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Knicks Morning News (2025.06.22)
06/22/2025 11:00:01
06/22/2025 10:30:00
06/22/2025 08:12:12
06/22/2025 03:59:00
06/22/2025 04:08:05
06/22/2025 03:41:18
06/22/2025 04:08:04
06/22/2025 01:40:00
06/22/2025 00:04:07
06/22/2025 00:09:00
06/21/2025 23:50:55
29 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.06.22)”
This reminded me of Shawne “Extra E” Williams! 😀
Can they take it to 10 of 20 tonight? What do you say, Donnie?
“Julius Randle is a very similar player, and possibly better – and he rarely missed time, whereas Siakam was injured a bit during the the preceding years. It would have made no sense whatsoever.”
They are actually not all that similar, and the degree to which they are redundant is actually a good thing, in part because it would have made Randle even more expendable given his contract situation. Moreover, they are both all-NBA level players and you can’t have too many of them. The only knock on him is that he’s not a particularly good 3pt shooter, which he has in common with Randle.
As to injury concerns, in his last two full seasons in Toronto, Siakam led the league in minutes. He played 68 of 72 games (all-NBA), and then 71 of 82 (all-star.) Dollar for dollar, he’s a waaaay better player than OG.
Sorry Donnie, your boys are going down tonight.
OG’s CAA, Siakam isn’t. Both were pending UFA’s, both on the block as a consequence, both traded within weeks of each other, both from an Eastern Conference team to an Eastern Conference team.
The difference between the Knicks and Pacers as we sit here today is essentially the difference in the relative costs and relative impacts of OG and Siakam.
When one team has an owner who for whatever reason — probably his band — makes common cause with one single talent agency, which in turn leads to worse relationships with other talent agencies, and then hires as his senior personnel guy an alum of said talent agency with close family members still working there … and the other teams don’t do these things, it creates an inherent disadvantage that is going to be very difficult to overcome.
The OG/Knicks, Pacers/Siakam transactions and results are a sublimely distilled, chef’s kiss example of the principle. That it’s now clear to all that OG, advertised as “a guy who can guard 1 through 5,” really can’t guard Siakam is just an extra half chef’s kiss — a chef’s peck — on the whole episode.
Today is a great day to be a fan of NBA basketball.
Finals Game 7.
One game to decide the 2024-25 Championship.
I wish that the Knicks were playing.
I’m going to tune in.
I’ll tune in, but then TJ will make his requisite three-straight dribble-drive jump shots and I’ll go do something else for a while…
(it’s not even that I hate TJ or the Pacers anymore, it’s just annoying!)
Pascal Siakam shot .544 from 3-10 feet this year, and .441 from 10-16 feet.
He can shoot the basketball.
And it’s not just that he can shoot the basketball. The ability to do that is the direct result of and proxies other athletic and basketball skills that reveal themselves to a greater or lesser degree in other areas of his BB-ref page. Those athletic and basketball skills without question lead to helping win basketball games. (As it does with guys like Shai Gilgeous Alexander and Jalen Williams.)
We were there in 1994, and i hope we’ll be there again soon. 🧡💙
Who isn’t? Even i, that almost never watch games of other teams, am going to tune in.
And may the best team win.
TJ is one of those miracle players, like Brunson is. You have to love him. These a**holes have two exciting point guards, damnit.
Well, we’re waking up nightly to missile alerts here, hopefully the Iranians time it to align with the game this time, otherwise I’m taking the opportunity to sleep.
Nice piece on my hero Breen in the Athletic. Worth a read.
My prediction for tonight is that Hali puts up his usual every other game stinker, and walks off the court dramatically wincing in pain as the Pacers lose game 7.
Nothing left to extend, but nonetheless, The Extender deemed surplus to requirements for Game 7.
You are from Israel? Stay safe, man. 🙏
Thanks, yes. It’s insane all around here. But I won’t get into politics.
Nice piece on Breen. Like this quote from Stockton
“Whenever I hear someone in the role I had for over half a century, I can tell in seconds if the announcer is humble and not looking to prove something to the audience. Mike is one of those.”
I would take Siakam over Randolph because of defense. I also think the transition ability puts a lot of pressure on other teams.
Will of course watch. Still rooting for OKC but have been disappointed in them. They have gone away from what worked for them all season too much.
I have become a TJ admirer and think it would be great if he wins the MVP of the series. He would have to be the most unlikely MVP in memory, even more so than Iggy.
Come on, Z-man. I did a deep dive at the time of the trade on this very subject. If I had THCJ’s search chops I’d be able to find it, but in short:
He averaged 64 games played over the previous 4 seasons. Julius averaged 72. Advantage Julius.
He shot 33% from 3 with a 3PAr of only .247, below average even for a power forward. Julius shot 34%, at higher .301 3PAr. Not a huge difference, but advantage Julius.
Overall he had a .574% TS, again below league average for a power forward. Julius had a .561%. Advantage Siakam.
He averaged 7.7 rpg, pretty average. Julius averaged 9.7, which is good even for a power forward. Advantage Julius.
A very good 4.8 apg for power forward, offset by 2.5 TOs per game. 4.4 for Julius, with 3 TOs. Advantage Siakam.
AIO:
Siakam 2.6 VORP, 3.1 Julius
2.1 BPM , Julius 2
WS (4 years) 25.5, Julius 27.8
Beyond that, he was due for a contact extension; Julius was in the middle of a team-friendly deal.
The idea of trading for that player – deniably similar to Julius, and less available, in an era of limited resources is risible. Had you advocated for it, you would have deserved the opprobrium that would have come your way.
Or maybe you could have joined the prior front office, when they signed Portis, Randle, Morris, and Gibson in what was universally hailed as great management.
TL;dr — E agrees with you
OG Anunoby and Julius Randle played like 10 games together.
OG Anunoby played Julius Randle’s position the entire 2024-25 season.
Stay safe, darules!
Thibs getting cashiered has freed up Z-Man to say what he really thinks about Leon and his moves, and the roster generally. It’s been quite the sight to witness and he’s been doing excellent work. Like Hubert, he’ll now try to find some way to “create distance” from my posts so as to maintain perceived bona fides — but that won’t change the underlying core truths and overlaps.
Julius is better than OG. Not really seeing the need for comparisons with Pascal.
Sorry Donnie, your boys are going down tonight.
you obviously don’t know the first thing about donnie mechanics since this would violate the principle of superdispositon, where all possible loyalties immediately collapse to the winner when observed.
“He averaged 64 games played over the previous 4 seasons. Julius averaged 72. Advantage Julius.”
This is a disingenuous use of averaging, and I’m surprised you would even go there. Neither player had serious injury concerns during the preceding 3.5 years, and any advantage was random. If anything, OG was the guy with the checkered injury history, so if you want to go there, you are actually strengthening the case for picking Siakam over OG.
“He shot 33% from 3 with a 3PAr of only .247, below average even for a power forward. Julius shot 34%, at higher .301 3PAr. Not a huge difference, but advantage Julius.”
lol, this is actually a disadvantage for Julius, as he chose to shoot more from 3 in spite of being just as bad. And again, your averaging is bad practice, as during the two full seasons prior to the trade, Siakam shot .344 and .324 while Randle shot .308 and .343.
Randle is the better rebounder, but far worse as a passer and a lower IQ player, as we are seeing now with Siakam and saw point blank with Siakam.
I have no doubt that Siakam could have moved to the 3 next to Randle and made the team better than we were with OG at the 3, or even played the 4 next to Julius at the 5 in a small-ball lineup. He’s a far more skilled and versatile player (you know, one that can actually take 3 dribbles towards the rim in traffic without falling down, or getting stripped or blocked, or make a smart pass) than both Randle and OG, and he’s an excellent defender, not Julius’ strong suit.
PS Siakam is shooting 38+% from 3 at higher volume since joining the Pacers…who knew?
the thing that really jumps off the page about siakam is how much better his defense has looked in than it used to, including lots of playoff games with toronto and even his early days in indy. caitlin cooper has done a great job documenting this evolution during his pacer tenure.
It is not disingenuous to use a larger sample size. And your main point was
when in fact they are remarkably similar. Whether Julius is better is certainly disputable; whether it would have been a good idea to trade for a player who plays the same position and does similar things is not. Could Siakam play the 3? Maybe, but then we’d have had two players who aren’t great from distance, which clearly would not have complemented the game of Brunson, the player we chose to build around.
I can agree with this. But again, at the time we made the trade, what we knew was that he was not at that time a good defender. Kudos to him for his improvement! But to make any claims now about how he would have been a better trade target is pure hindsight.
Having little ability to dribble or navigate traffic inside the trifecta line doesn’t really “complement” anyone’s game, be it Jalen Brunson’s or anyone else’s.
“But to make any claims now about how he would have been a better trade target is pure hindsight.”
People said these things about OG at the time — a bunch of people just didn’t want to listen and plugged their ears.
All the stuff about how everyone wanted him was just echo chamber material from a few self-referential internet posts bounced around between people who really wanted to believe.
And he’s not RJ Barrett, so there was that ….
“Thibs getting cashiered has freed up Z-Man to say what he really thinks about Leon and his moves, and the roster generally. It’s been quite the sight to witness and he’s been doing excellent work. Like Hubert, he’ll now try to find some way to “create distance” from my posts so as to maintain perceived bona fides — but that won’t change the underlying core truths and overlaps.”
Before you break your arm patting yourself on the back, my posts about the Knicks players, coaches, and executives are the same as they always were. You and others have had the annoying and deeply offensive habit of dismissing anyone who had anything positive to say about Thibs, or Julius, or Leon as an unbridled apologist.
You are to shallow of an individual with whom to have an honest conversation. Your opinions on Leon, Julius, and Thibs are uniquely lacking in substance and nuance, they are just bluster with a veneer of schlocky lawyerese. Pretty much everyone here sees right through you, and probably elsewhere as well.
Keep telling it like it is, Z-Man. It’s good stuff.
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