Knicks Morning News (2024.07.04)

So we’ll go up to the second apron to get another center looks like.

How? We’re still over the cap and can only use exceptions. We’re not allowed to use our trade exceptions because we’ve hit first apron. The TPMLE is tiny and the FA market is down to dregs. It’s literally re-sign Precious (who, by the way, sucks), sign whoever will take TPMLE peanuts, or minimum signings.

You endorsed OG, huh? With those kinds of friends…

If you read my post, that was evaluating OG as our “superstar consolidation trade,” which he turned out not to be. At the time of that trade we were not close to being one player away, and I was considering using our war chest of picks to acquire him, not RJ + IQ. I disagree with my main whiny bitch comrades that we overpaid for OG, because I see RJ as a negative asset and IQ as part of the price required to be free of him.

Still, I was skeptical of the trade when it happened, because I loved IQ. I did subsequently issue a mea culpa because I underestimated OG’s value and fit.

That said, my concern back then about spending all our assets to lock into the mezzanine was valid, it’s just that we did it because we lost iHart for nothing with no good options to replace him. Even without being hard-capped, that problem isn’t going away, and caps our team at around the same level as last year. Bridges isn’t good enough to offset the loss of iHart and make us a real contender, and now it’s looking like we won’t be until we tear it down and try again.

As I said, Pagliacci is not taken seriously enough to have qualified for criticism.

Something something talk about basketball, not other posters.

I’ve been right on the merits of the big picture. We’re not a real contender and lack the assets/flexibility to become one. It’s slowly sinking in here that this is the case — no one seems to have a convincing argument that we are now a 60-win team or have a realistic pathway to becoming one — but we’re all collectively moving the goal posts so we don’t have to feel shitty about it.

Getting there early makes me unpopular, just as it did with the iHart departure. I get it.

No Pags. You’re unpopular because you are relentlessly downbeat and depressing regardless of events

I’m not! I picked us to win the Pacers series. I am on record as believing our healthy Jan ’24 roster was a real contender, possibly a match for Boston. I expressed excitement about Bridges when it happened because I optimistically believed our FO would never pull the trigger on a move like that unless we knew we had OG sewn up and either iHart returning or a reasonable alternative.

are frequently wrong (not always, but frequently enough to make it feel like you’re trolling).

What’s so bad about being wrong? If I’m really so relentlessly negative, it should be much preferable to me being right!

And then you dance and dance on the grave you’ve dug, until it’s discovered there’s no body, at which point you dig another grave and start dancing again. Or if there is a body, you dance even harder, chanting “I’m right, I’m right, look at me!”

Ok, I concede that’s obnoxious and I shouldn’t do that. I do acknowledge that I am wrong enough often that I’ve no right to crow about it when I’m right. I have only ever meant to do that in a spirit of playful absurdity, but I see that it doesn’t come across that way.

‘Things are the absolute worst they could be at any time’ is a hateful schtick.

I never said they were! We could be in the same position roster/asset wise but with a 35-win ceiling. It’s nice that we’ll at least probably win a playoff round or two in the next couple of years.

But I’ve never seen a 60+ win Knicks team, or a championship run, or an MVP season. What’s wrong with wanting those things, and being disappointed by less?

It’s tiresome, Pags. And most of us are on the knife’s edge these days. We don’t really need you constantly pushing us down onto the blade.

Are y’all? I’ve read the general tone here as fairly upbeat. Why the long faces? Is it the whole “SCOTUS decided Trump is allowed to abuse the power of his office” thing? Biden’s debate debacle (debatcle?)?

I think Pags, E, and Hubie should (affectionately) be known as The Axis of Evil™️ henceforth.

Now this I can get behind. I get to be Mussolini!

Wanting those things – and being disappointed by not getting them – aren’t necessarily related.

It’s not just wanting those things, it’s perceiving that they might actually be in reach for the first time since my childhood. We’ve waited half a lifetime.

Defining a “true championship contender” has some degrees of subjectivity, and perhaps your standard for such is higher right now than the collective of the board here. I say you have a right to your opinion; my one major counter to that is to point out the parity in the current NBA. The Celtics were the best team basically start to finish, but even their fans know they had an easy road to the ring – I know this because i ran into a Celtic fan the other day and he admitted it.

Exactly why it’s so tantalizing! For most of our dark age, a 60-win Knicks team would be fodder for the dynasty/super team du jour. Today I would feel they’re favored vs. BOS because I feel in my bones that that team would crumble if sorely tested.

You want a 60+ win, clear cut title contender with an MVP frontrunner? So do I – and my point is in this day and age, you don’t need to have those things in order to contend for the ring.

But you kinda do! There’s one 60+ win team and they’re like 60% to win the championship next year, then a bunch of also-rans including us with 3-10%. Being a 60-win team now is more valuable than it has ever been.