07/05/2025 11:00:01
07/05/2025 09:00:00
07/05/2025 05:37:06
07/05/2025 01:58:00
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07/04/2025 22:53:00
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Knicks Morning News (2025.07.05)
07/05/2025 11:00:01
07/05/2025 09:00:00
07/05/2025 05:37:06
07/05/2025 01:58:00
07/05/2025 00:54:00
07/04/2025 22:53:00
26 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.07.05)”
Rumors continue to abound — this time from Windhorst’s podcast, apparently — about LeBron to the Knicks.
If it’s a buyout and he signs for the vet minimum, great. I don’t imagine that happening, though. He’s been very clear that he wants to maximize his earnings every year, which I respect, because the CBA drastically underpays him every year. So even if the Lakers are paying him his usual salary, it really limits his options for the following year — unless he intends for this to be his final season, I suppose.
LeBron at the minimum would be AMAZING!
LeBron for KAT would be unsettling but intriguing.
LeBron for any other salary combo would seem dumb unless another rotation player came back.
He’s already making $50M+ from LA for the year, of course he’ll sign for the vet minimum!!! /S
the double big is in…
yanks a lock for today’s game?
they can’t just always keep on losing, right…eventually it would seem they’ll start winning soon…
Soon they’ll figure out that posting up skilled players against mismatches is not such a bad idea. Maybe instead of blaming Hart for the one thing his Swiss Army knife can’t do, KAT should be working on finding the spots he’s efficient from and posting up smaller men. It worked great for KP.
KAT has been in the league 10 years under a bunch of different coaches with a bunch of different players. If he hasn’t learned to post up by now, he never will. The good news is that he KNOWS how to post up, unlike KP who actually had to learn how. And the reason for KP’s limited success in the post is that he a) was surrounded by 3pt shooters and b) didn’t have to do it much, he mostly hangs out at the 3pt line off of high PnR’s.
He takes so long to back his way into the paint that doubles come and gum him up. He could work on the mid-range shot that many superstars, including Dirk, Duncan, Ewing, and many others used to punish defenders in the post before doubles could come, but that shot has lost its luster because it is less “efficient” relative to 3’s. When Josh Hart is out there, teams will live with KAT backing down wings and just send Hart’s defender at KAT after he is denied the baseline and forced to the middle. With Mitch in the dunker’s spot, it’s a bit less of an issue because KAT can go to the less efficient mid-range and rely on offensive rebounds to generate more PPP. But that brings other well-established problems into the picture.
The good news is that they have a new coach and an entire healthy pre-season for KAT and Mitch to work on some things…as well as KAT and Yabu. I don’t think the KAT-Hart thing is going to get much better no matter who is coaching, now that good defensive teams know how to deal with it.
You can post-up smaller men all you want, it doesn’t help when there’s a 7ft shot blocker also guarding you because Josh Hart can’t shoot.
Fun thought regarding “can’t shoot” —
FG% .471, 3P% .342, eFG% .547, TS% .578
FG% .436, 3P% .336, eFG% .504, TS% .539
The first guy “can’t shoot,”, the other guy is lauded as our new “shooting guard.”
I think the Knicks should seriously consider moving on from Josh Hart. I know that the ‘Nova thing is cool and Hart does a bunch of great things. But his 3pt shot is hopelessly broken and while he can make them enough to look not horrible in B-R, any smart playoff team is going to live and die with that shot to neutralize KAT and Brunson.
Obviously I’m not talking about a salary dump here. I love the guy and he’s a clearly very valuable player who fills a lot of gaps. Maybe his issues won’t be as pronounced against this year’s EC…Indiana ’25 and Boston ’24 were elite in that regard. And maybe Yabu’s shooting and rim-attacking enables a good enough 5-out response to that strategy and the new coach plays Hart 20-25 mpg as more of an energy guy off the bench rather than vital 30+minute starter-finisher.
Raven, one guy is on a minimum salary, the other is making $20M AAV. It seems like a silly comparison. There’s also a gaping chasm in usage.
But tell you what, if I start seeing teams repeatedly leaving Clarkson wide open and daring him to shoot while his defender is free to hard double in the paint, I’ll give you props on this.
Clarkson also can’t shoot.
On a different front, for me, the most hopeful place to find internal development (ignoring the rooks and sophs) is Mikal. Hart gets a lot of shit for his 3pt shooting, but Mikal was just as detrimental whenever he wasn’t going off in the midrange, which was quite often. He really has to get better at attacking the rim and drawing fouls, and shooting 3’s from above the break. These are things he was able to do in the past, so it seems that he should be able to re-incorporate those aspects of play into his game.
Seems like a combination of intensive strength training and focus on the mechanics of these areas is where Mikal should spend his offseason.
Well, if a team doesn’t leave the worse shooter wide open daring him to shoot while his defender is free to hard double in the paint because “minimum salary” and “higher usage,” more power to them.
I do get that Clarkson can break down a defense at a moment’s notice while Josh can only do that on an end-to-end fast break, but in the end it’s about the ball going in the basket.
May the Kobe assist be with us…
“Clarkson also can’t shoot.”
I have way more faith in Clarkson’s shooting (and more importantly his scoring and ability to stretch the floor) than Hart’s. I would suggest that folks try to visualize Josh Hart at 27% usage before making this apples to oranges comparison.
Hart tries not to do the things he can’t do well.
Clarkson tries hard to do the things he can’t do well.
But yeah, Hart at 27% USG is a nauseating thought.
“…but in the end it’s about points per possession.”
fify
“Hart tries not to do the things he can’t do well.
Clarkson tries hard to do the things he can’t do well.
But yeah, Hart at 27% USG is a nauseating thought.”
Clarkson (and Lou Williams and Jamal Crawford) won 6MoY awards shooting 3’s at less than 35%. The key with those kinds of players is limiting them to 25mpg of mostly bench minutes unless they are on fire, which as we have all seen, makes them virtually unguardible.
The same is true in a different way with Josh Hart. He is best suited for a bench role, and should only be opening and closing games situationally.
Clarkson and Hart should complement each other very well. But neither should be in the starting lineup or the closing lineup unless they are “feelin’ it.” It’s Brown’s job to manage them appropriately. It’s Leon’s job to make sure that having them in inappropriate roles is unnecessary. (and to be fair, I don’t think Thibs had great options for reducing Hart’s load…I love Deuce but imo he is not Josh Hart in terms of impact on winning.)
Fwiw, Clarkson has a reasonable 3P% most years on shots considered wide open while Hart usually does not.
Hard doubling off of Clarkson likely will not go as well as doubling off of Hart.
Also, Hart’s unwillingness to shoot is a problem itself. It’s easy to double when there’s a good chance Hart won’t even take the open shot, or if he does he’s not actually wide open by the time he gets it off.
It’s a problem for Mike Brown to figure out. Trading Hart should not be the first option.
Just to be clear, I’m not advocating for trading Josh Hart per se, only suggesting that his salary slot is the most likely place to increase cap flexibility at the lowest cost. I just don’t think he’s necessarily a $20M player in today’s game.
When KP was in NY they were working on posting up, but he was too weak and unseasoned to be very effective.
In Dallas his role was to stand at the logo, shoot 3s and make sure Doncic had as much space as possible. He complained about not being allowed to post up. They tried it one season for about 20 games and then they turned him back into a floor spacer. I think that was a major problem there. The goal was maximizing Doncic and everyone else had to sacrifice.
When he went to the Wizards, they told him they were are going to post him up a lot. He had a coach that reviewed all the data and found all the spots he was already efficient from and worked on taking that to the next level. There was a big article about how they did it. He became one of the most effective post up players in the NBA that full year for the Wizards. Boston also used him effectively.
It’s kind of ironic that Carlisle “the offensive guru” refused to use KP properly or well in order to maximize Doncic. He also didn’t maximize Brunson when he was starting with Doncic. Brunson often looked his best when playing with KP. Then he lost his job.
I would argue Carlisle kicked butt on Thibs in part because he maximized his team and we didn’t use Towns effectively enough while trying to maximize Brunson. Then Thibs lost his job.
So maybe maximizing individuals is not the best way to maximize a team. 😉
Almost no team (other than last year’s Celtics who imo were probably among the greatest of all time) has 5 defenders that can all also shoot the 3 well.
They have players with strengths and weaknesses that net out to a very good team that between the 5 can do enough of everything.
It’s not ideal that Hart is very inconsistent from 3 and sometimes so reluctant he drives into traffic when he should be shooting. It’s not ideal that a team can put a big man on him and sag off to help, but you have to counter by putting Towns in positions where he can use his advantage. You can’t just surrender.
Yes, but letting guys double team KAT is not that position. Playing Deuce more would’ve been putting him in a better position. Hart is a useful tool in the toolbox, but sometimes Deuce is better and you should try Deuce (or another shooter)
A 2yo colt named “Ewing” made his debut at Saratoga in the fist race today. The horse’s sire was “Knicks Go” who was a Grade 1 winner but not actually named after the NY Knicks. Had great workouts coming into the race.
https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/replays/?limit=replays&race=1
I was a big fan of trying Deuce, but it’s not like Hart was totally useless on offense. You can’t leave him alone completely. He averaged 13.6 as 5th option with a TS% of .611. When they sagged he often drove and you could always have Towns on the other side of the court. We did nothing to counter.
We’re in midtown Manhattan for the night. Where do we eat?
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