some wins against fairly sucky teams. I also don’t think it was a disaster, and we did need bodies.
Fingers crossed.
That rotation assumes we are able to bring back iHart, Precious, and Burks, Swifty. I agree, though, that a healthy version of that roster is pretty darned good.
But I would be very surprised if that is our roster next year. Unless we get healthy and the Brunson/OG/Randle trio goes nuclear in the playoffs, Leon will almost certainly try to make a big trade this summer.
the NBA really still puts a premium on offense, and while iHart has some skill he’s not much of a scoring threat, and that should hopefully keep his price down.
I will admit. I am afraid they might do this out of panic if we flame out.
What I would hope is that Thibs is either replaced or given a mandate to rest/load manage players during the regular season next year or else will be replaced. I don’t know if Rose has that kind of power over him or the type of relationship with him where he could mandate that. I do think an element of this injury rash is just bad luck but it certainly doesn’t give support to those of us who think Thibs gets unfairly criticized for how he manages players minutes.
i feel like i’m losing touch more and more with these contract guesses…
precious for an average of 8 million for 3 or 4 years sounds pretty darn good at the moment…
off season priorities will most likely be: OG and isaiah…
for the life of me i can’t really imagine some big name star showing up via trade or free agent signing…
other than us somehow signing and trading for donovan mitchell, but that doesn’t really seem to be likely though…the cavs have a good team – and it can be his team…
any superstar that wants their own team, isn’t getting it with jalen brunson on our roster…so, if any acquisition takes place – it would be for another OG type, someone looking for that big second contract…
huh, that’s how we got julius, then jalen, and now hopefully OG…
it’s weird, the only starting spot to come to mind that could use an upgrade – is shooting guard…and, well donte has kind of squashed that notion a bit…
the other need being a backup point guard – perhaps between bogey and alec we can get something ball control and putting points on the board wise from the bench…plus, staggering julius’ and OG’s minutes with the second unit hopefully will keep us from being shut out when jalen sits…
Are the Knicks rumored to be in on any interesting buyout guys?
I love how Tucker can’t be bought out by the Clippers because he has a $12.5 million players option that he sure as fuck has no interest in not picking up (which obviously he should pick up. Dude is 100 years old).
Not sure if this was discussed last night, but the same official who called that foul on Brunson basically handed the game to the Cavs last night.
https://x.com/shwinnypooh/status/1758158902925877286
This year’s buyout market is annoyingly barren when it comes to “big guys who can give you a decent 15 minutes.”
We should not, under any circumstances, have played Taj Gibson in an NBA game in 2024…but looking at the list of free agent centers will have you sympathizing with the decision very quickly.
At a certain point, you either have to get rid of the really bad referees or someone competent in the crew has some come in override the bad calls.
PJ being mad he’s getting paid 12 million dollars to practice and sit courtside is another reason I don’t have the mindset necessary to be a professional athlete because that sounds like an amazing job
That’s why you’re GM material, Dred — get paid 8 mil to sit around and basically do what we’re all doing here.
I wouldn’t expect all these guys back unless OG does the team a solid like Hart did and opts in to his last year in return for a max extension.
I have a feeling we might have to choose between Precious and Burks to stay under the 2nd apron.
Did some rough math without including Burks and Precious:
OG – 35.0 (estimated)
Randle – 30.3
Brunson – 24.9
Bojan – 19.0
Hart – 18.1
Mitch – 14.3
Hartenstein – 14.0 (the max we can pay him)
Donte – 11.4
Deuce – 4.7
2 first round picks (I used the slots for 17 & 21) – $5.5
Total = 177.2
First apron = 178.6
Second apron = 189.5
I can’t imagine going over the second apron for this team, so it seems to me it’s either Burks or Precious.
Well, I think they’re almost certainly trading Bojan for a guy making more than him, so if that takes them over the second apron, doesn’t it make sense to just sign both Precious and Burks? Once the third star takes them over the second apron, it doesn’t make sense to not just re-sign all of your guys, right?
Only $2M of Bojan’s contract is guaranteed till 6/29. The draft ends 6/27. I’d expect him to be off our roster one way or another before next season.
I was thinking closer to $4M for Achiuwa. He wasn’t great in a backup role for TOR and is a 3rd stringer for us. We have his RFA rights, so nobody will bid him up.
We can have up to 15 players rostered, we’ll roster at least 14. At minimum Arcidiacono will be back.
I’m not sure about Arcidiacono. He’ll have competition for a spot from Charlie Brown Jr and also from our possible second round pick.
So long as Jalen Brunson is on our team, I think Archie has as much job security here — give or take being traded at mid-season, then re-signed in the summer — as Thanasis does in Milwaukee. There remains value in having one Theo Pinson-esque, rah-rah glue guy on the end of the bench. Our problem of late is that we then surround him with a bunch of other dudes who also can’t play.
Really wish we had kept Windler who I think is an actual NBA player
The various salary cap thresholds aren’t set in stone either, so the final numbers will probably influence our decision-making
I like Precious but I don’t think he makes a lot of sense to resign if we are able to keep iHart. With Mitch, Randle, OG, Hart, and iHart that pretty much locks up all the C and PF minutes.
We really cannot afford to have him on the floor with Hart or Randle unless he is playing center and he is a much worse than Mitch or iHart.
I hope we use our picks this year and maybe one of the players we take is a big forward that can provide depth along with Sims.
If we want depth now I think someone like Skal Labisserie or Darius Bazley would be a lot better than Gibson.
@EBW: For sure Achiuwa was *meant* to be a third-stringer for us, but given minutes even as a starter he’s shown enough to move up the depth chart. It’s kind of the opposite of the IQ experience in that we refused to start IQ* even after we saw that he was capable of more but *had* to start Achiuwa even before he had shown that he was capable of more.
*Knick IQ, that is. Toronto IQ is…….well, something less. And I’m sure that I’m not the only one who has had it cross their mind that maybe IQ *wouldn’t* have thrived as a starter here, either. (But then again, maybe he still might have. Totally different system.) Anyway, we’ll never know.
Great post, Doogie. Start writing about Precious and have it somehow turn into something about IQ instead.
(And definitely Bazley has shown more than Skal, at least up to this point.)
They can’t go over the second apron before trading for the star because you can’t aggregate salaries once you’re over it.
In other words, if they go over the second apron signing Burks and Precious, Bojan can’t be traded for someone making more money than him.
So we’re definitely not signing both of them.
They’re actually in really great cap shape. Keep in mind it jumps after next year with the new deal, and the aprons will jump with it.
You have to figure they will probably include either Mitch or iHart when/if they make the superstar trade. Bojan plus one of them equals ~$34MM.
Hence having Precious on hand to back up PF and C is more useful than Burks, I think.
I’d way rather have Precious than Burks. Precious is young and doing a good enough job to warrant keeping around and developing further in a backup PF/C role.
IMO, Bojan is just salary to trade and Burks will either be gone or come back cheap because he wants to stay in NY and play on a good team.
I could be wrong about how it all plays out, but that’s why I wasn’t a big fan of the trade. We gave up a decent young player for a few months of Burks and Bojan. We could have just kept Fournier’s salary. If we were hell bent on trading Grimes, at least find something that makes some sense longer term, especially if we were willing to attach 2nd rounders to him.
I love Precious, but I think he’s still a tweener who isn’t skilled enough on the defensive end to make up for being an undersized C and isn’t enough of a shooter to play PF.
Maybe he comes up big at some point in the playoffs or Detroit takes advantage of us being up against the 2nd apron and offers him a bigger salary, but I’d guess that he returns to the bench and people forget about his okay stretch of games.
I agree.
As long as Hartenstein keeps playing well I think they are going to move Mitch with Bojan. I’ve been saying for awhile if they keep Mitch as the starter, they have to keep I-Hart because Mitch is so injury prone. If they make I-Hart the starter, Mitch becomes a very solid but expendable piece in a bigger trade.
I’m still not loving the trade, either. I’ve tried to talk myself into it and sometimes it almost works, but then I realize that there is something still annoying about it to me, even if I can’t quite put my finger on it. Just something about it seems ill-advised.
Precious over Burks 1,000 times out of 1,000. For many of you, YMMV…….but it’s a no-brainer to me. If nothing else, it’s because of age. There is a big, big difference between 24 and 32. And hey, Precious went to high school in the Bronx, for at least some of the time.
BenR, I don’t buy it at all that “Mitch, Randle, OG, Hart, and iHart are enough for the center and power forward positions. Only Mitch and Hartenstein are true centers and Thibs wants one of those on the floor at all times. This season we had three centers on the roster and it actually wasn’t enough because of all the injuries. Of course the third center doesn’t get minutes unless someone’s injured, but someone is bound to be injured at some point.
And Alan, I think some interesting personal interest story in the newspapers about how one of our end of bench players contributes in odd ways may the kiss of death in a luck sense for us keeping them. First Pinson was written up and now Arcidiacono and they both were gone from the team soon after.
But it’s like adding Donte when we had IQ.
Eventually it will be Mitch or Hart. We shouldn’t have two $14MM centers.
Whoever isn’t the starter will have more value as a trade piece than a backup, like IQ did.
You are probably right, but depending on what we do with Mitch/I-Hart he may be the 3rd string C which is fine and backup PF. I’d still rather have him and any upside he has left than Burks.
It wouldn’t be the biggest surprise to me if we let iHart walk and retain Precious to make some cap math work
I just don’t see anyone else throwing money at a RFA like Precious
We’re complaining rightfully so about how poor the end of the bench is but then arguing they shouldn’t resign Precious because there aren’t any minutes for him?
How come Windler isn’t injured anymore now that he’s playing for the Lakers?
Re: Precious, I’ll split the difference between EB and Noble and guess he comes in at $6MM AAV for 3-4 years. Sign me up!
Neither Burks or Precious should be a priority.
Precious is a completely redundant luxury if we are healthy and we can probably fill his slot with a cheaper younger player with more upside in the draft. Plus he probably doesn’t want to sign on to not be in the rotation. I think he still hopes to be more than an end of the bench player.
As for Burks he is only getting older and probably isn’t who we really want playing major minutes in the playoffs. If he resigns for like a vet minimum slot it would okay but I think during the regular season we can use a combination of McBride and whoever we take in this upcoming draft. We need to start bringing in new young talent so we don’t need to keep paying market rate for mediocre depth.
What a weird stoppage.
Think it all depends which superstar becomes available and what their position/role will be. If we trade for Giannis then Randle is gone. If we trade for Mitchell then DDV is gone.
These are all outliers and the base case scenerio is that no one is available and we compete as is, sit tight and continue to stack (aka incinerate) draft picks.
Clyde sits down with Ahmad Rashad
https://twitter.com/nyknicks/status/1758238094325604761
We absolutely need to prioritize resigning iHart. Having both him and Mitch at $30 million total is worth it because it gives us 48 minutes of elite defense and insulates us from injury. I’d rather have a Mitch/iHart platoon over any single center in the NBA except Jokic and probably Wemby and Chet. (I know Embiid is better I just want no part of him)
If we resign iHart then Precious will not be in the rotation. I don’t think he’s going to want to come back if there is no path short of injury for him to consistently play.
We need depth but the best way to build your 10-15 bench is through the draft and selective vet minimum signings. You shouldn’t be signing anyone to a non-minimum or non-rookie contract that isn’t either going to be in the rotation or has real upside to be more than an end of the bench player.
Are we sure the Bucks are going to make the playoffs?
If Knicks get healthy, there should be no reason we can’t grab the 3rd seed (2nd might be tough because of Cavs cushy schedule but they do have a tough end to the season). Philly without Embiid and Bucks with Doc coaching (lol) doesn’t scare anyone. I have to check their remaining schedules but sssooo not impressed with them.
What a win by Memphis. Proves there are no guarantees, despite a massive-talent advantages
Giannis is 15/17 tonight. He’s got an 88TS% why is he not leading your team in FGAs? The Grizzlies are playing bigs I’ve never even heard up, Giannis should take like 30 shots
It’s hysterical that the Bucks are even worse since they hired Doc
This is why I can’t worry too much about how poorly the Knicks are doing, since everyone but the Celtics and the Cavs kind of suck right now.
Giannis is going to be a Knick this summer.
You probably can’t play Giannis and Mitch together offensively, but defensively… those two with OG… good god.
Actually who am I kidding… if Brunson can drop 40 with Precious and Sims I’m pretty sure he’d do fine with Giannis & Mitch.
Randle, Bojan, and all the picks for Giannis. That’s the trade.
The Bucks are still missing Middleton. They will be better when he gets back (although maybe not great nonetheless)