[Yahoo Sports] – Tue, 09 Jul 2024 02:46:00 GMT
- Jazz seeking at least a first-rounder for Walker Kessler, a Knicks trade target, teams contacting Utah say
- NBA Trade Rumors: Jazz Want 1st-Round Draft Pick for Walker Kessler amid Knicks Buzz
- Knicks have been in touch with Utah about Walker Kessler
- Report: Knicks Set Sights on Jazz, Team USA Star
- As NBA free-agent market dwindles, which center could the Knicks target? – The Athletic
[Bleacher Report] – Mon, 08 Jul 2024 22:30:00 GMT
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- Jalen Brunson is eligible for a contract extension, but should he re-sign or wait?
- How Jalen Brunson, Julius Randle and Mikal Bridges looming contract extensions impact Knicks future cap flexibility
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[sny.tv] – Mon, 08 Jul 2024 15:56:15 GMT
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[Bleacher Report] – Mon, 08 Jul 2024 18:33:45 GMT
NBA Salary Cap 2024-25: Warriors, Knicks, Clippers Among Teams Facing Hard Cap
[New York Post] – Tue, 09 Jul 2024 02:38:00 GMT
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[Posting and Toasting] – Mon, 08 Jul 2024 16:30:00 GMT
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[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel] – Mon, 08 Jul 2024 17:42:18 GMT
- Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart discuss rumor about Knicks’ Tyler Kolek
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[Posting and Toasting] – Mon, 08 Jul 2024 16:31:41 GMT
Who Wore it Best? Knicks #26
[CBS Sports] – Tue, 09 Jul 2024 06:37:00 GMT
Knicks’ Ariel Hukporti: Signs two-way deal with NYK
[Empire Sports Media] – Mon, 08 Jul 2024 18:13:15 GMT
Knicks: Brook Lopez leads list of top-3 trade targets to address backup center position
[Empire Sports Media] – Mon, 08 Jul 2024 15:44:37 GMT
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[FanSided] – Mon, 08 Jul 2024 18:18:59 GMT
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[Empire Sports Media] – Mon, 08 Jul 2024 16:03:37 GMT
Knicks president releases official statement on OG Anunoby’s impact on the franchise
[Sporting News] – Mon, 08 Jul 2024 20:45:23 GMT
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[Empire Sports Media] – Mon, 08 Jul 2024 15:21:46 GMT
Knicks’ Mikal Bridges on Being Traded Again: ‘Once again I got traded I was not a free agent idk
133 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2024.07.09)”
Eddy physically dominated Walker Kessler. In fact embarrassed him.
I don’t think Kessler is that bad, but rather that Edey is that good. All of the stuff he did in the clip linked above were things I expected him to be able to do. He’s so big, he doesn’t have a size disadvantage moving from college to the NBA so his skills translate well. The link doesn’t show Eddy’s 10 rebounds or so either, which is another good part of his game. .
That said, I’m not convinced Kessler is great, but he’s certainly a reasonable backup at the five.
Watched a clip of the US men’s basketball team. KD is taller than Anthiny Davis.
I feel much better about the team with Joel on it. If he were playing for France things would get spicy.
I wouldn’t put too much stock on a dominant SL performance (eg, Knox, Kevin).
GM: Why does everybody in this draft suck?
Stats Guy: What about the 7’3″ behemoth who’s the most dominant college player of the last few decades?
GM: No, no. Definitely not him.
Cybersoze, you have a point but I’m sure we are all going to ignore it as we watch all the new Knicks play summer league. 😊😊
If this was some 3rd rate g-leaguer I’d agree. Kessler is a legit NBA player and excellent defender who we all agree shouldnt even be there. Kessler is big for an NBA center, over 7′ without shoes and has a 9′ 5″ standing reach, yet Edey dwarfs him. Kessler doesn’t even have a chance on a lot of those plays.
Nothing we didn’t know, and yes we shouldn’t crown him a superstar yet, but that’s just about the toughest matchup you’ll ever find in any SL and Edey looked pretty damn good anyway.
I have a concern about this.
Remember when LeBron, Wade, Melo, and co went to the Beijing olympics with Kobe and being around him made them work harder? I fear these guys all taking Embiid under their wing and he actually stops being so damn lazy next year.
On the other hand, he might just blow out his knee, which would be a incredibly cruel but highly satisfying ending to a great Sixers summer.
As someone who is biased and hates Edey — he looked pretty damn good.
I would have drafted Edey over the French guys but I love lumber
Edey is going to physically dominate a lot of NBA centers. There were posters here (including a particular draft junkie) who back in 2022 questioned why a team would squander even a second round draft pick on him. I didn’t get any of the doubt about him then and I think anyone who doubts him now will be proven wrong in the long run.
There is sort of a stealth re-emergence of the Big Man in the modern game. It’s just a more diverse collection. You have the skilled beanpole shot-blockers like Wemby, Chet, Turner, AD and KP ; you have the burly brutes like Embiid, Giannis, Jokic, maybe Ayton; you have the athletic defensive rim runners like Gobert, iHart, Mitch, Allen, Claxton, Kessler; Then you have guys like Ayton and KAT, etc. who are hard to classify because of glaring defensive weaknesses. Throw in Edey, Clingan, Sarr, and some others in this class and you have a lot of teams that can throw lineups with one or more bigs at you without being unplayable against smaller lineups.
Melo & Lebron were 23 & 24, Embiid is 30. I don’t think Embiid is taking mentors at this point in his basketball career.
You’d be hard pressed to find a mamba mentality among this group anyway.
I’m really looking forward to the Edey vs. Wemby matchup. Edey’s got an edge to him and is going to want to make a statement against the most hyped player since LeBron, while Wemby will relish the challenge of facing a guy with a similar height and wingspan. Does Edey have enough speed and agility to keep up? He definitely has the stamina.
Z-man that was a good breakdown on the state of the NBA big man. I also think that’s the first time someone’s described Ayton as “a brute”, lol.
Ayton’s an enormous dude, but he just might be better at shooting jumpers.
Yeah, Ayton is sort of an anomaly…not a stretch big, not a rim protector, but still has a niche…maybe he belongs with guys like Vucevic and Sengun….guys with skills and size but whose games seem not perfect fits with today’s NBA.
In a way, iHart is also hard to classify, which is why Presti felt he was worth the money.
Collier also had himself a nice game: 12/6/6 with 3stls in 25min
Mr. Cult Girlfriend with the 0pt 0-4 line
Kessler still ends up with 2 steals & 3 blocks
Summer league is all about showing a superior or multiple transferable skills and a minimum acceptable athleticism.
Eddy has a bunch of skills.
Kessler at 22 would be an excellent bench big. In line with what I posted above, I think you need the ability to have 7′-plus defensive size on the floor at all times. This is especially true when your PF is 6’9″ (Randle), 6’8″ (OG) or 6’5″ (Hart).
I’m hoping that Hukporti can work his way into the conversation. It’s certainly rational to think that his draft stock was depressed by his achilles injury.
One prominent guy I left out of the bigs spiel is Bam Adebayo. He’s almost in a class by himself.
One further note: I think there’s an excellent chance that the Blazers are going to rue picking Clingan over Edey.
If we are serious about a title run this year, imo we need a higher than average quality backup C for our playoff run.
When you go into a season with a starting C you expect to remain healthy and play maybe 70 games you can have a lower quality backup C. When it feels like even money your starting C is going to wind up with more serious issues and will miss a lot of games and possibly playoffs, you need a higher quality backup.
We need someone that can step in, be comfortable starting, protect the paint at a high level, score efficiently on an occasional lob or put back and not get abused defensively in the P&R. Anything he can do above that is gravy.
The Mitch injury issues are what made I-Hart so critical. Of course he wound up being very good, but it was strategically correct to focus on having a higher than average quality backup at that position.
I don’t know Kessler’s game well enough, but just looking at the stat sheet I think he’ll be OK. He’s also young enough to get a lot better, especially under Thibs
The rumor is it will take a 1st rounder.
We have the assets to work something out given we also have a ton of 2nd rounders. Unless they have a better idea or are willing to wait to the deadline to revisit this, this looks like it will have to be done.
We are not retiring Obi’s number, it seems:
https://x.com/nyknicks/status/1810686428507955427
(Related, which is the cooler combo of name and uniform number: Obi-1, or Knecht-4?)
Knecht wins by default because Obi doesn’t appear on the back of the jersey
Isn’t it kind of interesting that no one has signed Paul Reed yet? Is he holding out for more money than he’s being offered, or is there just a lack of interest?
Sorry for the troll job, Z, but didn’t you essentially say teams would rue passing on Kessler in the 2022 draft but now you’re calling him an “excellent bench big”?
I wouldn’t give up any assets for a backup C. We can “make a run” with Mitch and Precious or Mitch and Reed.
To actually win, we’ll need one of two things:
a) a starting center who is effective on two sides of the ball
b) the small lineups to be actual Death Lineups.
I feel more optimistic about B than finding A.
Michael Scotto @MikeAScotto
The New York Knicks are among the teams who’ve expressed interest in signing free agent Davis Bertans, league sources told @hoopshype. Bertans has shot 39.6% from 3-point range in his career and played for Latvia in the FIBA Olympics Qualifying Tournament. pic.twitter.com/sx52VrKb1m
Sometimes it kills me that Derrick Lively is exactly the player we need right now and Dallas tanked their way into him.
“Sorry for the troll job, Z, but didn’t you essentially say teams would rue passing on Kessler in the 2022 draft but now you’re calling him an “excellent bench big”?”
I don’t see any contradiction here. To me, the very definition of “excellent bench big” is that he has the potential to be much more than that. Isaiah Hartenstein was an excellent bench big when we acquired him. I see Kessler as having that same kind of potential…although with less likelihood of reaching it to the degree that iHart has.
As to that draft, where do you think Kessler would go in a re-draft? His 2nd in BPM and 3rd in VORP of all the players from that draft and is still younger than a bunch of guys drafted this year. The only question is how close he is to his ceiling. I think he can develop quite a bit further.
If Bertans would accept a likely non-rotation role on a vet’s minimum deal, I’d be all for acquiring him. He’s only 31 and might be a good The Dream That Was Once Bojan replacement.
Bertans has played some small-ball center. Not well, but he has literally done it.
…I hope this does not come to pass. Dude has been washed for years. I mean, of course you could do worse with a deep bench spot but I wouldn’t consider him “depth” in all but the most perfunctory sense.
I think Reed got waived at a time when most teams were already done filling out their rosters, or at least done filling out the heavy-rotation spots. If he wants to play 1,000+ minutes again his options are pretty limited.
Exactly, but we never would have picked Lively.
Forget Bertans. He’s a chair on defense. Unless we want him as a back of the bench “in emergency break glass” player, he’s not going to cut it for Thibs.
If Edey can quickly develop into a Steven Adams with better rim protection and offensive production (that’s how I see his first couple of years going) then Memphis all of a sudden becomes a very interesting team.
That’s the thing.
Kessler would NOT be a backup C anymore than I-Hart was.
First, he’s probably going to get 20+ minutes a night.
Second, the assumption almost has to be that Mitch is going to get hurt and with someone like Precious starting, we are not going to be able make a serious run this year. That may also be true of any subsequent years of our window with Mitch always down.
I like Mitch and think we’d be fine with him IF he stayed healthy and 100%, but I’m not risking this year and any window we have on Mitch’s health. That’s way too big a risk.
It is what it is.
If we want to make a run and be confident we need a legit starting C not named Mitch.
If Mitch winds up being healthy over the next couple of years we can always trade an underutilized starting caliber C in his early 20s later.
This I agree with, with one caveat: maybe the small ball lineup works.
There are so many Randle-at-the-5 Haters that we’ve just kind of written it off without seeing it.
Five-out with Brunson and Randle at the 1/5 surrounded by Donte, Mikal, and OG strikes me as a nightmare for anyone to defend.
I get the defensive limitations but that’s what Thibs is for.
I wonder if Leon & Co. are thinking that there be a more prominent veteran backup C available either for a couple of seconds or off the waiver wire between now and the trade deadline. With the current apron penalties, it’s possible that teams have to dump salary before offseason 2025 kicks around.
One team to keep an eye on is Portland. They have Clingan and Ayton, plus Reath as a viable backup. If RWIII comes back, that seems like one too many on the roster.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see a closing lineup of Brunson-OG-Randle-Mikal-(one of DDV or Hart) in many close games.
I think there’s an argument that the JB-DDV-Mikal-OG-Mitch lineup would be better overall than the JB-DDV-Mikal-OG-Randle lineup. You still have excellent spacing on offense, but then in addition to a good defensive center you can let OG play safety, where he excels.
Too bad RJ’s Canadian.
I’m going to Stan for Mitch for a second and just say that I think he can start on a championship contender. The injuries are obviously an issue, though, and I sort of agree with Hubert that the backup plan could be well-timed small-ball lineups with OG defending the 5 if necessary. I still think it would be smart to grab a nimble, Jack-of-all-trades-type big to back up Mitch, and maybe Precious is that guy, idk. In short, I guess I’m willing to at least give Mitch this year (or to the deadline if things fall apart) before really sounding the alarm on the center position.
ess, I agree that a healthy Mitch makes the anxiety over the C position less of a thing. And honestly, the only thing that concerns me about Mitch’s health right now is the current ankle/foot/lower leg thing that he’s been dealing with. It seems that the surgical repair was either ineffective in correcting the issue to the point that it is a chronic issue that is bound to become re-aggravated as it did after a few playoff games, i.e. that “3-4 month” surgery is not able to correct the underlying chronic issue, or that it needed an unforeseen revision that will “permanently” correct the issue. Until we have a definitive answer for that (and we won’t until well into the season) I think Leon has to assume the worst (that it is either a lingering issue, possibly a permanent one) and hope for the best (that after maybe some initial scar tissue stuff he’s as good as new.) So fishing for a top-shelf reserve at a bargain price is imperative.
More generally, we also have injury concerns with Randle and OG. Shoulders are tricky, and Randle is now more prone to them no matter what they did surgically. OG has elbow, knee, and hamstring concerns.
The good news is that all of these guys are relatively young and resilient, and none of the injuries seem to be degenerative, i.e. as with Amare’s knees. But of all of them, Mitch’s foot worries me the most.
You don’t, though. There simply is no excellent spacing with Mitch, even with 4 shooters, because he poses no threat after a screen or handoff..
I definitely think we should try to run small ball just to get our best players on the floor as often as possible. But there’s a lot of non-Mitch minutes to fill.
Total C min: 3936
Mitch most min: 1848
Randle most min: 2737
That leaves Randle 649 minutes at PF. I don’t know what the ideal minutes distribution would be for Randle, but something like 1000 – 1400 more minutes at PF than that. This leaves 1649 – 2049 C minutes assuming Mitch & Randle have their healthiest season ever. If Randle at C fails, we should expect at least 2000min at C to be open.
In other words our C is getting starter minutes and, if their health holds, more minutes than Mitch. Unless we want to commit to Randle at C full-time, we should shell out for a starting caliber C. Effectively, our #2 is our regular season starting C.
He can certainly be the Andrew Bogut or Kevon Looney that starts and plays 18-20 minutes but makes way for your team’s ultimate lineup.
That still brings us back to this:
The issue isn’t that Mitch can’t start. It’s that he can’t be part of your ultimate 5-man unit. The free throw problems alone disqualify him.
I think we have the personnel for a phenomenal “death” lineup. It’s Brunson DDV Mikal OG Randle.
It will be interesting to see how often and in what situations Thibs goes with the all-Nova death lineup of Brunson-DDV-Bridges Hart-(one of Randle/OG/Mitch).
It’s impressive how quickly the Cooper Flagg hype train has gone hypersonic.
Interested to see what he does at Duke
Now Utah is talking TWO 1st rounders!
Fvck Ainge
Reports of our death lineup seem to me to be greatly exaggerated.
If Randle plays the 5, we have no rim protector and only 4 shooters.
If OG plays the 5, we have no rebounding unless Hart plays.
If Hart plays, we can’t have 5 shooters.
There isn’t any combination that has 5 solid shooters and doesn’t get killed defensively or on the boards.
We need Mitch to be healthy, and to reverse what seems to be a terminal decline in his offensive game.
Hart is a good enough shooter to be the PF in a five out lineup. He shot .373 from 3PT in the playoffs last year, and the .310 he shot last year in the regular season is an outlier if you look at his entire career.
You don’t need five Larry Birds out there to play five out effectively.
I don’t know what lineup you think we’re talking about but playing OG at the 5 and Randle at the 4 solves these problems.
Euros lit right now. A 16 year old just scored the goal of the tournament
I still think you need another capable 5 who can start occasionally and not embarrass himself, because Mitch will miss time. Then you at least have the option of NOT playing small ball if it’s not working.
Yeah. Best start to a game all tourney
I don’t want Kessler. His price will be too high and I’d rather just roll the dice with Precious if necessary.
I am still very much on the Paul Reed train but if we miss out on him I would be okay with just bringing back Precious and going with Mitch/Precious/Sims/Hukporti.
If that happens what about using our TPMLE on Bey. He seems to be the odd man out this off-season and he might be available at a bargain. He would be another capable forward and would allow us more non-center options since he can play the 4. Opening up more minutes for OG or Randle to be our 5.
I also think Garuba could be worth a flyer on a minimum contract.
Killed is a bit strong, but I agree those wouldn’t be our strengths.
We could be the Denver Nuggets on offense with the ball in Brunson’s hands surrounded by Donte, Bridges, OG, and Randle. They figured out how to play enough defense without a rim protector. I think we could, too.
Rebounding strikes me as a pretty simple thing to game during a playoff series. The Pacers and Sixers were two of the worst rebounding teams in the NBA, and we owned both of them on the boards for a couple games. But both teams turned it around with nothing but effort. By the end of both series, Philly and Indiana were winning the rebounding battle. Indiana decisively so.
Hart’s playoff run was 1) an outlier and 2) a result of him being completely ignored and left wide open, which is how he’s been defended for the past year.
A shooter can’t help your spacing if he isn’t guarded, and if he can only shoot .310 on all wide open shots he isn’t gonna be guarded.
Randle is an even worse shooter than Hart for his career, way below league average in 9/10 seasons. If we’re can only go 4-out we may as well play Mitch.
How does that make us in any way like the Nuggets? We don’t even have Black Jokic anymore. 🙁
The Denver Nuggets on offense are defined by the Denver Nuggets having the GOAT offensive player (yes, fight me if you disagree). Your defense doesn’t have to be as good when you have that.
Randle, being a poor shooter and inefficient scorer, is woefully miscast as our Jokic.
seems most scoring power forwards don’t really want to play the five…
I don’t really anticipate seeing julius spending a lot of time at the five…
Obviously Jalen Brunson, not Julius Randle, would be the orchestrator. He’s quite good.
Pistons are claiming Paul Reed off the waiver wire.
Ah shit, it didn’t occur to me that Reed hadn’t cleared waivers. Makes sense for a team with cap space to just claim him like Detroit just did.
Was a fun few days of thinking we had our next iHart, kinda, sorta. Back to the drawing boad.
I truly don’t get the benefits of our smallball
Theoretically it would be not having to play a big who sucks
The Knicks had a top offense two seasons ago with Mitch playing most C minutes and RJ starting almost every game.
It’s not far fetched to think they would be a top offense while replacing RJ and Grimes for OG and Mikal (let’s say DDV and IQ are a wash as a 6th man).
Hart has shot .344 from 3PT in his career and that includes his career worst season this year. 3PT+ for his career is 95, not great but not awful for the fifth best shooter in a five out lineup.
Draymond’s career 3PT+ is 89.
Necessity will always have my vote and my respect.
But the Desire to go small should come with actual benefits.
Otherwise it’s just style and trend.
Perhaps you’ve heard of this team the Golden State Warriors. They played five out (also known as small ball) quite effectively.
Now I think definitely resign Precious and use our TPMLE to grab Bey. Then Garuba and Bertans on minimum contracts. If Bey is unavailable maybe use it on Walker IV or Dinwiddie.
Perhaps you missed the “our” before smallball…
I still think we need to move Randle at some point. He can’t really man the 5 defensively and his lack of a consistent 3pt shot negates much of the offensive benefits going small would bring. In fact, his inconsistency both on defense and from deep limits much of his value when you are not relying on his offensive creation to make up the difference.
Plus he’s going to need to get paid soon and does not seem worth putting us into 2nd apron hell.
I’m pretty excited the pistons are attempting to be mediocre
Skapintsev is back for summer league.
As long as I’ve seen smallball is successful when you have either Top shooters or Fastbreak cheetahs or both and we lack both.
These Knicks going smallball is like putting your well trained angry rabbit against pitbulls on doggorabbit fights!
There’s a reason why bball players are usually tall.
I understand smallball lineups as a tactical weapon against some specific lineups/opponents, flexibility is a very good thing (maybe not so much with Thibs) and our team with Mikal, OG and J-Hart has plenty of it.
You could always go smallball against the Warriors for instance, but at the same time I can’t see it working on defense, with Randle at 5, against Boston (KP/Horford), Denver (Joker/Gordon/MPJ), Milwaukee (Giannis/Lopez/Portis), Philly (Embiid), Minnesota (Gobert/KAT/McDaniels), Cleveland (Mobley/Allen), probably Indiana (Turner/Siakam) and maybe I’m missing some (SA with Wemby? Memphis with JJJ and Edey?).
Anyway we’re not replacing our backup center, we’re replacing our starter with our former starter who’s known for his injury issues.
We need someone who can play at least 15-20 minutes a game without killing us when Mitch play and 28-30 minutes when Mitch is out, it’s not an easy task and no, Precious isn’t the answer (nor is the new Piston Paul Reed).
If we don’t get a player like that we should count on the new and improved “Bearded Thibs” to embrace creativity and forget rim protection much more than he has ever done before.
P.S. For instance, Bobby Portis isn’t a better player than Randle, but he would be more useful than Julius as a smallball-5.
I mostly agree about Randle— if you could exchange his shot creation for another shot creator with a more diverse offensive profile that would be great. But you can’t just move him without replacing the shot creation.
We’re well set up in that department if we ever get to full strength health-wise: Brunson as the main creator, Randle in the frontcourt as secondary creator, Mikal on the wing as tertiary creator. That’s a good amount of shot creation in the starting lineup.
The lack of a second reliable shot creator after Randle’s injury made us tough to watch at times in the playoffs though. Randle’s ability to create a shot IS valuable.
I like Precious, but imo he’s not the answer.
I’m not sure Kessler is either. I’d have to see more.
If we haven’t done something after a couple of summer league games (scouting Kessler and the Knicks draft picks etc.. could be a reason for the delay) I’m going to be reduced to hoping Bridges proves he can be the second option behind Brunson with Randle off the court and then trading Randle at the deadline for a legit starting C and upgrade over Mitch.
That’s not an issue if the Knicks trade for Towns at the deadline.
I’m not 100% convinced that Towns doesn’t eventually find his way to NY for Randle and Robinson in salary and whatever else needs to be done in terms of pick value and trade rules to make it work.
Then we are Towns, OG, Bridges, DDV, Brunson. That’s a monster offensive lineup, clear cut 5 out to rival Boston and solid enough perimeter defense.
But why would Minnesota put Towns on the trading block?
I’ve been arguing that Mitch and Randle are not a good combination for years. The problem was diminished when we went from Payton to Brunson and then a lot more when we traded RJ for OG, but it’s still a bit of an issue (It was also less of an issue with I-Hart and Randle).
Trading Mitch made more sense when we had I-Hart. Now that we don’t, imo trading Randle should be up for debate again.
The thing is, if we trade Randle either the C we get back has to be a versatile scorer that create a bit or we have to be sure that Mikal can handle the job. We don’t want to leave ourselves in a position where we have our C, but now we don’t have enough shot creation without Randle.
Towns could be the long term answer to everything.
The one that finished 14th out of 16 teams in the playoffs and averaged 100 ppg on 49% eFG?
Let’s never try that one again.
Unfortunately, trading Mitch and Randle for Towns makes zero sense for Minny. They are flat out not doing that trade, and we have nowhere near enough assets to attach to make it possible.
Money and the fit next to Gobert? That Gobert/Towns combo may have worked way better than I and many others expected last year, but I still don’t think it’s ideal. I don’t want to burn even one brain cell trying to understand the new CBA, but if we can save them money somehow we might pry him away.
That Knick team that lost to the Heat heavily relied on possession dominance: never turning the ball over and grabbing every offensive rebound. We weren’t great at throwing it in the basket, but we sure were good at holding onto possessions. When we eventually ran into a team that was great at creating turnovers, the offense struggled badly.
We’re really not that kind of team anymore. We have WAY more shooting. This year, for the first time in forever, we should actually have a pretty good offensive eFG%.
I threw that out there just to say it’s possible, but we could include players they actually want, including players we just drafted, swaps etc… That’s where we get into the point I was making about the NOVA boys yesterday or the day before. If they are all off limits, it makes making a trade tougher.
Honestly from what I saw in the playoffs the Knicks look like they can run if they want.
Are we doing 11 game samples now? Jesus. Also, are you referring to the postseason when Randle was hurt, IQ was terrible and then hurt, and RJ existed on the team? Yes, I’m pretty sure they can be better than that.
Which is why we should never try that strategy again. It was a gimmick offense. The wildcat of basketball. Easily figured out and utterly ineffective in the playoffs.
1. Unclogging the lane for Jalen Brunson
2. Preventing Jalen Brunson from being trapped every time he calls his center forward for a pick
Unclogging the lane for a 32,4 ppg playoffs scorer?
How about Defensive Rebounds?
A big reason he scored 32.4 ppg is bc he had a dangerous screener and three other options who could either shoot or drive.
We’re not sitting here thinking “hey, how can we make this team shorter.” The idea is simply to preserve that setup since it was devastatingly effective.
It’s only small ball as a consequence of having no bigs on the roster who can do anything with the basketball after they set a screen for Brunson.
For 200 million, OG or Ingram?
Video here: https://x.com/NBA_NewYork/status/1810821715951231160
Boston: Floor spacers neutralize our drop defense anyways
Denver: OG defends Jokic
MIL: See Boston.
Philly: OG
IND: See Boston.
Spurs: Is putting a big on Wemby actually better than a wing?
dangerous screener/rebounder you mean
So if you have bigs who are limited offensively you prefer going smallball and religious on Defense?
Both options leave something to be desired and that is our — dare I shake the hornets’ nest? — predicament.
What I’d like to do is spend the first 3 months of the season trying both liberally and then making a decision after 50 games of data.
The interest in getting Towns may be real but the assets to get him are not, so we may as well forget about it.
(1) Smallball lets us play our 5 best players
(2) Our Cs behind Mitch kinda suck
(3) We have a talented defensive wings who can cover for no C and run switch
(4) A spread Brunson/Randle PnR could be devastating
(5) Drag opposing Cs to the perimeter with a shooter or force them to guard Randle on the perimeter
The way i see it is that If you don’t want offensively limited Cs you simply don’t get them. And we Do get em. In bunches.
For a very well known reason.
That brought us here.
To contending.
“D”
And who doesn’t like good D
Point is, our hand is probably going to be forced a little bit because of the lack of quality bigs. You can play a traditional lineup where you play Jericho Sims, who is terrible at basketball, or you could attempt to play small ball and play five guys who are actually competent at playing basketball. If it doesn’t work, stick Jericho Sims back in there. But it’ll probably work better than playing Jericho Sims.
A great example of a heavy D smallball team going “gangbang in the paint” mode were the bubble finals where AD raped the Heat wo any resistance.
It was orkas playing with penguins and seals…
If you ve seen that you just know…
Actually, ditching that made us a contender.
#Actually, ditching that made us a contender.#
What do you mean?
Sorry for the fact that the heat is making me slow and stupid, but in the pnr wasn’t there once a play where the picker, um, rolls to the basket and dunks the ball? I seem to recall Mitch doing that once or twice before everyone stopped throwing him lobs.
.
Hartenstein broke the Mitch/Noel mold.
Yeah, here’s where he did it. But I guess it can only work when RJ Barrett is the other guy. Too bad.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FjYE5whLzA4
I see you KYN. The rape part is a little mucg though. Heavy D and gangbang I get it. I truly get it.
#Hartenstein broke the Mitch/Noel mold.#
Hartenstein didn’t make us contenders
And you also don’t call him Unlimited offensively!
Excuse my aggressive language CB but i watched these Finals closely and still remember the Heat’s…pain
The fact that i lost my interest to watch the last two Finals series while otoh i can’t wait for the Summer League is a bit concerning but what can you do…?
“A great example of a heavy D smallball team going “gangbang in the paint” mode were the bubble finals where AD raped the Heat wo any resistance.”
Yeah, that was more than a little bit offensive. But I’ve been forgiven, so I forgive you, too. (Although I highly doubt that you care in the least whether or not I forgive you. 🙂 )
Go to Jacob Riis and work under an umbrella watching the boys stroll by. Every once in. A while take a break and play beach paddle with your hubby and impress the boys with your surprisingly fit forty five year old body so that some hot guy comes over and wants to get to know you and then pretend to have a work email while your husband chats with him and go on knickerblogger to make sure the status quo is still fashionable then turn around and say whew disaster averted and then say now where were we do you wanna smack some balls around with us and then rinse and repeat until we get us some real news.
Yeah, I think I’ll do exactly none of that. Like, ever. But you go ahead if that’s your thing.
I like grape nuts for breakfast too.
Playing Isaiah more definitely seemed to help. So did ditching RJ and getting OG. But we have a different team next year, so maybe we’ll be a contender in a different way.
(Although I highly doubt that you care in the least whether or not I forgive you. 🙂 )
I care because you do
🙂
We have a wildly different team than any we’ve ever had the pleasure of rooting for. Also wildly different than any thibs has had the pleasure of coaching. We are most certainly contenders as kp is not healthy and healing is no sure thing. The bucks suck. Embiid is a liability and the west is a slaughterhouse.
Fuck these fucking lantern flies
Lightning bugs or fireflies, please.
All of these questions are interesting. I’m expecting to see lots of experimenting in the first couple of months. Sort of like there was when Kemba and Fournier were acquired. Then Thibs will probably settle into a 9-player rotation with very limited experimentation after that, unless his hand is forced by injury.
That said, I think Thibs will be more flexible with both situational and closing lineups than in some years. He currently has 7 rotation players that have at least 5 years in the league, plus Deuce. If Precious is on board, he’s going into his 5th year. Deuce is going into year 4. So while it is a young team, there are no players still on rookie deals in the rotation other than Deuce. So there are really no Obi’s or IQ’s or Grimes’ to squeeze out of deference to vets.
The key guy in terms of flexibility is Josh Hart. Obviously Thibs just adores him, and he seemed to be on the floor a ton in closing lineups since he arrived. However, it is pretty clear now that he is not a starter. So I am very curious whether Thibs will bench one of the starters so that Hart is on the floor. My initial guess is that Hart will sort of platoon with Mitch in situational big vs. small lineups until Thibs gets some data.
Then there’s DDV, both specifically and as part of the Nova death lineup. If all four of those guys are on the floor, that means that only one of OG, Randle or Mitch can be the fifth guy. In that sense, I don’t see DDV purely as Mikal’s backup because Mikal is easily big enough to play SF and long enough to play some small-ball PF.
There’s just so much to play with that it will be really interesting to see whose minutes gets squeezed the most. With a healthy Mitch, it is almost impossible to guess.
Actually lanternflies are an invasive species that feed on a variety of plants with a favoring toward Ailanthus, which is the scrubby little tree you see in vacant lots, also an Asian invasive.
Fireflies or lightning bugs are carnivorous, but only on other small invertebrates. The males flash via bioluminescence using a chemical delightfully called luciferin to ‘call’ for females, who loll about on the ground eating bonbons and watching the sky. They are native to the US east of the Rockies (not in CA, OR, or WA, sadly), and in my opinion are one of the very best things about an east coast early summer evening, just as things get dark.
So not sure what’s bugging you, Clarence, but if I were a betting man I’d bet neither of these.
I don’t know what Doogie is talking about but there are lantern flies everywhere in my neighbor hood and I hate taking a life without cause so I can’t squish em even though I know I’m not supposed to.
“…….I hate taking a life without cause so I can’t squish em even though I know I’m not supposed to.”
If you can’t squish them *and* you know that you’re not supposed to, then aren’t you doing what you want? You wrote it as if you’re regretting something.
I visit daily for the wisdom of ptmilo but I stay for the raven 😉
Get healthy, Mitch!
nice thread…
went to Costco out here at around 5:30pm…the utter humanity…
so we play Saturday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday…nice…
I mistyped. You’re supposed to kill em but that’s cuz they’re invasive but I dunno it still feels like an unjust killing
Can we extend Randle for a salary to match Towns and then trade him + a few picks straight up for Towns? Then ride or die hard capped with that team for the next 5 years?
Please never make a comparison like this again: “sort of like there was when Kemba and Fournier were acquired”. Even though I “sort of” get it, it’s a buzz kill.
Don’t know what MUGC means, I know I agree w Beeks. But also don’t think there was ill intent.
I’m going to post question one again in the chat tomorrow assuming no answer, so apologies in advance.
I don’t think it is worth posting responses to correct obvious typos where you can figure out the intent based on an average intellect.