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Knicks Morning News (2025.07.15)
07/15/2025 11:00:01
07/15/2025 11:00:00
07/15/2025 09:30:00
07/15/2025 07:02:04
07/15/2025 05:21:12
07/15/2025 03:45:00
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85 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.07.15)”
Rather than spend another day having the exact same arguments we’ve been having for years, and wasting the time of every single person reading them, let me raise a whole bunch of questions — some Knicks-related, some NBA-related, some completely off-topic — and see if we can’t get some other conversations going:
1. Does anyone know anything about Riccardo Fois, the Sacramento assistant who’s reportedly joining Brown’s staff? We’ve already been denied permission on Borrego and Jay Triano, and Rick Brunson’s been demoted, so at the moment, Fois would seem to be Brown’s top lieutenant.
2. Did any of what McCullar did in the second SL game seem applicable to real NBA basketball, or was it just him taking advantage of the general chaos of Vegas, coupled with the Knicks being incompetent on offense generally?
3. Does McCullar now have the obvious inside track for that rookie minimum salary slot on the big league roster? Is anyone still pulling for Nnaji or Diawara? (Related: having seen two games of Diawara, do you want him to spend the year in Europe, or in Westchester on a two-way?)
4. If you accept that you should get too excited by good SL performances (see Kevin Knox, Anthony Randolph, et al), but that bad SL performances should be concerning, how are we all feeling about The Tyler Kolek Experience at the moment? It already sounded like he was going to be out of the rotation, and I can’t imagine that changing unless he improbably goes nuclear in the remaining games.
5. Based on how the SL team has played, what do people see as our biggest area of need for our remaining vet minimum slot?
6. It seems like Josh Giddey and Quentin Grimes are going to stay in Chicago and Philly, respectively, though their salaries are still in question. What do you think is going to happen with Cam Thomas and, especially, Kuminga?
7. Does LeBron get traded this offseason? If so, where?
8. Did anyone else see Superman? If so, what did you think? (I loved it, despite its flaws.)
Best post of the offseason, and an actual look at the complexity of the job, any job really but especially one so intense as an NBA GM. In a more perfect world we’d be discussing this incredibly nuanced job and what it requires in NYC.
For example, would you pursue a talented player, who can get you a ring, but you know he’d be such a pain to deal with that you’d hate him, and your job in maximum 2-3 years?
McCullar is going to turn 25 this season and seemed to be bulldozing to the basket in his 30 pt. performance rather than showing a mixed bag of tricks. I’m not optimistic that it translates.
If that’s your curve and your criteria, then sure. It’s a low curve indeed if making a franchise “relevant” equals “phenomenal” performance.
But if your curve is “GMs across North American sports,” then you will naturally arrive at a different conclusion. That’s my curve, and it’s the same for the vast majority of others.
It would be nice if McCullar was 20. He bears something of a resemblance to fellow Jayhawk Jalen Wilson, last year’s SL MVP but Wilson is better and likely by a material amount. He was a bigger wheel at Kansas and McCullar doesn’t project as the best player in this year’s SL by any stretch.
Wilson was an off-the-bench regular in BKN’s rotation last year, who really didn’t get to the efficiency place you’d like to see. That’s probably above McCullar’s ceiling.
Cam Thomas is going to re-up in BKN, most likely. Kuminga will likely re-up in GS and then be traded, or go somewhere in a sign-and-trade.
Kolek is in a shooting slump that was probbaly caused by the frustration of him getting fouled multiple times on every posession. I’ve played physical pick up games where the every fouls, called or uncalled, was normalized. The higher skilled smaller players looks always looks like crap. Think last game had like 50+ fouls that were actually called.
NBA needs to lower the limit to 4 fouls in SL instead of offering umlimited amounts. Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the behaivor.
It’s hilarious we spend so much time debating something we basically all agree on. Leon is fine and the team has improved greatly but he has made mistakes and may not have us setup for long term success as well as he might have.
This is basically what we all think. Somehow swords are constantly drawn.
Big part of what we do around here. Anyway.
Think it’s very interesting that GMs now stay away from inneficient high scoring guys like Cam Thomas. 10yrs ago, Cam gets a max contract extension without blinking. The chickens have now come home to roost.
I wasn’t all that impressed by what McCullar showed beyond what we already know about him. Seems like the kind of generic small defensive wing that might hang in limited NBA minutes so long as you don’t depend on him for shooting.
I believe someone pointed out (pt?) that McCullar is not eligible for the rookie minimum salary because he played in NBA games last year. He’s have to be given the vet’s minimum spot, and I wouldn’t want that.
I am not impressed at all by Nnaji, he’d have a long way to go just to get to Jericho Sims territory. However, I am very intrigued by Diawara. He’s showing some flashes of NBA-level play and has an OG-type body and motor. The shot needs work but doesn’t look broken. The footwork also needs work. But this kid is going to be an NBA rotation player at some point, I guarantee it! Signing Diawara to the rookie minimum deal would by far be my preference.
No one wanted Brooklyn’s World B. Free BITD, and he wasn’t even all that inefficient.
Association coaches and front offices have never been that fond of me-first chuckers who do nothing else and don’t play defense. There was a time when ticket sales were a way bigger chunk of a franchise’s yearly income statement than they are now in the era of massive shared media deals and so you’d occasionally see a lower level team pick up a “brand name” chucker to try to sell tickets, but even those were few and far between.
“Think it’s very interesting that GMs now stay away from inneficient high scoring guys like Cam Thomas. 10yrs ago, Cam gets a max contract extension without blinking. The chickens have now come home to roost.”
Yeah, doesn’t seem like Cam can do anything but score in bunches, sort of a low-IQ player, but maybe on a team with strong vet leadership he could work on that.
“His agent reportedly told the Cavs it would take $14M to bring him back bc he had an offer for the full MLE. The Cavs didn’t want to pay him that so they traded for Ball instead.
But it turned out Jerome didn’t have an offer at the full MLE. His agent was bluffing to get the Cavs to overpay.”
hubert, where did you learn this? I haven’t been able to verify it, can you provide a link?
(I found ample evidence that Jerome wanted the full MLE and that there were four teams interested, and that pundits mentioned that there was interest in him at that price, but none verifying that his agent claimed to have an offer.)
💯
That’s why there are so many straw man arguments and constant misrepresentations of what people said. Folks have to make shit up to disagree with.
He’s not going to be a primary ball handler in the NBA, so it’s hard to say what translates. When he is on ball, you hope he shows some better playmaking skills. But with the SL team’s shooting, I’m not sure how viable that is.
I was hoping to see him in more of an off-ball role this summer to work on his catch and shoot game. His shot doesn’t look great tbh. He did make a couple moves playing off-ball or attacking after a kick out.
His defense and hustle in transition should translate. I could see him being an acceptable 3rd stringer. He needs to shoot better to be more than that.
I don’t believe McCullar is eligible for the rookie deal because he was on the active roster for a couple games.
I think Diawara has looked good, but not being able to shoot as a wing is a big problem. I think it’s best if he stays in France for a couple years. On the other hand, Nnaji has shown nothing.
I was hoping it would have a little more emotion/slower parts in it. I liked the ones they did have. It was a fun movie and above all else, James Gunn gets Superman and Lex (and Guy Gardner).
I also enjoyed that Lex’s plan made him so engaged in the action sequences and didn’t resort to giving him a giant robot suit or superpowers.
I really want things to workout for DC this time around.
So if we all roughly agree, maybe we don’t need to keep arguing it? Call me crazy, but…
McCullar attacked the rim relentlessly which is something we generally lack, but idk if he can do that against a real NBA team. I think only one of his made baskets wasn’t at the rim.
McCullar is ineligible for the rookie minimum and we shouldn’t use the full vet-minimum on him, but he’s two-way eligible and my guess is that’s how we keep him in tow for now.
I’d say he showed enough to merit that in the summer league games and his G-League/NBA stints. He seems to at least understand what his NBA role would look like if he can actually seize one—getting out in transition, spot up shooting, and being a switchable defender mainly—but the shot looks janky and the non-transition finishing can be an adventure.
But if he’s amenable to a two-way, sure, let him keep working at it.
I’d prefer to use the minimum slot on Nnaji as opposed to Diawara because I think he’s much more likely to be able to give us non-embarrassing NBA minutes in a pinch, but I’m more Diawara curious than I was when I floated the idea we only drafted him as a favor to Yabu’s agent and would like to see what he could do in Westchester. There, we can control his minutes and role, compared to the random smattering he’d get overseas.
Listen, I think you all know I lack the impulse control to avoid being dragged into a prolonged argument. This board is my primary mode of procrastination, and arguing with y’all gives me more dopamine than explaining the tax implications of the big beautiful bill to my high net worth clients.
I don’t complain about Leon to troll the board. I’m venting bc I genuinely believe that these things I discuss are the primary reason we won’t win a championship.
What I would suggest is to simply let me believe that.
Abide my discontent instead of constantly telling me I need to think something else, constantly misquoting me, and constantly telling me that wanting this team to win a championship instead of losing in the playoffs is some “minor nitpick” instead of the whole reason there is a season in the first place.
It’s very tough for internet factions to abide dissent. The internet obviously draws people and sorts for people with the underlying personality traits that lead to that.
I’m just sort of at the place where I’m going to write my thoughts every now and then, occasionally use the most thoughtful of contrary posts and points as my jumping off point, and just ignore all the navel-gazing and meta commentary and efforts at control and forced conformity. I frankly see the latter as an inferior form of social development.
Well, that’s pretty deeply meta. Fine with me.
I certainly don’t need to talk about Leon Rose for a while.
As for McC, I can’t get excited about anyone who is older than 25 and on a two way (Hubert I am setting you or Jowles up for a joke here about “over 25 and not in a bikini.”) Guys like that breaking out is something that only happens in baseball like with Big Dumper.
Z-Man I heard it on the Zach Lowe podcast. I’m not surprised there is no story about it, it’s not exactly newsworthy.
Not hugely impressed by McCullar. He actually made baskets, which I guess is a skill (certainly largely lacking from the rest of the roster), but very few of his baskets made me think, “Nice.” It was more like, “Thank god SOMEone scored.”
I will read nothing that has James in the title, even if it’s about the English rock band from the 80s or the recent book about Huck Finn told from Jim’s perspective. It is otherwise specious click-bait designed to keep certain individuals in the news cycle.
Kolek gets two more games to lose the headband and show something. I’ve gone from Bring It On-level cheerleader to Manchester by the Sea-level depressive. But two more games, Tyler. Do it.
Going to Superman with Lady Raven on an actual date tonight. Will read your review tomorrow…
As I said earlier in the offseason, I would like to have the same freedom to bitch about Leon’s wastefulness as Al has to bitch about the Knicks in a game thread. No one actually engages him when he’s doing it because we all know it’s Al and he’ll come to his senses when the buzzer sounds.
The irony is you guys think I’m trolling you when I really just want to find one or two people who feel the same way in that particular moment so I can commiserate with them. That is one of the larger goals of having a community.
The arguments I get into are frankly like relapses for an alcoholic. They are the last thing I want to do, but the addictive cycle of “opening the thread, seeing something that incites me, responding to it, repeat” is pretty tough to break. I quit smoking 20 years ago and that was easier.
It would be less of a breakout and more being healthy enough to play
This “abide my discontent” stuff is a crock of bullshit. No one here cares all that much about whether folks are contented or discontented. What they do care about is annoying, repetitive, condescending, patronizing, agenda-driven, axe-grinding venting that derails threads. Everyone who regularly posts here knows how certain posters feel about certain things.
They also don’t appreciate the broad-brushing “me against the world” nonsense that blurs the lines between posters having disparate positions on myriad topics and lumps them into black and white camps…if you don’t hate these things that Leon has done, you must be a shill or a stan.
What folks also take issue with is when rumor and innuendo is peddled off as fact.
“Z-Man I heard it on the Zach Lowe podcast. I’m not surprised there is no story about it, it’s not exactly newsworthy.”
Can you give me a link to that podcast? I’d like to hear the wording.
No sale. The things that are seen to “derail threads” (and all of the other adjectives in the list) are invariably things that don’t accept the full consensus.
Hubert, I actually really appreciate your honest takes about yourself. I commiserate to some degree (this is also my only on-line vent spot).
However, I thought E hit on something of interest. He said, “… and just ignore all the navel-gazing and meta commentary and efforts at control and forced conformity.”
That, to me, is hubris of the highest order. Most posters engage in good faith here (not all, and not always, I’ve gone bleach a few times myself). The utter refusal to even consider “Hey, maybe I’m wrong,” or even the more plausible “Maybe my take is oversimplified or impossible to actually prove” is sort of amazing to me, as is the utter dismissal of all other positions and opinions, often subtle and sometimes even in partial agreement. It’s, well, just sad.
Like when you derailed the most celebratory thread of the last 25 years with “Z-Man’s drunken anti-Hubert agenda”?
Buddy you have driven more people away than an uber driver. Mind the plank in your eye first.
“As I said earlier in the offseason, I would like to have the same freedom to bitch about Leon’s wastefulness as Al has to bitch about the Knicks in a game thread. No one actually engages him when he’s doing it because we all know it’s Al and he’ll come to his senses when the buzzer sounds.”
This is not true, other posters, including myself, have taken issue with BBA’s off-the-beam game takes, even comparing him to Pags. Even so, there’s a huge difference between reacting to something that just happened and continually bringing up what happened 3 years ago. I have never heard BBA say “this is the worst loss ever, and it happened because Leon traded out of the 19th pick instead of selecting Jalen Johnson!”
“The arguments I get into are frankly like relapses for an alcoholic…”
I would guess that anyone who has had to deal with alcoholics having relapses would tell you that it’s a miserable experience for all involved, except maybe the alcoholic himself and his alcoholic buddies. So in that sense, you’re spot on!
Alan, I got information on Fois from this:
https://basketnews.com/news-227845-riccardo-fois-new-knicks-assistant-coach.html
This article takes about him and Bridges
https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2025/07/knicks-to-hire-riccardo-fois-to-coaching-staff.html
Alan should now have the answer to his query.
Knicks Fan, many thanks for the Fois gras bits. I was mildly curious but not enough to search — getting it on a platter was greatly appreciated.
Interesting re Bridges, who I do think we largely have meta commentary, navel-gazing consensus across the board that he has to do something more/better next year. A MIkal-Whisperer would be a very good thing.
I’m trying super hard not to make a follow-on Pate joke…
My achilles heal is the misrepresentation. For instance, when someone responds to “we should have more depth given the amount of draft picks we’ve had” by acting like I said Leon has done a terrible overall job as Knicks GM it seems to override by sensibility and makes me see red.
I don’t think it’s bad faith, per se, but it makes me think people are preloaded and eager to draw, so much so that they’ll perform the mental gymnastics necessary to take something benign and turn it into something outrageous.
“Like when you derailed the most celebratory thread of the last 25 years with “Z-Man’s drunken anti-Hubert agenda”?”
Yeah, got called out for it and didn’t do it again.
“Buddy you have driven more people away than an uber driver. Mind the plank in your eye first.”
There are two posters who you are referring to. One is Bruno, who I apologized to and who seems to be cool with me since, and the other is djphan, who left after a wide swath of posters pounced on him for his posting, and at a time when I hadn’t interacted with him in months. So by my count, that’s a total of 0 posters who I’ve actually driven away.
But case-in-point, this again is the typical defensive broad-brushing blame-the-workld exaggeration you (and, coincidentally, relapsing alcoholics) traffic in.
So did we decide we do not need another big? Because the Bullets waived Richaun Holmes, who was at one point merely cromulent.
Apparently Ben Simmons and Shamet are both being considered for the last roster spot. I wish we could fuse the best parts of each together to make one pretty good player…
Z-Man resorting to “you’re an alcoholic” to fend off callings out of his bullshit.
Classy. Such “good faith.” The “good faith” done spillith over.
“Z-Man resorting to “you’re an alcoholic” to fend off callings out of his bullshit.
Classy. Such “good faith.””
Naah, didn’t call anyone an alcoholic, just agreeing with hubert’s analogy. But congrats for once again providing more evidence of the hypocrisy of you and hubert calling out posters for willfully misrepresenting you.
You’re doing it right now.
Z-Man’s delusions about who and what “derails threads” are actually somewhat charming.
“So did we decide we do not need another big? Because the Bullets waived Richaun Holmes, who was at one point merely cromulent.”
I think he’d be fine as a backup big. Probably better than Huk right now. But Huk has some upside, so I’d probably use that last vet’s spot on a PG.
“Apparently Ben Simmons and Shamet are both being considered for the last roster spot. I wish we could fuse the best parts of each together to make one pretty good player…”
Tell you what, if Ben Simmons’s back was not a mess, he might be a pretty good player to have on the floor with Clarkson. The FT issue is pretty egregious, but if he can be strictly a 10mpg beginning of 1st and 4th Q guy, his defense could come in handy.
But I think the ship on his back has sailed. Probably a waste of a spot.
with kolek looking like hes looking it looks like backup pg might be a much more important role to fill lets keep wright
Given how bad Kolek looks, a PG may be more necessary…
Yup, E twisting the story line to suit himself. Hubert (bravely) called out his behavior to make the alcoholic analogy. So time to go looks for a BA class, E (Bleach Anonymous).
Hubert, I understand the struggle with misrepresentation. I think, however, the ‘front-office’ arguments, or more particularly the Leon arguments, are very hard to pull off without leaning too far in one direction or another. Partly because as Donnie said so brilliantly, it’s really hard (impossible) to know all the actual variables that go into any decision at that level (and behind such firmly closed doors).
So you can say “Leon’s great” (got us to the ECFs so quickly) and “Leon’s made future-damaging mistakes that limit us” (draft pics, etc.) and both may be right.
Although I’ll just point out that the first, at least the result, is indisputable (I suppose you can argue the why), while the second is guessing about the future, which is a take, certainly, but entirely remains to be seen and could be entirely wrong.
FWIW, Raven, I am always willing to consider that maybe I’m wrong, and in fact I am keenly aware that many of my takes are oversimplified and impossible to prove.
The thing is I’m not actually trying to prove them, I just want to express them.
Is Precious still with us, and/or going to stay with us? I can’t find any actual news one way or the other.
We have KAT, Mitch, Huk, and Yabu. If Precious stays, that’s a glut of bigs. Given Mitch’s injury history and KAT’s tendency to smash into people on drives (seeming to lead to many minor injuries around ankles and fingers and such), maybe that’s a good thing.
To answer an earlier Alan question, I’d rather see Diawara stay on this side of the pond, only for selfish reasons in that I find it much easier to track progress (or lack thereof) here, than overseas.
I’m ethically and duty bound to tell the truth and not misrepresent anything on pain of losing my professional license and have been for multiple decades — but I’ve never stopped to think that what I say might be wrong.
OK, lol.
“Is Precious still with us, and/or going to stay with us? I can’t find any actual news one way or the other.”
My understanding is that he’s a UFA and that we have his Bird rights. I’m guessing that he will not be back, and I wouldn’t be in favor of bringing him back on the minimum, but there are things I like about him so if he happens to stay, I’d be just mildly disappointed.
Exactly. Very simple to understand.
Rest assured that there are no delusions among several of us about the susceptibility to proof of many in the audience.
“I’m ethically and duty bound to tell the truth and not misrepresent anything on pain of losing my professional license and have been for multiple decades — but I’ve never stopped to think that what I say might be wrong.
OK, lol.”
OMG this is the the most laughable defense of one’s KB posting character ever!
If you stopped to think every time you wrote something wrong, you’d be frozen like Narcissus. Probably best for you if you just carry on oblivious. More entertaining, too.
I admit I’m Simmons curious. He could play point in a pinch and guard well. Can’t shoot, but if he weren’t hurt so the time I might even advocate for signing him. (Assuming PG3 wouldn’t come.)
I’m a bit anxious about what happens if JB misses real time.
not sure who pg3 is chris paul is cp3 and paul george is pg13 so i guess this is chris paul george
This is a self-aware observation to make, but your request isn’t reasonable. You want to post what you want on a public forum but never receive negative feedback for it? It doesn’t work like that.
A journal might work better for you.
I’m disappointed. I’m not throwing in the towel, but I’d feel better about the team if we had another true PG. Clarkson is less of a PG than Payne.
I think Kuminga is very overrated on his current productivity. Kerr seems to realize that. They probably don’t want to pay him as much as he wants, but there’s always the risk that a young player like him will put it all together. So pay him or trade him is a difficult decision.
This is the kind of decision that comes up from time to time when you draft very young players. It’s not much different than us with RJ.
Offering up something explicitly conceptualized as “negative feedback” to trivial, innocuous statements like “I don’t think Leon Rose has handled the draft very well” is an option, not a law of the cosmos. It says far more about the negative feedbacker than it does the innocuous statement maker.
Unfortunately, the personality type yearning to offer up “negative feedback” to others tends to gravitate towards the internet.
“I admit I’m Simmons curious.”
A no from me, rama. I look at the last roster spots’ value as break glass in case of emergency, so they better not have a decent likelihood of being on the DL. But I see your viewpoint in that if healthy he’s in the rotation fringes so a value signing. Just think the sports preventative medicine on back issues is in the dark ages when compared with joint or even feet issues.
I think you can, in fact, dispute it, Raven. But I’ll have to give you some background first.
Consider this: when I get reviewed for my performance, the criteria is never as simple as “do I have more money today than I did before.” That’s the criteria by which you assert Leon’s success is indisputable. The Knicks are winning more than they used to.
But that is just not a position that resonates with me personally based on my experience.
In my life, someone would look at me and say “how much of that performance is attributable to Nvidia”, and if it turns out to be a great deal, then my very small decisions would be picked apart to determine my value. And I have to justify and defend every single one of them, even (especially) the seemingly inconsequential ones.
Noble said this yesterday:
And that is his legitimate, fair, and reasonable perspective.
But from my perspective, I’ve never seen a statement so wrong. Because this is literally all that ever happens in my world.
I get no credit for allocating 20% of a client’s funds back in 2020 into an aggressive growth fund with a 900% return bc it invested heavily in an obscure tech company that manufactures and designs GPUs and SoCs. My greatest success is eliminated off the top and I am judged instead by the 2Q tax alpha or the risk-adjusted return of the 2% allocation to Emerging Markets relative to its benchmark.
So it really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that I view guys like Leon through that same prism. Brunson is his Nvidia to me. Congratulations, now show me what you did with the 13 draft picks.
Mine’s not a wrong perspective, just a different one.
Simmons would be a health risk and is obviously a spacing issue, but IMO we need someone else that can run the offense unless Kolek magically turns it around and gives a bit of a confidence boost that he can play backup.
I could seee him as an end of the bench player, but he’d have to improve his shooting for me to think he could have some kind of impact for us.
I do want a PG, but we have enough questionable shooters that I wouldn’t want Simmons as my first choice.
I agree with a lot of what you are saying, but would rather not get into this debate.
I’m way too lazy to trace the steps of all our picks because I think a lot of those debates were about giving up current pennies for future flexibility and some of the rest was “red boarding” the draft or just luck. In other words, a big tadoo about nothing.
I do want to make one counter point.
Shai was Sam Presti’s Nvidia or he’d still be rebuiding and trying to trade for a #1 option.
For those that don’t know (probably most of you), “red boarding” is a term horseplayers use to describe someone that is explaining how easy it was to pick the winner AFTER the race was already run.
It’s a perspective borne of just getting rolling in your career. Much as was “Leon fired Thibs because if Dolan fired him, Leon would have resigned.”
He’s very smart and so will unquestionably learn and twenty years from now will see things differently.
But in point of fact, no one when it matters, takes “accomplishments” on their superficial face. If someone’s CV says, “Worked on Smith case which received $500 million verdict,” the natural question is “What was your role on the case?” And it then goes from there. If they start hemming and hawing, and it becomes clear they didn’t do much, it becomes time to move on.
“Attracted Jalen Brunson to the Knicks” loses a lot of luster upon that kind of further examination. Sorry, negative feedbackers — you’re just going to have to deal.
Fair enough, Hubert. I can’t argue with the perception that comes from your work (which is barely comprehensible to me, I’ll be honest). My ‘indisputable’ bit was only that they did, in fact, get to the ECF. While the ‘disputable’ parts are that Leon’s mistakes have hamstrung us from ever getting us a chip. Which might be true, or you know, might not.
I can’t believe I’m pulling us back into Leonland. Okay, hard no on Simmons. It’s less the ‘spacing’ case, which is super legitimate, than the ‘space case.’ I don’t even want that career .139 from three guy sitting sullenly at the end of the bench.
Kolek – I just cant get away from the fact that he looks like a high schooler out there. I know he is slightly bulked up but I just don’t see it, while loving Kolekmania anyway.
Richaun Holmes has always been a guy whose statline I admired from afar without watching him pretty much at all. Is he a no defense big with nice stats? A Daniel Gafford guy? Have never been able to tell. He’d be a fine addition to the end of our bench I think in the abstract.
And yeah, always been Simmons curious, just because he is a big impact defender when healthy. But I have no idea if it’s a good idea. He hasn’t looked right in so long.
It would be hilarious if we put him out there with Mitch, that is for sure…
I can’t talk myself into Simmons either. But who’s a better PG option? It does now feel like a position of need, despite the fragility of our bigs and the better players available at other positions …
What’s seen as “unknowable” or a “prediction about the future” really isn’t that either — but instead is just a restatement of the obvious and axiomatic, which is that a team with a better roster will have a better chance to win a championship, all else equal, than a team with a worse one.
It does seem like an unreasonable request when you put it like that.
But I wasn’t really asking for “no negative feedback” when I suggested you let me hold my opinion. I mentioned two things in particular that I think tend to “derail threads”:
1. Opinion policing, i.e. “you can’t think that, Leon’s indisputably good and all of us must appreciate him or say nothing.”
2. Misrepresenting statements in order to incite, i.e. taking “we should have more depth” and responding with “it’s ridiculous that you came on here today and said Leon’s a terrible NBA executive.”
Do you think those are two crucial pillars that a public forum can’t do without?
Early Bird and Noble are good examples of posters who frequently provide negative feedback but never derail threads bc they’re usually just trying to disprove a specific point that was actually stated.
And DRed is the best at it because he just drives by, points his gun out the window, shoots you in the leg before speeding away.
Nobody really does this. Here’s to another gross, self-serving mischaracterization of the reactions to your and E’s posting!
You mean the thing that you and E do more than anyone else? Gotcha.
“Negative feedback” is a bit of an odd term; I certainly wouldn’t include within it, “disagreeing with one’s take about basketball stuff.” EB disagrees with much of what I say about basketball, but I don’t even see that as “negative,” much less “negative feedback.”
He obviously isn’t a thread derailer, either.
I agree with Hubert’s 1 and 2.
“Early Bird and Noble are good examples of posters who frequently provide negative feedback but never derail threads bc they’re usually just trying to disprove a specific point that was actually stated.”
Um, didn’t you just accuse Noble of doing just that?
Let the quickening commence.
“Don’t call it an Incineration!!”
So expressing one’s opinion on the semantics of “incineration” in light of what actually happened is the same as saying, “you can’t think that, Leon’s indisputably good and all of us must appreciate him or say nothing!”?
Of course it is, because you are “ethically and duty bound to tell the truth and not misrepresent anything on pain of losing my professional license and have been for multiple decades…”
Hubert, I don’t think I mischaracterized your statements at all. I generally tend to be low-key and simply said, please back up your statements. In various posts you said that other execs ran circles around Leon and a prime example was wasting 12 draft picks. I said that each pick was its own story, and lumping them together like that was specious argumentation. You never then supported your argument, instead switching to lamenting how your position was mischaracterized.
I mean, it’s possible I didn’t get it, but I didn’t make any of the broad claims about your position you’re stating. And you didn’t back up your position because it’s just venting and you shouldn’t be accountable for it or something? Then why should I take anything you say seriously?
As for your job analogy, I’m sorry to hear that. Getting it right on the big things is actually what makes a business work, so it’s pretty stupid if clients discount that for marginal crap. In the entertainment world, it’s like saying “yeah, you signed The Rolling Stones, but how did you miss Per-Olov Kindgren?”
I was very Simmons curious until he couldn’t make it work with the Clippers. Not sure there’s a better situation for him than that.
Still, isn’t his floor like a super Delon Wright? I would pay good money to watch him, OG, and Mitch play defense.
i would pay good money to watch bridges play defense at all
No. They’re two different forms of opinion policing.
1. The demand for consensus — “Leon’s indisputably good, all of us must agree or shut up.”
2. The type in which you have become a decorated master — “I kind of agree with you or don’t really disagree, but when you talk about it, you have to paint within the precise lines I lay out.” Incineration, Thibs, Leon, you name it. KAT yesterday.
We can all easily see the net result of the “12 draft picks.” It’s not like you have to dig deep into some mysterious recesses to see who’s on the Knick roster now and how they got here.
Rama, I didn’t mean to suggest you were the culprit here. There was a minor misrepresentation yesterday but I didn’t think it was very significant.
(FWIW I said “we currently have nothing to show for the 8th & 33rd picks in ’20 and the 19th & 21st picks in ’21”, and you quoted me as saying “we have nothing to show for 12 picks”.)
(FWIW pt 2 I thought your points about the nuances of what using some picks to create room for other things were valid but they don’t really disagree with me. We may have cleared Obi to make room for Donte but it’s not reasonable to consider Donte our return for the 8th pick in 2020.)
“2. The type in which you have become a decorated master — “I kind of agree with you or don’t really disagree, but when you talk about it, you have to paint within the precise lines I lay out.” Incineration, Thibs, Leon, you name it.”
Everyone is free to paint anything however they want, so long as they are okay with any criticism coming back their way. I’ve never called for anyone to be banned or muzzled. I do, however, recall you and hubert self-imposing a 5-post limit on yourselves. Is it too late to thank you for that all-too-brief moment of self-awareness?
No, you just hurl your parade of Horribles — “annoying, repetitive, condescending, patronizing, agenda-driven, axe-grinding venting that derails threads,” for example — 27 times per month for five years.
Simmons has reached the point where it’s beyond dispute that he’s unplayable in the playoffs. I think I might rather give that slot to Delon, who might be able to occasionally throw the ball at the basket and make it go in. Simmons is tempting because he still stuffs the box score, but overall he just never seems to add up to something all that useful.
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