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98 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.05.01)”
Reading that DDV injured both LeBron and Doncic last night made me miss him so much š
“Reading that DDV injured both LeBron and Doncic last night made me miss him so much š”. THIS +1,000
1) Swap Delon into the starting lineup for Hart and have Delon play 20ish min per game
2) Hart plays low 30s minutes with a mix of 2nd and 1st team
3) Hart is required to take every open 3 without hesitation. I’m ok if he shots 35pct on those. It’s the hesitation that kills me.
4) Towns takes more threes, also without hesitation. Even when moderately tightly guarded. Doesn’t need to be 10ft back of the line. But anywhere up to 4ft back.
Re next year, i’d like to run it back with a different coach. Maybe a small trade around the edges. Thibs was a very good coach for the make up of last year’s team. The composition of this team could not be more different, and requires a different approach.
Some guy named Pat Spencer helped GS make it sort of interesting late against Houston and then head butted Sengun with 4 minutes to go maybe we can get him for next year
Lacrosse god Pat Spencer
GoldClub,
I like your ideas. I do think instead of a full tear down or major overhaul, the best move for next season would be A) a coaching change and B)finding one starter that can push Hart to the bench or finding a reliable veteran scorer/minutes soaker for the bench.
My third thing would be to trade Mikal if there’s a package out there that makes sense. Obviously we aren’t getting back 5 picks but if there’s a trade that nets us 2 reliable bench pieces to shore up our depth I’d trade for 2 guys who are maybe more limited in their skill set but do the things they do well.
I’d love to bring back Delon Wright and it’s a little annoying he’s gotten no minutes in these playoffs. I get not starting him. Him and Brunson haven’t played together at all. But he started for us and did a fantastic job and he provides some good playmaking/pg skills and defense for us.
The other question for the bench is McBride vs. Cam. McBride might have shat the bed these playoffs but he’s still a youngish player on a cheap contract. I think you throw him in a Mikal trade and you might be able to bring back something nice. Or do you let Cam go, stick with McBride and bring back Delon? Then you have Kolek in the wings too. Either way I think we need a SF off the bench. We also are not sure what our big situation is going to be. Does Mitch go out? Do you bring him back and just make him the full time back up C? Do you potentially start him with KAT? Is Huk going to be ready next year?
Looking forward to a much better performance by the Knicks tonight.
The Grizzlies beating LA in 5 is as satisfying a non Knicks playoff win as Iāve had in awhile.
1. Lebron got eliminated in the 1st round with Luka as his running mate.
2. The people that assumed the Lakers would be better with Luka because he’s a better scorer and playmaker (Lebron himself implied as much) found out that when you already have a weak defense and you trade away an all defensive player that can give you 25 a night for a negative defender that duplicates the offensive skills you already have on your team you are going to be worse.
3. When the Lakers went small the T-Wolves crushed them inside the way teams used to and the way you are supposed to. Itās comical that they could do it with Gobert, but that shows you just how bad their interior defense was without Davis and how much that matters.
4. Ultimately, the Lakers will build around Doncic and be better off long term because Davis will wear down and retire earlier, but short term that trade set them back. By the time they rebuild James wonāt be there or have little left and even he didnāt understand that.
5. A lot of people are saying the Lakers were tired from all the minutes. The Laker players won’t admit it, but ex-players know what it’s like and they are the ones saying it. Minutes matter.
6. I’ve been in a love/hate relationship with Randle, but it was fun to see him play well under playoff pressure without taking dumb shots and making bad TOs. Excellent coaching and maturity on his part.
The one unsatisfying thing is that we didn’t get to see the Mavs at 100% because of all the injuries. IMO, if Davis, Kyrie and the rest of the team were healthy, the Mavs would still be in it and have at least a shot to beat anyone. Kyrie’s injury is a killer though. He won’t be back until mid season at best next year and who knows at his age if he’ll ever be the same player.
Starting to think that Strat has been a Nico Harrison burner account this entire time.
“The Grizzlies beating LA in 5 is as satisfying a non Knicks playoff win as Iāve had in awhile.”
Doogie must be rolling over in his grave…
If it wasn’t a billion dollar league Luka would be riding east and across the atlantic right about now…I can see him hating this bush league oh so much. Refs and opponents from the heart.
Donte has the heart but also is full of dirty gene that Luka lacks desperatly. I as a choleric entery level recreational baller I scream at the tv why doesn’t he get filty down to the competition…knock that sob out and don’t argue with the oficials. Get back to d and tuch up the next guy comming.Do it malicously smart as they do. Trip him up, clobber him going for the ball, push and shove with force into the stands. Quit being nice. Use your big but, big elbows and additional tonnage that you have on them and level them to the groud. Be dirty.
He’d be floping, but he never goes below the belt or into someones knees, his hard fouls are kindergarten. He want’s to beat you within basketballs universal rule book. He goes by the guild and union rules. He’s got way too much respect for health of his opponents while he takes the beating leagaly and clandenstine dirty bball mob level.
And reading Strat’s ex chatedra DonÄiÄ takes thru the years make me see red Jon Abbey style. While always wrong in his reasoning and argumentation he never mentions one thing which i’m afraid might be true: that Luka is already over the hill phisicaly from the usage/minutes milage(NBA+INT)and the beating he takes. I hope he proves me wrong and takes his body seriously.
Now about to end my rant, and going to do venting on the people around me:))
I might get a tad better about bball if Knicks kick some green and later riders but.
wolves have to figure out a way to get donte inso starting lineup he is obviously not a pg so he cannot replace conley although how much longer is conley going to play i guess they need mcdaniel for defense so i do not see him working his way in he started a few games earlier this season but i cannot remember if that was bc of injury
I agree.
If we aren’t going to do a major overhaul deal (like trade KAT), imo the best idea is to find a coach that will use our offensive weapons properly, add to the bench and find a 3&D player that can rebound to replace Hart in the starting lineup (preferably a PF).
1. Finding a new coach won’t be a problem if Leon and Dolan are willing to fire Thibs despite the extension.
2. Improving the bench shouldn’t be a problem because we have a few young players and can add.
3. Trading for the right starting caliber player to replace Hart and move him to the bench is problematical. You have to give up something to get something and we don’t have any spare parts or excess picks. The only potential assets are Mitch (who is doing a fine job recovering his value) and Deuce. But we need Mitch’s interior defense and trading Deuce sets the bench back. There also aren’t any obvious targets that are the perfect fit like like say OG was.
That the Lakers were likely to get worse in the short-term was a widely discussed, largely agreed upon idea in the wake of the trade. It wasn’t a controversial idea They Wouldn’t Let You Talk About at all.
It was only questioned after Luka was so good for the Lakers, the obvious fit issues didn’t rear their heads as prominently as people thought. But they were always going to be vulnerable to a team with functional size like Minnesota.
Anyway, now the Lakers have to figure out how to build around a newly 26 year-old wing who is a perennial MVP candidate instead of a 32 year-old big who, while excellent when healthy, has averaged 52 games played in the last 5 years. I think they’re at peace with how it played out.
I’ve been saying the same things here about Luka since his first year.
Charles last night “Can’t guard a chair” “Out of shape”.
I don’t think Nico made a fair trade, but I do think he made a trade that pre Kyrie injury may have given him a better chance to win a title in Dallas over the next few years. To me, it’s at least arguable.
The problem of course is that he gave away a player whose market value (as opposed to intrinsic value) far exceeded the return he got and also gave away longer term value. He was supposed to get a lot more (at least squeeze out another 1st rounder). But he had his mind set on a specific player to win now instead of a boatload of picks and a rebuild.
I don’t think he should not have taken as much heat for it as he did. If he just got the extra pick it would have less of an issue (except maybe among Dallas fans).
The Lakers made a very good long term deal that probably hurt them short term, but I don’t think they understood that.
Nonsense.
They were huge favorites in this series and their odds to win the title improved sharply in gambling markets right after the trade.
Virtually every talking head (including James himself) thought they were serious title contenders after the trade.
It was rare to hear anyone say the Lakers got worse. I’m not sure I heard a single person say that other than someone I converse with (and usually agree with ) on Twitter.
My feeling is that prime Luka is going to be very similar to prime James Harden. Phenomenal offensive players with glaring flaws, but could be the best player on a championship team so long as the mix around them is appropriate. I would prefer prime Luka to prime Harden, and think that the Mavs were very close to having that mix around Luka that would have resulted in at least one championship. And if that’s the goal of any franchise, the magnitude of Nico’s blunder can’t be overstated.
However, I don’t see a championship run in the near future for the Lakers even with the heist they pulled off unless something crazy happens, like if LeBron signs for the vet’s minimum, they hit a couple of home runs late in the draft with the shitty picks they had left, and another lopsided trade falls into their lap. And I agree with Strat that building a contender once Luka signs for the super-duper-mega-max willl be a tall order, and that’s assuming that Luka commits to conditioning and injury prevention.
None of that excuses Nico for making an all-time stupid trade that essentially blew up a legit championship window, but at the end of the day, the Mavs still might be better positioned than the Lakers going forward.
Wolves were a bad, bad matchup for the Lakers, a team that wound up without any real centers. Easy to play Gobert off the floor when you have KD, Steph and Draymond, not so easy when your ‘big’ is dorian finney smith or rui hatchimura.
I think they probably did, although they probably did hope to get out of the first round. They definitely knew they needed a center.
Took me 10 seconds to find Hollinger’s immediate post-trade take, which was that the Lakers are probably a little worse in the short-term but still absolutely had to make the trade because the long-term value add is a no brainer:
they had a center in Mark williams who they decided was not healthy even though he played the reas of the season after that without incident.
Now that Lebron has seen upclose what a dishevled slob Luka is it’s time for him to fulfill his destiny (coming to the Knicks for the veteran minimum)
LOL, I was just thinking is there a world where we can get Lebron for next season while keeping our core? Would they want Mikal?
Julius Randle, he who was proclaimed to be a guaranteed playoff liability, was only good due to empty arenas, was the “most detrimental player in the NBA” on an albatross extension, was already in physical decline two years ago, just put up a .610 TS% on 25% usage and a 4.5 BPM in helping his team waltz to the second round over a team with LeBron and Luka.
Meanwhile, the guy we traded him for is so far putting up a .617 TS% on a 21% usage while posting a 4.4 BPM while primarily being guarded by a guy half his size.
KAT better fucking step up tonight.
These are very good numbers!
Yeah, not really sure what Z-man’s beef is with KAT. In my eyes KAT is the least of our problems this series.
“These are very good numbers!”
Not nearly good enough in my book, considering his salary, what we gave up for him, his role on this team, and who he’s being guarded by.
i think mikal is part of our core now whether or not he should be is a different conversation that we have already had seveal times
NY deserves LeBron.
ny deserved lebrn 7-10 yrs ago
“perhaps” there’s one downside is not nearly the same thing as saying they actually got worse after the trade. He’s suggesting that it’s not the perfect fit, but longer term they have a cornerstone piece in place to rebuild.
Everyone agrees it was good long term move for the Lakers. I would have made that trade too, but I would have known the team got worse this year and that there are serious issues with Doncic’s game.
James himself thought they were serious contenders.
I’ll also add it’s not going to be such an easy rebuild given the lack of defense at so many positions. The offense will be terriifc, but they may have to trade a guy like Reeves to get what they need.
The odds reflect what people thought.
Wall St Journal headline today.
āNot Something I Ever Envisionedā: How the LeBron-Luka Experiment Shockingly Collapsed
I meant that allegorically with a touch of irony.
KAT isn’t the reason why iHart left and he’s not the reason why Leon sent out 5 first round picks. Randle was/is in a contract year and we had no healthy center on the roster after iHart left. The KAT trade did not hurt us. Do you honestly think we would have won 51 games with Randle starting at center for the entire season, which he would have to do?
https://x.com/FirstTake/status/1917958815644889405/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1917958815644889405¤tTweetUser=FirstTake&mode=profile
Apparently JJ is a bad coach
“Yeah, not really sure what Z-manās beef is with KAT. In my eyes KAT is the least of our problems this series.”
And I think that we go as KAT goes. And my beef is not with KAT per se, we can debate whether it is on Brunson or Thibs, but our success or failure is tied up in his performance. Again, he’s being guarded by Tobias Harris. If he’s not going off, it’s a problem.
You said:
In 10 seconds, I found one of the most prominent commentators at perhaps the premier sports journalism publication on the planet saying, flat out, ātheyāre not [contenders].ā
It was the widespread consensus that the trade was a no-brainer because of what it augured for the future. This opinion was widely disseminated in The Athletic, a publication owned by The New York Times.
If They Didnāt Want You to Know about it, They did a very sloppy job of covering it up.
Even in the very unlikely event that we get LeBron and he wins a championship, it’ll be all about LeBron.
i think that would somehow be ok
I like Towns as a player and teammate.
But when you have starters that are worse than average on defense it gets tricky to build a team. Leon and Thibs should have known that the Towns and Brunson combo was going to be a problem on defense. If they thought Mitch could cover it up, fine. Then play them together!
I’m not sayng I would have done this, but he could have punted on the early part of the season (maybe found some filler C), seen what was going on with Mitch and then looked for a trade that made more sense at the deadline.
There’s part of me that likes this team a lot, but I simultaneously feel like we are never going to take that next step with the Towns/Brunson combo. The offense we can fix with a different coach. The defense will always be a problem. That’s why I sometimes think Towns has to go.
I mean yes, our success or failure is tied up in how well one of our all-stars plays. We also tend to lose games when Brunson doesn’t play well.
“i think that would somehow be ok”
Sure, I’ll be the NBA version of Tom Brady’s Buccaneers.
I for one am very glad to see Hubie has returned. It’s been lonely being bang-on right about things like:
-Our peak for the decade was January 2024
-It’s a decline from there and the only question is how quick it’ll be
-Leon has done a uniformly terrible job managing assets pretty much since the 2023 offseason, with clear misses to balance out his good moves before that point
-The Bridges trade is a calamity on the level of the Nets’ package for KG and Pierce, giving up assets that will appreciate extremely rapidly for present assets that don’t even move the needle
-We are now in a franchise-level zugzwang, very far from true contention without nearly the asset load it would take to get there, but also with our ability to pivot to a rebuild crippled until 2031 with half of our own picks gone
-The consensus on this board has been pure Pollyanna even though we’ve looked like a play-in team on the court pretty much for all of 2025
-The best realistic outcome for this playoffs is Thibs’ ouster and even that looks unlikely
The Greek Chorus will be a few months behind reality as always, but this is a very clear teardown. We’ve lost the 2020’s barring an event like Pacome Dadiet developing into Kawhi Leonard, and things like that don’t happen under Thibs. Leveraging Brunson’s immense trade value on that contract is the only realistic way to avoid losing the 2030s.
I know I’m an asshole and everything but I’d really like to see us be a true contender again in my lifetime, or at least have a top 5 NBA player.
#30 pick Jimmy Butler developed under Thibs, I’m guessing that’s a ‘no true Scotsman’ type of situation?
Are we reading the same board…?
I’ll save more detailed long-term thought for the offseason, but:
-We are not the post-King Nets, because we have a lot of young-ish players with solid-to-high trade value.
-That said, it’s true the Mikal trade really could short-circuit whatever window we had if he doesn’t stop sucking or we’re not able to effectively repurpose him in a trade.
-A coaching change took a nearly identical Cavs roster from 48 wins to 64 wins, and I would try that before entertaining a teardown.
“KAT isnāt the reason why iHart left and heās not the reason why Leon sent out 5 first round picks. Randle was/is in a contract year and we had no healthy center on the roster after iHart left. The KAT trade did not hurt us. Do you honestly think we would have won 51 games with Randle starting at center for the entire season, which he would have to do?”
Not disagreeing with anything you say here (never had!). But there was a certain giddiness during the season when KAT was hot and Randle and DDV were not that I felt at the time was greatly overstated. The KAT trade was a value trade because KAT “stores” more value than Randle and DDV,, i.e. we could get more in a future trade for him than for those two.
But this is a discussion about who we currently are on the court. I have stated for the record that I felt we would have been just as good if we picked up a decent rim protecting starting C (or at least someone to hold the fort until Mitch got back) to fill out a starting lineup of Randle, Brunson, OG and Mikal and a bench with Hart, DDV, Mitch, Deuce, and some vet depth pieces. Nothing that has happened has changed my opinion.
“Deserves got nothing to do with it.”
I always wanted to say that.
The problem with this is with the massive “assume a can opener” assumption built into it. We know which centers were available.
Mark Williams somehow made the Hornets almost 7 points worse per 100 possessions defensively and might have some kind of chronic injury. Clint Capela was injured and bad all year. Knowing Danny Ainge, we wouldn’t have had anything left to trade for Kessler after trading for Bridges.
Starting caliber centers for teams with playoff aspirations are very hard to find!
https://x.com/KnickFilmSkool/status/1917952850287821301/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1917952850287821301¤tTweetUser=KnickFilmSkool
The situation we find ourselves in now is why I have always preferred a youth movement, asset haul, true rebuild model. You simply get a longer window and a higher ceiling. You donāt find yourselves in situations where it makes perverse sense to trade five first round picks for a role player like Mikal Bridges because youāre feeling an impending sense of āwin now.ā Would I rather be Houston, Detroit, OKC, or Orlando than us right now? Yes indeed I would.
Maybe that kind of franchise build isnāt possible here because of Guitar Jimmy and all. Leonās hybrid strategy has worked out okay.
Youāll never convince me itās the BEST strategy.
You mean a coaching change and:
-A large developmental leap from Evan Mobley who went from 2.9 BPM to 4.6 BPM and the DPoY. He would now be the best player on our team and has plenty more runway to improve at 23.
-A bounceback from injury and developmental uptick from Darius Garland, who is now pretty comparable to Jalen Brunson
-The addition of Ty Jerome practically for free, who puts what DDV did for us last season to shame. His 4.3 BPM would also be the best on our team.
-The addition of De’Andre Hunter at the deadline, who is better, younger, and cheaper than Mikal Bridges, but was acquired for scraps instead of their franchise’s entire future asset load
-16 more games of Donovan Mitchell
-18 more games of Darius Garland
Which of those factors will we have going for us?
Which 23 year-old blue chip prospect will make a leap to All-NBA level?
How likely are we to pick up the 6MoY for $2.5m, especially given we seem to be limited to Leon Rose’s CAA friends and nepo hires?
We are absolutely nothing like the Cavs. They are light years ahead and still on the upswing. Mobley is the age NBA rookies used to be. He is likely to end up better than any player in the history of our team. We need to be real about this kind of shit.
If this is as far as this group can go in terms of overall talent and it’s way behind other teams with far better internal upside AND asset capital, it’s a failure and it’s a teardown. The longer we wait to swallow that pill, the longer our time in purgatory will be, and the less fruitful. If we keep running it back until Jalen Brunson is 34, it’ll be another lost decade, and I don’t want to wait until 2040 to maybe have another shot at contending.
Weāll do a āteardownā right around the time I get my flying car and have that torrid affair with Jennifer Lawrence
I think you overstate that, TNFH. They were certainly harder to find after we no longer had anything to trade for them. You could easily argue that Deuce, DDV, and Cam were duplicative enough to include Deuce in a trade along with the DET protected pick, or one or more of our 2024 picks. Or consolidated our picks in the draft to move up a bit and acquire someone like Missi to hold the fort. Even Hukporti playing more minutes was an option. More generally, I believe you are on the record as stating that rim-protecting starting C with limited offense is the most fungible starting position in the NBA, is that not true?
A teardown would have been better but it’s the one thing Dolan clearly wouldn’t allow, before going off to make his Sphere.
Luka doesn’t play any defense but he is still 6’8 and can rebound, and he shares the ball really well. I will take that from my “scorer.”
I remember a study way back in the day that just looked at Jason Kidd’s defensive rebounding. The upshot was that when a great ballhandler is the first man to the ball it’s an offensive uplift.
All to say, anyone who thinks you can’t build a team around Luka of defenders and shooters and junkyard dog types that can win a championship has a somewhat narrow view I think of how to construct a team.
This just brings us back to the question I asked though, for who?
There’s no reason to believe NOP, who was desperate for a center, would’ve taken a mediocre trade up package for Missi. Again, we cannot just assume a can opener.
Missi also definitely showed potential but was far from good enough to start for a playoff team. NOP had the 29th ranked defense in the league and it was substantially worse with him on the court. A 20 year-old rookie on a 21 win team was not the solution here.
Yeah see I think this speaks to my point.
Luka went to the Finals last year on a team that started PJ Washington, Daniel Gafford, and Derrick Jones Jr.
While I agree with JK on the likelihood, been saying this is a teardown for several weeks.
It’s not necessarily that they’ve gotten “worse” in any cosmic sense since playoff spring 2023 — that’s an academic question at most — but they’ve unquestionably lost significant ground to the teams representing and signifying true contention. Eye test and Vegas odds don’t lie.
And that’s the measuring stick. Whether they’re now 8th or 6th in this or that when they were 10th and 8th in this and whatever two years ago is, again, an academic question.
When you’re all in and badly fading against the contenders and in a position that you’ll be lucky to win your first round matchup with a six seed that won 14 games a season ago and is missing two of its front six players … that there’s a teardown.
And the more internal, micro arrows are all pointing in the wrong direction. They didn’t “gel” as time progressed in 2024-25, they “reverse gelled” and regressed.
JK hit on it a few weeks back and reiterated it — the Brunson-prime team has peaked. As with the stock market, we don’t look back, we look forward. Everything prior to May 1, 2025 is old news.
First step back is a new coach and getting back in the draft by virtually any means necessary.
Santi Aldama, as mentioned herein a few days before the trade deadline.
To circle back to my previous post, again this is mostly JK’s idea, but Leon is indeed lazy. He’s tunnel-vision siloed around “guys he knows” or learns about though previous connections — CAA, Kentucky, etc. — and doesn’t really know the full league and full draft. That’s why he trades out and incinerates picks, among other things.(*) Always has been.
He probably has lieutenants who do know the whole league and whole draft, but he assigns them almost exclusively to second round detail.
(*) And hires and sticks with Tom Thibodeau.
You could take a swing at Giannis, but it’s going to cost something like KAT and OG and that might not even be the kind of package the Bucks want. Other teams didn’t squander all their firsts, and the Bucks will likely want some (as they’re one of the teams like the Knicks that did squander there’s. Only they won a championship in exchange.)
I’ve been as doom and gloom as the next guy on this blog in the last 24 hours but would just like to point out that if we win tonight, game one won’t be until Monday. So three full days off to rest and prepare.
If we win tonight and somehow steal game one, the vibe on this blog will change completely.
All to say, let’s not write off the next decade quite yet!
“The situation we find ourselves in now is why I have always preferred a youth movement, asset haul, true rebuild model.”
Most here agree and did at the time. Most preferred that a coach like Thibs not be hired in the first place. Alas..once he was, there was no reason to belabor the point. It was full hybrid ahead.
The only relevant question since then has been: can Leon Rose execute the more mistake-sensitive hybrid rebuild well enough (meaning with some mistakes that all GMs make but no massive blunders) to justify foregoing years of suck inherent in the “true” (a loaded term) rebuild model? The answer going into offseason 2024 was a resounding “YES!” In fact, this was true even with some pretty egregious unforced errors.
But then the Mikal Bridges trade happened. That was not the result of the strategy. It was an unforced error that could have occurred even with a “true” rebuild, once the pressure to win kicked in.
I suppose you could chalk up only signing iHart to a 2-year deal after theoretically sacrificing draft capital to acquire him was along the lines of a massive blunder, but that is more of a hindsight thing. But again, teams that initiate “true” rebuilds make those kinds of mistakes as well. Presti is lucky to have a very patient owner, but probably would have been successful no matter what route he chose. Hinkie wasn’t so lucky. Orlando, Sacramento, Charlotte, Detroit, Washington, New Orleans, etc. have all fucked up their “true” rebuilds to one degree or another.
If you all keep saying we need to tear the team down and start over hard enough maybe Jimmy will listen to you
Where were all the Santi Aldama trade rumors last offseason or at the trade deadline indicating we could’ve traded Deuce and a protected pick for him? I’ve only seen reports that Memphis will prioritize extending him.
The knows-nothing, sees-everything narratives in this place can be exhausting but are mostly amusing.
“This just brings us back to the question I asked though, for who?”
I think you are just being argumentative. You know full well that this is the easiest position in the NBA to fill, if you have some assets to trade or some picks to make. Not to mention that Mitch is actually available right now.
So the question is: would a playoff starting lineup of Mitch, Randle, OG, Mikal, and Brunson with a bench of Hart, DDV, backup C, and either Deuce or Payne depending on whether Deuce was traded, be at least as good as what we are putting out there right now vs. DET?
(we haven’t brought up the possibility of using Mitch as the bait to acquire a starting C, but that was not an entirely outlandish proposition)
With Thibs as the coach? Yes? But if we had a different coach who ran a real offense instead of just ISO Brunson (alternating with ISO Julius)….maybe not.
People have been way too quick to assume Lukaās a Laker for life.
You know what the logical next step for a man who got blindsided by his employer and seemed to be traumatized by it? Itās not signing your life away to a new organization you just joined and hardly know. Itās asserting control over your life by becoming a free agent so you can set your terms and choosing your next job.
The Lakers will be better next year but theyāre not exactly loaded with young players and future assets, and LeBron (I think) will stop being great soon. That team is built for one run.
Iāll tell you right now where Luka is going to play next: San Antonio to form the Euro version of Magic and Kareem, playing for the most trusted team in the game.
Theyāll have the cap space to offer him a max, theyāll be loaded w young talent, and theyāll be able to trade Fox for another player.
And yeah, it will really suck to be Nico Harrison when heās back in Texas.
No, I am very genuinely trying to evaluate the specific claim you made, which was:
I cannot evaluate it without knowing who the “decent rim protecting starting C” on a 51 win team is supposed to be, because that is actually quite a hard player to find outside of exceptional situations e.g. your team is absolutely stacked 1-4.
Again, I am aware of the centers publicly known to have been available and, well, we know why they were available. I do not think Mark Williams or Clint Capela would’ve gotten us to 51 wins (in Williams’ case it’s not even clear we had the assets to trade for him, and the numbers indicate he is the furthest thing from a “rim protecting starting C”).
I think that if you plugged in either Clint Capela or Mark Williams to a team with Brunson, Randle, OG, Mikal, Hart, DDV, Mitch, and either Deuce or Payne, plus some Shamet/Precious types of vet’s minimum guys, you have a 50-ish win team that would be no worse than 3-2 vs. the Pistons. Maybe you drop down to the 4-6 spot and have to play one of the Pacers, Bucks, or Pistons without home court. In any case, I like the chances of that team coached by Thibs to get to the second round.
Thereās another reason Luka could leave the Lakers: Laker fans are dumb and fickle, and are already turning on Luka.
Theyāll love him to death and get tattoos of him and buy commemorative plates of him the minute he wins something, but until then heās just the thing they complain about at the office and on talk radio and all that. He may leave before he gets the chance to get lionized.
On the other hand, the Lakers have a way of pulling superstars out of their asses. So maybe they end up with like Jokic or something a year from now to play alongside Luka. Thatās kind of just what they do.
Honestly, I would love it if Luka went to The Spurs since they’re such a huge rival of The Mavs. Would be the ultimate F you move.
we had plenty of opportunity to pick up deandre hunter but never seemed to be in the market for him
Clint Capela played 55 very bad games before getting shutdown in March.
as far as centers go i would rank mark williams at around 12 and capela at around 17 we could do way worse than that with the other pieces we have
They might. But if Iām Luka Iām not signing the extension this summer and counting on that to happen. Iād go to free agency and force them to get it done before I re up. Make them compete with everyone else.
I think we have a better shot at him than the Lakers, tbh. But that San Antonio situation is just too perfect basketball wise.
But people are really underestimating the human element here. Why would sign his life away after what just happened? Makes no sense to me.
i am worried that giannis will go to brooklyn he reportedly loves nyc but we don’t have realistic assets to get with out totally gutting our team
I get what you’re saying but also what Nico did was extremely unusual and stupid. I can’t remember the last time in the NBA a franchise player (future HOF) who hasn’t even gotten to the peak of his career was traded like that without them getting to pick where they go.
Giannis and KAT have almost exact matching salaries. Just saying…
Mikal and Mitch, on the other hand, does not match up as well (48 million vs. 38 million total).
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25178726-nba-agent-says-2025-free-agents-are-f-ked-because-teams-lack-salary-cap-space
Could be a lot of cheap free agents in the market this off season
The Bucks don’t have control of their picks so any trade they make they will want to remain competitive.
Itās less about him getting traded again. Iād bet ptmiloās house that he works a full NTC into his next deal.
Itās more about not winning. Everyone assumes the Lakers will be fine but I wouldnāt bet my career on it. Theyāre probably going to trade a lot of future assets this summer, too.
Every year he doesnāt win heās gotta listen to Nico gloat and guys who sound like strat in the media saying the Mavs were right.
LA is the perfect pit stop for him. San Antonio is the perfect team for him. Wemby can single handedly negate his bad defense (bc centers can do that, Leon; wings canāt) and just let him shine on offense.
After all this shit people talked, I think heās going to be extra motivated to find the team he can win with.
But hey, it is San Antonio. You never know. No oneās ever actually chosen to go there.
I think the Spurs will be a player for Giannis
Castle
Vassell
Fox
Picks
The idea of taking it to the basket with both Wemby and Giannis waiting is pretty freaking scary.
Would redefine the term “rim protection”
IMO the focus on Towns and his offense is getting the priorities backwards unless we are only talking about this series.
Both Towns and Brunson are very good offensive players that fit together very well. Towns is clearly a better offensive player than Randle. That we are struggling on offense in this series isn’t a matter of the players or their fit.
You can blame it on Thibs, Brunson or both (and in part the Pistons defense), but imo it’s easily fixable. A more creative offensive coach would help immediately. A coach that would up the pace and keep Brunson’s tendency to dominate the ball and dribble off clock under wraps would also help. Brunson is very smart. He can play the right way. He just falls into that hero ball create for myself mentality too soon and too often and it hurts movement and the other players – all while he’s wowing us and piling up points.
Point being, I’m already looking at next year because it would take intervention from God for us to beat Boston, Cleveland or OKC playing like this. I’m not sure we’d deserve favoritism over any of the Nuggets, Clippers, Rockets, Warriors, Pacers or Timberwolves in a 7 game series now.
But it’s not offensive TALENT or offensive fit that’s the issue.
The longer term problem is 100% defense.
Even if we brought in a new coach and were running a faster more creative offense, we’d still have issues on the defensive side that are much more difficult to address.
The few of us that have been saying his impact on winning is very overrated due to “negative” defense, too much ball domination, lack of fitness, arguing with refs, problems with teammates etc… “are” right.
But Doncic’s problem is not talent or finding the right team.
It’s giving up some of his bad habits, dedicating himself to getting in peak condition, toning down the ball dominance and shot selection and dedicating himself to play defense for a full game every game. He’s easily capable of all of that.
He’s so ridiculously talented on offense, if he just did that much he wouldn’t have to be a plus defender. He’d just have to be neutral and instead of significant negative.
If anything, being next to James for now is the best thing that could happen to him. If James can’t convince you to get in shape and play the right way you may be hopeless. That would be a waste. He’s epically talented.
Lakers were [-]24 with Reaves, Lebron, and Luka on the court for the series. Lebron will eventually hang it up so the other 3 will have to be plus defenders.
KAT for Giannis would be great but it would also immediately open a need for a KP, Miles Turner type center. Basically an elite rim protector who can shoot. Mitch can’t play with Giannis effectively. Hart is at least debatable.
I know. KAT at Center with Giannis at the 4 and OG at the 3 would actually be an amazing way to hide KAT’s defensive deficiencies.
re the rim protection talk giannis only averaged slightly over one block per game and so altho he is def physially imposing i am not sure he is a classic rimprotector
Sure he can. Final score 10 to 8.
https://x.com/tomhaberstroh/status/1917973205609844753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1917973205609844753%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=
The one thing that Randle brings over KAT is the ability to iso and break down defenses as a ball handler which is seemingly something we sorely need right now. It would lessen the burden on Brunson.
no one on our injury report for tonight nice
Or he could change nothing, go to the Spurs, and win multiple championships while drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. I know what I would do.
big 3 in SA: luka wemby greek
The Mets managing to have the second best record in baseball while being winless in games Juan Soto homers gave me a chuckle
I always enjoy Hot Hand Theory on Twitter, but this episode was extra good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdAdcrWTB5c
Can we cut out the cigarettes, double the beer and throw in some potica?
Just to be clear, I was more than fine with the KAT trade from strictly a value perspective. I just donāt think that it made our team any better, especially as a playoff team, and think that itās possible that it made us worse, with a very plausible assumption that the hole at C could have been patched relatively painlessly.
I will be happy to come around on that opinion if and when KAT consistently plays like a $50M player in the playoffs. So far heās been a mixed bag.
Tonight is the biggest game of the season. If we lose, then Saturday is even bigger than that. Brunson is pretty far from 100% and is being shadowed by bigger players and knocked around. KAT is being guarded by fucking Tobias Harris. He needs to show up big time.
The problem is weāve had a lot of time for a counter factual to be produced here and it has not happened. The centers we know were available were bad and/or out of our price range. The centers we donāt know were available fall into the olā āassume a can openerā category.ā
After we lost iHart, which we all agree was gutting (I want to live in the yes-iHart, yes-KAT, no-Mikal universe), it seems pretty obvious to me that trading from positions of relative strength for KAT was the best move.
I mean, if everyone on the roster had played like KAT this series weād be talking about Boston already.
https://x.com/FirstTake/status/1917964643772801154
I guess its time to build with
Delon
McBride
Bridges/Hart
OG
Mitch
See what Brunson and Towns bring back