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105 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.01.02)”
Funny to read the Hart trade thread Aten posted last night in light of everything that happened after and how well he is playing this year.
Z-Man – that Clarkson comment was solid gold
The Hart trade is definitely my biggest miss. I greatly underestimated him.
He was having the worst season of his career when we acquired him from Portland, though. And a pending free agent wing shooting 30% from three usually doesn’t fetch a first on the trade market, and probably could have been had for less.
Hard to quibble about the process given the result. it has undoubtedly been a great trade, a tremendous feather in Leon’s cap, and my biggest mistake on the blog.
Now someone pull the “we should trade everything we have for Joel Embiid” thread from the summer of ‘23 so I can read some of y’all’s greatest misses 😉
I was only able to watch the game sporadically, and it seemed like every time I had it on, Payne was in. How did Kolek look? Especially after playing an overtime game earlier in the day at westchester?
I thought Kolek was good, he was a bit shy about shooting, only took 2 shots, but he kept the offense running pretty well, a lot of movement.
He had some nice drives but since he’s not a real threat to finish inside he mostly recycled the ball after getting into the paint, he really needs to develop some floater or something that allows him to be a bigger threat when he dribbles inside, a better defensive team would probably just lock him up on those drives.
There’s a lot to like about how he plays, but it’s also clear he still needs developing.
Kolek looked great running the offense. I didn’t notice any breakdowns on the defensive end either. Considering he played 40 minutes earlier in the day, I’d give him an A. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the rotation as early as next year.
Kolek is more in the mold of a “classic” PG (think Prigioni or Calderon), the offense did look well organized with him at the helm and I hope he gets more burn with the starters in the future.
I think he has a couple of moves to shoot midrange (we saw it in the SL) but I agree with Bruno, he was a bit reluctant to shoot, I think both for a matter of respect and because he knew Thibs has a short leash.
He’s smart, works hard and needs NBA seasoning but to me his floor is competent backup (I hope for more but for a second rounder everything beyond that would be gravy).
I thought Kolek was running some very good P&Rs. He had good understanding with KAT, and hit him on a roll in traffic that was pretty great.
Still looks like a little kid to me in highlights but he has certainly got some skills
The biggest problem with Kolek is that we may eventually have a Quickley or Tyrus Jones situation where he wants to start. That may be 2-3 years away, but imo he has high level PG skills, can shoot, has a high basketball IQ and supposedly has a strong work. He’s going to get quite a bit better. The only thing that can stop him from being a starter is defense.
“The only thing that can stop him from being a starter is defense.”
And, you know, the MVP candidate starting in front of him.
But I do like what I’ve seen with Kolek. I could squint and see a world where he becomes a starter somewhere, but perhaps being a perfectly cromulent back-up to Jalen could be a great way to start his career.
Even if he makes me mad ofter, I also want to give some kudos to Precious.
While the flaws are evident (bad hands, low BB-IQ, frequent inability to box out, occasional naps in set defense) he’s a competent backup PF*, especially on athletic/energy plays, and it’s clear he’s working hard on his outside shooting.
* He’s undersized at C and his flaws are more exposed there.
I am not sure Kolek will ever be a passable enough defender to start.
you guys say cromulent a LOT
Why wouldn’t we? It’s a perfectly cromulent word, and it’s listed in both Merriam-Webster and the OED. (Online versions, at least.)
“The Bulls lost by 18 to the Wizards?? They should be disqualified from the play in”
Let’s stay humble and be careful with statements like this, please. We didn’t have to deal with Jordan Poole in either game, and if he had played in the game against us that went into OT, let’s be real: there could have easily been a different result. He went off for 30 in his first game back.
“Doogie, take Filipowski off your list…”
I kind of disagree a little bit. I think that 6 rebounds and a block in 11 minutes of play could be useful. We’re only trying to “tinker a little bit on the edges” here, not make any huge deals that change the overall composition of the team. We’re already very good, and we’re basically just trying to add a bench player.
Whether Thibs would play *any* of the guys we’ve discussed is a whole ‘nother conversation, though. That aspect makes acquiring a rookie a little bit more difficult, but it also makes it cheaper with more upside.
‘Cromulent first appeared in the February 18, 1996 episode of The Simpsons called “Lisa the Iconoclast,” in what could be considered a throw-away line given during the opening credits. The schoolchildren of Springfield are watching a film about the founding father of Springfield, Jebediah Springfield. The film ends with Jebediah intoning, “A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.” One teacher at the back of the room leans over to another and says that she’d never heard the word embiggen before she moved to Springfield. “I don’t know why,” the other teacher replies. “It’s a perfectly cromulent word.”
cromulent sounds a lot like croissant…
it’s early out here…I must be hungry…
big win last night without jalen, really glad he got to rest, hope he’s okay for friday…
“big win last night without jalen, really glad he got to rest, hope he’s okay for friday…”
Jalen was OK to play last night—he was just getting some rest ahead of the upcoming much tougher game. (Maybe Thibs is finally getting it?)
I’d worry more about whether or not Deuce is going to play. His injury was more “real.”
Lottery protection really takes a lot of the shine off “a first,” though, and even with the bad half-season 3PT%, he was still doing all the usual Josh Hart things. I’m mostly happy with where I came out on it ex-ante.
In hindsight, I mean, holy shit, it’s one of the better trades we’ve made in my life. Hart has absolutely been all-star caliber this year. He won’t make the actual game because he’s simply not the kind of player who tends to make the actual game, but 14.5/8.8/5.7/1.5 with a .675 TS% is a bonkers line, and while his 3PT% is definitely up, he’s juicing his efficiency the hard way–hitting all of his shots at the rim.
I don’t know where we’d be without that trade but I’m glad I don’t have to care.
That’s why I said it could eventually become a problem. He’s not going to be a starter in NY with Brunson here, but if he develops his skills over the next 2-3 years like I suspect, he’s eventually going to become a starter caliber player. At that point he may want to leave or we won’t be able to afford him similar to Quickley (even though they have different skill sets)
Funny, I was reading about it just the other day.
A word born to be used in a joke about “fake” words is now used daily with a whole different meaning.
The power of pop culture or just another example of humanity running to its well deserved extinction? 😀
WAY too much weight was being put on Hart’s bad 3p% the year we made the trade. 3p% is volatile. Unless you have a very good reason to think a player is getting better or worse (like a young player developing or an old player declining), you are probably better off looking at career average 3p% (or last few years) with some subjective analysis for development, types of shots he’s taking etc.. over time.
We didn’t trade for Hart for his 3p% anyway. We traded for him because he’s a plus player in so many other ways at his position. All we ever needed from him was to hit 3s at his career rate. Anything we get above that in any year is gravy.
That’s what Cuban said about Brunson. 😉
I don’t think Kolek has Brunson caliber upside on offense, but I think he can learn to defend smarter and maybe take a few charges.
All words are fake, but some, through their cromulence, persist.
I definitely like what I’ve seen from Kolek in minuscule samples but I’m a very long way away from worrying that he won’t want to stay here when he’s a free agent in 2027 or 2028.
Also, Cam Payne might’ve been the best minimum signing in the NBA this past offseason. I don’t understand any agita expressed about the guy. No shit he’s not a playoff caliber starting point guard, hence him being available for the minimum, but he’s been everything we could’ve hoped for as a backup. Last night he was an ideal innings eater with Brunson on the mend.
It’s very possible that Kolek becomes a valuable trade chip if/when we need to make a move for a wing or big. His ceiling here seems to be 12-to-15-minute backup to Brunson. I can’t see them ever working together as a backcourt tandem.
Yes, Payne was a bargain, but I doubt we’ll be able to keep him beyond this year.
I didn’t comment in that Hart trade thread, but my name was invoked by another poster thusly:
I responded the next day with:
As to my assessment of Hart:
”
Oof. Shams:
While he still has to improve on both ends to be a legit NBA rotation player, betting against Kolek seems like a bad idea, maybe not Brunson-level bad, but along those lines.
He has an athletic ceiling for sure, but it’s not that low that he can’t make up for it in other ways.
In watching him closely yesterday, I was extremely impressed with his mental approach to the game. He reads, anticipates, and reacts on a very high level, and his court vision may be even better than Brunson’s. The kid sees passing windows in traffic that only the truly elite passers see.
Like a rookie Brunson, he knows who he is and who he isn’t, and knows what he needs to work on. He does everything he is currently capable of doing extremely well…driving left with a variety of ways to create space in traffic even though everyone knows what is coming, running the PnR, puling up for 3, making passes from 84 feet down to 1…so now it’s just a matter of refining and expanding other parts of his game…particularly going right.
On defense, he’s a liability for sure, but he reads the floor well and can be disruptive in passing lanes and off the ball. He’s physically pretty tough and sticks his nose in there. He’s not Trae Young-level bad, and can probably eventually become something like Brunson-level opportunistic but vulnerable.
I think his absolute floor is solid backup PG. The question is: what is his ceiling? I think it is something between solid starting PG and best backup PG in the NBA.
Awful news about Ivey. Hopefully it’s just a long bone injury not involving the joint areas, my understanding is that those tend to heal very well if there aren’t complicating soft-tissue injuries.
“and we still have the DAL pick which is likely to convey in the same range as the pick we just traded. ”
If it were me, and it was my comment, and I reposted it, a good possibility this part would have disappeared (who is going to check?). But I was an investment banker rather than a school principal…
I’m still a little pissed at Dallas for tanking us out of our pick. How perfect would Lively be on this team?
Amusingly, Cuban followed me on Bluesky until I posted something about Josh Hart.
The player I see the most when I watch Kolek is definitely Beno Udrih. I know, sort of lazy to simply compare two white lefty traditional PGs, but Beno was a perfectly, well, cromulent, PG who was competent enough to play 13 years in the NBA.
I do think Kolek projects as a better three point shooter than Beno ever did, but it was a different league back then and nobody shot as many threes when he was around. I would be very fine with a Beno Udrih that shoots more 3s at a better rate in our roster.
Beno seems a good comp. It feels like (eye-test alert) Kolek has better court vision, though. It’s really top-notch. Give him an off-season to add strength and another to add a right hand and this kid is going to be great.
Edit: which will make it easier to lose Cam next year, since he’s playing himself into a decent deal and our money is more necessary for a big.
This is a perfectly cromulent thread to begin the year, great work guys! 😀
I agree, and the way Deuce learned tricks from Brunson that made him a great backup, i’m hoping Kolek can also learn from Brunson.
wonder how many posters on other team threads will lament missing out on tyler…
hope deuce is okay with that hamstring injury…
one spoiler for season 2 cyber…it gets even darker…
no, not the tone of the show, the actual filming of the show…
season 2 i’ve had to close the blinds, or turn off the lights, while watching to get the room as dark as possible just for a little contrast…
one of my fave things about sci fi is how different folks see things turning out for us…
But we won’t be around for any of it, anyway, so…….
In limited minutes and against a lottery team Kolek looked like seasoned veteran running a talented offense. Similar to JB, he can’t be rushed. I watched the film and he consistently made the highest probability decision and when he didnt he immediately improvised, folded and followed it up with a good decision.
100% agree with the sentiment of 10+ year career back up is his floor. Ceiling, as with every player, depends on his work ethic, obsession/passion with/for the game and his mental strength.
do you enjoy the sci fi genre doogie?
my friend is more a “thriller/spy” genre fan, soooooooo, been watching a lot of that stuff lately…Crooks was a lot of fun…
I don’t subscribe to either Netflix or Apple TV, so binging a bit…
no doubt sci fi more so than any other genre triggers more extensive thought while viewing…although, I kind of like westerns a lot too 🙃
the team definitely seems more poised and capable of initiating and xecuting fast breaks with tyler at the point…
Paul George’s injury was a compound fracture of both his tibia and his fibula. He was able to make it back. It sucks for Ivey and the Pistons who were finally showing some progress, but I think he should be OK.
https://bsky.app/profile/sbondynba.bsky.social/post/3leroxzyzfc25
First round of all-star balloting is in. The good news: KAT is in the top 3 for East frontcourt players, behind Giannis and Tatum, and way in front of Banchero. The bad news: Brunson is in a distant fourth place for East guards, where LaMelo freaking Ball is somehow(*) the top vote-getter, followed by Spida and Dame.
(*) Yes, I know that LaMelo is beloved by The Youths. But come freaking on, people.
I mean, doesn’t damn near every NBA player want to start? 😁
Sign me up for the IQ Development Plan for Kolek (which i guess all of us would be on board for lol). If this front office continues the habit of turning late-round picks into arguable starters in 3-4 years, then that’s a darn good problem to have. (And yes I understand you didn’t mean “problem” as in a negative thing in this instance.)
This was a pretty funny post by me in that Hart trade thread. I guess he wasn’t trolling.
Re: Cam Payne,
On the floor, he’s definitively given us solid backup level minutes and made some timely shots.
Of the floor, he has ruined the proffesional, respectful and humble vibes of a team that hasn’t won anything yet set by Thibs, JB, RJ, Randle, Grimes, iHart/Mitch even Hart and Quickly.
Those annoying handshakes and clown interview disruptions are NOT behooving of grown men and aspiring World Champions!!
I had a somewhat-recent argument with #LolKnicksSupv that the current iteration of Brunson is as good as or better than the current iteration of Dame. He thought I was saying Brunson has had the better career, which of course he hasn’t (yet). But Dame has the name, and LaMelo (as mentioned) has a substantial youth following (he’s very popular out here given he’s from the IE).
Everytime I see players goofing and clowing each other or the journalist after the game, I can’t help but think of the Kobe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHum1zTakh0
Maybe I’m just getting old…
I find it all endearing but to each their own
I thought the perceived lack of playmaking post-Randle trade was a legitimate, if overblown, concern, but…
H/T Macri.
I dunno, Cam Payne is pretty much everything you can ask for in a merc backup PG for the vet’s minimum. I don’t love his game, but who are you getting at that price that is ready to go in a playoff run?
As to antics, I’m less a fan of the Roomates stuff than some. Wasn’t big on IQ’s glory to God stuff. Randle’s schtick had its warts. RJ’s reactions to being snubbed for awards wan’t cool. No one is sillier than Mitch. If anything, Cam’s vibe fits right in.
BE, as it turned out, that pick did convey in around the spot I thought it would, just in a different year! Even so, it was a reasonable assumption that the pick would convey that year, kudos to Cuban for being so brilliantly sinister to at least partially make up for the Brunson blunder.
Had we not made that trade, we probably would have been either a play-in team or a 6-seed, so we would had likely been slated somewhere in the 13-20 range. IIRC the player everyone was talking about that was unexpectedly available in that range was Cam Whitmore. Other notable guys that were actually available were Gradey Dick and Brandin Podziemski. It’s also quite possible that Leon would have traded down or out of that draft.
But specific to Hart, like everyone else, I was flabbergasted at how good he was during the rest of that regular season, and even after that, never thought he’d be as fucking awesome as he is right now. Coming into this year, I even advocated for moving him to the bench, and for using him as the centerpiece of a trade for a better player. I haven’t necessarily moved completely off of those positions, but all he has done is played like a legit all-star, bordering on all-NBA-level. Even if his 3pt% regresses, he’s looking like Russell Westbrook without the selfishness out there. That’s a pretty indispensable player at $19M AAV!
Caveat: For me, the season really starts in earnest tomorrow night. Now that Leon has gone all in, nothing that has occurred will matter much if we don’t show it is for real against the very good to best teams at full strength.
Happy New Year guys.
This thread is a perfect 5 on the cromulence meter.
Unfortunate news about Ivey, wish him the best for a full recovery.
If an empty calories loser like LaClown gets the nod to start the ASG the NBA should ban the fan vote, it would be a joke.
Kolek’s deal ends at an interesting time when our stars (I’m counting our whole starting lineup as stars, deal with it) are in their early 30s and most will have a contract out. What we do with him probably depends as much on our cap situation and the talent or our stars as it does as it does with his own skill level.
KAT will be a FA headed into his age 33 season if he exercised his player option the previous season.
OG, 31, and Brunson, 32, will decide that year whether to opt into their own player options, to re-up for longer, or leave for good.
Hart will be 33 and potentially a FA if the Knicks exercise his team option.
Mikal will be 32 and likely have a couple more years left with us.
With all that up in the air, Kolek could get re-signed to help buoy a championship run. He could be dealt to avoid tax consequences of his second deal, as Grimes and IQ seemingly were. He could stay as the start of a rebuild, though he’ll be relatively old himself at that point. He could be sent out alongside another player to dump salary or fetch draft assets if someone’s career tanks before we’d have liked. Regardless of what happens, there’s a lot of different outcomes that have little to do with Kolek as a player on the court.
Hopefully, we can extract as much rookie contract value out of him as possible over that timespan.
Sorry to hear about Ivey, he was having a breakout year. Detroit had a shot at the playoffs with him. Detroit has been bad for so long that I was rooting for them to sneak in through the play-in.
I could easily do without sci-fi, geo, but my GF is totally into classic sci-fi.
Just reiterating that Pacome Dadiet’s O looked pretty bad yesterday in the G-League game, like Kevin Knox bad. I know he had some good moments embedded in his 82 NBA minutes, but it was jarring to see how raw he looked up close in big minutes in a G-League opportunity. Huk wasn’t good either, but at least there were a couple of things to hang your hat on…the motor, the jump-hook…I didn’t see a single thing from Pacome that I liked. In particular, the footwork on his 3’s looked pretty bad.
Speaks to how good Mikal has been that him putting up 27 on 12/17 shooting hardly gets a peep from anyone. What a positive regression speed run he’s been on.
Mere weeks ago I would gladly signed up for him finishing the season with a .595 TS%, but he got there well before the halfway point by putting up 22 PPG with a god damn .673 TS% over his last 15 games. His defense has looked much better to me too.
I won’t lie, I was getting a little unnerved for a second, but he’s now one of my favorite guys on the team to watch cook. Hopefully we’ve had our last “should we trade Mikal Bridges a few months after trading for him” thread.
He was often mocked in the 2nd round. He’s a very long-term prospect whose best skill was moving without the ball. There were glimmers of more, but he was a shooter in a meh European league.
That said, the box score says Dadiet had 9 boards, 4 assists, and 2 blocks. For a guy who is supposed to be nothing but a shooter at this point, that’s a pretty welcome stat line to me.
I wasn’t worried about Mikal’s offense much when he got off to a bad start, but he’s far exceeding even my “not worried” stance. I was hoping for the best of the Sun’s version from an efficiency point of view plus a little more versatility when required from his time on the Nets. That would make him a terrific 3a or 3b option with the ability to step up a bit if KAT or Brunson was out or had a bad matchup. Right now he’s giving us the Nets version at the Suns efficiency. IMO, that’s an all star caliber player. And I agree that the defense also looks better. I’m not sure what was going on at the beginning of the season other than maybe the 3 point shot not falling because of the form change, but he better not make any more changes!
Outside of Ryan Dunn [Suns] and Jaylen Wells [Grizz] no player drafted after Pacome has had any real impact.
I didn’t realize Kolek was listed as 6’3”. That’s 2 inches taller than Deuce at the same weight. Same height as Spida, Fox, and other guards. Obviously he doesn’t have elite athleticism like those guys, but he’s a very smart player who will only get better at positioning himself on both sides of the floor. He could probably start one day depending on how his game rounds out, especially his shooting.
As for Dadiet, he’s 4 years younger than Kolek, so I’m sure he looks it. The two things I’ve liked about him in his nba minutes? A buttery smooth shot release and some basic positional awareness on both ends. Those are both green flags. He still has to grow into his body, but a good start on shot mechanics and thinking about your role on the floor feel like good things.
EB, yes, I was specifically referring to his offense. Regarding his other stats, he kind of showed us in his limited NBA minutes that a) he moves his feet very well on D, b) he physically mixes it up well, including as a rebounder, and overall has a promising motor, and c) he’s got great size and good enough athleticism. So no, we are not talking about a Kevin Knox bust all around.
I was just surprised about how bad his offensive skill level looked, including on catch and shoot opportunities. And when he had to put the ball on the floor, it got really ugly.
The one saving grace is that the level of G-League play overall, while erratic, was pretty high. Probably similar to higher-level (but not elite) Euro competition. Most of the players I saw seemed to be in their mid-late 20’s and to have at least one legit NBA-level skill…good defenders who couldn’t shoot, good shooters who couldn’t defend, etc. and the size/speed/strength of the players was what you see on the end of every NBA bench. The players were really going at it! So Pacome understandably seemed a bit like a kid in a grown man’s league.
I keep thinking josh hart is the one starter on the knicks whom could be upgraded/replaced/traded – he keeps demonstrating though just how good a player (and nba starter and extremely valuable to winning) that he is…
Yeah I think Hart is integral. His rebounding, passing, and shooting range keeps getting better.
Also, I can’t think of a logical trade partner since he’s 30.
Back in the pre-KAT, pre-Mikal dark ages, we desperately needed more shot creation, so as great as Hart is at literally everything else, his shortcomings there did show up.
Now we have the 2nd highest eFG% in the league and might finish with the best offense of all time. So, don’t think it’s an issue anymore.
All we needed from Hart was rebounding, playmaking and defense.
Towns’ scoring figured to replace Randle’s (but with more efficiency) and Mikal’s scoring figured to replace DDV’s (but with more diversity and better D).
What we had to replace was Randle’s rebounding and playmaking.
Hart is doing for us now what he showed he was capable of doing in the playoffs last year with Randle out. He’s rebounding and making plays at a huge plus level for his position, defending adequately, not stopping the ball like Randle, making extra effort plays at crunch time and far exceeding the expected efficiency on his moderate usage (probably in part because the spacing and ball movement is so much better with this team and it’s easier for him to get to the basket and finish and get open looks). He’s the perfect fit for what we needed given OG is a weak rebounder when playing the PF position.
Gotcha. Yeah, he’ll probably struggle quite a bit this year.
His numbers took a noticeable dip during his 19 games in the Eurocup, which is the 2nd tier tournament in Europe. It’s not bad competition, but my impression is that the talent level in the g-league has eclipsed it by quite a bit by now. Hopefully he starts looking like he belongs sooner rather than later.
“not stopping the ball like Randle”
I randomly tuned into a Minnie game recently and the first play I saw was Randle spinning and getting the ball poked away, recovering and spinning and getting the ball poked away again, recovering again and spinning and getting the ball poked away a third time and losing it, but he was still spinning as two opposing players raced the other way for a dunk.
I smiled sadly inside and turned the game off.
Prett-tay, pretty-tay good!
the wolves have the same issue we had for forever – no point guard…
Well-said.
Maybe Mitch really is the missing piece now.
What happened to Myles Turner rumors? He’s an UFA this off-season
One thing I’ve been noticing about Minnesota and the league in general is that there’s been a trend of wanting your iso scorer to have the ball in his hands, which would theoretically allow you to play without a real PG, but it’s really not working.
I get the idea, let Edwards have the ball as often as possible, but Conley’s decline has hurt them massively. I get doing that when your iso guy is Doncic or Lebron, but not a guy like Edwards who would massively benefit from having a top ball handler and passer next to him. I see the same issues to a certain extent on Phoenix with Booker.
In looking ag KAT’s career stats, it’s interesting that his current play is a rather logical evolution from what was arguably his best statistical “full” season, 2017-18, under Tom Thibodeau. The most significant difference is higher usage, up from 22.9% to 27.4%, which is what you would expect a young star to do as he grew into his prime years. He’s basically shooting 1.7 more 3PA/36, 1 more 2PA/36, and 1.2 more FTA/36, all at slightly higher percentages. He’s getting 2 more DRebs/36 and 1 more ast/36. His OBPM, DBPM and BPM are eerily similar. His TS+, eFG+. and 3PAr+ are nearly identical. As to his shooting profile, he is being assisted on more of his 2PA’s and has mostly turned all of his long 2’s into 3’s.
I don’t know what conclusions can be drawn from this, just found it interesting.
The curse of Stephon Marbury strikes again! LOL
That he’s able to scale up his game without sacrificing efficiency?
damn you, Alan!
Relax, Z-man. It’s Tyler Kolek’s world. We just have to root in it.
Before the road trip to OKC and CHI the Knicks re-assigned Dadiet and Huk to Westchester, but not Kolek.
JB’s and Deuce “questionability” must be real…
Or just Deuce’s.
7 minutes into this Bos-Min game, the two teams have combined to try 23 shots from deep.
The 3pt attempt rate is close to 80 percent.
i’ve cheated cyber…
just ordered a paperback copy of Wool…yes, i do realize it is 2025, and paper books are apart of our past…
even worse, i’ve now read through the whole book series synopsis…
I have failed the marshmallow test miserably…
DS, some of his other seasons were similar in ways. It’s also hard to compare because of qualifying shit that went on.
2018-19: Thibs fired at the halfway mark, his usage goes up from mid 20’s to 33+% after all star break.
2019-20 and 2020-21 COVID, personal tragedy, injuries
2022-23 and 2023-24 Gobert acquired, KAT moved to PF
So the only season post 2017-18 where there was stability, a decent supporting cast and where KAT played C was 2021-22 and he was surrounded by inefficient chuckers in Ant and D’Lo, kids like Vanderbilt, McDaniels, and Naz, journeymen like Pat Bev, Makik Beasley, and Taurean Prince, and replacement-level players like McLoughlin and Nowell. You also have to kind of throw out 2022-23 because he was injured most of the year and even when he did play he was adapting to a completely new role.
So in my opinion, the only two seasons worth comparing to this one are 2017-18 and 2023-24. And even 2017-18 is sketchy because he was so young and kinda under Jimmy’s thumb.
On the surface, the stats thus far are pretty heavily skewed towards KAT being more impactful as a C than as a PF next to an elite rim protector. However, the schedule thus far this year has been wonky, Mitch has been unavailable, iHart is gone, Precious is undersized, and Sims is a replacement-level player. It’s also the case that the Wolves were 25-9 on their way to a 56-win season in the very competitive WC at this point last year. They also went to the WC finals. Would they have had done that if Naz played PF (in the OG role), KAT Played C full time, and they blew their picks on a better starting PG than Conley, or a better SF than Jaden McDaniels, or a better bench? Were the gains on D worth the losses on O? I think these are very legitimate questions. The nice thing is, it might not have to be either/or. When Mitch comes back, I hope Thibs is flexible enough with lineups to allow for data collection on both options against the best teams in the league.
LOL!
Whatever works for you, Geo! 😉
About Silo, i usually watch it at night with almost no light in the room, so it being darker is no problem at all. I like dark shows, like The Last of Us, that i am waiting patiently for season 2. Alan will see it first, probably.
Vis a vis Minny and Randle has anyone posted this?
One of the best NBA quotes in a long time…
Frankly I am jealous of Ant-Man. Just savage and I wish I had come up with it.
https://x.com/thenbacentel/status/1874847080239571289?s=46&t=0wqff4cNt-sCGcDs-uMExw
That’s funny, Owen. We’ve all been there!
Been checking in and out of the Celts-Wolves game and witnessed 2 classic Julius turnovers – the spin move into traffic and the lazy cross court pass. 4 turnovers total.
He’s having a nice game otherwise, but man, I really don’t miss that guy.
lol cyber is missing the Neemias Queta game.
Welp when the Celts start banking in 3’s I guess it’s their night….
I can’t imagine watching this exceptional Celtics-Wolves game and thinking we need to fix basketball to make it more like last night’s Pistons-Magic tilt.
How the hell is a healthy Bucks team down 20 at home to the Nets?
Tatum is obviously a great player but he does some incredibly stupid shit at the end of games. White gets an offensive rebound and instead of a layup throws it out to Tatum to milk the clock and Tatum immediately fires up a 28 foot brick.
Call me crazy, but I’m thinking this Celts team would be fun to watch even without the 3pt line.
The Nets can’t lose for winning
So close to tying Boston in the standings, even if only for a night, alack!
Heat Culture!
https://bsky.app/profile/cjzero.bsky.social/post/3leso4ia4m22q
The Thunder should be exhausted tomorrow after their butt kicking of the Clips tonight )-:
Heat Culture!
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/43266837/sources-jimmy-butler-indicates-heat-wants-trade
so sorry we never picked up jimmy buckets – not…
Ace Bailey looking every bit the #1 pick tonight.
Who the hell is Ace Bailey?
Beetle if he enlisted in the Air Force instead of the army.
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