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141 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.07.01)”
And when all was said and done I cast my vote to bring him back, and explained why: for all his flaws, he’s the smartest person in a room with Leon Rose and World Wide Wes.
We lost a lot of common sense when he left, and you can see that reflected in the Clarkson signing.
I view Clarkson as insurance in ase we lose both Shamet and Payne. This is what ESPN wrote about the deal. It’s not thrilling, but could be right; that is, the price is right.
Feeling ok about this Clarkson move. We desperately needed some guard shot creation off the bench. Much of our offensive issue against Indiana was Josh Hart and Deuce being forced into trying to create offense. I can imagine a 2nd unit of Clarkson, Deuce, Bridges/OG, Hart, and KAT having a pretty decent combo of offense and defense, especially against opposing 2nd units. Perhaps a 9 man rotation of:
G: Brunson, Deuce, Bridges, Clarkson
F: OG, Hart
C: KAT, Mitch, Hukporti?
As to what the Clarkson signing means for Kolek – not sure. I’d really like to see what he can do, but my guess is that his time to show his value is probably next year.
My main concern about Clarkson is getting yet another player who played for an awful team. I do think there is something about playing on a bad team that causes players to sort of forget how to play winning basketball — thinking Bridges, Burks, Bogdanovic all sort of disappointing.
The article from the Mirror linked above says we actually interviewed Dawn Staley.
I’ve never been a big fan of Clarkson, though I know he can play. And honestly, I like him replacing Payne. It gives Deuce and Kolek more opportunities as PG’s, and allows Deuce to play more freely as a 3&D guy. Or- we can go small in the backcourt and switch Deuce and Hart in the starting lineup and run with a 2nd unit of Mitch or Huk/random PF who can shoot/Hart/Clarkson/Kolek. I like the flexibility, but Clarkson better work on his catch and shoot numbers. He’s gonna get alot of those as a Knick
Just watched Hoosiers again on a flight out to LA. Are we sure Thibs didn’t use this movie as his bible? Hackman has no life outside of basketball, rigidly sticks to his system, refuses to use his bench unless he has no choice — and in one game insists on playing with only 4 players to make a point — and on the final play of the championship game, the only play he can think of is to put his best guy at the top of the key for some heroball. (To be fair, he has drawn up an actual play before the guys on the team reject it, but his offensive imagination isn’t great throughout the movie.)
A competent search of the archives will find multiple references herein to Hickory High.
There is no person on our deepest bench I wouldn’t rather see on the floor than Jordan Clarkson. He’s a Jack (up) of All Shots, Master of None.
As said on bluesky, here’s hoping that the Knicks interviewees were asked what their favourite sports movies were. Trying to think what the worst possible answer would be, and who would be the most likely coach to say it….
Field of Dreams? I don’t who would say it.
the clarkson and rwb pivot seems like a combination of watching jalen struggle against ball pressure in the playoffs and another whack at the ruff ryder pinata, pj tucker style, now that ddv, ihart and iq have left us a bit placid. bringing in pj tucker was a key sign that the front office wasn’t too excited about the slop of our ekg. unfortunately when you sort for dibble creation and propensity to square up in a scrum a lot of the other columns come up shit.
Mikal at least notionally can relieve that ball pressure. SGA faced it, too, and OKC adjusted.
Conceptually, that’s an area in which Thibs definitely fell short.
Guys, I understand the natural revulsion to players like Jordan Clarkson because they are, in a word, Knicksy. But we used to trade first round picks and/or sign these guys to max contracts.
Getting a low-end usage soaker for the minimum is really not bad. It pencils out if it lets us reduce Brunson’s minute total by a couple of hundred. Anything else is gravy, and there are plausible upside outcomes wherein being on a more serious team leads to him cutting out some of the stupid stuff.
That probably won’t happen, but it’s still a better use of the roster spot than the cast of characters I remain unconvinced were real people like Duane Washington Jr.
I guess we hope Clarkson has been mailing it in — really, really mailing it in — and not succumbing to the natural progression of aging as Sir William of Ockham would have you believe
Thing is, Duane Washington Jr. Has not been a long time rotation player in the NBA, and consequently, wouldn’t expect to see more than token minutes on any good team. A player like Jordan Clarkson probably expects to play. I am quite certain that there will be several players available on that minimum contracts that I would prefer occupying that spot. And alternatively, I’d rather throw one of the kids out there.
Obviously, it’s a low risk/high reward move, so I’m not bent out of shape about it, and if he turns into late-career Jamal Crawford when he was still a capable sixth man, I’ll come around. It’s the extreme meh factor that is getting to me.
I don’t think there’s good reason to get too high or low about this one.
If he’s unplayable, lose very little… he seems like a Jamal Crawford type. Maybe he’ll go on a streak or two and bail us out of a game in March or a 5-minute 3rd quarter slump in a playoff game.
…
Per Begley, Brown has his 2nd interview today with Dolan there. I’m ready to see him hired… I see it happening and I think the biggest question mark will be KAT in the Sabonis position.
Clarkson might be the first acquisition the Knicks have made in forever that I really, really don’t like. Someone compared him to IQ yesterday, but the differences are 1) IQ has an actual B-IQ, while Clarkson is an idiot; 2) as per the first point, IQ almost always played to what the game gave him (go Thibs!), while Clarkson is a well-known forcer who will make Payne look like Hart from deep, destroying sets by throwing shots up willy nilly; and 3) he can’t/won’t play defense, which IQ tried to do.
We can dress him up and put lipstick on him as the answer to all our bench problems, but at the end of the day he’s still a pig. For my screen’s sake I’ll have to make sure I’m not wearing shoes while watching games next season.
If you look at offensive stats, Jordan Clarkson is very similar to Cam Payne, just with higher usage. That seems to be what you can get for the vet minimum. I’m with TNFH. It’s a reasonable pickup.
still cannot believe we did not pick up kennard i cannot help but think he would rather be in new york than atlanta and could have been had for 11M everyone lauded the pickup of kemba at 8M several years ago and kennard is a demonstrably better player than kemba was at that time
If we had 5 vet min slots to use, I’d agree. But based on your assessment yesterday we have one if we use the TPMLE.
The plan was to run it back and improve on the fringes. We had three conceivable ways to do that:
– the draft
– the TPMLE
– our one vet min slot
Now we’ve whiffed on two of the three.
At least the coaching search is going well.
mike brown with borrego as offensive coordinator would be an improvement
I’m with TNFH on this, as a collective we have a justified Pavlovian response to players like Clarkson but this signing is not a disaster. Worth noting Clarkson will also nominally be playing against bench players with us – I don’t know if he was starting for Utah but he was a significant part of their offense and was likely going up against starters frequently.
“If you look at offensive stats, Jordan Clarkson is very similar to Cam Payne, just with higher usage.”
Cam Payne was virtually unplayable in the playoffs. I was hoping for a higher bar than that.
I don’t think anyone is calling the signing a disaster, just enormously unexciting… sort of like a free meal at the Golden Corral.
We may well not use the TPMLE, which would give us 3 additional full minimum slots as well as one baby minimum (0-to-1 year) slot, presumably for McCullar.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this is what we choose to do. The universe of guys who are too good to take a minimum, but not good enough to get more than the TPMLE is pretty small. My guess is we see if we can bring in someone potentially very useful like Horford or Yabu with the TPMLE, and if we can’t we just don’t use it. This was widely anticipated—Katz pegged our use of it as under 50% a few weeks ago because of all the additional headaches it comes with.
picking up yabu would make me feel better about everything else right now
I haven’t seem the numbers on the projected contract, but it would make sense that Leon gets Clarkson on the vet minimum after his buyout. If that is true, it makes this a brilliant signing. If it’s for our MLE, it’s a horrible signing because, WHO GETS HARD CAPPED FOR CLARKSON???
I definitely prefer having Clarkson on my bench instead of Nobody Nobodyson, Obi’s cousin, Ricky’s neighbour or Jimmy’s nephew…
Yeah, I don’t anticipate anything exciting emanating from the vets minimum or TPMLE aisles. I’m hoping for either a trade or a massive leap from one of our six kids to add some spice to this mix. Or maybe a signing of some obscure overseas player.
If we had 5 vet min slots to use, I’d agree. But based on your assessment yesterday we have one if we use the TPMLE.
i missed this but yes i don’t even think we can use the full tpmle with clarkson bc he’s a 10+ yr vet so his minimum is $3.6 million. that would leave us with 3 spots to eventually fill with $7.88 million. using the $5.685mm tpmle would leave us only $2.2mm for two spots, which is impossible. so at most we could go slightly under the tpmle and sign two rookies. but also anything in between that adds up to 3X = $7.88 million. though even three 5-year vet mins exceeds that, so at least one spot is likely going to a rook unless something else happens.
others that we should have at least sniffed around at:
9:55 p.m. ET: Free agent forward Trendon Watford agreed to a two-year, $5.3 million deal with the Philadelphia 76ers, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania.
8:20 p.m. ET: Free agent guard Tyus Jones has agreed to a one-year, $7 million deal with the Orlando Magic, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania.
7:18 p.m. ET: Free agent center Kevon Looney has agreed to a two-year, $16 million deal with the New Orleans Pelicans, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Brown and Clarkson
In my book, that’s 0 for 2.
It’s not about whether Clarkson is a good value. It’s about whether he’s going to help a contender like the Knicks take a needed step forward. He fits a role we need, but he’s not a good player. I don’t need Clarkson playing a single minute. If push comes to shove, I’d rather have a bad offensive bench and run with Delon Wright who won’t score much, but is still a decent overall bench player.
If they sign Westbrook, I’ll just assume Dolan is running the team again with help from Isiah Thomas and the rest of them are just sticking around for a paycheck for now.
shouldve kicked the tires on kuminga before clarkson
It is really a long shot to expect the number 50 pick to make the rotation and improve us on the fringes. On the other hand, you didn’t include the possibility of some of our young players getting better. We have four pucks from last year. There’s the possibility that one or more of them improve enough to improve the team on the fringes.
Hopefully this Clarkson pick-up is just a prelude to a larger Giannis-esque move.
Clarkson and LeVert are pretty similar, if you had to get one, get the one who is $25,000,000 cheaper.
We’ll see if they actually plan to use the exception, if it’ll be all vet minimum signings, and/or if there is a trade in the offing. In a vacuum, Clarkson is a more than reasonable gamble. Our bench scoring was garbage last year, with Deuce and Cam incredibly streaky, Shamet absent and then crappy until the playoffs, Precious crappy throughout, etc.
Also, it’s entirely possible that the plan is for one or more of the second-year players to be part of the rotation. If Deuce starts next to Brunson, then Kolek would be the backup PG, Clarkson the backup two, Hart would be on the wing, and Mitch as the backup center (since he wouldn’t be starting in a Deuce scenario), along with one starter.
With additional input from Melo.
I’m not positive, but I think under the new CBA all one-year vet-minimum salaries for guys with 3+ years of service time count against the cap for all purposes (luxury tax, aprons, etc.) at the 2 year figure of ~$2.3M.
That’s what Hoopshype seems to indicate, and Spotrac has Clarkson’s salary recorded at that number.
Is Yabusele still available and do we have the room to sign him?
Always liked that guy, I think he’d be a great addition to our bench.
yeah already mentioned how happy yabu would make me right about now
To anyone who doesn’t know, we can sign exactly one player for more than the minimum and that salary can’t exceed the Taxpayer MLE of $5.685 million. There is no cap magic to acquire a more expensive player without trading one of our major rotation pieces.
Yabu’s numbers surprisingly meager. Always like watching him. He’d be a fine bench piece.
He also didn’t include one of the things we know we’re doing: replacing the coach.
sure glad we have four pucks from last year tho
It’s early so had to check my math a couple of times – shai at 70 million per year…wow…
not surprising to see that the hawks and mavs are the consensus winners of the offseason thus far at least only one of them is in our conference
i’m not positive, but I think under the new CBA all one-year vet-minimum salaries for guys with 3+ years of service time count against the cap for all purposes (luxury tax, aprons, etc.) at the 2 year figure of ~$2.3M.
oh okay i may have that wrong, thank you. that would give a bit more breathing room at $9.2m for 3 contracts.
The Lakers turned the #55 pick into the #36 pick with nothing but cash and used it on “one of the draft’s best athletes and most electric defensive playmakers” who fell out of the 1st round bc of a minor injury he incurred during the draft process.
Some scattered Jordan Clarkson stats:
-12 drives per game, 16.6 per 36 minutes, 37.8% pass rate on drives, 10.1% AST rate on drives. For reference, Brunson led us at 17.8 drives per game, with no one else having more than 8 (H/T to Macri for this one).
The lack of rim pressure was truly palpable last season, so this should be somewhat refreshing.
-Clarkson’s 5.4 FTA/36 would’ve ranked 3rd on the Knicks last season, behind Brunson at 8 and KAT at 5.8. OG was in a very distant 3rd at 3. This led to our 23rd ranked FTr.
-Clarkson initiated a PNR as the ball handler on 25.7% of his possessions, which would’ve been 3rd on the Knicks last year behind Brunson and Payne.
-His 0.87 PPP in isolation was good for the 45.4th percentile in the league and would’ve been third on the Knicks last year behind Brunson and, weirdly enough, Hart (though Hart’s frequency was basically negligible). The season before Clarkson was at a full 1.00 PPP.
I don’t need any lectures about his many, many flaws and I know damn well he’s going to infuriate me with some of the dumbest shots I’ve ever seen. That’s why he’s signing for the minimum. But he brings some skills we really do need to the table, more so than most minimum players. I’d go as far as calling it a “good signing,” relative to opportunity cost.
Because that’s not something Leon can do this offseason to improve the fringes.
apparently it is between the bucks and lakers to puck up ayton
YABU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love signing Yabu. Probably our last move aside from another vet min.
Oh, my.
Yabu-yah!
everything feels much better now i will take it
Oh damn! Turner’s leaving Indy for the Bucks. Guess Giannis is staying put.
So there’s no way the Bucks are moving Giannis now. We were never gonna be in the running anyway.
So tell me about Yabu. Strengths, weaknesses? Is he more of a 4 or a 5? We could in theory have a 10-man rotation now, something like:
PG: Brunson, Kolek
SG: Deuce, Clarkson
SF: Bridges, Hart
PF: OG, Yabu
C: KAT, Mitch
With Huk, Dadiet, McCullar, and someone else TBD for the 14th spot?
yabu shoots 38 percent from 3 which is nice also the other two teams that were hot for him were celts and nuggies which is also nice
celts played him 63 percent at pf when they had him originally philly played him 73 percent at center when they had him last year
Getting Clarkson and Yabu for the minimum + the TPMLE is pretty damn good work. Both address clear needs and give us legitimate depth.
There are no shortage of impressive Yabu numbers I could post but unlike Clarkson most of the surface level stuff speaks for itself.
It sounds like we got two guaranteed years too! This already would’ve ranked pretty damn high on my list of potential offseason outcomes.
Yabu has swag. That is what i am looking forward to most. Major cool factor.
bucks just cut dame
Wow, Bucks waiving and stretching Lillard. That experiment didn’t end well.
So I guess they go to war with Giannis and Turner and lose in the second round. Not a great time to be a Bucks fan.
wow:
Shams Charania
@ShamsCharania
Just in: The Milwaukee Bucks are waiving Damian Lillard and stretching the remaining $113 million on his contract in order to acquire Myles Turner, sources tell ESPN. Lillard’s two seasons in Milwaukee come to an end as he rehabilitates a torn Achilles tendon.
dame deserves a better ending than this
My math says we can only sign McCullar and a rookie. So, I’m guessing James Nnaji to round out the roster?
Any bets on Donnie Walsh’s favorite team next season?
He was mostly a small ball 5 last year for Philly just because Embiid was getting so much worker’s comp, but with us I think he’ll play much more 4. There are defensive…limitations with him at the 5, though FWIW his DFG% at the rim was pretty average last year in a large sample size.
I wouldn’t play him at the 5 too much, but I think a non-Thibodeau coach can find a way to make it work here and there when KAT and Mitch are resting and/or injured. Ultimately he’ll soak up all the backup minutes at both slots and should be one of the better backup bigs in the league.
Offensively, it’s hard to find anything he’s not good at, especially by TPMLE standards, honestly. Even his AST% was in the 57th percentile among bigs last year, and he did that while keeping his turnovers low.
The most exciting thing is his non-corner 3PT frequency of 33%, which was in the 84th percentile, and his hit rate on those of 40%! At long last we have a non-KAT big who chuck ’em and hit ’em.
The new coach will have some serious skill to play with, but the toughest task will be keeping the defense playoff caliber.
Wow I wonder what dame does now?
Wow, Turner to the Bucks is blowing my mind.
pacers falling apart a lil bit
That’s a lot of big men on the roster, unless a trade is coming. Then again, we now have a lot of wings, and four different guys who can at least impersonate being a point guard. Hmm…
I like the Yabu signing. I’m fine with him being a rotation player that can also play some C if Mitch misses time.
We are now 1-2 assuming Brown gets the coaching job.
Very pleased with the Yabu pickup. Getting a burly power forward that can hit the three feels like exactly what the doctor ordered.
If Clarkson is playing real minutes on the playoffs we probably have bigger problems but if he’s playing 8-10 minutes a night in January it’s hopefully okay and we all get to complain about his shot selection in game threads
yabu is like an ersatz naz reid. don’t hate it, don’t love it.
Haynes:
Oh my, part 2.
bucks and pacers holding hands and jumping off the bridge together
Who is playing C for the Pacers?
This is just crazy.
How do you get as close as the Pacers got and allow this to happen unless you have a great solution at C?
Yeah, I’m just putting his name up because he was talking about coming over.
It could be Rokas or Diawara or Hugo Besson or Dink Pate… or maybe acquiring rights to 31yo Luka Mitrovic on draft night has been our secret offseason strategy all along? (It’s not).
If we bring over Diawara, that’s three Frenchmen on the roster at once. Alas, no Frank.
Diawara interest me right now as a defender. He’s very raw on offense, but with reps he could be a valuable defender in short order.
Our East competitors are not covering themselves in glory this offseason. Turner is definitely good, but losing Dame and Lopez with him coming in is a net loss. Indiana is obviously fully out of the picture.
$22M in dead cap for the next five years…I don’t know man. I get that Giannis is truly a once-in-a-franchise’s-whole-ass-history type of talent, but I probably would’ve just began the rebuild.
interesting Yabusele signing – I don’t recall watching him much but his offensive stats are really pretty interesting. Shot 38% on 274 3’s, 61.6% on 2’s. Seems like a small sample but on 1074 3PA in Euroleague he shot 436/1074 = 40.6%, and 58.5% on 2’s. I would imagine that he’s being brought in mostly as a 5 and that perhaps the FO is leaning into the idea of 5-out all the time? Or at least a significant amount of time. Which then makes one wonder about what Mitch’s role is on the team.
If coming as a 4, then we have the ability to play very big now with Bridges at the 2, OG at the 3, Yabu at 4, and KAT at 5.
On the Putback, Begley said that he thinks the coaching hire will be announced before end of week….
Milwaukee will never get another player as good as Giannis and most likely know when he’s gone the fans will fully check out on the franchise…
have to be a bit suspicious of these reports that giannis is pissed they waived dame. why would they trade for a 29 year old while smacking their cap five years out without giannis being in board? maybe he’s just trying to look like a good guy to lillard.
Edwards: “After conducting a first round of interviews over the last two weeks, the Knicks have formally invited Mike Brown back for a second interview, which is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, league sources tell The Athletic. In addition, New York is considering bringing back both James Borrego and Micah Nori for second interviews, multiple league sources said.
“Brown and former Memphis Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins were the first two candidates interviewed.
“During this process, the Knicks also reached out to South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley, league sources told The Athletic. And while she impressed in that conversation, she is currently not considered a finalist for the position, league sources said.”
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6465420/2025/07/01/knicks-coach-mike-brown-dawn-staley/
So it sounds like Jenkins is out, and Brown is the clear frontrunner.
Seems like way too much for Ayton
Jonas is now Jokics backup
Still not sure what needs Jordon Clarkson satisfies, outside of jacking shots up in the general direction of the basket. He’s at .436 for his career, .336 from three. His TS% is .529 and his BPM was as low as -4.5 a year ago.
If Mitch is in there with him I suppose it’ll help our offensive rebounding…
I should clarify that Diawara can’t play NBA offense and should not be brought over. It’s basically impossible that his defense makes up for how badly he’d be ignored. Probably worse than Ntilikina by an order of magnitude.
If I was the owner, I’d strongly consider selling the Bucks if someone is willing to make a strong offer. Giannis will be here , buy it..
guess bucks are out on ayton now that they have turner
think of yabu as a much more skilled precious and you will pretty much have the picture
might be no room left for diawara/pate/mccullar
The Bucks should try to trade Kumza. If they can replace him with a plus player they should be OK.
oh geez ayton on the pacers! clown show
yabu dabu du…
yay, we picked up our backup power forward…
looking not too bad:
5: mitch, huk
4: KAT, yabu
3: OG, josh
2: mikal, jordan
1: jalen, deuce
not too bad a group at all…hopefully borrejo or brown are up to the task…
I am a happy Knicks fan today. 2 swift and shrewd moves, and Leon has filled our bench holes with 2 good players who play more than one position regularly. Pick the right coach and we may just make the Finals with more than a puncher’s chance at winning. Denver and OKC are gonna be crazy out West though. It is gonna be quite the gauntlet getting out of the West this season.
Does this mean Shamet and Wright are definitely out?
Didn’t they sign him to the big offer sheet in ’22 that PHX matched and then traded a few months later?
I agree.
It’s one thing to know you need to upgrade the scoring off the bench. It’s another to add a guy with terrible shot selection you would really prefer not shooting nearly as much as he does (who by the way also plays no defense).
I’m hoping someone beats him out of the job, but I’m not counting on Mike Brown figuring that out.
that myles turner news was kind of shocking, then to follow that up with waiving dame…just wow…
how lucky did dame just get…opportunity to go wherever he’d like once he can play again…
i think it is more likely that shamet and payne are out instead of shamet and wright plus i hope that is the case delon is a great backup pg at this point and neither shamet or payne really are
looks pretty much like us cleveland and atlanta in the east next year not a bad place to be
The thing I like about Yabu is that his record overseas suggests he can shoot the 3 a bit. His 3p% last year may not have been a total fluke. That gives us a PF that can stretch the floor a little (what I’ve been screaming for) and also allows OG to play SF even if he’s with the bench unit or we play Towns/Yabu or even Mitch/Yabu at times.
I have no real insights into his defense, but if he defends adequately I love this signing. It almost makes up for me having to watch Jordan Clarkson play basketaball. 😉
That’s what my spreadsheet says, but I think someone else said we’d have more room than that so I don’t want to assume I’m right and they’re wrong.
A+ for the Yabu signing. I’m a big fan. Lobbied hard for him last year, too.
If it was up to me, Shamet, Payne and Wright would stay and Clarkson would be out. 😉 I’d think Clarkson is going to replace Payne as a bench scorer and maybe we’ll keep Shamet and Wright if the money works.
hard to trust atlanta, I don’t know, maybe it’s their seemingly apathetic fan base…
early look at next season:
– cavs
– knicks
– magic/pistons/hawks
– celts
pretty competitive top six in the east…
west looks really tough:
– thunder
– rockets
– spurs/nuggets
another 4 teams that could play well for a time (mavs/warriors/lakers/clips)…
not trusting the t-wolves so much heading in to the new season, still no point guard plus they lost alexander-walker, that’s gonna hurt them a bunch…
In other news – Tight End Darren Waller un retired and had the Giants trade him to Miami
Assuming Yabu took the full TPMLE, and it sounds like he did, we have to fill the remaining two slots with baby minimums, so Delon and Shamet are out.
Bit of a bummer, but I think it’s well worth it to get Yabu in the door.
His numbers are ugly, but that’s partially because for a lot of his career his role has been to come into games and chuck. His TS% is actually almost exactly average for combo guards FWIW.
He’s legitimately good at getting into the paint, finding corner 3PT shooters, drawing fouls, and hitting shots from floater range (which are disproportionately offensively rebounded, so as you mentioned he’ll be a good Kobe assister).
It’s a weird, far-from-optimal skillset, but does genuinely address some things we struggled with last year.
I see Yabu as the situational answer to the wing on KAT problem. Put a C on Yabu and he will shoot if you sag off him. You can also put those centers in actions now so they’re not just playing free safety.
He also solves a couple of defensive problems: he gives us someone sturdy to guard the PFs like Siakim that give OG trouble, and he allows us to play a switch heavy defense that puts KAT in a better role. He might not be a plus defender but he is competent.
It would be a stretch to say he makes Josh Hart expendable, but I think it’s reasonable to suggest the synergy with him and the other four starters may be better.
An outstanding move, one of the best ones we could have made this summer. Good job on this one, Leon. My outlook is considerably brighter now than it was this morning.
NBACentral
@TheDunkCentral
The Miami Heat are expected to show interest in Damian Lillard, per
@ByTimReynolds
100% his next stop
Clarkson likely plays as the de facto PG for the 2nd unit next to Deuce.
1st String:
Brunson 32
Mikal 34
OG 32
KAT 32
Mitch 22
2nd string:
Deuce 24
Clarkson 16
Hart 30
Yabu 16
We can use a 10th guy sporadically, but there should be enough positional versatility and players deserving near starter minutes to prevent a Thibs workload.
Just taking any part of it hard caps us below the 2nd apron now, right?
Kings gonna Kings.
Dennis Schroeder is a fun guy to have around when you get him on the minimum after he’s bought out. Definitely would not give him real money, so good for the team that gets him when he’s bought out after the 2027-2028 deadline.
I remember when Dennis lost his chance at big money because he didn’t take the Laker deal..
Delon did okay as a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency POA defender, but he’s probably washed and was also probably more valuable to a Thibs-coached team than he would have been to whatever team we have next year, when we will presumably be playing less drop.
Clarkson is maybe a slight downgrade from Payne but the Yabusele signing is a clear win.
Thank god. I don’t know if I could take reading this blog daily all summer if it was going to be full of your darkest timeline takes.
Are we thinking there is a chance Yabu starts? Keep KAT at the 5 and Mitch in the back up 5 role?
Yeah, any use caps us at the 2nd apron. Might as well use all of it.
I see both EB and Geo put Mitch in the starting lineup but presumably we are bringing Mike Brown in here to get a nice motion offense with KAT at the 5 that unlocks Mikal Bridges, and Mitch just gums that up.
Hart gums it up, too, and playing him kills our ability to switch everything.
Yabu may not be our 5th best player but he shoots and he can switch, which makes him a better fit than either Hart or Mitch.
And I’d like to optimistic that Kolek (not Clarkson) is our backup PG. And we eventually look like this:
1 Brunson, Kolek, Clarkson
2 Bridges, Deuce, Clarkson
3 Anunoby, Hart
4 Yabusele, Hart
5 Towns, Mitch
Jesus, this actually has me feeling optimistic.
i did not realize that yabu had such a break in his career played two years for the celts (age 22 and 23 seasons 16th overall pick) and then was out of the league for *five years* prior to playing for the sixers last year (age 29 season) what the hell was he doing in between
yabu at only 16 minutes per? he played 27 minutes per last season as a spot starter i think he could give us 22 maybe with mitch at center will be interested to see if he slots in better at pf or center for us again a more skilled precious is the way to think of him
was out of the league for *five years* prior to playing for the sixers last year (age 29 season) what the hell was he doing in between
Yay
“…and Mitch in the back up 5 role?”
Nah, we want to win that opening tip. Then Mitch can go to the bench.
Noble, re Clarkson, from your lips to Mike Brown’s ears. If Clarkson can be ‘controlled’ it’d be a nice pickup. There’s just no sign of that ever happening. May I be happily surprised.
He was developing his game in Europe’s top leagues while becoming one of the best players on a premier international basketball team before showcasing himself in the 2024 Olympics where he was a stud.
Going off twitter we have room to sign McCullar and a rookie
then i hope it is mccullar and nnaji
that looks good to me EB…
hopefully with more guys around who have demonstrated they can play well in the nba – lower minutes, more caution, sans mikal, regarding giving players games off…
although to be fair, thought we did well in that regard last season…real excited to see mikal at the 2, OG at the 3, and Mitch at the five to start off the season…
I’m getting ready to go check jordan’s stat page – can he pass at all, does he turn the ball over much?
If Yabu can defend well enough to start at the 4, I like that.
ha, control was the first word to come to mind too 😊
different situation for him, so…don’t cough up the ball, and pass it to KAT whenever he is on the court…not sure if “usage” equates to offensive touches, but yeah – he should be a lot more involved next season…let jalen close, let KAT cook all game, he’s a willing passer, a little too showy at times – but it is sports entertainment so whatever…
Small ball bench line up of Kolek, Deuce, Clarkson, Hart and Yabu will destroy the league if they are allowed to play fast and loose for ~ 6 minutes each half.
Gonna just put this out there about Clarkson.
I think people are being unfair about his game. He played the 6th man/microwave role perfectly for Utah when they had Gobert and Mitchell and were actually a good team. But he’s been a leftover from that era on a bad team and has had to do more than he’s supposed to do. Kind of like how JR Smith was GREAT as a 6th man on a cheap contract but horrible as a starter on a big contract.
Clarkson can score, put pressure on the rim and run an offense while Brunson sits. We need that desperately. If he’s out there in the second unit with McBride, Hart, Mitch and one of Mikal/OG, I think his defense will be fine.
He’s a minutes soaker, microwave scorer and I think, if healthy, he is an upgrade over Cam mainly because he can do more. Cam shoots 3’s well but that’s about it. And he shoots them with that funky/slow side hitch shot.
For a vet minumum, he’s a good pick up. Biggest concern is the injury he had last year that limited him to 40ish games but that could be a case of a tanking team keeping a guy who can win you games out longer.
Don’t know, Swift, look at his 6th Man of the Year year. Outside of PTZZ (18+) he sucked re efficiency as per usual.
And make fun of Cam’s fugly shot all you want, Cam shot 36.8% from three (slightly above average) as compared to Clarkson’s 33.6% (way below average).
Hot take. It’s ok if not every player on your team is “efficient.”
I know this gets into Kobe assist territory, which people love to make fun of. But if Clarkson is playing with Mitch, who is literally the best offensive rebounder in the league, it’s ok if Clarkson drives to the hole, breaks down the defense, but doesn’t finish on all of his shots. Mitch will be there to clean it up and stuff it home half the time.
Watching Yabu highlight videos and getting hyped. He loves trying to dunk on everyone.
The issue isn’t that Clarkson is a chucker, it’s that he’s a chucker and an atrocious defender.
It’s not even clear he’s an average offensive player anymore.
In the last couple years his 2p% has dropped from .530 to .485 to .448. Last season his percentage of shots at the rim dropped to a career low .073.
His already poor TS% was propped up by a 3P% he’s unlikely to replicate based on his career numbers.
What is this guy good at anymore?
Hmm, right around the time Utah really started tanking/rebuilding?
Look, he’s a flyer for sure. But it seems low risk/high reward for me. He’s played on some bad teams recently and probably had to do more than he’s supposed to do.
Masai is gone, but I still don’t quite understand what Toronto is doing.
BTW, I don’t think it’s been mentioned that Yabu has a player option for year 2 of the contract. Not ideal, but if he was in demand with Denver and reportedly Boston, it may have been the cost of doing business.
Can’t wait till OKC offers him a 5 year/300 million dollar contract and Hubs blasts Leon for failing to retain him.
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