Categories
Uncategorized

Knicks Morning News (2025.02.03)

  • Knicks vs. Rockets odds, score prediction, start time: 2025 NBA picks, Feb. 3 best bets by proven model – CBS Sports
    02/03/2025 10:44:36
     
  • Top Player Prop Bets for Knicks vs. Rockets on February 3, 2025 – Bleacher Nation
    02/03/2025 10:32:04
     
  • Giannis has a dream for European players: ‘I want Jokic in the Knicks’ – BasketNews.com
    02/03/2025 08:10:00
     
  • Rockets vs. Knicks: Start time, where to watch, what’s the latest – Yahoo Eurosport UK
    02/03/2025 08:31:32
     
  • NBA Best Bets: Knicks vs. Rockets Picks for February 3 – Orange Leader
    02/03/2025 04:44:55
     
  • Houston Rockets vs New York Knicks Prediction, Bet Builder Tips & Odds – Sportsgambler.com
    02/03/2025 04:48:07
     
  • Rockets Vs. Knicks Prediction, Odds, Pick, Spread – 2/3/2025 – ClutchPoints
    02/03/2025 04:31:00
     
  • Jon Stewart Shows Up To Knicks Game in Saquon Barkley Eagles Jersey, Rightly Gets Booed – Outkick
    02/03/2025 04:28:40
     
  • Knicks vs. Rockets: Free Live Stream, TV Channel, How to Watch – Bleacher Nation
    02/03/2025 04:14:04
     
  • Rockets at Knicks, Feb. 3: How to watch, stream, lineups, injury report – Rockets Wire
    02/03/2025 04:03:08
     
  • Knicks Must Capitalize on Lakers-Mavs Blockbuster Trade – Last Word On Sports
    02/03/2025 02:56:48
     
  • Amy Schumer Recreates Iconic Trainwreck Knicks Dance 10 Years Later – Us Weekly
    02/03/2025 02:29:56
     
  • Knicks vs. Rockets Prediction: Expert Picks, Odds, Stats and Best Bets – Monday, February 3, 2025 – Bleacher Nation
    02/03/2025 01:12:43
     
  • Knicks? Karl-Anthony Towns still struggling to return to pre-injury shooting form – New York Post
    02/03/2025 00:24:00
     
  • Houston Rockets vs New York Knicks Prediction, 2/3/2025 Preview and Pick – Doc’s Sports
    02/03/2025 00:15:26
     
  • Lakers could land ‘high risk, high reward’ Knicks big man following Luka trade – Sporting News
    02/02/2025 23:20:01
     
  • New York Knicks Could Lose OG Anunoby for Rockets Game – Sports Illustrated
    02/02/2025 22:54:50
     
  • Alperen Sengun Injury Update: February 3 vs. the Knicks – DraftKings
    02/02/2025 22:43:10
     
  • OG Anunoby questionable for Knicks vs. Rockets due to foot injury – sny.tv
    02/02/2025 23:28:09
     
  • 145 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.02.03)”

    I feel very strongly that Leon negotiated against himself.

    Well, well, well — now isn’t that interesting?

    (Guess what? It wasn’t the first time.)

    These few days have been pretty demoralizing. OG; watching the Lakers gifted Luka; losing at home without AD in the mix; watching the Spurs continue to build.

    Hope to feel back on track soon. I like to tell myself that two of the picks in the Mikal trade will be gone after this year’s draft. Hopefully without us kicking ourselves too much.

    I’m seeing some rumors that the Mavs felt Luka would end up like Embiid. So I get that you get what you can while you can. But still; too little and too early.

    I’m seeing some rumors that the Mavs felt Luka would end up like Embiid.

    If ending up like Embiid means your 26-28 year old seasons have you 2nd, 2nd, and 1st in MVP voting that’s not so bad.

    I’m primarily aligned with you Bernie. I’m just, secondarily, entertaining the other perspective. Dallas made the Finals last year. But the year before that, they tanked to miss the play-in for the Lively pick. And they had that other run with JB because Luka was hurt. Philly and Dallas do seem to yo-yo between contention and the lotto a lot. Again, not saying the deal didn’t shock me or piss me off.

    After eons I did listen Bill Simmons’ pod about the trade and they foresaw a smear campaign coming from Dallas to justify the unjustifiable.

    I’m not even talking about the basketball side of the trade (questionable as it is), but the assets management side of the deal and the refuse to gauge the market smell of professional malpractice.

    Dallas was a sacrifice to boost the leagues ratings.

    The league has been falling off since the Curry vs LeBron battles with Cavs/Warriors.

    Also with LeBron getting ready to retire soon they need to keep the Lakers relevant on the court. Bad Laker team is bad for business

    Still no news about OG?

    Speaking of injuries, KAT’s ligament strain is bad enough (Sabonis played with something similar recently) but I think the worst part is the bone chip roaming in his hand with the surgery postponed until the offseason.

    I’m not even talking about the basketball side of the trade (questionable as it is), but the assets management side of the deal and the refuse to gauge the market smell of professional malpractice.

    Trade for Jimmy Butler? Become a dark horse contender for a few years? If you win 1 championship, no one ever questions you again? OKC pretty much had your number for the next 10 years anyway?

    Lots of circumstantial evidence that guys don’t really want to play with Luka. (KP, JB, etc.) Reasonable guess that Jason Kidd, pitbull defender and phenomenal player in his own right, didn’t really care too much for Luka’s bullshit.(*) Luka’s facial expressions and ref-baiting on the floor have screamed “punk” since pretty much the day he came into the league.

    I would expect more information along these lines to come out over the next few weeks. It will be deemed “self-serving,” and the like, but it won’t really be.

    Assuming they actually play meaningful games together, will be interesting to see how LBJ reacts to Luka’s chucking and lazy defense. (Would have been even more interesting to see how prime LBJ would have reacted, but we’ll have to settle for the 40-year-old version at this point.)

    (*) J-Kidd’s reaction to all of this is a pretty good tell. If he starts agitating over the next few weeks, it means he was against it. If he continues apace complimenting his team and co-workers, and the “new culture” and the “great defense,” he was for it. Either way, he’s the polar opposite of a shrinking violet and without question made his opinion heard loud and clear.

    I’m beginning to settle on two things about the Luka trade:

    1. It truly was an incredible calamity.

    2. At its core is my oldest enemy: unfettered groupthink.

    Everyone in that Mavs organization had a hate boner for Luka. The video circulating of Michael Finley derisively taking the celebratory beer away from Luka is a good example of this. As is the info they are leaking. (And frankly there is no bigger evidence than the trade itself!)

    They formed a little circle jerk club and kept on validating each other’s stupid ideas: Luka’s not athletic enough, Luka’s out of shape, Luka doesn’t play defense, Luka drinks too much beer. And they saw confirmation of their biases everywhere.

    And their stupid ideas didn’t just apply to Luka. They applied to Kyrie, as well. That organization seems to be collectively ignoring all his red flags and thinking it’s reasonable to expect the best version of Kyrie when everyone outside of the organization knows exactly how putting your eggs in the Kyrie basket will end (spoiler: not well!).

    Within that faulty framework, all their moves make sense. Not shopping Luka around makes sense when you think AD and Luka are comparable bc you have a hate boner for Luka. So does not insisting on the Lakers ’31 pick when you’re blinded by your anti-Luka bias. And wanting to win now makes sense when you’re dumb enough to think Kyrie can be the best player on a championship team.

    It was their assumptions that made no sense. They were driven by groupthink, probably with a healthy dose of anti-Euro Player bias.

    I’m not a big fan of groupthink either, but within workplaces I generally defer to the idea that if no one can stand a co-worker, the group is usually right. And to a degree it doesn’t matter whether the group is “right” — if they don’t want to work with someone, that’s pretty much it.

    The internet attracts people who are attracted to the idea that talents like Luka should just get their way because of their talent, and that the world tends to “misunderstand” that kind of talent and genius and suppress/mistreat it. (*) So you’re going to get a big internet bias in that direction. That’s a big part of what we’re seeing.

    Forget Michael Finley. In the real world, they picked J-Kidd over Luka. Speaks volumes.

    (*) You’ll find a lot of work from home devotees in that cohort as well. “Just let me work from home by myself, occasionally do a Zoom meeting, never really interact with anyone, and just display my talent/genius, which you must respect and defer to regardless of whether anyone on the workplace team can stand me” is the dominant credo there. Luka is a pitch perfect avatar for that.

    Well, well, well — now isn’t that interesting?

    I think Z-Man deserves kudos for continually challenging his assumptions here. I also think he’s making great points about why you hold on to those picks, i.e. it’s not because we could have gotten Luka, it’s because something unexpected always happens and flexibility is the key. You should never give up that flexibility for marginal gains (and Mikal, as much as we like him, is a marginal gain, at least compared to what is out there; we just saw Fox go for a comparable, if not lower, price).

    One thing I’ve been thinking about: it can’t be a coincidence that Leon made his best trade (KAT) when he was largely out of first round picks. Do we really think that trade would have just been Randle, Donte, and the Detroit pick if Leon hadn’t made the Bridges trade? I am guessing he probably would have thrown in first round picks unnecessarily to close the deal.

    You see this all the time with people who inherited wealth: they often give it away bc they don’t value how hard it was to accummulate (ironically, and to my perpetual dismay, this does not apply to Hal Steinbrenner). Leon inherited a trove of picks. He didn’t accumulate them. And he played loose with them from the get go until he ran out of them. Then he suddenly made his best deal ever when he didn’t have excess wealth burning a hole in his pocket.

    within workplaces I generally defer to the idea that if no one can stand a co-worker, the group is usually right.

    There’s no evidence that Luka’s teammates can’t stand him. (And don’t suggest Brunson leaving counts because he would have stayed if Cuban hadn’t screwed up.)

    I happen to think Derrick Lively and Daniel Gafford enjoyed catching lobs all the time, PJ Washington probably loved shooting open 3s, and the last thing Kyrie Iriving wants to do is carry the load of a franchise.

    KP didn’t like playing with him.

    Unproven, but plenty of reason to believe Cuban’s lowballing of JB was Luka-influenced. It was weird and un-Cuban-esque from the get-go. Never made a lick of sense. Might be starting to.

    Two of the three sidekick stars he had, left him. The third was chosen over him. Speaks volumes.

    In terms of the Euro thing, the best player in Dallas Mavericks history is a Euro. Pretty sure he’s still with the organization; if not, he’s still on extremely good terms with it. Just no reason to attribute any of the so-called hate boner to the Euro factor.

    Hard to imagine a hate boner at only the organizational-management level being enough to trade a guy. Elite players win that battle 999 out of 1,000 times in the association. Reasonable therefore to assume it also included teammates and his history with teammates.

    J-Kidd will be the barometer, IMO. We kind of already know he must have supported the trade because if he didn’t he would already have made it known. But to the degree it’s still unclear, his words and actions within the next few weeks will clarify it. Reasonable to believe he got pretty tired of Luka’s act.

    Just saw the Michael Finley clip, hadn’t heard anything about it before. Doesn’t look at all like a disrespectful snatch of the beer; looks way more like a “We’re trying to help you kick the habit and we’re going to keep trying, remember?” reminder.

    But whatever the motivation, it clearly shows the depth of them thinking about his act if they’re even uncomfortable with him drinking a beer in the WCF champions celebration locker room. Looked entirely genuine and adult to me on Finley’s part, at least in the clip I saw. Pretty clearly something going on there.

    I agree with the point about KAT probably costing more if we had more to offer…otoh maybe it could have kept Donte out of the deal.

    I don’t think (and never have thought) that Leon and his team are particularly good negotiators. That was clear in the Spida escapades, where he was bailed out by a better offer from Altman. He has done some really clever stuff, and lots of chalk moves too. The team is very good, very rootable, and very entertaining! But the little errors in execution are real and taken together they impede further significant improvement. But what’s done is done and this is where the real craft of GMing comes in. Teams like the Mavs and Heat have been in this spot before and figured out how to fill in the holes with little trade capital to work with. The hardest work will be between now and trade deadline 2026.

    The alcohol use is an interesting perspective. Of course it’s speculation and for all I know the kid has one beer a month!

    Ty Lawson’s and Vin Baker’s problems popped up out of the blue and weren’t discussed in the media. Chris Mullin’s career almost went off a cliff.

    But from the David Chase doc., there were days when James Gandolfini’s drinking would bring down the entire production of the Sopranos. And when I think of him, I think of one of the great TV actors, not a problem drinker.

    Even it’s not drinking, when your superstar lacks professionalism, he brings the org. down with him.

    We all agree that the 5 picks for Bridges was an overpay (although not so much at the time of the trade) but I’m still trying to figure out who the guy is that we should have kept our powder dry for?

    It’s not Luka since Dallas didn’t open up the bidding, and we definitely don’t need Fox or LaVine. So who is the superstar that we should have waited for? And how long do we wait?

    And we’ll never know how the deal with the Nets went down, maybe they walk away if we don’t offer them the 5 picks.

    I guess is we somehow win a chip in the next few years all this will be moot.

    Even if all this inside info about Luka is true, there is absolutely ZERO reason for The Mavs to not shop him around for the absolute best offer they could get.

    Maybe they truly believe getting AD plus one pick was the best offer but I just find it ridiculous if that’s the case.

    It’s not Luka since Dallas didn’t open up the bidding, and we definitely don’t need Fox or LaVine. So who is the superstar that we should have waited for? And how long do we wait?

    Yeah, I would also add that Luka probably isn’t an option for us with Brunson already on the team. Not saying they hate each other but JC came here to get out of his shadow.

    I don’t care much about the basketball side of the trade, opinions may vary on it and if AD and Kyrie are healthy there’s a reasonable chanche the Mavs are better and more balanced for the short term.

    And it’s legitimate to think that Luka is immature, lazy, sometimes selfish, fat, annoying with the refs and doesn’t give a damn about defense (he’s not my favorite player by any stretch).

    But if you’re selling a 5-time first team All-NBA in his prime, even with his flaws, you must put up an auction, incite an all out bidding war and extract every asset you can from the trade.

    Everything else is a “suspect” (as in “there’s more in the story”) or incompetent behaviour.
    People are free to think it’s because Harrison is best buddy with Pelinka, the League drove the trade to raise its TV share, the Mavs had enough of Luka, he’s an alcoholic or whatever.
    We’ll probably never know.

    O’Connor says the Lakers are now targeting Mitch. I’m not sure there’s anything we could realistically get back that would make a Mitch trade worth it, though.

    I get that the Lakers are the Lakers. LA is a big market and they draw a lot of casual fans.

    But Dallas- Forth Worth has a population of 8 million people. It’s one of the biggest markets in the US. The Mavs aren’t exactly a small market team like Milwaukee or Indianapolis.

    Giannis with the tampering interview!

    From his lips to god’s ears…

    In terms of the Euro thing, the best player in Dallas Mavericks history is a Euro. Pretty sure he’s still with the organization; if not, he’s still on extremely good terms with it. Just no reason to attribute any of the so-called hate boner to the Euro factor

    FWIW I admit I am completely speculating about the anti-Euro possibility. I think you have to take some wild guesses here because there are few good reasons to not like Luka Doncic.

    O’Connor says the Lakers are now targeting Mitch. I’m not sure there’s anything we could realistically get back that would make a Mitch trade worth it, though.

    Mitch for Lebron straight up. Does it work in the trade machine?

    Even if all this inside info about Luka is true, there is absolutely ZERO reason for The Mavs to not shop him around for the absolute best offer they could get.

    There are zero good reasons.

    Thinking you can win a chip with Kyrie and AD is the reason they didn’t shop him around.

    Getting all narrative about this is fine, I guess. If I’m an opposing gm and I didn’t get a chance to bid on Luka, the lakers have lost their good guy discount. It’s inconceivable to me that the agents of the players were not involved in the trade. How do you do business with these guys again.

    Conjecture can be fun, but the Luka’s former teammates sound pretty gutted, actually. Even Kyrie has been wildly complimentary of him since arriving in Dallas, and was apparently blindsided.

    I’m sure like literally every superstar, save for maybe Jokic, there were some guys who didn’t love playing with him. But if this were some widespread sentiment a la Jimmy Butler, it would be a miracle for it to have been kept entirely under wraps at this point.

    Let’s be honest.

    If we didn’t make a move on Bridges and still had those picks, there would 50 posts per day debating the cost of waiting and how we may never find a star to team up with Brunson because other teams have even more picks and better assets to offer.

    The reality is that Bridges was a perfect fit, the cost was in part related to his bargian contract, that bargain contract enabled us to land Towns.

    One other thing.

    IMHO Bridges is better at what he does than Fox is at what he does.

    Back to the Knicks…

    I was certain I had this team figured out when I predicted we’d go on a dominant run heading into the all star break.

    What I completely failed to see is that the stars were lining up for the Lakers this whole time. Their magic is so good it injured OG and paved the way for a dominant performance at MSG on the same day it delivered them Luka Doncic. That was some star over Bethlehem shit that happened to them on Saturday.

    Hopefully now that we are out their way OG will be ok and we can get back to normal. But I fear we just ran neck first into a cosmic piano-wire clothesline and got beheaded.

    The reality is that Bridges was a perfect fit

    The perfect fit for a team that had Josh Hart, Donte DiVincenzo, and Deuce McBride but no one to play center was not a 4th person to play the 2 guard position.

    “But I fear we just ran neck first into a cosmic piano-wire clothesline and got beheaded”

    Haha Hubert well said. That game on Saturday was so deflating, I would take a loss tonight over dealing with the “LeBron owns MSG” narrative for the umpteenth time.

    It’s just that this whole Luka situation just makes me wish Dallas had gifted *US* an All-NBA point guard in his 20’s, who was in the MVP running last season, and who we could pay $100 million less than the super max.

    Oh…

    Thinking you can win a chip with Kyrie and AD is the reason they didn’t shop him around.

    Exactly. Or more precisely, thinking you have a better chance to win a chip with Kyrie and AD. Because if you cannot execute the AD swap, you need to keep the attempt out of the media

    Pretty confident it will come out that they called the Bucks about Giannis and were told no.

    There are actually a lot of constructions that work re: Mitch to the Lakers:

    1)we can get Vanderbilt + a small salary like OAKAAK Budding Superstar Cam Reddish for him, with us sending Sims and them sending e.g. Wood to 3rd and 4th teams with cap space and/or exceptions.

    2) we can send Mitch and Dadiet to the Lakers and Sims to a 3rd team for Hachimura.

    3) we can send Mitch to the Lakers, Sims to a 3rd team, and get back Reaves (Lakers would have to send e.g. Cam to the 3rd team and I’m aware this isn’t going to happen, just walking through the possibilities).

    4) we can get Vincent and Wood (blech, no interest unless they want to give us their 2031 first).

    There might be even more. Again, I’m well aware a few of these aren’t plausible, just making the point that there are a lot of legal constructions.

    My honest guess is that if Leon called every GM and said “Hey, what would you be willing to give me for 3 unprotected picks, an unprotected pick swap, and salary filler?” Either then or now, he’d get some intriguing proposals.

    Even if all this inside info about Luka is true, there is absolutely ZERO reason for The Mavs to not shop him around for the absolute best offer they could get.

    I’ve been telling you the reason over and over.

    1. Dallas wants to continue to compete for a title now and the next few years. Maybe that’s because of new onweship. Maybe it’s because they think they are close enough after this deal to have a multi year window anyway. They simply did not want to blow things up and start all over with a package of a pile of picks and prospects even if a package like that offered greater value.

    2. They wanted a two-way star big man because that’s the best fit with Kyrie given they already had some good defensive 3&D wings and added another in the trade. They can still make another trade.

    3. The list of possible targets was basically AD and Giannis. I read a report that they DID contact the Bucks also (supposedly the only other team to be contacted). That has since been denied, but I suspect that initial report was true. It would certainly be logical given what they did.

    4. Shopping Luka publicly would have caused a media and basketball frenzy and may have forced them into taking a package of greater value and starting all over instead of going in the direction ownership and management wanted.

    What makes this deal suspect is not so much basketball. IMO healthy AD is a great player, a good fit and they added another decent young wing and a pick. It’s the age difference that makes it suspect. They should have been compensated for that more than they were.

    Remember, the Mavs know Doncic better than anyone.

    There was something they did not like and finally got tired of it.

    For the record I’ve been saying negative things about him ever since the KP days. If you watched as much Mavs basketball as I did back then, you would have seen his unbelievable talent on offense, but you also would have seen an out of shape, lazy, self centered egomaniac that looked off his best teammate and threw up trash shots rather than give him an easy basket. KP took the heat for that breakup because Doncic was the superstar, but it was 90% Doncic. He’s not a good teammate, not a real team player (as Josh Hart would describe it), and definitely has an eating and work ethic problem (perhaps partying also). He’s not exactly the ideal guy to have on your team long term once you get past the amazing talent.

    The perfect fit for a team that had Josh Hart, Donte DiVincenzo, and Deuce McBride but no one to play center was not a 4th person to play the 2 guard position.

    He’s the PERFECT fit for our starting lineup. That we need to deepen the bench and need a backup C is a function of bringing in Towns (DDV had to go) and Mitch being hurt. Mitch will be back shortly and we’ll either be fine at backup C or use him to strengthen another area of the bench. This is still in progress.

    Good morning, fellow Knickerbloggers!

    “Mitch will be back shortly and we’ll either be fine at backup C or use him to strengthen another area of the bench.”

    I wish I could be even as half as confident as you sound about that.

    1)we can get Vanderbilt + a small salary like OAKAAK Budding Superstar Cam Reddish for him, with us sending Sims and them sending e.g. Wood to 3rd and 4th teams with cap space and/or exceptions.

    Love Vandy but his offense makes him difficult to field in the playoffs. Maybe with KAT at C, assuming he can still shoot, Vandy could be viable.

    2) we can send Mitch and Dadiet to the Lakers and Sims to a 3rd team for Hachimura.

    If we got back their last 1st maybe. Rui fits a need but Mitch has a much higher impact.

    3) we can send Mitch to the Lakers, Sims to a 3rd team, and get back Reaves (Lakers would have to send e.g. Cam to the 3rd team and I’m aware this isn’t going to happen, just walking through the possibilities).

    I think there’s a legit question if LA wants to keep Reaves to pair with Luka long-term. That’s an amazing young core on offense and a franchise crippling defense.

    Reaves wouldn’t go to us, but maybe LA gets Mitch and other assets while Reaves goes to team 3. We get something of value from somewhere else.

    4) we can get Vincent and Wood (blech, no interest unless they want to give us their 2031 first).

    I wouldn’t mind kicking the tires on those two, but certainly not for Mitch. I’d maybe do it with their last first.

    There was something they did not like and finally got tired of it.

    It’s corruption. If you check out the Mavs presser yesterday with Nico the GM he sounded clueless. It seemed like he was being forced to say things to make the trade look good.

    I should add one other thing. There was also the issue of giving Doncic the super max. New ownership may not have wanted to commit that much money and time to a guy that’s always out of shape and getting possibly injured because of it.

    New ownership may not have wanted to commit that much money and time to a guy that’s always out of shape and getting possibly injured because of it.

    Maybe but this seems dumb. He’s young. There’s still plenty of time to get him to get into better shape. He’s had some injuries but nothing major. And couldn’t you put some stipulations like this in his new contract?

    I mean, I wouldn’t say Jokic is some chiseled Adonis either.

    You give a top 5 player who is 25 a super max. It’s not like they couldn’t still trade him later.

    The supermax exists to keep a top player from bolting and joining the Lakers. It does not exist as an incentive to trade him there.

    Edit: as Swifty said, Luka on a supermax is easily tradeable.

    “It’s corruption.”

    The Steph Curry shoe fuck-up makes me think it could be mostly incompetence. Doesn’t rule out corruption, but sometimes people are too stupid to realize they’re being corrupt. Or that they should care.

    Does make me wonder how this guy still has a job.

    So now it comes down to whether LeBron can bully Luka into his workout and diet plan, or if Luka ends up spending his time with Bronny out at the clubs while LeBron sobs his way into retirement…

    Don’t see Bronny as a club guy. But that’s based on nothing, and I could be wrong about that. OK, maybe it’s not “based on nothing.” I’m probably basing it on his Dad’s commitment to fitness, etc. Anyone know if Bronny still lives at home?

    Yeah, Doogie, probably not, just more about trying to imagine a worst-case scenario for the old man. Luka ‘corrupting’ the lad might do it…

    Was watching Duke – UNC highlights for some reason and you know what, everyone is wrong, Cooper Flagg is actually really really good. I don’t generally slurp college freshman too much but his numbers are outstanding and his defense looks outstanding and he is incredibly young.

    I excuse any and all tanking because he looks like a difference maker.

    I am also head over heels for Tyson Chandler Maluach but that’s just me loving bigs

    I don’t generally slurp college freshman too much but his numbers are outstanding and his defense looks outstanding and he is incredibly young.

    are we definitely okay with owen suddenly trying so hard to make slurp happen. this is worse than that time haralabob sent one tweet from brighton and strat spent the next two weeks calling everyone bruv.

    i don’t think there’s a mitch to the lakers trade that makes sense for us (i’m a tried and true rui hater), but if we were to get burned by sending him out just before the mitchaissance finally arrives, i would really love it for him to suddenly be catching lobs from luka and lebron. i mean damn.

    Conspiracy theory: we are slow-walking the news that OG’s foot injury is a season ender so as not to harm our negotiating position in the trade Leon is working on to bring in depth for this playoffs a la the Bojan/Burks trade last season.

    The ‘questionable’ designation is insane on its face, chance of him playing before the deadline is absolute zero.

    Looks like Mitch is a goner, but if we we use him to bring in an OG substitute we’re still without a backup center, which hurts even worse with KAT’s thumb slowing him down all season long.

    Fred and some other Athletic writers go behind the scenes on the Mavs/Lakers negotiations: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6108360/2025/02/03/luka-doncic-nba-trade-negotiations-lakers-mavericks/

    Given the debate here, this is the most interesting passage:

    Though Mavs general manager Nico Harrison seemed to indicate in a news conference Sunday that he spoke only to the Lakers about Dončić, Dallas called at least one other team to inquire about a deal that would flip Dončić for another star, league sources told The Athletic. But the Mavericks didn’t enter deep negotiations with anyone but the Lakers.

    It’s gotta be the Bucks, right?

    Speaking of slurping… first thing I’m doing in LA is getting a bowl of oxtail pho at Pho 2000. Korean granny’s doing it up.

    Conspiracy theories suck.

    There you go.

    Kris Pursiainen
    @krispursiainen
    The Dallas Mavericks contacted the Milwaukee Bucks about a trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo before starting serious discussions with the Lakers about a deal involving swapping Anthony Davis for Luka Dončić, per league sources familiar with the situation.

    I appreciate the “Laughing hysterically before slamming the phone down” image this report produces.

    Semi-serious question.

    If the Mavs had contacted us about a Brunson for Donca straight up swap, would you do it?

    If the Bucks had known that Harrison massively undervalued Luka and probably would have included all of DAL’s other assets, I wonder if they’d have been more receptive.

    I’m just gobsmacked by the reports that Pelinka talked Harrison out of asking for Knecht and the 2031 because he was doing him a favor taking on the risk of paying Luka.

    If the Mavs had contacted us about a Brunson for Donca straight up swap, would you do it?

    2024 Doogie would have a field day with Donca! Glad he’s reformed somewhat.

    Sorry, I love Brunson I’d drive him down to Dallas myself. Luka is even 2.5 years younger!

    Salaries wouldn’t work so we’d have to include Mitch or something. No problem.

    Co-sign on the non-use of “slurp” in this context, going forward. 🙂

    if you’ve ever watched Pardon the Interruption (PTI) one of the hosts, Michael Wilbon says the word over and over and over again…

    one of his grandkids, if he has any, needs to tell him to chill with that…

    like a teenager who first starts cussing, it just sounds really out of place…

    Conspiracy theory: we are slow-walking the news that OG’s foot injury is a season ender so as not to harm our negotiating position in the trade Leon is working on to bring in depth for this playoffs a la the Bojan/Burks trade last season.

    getting hard not be concerned about this. mri surely has happened by now. leaking good news would be a positive for leverage AND slurp the fanbase right upside the jowles. and yet.

    Wait, are you saying that they amputated OGs foot?

    as woj would have said on draft day, nyk medical staff is increasingly zeroing in on the relative wellness of og anunoby’s torso

    I’m sure the news on OG is worse than a best case scenario but probably not as bad as Pags doom and gloom.

    I’m guessing he’s out for one month and we’ll be a 500ish team during this stretch.

    It is wild how quickly season momentum can change in one freaking day. Before Saturday we were riding high. Now I would not be shocked if we lost the next two games and have a little slide.

    Sorta agree with Pags, but the problem with the hypothetical is that likely Dolan gets involved, we gut the team, Leon resigns, Thibs gets fired when he benches Luka, and we are in Luka centerless and good playersless reset with no draft picks

    Dallas sold a top 3 player for an older top 10 player, a rookie and a 1st round pick. They didn’t want to brake it all up and rebuild. They wanted an all-nba player back. No point of asking teams to bid who dont have what you want. They reportedly asked Milwakee for Giannis and were told to kick rocks. Who else should they have courted that was a better fit than AD?

    getting hard not be concerned about this. mri surely has happened by now. leaking good news would be a positive for leverage AND slurp the fanbase right upside the jowles. and yet.

    Goddammit ptmilo I was just dooming there. Now I’m sure my theory is true!

    Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Nick Young, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and now Luka Doncic: all wore the uni in the 21st century. And now am I supposed to think Luka is going to be the only one among them to not have a ring?

    Sorta agree with Pags, but the problem with the hypothetical is that likely Dolan gets involved, we gut the team, Leon resigns, Thibs gets fired when he benches Luka, and we are in Luka centerless and good playersless reset with no draft picks

    A valid concern, but our lack of future assets kinda protects us from what Dolan did with the Melo trade, right? Plus instead of having a the shrewd Masai Ujiri on the other side of the negotiating table, we’d have Nico Harrison who is either a complete idiot or hamstrung by mandates from an even worse owner than Dolan.

    It’s funny how the shittiness of NBA owners seems to be directly proportional to their level of Trump support. Maybe that just applies to the shittiness of humans in general.

    If we did manage to keep it to Brunson + salary fodder and whatever picks we have left, Luka/Bridges/Hart/OG/Towns is probably OKC level or pretty close.

    We’d even be giving them a package arguably better than they actually got! Can anyone argue that AD at 32 and $40m is a better asset than Brunson at 28 and $27m?

    My Brunson question was also just considering like if you got that call at 11pm on Saturday or whatever and you’re Leon, would you think “why are they offering us Luka straight up for Brunson when they gave us Brunson 2 years ago?”

    Would you consider culture at all in this calculation?

    Y’all should be happy if we’ve run an MRI on any part of OGs body. I’m not convinced the Knicks are above telling him to walk it off for a few days and see how it feels.

    The “questionable” status was absurd from the very beginning, so the downgrade to “out” is entirely expected. Even if his goddamn foot felt 100% better I wouldn’t have let him play in the next two games.

    The more time passes without some sort of official statement about his injury, however, the worse this looks. It’s Monday afternoon and still nothing other than the vague “foot sprain” diagnosis, so I’d say this situation looks quite a bit worse today than it did yesterday. The radio silence is more concerning than the demotion to “out” status for tonight’s game.

    The more time passes without some sort of official statement about his injury, however, the worse this looks. It’s Monday afternoon and still nothing other than the vague “foot sprain” diagnosis, so I’d say this situation looks quite a bit worse today than it did yesterday. The radio silence is more concerning than the demotion to “out” status for tonight’s game.

    Worth noting: this is EXACTLY what happened with Randle’s shoulder. We never saw him again.

    “It’s funny how the shittiness of NBA owners seems to be directly proportional to their level of Trump support. Maybe that just applies to the shittiness of humans in general.”

    100

    Magnus and I both play chess and enjoy a bit of Zach Lowe, we are exactly the same

    We likely don’t know the truth about OGs injury before the trade deadline. That’d be silly for the team to disclose.

    We likely don’t know the truth about OGs injury before the trade deadline. That’d be silly for the team to disclose.

    Unless it was favorable, so you can pretty much assume that the next time we see him he’ll have a wooden peg leg like an old timey pirate captain.

    My brain still hurts from yesterday
    Wow.

    Tough matchup tonight though. I don’t necessarily think Houston is better than us despite the record, but MAN do they play tough defense. And with no Anunoby tonight, the floor shrinks for us. KAT and Bridges are gonna have to take every advantage available tonight

    chatting with cdiggy a bit about their work really made me think just how amazing it is that their are sooooo many folks here at KB who are truly passionate about their profession…

    very different work experience for myself…

    operatons and logistics was my thing…

    it’s nice to think you may be working on or for some noble cause, and I’ve had that happen a few times…mostly from helping out on some disaster relief stuff, or supporting instructors in the field…

    truth is, I could’ve worked in either heaven or hell, and my tasks would’ve been the same…

    and, it would of still just been a job to me…

    Tough matchup tonight though. I don’t necessarily think Houston is better than us despite the record, but MAN do they play tough defense. And with no Anunoby tonight, the floor shrinks for us. KAT and Bridges are gonna have to take every advantage available tonight

    They are a LOT better than us. They have a better record and they’ve played the 4th toughest schedule while we have played the easiest.

    Possibilities tonight range from us getting blown out wire to wire or going down to an early 8-10 point deficit we can never threaten because we can’t get a stop. Our OG-less defense pretty much guarantees them 45%+ shooting from 3.

    Magnus Carlsen, I’m guessing, to answer an earlier question. Perhaps the greatest chess player, ever.

    Goes without saying that any amount of time without OG is going to be brutal, tonight included. I’m not even sure what the starting lineup will be. My guess is we’ll just slide in Deuce, but Thibs is often pretty rigid about keeping roles like “sixth man” in place so I could easily see him going with Precious or maybe even Shamet.

    Houston might not have the personnel to really make us pay since I assume we’ll start Mikal on Jalen Green. Naturally since I just said that, you can probably safely bet the house on all of Dillon Brooks’ overs.

    Naturally since I just said that, you can probably safely bet the house on all of Dillon Brooks’ overs.

    Is one of them how many times he’ll get all up in Brunson’s grill with his fake tough guy act?

    Most annoying player in the NBA, hands down

    Precious will start 100%. Thibs gonna Thibs. With no shooting at the 4-5 due to that and Towns’ injury, they’ll pack the paint and hold us under 110.

    Brooks will beat the shit out of Brunson all game. Brooks and FVV will combine for 10+ 3PM. Don’t even feel the need to watch this one.

    I hate this timeline. Really feels like we shifted into an alternate reality around halftime of the Lakers game.

    “Most annoying player in the NBA, hands down”

    Ooo, certainly All-NBA Annoying, but most? Time to make a team!

    I presume Joel starts at center…

    Mitch got some good news.

    What is it Beeks? Did he find out his new team just landed Luka Doncic?

    God, I never think about Josh from the other team’s perspective. No, he’s like TJ. Hateful, but not annoying per se. The former comes with some respect, while you just want to slap the latter.

    And yeah, Trae at point, for sure. Good one.

    good news to share:

    you no longer need a prescription for those continuous glucose monitor (CGM) pads for diabetics…

    been about 5 months now, just found out though…

    previously you had to be on insulin to qualify…

    looks like it’s still a while (year or two?) before there is a wearable non invasive monitoring device (watches)…

    But would you rather have him than Shamet? Because we still can’t sign a 15th man for a few weeks, barring a trade. (Which is at least part of the reason they’ve talked about trading Sims for basically nothing.)

    FVV isn’t playing and Sengun is questionable. Knicks winning fairly easily tonight.

    I hate this timeline. Really feels like we shifted into an alternate reality around halftime of the Lakers game.

    You hate every timeline and you have a ridiculous Chicken Little attitude about every single thing that ever happens. Great shtick, very enjoyable for everybody.

    You hate every timeline and you have a ridiculous Chicken Little attitude about every single thing that ever happens. Great shtick, very enjoyable for everybody.

    False. I was as excited about the January Knicks last year as everyone and I did post increasingly positive sentiments during pre-OG injury as our SRS climbed towards the range typical of true contenders (6+).

    Your apparent schtick of constantly bitching about sentiments you disagree with is no more enjoyable.

    FVV isn’t playing and Sengun is questionable. Knicks winning fairly easily tonight.

    That’s what we said on Saturday when AD was out. Depleted opponents have always brough out the worst in us.

    Knicks have usually bounced back strong after a bad loss, even without OG I expect no different tonight.

    tonight tonight…

    I am not sure what to expect…we got smoked on saturday, OG out, we are already challenged on size…

    not really expecting too much from KAT…

    seems about anything could happen tonight…

    Your apparent schtick of constantly bitching about sentiments you disagree with is no more enjoyable.

    Really? You come across as pretty desperate for negative attention for someone who claims not to enjoy it.

    tonight tonight…

    because we all have our own shtick to stick to…call it behavioral hard wired coding, hard stuff to navigate…

    fumble fingering on my phone wasn’t able to make this work above…

    I’d also just like to randomly add – i have been evaluated by several: neurologists, pyschiatrist, and psychologists…

    I am not crazy…

    just putting that out there…

    Really? You come across as pretty desperate for negative attention for someone who claims not to enjoy it.

    Positive or negative attention is equally fine if it’s coupled with some kind of thought-provoking or substantive argument. What I don’t care for is constant bitching about pessimistic takes purely because of their sentiment.

    I am not crazy…

    just putting that out there…

    Thanks for the laugh, geo

    Your takes don’t suck because they’re pessimistic. They suck because they’re stupid.

    Like for instance, you posted a take earlier this season that guaranteed we would be a bottom five defense. That turned out to be a stupid fucking take.

    You got a million of those.

    Whoa. Whoa.

    Whoa.

    Are we supposed to point out all the takes that we see that we don’t agree with and call them “stupid”? I didn’t think that’s what we were doing.

    Dammit, Santi Aldama! Quit it!!!

    Sam Merrill hit 9-of-13 3-pointers last night?!? Sam freaking Merrill?!?

    Like for instance, you posted a take earlier this season that guaranteed we would be a bottom five defense. That turned out to be a stupid fucking take.

    1. Don’t declare victory on that just yet, bud. The season isn’t over and we just lost our best defender, most likely for the entire rest of the way. We’ll also be playing a MUCH harder schedule for the next 33 games than we have up to now.

    2. Even if I’m wrong, a prediction that turns out to be wrong isn’t necessarily stupid given the facts available when it was made.

    I love how Jowles slipped “I can’t believe he was never a (K)Nick Young” into that list.

    JK – how old is your kid? You have definitely reached the “tell it exactly as it is no matter what” stage of fatherhood. You are fighting the good fight even though it’s unwinnable.

    Thanks for the laugh, geo

    no really raven…

    got poked and prodded on by a bunch doctors, like a lot, not enjoyable, real mind fuck to be honest…no apparent personality disorders either – which i found to be pretty surprising…there’s a bunch of checklists you got to go through…

    for sure thought ADHD or OCD would be in there…nope…

    interesting, because i have some real challenges…in particular: social interaction…i have to be very conscious and controlled in pretty much everything…

    it’s what did me in at work, took so much effort and energy, just not to explode all the time: stupid, fat, lazy people…

    it’s easy for me to go off the rails…

    think that’s why i kind of get some of the folks here whom present a palpable off-setting persona to others, consistently…

    it’s a bit of a unique trait to truly not care much about disapproval…

    growing old alone is not a very healthy thing, it’s not conducive to better long term health, an enhanced life…it is a foolish plan, notion always stays with me though…

    it’s why i finally had to adjust…was losing family and friends…trying to hang tight now to what i have…

    passionate professions aside, after a while the only roles that really matter are dad, partner, son, friend, especially when there’s more road behind than ahead…

    ‪@jledwardsiii.bsky.social‬
    Thibs said Mitchell Robinson has been cleared for contact. “The next step is the contact part of practice.”

    I think Doogie telling JK to pump the brakes might be my favorite part of this thread. Not disagreeing with you, Doogie, just pleased at your playing the peacemaker.

    Geo, I don’t know if it’ll make you feel any better, but I think not being able to deal with other humans in person is a perfectly sensible trait. I can do it if I have to, but I’ve worked hard to largely avoid it until an unfortunate stretch in the executive suite, which was a less than favorite time. I’m back out in one piece, and at home, and happy as a clam.

    I’ll be missing all but the first quarter tonight, so looking forward to a bumpy game thread later.

    There must be a Beckett piece somewhere about two guys locked up in old-fashioned stocks facing each other, one whose schtick is incredibly annoying and the other who is highly triggered by annoying schtick…

    That is a considerable relief. OG especially but Mitch is great news too.

    Going to be a week before I believe any of it though.

    We’re going to get Jae’Sean Tate and Tari Eason tonight instead of Fred Van Vleet and Alperen Sengun.

    To no one’s surprise, Josh Hart has been upgraded to probable. My prediction is that he’s playing, as he pretty much always does (he missed one game this season for personal reasons). It’s not going out on any kind of limb to expect to see him out there.

    If true about OG and Mitch, both tidbits are very exciting news.

    Is it purely because they’re pessimistic? Like not even a little bit because they’re tedious and repetitive?

    It is important not to get ahead of yourself based on fatalism. Fatalism is easier than optimism since it reserves the I told you so thing. When you’re optimistic you could look foolish. Anyway, good to hear about Big Mitch and Anunoby. Go Knicks.

    1. Don’t declare victory on that just yet, bud. The season isn’t over and we just lost our best defender, most likely for the entire rest of the way.

    This aged like milk

    This aged like milk

    Still very much live on this one:
    1. MSG lies a lot and has every incentive to do so right now
    2. OG will still miss considerable time
    3. OG’s elbow thing last season was touted as a short-term injury too
    4. Only 2 points of Drtg separate us from #25 right now

    However, I do fervently hope my instincts are wrong, he’s back to his OG self by March, and the wheels don’t come off the wagon in the meantime.

    Still can’t imagine all of him, Mitch, and Towns being healthy on the same day though.

    It was their assumptions that made no sense. They were driven by groupthink, probably with a healthy dose of anti-Euro Player bias.

    Oh, yes…. I’m quite sure at team whose success was largely on the back of Euro Dirk would certainly have an anti Euro bias. Seems odd, especially when foriegners are mostly the best players in the league today.

    The most annoying thing about Pags is he’s quite capable of good writing and insightful opinions in the rare instances he’s not doing the insufferable bit, but there’s no warning label for the ~90% of posts that are part of the bit which makes it difficult to know which ones to skip.

    Anyway, the OG news feels like a miracle. That had all the elements of a calendar year +++ injury. If we actually get off with…him just getting some much needed rest, I’ll have no choice but to assume we’re a team of destiny.

    4. Only 2 points of Drtg separate us from #25 right now

    This is meaningless. We’re also 2 points of DRtg from the #9 defense. The Spurs are 2 points of DRtg from the #9 defense and the #28 defense. The Lakers are 2 points of DRtg from the #11 defense and the #28 defense.

    Last season, Minnesota had the #1 DRtg in the league by 2.3 points. Orlando was 2nd and was 2 points away from 8th. Houston was 9th and was 2 points away from 17th. Dallas was 17th and was 2 points away from 22nd.

    Comments are closed.