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175 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.01.09)”
The Raptors even at full strenght are lousy but stopping the losing streak was nice.
– Leading by 24 with 4 minutes to go, all the starters are in. Then “him” subbed only KAT, until there’s just 2 minutes remaining*.
I know we have to live with it, but it’s hard to try to rationalize insanity.
– Brunson is tired and banged and he’s playing a notch or two below his standard. He needs rest.
– KAT’s knee is clearly bothering him, it’s outstanding how well he’s playing despite it.
– Bridges is back in a shooting slump, OG hates the Raptors and Josh has been the second best Knick so far this season**
– I don’t care about the garbage time “meltdown”.
It’s meaningless to think that guys who basically never played together would run smoothly as clockwork when the game’s over and nobody cares, and it’s impossible to judge them in that contest (would have been the same if our bench group won the GT by 10).
That’s not the way to grow bench players, insert Kolek or Huk in the game with some of the starters to ease their “adjustment curve” (see Kolek’s game vs Utah a week ago).
– Deuce injured himself during a pregame warmups (when it was already announced he would start the game) and has missed 5 games since. Weird unlucky break, he’s an integral part of our rotation.
– I’m happy to watch our former guys do well but I didn’t see anything different from them that we haven’t seen before.
And by the way does Toronto really think that the BBQ is a good core foundation? With Barnes’ extension ready to start, next year they’ll owe the trio around 100M.
I know the cap is growing and maybe I’m wrong but I’m not sold on RJ or IQ being a #2 option in a top team, nor on Barnes being a difference making #1.
– The Detroit Pistons are over .500 (19-18), our next 6 games aren’t easier, especially with the roster so banged up, but thankfully 5 of them are at home, our players will sleep in their beds and will not spend much time on travels. Would you sign for 4-2? I don’t.
* Yes Thibs, you are allowed to put the starters back in if the opposing team makes a threatening run…
** his statistical season leaguewide so far:
RPG – 20th
AST – 29th
FG% – 14th
2FG% – 5th
EFG% – 4th
TS% – 6th
Damn the Cavs won despite Mitchell going 3-16. That team is having a special season.
Mobley improved, they added shooters to the team we beat two years ago (Strus, Niang, Jerome) and then swapped Bickerstaff with Atkinson, a top-10 coach able to unlock a consolidated roster.
32-4 is impressive even if one thinks that regular season standings are useless, they’re not “the” favorites but I think they’re not too far from Boston and OKC and Spida’s still able to win a couple of playoffs games by himself. They have a real chance.
P.S. keep the core together, improve on the margins and change the driver. Uhm… food for thoughts?
NY Post:
Frank O returning remind me of the years when we had a Frank and a Frank O posting.. Kind of a JHart IHart situation.
Welcome back!
I think Edge of Tomorrow is my second favorite Cruise movie after A Few Good Men.
We have had a lot of really bad wins this year like last night. It’s funny how different the vibes are. We would have beaten them by four last year with hustle and muscle and felt great about it.
Watched the highlights of Cavs-OKC- how often have two team played with such good records?
Anyway, both teams look ready to win a title (when Chet is back)
And yeah, I love BBQ but not in Toronto. Barnes doesn’t feel like a max guy and RJ is RJ. Love IQ but don’t know if he is a 1 or 2 kind of guy.
Leon may have already nuked our ability to improve on the margins, though.
Maybe we win tomorrow nd all start to feel much better about how we fare against OKC, Boston, Cleveland.
I think Edge of Tomorrow is my second favorite Cruise movie after A Few Good Men.
any fool can say they liked a few good men or magnolia. but who among us has the balls to say they stan for collateral, vanilla sky (yes) and cocktail. today, it me. for donnie.
Mobley improved, they added shooters to the team we beat two years ago (Strus, Niang, Jerome) and then swapped Bickerstaff with Atkinson, a top-10 coach able to unlock a consolidated roster.
don’t forget the darius garland reversion from an age 24 year of cosplaying anfernee simons
Watched the highlights of Cavs-OKC- how often have two team played with such good records?
4th best winning percentage matchup ever at this point or later. two of the top 3 were two warriors spurs games from the 73-9 year.
Man am I wistful for Mitch snatching offensive rebound after offensive rebound from Allen and Mobley.
PT,
I really love Collateral (not Vanilla Sky and Cocktail), I’m a Michael Mann stan.
True, but I like to think that Garland’s reversion is Atkinson’s magic 🙂
speaking of donnie, i’m trying to think of something even minimally distracting to riff on this morning but feel constrained by my entombment on a blog whose subject matter holds no apparent interest for him. the only thing i can come up with is to shake his fiercely held conviction that crippling exertion can only be a boon for the human body.
here’s a recent study concluding that tom thibodeau does indeed hate puppies:
https://www.arthroscopyjournal.org/article/S0749-8063(24)00062-8/abstract
the studies on this stuff are notoriously difficult to learn from and don’t always tell the same story. it’s easy to imagine how difficult it is to sidestep the confounders. for example, samples are modest so if being injury-prone is a real thing and coaches are intentionally resting injury prone players, that may point a misleading causal finger against rest. there’s also some tension in thinking about threading the needle between the “don’t undertrain” and “don’t overwork” camps:
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/12/18/1829
Collateral is incredible. One of the best films made by Mann, Cruise, and/or Foxx.
BBQ reminds me of Hart, OG, and Mikal, not one-to-one but just overall skill level. So, you know, we should beat them when we have the equivalent plus Brunson and KAT.
Edge of Tomorrow was great, although give Emily Blunt a lot of credit there. However I think I mentioned before, for some bizarre reason I’ve loved almost every time loop movie — Palm Springs, Boss Level, Source Code, even The Map of Tiny Perfect Things. Can’t really explain it.
Reacher might be Cruise’s most narcissistic failure.
My 2 favorite Tom Cruise movies will always be Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick.
Yeah Collateral ruled.
I’m a big Days of Thunder man myself
Oh. And Color of Money.
And by the way does Toronto really think that the BBQ is a good core foundation? With Barnes’ extension ready to start, next year they’ll owe the trio around 100M.
I know the cap is growing and maybe I’m wrong but I’m not sold on RJ or IQ being a #2 option in a top team, nor on Barnes being a difference making #1.
i don’t think it’s really fair to talk as if toronto expects theses 3 to be the three best players on a contender. IQ makes $32mm flat. In 28-29 his salary is 15% or so of the cap. that can easily be in the 3-4 fugue state and is around where jaden mcdaniels, aaron gordon, kcp and mikal sit. barnes is good but best player on a contender is surely asking a lot. even so he is only on rookie max and i wouldn’t be shocked if he was a good #2. again, very doable there. i think rj has improved but i haven’t come around on him yet. but his contract only goes out two years.
Collateral is awesome and Cruise is awesome in it, wish he played more villain roles. Cruise is also great in Magnolia though that movie is overall a bit of a mess.
I loved Minority Report when I was 13 and it came out. I might have a DVD floating around my parents’ place.
Edge of tomorrow surprised me with how good it is. Love that movie.
Jerry Maguire, Eyes Wide Shut, and, of course, Top Gun, are somewhere up there.
Haven’t seen a lot of these earlier Cruise movies though.
Yesterday was the first game I watched, but anytime I check the box score, more often than not, Garland seems to have had a better game than Donovan.
finally getting my rightful gpu allocation here today. another random post. here is where the current knicks rank in the 3 public advanced stats that (i think) to date have shown the highest out of sample fidelity (to rapm): epm, darko and vpm. this uses as simple average of the players’ current rank in each metric (not current season, they are all supposed to be a “where are they now?” measure):
brunson 12.0
towns 18.7
OG 46.3
hart 73.0
mitch 86.3
bridges 124.0
deuce 202.0
in case it’s unclear, you should specifically take this to mean that nothing else outside of the above is needed to evaluate the bona fides of these basketball players and consider the matter finally settled. these numbers perfectly capture every possible piece of relevant ball-hoop information. you may still watch games, but read-only mode please.
Are we cruisin’ for CRUISE? I love it!
Magnolia is a great film although I would not consider it a Tom Cruise film even though he has a big role in it as it’s more of an ensemble tableau film. But kind of wild PTA hit the nail on the Incel/Men’s Rights movement so early on (I guess Fight Club was highlighting the same thing around the same time).
Hard to say what my favorite Tom Cruise movies are. But that 4th Mission Impossible with Phillip Seymour Hoffman was pretty incredible.
Also love Risky Business (even if it hasn’t aged well).
PSH is in the third film, Swifty. And he’s incredible in it — easily the best villain of the series. But I find that one forgettable otherwise, and lacking the amazing set pieces you find in the first film (CIA heist, train vs copter) and everything after (scaling Burj Khalifa, opera shootout, chopper chase, Rome car chase, etc.).
Isn’t vpm already a blend of EPM and DARKO?
Btw, thanks for linking nbarapm.com the other day. Great site.
Re: Raptors
And they’re in the running for Cooper Flagg or any other top-5 prospect around*, that could change their situation quickly, pushing the other guys one step down (and maybe into a more fitting role on the totem pole).
* I don’t know nothing about this summer’s draft
Also, back to the minutes thing.
One thing that really bothers me about this. We saw Thibs’ Chicago teams fall apart because of this. Leon has spent a boatload of picks to get this team. As others have pointed out, we don’t have a lot to work with. If any of starters fall apart and have career derailing injuries, it’s going to be very hard for Leon to pivot to a rebuild. Especially if one of Brunson, KAT or Bridges suffers some sort of long term debilitating injury and their trade value plummets.
This is the team we have locked in for the next few years. our top 6 is awesome but we can’t wear them down. I do believe we have a puncher’s chance at a title this year, but as other’s have pointed out, our year may end up being next year when Leon can truly address the depth issue.
This needs to be something Leon intervenes on. We’re going to make the playoffs. Obviously it would be nice to not play Boston or Cleveland in the first round. But most likely we can secure the 3rd to 6th seed and would avoid them in the first round. The difference between facing the Bucks, Pacers, Magic, etc…is not really enough for us to worry about trying to secure the 2nd seed or whatever.
We need to take the long view here. The FO can address the depth issues over time. We can find diamond in the roughs in the G-League, Europe, vet ring chasers…etc….but in the meantime we have to play this smart. There would be nothing worse than all this work Leon has done to put this team together to be derailed with some huge injuries and now we have no picks to rebuild with.
Interestingly, Vecenie’s mock draft today suggests that after Flagg and Dylan Harper, this draft is not shaping up to be nearly as deep or impressive as everyone assumed a year ago: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6030735/2025/01/09/2025-nba-mock-draft-cooper-flagg-dylan-harper-johni-broome/
Hey pt, how does BBQ match up with OG, Hart, and Bridges in your ultimate, perfect metric? Just wondering if my eye test analysis is worth the energy to type it.
Why are we doing Tom Cruise movies? Not a big fan, but Minority Report is OK.
Minority Report might be his best movie and it’s one I always forget about.
I know we all like data, but sometimes you have to use common sense.
When I tweak my ankle, knee or back, I rest it until it recovers because experience has taught me if I remain active it doesn’t get better and sometimes gets worse. I also know that if I take a pain killer so I can remain active, the next day is really bad. So I may take a pain klller for comfort, but never so I can be active.
I’m not sure how established it is among humans, but it’s fully understood in horse racing that both over training and over racing will eventually take a toll on a horse. It will eventually accumulate minor injuries and/or the horse will wear down and lose its best form.
Sometimes a single extreme effort will knock a horse out and increase the probability of injury for weeks.
The very best trainers have learned to space the races and workouts of their star horses.
They used to race every 2 weeks. Now they race once every 4-5 weeks and sometimes only after 2 months. They used to breeze every 5 days. Now they do very little but gallop for two weeks after a race and then breeze only once a week.
The result is more peak efforts and the ability to sustain it for a full season instead of tailing off.
I doubt humans are much different. We are all different. Some can handle more work than others. Some may even meed more than others to get to peak. But if you do too much you will wear down and increase the probability of injury. I don’t have good data on it, but I’d be willing to bet on it.
Isn’t vpm already a blend of EPM and DARKO?
no it’s more than that though it does include them as inputs which as you know makes it even more unassailably laplacian
Actually, I thought Cruise was really good in Rain Man. Dustin Hoffman got all the press, but he had a much easier part to look like a good actor in.
Hey pt, how does BBQ match up with OG, Hart, and Bridges in your ultimate, perfect metric? Just wondering if my eye test analysis is worth the energy to type it.
retweets are not endorsements bbq is a horrendous nickname. but since i have taken over the blog for the day i am legally obliged to answer.
barnes 103
quick 110
rj 221
Dang, Rain Man is the other one that is really good.
“Why are we doing Tom Cruise movies? Not a big fan, but Minority Report is OK.”
All Clarence’s fault, as usual.
Yeah, forgot about Rain Man. He was a real actor when he was young.
Tom Cruise is a sociopath who shouldn’t be celebrated but sure Magnolia was a good flick.
Vecenie is wrong btw, there are tons of good players in this draft… maybe only 3 “beasts” but a lot of other great 3rd to 5th starter types. Really wish we had a 1st this year.
Best Tom Cruise has got to be Eyes Wide Shut–fantastic movie and a great performance from Cruise.
Then some ordering of Magnolia, Jerry Maguire, Minority Report, and Collateral.
My favorite though, for sheer absurdity, has got to be The Color of Money. I play a fair bit of pool and have thought more than once about getting the shirt that just says ‘Vince’ on it, though I need to get really good before doing that.
I am deeply in a Bill Maher mode about Cruise. He makes great movies and absent a compellling reason not to I am going to enjoy his films. The guy never mails it in and I respect that.
Surprised how high Mitch rates. 86 is a good number for a two dimensional dunkbot. I miss him a lot.
Dadiet with 16 and 9 last night but 3 TOs.
Warren 14/3/7 with 5 TOs.
Blowout win thanks to Moses Brown’s 23 boards
“Tom Cruise is a sociopath”
I’d tend to go with hyper-narcissistic nut job. Of course I don’t know the guy from Adam, but he doesn’t seem to have the tendencies of a true sociopath (” a condition that involves disregard for others, lack of empathy, and dishonest behavior”).
But Owen’s right, he never mails it in. Sometimes he’s Tom Cruise playing a character, but that happens when one’s level of fame makes one something of a caricature of oneself.
Pete Mitchell is the greatest pilot in U.S. Navy history.
Lol ok Raven you are probably correct. He’s a narcissist who is close friends with a sociopath. And yes EWS was also great.
As for the Knicks, I’m glad we took care of business and still like this team a lot (especially the starters). We will definitely have the ability to flesh out this roster but probably not this year.
It’s fascinating how quickly we become spoiled as fans. “Top-4 team in the East? Been there done that. We want more.”
The current incarnations of OKC and CLE (a nightmare finals matchup for Silver btw) each took 3+ years to build and gel… pretty sure Leon will skin that cat in his own way. Let’s give him a chance maybe?
As for Thibs, he’s a good coach… He listens to medical! Oh and he just got his 200th Knick win. He’ll get at least this year and probably next.
Thibs is a very very good coach, but watching OKS and Cleveland I think both are better coached.
Top Gun : Tom Cruise movies :: Jalen Brunson : Knicks’ PGs since Clyde
pt bingeposting is a sure sign of the apocalypse.
I was at the game with my son last night, mostly highly enjoyable. I had an unexpected treat at halftime…the band who performed at center court had as its lead singer a kid who was a class president and one of my favorite students at my former school.
Two caveats:
1) OG’s complete inability to drive and finish in traffic is so glaring that he really needs to give it up. Even when he got to the line it was mainly because he got bailed out. Keep it simple, OG!
2) Some of our passing turnovers are truly horrific.
All of the “perfect” metrics proceed on the premise that missing a shot is the worst basketball event there is — the premeditated murder of basketball crimes.
There is a very superficial truth to that, but it misses a bunch of basketball context that ultimately turns the superficial truth generated by that premise, to too-frequent falsity.
Some things have been said about this here already, there’s much more that can be said by way of explanation — but today’s not the day to shift the topic away from the interesting conversation already occurring.
As a starting point, I’d put out for consideration whether the issue with the offense of a team on the bad end of the 124-34 type blowouts often seen in high school and college basketball is really just that they missed too many shots.
Kind of hoping Brunson doesn’t make the all-star team this year. It would be nice if he could have some real rest.
I’m guessing he will though. I don’t think his play deserves it but if you include his play in the second half of last season and the playoffs, he probably gets in.
25ppg along with 7.6 asts on a 60% TS% is definitely All-Star worthy. Brunson is a lock to make the All-Star game.
The fact that these are his numbers and I feel like he’s having a “bad” season says a lot about how good he is.
I feel you, he’s been slumping past few games yet just now his TS% dipped slightly below 60% at 59.7%.
Even his 3pt% despite shooting something like 5 for his last 38 is still solid at 38.6%.
“Pete Mitchell is the greatest pilot in U.S. Navy history.”
OK. But isn’t he fictional? It was Duke Cunningham.
All of the “perfect” metrics proceed on the premise that missing a shot is the worst basketball event there is — the premeditated murder of basketball crimes.
you cannot cower us with your scare quotes. we have seen the metric. and the metric does not, in fact, proceed on any such premise. to wit: if there can be said to be such a thing that the metric, like nature and strat’s betrodden la quinta inn housekeeper, can be said to most abhor, it is a vaccum. wither georges niang, garrison matthews, john collins and obi toppin.
in fact the oracles do not even sneer at rj’s offense, ts be damned. it is his defense that they smite.
Awful. Just awful in so many ways.
For those of you who don’t dig into the weeds of advanced stats, I’ll leave the following dollowing analogy: this shows the same level of understanding as someone who thinks normal behavior is comprised solely of jumping up and down on a couch while screaming, “I love Katie Holmes!!!”
Even the facts on RJ Barrett disagree, with him being viewed favorably on offense by all of BPM, EPM, and DARKO. Even the outdated OBPM views him favorably. All this despite being in the 39th or so percentile for TS%.
RJ sucks by those metrics primarily because he’s somewhere around the 500th best defender in the NBA. His best finish is the 448th best defender by EPM.
It wasn’t that demanding a role for Tom Cruise, but War of the Worlds is one of the scariest and most chilling sci-fi movies ever. Pulls no punches.
Garrison Mathews
Vacuum
That’s RJ. Demar Derozan with the worst defense in the NBA for a starter. His decision to coat his bones with lead, wolverine style, continues to hold him back on defense.
This episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out, a podcast I have never listened to, is delightful. It tracks down the main actor in an ad about basketball sportsmanship I remember being totally baffled about. The whole thing is kind of amazing.
Also answers who is behind the values ads that pop up all the time, and probably the Jesus Gets You ads too I suspect.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/04MouaRc8hLgvUYDJ9t3T6?si=H-ozfYdEQpqyWlTv8zhujw&t=2885&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A4SnPenz2D55YPQi0m5Q27k
I forgot that Pablo Torre existed. He was good on ESPN shows back in the day before everyone good was banished from the network.
Daniel Theis seems like he can still play effectively and is now languishing on the Pelicans’ bench. I’m sure he’d love to get up out of there.
Semi-interesting story by Edwards III on one of our two homeless hobo bench players, Landry Chamalet. Found it startling that he’s only 27, I figured he was 32 at least…
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6048874/2025/01/09/landry-shamet-knicks-nba/
He’s 356 days older than just off his rookie deal Obadiah Toppin, Jr.
I also thought he was 30 before comparing Obi to Knick ages the other day.
Landry Chamalet, a complete unknown.
yeah…if i am channel surfing and stumble upon them war of the worlds, minority report and edge of tomorrow…I will watch them…
all the right moves is up there but that’s just to see leah thompson naked..
Two more idiots.
i think that first mission impossible was pretty good…also the one where he hangs from the ceiling to get the important device after holding his breadth forever…that was entertaining…
You’re all wrong, the best Cruise flick is easily Tropic Thunder. You can argue that it’s not his flick, but Les would strongly disagree. (You might ding him a few points for essentially playing himself, though.)
Might be his best performance but not his best movie. He has to be the star for this question.
Z-man, that singer made me feel much better about my erstwhile music career. Glad he’s a good kid, but yikes!
Owen, Les Grossman is the star of the movie. It’s HIS movie. He’s very clear about it.
Fair point!!!
hoops wise…it seems that we are lacking someone to “run” the second unit offense (defined as the rare moments that brunson is resting)…kolek would seem to be better at that then “chicken with his head cut off” payne…and deuce is not that good at it either…if we can get someone to orchestrate and then thibs can finangle the other four so that there is someone who can make shots out there…that would hopefully allow the “2nd unit” to tread water for 10 minutes a game…thibs should give kolek a shot at it…the only thing we are playing for now regular season wise is to make sure we are not lower than the 4th seed…
To Bill Hader “A nutless monkey could do your job”
I have friends who don’t think Tropic Thunder is funny, which I don’t get
If not Pete Mitchell then I’ll go with Tom Kazansky.
E, I often disagree with your takes but this was a good one.
I’m quite pleased to note that this thread suggests we might be able to add Tourette syndrome to Doogie’s list of undiagnosed (and unacknowledged) maladies…
Add me to the list of your friends. I have an aversion to all ( super Knicks’ fan)Ben Stiller’s films. Much prefer his father’s body of work.
Agree with D-mar’s point that Leon should intervene with Thibs and get him to regulate the starters’ minutes while at the same time providing some much needed run to Kolek and Huk. Sacrificing point differential, if not relatively meaningless wins in service of preserving the Big 4 ( Hart seems to not be impacted by unlimited minutes) and providing experience to your bench seems to be a clear value.
Bo, I tend to be with you on Stiller, but I did appreciate the Museum movies. And gotta give a shout-out to Dodgeball, although it was really a Vince Vaughn movie (who I want to dislike but can’t, for example he was quite decent in Bad Monkey).
And yes please on an intervention…
I liked Zero Effect.
“I’m quite pleased to note that this thread suggests we might be able to add Tourette syndrome to Doogie’s list of undiagnosed (and unacknowledged) maladies…”
*Definitely* do not have Tourette’s. If you thought even for a second that I might, that only proves that you know nothing about it (or about me, for that matter).
Meet the Parents and Along Came Polly are great movies.
Don’t think it’s fair to assume a Cleveland like trajectory for us. There are a few glaring differences:
1. Cleveland’s core was 26, 24, 23, 21 (Mitchell, Allan, Garland, Mobley, respectively). They didn’t just gel. Their younger guys improved the way young talent often does. No one on our team likely has a Garland/Mobley leap in front of them.
2. They kept a clean cap that enabled them to add real pieces every year. They used the NTMLE to add Strus and Niang in back-to-back seasons. We’ll never sniff that kind of flexibility again.
3. They didn’t panic trade their underperforming youngster (Okoro) because he wasn’t win-now enough the way we did with Grimes and Toppin, giving them even more depth.
4. They’ve been playing and developing depth pieces like Sam Merrill and Dean Wade for years.
The top 4s of both team are equal, but Cleveland has the depth and balance we lack because they passed the marshmallow test.
I admit I haven’t seen a lot of Cruise movies, but “A Few Good Men” would be at the top of my list.
I’m sure it hasn’t aged well and the critic consensus wasn’t great, but I enjoyed the hell out of The Last Samurai.
Woof.
Here’s RJ’s DARKO page. You were just a bit outside!
I also think it is rather useless to make any assumptions about a bench player’s ability to play based on the very last 2 minutes of a game in garbage time.
Often that time is full of fouls. Guys just jacking up shots, etc. You can’t prove anything during that time.
If it’s garbage time with like 5 or 6 minutes, that at least gives a unit of guys time to get into a flow.
Much more useful to see how Kolek or Huk or whoever players in the 2nd or 3rd quarter when they’re playing with a mix of bench and starters.
I don’t know how to feel right now. The Knicks are a vastly different team when KAT is on the floor, and I’m not sure what that means for Brunson. Meaning- should KAT be the #1 option or naw? Or am I confused because Brunson now has plenty of help? Hell- we couldn’t beat a severely depleted Orlando at MSG without KAT. Not to take anything away from Mosley’s culture and how hard that team plays, but we have enough without KAT to win that game. Or was it more on Thibs that we lost that one because he refused to stretch the rotation outside if the obligatory Sims addition in that situation? Or is it on Thibs for the fact that he hasn’t tightened up the scheme against the 3 ball? Our 3pt defense made Orlando look like..I dunno..damn near the splash bros!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy we won last night. But shit, WE SHOULD HAVE. And the fact that we returned to beating teams we should beat when KAT returned has me kinda questioning the offensive hierarchy, as Brunson didn’t have it last night. Again. I can’t really tell if defenses have figured him out, partly because I remember Brunson figuring out tough defenses in real time during playoff games last season.
The Orlando loss was stupid but whatever, it was the 4th time they had played each other in a month and the previous 3 games Knicks won them all by a combined 47 pts. Almost felt like Orlando was due to win one against the Knicks.
I think this can’t be overstated. Its very easy to say “oh they don’t have X, Y and Z player” but they’re a well coached team that has stayed above water even with their main dudes out.
It is VERY hard to beat any NBA team 4 times in one season. These dudes are all competitors and have pride.
Great analysis on CLE by Hubie. This was always the concern with the hybrid rebuild — that we’d be a day late and a buck short, with teams relying on more robust methods hitting the peak of their win curve before we do, and resultingly having both better top-end talent AND better depth/flexibility. That has clearly happened with CLE and OKC, and it’s in the process of happening with ORL and HOU. Even teams like DET, SAS, and ATL are good bets to overtake us within our “window.” Add teams like MEM and DAL that are either better right now or clearly would be at full strength, and it becomes clearer that we mortgaged the next 5 seasons for about the 10th best team in the NBA, which traditionally has championship equity of zero. We’ve done everything possible to eke out short-term value in the regular season thus far only to land at 5 SRS, less than half the mark of the true contenders playing on cruise control with deep rotations, load-managed stars, and better runway to improve.
This is it, guys. Our young players are more likely to be out of the league in two years than future rotation pieces. If they can’t get on the court now when we’re up 25 with 3m left against horrible teams, they likely never will.
To be honest I’m not too interested in the games this season anymore. We don’t beat good teams, we go all out to beat bad ones, and the injury spiral is so inevitable that it’s already begun — we’re just in the ‘playing through stuff’ phase right now.
The only thing to really look forward to is the hope that we’ll fire sale our valuable pieces before it’s too late and have some equity towards the next Wemby or whoever. That’s much more appealing to me than the virtual certainty of limping to 47 wins and a first or second round exit.
Hornets @ Lakers postponed tonight. Pretty bad.
At least we have Khaman Maluach on the way.
All of this is entirely true, Hubert, but there are many ways to skin this KAT, and we have no idea how rule changes or any other surprise event could alter our circumstances over the next year or so.
This is excellent news. This should free you up to do other things besides post here.
Leon Rose appears to be a good, not great, GM. He has put together a solid and competent team that has a high floor but unfortunately a low-ish ceiling. The rhetorical style of the New Vanguard of Team Pessimism is grating and repetitive, but they have some salient points. If I’m being completely honest here I know this team isn’t a serious title contender, and it has been assembled in a way that does not allow for a lot of flexibility. I don’t really see any feasible way to meaningfully raise the ceiling.
The lack of interest in adding talent through the draft is the main sticking point I have always had with Leon, and that’s a big reason why we don’t have that flexibility. He likes sure things over upside plays. That’s a good way to end up with a high floor, low ceiling kind of team.
When I say “low” ceiling that doesn’t mean we’re not a good team. Just that “title contender” is probably a generous assessment of where we are really at.
Adios Great Clown. Best of luck in your future endeavors.
Isn’t Dadiet a high upside play? I also think Thibs is a huge issue with this, he isn’t interested in playing young kids .
10th best team lol
I think it is useful to acknowledge that we’re also in a pretty extraordinary doldrums stretch. KAT’s a wounded warrior, the Great God Brunson has somehow fallen back to earth and entirely lost his shot in the ensuing dust storm (at least from 10 feet out, including foul shots), and Mikal can’t hit the broadside of a barn from beyond the three-point line. Also Deuce died.
If all those pieces were humming I think we have a puncher’s chance against most anyone. With all that going on, we have to depend on Hustlebunny Hart and hoping OG shows up to win against even mediocre competition.
Makes tomorrow’s game a bit less than anticipatory, unless you’re in a pool to see which minute Kolek gets on the floor if we’re down 30. I’ve got my money on a minute thirty left.
It’s not the hybrid!
(^ that’s meant to be read in Arnold’s “it’s not a tumor” voice, btw.)
I love the hybrid method. I think the hybrid method is the best method for large market basketball teams.
The difference between us and Cleveland is that their execution has been flawless.
We’ve had the incineration of Jalen Johnson, the 11th pick debacle, the foolishly player-friendly Hartenstein deal, the Grimes trade, the Bridges overpay, and the $40M AAV for OG. Find one Cleveland mistake of that magnitude.
People say the asset hoard is more forgiving but that’s 6 whoppers right there and we could be right there with CLE & OKC if we’d just made 5 blunders instead of 6.
It’s not the hybrid!
Knicks starters are very good when on the court. They need to get some bench production to lessen the starters minutes as the season goes on. TJ Warren and Okeke should be called up at the start of March
“Adios Great Clown. Best of luck in your future endeavors.”
Pags never said that he was going anywhere. The fact that JK fake invited him to do so means next to nothing.
Well for one, they let the legendary Isaiah Hartenstein slip through their fingers 😝
But also getting Rubio was a mistake. And many of their drafts we suboptimal at best.
Also Bickerstaff was a terrible choice, but yes, I’d say they’ve done better than us overall these last 5 years, considering the circumstances.
But acquiring KAT and Brunson for literally zero draft picks is pretty good work I’d say.
So this is where we’re at now? Banking on rule changes or ‘surprise events’ to make us a contender?
What does this even mean? Is the NBA gonna rescind the CBA prematurely? Make it illegal to play more than 7 players? Reduce game length to 3 quarters?
Thank you Doogie, your relentless literalism saved me a post. 😀
See? Welcome back from your short “retirement,” Pags.
The team will look better if we get some defensive 3pt shooting regression. On the season we’re 25th.
Mitch could make us a top-10 or even a top-5 defense almost by himself.
We have a 4-5 year window. This is year 1. A lot can happen.
Dadiet is more of a “he’s the only guy willing to take 80% of the rookie scale, thus allowing us to avoid the second apron” play. Any substantial upside he has would be pure coincidence as thus far he has looked like Kevin Knox without the size, pedigree, or 3v3 chops.
Knox was lazy and had zero interest in Basketball. He was a Fortnite king . I’ll give Dadiet a much better chance to be a useful NBA player. He was the youngest player in the draft and nobody picked behind him is lighting up the league.
For instance, the league could abandon the 2nd apron rule next year. Or adjust any other part of the CBA that would be advantageous to us.
Just because you’ve crowned OKC NBA champs for the next decade doesn’t make it actually true. Things happen.
I disagree. Bickerstaff was an excellent choice for a young team that needed development. He was just a terrible tactician and a poor playoff coach. They got great work from him and then coldly upgraded after he ran his course.
That’s probably the exact same model we should follow. No doubt Thibs has been outstanding for four seasons and like Bickerstaff he’s a huge reason we are this good. But also like Bickerstaff, the team has outgrown him and needs to upgrade.
Again, this was flawless execution from Cleveland. Not a lot of franchises have the balls to fire a guy who wins over 100 games in two seasons with a young squad. And even fewer have the aptitude to bring in a guy who can do even better.
Cleveland IMO has been every bit as smart as Boston & OKC. They’ve just had terrible PR.
Leon’s been excellent but we’re comparing him to the absolute best now; it is only in the highest company that he comes up short.
We’re sixth in SRS now doing everything possible to maximize short term wins. Do you feel we’re better than any of the teams ahead of us, none of whom have been doing that?
Do you dispute that ORL/DAL would likely be ahead of us with equivalent health and strength of schedule.
Do you dispute that two of SAS/DET/ATL are likely to overtake us within the next two years on the strength of the upward trajectory of their young talent?
That’s all it takes for us to be the 10th best team. Likely events that anyone (except maybe Leon) could have predicted, much like the iHart departure.
Who should we bring in, hubert? I vote for Jay Wright. Not kidding.
At the end of the day, a team over the long haul is a reflection of its owner. James Dolan would neither attract, nor tolerate, a “great” GM.
From the moment he hired Leon Rose my sincere hope was that he’s be the “best of what was possible.” The calculus from the point he hired Thibs always seemed to have that “high floor/low ceiling” feel to it. The approach to the draft was never a strength, but until this past offseason I felt that it wasn’t a decisive flaw.
But no move showed as much disregard for the value of draft picks than the Mikal Bridges trade. And no move will be a determinative of this current iteration’s ceiling and floor as that one.
He’s a great player to root for, just not a guy who I think who should be the most important determinant of team’s fortunes in terms of the opportunity cost of acquiring him.
Leon bought a lot of credibility with the Brunson maneuver. No doubt that jersey will be raised to the rafters one day. But I think that Leon’s legacy will be ultimately be determined with the Bridges trade works out. If it prevents him from putting the finishing touches on this team, well, at least it is a high character, entertaining product and not a clown show. And who knows? As I said, never saw the KAT trade coming, so maybe there’s another stealth hihg-leverage move lurking out there somewhere.
Why would the league rescind the aprons? Much like the US Senate, the minority rules, and the minority doesn’t like teams like us being good.
I mean it’s technically possible the US passes universal healthcare in the next 4 years, but if you’re sick and uninsured relying on that, you gonna die.
I would have said Atkinson, so I don’t know any more.
I know I want nothing to do with Jay Wright.
Brunson 4th in AS voting . Knicks fanbase getting outhustled by Charlotte.
Fair on Atkinson. Curious as to the strong dislike of Wright. I kind of like Monty Williams, but Stephen A. likes him, which makes me like him much less.
Looking at how improved the Pistons are without Monty I’d pass.
Personally I think it’s highly unlikely Detroit or Atlanta passes us in two years. They’re on a upward swing, but I don’t think Atlanta ever becomes a true contender with Trae Young at the helm and Detroit has shitty management. They’ll have the opportunity to get better thanks to some expiring contracts and internal improvement, but I am unconvinced that they will be able to capitalize.
Should Thibs be let go, I’d have no idea who I’d want to replace him. But I will say this: alot of folks missed out on Jordi Fernandez. He is coaching that Nets squad way better than I anticipated. Also, why hasn’t Sam Cassell gotten a shot somewhere? He was on the hot track at one time.
Wait- now that I think more about a Thibs replacement, how about Ty Lue? I’m not sure if he wants to stick around to see if Harden can play winning basketball and if Kawhi can get healthy.
“Looking at how improved the Pistons are without Monty I’d pass.”
Fair.
Jay Wright has never coached professional basketball players and the track record of amateur coaches in the NBA is overwhelmingly poor.
I also think the Nova players would find it pandering and slightly offensive. They deserve the best coach available, and that’s definitely not Jay Wright.
Lastly, Jay Wright is a major downgrade from Thibs.
the answer for our next coach is somewhere on this list:
https://nbacoaches.com/nba-assistant-coaches/
not sure what is wrong with him, but i’ve always been a big fan of seeing sam cassell get a chance…
I get that the Cavs are pocketing regular season wins like so many nickels and dimes, but I’ll wait on maybe at least one finals appearance before concluding that they have executed a flawless rebuild. They looked pretty good going into the 2023 playoffs and we blew their doors off. Then last year they were crushed by the Celts in the second round.
both mosely and lue recently signed extensions…
I’ll concede for the sake of argument that maybe they won’t pull ahead and we’re the 9th best team (assuming no other team in the rear of the pack pulls ahead, which is fairly likely to happen).
How much championship equity does the 9th best team have generally?
You’re always going to look bad when you compare yourself to the top-3 teams in the league. There’s a lot of luck involved and Koby Altman is in his 8th season there.
They mostly got lucky hitting on Garland and Mobley. They didn’t accumulate a ton of draft capital, they just sucked 3 years in a row and some idiot teams took RJ Barrett and DeAndre Hunter over Garland.
They severely undervalued Lauri in a trade and he immediately became a star.
The Cavs have incinerated countless picks since Altman took over by doing what most teams do, making shitty picks: Sexton at 8, Okoro at 5(!), Dylan Windler (OAKAAK) at 26.
Based on that track record they probably would’ve drafted Kai Jones and Ousmane Dieng if they had the Jalen picks. Boy would it suck if the Jalen picks turned into those 2!!!
They gave up the pick that became Nembhard plus a 1st for Caris LeVert who doesn’t start.
They let Hartenstein walk for nothing when they could have had him on a minimum for 4 years.
so much depends
upon
the ankles of
Mitch
pinned with
metal
“I’ll concede for the sake of argument that maybe they won’t pull ahead and we’re the 9th best team (assuming no other team in the rear of the pack pulls ahead, which is fairly likely to happen).”
Yes, but do you also stipulate it?
I don’t get the line of argument of “Let’s wait until almost X happens before we predict X.”
What’s the point of predicting something that is already very close to happening? That’s barely a damn prediction. We can use our brains. The Cavs have never come close to looking this good for this long. They just beat one of the best teams of all time, albeit at home.
Six other teams in NBA history have won at least 32 of their first 36 games. All won 67+ games and all but the 73-9 Warriors won the championship. If this isn’t a flawless rebuild, nothing is.
Ignoring the fact that no one really cares about the all-star game anymore, we’re not being outhustled by Charlotte fans. LaMelo is crazy popular among Gen Z and Gen Alpha for some reason. They’re not Charlotte fans, they’re LaMelo fans.
And Brunson has at least closed the gap on Dame and Spida. Between that and the fact that fan voting only counts for half (25% to players, 25% to coaches), there’s at least a chance he could start. But I would guess KAT will start and Brunson will come off the bench.
I don’t think we’re the 9th best team, so I don’t feel a need to dig into that one. I think we’re reasonably at least around five or six and likely to remain in that range for the next couple years barring a disaster.
I don’t think anything has “almost” happened.” But since you see it as such a sure bet, sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime to cash in on that certainty on your favorite betting site. Have at it!
I find conversations about our overall positioning played out and boring. I’m not besmirching anyone who still engages in them–it’s a topic I do usually enjoy. I guess I just find it pretty obvious where we stand at this point.
-We are one of 5-6 teams with a nonzero chance to win a championship this year, though we’d be on the lower end if you were to rank them (4th best odds at Vegas, 5th best net rating, etc.).
-We have a few bullets left in the chamber (the WAS picks have kind of rebounded as an asset because of just how bad they are–two very high seconds is a good package), but it’s pretty unlikely we get substantially better than this. Mitch is something of a wild card that could change this calculus.
-We should be in this range for 3-4 years.
-There are a small number of teams that are unambigiously better positioned than us, because they’re roughly as good or better than we are now and have more future assets than us (e.g. CLE, OKC, MEM, though I’m sure some bones can be picked here).
It is what it is. Plenty of teams that roughly fit this description have won championships. Obviously, plenty more haven’t.
A very well-executed down-to-the-studs rebuild could’ve gotten us in a better position than this, but we’re also in a much better position than many teams who have attempted one.
Personally, I’ve never asked for much more than all of this, no matter what path we took to get there. We have a puncher’s chance in the next 4 years or so. We’ll never be favored, but hey, overcoming the odds is what makes sports legends. Our core guys will have a chance to be legendary.
Only when you’re not one of them. That’s still a hot topic here in some quarters.
Well, I would posit that letting Isaiah Hartenstein walk for nothing because you think he’s a scrub is a bigger mistake than not forcing him against his will to sign a more team-friendly contract after identifying him as a good player you want on your team.
This still makes me laugh 40 years later…. https://youtu.be/a0p7rJsYisw
Just watched the Dylan movie. Loved it. There was a bit in it about Al Kooper I didn’t understand. Found this clip which is fantastic and explains it. Don’t know if it’s such a legendary detail that they had to include it but I am glad they did.
https://youtu.be/FZGN7T70rgY?si=y9vbABxkBQyQnWhF
As usual, I am with TNFH. We are what we are and I am ok
with it.
If they never beat Boston it doesn’t mean they made terrible mistakes.
I’m not saying they’re bound to win a title. I’m not even saying we can’t beat them in the playoffs.
I am saying they have maximized their chances by avoiding the kinds of unforced errors Leon has made bunches of.
That’s all you can ask. It’s not their fault if they do everything right and Boston still has a better team.
If you were on Clevelandblogger before the season do you think the consensus there was they were in the middle of a nearly flawless rebuild?
That’s a very poor argument given the evidence available to Cleveland and Leon at their respective times. The entire NBA thought Hartenstein was a scrub when he left Cleveland.
Do you also think 29 NBA made a massive blunder not signing Jeremy Lin? Is every GM who didn’t draft Jokic an idiot?
Not to mention it seems like you’re completely imagining that giving Isaiah Hartenstein more money = “forcing him to sign against his will”. In the extremely long history of labor, more money has generally been smiled upon, especially when the dollar amount is the highest on the market and equals almost 6 times more than someone’s career earnings to date.
Weren’t you the one harping on how the playoffs were a totally different animal or was that E? Either way, I’m disengaging from this pointless schtick and instead will happily enjoy our above-average team, above-average coach, and above-average management for the first time in 20-plus years.
I disagree with the so-called inevitability of the Cleveland team who got their asses curbstomped by the NY Knickerbockers less than two playoff seasons ago. Those Knicks also had a young nucleus. Three members of the nucleus were hurt for most or all of that series and the 2023 playoffs (Randle, Quickley, Grimes). Even without those guys at full strength, they had the top playoff defense in the association. They completely shut down the Cavs.
The Cavs tweaked at the edges and changed coaches; the Knicks went in a fundamentally different direction.
Note that this is a different issue than Leon’s incinerations and draft day 2022 follies, and not giving Hartenstein the third year — all of which predated the curb-stomping. All those mean is that the counterfactual today’s Knicks could have been even better.
If you want to say the Knicks got off to a slow start the next year, that doesn’t really carry muster either. On the date the Knicks made the two-for-one trade out of the nucleus that curbstomped the Cavs, the Cavs were a mere 18-14. They stayed the course. The Knicks did not.
It’s of course not a given that the Cavs have actually passed by the Knicks; we’ll see come playoff time. If the Knicks are the walking wounded come then, as they likely will be given their thin roster and psychotic coach, then yes — they’ve been passed by.
Probably most of their fans would have lamented being inexorably behind us while their Pagliacci patiently pointed out the same things I’ve pointed out here when others have crowed about us being better than them:
-Mobley compares favorably to KG at the same age and is only 21
-Their asset position is better than ours
-Their performance last season was massively impacted by injury luck, even more than ours
-They are solid and young at every position
-A better coach than nepo baby Bickerstaff could likely move the needle
Who said anything of the sort?
The actual argument is that they’ve executed their rebuild without egregious blunders. It doesn’t make them the best team in the world. It makes them the best team they could have been given what was available to them.
If there is a counterargument to be made, one can point out that they sold Lauri Markkanen too soon. Given the excellence of Mitchell, I wouldn’t call that a costly blunder. That trade looks pretty fair in hindsight, even with Markannen’s ascent.
The point is and always was to stop blaming the hybrid method.
Three teams aren’t ahead of us because we didn’t hoard assets.
They are ahead of us because they executed their plan with excellence consistently, whereas we executed ours with excellence occasionally.
If we had drafted Jalen Johnson or Jalen Williams, the hybrid would have worked just fine.
Correct and concur that this isn’t a hybrid method issue. I was primarily addressing the predicate statement re Cleveland’s young nucleus in the wake of their curbstomping. The Knicks had the same thing. Cleveland went one philosophical direction post ’23 playoffs, the Knicks went another. (*) If in fact Cleveland has passed the Knicks by, it’s hard not to conclude that their philosophical choice was better. If then it’s insisted that the passby was inevitable given the youth of their nucleus, that’s what I’m addressing.
(*) Having nothing to do with hybriding in either case.
I mean you and Hubert wanted the Knicks to go all in this summer and now I guess you’re mad they did?
I frankly doubt Leon even knew who those dudes were or ever even contemplated drafting them. He has his circle of knowledge through contacts (Brunson, Towns, Anunoby) and dudes a millimeter of separation from the circle (Bridges, via the Nova boys) and those become his white whale targets.
It’s obviously a bit more subtle and nuanced than that, but that’s the primary driver.
He’s doing his boss’s bidding.
Guys I’m all for rehashing of past moves, it can be interesting, but for the love of god if you’re going to state as fact that Isaiah Hartenstein would’ve taken a 3rd year from us I politely ask that you cite one (1) source, because it cuts strongly against common sense.
This misses the point. The hybrid method is categorically inferior because there is so vanishingly little margin for error. OKC never had to worry about drafting the right guys with limited chances because they have virtually unlimited chances. If they hadn’t hit on Holmgren and Williams they’d have 10 more chances to just keep trying while SGA is still MVP level.
When you need to hit on unlikely outcomes, the best avenue is to maximize the number of trials within your window, not just to hope for better luck.
Also, Cleveland didn’t do the hybrid method! They tanked and landed the #1 overall pick (AGAIN). That’s not hybrid.
Tom Cruise movies is a better topic.
My angry stenographer DRed is obfuscating again. What a surprise.
Just some of the dumbest discourse imaginable. I guess Wes or whoever introduced him to Pacome Dadiet.
Common sense argues the opposite!
The best way to make yourself eligible for a big NBA payday is to ensure your team has your Bird Rights, so they can exceed the cap to sign you. This sets a floor for other bidders and reduces the chances of being left behind by the market as there are generally few teams with lots of cap space, and many of them are not appealing destinations.
In a different offseason with a better FA class or less appealing destinations, iHart would have run a pretty high risk of being priced out and having to take our $17M. It’s always, always, always better for your team to have your Bird Rights, and never worse. That’s a much more important consideration than waiting one more year to get paid since waiting means more long-term money anyway.
Noble, you are the only one stating as fact what Isaiah Hartenstein would or would not do.
All I said was his contract was player friendly, which I believe is a fact that holds up to scrutiny.
FWIW I find your insistence that players wanting more money and more years “cuts against all common sense” peculiar in light of every contract that’s ever been signed.
Noble needs more experience in the real world dealing with people at Leon’s level in various organizations and big dollar deals and contracts. Some of us have plenty of it. Once you get it, the Overton window widens considerably.
In that vein, I’ll reiterate what I said. I doubt Leon really even knew who Jalen Johnson or Jalen Williams were. There were probably some draft meetings at which their names came up, but it’s a virtual certainty he didn’t make a basketball decision to proceed in a different direction than drafting them.
If all Leon is doing is Dolan’s bidding he’s doing it a hell of a lot better than anyone else he’s ever hired to run the Knicks, so good for him.
it’s so hard to relax in the nba. the cavs are having an all-time season with a young team that barely cross the tax line. but if they have one shitty playoff series and get bounced early again, suddenly it all feels kind of fraught. if mobley makes all nba or wins dpoy, something that gets increasingly likely with every player who drops off the 65 pace, his contract bumps to ~$269 million. this puts them on track for $196mm million in 26-27 for the big 4 plus strus and okoro, with the cap at $165mm-$170mm. that could be their magic third repeater tax year if they don’t manage to get below it this year, with a hypothetical core that failed in three straight playoffs. gilbert’s willingness to pay a massive tax bill in that context is up in the air. not to say they’d be in a bad spot, but franchise vibes are a roller coaster until you’ve won one or are the okc thunder.
Yeah, the Celtics looked like a no brainer to make the finals again at the start of the season, now they’re wobbling a bit and they’re going to be selling the team soon, is the new owner going to want to pay all those salaries for a team that (say) loses to the juggernaught young Cavs?
Yes, luckily Karl Anthony-Towns and Jalen Brunson are terrific basketball players. OTOH, he overpaid significantly for a player in a transaction that ultimately funneled a bunch of money to his son, and overpaid very significantly to get another player who went to the same college as some of the other dudes on the team.
And incinerated a first-round draft pick, and traded out of the lottery to be able to sign Isaiah Hartenstein to a contract without Bird rights.
Hopefully, JB and KAT can carry things and they’ll get lucky. Stranger things have happened.
This is 100%, and it’s something Pags in particular should keep in mind. The regular ebb and flow of the tide will likely change the fortunes of everyone next year. With literally zero roster maneuvers I can see the ’26 Knicks and Sixers swapping places with the ’25 Celtics and Cavs.
While Leon funneling money out to his son is a textbook example of what people are complaining about when they complain about the 1% and their hoovering of wealth, my complaint isn’t political but instead only basketball. There’s no reason for any confidence that the transaction at issue was evaluated in purely basketball terms or that Leon zealously represented the Knicks’ and only the Knicks’ interests. That’s the main problem with the Dolan Knicks — it’s never just about basketball. It never will be.
Again, they could get lucky; two of the people in Leon’s narrow circle happen to be extremely good basketball players and kudos to Leon for closing the deal and reeling them in. But there are still massive headwinds here.
Hubert, you were grilling the Knicks for messing up by giving Burks and Nerlens a 2+1 at the same time we were signing iHart to a 1+1.
Damned if you do give an extra year, damned if you don’t.
Sorry E, while I’m sympathetic to the idea of all Knicks decision makers being venal and nepotistic, what evidence is there that Karl-Anthony Towns was in Leon’s narrow circle?
The only way Leon should have not paid for Hartenstein’s Bird rights is if he didn’t have the money — and maybe he didn’t, I don’t remember. He traded out of the lottery to get the guy.
CAA.
“Venal” and “nepotistic” aren’t my words and those things aren’t my concerns.(**) They’re more the concerns of the MSG public shareholders (*) and I’m not one.
My concern is basketball. Dolan’s obvious CAA preference standing alone means things aren’t just about basketball. And there’s more going on than just the CAA preference. Leon’s son is a beneficiary of CAA to one degree or another, and has clients there, for example.
(*) And the ultimate basketball quality of the Knicks’ basketball roster is sub-trivial to the interests of the MSG public shareholders.
Hubie, you’re generally one of the most reasonable posters here but this is a staggering claim.
How does our current roster go 32-4 over the first 36 games of a season? We have no bench. Mitch is never healthy. We’ve already done everything possible to maximize short-term results at the expense of our long-term health and we’re over 230 percentage points behind CLE’s winrate.
Are you just positing that all of CLE’s good players get hurt while none of ours ever do while playing 40 MPG? I guess that’s what’s required for PHI’s upside…
Two stenographers attempting to obfuscate.
And a partridge in a pear tree.
Who’s the second and what is he attempting to obfuscate?
I agree we overpaid to varying degrees for OG & Mikal but it’s better than overpaying for RJ and what’s his name on the Pelicans. We have a very good team, who knows, maybe we successfully tinker as the season goes on.
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