[New York Post] – Sun, 18 Feb 2024 06:57:00 GMT
- Jacob Toppin snubbed in bid to win Slam Dunk contest like his brother did
- Ranking every Knicks champion in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest
- Who won the NBA 3-Point Contest 2024? Final scores, results, highlights on winner from All-Star Weekend
- Jacob Toppin jumps over Obi Toppin, gets eliminated in 1st round of Slam Dunk Contest
- Knicks Bulletin: I guess Jacob needed to jump over the shot clock
[Posting and Toasting] – Sun, 18 Feb 2024 18:30:00 GMT
- Knicks forced to sign two players before Thursday, Feb. 22
- Knicks mailbag: Are there plans for buyout market or hints at 2024 NBA Draft strategy?
- Knicks: 3 buyout candidates New York must pursue after 2024 NBA trade deadline
- Should New York Knicks Sign Taj Gibson for Rest of the Season?
- 3 Post trade deadline buyout targets for the New York Knicks to monitor
[Sports Illustrated] – Sun, 18 Feb 2024 17:26:18 GMT
Knicks All-Star Attempts to Turn Philly Fans Against Tyrese Maxey
[Celtics Blog] – Sun, 18 Feb 2024 16:00:00 GMT
CelticsWeek #16: Into the break
[NOLA.com] – Sun, 18 Feb 2024 10:00:00 GMT
Why former Warriors executive Bob Myers thinks the Pelicans and Knicks are alike
[Sports Illustrated] – Mon, 19 Feb 2024 03:51:57 GMT
Brunson Helps Eastern Conference Seal Historic All-Star Victory
[amNY] – Sun, 18 Feb 2024 12:25:46 GMT
OG Anunoby injury update: Knicks G/F could return during earlier portions of March
[Sports Illustrated] – Mon, 19 Feb 2024 08:14:34 GMT
Nets’ Mikal Bridges Declines Knicks’ Recruitment, Stays Loyal to Brooklyn
39 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2024.02.19)”
Macri did a trade value ranking, and he compared it to his previous trade value ranking from a few months back and, well, there were certainly some choices made then that shocked me, and some choices being made now that also shock me (like how in the world he had Kawhi Leonard and Donovan Mitchell not in the Top 50 three months ago). He has Brunson as basically tied for 9th in the league with Hali. He admits that Hali probably has the greater trade value, but, well, I mean, come on, we gotta give the nod to Brunson.
Indy basically did not miss a beat with Hali out, in the few games Brunson missed…
This from the man who ignored Quickley’s net rating for three plus years.
Thibs seems like the kind of guy who looks for stats that support his belief and uses cognitive dissonance to make the ones that don’t disappear.
So for the @Philly game on Thursday, we should have the following lineup:
Likely starters: Brunson, iHart, JHart, DDV, Precious
Reserves: Bojan, Burks, Deuce, Sims
Is that enough? Should be but who knows?
That will probably be the same lineup at home vs. Celts on 2/24, can’t see us winning with that.
Then 3 more home games to close out February, B2B vs. DET and NOP, and then GSW. I would probably sign up for 2-3 in those 5 games.
By then we should know about the status of OG and Randle, and probably will know more about Mitch. But that @CLE game on 3/3 will be tough unless we get at least one of them back…
I think it’s going to take a week or two for Randle and OG to get their legs and shot back to 100% even after they come back. We may get an adrenaline game on the first night, but it should take awhile to be 100%. To be honest OG was still learning to fit in the offense. So we may not be really peaking as a team until the playoffs.
OG’s injury seemed very minor so I think he will get back to full speed relatively quicly. Randle is another story, I’m not even sure that he comes back at all. You simply don’t pop your shoulder out like that without some damage to the labrum and probably some partial soft tissue tears. Even though it’s his off-arm, it’s still an overhead sport and he stresses that shoulder on rebounding, defending (reaching in) and posting up. I’m optimistic that he will return and be somewhat effective, but doubt that he’ll be 100% without some kind of procedure in the offseason….or just a prolonged period of rehab to tighten things up.
With Mitch, I also don’t expect a full-strength return, if one at all. If he could give us 15 mph off the bench by the playoffs, I’d be thrilled.
I’m hoping that the rest heals iHart’s achilles but those things also tend to linger and nag.
The good news is that Brunson (ankle), DDV (hammy) and JHart (knee) were all pretty banged up and worn out, so they will probably be ready to rock and will have more practice time with Precious, Bojan, and Burks, especially with iHart at C. Hopefully (but not likely) Thibs won’t wear them out again before at least OG returns.
Nets fired Jacques Vaughn. Not exactly sure why beyond trying to shake things up. Maybe they’re about to fire sale?
According to a recent Katz article, OG is due for an examination on March 1st, and if he passes, he will be able to resume basketball activities right away.
Begley’s Randle report last week was alarming:
On the one hand, he sounded optimistic but on the other hand he seemed to be starting from the pessimistic position that Randle not playing again this year is the default, which it the opposite of what we’d heard weeks ago.
They both have arm injuries, don’t they?
Maybe they think the fire sale deadline is still after the all star break.
Worth noting that Thibs was sane during the Magic game. He could have brought Brunson back in the 2nd Quarter to stem the tide of that 17-0 run but he took his lumps with the 2nd unit.
If we get that version of Thibs for the remainder of the season, we should be in good shape for the playoffs regardless of our seed. If not, it doesn’t really matter when Randle comes back because no one will be left standing.
One can only pray Thibs will have learned his lesson about allocating minutes and keeping everyone fresh and healthy. But this is Thibs we are talking about here. I wish someone from the front office would really take him to task on it but my guess is they’ve given him somewhat of a leash because the amount of injuries is staggering.
There’s a real chance to make noise in the playoffs with this roster and the East after Boston wide-open. Let’s get there (somewhat) healthy…
Vaughn always seemed like a placeholder-type. Just seems like odd timing.
T-Wolves extending Conley, two years, $21 million total. I wonder if they’re just going to accept a ginormous luxury tax bill next year because the team has been playing so well?
(This could put the kibosh on any attempts to trade KAT in the offseason, unless it’s just for basketball reasons.)
Seems like the Nets FO thought the players had stopped listening to Vaughn. They don’t have their pick so they actually want to win more games.
Looking at some former-Knicks-current-Raptors stats, and the funniest thing is how RJ has a .614 TS% (hitting over 60% on 2s!), and still has a 0 BPM.
IQ’s line is sad even with him hitting 40% of his 3PAs.
“Looking at some former-Knicks-current-Raptors stats, and the funniest thing is how RJ has a .614 TS% (hitting over 60% on 2s!), and still has a 0 BPM…IQ’s line is sad even with him hitting 40% of his 3PAs.”
I don’t think one can judge RJ and IQ as Raptors until next year. This is more true for IQ because he’s in a different role so it’s only fair to give him time to grow into it. But for both players, the stats they put up on a losing team with gaping holes are not all that meaningful.
That said, if RJ and IQ are assumed to be good, I do think that a starting lineup of RJ, IQ, Barnes, Trent Jr. and Poeltl, with a bench of Brown, Dick, Bouchier, and Olynyk is pretty good on paper, so the “losing team” excuse only goes so far.
IQ’s bread and butter has always been the floater range and that’s dried up for him in Canada. Also can’t seem to convert at the rim. A bounce back seems like a good bet though.
RJ is getting dinged by BPM for his defense, and in too small a sample to care about the Raptors are a good amount better defensively with him riding the pine. Will be interesting to see how much of the scoring efficiency he can keep up though, he’s definitely exceeding expectations in that regard. Still, some regression feels like a safe bet to me. His numbers at the rim and from floater range look wonky.
I think Macri got a little too cute trying to account for contract status and player happiness and the like. I also think just as a general NBA discourse matter, the Paolo Banchero hype train has left the station just a bit too early.
He’s plenty intriguing, especially given how young he is, but I’d easily take Chet’s bird in the hand production over Banchero’s mystery box.
I think perhaps some people are misunderstanding the timing of when Randle and OG are going to return.
Resuming basketball activities is not the same thing as playing in games. It means they are ready for more serious on court work with 1 on 1, 2 on 2, 3 on 3 etc.. until they are fit enough to handle game action. So even if Randle and OG are getting examined by doctors in late February and early March respectively, there’s still time after that to get in shape. Then once they are cleared for game basketball, they still have to get their wind, legs, and shots back to 100%. We saw how long it took Randle to get back in top form early in the season even when he had a good camp.
Is that accounting for OG & Siakam being off the Raptors? OG being off the team would certainly affect those numbers.
IQ is averaging 3 more ast/36 for the Raptors and 0.1 fewer TOs/36. If he returns to form inside the arc, he’ll be scary.
Nets saw Mikal go on the Brunson/Hart show and panicked
I like Paolo a lot and think he will be a monster in a couple of years. He’s just too big, too athletic, and too skilled to fail. What I worry about is his decision-making and b-ball IQ, but he just turned 21 so I think there’s lots of time for that to improve. The shooting needs to improve, but his mechanics looks pretty good and his size should really help. His defense is raw, but again, his size, skill, and athleticism should mitigate some of his residual deficiencies there.
Strat, Julius had ankle surgery, which limited his ability to stay in game shape. And now he had a serious shoulder event, which OG had a minor elbow procedure, so that should make his recovery much faster.
It would be weird if the Nets if the Nets hire Kenny Atkinson as coach. He’s the only probably available ex-coach I can think of except for Mike Miller, who might be very good but certainly is not a candidate.
Adrian Griffin maybe? He was an assistant with Toronto and the Nets are better suited to run a Toronto-style defensive scheme.
We’re in the very unfamiliar position of prioritizing starting the playoffs healthy…at the All-Star break. I can’t remember that being the case for decades.
Looks like Kevin Ollie is getting the Nets job, at least for now.
Makes sense, this season doesn’t really matter for them
Banchero looks (and smells) a bit too
much like Carmelo out there for my tastes. Otherwise, this Orlando team would be fun to watch grow.
Faster is a relative term.
They aren’t playing or shooting at all while out. At best they are doing a little conditioning work. They aren’t going to get cleared for basketball activity and then come back immediately. They will be worked back into game shape. Then they won’t be 100% immediately when cleared to actually play in games. It doesn’t work that way. Guys miss a couple of games with a tweaked ankle or knee and it sometimes takes some time to get back to 100%. IMO it’s going to take each of them a minimum of a several games after they are cleared to get their legs, wind, and shot back (other than maybe an adrenaline game in their first one back). We still have a way to go even if they are talking about Randle/OG being evaluated in another week or so.
If Banchero’s 3 point shooting is for real he’s going to be absolutely fine. He’s still got bad shot selection inside the arc but he only has to clean that up a little to be a good player. I was down on him coming out of college but he’s been pretty damn nice for a 21 year old this year.
So if whichever “conference” wins the allstar game gets home court advantage in the finals – does that make a difference?
i think they should just have an allstar team and have them play the harlem globetrotters at this point.
I mean I wouldn’t play hard if I was one of the players. They should probably scrap the game at this point
I think Banchero is gonna be really, really good. I was being somewhat literal (hope Doogie isn’t around) when I said the hype train has left the station early. He’s not that good just yet.
I would also definitely take Chet over him both now (obviously) and going forward (less obviously). Chet’s ceiling might be slightly lower, though even that I feel is up for debate, but we literally already know Chet can be a key player on a contender. That’s TBD for Paolo.
Yeah, that makes sense. It’s easy to forecast some growth for Paolo but he still has to actually do it.
paolo looked super raw for team usa, he started playing better towards the end…he has the tools…
he has some good teammates…3 or 4 years from now he could be impactful…they have him cheap for another year or two…
I get the Melo comp for Paolo, but there are some pretty significant differences in style and offensive polish (meaning Melo was more advanced imo), and especially in size. In that respect, he’s more like Amar’e, or sort of a hybrid of those two. He’s a long 6’10” and carries 250lbs without looling soft and paunchy like Melo did early on. He reportedly has a 7’1″ wingspan and 40″ vertical and runs the floor like a gazelle. I remeber the first time we played against him and being surprised at how big and athletic he looked, I didn’t remember feeling that way when I watched him in college.
Even if he tops out at a Julius Randle-level of skill, which seems like kind of a floor, a taller, longer, more athletic Julius is a fearsome proposition.