[New York Post] – Thu, 30 May 2024 20:44:00 GMT
- Josh Hart responds to ESPN freak-out over Derrick White-Jayson Tatum comments
- Knicks’ Josh Hart explains why Jayson Tatum is less ‘impactful’ than Celtics teammate Derrick White
- Wait, What? NBA Player Drops Crazy Take About Celtics Jayson Tatum
- Josh Hart says Derrick White is more impactful than Jayson Tatum
- ‘Leave me out this’: Josh Hart rebuts Mike Greenberg’s take on Jayson Tatum’s superstar status being underrated
[Defector] – Thu, 30 May 2024 16:05:00 GMT
Vinson Cunningham On The Knicks, Art, And How Basketball Can Help You Live Nobly
[Daily Mail] – Fri, 31 May 2024 05:00:32 GMT
Knicks stars descend on MSG to see Rangers lose to Panthers
[Sports Illustrated] – Thu, 30 May 2024 11:00:08 GMT
- Knicks Send Center to Warriors in Trade Projection
- Warriors land 26-year-old shot blocker in latest proposed trade
- Mitchell Robinson to Grizzlies? Would trade for Knicks center work?
- Memphis Grizzlies Named Trade Candidate for New York Knicks Center
- Grizzlies land high-risk, high-reward center in latest blockbuster trade idea
[New York Post] – Thu, 30 May 2024 12:22:00 GMT
- Jalen Brunson Knicks contract: Inside the mega-money decision
- Jalen Brunson is eligible for extension this offseason but should he re-sign? Examining the All-Star’s options
- Jalen Brunson contract extension: Knicks All- Star could leave $114 million on the table
- Knicks’ extension for star point guard could be an absolute steal
- Jalen Brunson contract extension: Knicks All-Star could leave $114 million on the table
[Bleacher Report] – Thu, 30 May 2024 13:08:31 GMT
Knicks’ Top Needs in 2024 NBA Offseason
[Posting and Toasting] – Thu, 30 May 2024 11:00:00 GMT
Knicks 2023-24 Player Review: Mitchell Robinson
[Sports Illustrated] – Thu, 30 May 2024 18:00:00 GMT
Knicks Forward Named Dream Candidate for Grizzlies
[Posting and Toasting] – Thu, 30 May 2024 18:21:00 GMT
Knicks 2023-24 Player Review: Donte DiVincenzo
[Sports Illustrated] – Thu, 30 May 2024 15:00:01 GMT
Knicks Star Lands Top 3 in NBA Re-Draft
[Daily Knicks] – Thu, 30 May 2024 12:00:00 GMT
1 Dream, 1 reach, 1 realistic star for Knicks to target in offseason trade
[Sports Illustrated] – Thu, 30 May 2024 16:00:04 GMT
Philadelphia 76ers Guard Named New York Knicks Candidate
[Daily Knicks] – Thu, 30 May 2024 17:15:00 GMT
Knicks host former Syracuse sharpshooter in 2024 pre-draft workout
[Atlanta Black Star] – Thu, 30 May 2024 11:30:00 GMT
‘Get Your Fat A Off My Show’: Kevin Hart Kicks Knicks’ Julius Randle Off His Show for Disrespecting Philly, Here’s What Happened
[Posting and Toasting] – Fri, 31 May 2024 10:00:00 GMT
Knicks projected to draft Indiana’s Kel’el Ware with No. 24 pick
42 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2024.05.31)”
Dinwiddie is a FA, Lakers don’t have any Bird Rights, he can play PG, and has the size to defend 2s. Seems like a decent MLE target if he goes for that price.
“Dinwiddie is a FA, Lakers don’t have any Bird Rights, he can play PG, and has the size to defend 2s. Seems like a decent MLE target if he goes for that price.”
You can definitely do worse than Dinwiddie as a backup guard. Not sure whether he would want a limited role as Brunson’s backup being that he’s only 30 and has not averaged less than 28mpg in the last few years. I could see him getting overpaid by a team with cap space like Philly.
I wonder to what extent we’re making too much of the backup PG thing. Perhaps it’s because we grew accustomed to the excellent play of Quickley off the bench. But you look around the league and backup PG quality is not a thing anywhere other than Indiana. The backup PGs in the NBA Finals are Peyton Pritchard and Dante Exum. Minnesota didn’t even use their backup PG in the WCF. Denver used Reggie Jackson. We can reach that level with one of our picks and/or a veteran minimum. Guys like Tyus Jones and Malcolm Brogdon are luxuries we can’t afford when we’re paying Mitch and Hart $30mm to be backups (not to mention $20mm for Bojan, though that’s likely temporary).
I think if you look at our offense with Brunson off the court it’s clear we have an issue to address. Personally, I say we need a backup PG because I’m 65 and still think in traditional terms (haha), but what we need is someone to run the offense through that can also score. We can split Randle and Brunson for some minutes, but do we really want to do that and run the offense through Randle?
We lose a point per minute when Brunson is in the bench. I’d say a good backup is pretty key to winning. The only reason it wasn’t incredibly obvious is that the OG lineups were +26, and Brunson played a lot of minutes. So we kept winning. But wouldn’t it be good to be neutral at least when he’s off the court? Other than re-signing OG and iHart, that has to be a priority.
From Macri’s newsletter today, re why he doesn’t think we’ll use either the midlevel or the biannual exception:
So getting a backup playmaker — which I agree that we need, even if they’re not a traditional point guard — may have to come via trade. Or from them drafting somebody like Kolek and trusting him right away like Thibs did with IQ.
Because Randle, OG, and Mitch were out. Next year Hart and Mitch will take the minutes we gave Precious and Sims, and Julius Randle can stay on.
A cheap veteran or a draftee should suffice.
If we make no moves, our bench is:
Deuce
Hart
Bojan
Robinson
We don’t need Malcolm Brogdon or Tyus Jones to make that work.
Also, Macri had Michael Scotto on his podcast today. I don’t have time to summarize the whole thing, but Scotto is confident both Hartenstein and OG will re-sign with us, iHart for that maximum salary we can offer him. He’s not sure what the OG number will be — he’s heard from a number of teams wary of maxing him due to the injury history — but doesn’t envision a scenario where the Knicks don’t pay what it is.
That’s my position on it too, but it’s less fun than speculating on FAs. If we do cut Bojan and use the MLE, we could put more salary into the trade in order to stay under the cap. Of course, that means giving up more value too.
So the question becomes whether the added value of a MLE player offsets the extra lost value of the trade… assuming there is star trade available that puts us over the 1st apron.
We might as well keep Bojan or, if needed, cut Bojan and retain Burks to fill the 2nd unit spot and stay out of the tax. Depends on your opinion of Burks, which we don’t need to re-litigate.
The Knicks need a player who can run 84 feet of offense when Brunson is on the bench. The closest thing to that on the team right now is Randle, who can do his ugly point-forward thing and spray the ball or create a shot. If the bench is, say, one of the starters along with Bojan (or Burks), Mitch, Hart and Deuce, on paper that’s pretty good compared to bench units around the league. But it would be nice to have a 10mpg PG who can take pressure off of Thibs to have one of Brunson or Randle on the floor at all times, and to be serviceable if either goes down for an extended period during the regular season.
For me, I would like to see them replace DDV in the starting lineup with a 2-way guy with some creation chops and 3pt shooting like PG13 or Mikal, and to have a competent change-of-pace pure PG as your 11th guy…ideally Kyle Lowry but alternatively a draft pick (Sears? Kolek? Carrington? Simpson?) or a Kira Lewis/Kennedy Chandler type who still might have some upside. Hopefully someone with better athleticism/PG skills/defensive chops than Evil Donte.
Thibs was hesitant to play Randle without Brunson last year. Even in the Deuce/Grimes lineups Randle was eventually phased out and replaced by OG.
It’s kind of concerning that he wasn’t able to do more on his own, but pairing him with a player like Dinwiddie might help get the Knicks into their offense. So you’re not getting a backup PG to drive the offense, you’re getting a backup PG to make things easier on Randle.
We can also use the taxpayer MLE and get somebody on the cheap, which is why I kinda like DSJr. His poor offense limits his salary potential even though he’s been one of the better defensive guards the last couple years.
The taxpayer MLE is a little below $5.2M.
Givony has us taking Kolek in the mock draft that just came out today but notes teams above us are seriously looking at him, too.
The period between June 26 and July 6 is going to be pretty nerve-racking.
Based only on the lack of response to your last post, Z-man, I’m assuming that either 1) no one else is feeling nerve-racked about that time period or 2) no one else knows the significance of those two dates. 🙂
Doogie, just in case, June 26 is the draft and July 6 is the first day of free agency. First, I hope that by then we will have more clarity on iHart and OG. Second, I wonder whether we will have any fun kids to follow in summer league, or whether we’ll be treated to How Leon Fucked Up The Draft 5.0. I believe that at the end of the day, iHart and OG will both be back, but until it’s official I will be nervous. I also think that we will make at least one pick unless there is some kind of significant trade for a key rotation player, maybe even a blockbuster.
I know this is supposed to be a thin draft, but when you look at mock drafts, it always seems like there are some interesting players who could be good fits here when the Knicks’ pick comes up. I’m hoping we just make the picks and keep the players.
I said this yesterday but it’s worth repeating–the draft gets a reputation as weak because it’s truly weak at the top, which is of course the portion of the draft the delivers the bulk of any given draft’s reputation.
I think, and a lot of evaluators agree, it’s actually fairly strong in terms of depth. So for our purposes, i.e. the purposes of a team with picks 24, 25, and 38, we can pretty much wholly dispense with the idea that it’s weak.
To put a finer point on it, there’s no excuse for some kind of suboptimal trade out.
We could probably get the Spurs to give us a Zach Collins/Tre Jones package for Bojan and the 24th pick. Gives us a backup PG and a backup C/PF, and we’d still have two picks in the draft.
It’s not sexy, and it locks us in a bit, but we cover all our bases and still get some youth on board.
I still think they are going to use one of our 1st round picks from this year to upgrade the bench with a playmaker/scorer and one to draft someone, perhaps a backup PF they think can work his way into the rotation quickly.
Why would Leon want to pay Zach Collins $16M and $18M over the next two years to be a third string backup C? He seems more like an option you would consider if iHart walks…
It seems like this FO prioritizes two things:
1) maximizing the rotation via non-draft transactions
2) having excess future picks
In that context, I am pretty ambivalent about what they do with this year’s picks. I guess I’m conditioned to accept some draft day disappointment as a sunk cost for the many positive transactions the FO has made, and the cap-killing dead-end blunders they haven’t made. That’s just my personal comfort object, ymmv.
With the 2nd apron looming, it sounds like future draft picks are a preferred place to store value for future transactions. Maybe they are miscalculating the cap/asset implications of using all of their picks, but they just don’t seem to want to store value in rookie-scale salary. I hope that this is the year that there’s a change in that regard, but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if they kicked the can down the road again for one or even all of these picks. I also wouldn’t be surprised if they used all the picks to trade up for a particular player they are targeting.
Quite the opposite. With the 2nd apron looming, being able to get a rotation player late in the draft has become one of the most critical ways to sustain your window of contention. That’s why you saw the Nuggets let Bruce Brown walk last year and trade a nearly unprotected 2029 pick just to grab the 29th and 32nd picks.
Macri again:
More important than any of this salary cap minutiae and discussions of draft pick optimization: Josh and Jalen have come one step closer to revealing the man behind The Fart That (Temporarily) Saved The Knicks’ Season.
https://x.com/Roommates__Show/status/1796640648008777759
“Quite the opposite. With the 2nd apron looming, being able to get a rotation player late in the draft has become one of the most critical ways to sustain your window of contention. That’s why you saw the Nuggets let Bruce Brown walk last year and trade a nearly unprotected 2029 pick just to grab the 29th and 32nd picks.”
Last I checked, Denver is already hard-capped and now well into the second apron. They had no alternative but to pass on retaining a key bench player and to trade a “nearly unprotected pick” 6 years out (you know, the kind that could wind up being in the lottery?) for a shitty first and a second. The first was used to draft Julian Strawther, a 3-year college player who played 500 minutes of suck and 16 garbage time minutes in the playoffs. They use the 32nd pick to land Jalen Pickett, an almost 24yo who played 122 minutes of suck and 11 playoff minutes. They couldn’t get anywher4 near the picks they gave up for both of these scrubs combined. All while their team got exactly as far in the playoffs as we did. Mainly due to lack of depth and cap flexibility. That’s not going to get better.
The Knicks don’t have to do that to improve. They can still add roster pieces via trades, and can use picks to either salary dump if necessary or sign and trade to acquire free agents and still have more picks to make if and when they finally do go over the second apron.
Denver would kill to have the draft pick cache the Knicks have…oh wait, they already killed their 2029 pick!
I sure hope some team offers a top-4 protected 2030 pick for our 25th and 38th pick!
None of this word vomit supports your thesis that future picks have become a good store of value under the new CBA. You’re talking a lot but you’re not saying anything.
We’ve filled a lot of our rotation spots with NBA-ready, cost efficient draft picks: Grimes, IQ, and Obi.
Deuce didn’t quite make the cut on his rookie deal but we were able to re-up on a rookie-esque deal.
I think we’ll make 2 picks. Maybe we spend one on a stash if there’s any decent options.
The fart was clearly Hartenstein.
iFart, if you will.
It didn’t work! They played 23 different guys and won 37 games! Perhaps a lesson to be learned
“being able to get a rotation player late in the draft has become one of the most critical ways to sustain your window of contention.” and storing value for the future are two different things. The first actually creates value because late picks generally don’t give rotation players (see Z-man’s draft results from yesterday and the recent Denver picks referred to above). That doesn’t mean that future picks are better because they are almost always also going to be middle or late first round picks. So, honestly neither option is a “good store of value”. What’s valuable is the skill to make useful picks when the picks aren’t very good.
That said, I am in favor of making at least two of the picks. I am all for creating value. We have almost no young players in the pipeline. The picks are low enough the salary hits should be manageable. I agree with TNFH and have also said before that the draft isn’t weak after the top picks. We should be able to find someone useful.
Djphan, where are you? We could use your draft input.
“None of this word vomit supports your thesis that future picks have become a good store of value under the new CBA. You’re talking a lot but you’re not saying anything.”
Kinda funny that a guy who had made the blog vomit by defending a known irreverant anti-semite and calling for acwuirin the most violent domestic abuser in the NBA would employ the phrase word vomit.
“Djphan, where are you? We could use your draft input.”
His draft input fucking sucked. Stick with the professionals.
You’re in a good mood this morning (evening for you).
If people respond respectfully to me, I’ll be happy to return the favor. Even to dirtbags like Hubert and djphan.
Not to get all Doogie on you, but I believe you need an apostrophe at the end of acwuirin.
okay, so jalen eliminates:
– himself
– josh
– jericho
– julius
that’s a bunch of folks with a J at the beginning of their name…
he further states that the individual whom passed gas was above the height of 6’5″ and is black…
i think that just leaves:
– mitch
– precious
– d’quan
– isaiah
– OG
my first instinct based on the after gas response was precious…
just seems like a low key humor type person, plus he’s from new york, he’s got to be a little funny…
isaiah was on the 2 roommates podcast though and the very first question josh asked was about him having a black dad (said his dad was light skinned, called himself: brightskinned, which was funny)…
I’m still sticking though with my first guess: precious…
Is that not the correct spelling?