[New York Daily News] – Fri, 24 May 2024 19:18:56 GMT
What the Knicks can do with pair of first-round draft picks
[The New York Times] – Fri, 24 May 2024 08:58:09 GMT
- Knicks offseason storylines: Julius Randle’s extension, NBA Draft musings and more
- NBA Agent Shuts Down Concerns About Knicks Free Agents
- Knicks report card: Final grades for Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby
- NBA Trade Rumors: Knicks Remain in Pursuit of Star to Pair with Jalen Brunson
- Knicks’ top priorities for 2024 NBA offseason, including trading for another star
[Posting and Toasting] – Fri, 24 May 2024 13:00:00 GMT
- REPORT: Knicks’ OG Anunoby ‘could consider deals with other franchises’
- Insider: New York Knicks Could Lose OG Anunoby
- Reports: OG Anunoby an offseason target for the Sixers
- Knicks Rumors: OG Anunoby May Test Free Agency, Consider Contracts from Other Teams
- OG Anunoby To Hear Rival Offers In Free Agency?
[sny.tv] – Fri, 24 May 2024 21:28:42 GMT
Knicks associate head coach Johnnie Bryant will be considered for Cavaliers HC job
[Posting and Toasting] – Fri, 24 May 2024 10:00:00 GMT
- Knicks’ Jalen Brunson named to All-NBA 2nd Team
- Jalen Brunson deserved All-NBA first-team nod ‘ahead of’ Luka Doncic: Stephen A. Smith
- Jalen Brunson All-NBA honors adds to excellent Knicks season
- Stephen A. Smith Disagrees With His Own All-NBA Vote For Jalen Brunson
- Knicks Superstar Snubbed from All-NBA First Team
[Sports Illustrated] – Fri, 24 May 2024 11:00:39 GMT
Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony Sets Record Straight About Jeremy Lin
[The Knicks Wall] – Fri, 24 May 2024 11:54:24 GMT
Assessing the Knicks’ Frontcourt Situation
[Posting and Toasting] – Sat, 25 May 2024 10:00:00 GMT
Knicks end-of-season media availability: Everything we learned
58 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2024.05.25)”
I remember when the playoffs began, and we all marveled at how the top five teams in the Western Conference all looked amazing. And sure enough, the #5 seed might make the NBA Finals, and it is the first time in quite a while that I could say the #5 seed making the Finals was completely foreseeable coming into the playoffs (not likely, exactly, as I think everyone still expected the Nuggets to be the winner in the end, but the Mavs would be a totally reasonable Western Conference representative if you told me that they were the team that made it at the start of the playoffs. I would have been, “Oh, okay, fair enough” to any of the top five teams).
It’s also interesting if Dallas does go all the way bc I feel like the two stars in the back court formula rarely works enough to go all the way but in this case it might?
Maybe it’s working because Jason Kidd is doing a great job…
For the record, I don’t consider Luka to be a guard any more than LeBron.
One thing I admire about the Mavs that I wish we’d copy is the offensive output of their centers. 30 pts last night on 14-16 shooting just from running to the rim. 19 pts on 9-13 in Game 1. I believe we could easily get that kind of production from Hartenstein and Mitch if we looked for it.
it’s strange how much other guys in the league seem to dislike Gobert so much. Also Idk what they were doing switching that last play, did you really think Rudy was going to be able to guard Luka at the 3 point line?
They were hoping his size would prevent Luka from taking a three, but yeah, I didn’t like it, either.
They were hoping his size would prevent Luka from taking a three, but yeah, I didn’t like it, either.
It would have made much more sense if they needed a 3 to tie. Then Gobert wouldn’t have to worry about Luka blowing by him, which he effectively was doing before the step back.
I think Mitch has definitely improved under Thibs. Doesn’t foul as much, much better defensively and rebounding wise. But I do think he’s regressed offensively and he’s almost put on too much muscle where he can get the lobs like he used to. I’d have him lose a little weight to try and get back to the younger, more spry version of Mitch. Obviously not like he was as a rookie or anything but a happy medium between huge Mitch and pogo stick Mitch when he came into the league. May not be possible, though, with the injuries. But he lumbers a lot more than he used to even at the beginning of this season before he got hurt.
It’s hard to tell whether Mitch’s ankle-foot injury issues are acute and fixable or chronic. Being a high-flyer like he was early on might not be great for him, he seems to have issues with landing safely.
In retrospect, his contract was a master stroke. At the time, no one thought such a contract was even possible. Yet it turns out that even with the injury issues, he still has lots of value, both to us and in a potential trade. I would LOVE for us to retain iHart and for Mitch to be able to stay on the court for 48 minutes of those guys through a long playoff run next year. But it just doesn’t seem likely.
I know the T-Dogs got the ball to their hottest shooter on the last play, but they didn’t need a 3 to win the game. I’m not sure what’s costing them the most, their best player being young and inexperienced, team exhaustion from the 7 game series with the Nuggets, not being able to handle the pressure or a handful of coaching decisions. The one thing I’m pretty sure about now is that I don’t want Towns.
I continue to think drafting an All-Star is a smart move, but if we can’t get someone at that level a Derek Lively would also be fine.
I am not counting out the Wolves.
And I agree on Gobert on both counts. He’s pretty good and not the guy I would want on the perimeter. Isn’t that what Ant Jordan is for?
the breakeven factor in that situation for twos and threes is about .53, so for example 35%/65% or 30%/56% or 25%/47% (ie you should be indifferent between giving up a 3pa with a 35% of going in and a 2pa with a 65% chance of going in). that’s at least thorny enough that you do need to adjust your normal defense (because just allowing a pull up 34 footer at 30% is not a good relative outcome) but can’t sell out and give up a layup or a foul.
if you look at tony jones’ article in the athletic today he does point to utah gobert doing a good job in a nearly identically situation of erring more toward fully preventing the step back, without necessarily having to concede to an absolute gimme once luka drove by him.
have read a few people calling gobert allowing himself to get backfooted instead of strictly protect the line stupid or whatever (and maybe he even did it himself idk, players sometimes do this partly preemptively bc so many people call them stupid or chokers in these cases). it’s not a useful word to describe what he did — wildly overused in general about players in moments when reflex and cognition converge. but suboptimal, probably, yeah.
I think the Wolves are pretty much done, but we’ll see.
Gobert was a strange choice, seems like Naz Reid would be the guy…
i get why people find gobert hard to like because he does seem pretty annoying at times. but i find his biggest haters way more annoying (and also just too wrong too often too confidently for my personal preference) so i still end up rooting for him a fair amount.
he’s also under appreciated as a player by most players and most fans. this is probably partly because he’s oddly uncoordinated for such an effective player and also because he actually does have very salient drawbacks for such a good player that people can use to fit into an enjoyably binary conclusion like “the usual suspect analytics claptrap about him becomes totally worthless in a playoff regime.”
Use Bojan plus one of our picks this year to add a solid backup PG, try to draft a backup PF good enough to make the rotation, maybe add one more cheaper vet for depth and run it back.
I’m almost convinced the gap between us and the top of the league is not that large other than maybe Boston. But injuries and other shit happens. So maybe Boston is not even an issue. Let’s see who goes where and how we fit. If we have to make another move, that’s what trade deadlines are for.
Evan Sidery
@esidery
Nets owner Joe Tsai said yesterday the franchise is “at a crossroads” with their long-term direction (via
@NetsPressIG).
Tsai mentioned Brooklyn’s roster will be revamped this offseason to compete “in the long run” rather than win immediately.
Tsai wants to take a “longer-term approach” and build a sustainable winner.
With the Rockets reportedly willing to offer back their future picks in exchange for the Suns’ selections, Brooklyn certainly appears ready to pivot towards a full-scale rebuild.
If the Nets indeed decide to go in this direction, Mikal Bridges and others could become available on the trade market
https://x.com/esidery/status/1794391232476586198
Watching Dallas succeed with two high level shot creators and not a whole lot else really makes me want another high level shot creator
Yeah, and last year around this time, everyone wanted a center who could pass and shoot.
Somehow getting lost in the shuffle is how good of a pick Dereck Lively II has turned out to be.
We already have 2 all-nba players and much more. If we could get Luka here for Randle that would be great, but we can’t.
Lively and Jones have been awesome. I hope we can find those type players in this years draft.
Z-Man – I think I had that first!
I think another shot-creator in the starting lineup would be nice IF, IF, IF it is not a one-way player. That’s why I would favor someone like Mikal or PG13 to Spida or Booker.
Short of that, a bench spark plug like Malik Monk would also be nice. Deuce has been awesome but I don’t know whether there’s any juice left to squeeze out of that offensive game.
Mavs have a generational player and one of the best second options in the league. Trying to replicate that is going to fail without the top 5 player around.
Somehow getting lost in the shuffle…
not lost, just too annoying so easier to not address at the moment. Interesting that the Brunson fine and the Mavs tanking fine has made a mockery of “risking a censure”.
“Z-Man – I think I had that first!”
Yeah, kudos. The fact that he was taken at #12 after a trade-down and still at a spot where some folks feel it’s blasphemy to squander a lottery pick a rim-runner makes it even more impressive. Finding a player that young and that good and with that high of a b-ball IQ down at #25 will probably be a lot harder.
I’m surprised by this unless they are already fairly certain Donovan Mitchell is unavailable. I thought they were going to try to add Mitchell to Bridges and a couple of other decent pieces, compete better is year, and then try to finish the team next year. If that failed, then I thought Plan B would be to trade assets for picks this year. But if they are already throwing in the towel, then Bridges might be available.
deRozan would be nice to slot in the starting unit next to brunson
All you need is 2-3 very good scorers (the 3rd depends on how good #1 and #2 are). After that you are mostly looking for players that bring other things to the table in large quantities and can do just enough on offense to not become a liability. I’m not sure Brunson/Randle is quite good enough when we have a C that’s not giving us much, but OG and DDV are a pretty good #3 and #4.
I’m not sure I like the spacing of an I-Hart/Mitch, Randle, OG, DeRozan, Brunson lineup. DeRozan doesn’t shoot 3s, our Cs are limited, and Randle is suspect from 3. I like the spacing better with DDV, but agree that DeRozan can do more overall on offense.
Speaking of shot creators, Hunter Salis is an interesting player at pick 38 if he’s still available.
We should look into DSJr as a backup PG. He’d be someone worth acquiring if he can play alongside Deuce. Small lineup but tough on defense and cheap enough to not be detrimental to the cap.
Dorian Finney-Smith wouldn’t be a terrible budget pickup from the Nets either
I would put DSJr in the same low-bballiq category as oubre. Not my thing.
I think we just have to hope Randle can up his efficiency and passing next year. He’s already pretty close to being a legit 2nd option.
I’m not sure there’s anyone else out there we could get for that role unless a LeBron thing happens. I guess you could try for Dejounte and hope he becomes his Spurs self again, but they are likely trading Trae instead. And the draft has some interesting players, but no one of Randle’s stature at #24.
I guess I’d rather we comb the league for Derrick White-types instead and bolster the rotation that way.
Count me out. Derozan’s had a nice career but he’s 35, can’t shoot, and tends to be much worse in the playoffs.
DeRozan is probably best as a backup at this point in his career. He can’t play 2nd fiddle with his shooting and you don’t want his defense either, but he’d make a hell of a 6th man running the offense when Brunson sits.
DeRozan had a ts of .584 and shot 33% from 3. He is still a quality starting small forward, but I don’t think he would take anything we could sign him for. How about Bruce Brown for Bogey and a pick? He’s not a great shooter but does everything else well. Denver sure misses him.
I feel like I’m on Knickerbizarro.net with these DeRozan takes. The guy is an offensive engine who averaged 24 ppg this past season. He’s nowhere near backup level. But he is aged, mediocre at best defensively, and is almost entirely a mid-range shooter. With Brunson and Randle, it’d look like the Seattle Mariners post-game infield dance in the paint on every offensive play. A terrible, terrible idea for this Knicks iteration.
Looking at the salary cap, if we don’t find a trade for Bogdanovic by the beginning of free agency then we could waive him and still have about 8-10 million, give or take a bit depending on OG’s contract, under the 1st apron to use the MLE. That is including cap holds and using both our 1st round picks.
If OG gives any discount at at all we could even possibly have the full MLE.
That might be a better move than keeping around a washed player just in case we need his salary in a trade.
With access to the full MLE we might be able to get Melton, Tyus Jones, Caldwell-Pope, Bruce Brown, Monte Morris, Saddiq Bey, Obi Toppin, Trent Jr., Okoro, Jones Jr., Patrick Williams, or maybe even someone more expensive that takes a bit of a pay cut to come here. Not all of these players will take the whole MLE and some will end up going for more but all of them would help our bench a lot.
I like your list Ben. These are the types of players we should be looking for. Although I think you are assuming that Toronto won’t pick Brown’s option and will let him go for nothing. I would love to have Jones Jr. to take Bogey’s roster spot.
We get the taxpayer MLE if we keep OG & Hartenstein, which is worth ~$5M/yr. Unless someone falls though the cracks, those guys should be out of our price range.
Nvm, I read your post wrong.
But it would hardcap us and make matching salaries difficult if we’re still looking for a star.
Nembhard just continues to amaze.
1- Pacers are 0-3 from long range. Celtics are 7-15, yet they are losing
2- TJ still cooking. Knicks badly need to get Brunson a backup
Rick Carlisles system > Haliburton ?
Al Horford out here hitting 7 threes in a playoff game
This is some crazy shit out here right now.
I just can’t shake the feeling that we would have been in the Finals with a healthy OG. These teams ain’t shit
The Celtics with KP are a whole other beast, though.
I do agree that the Knicks with OG could totally hang with the KP-less Celtics. The Celtics are so stupid outside of Jrue and White.
That was one fucking creative ass play call by Carlisle. That was some D’Antoni-level offensive play shit.
2 monster choke jobs
They could very easily be up 2-1
Fair point about KP.
Us at full strength (including Randle and Mitch and Bogey) versus them at full strength, I still like our odds
Seems to me like Boston is toying with Indy.
I definitely think if OG and then of course Hart and Brunson had stayed healthy we would have had a really good shot at winning it all this year.
I am worried it will never be this wide open again. We will be better next year but most likely so will the competition.
Yep. That definitely has the possibility of being haunting.
Some teams will improve, but some teams may be worse. Philly could easily improve, but I’m not so sure about Boston. There’s no question that we should try to get better though.
I agree, and it makes all those moments where we risked it all to win one game, and all those times we brought a player back from injury too soon even more infuriating. For all the “we wouldn’t have finished 2nd without pushing the limits” talk, well we didn’t need to finish 2nd. We just needed our health. The great irony of this year is we treated so many ordinary games like a game 7, and the one game 7 we actually played we had no players left. If we do this again next year, shame on us.
My suspicion is that Knicks’ didn’t push Randle to cone back without surgery, it was Randle pushing Randle. NBA players generally want to play and sometime they are their own worst enemies. I’m sure OG wanted to help in game seven too and as soon as Thibs realized he couldn’t he was out of the game.