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25 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.07.14)”
Ricardo Fois, our new member of Brown’s staff, sounds pretty good.
I skipped the game. Tell me more about McCullar playing well and Kolek seeming to play poorly based on the box score.
I’ll also take observations on our other draftees or Nnaji.
The box score isn’t lying. Kolek shot terribly. I think he’s better than he showed, but man. There must must be something about the summer league team coaching and organization that’s making it difficult for him. Maybe he’s been ordered make all his decisions within a half second and he’s not used to it yet. But that’s just speculation.
McCullar, on the other hand did well, made successful drives to the basket and earned a lot of foul shots.
Diawara is really quick for a big man and this caused problems for the Celtics. His good plus minus was no accident.
Hukporti was fine. He did what he was supposed to do, rebounds and such, and wasn’t a worry at all.
kolek is having the same somewhat surprising problem he had last year in the league (but not so much in the summer), and it’s not defense (which has been pretty decent). he cannot handle ball pressure sufficiently well for his archetype. a defender hawks him and they get into his body, and often either turn him or actually get to the ball. he sort of looks like he should be able to do what mark price or scott skiles could do when you tried them, but as of yet, he can’t. his decisions and vision and craft are of course still there, but this is a red line condition for him. the shot is also not falling from anywhere, but whatever; it’s really about the difficulty getting to his spots under pressure.
mccullar is smart and uses his merely good length incredibly well, sort of how landry fields did. he’s like scott foster, always extending. it’s nice that he’s been willing to launch some non-obvious 3s; shooting form has looked so-so.
Dadiet didn’t do as well as last game but he left the game with foot pain and that may have affected his shot.
I didn’t watch but it does sound like Frankie Smokes in his first SL. He just couldn’t handle ball pressure with that high dribble.
overall huk has impressed the most in tiny sample size: 55.6 fg% 15.3 reb/36 (6.8 orb/8.5 drb) 4.2 blk/36 .599 ts% .556 efg% 21.0 trb% (17.0 orb%/25.9 drb%) 102.0 drtg
Eye test warning, but I tend to agree with ptmilo, Kolek’s being pressured full-court much like Jalen was last season, so he’s spending all his energy just getting to the fore court, and it also seems like the defender is waiting for his spin away from pressure and they keep poking the ball out when he does that.
But the part that is grinding my gears is the bad passing. Very little good passing, and a lot of ‘Here, you take it’ to someone else at the three point line that is anticipated and stolen.
Wow, you really slayed the straw man, Noble.
I think my argument was pretty clear, and it’s not “Leon isn’t a good NBA executive.” It’s that the superiority of other front offices is the reason we’re losing in the playoffs.
The most critical matchup in Knicks vs Pacers the last two years hasn’t been Brunson vs Halliburton or even Thibs vs Carlisle. We lost to the Pacers two years in a row bc Kevin Pritchard has done more with his draft picks than Leon Rose. (And he’s had far less to work with.)
One guy turns the 31st pick into Andrew Nembhardt while other guy sells it for a dime so he can fit some bloated contracts in under the apron. One guy uses Obi Toppin as a quality 7th man while the other guy gives him away for peanuts as a favor to his agent. Hell even if we had Quentin Grimes off the bench we might have won the last two years. The margin is that small, and these are the mistakes that put us on the short end of it.
This isn’t some faulty doorknob in an otherwise great job. This is the biggest reason we’ve been eliminated two years in a row. Thibs took the fall but Leon’s the one who fucked up.
Macri’s fill-in newsletter, “Knicks Off and Sputtering.” It’s Summer League. The rule is you can’t complain about wins in Summer League (you also can’t brag about wins in Summer League, either).
Kolek having trouble handling the ball under pressure is the sort of thing you can complain about in SL. If he misses a bunch of 3s thats not that troubling
I don’t agree that Kolek is losing to the pressure. It is slowing him down but ha always gets over the half court line. I think it’s more likely he’s trying to make decisions too fast once he’s over the half court line.
btw dae dae grant has looked much better than kolek in these two games low sample size notwithstanding i do not think he actually is overall better than kolek but still someone maybe worth keeping an eye on
Knicks Fan, agree and disagree. He’s not failing at the pressure, but I have to believe it is actually helping to lead to bad decisions, as you suggest. It’s both annoying to be picked at for eight long seconds, plus the realization that time is slipping away and you need to get your teammates into it can lead to ill-timed passes or not clocking where the defense is.
And while dred is right that shooting is not a huge concern in Summer League, I’d probably feel a bit better if he weren’t 5-24 (0-11 from three…).
hey Director, happy monday to you sir…
amazing post yesterday that really hit hard with its timing…yep, your post was right on time, and relatable…
thought about my response to cyber when he recently asked about this new romance aspect in my life (close and dear friend moved back out to california last year)…
in the post responded with some kind of mix of mister spock and joe friday – basically saying love was simply a part of a successful survival strategy…yeah, not such an inspiring notion…
over the last year or so during each trip to see my friend – inevitably some early saturday morning while I’m still laying in bed relaxing my friend will return from running an early morning errand and initiate some serious relationship conversation…like a grievances session – all i can usually think of is: what the fuck is happening right now, and why aren’t we either cuddling or having sex instead of this shit?…
feels like being ambushed, sucks to have to get so “real” so early…honestly it’s tough to have to have those sensitive relationship discussions at any time…
I have a pretty critical mind, that’s pretty paranoid, so it’s very easy for me to get slighted, I usually just don’t say nothing about it…won’t forget about it, but won’t really bring it up…
this saturday was really one of the first times I was able to respond effectively to most behavioral accusations (at least that’s how I take them)…and share some of my own concerns…
although the process is painful, like having some therapy session in bed, the main reason the relationship continues to strengthen and improve – is because of my partner’s willingness to have tough conversations…
all that to say Director – i hope you find the opportunity to share your perspective with your partner…express how their behavior affected you…
and thanks again for being brave and sharing some personal stuff, that’s very much a part of many of our lives…
oh yeah, congratulations on nearly ( 😊 ) finishing up your magnificent man cave…
what’s your favorite feature in your basement?
.
Mike Brown’s notion of play faster may be tough for Tyler to adjust to…jalen may also run in to some difficulties trying to execute that way…
they both seem like half court, take some time to survey the situation offense initiators…
I actually wasn’t responding to any particular argument, including yours. Just weighing in on the Leon discourse generally, which of course has included some posters making the case that he is affirmatively bad at his job. Anyway…
I don’t think Leon is the best executive in the league. You could probably make a case for as few as 2-3 or as many as 9-10 being better. But instead of litigating those details, I’ll just repeat my implied question: if he keeps getting his lunch eaten by all these other GMs, why do we have the 2nd or 3rd best odds to win the championship next year?
Of course that is in some ways an oversimplification, but again, it is also a very, very difficult thing to accomplish in the NBA such that I don’t think a sucker GM could pull it off.
Watched a portion of SL yesterday and Kolek looked like he can’t handle the pressure. Similar to what Indy did to Brunson, put someone faster and longer to body him up and it disrupts what he does well. And similar to what happened with Thibs in Indy, the offense just caved without their PG leading the charge. It was ugly for most of the parts I watched.
McC had a bunch of “energy points” and the Knicks were scoring off of steals and such, but their half-court offense seemed nonexistent.
Kolek’s shooting has been bad this SL, last SL, in the g-league, and in the NBA. It’s still not a lot of minutes overall, but it might be enough. His 2p% has stunk at all those stops too.
Maybe someone wants to take him through a trade into cap space so we can sign McCullar to a big league deal.
Nnaji left the game with back tightness. He’s really damn athletic. He looks jacked. Still only has 1 rebound in SL. It’s hard to say much because he hasn’t shown much. If he’s healthy, I’m hoping Huk sits the last 2 games and Nnaji gets more minutes.
The team just looks better with Diawara on the floor. He seems to understand the game pretty well, which surprised me. He gets beat on defense sometimes, but that might be a fixable footwork thing.
Just got back from my younger daughter’s final dance competition in Orlando… Those things feel like AAU for girls, just a brutal schedule… Still, it was good to be able to spend some time with her before she goes off to college… Good luck with the relationship Geo… I find I have to spend time preparing for those tough conversations with my girlfriend, she certainly does… In my opinion, Kolek is obviously not athletic enough for the NBA, that’s not going to change… I’d use those last 2 roster spots on Wright and Diawara, who has enough size and athleticism to at least be an emergency big in the Precious mold… Hubert, we lost to Indiana 2 years ago because of injuries, not talent…
I can’t get too bent out of shape about Kolek’s summer league so far. The pressure he is facing is only gonna be a thing if players are allowed 10 fouls. The passing will probably improve when he’s playing with guys he can depend on to create space and get to spots. He’s probably doing some serious weight-training (as he should) and that might screw up his shot for a while. He looks very strong out there and isn’t getting pushed around, just beaten up by guys who aren’t worried about foul calls.
ha, I’m gonna be laughing about that for awhile…
wait, what’s happening – no one told me this was gonna be a team air your grievances meeting – i didn’t get a chance to prepare any notes 😱
OTOH I’m not really impressed by McCullar. The poor man’s Josh Hart thing seems to be his ceiling for now…and we don’t really need that, nor is it all that hard to find. I don’t see much promise in the shot becoming dependable.
The guy I find the most intriguing is Diawara. The guy just turned 20 and has incredible measurables. He can handle the ball a bit and looks to have good court vision and passing ability. He can also finish straight line drives to the rim with both hands.
The shot is funky and he has a long way to go with footwork and all the little positioning things a pro has to learn, but I think stashing him would be a waste. Bring him over and let him learn the NBA game. I don’t see anyone else worthy of that 14th roster spot. Nnaji is just too raw and clearly can only play one position. Do with him what we did with Hukporti last year.
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