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New York Knicks Stars Named Top 5 City Athletes – Sports Illustrated
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Should New York Knicks Sign Damian Lillard? – Sports Illustrated
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What Tyler Kolek?s been looking for, and hopefully found, with this Knicks? summer league stint – New York Post
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Key Knicks starter has surgery – BasketNews.com
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NBA Fans React To New York Knicks Josh Hart Announcement – Sports Illustrated
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Lakers Trade Rui Hachimura To The New York Knicks – TWSN Sports
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Knicks? Josh Hart Undergoes Finger Surgery – Basketball Forever
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NBA: Josh Hart, Knicks star, to undergo surgery for injury lingering since playoffs – Al Bat
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Baron Davis reveals how the Knicks could help Jalen Brunson be more efficient, especially in the playoffs: “You need somebody that can handle pressure, bring the ball up” – Yahoo Sports
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Knicks may have just revealed why Mikal Bridges won?t get an extension – Daily Knicks
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Knicks Want LeBron ? But Only on 2 Conditions: Report – Heavy Sports
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Knicks? Josh Hart undergoes finger procedure after suffering injury in playoffs – New York Post
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Knicks Reportedly Monitoring Giannis Trade Rumors, Delaying Bridges Contract Extension – Bleacher Report
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New York Knicks’ Josh Hart Undergoes Finger Surgery After Gritty Playoff Run, Expected Back in 2025?26 Se – Times of India
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61 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.07.17)”
Diawara SL sizzle reel
Thanks, EB. I remember those drives, but didn’t really pay attention to some of those passes, which combined were fairly impressive in terms of both suggesting court vision and knowing what to do with the ball.
Maybe he will indeed be a point guard in the Giannis mold…
I know I’ve been investing heavily in real estate on Diawara Island, but I’ll be honest, if we took this 20yo kid in the late first round I’d be stoked. At #51?
I watched a good portion of the 2+ hour of his Cholet video with all of his makes, misses, plus good and bad defensive plays. It honestly seems like the coach just told him to launch 3’s at will any time he feels like it, and just keep driving no matter what the outcome.
The sky is the limit for this kid, as I said yesterday, it all depends on where his development stalls out. But there are a few things that I think are very suggestive of significant further development.
-His handle for his size is already something like OG-level, will it get better? (In fact, I see a lot of shades of OG in his current offensive game, frankly more than I do of Siakam.)
-His passing is very advanced for his age and size. That demonstrates plus court vision, which I believe is a thing that either you have or you don’t. And when you combine a plus handle with plus court vision, you have a multiplier effect re: upside.
-He can finish at the rim adeptly with either hand, which is a skill I always look for in prospects. In my opinion, being one-hand dominant is a significantly underrated limiting factor. It separates superstars from stars, stars from role players, role players from scrubs.
-He has a non-broken face-up shot that, while it needs refinement, especially from the waist down, is something to work with. His percentage from 3 in Cholet would have been better (but still not very good) if he was more selective.
-He has a pet post move that works well: the running hook shot going from left to right across the lane. Again, his dribbling and court vision make this something to build on, and if he can learn an effective counter going from right to left, or some kind of step-back (that one face-up highlight looked kind of OG/Siakam-esque) then he can be more than a 3-and-D guy.
The red flags/limiting factors:
-Footwork, footwork, footwork.
-Consistency on his shooting mechanics
-Lower body strength in the post
-Defensive quick-twitch reactions: has good speed and jumping ability but right now depends too much on length and kind of disappears vs. bigs in the paint. Easily boxed out. Late on block attempts.
Bottom line: He’s not a rotation player yet but I don’t think he’s that far away, maybe a year…or if he stalls, maybe longer, if ever. Still, there’s not a whole lot of guys picked before him in this draft that I would trade him for right now, especially outside the lottery.
Are we even sure he’s going to make the team?
He looks like a talented multi year project to me.
You know, it’s funny, the Bradley Beal signing is a bit of a joke, to be sure, but swapping Norman Powell for Bradley Beal and John Collins is honestly not a bad trade for the Clippers, especially since age doesn’t matter since they’re already relying on an ancient James Harden and a not-so-fresh Kawhi Leonard, so getting older doesn’t make much of a difference (and Powell is the same age as Beal, anyways).
“He looks like a talented multi year project to me.”
I think the Knicks should do everything possible to accelerate his development. The reason is because there simply aren’t enough options to fill his potential role (OG’s/Hart’s backup) in front of him. Frankly, I don’s see much daylight between him and Dadiet.
Either way, I hope we lock him up on a team-friendly deal.
The Clips as Traveling Wilbury’s analogy someone made yesterday was kinda funny, but really not applicable. First of all, there were no James Harden douches in the TW. Secondly, they really weren’t aging superstars, as someone pointed out, Petty hadn’t even turned 40. And third, I wouldn’t call their songs legendary, but seeing 5 of the all time greats make music together was pretty sweet.
The Clips on the other hand, will probably achieve nothing and no one will be nostalgic for this Kawhi/Harden/Beal squad years from now.
I hate to suggest this, but you should take a good look at Diawara’s international shooting stats or even is stats in SL.
People are seeing reasons to think he can become a much better player. I see some signs also.
People saw reasons Frank could become a net plus player because of his length and switchability, he was already having a plus impact on defense and he was a willing accurate passer. We all knew he had to improve his shot and offense, but his overall impact as a switchable ball moving wing was always wildly underrated by people that focus too much on boxscore and offense.
What he was never going to be, was a PG.
https://nbarapm.com/player/Frank_Ntilikina
Frank was badly misued, hurt every single year, and missed almost every single summer development opportunity. That’s why he never improved his offense much beyond a bit better handle and started slowing down defensively.
Let hope we don’t try turning Diawara into a PG and that he can stay healthy for more than a month or two at a time and work on his game all summer so he has a chance to develop into a NBA player. Otherwise, he wan’t be an NBA player either.
Well, given that Frank is now the 8th man for a middling European team, might I suggest you consider the “box score people” were picking up on something you missed.
Frank’s “ball movement” tended to amount to moving the ball to a different player as soon as he crossed half court and then running to a corner, making sure he was ready to miss a 3 if someone else created one for him. There’s no evidence it was beneficial to the team’s offense outside of the fact that it limited the more active damage he could do. The RAPM data you posted indicated he was one of the very worst offensive players in the NBA, which absolutely aligns with my good ol’ eye test.
As of now, my ideal is OG at SF, Bridges at SG and Hart off the bench getting plenty of minutes. I think we need a good all around PF. Maybe Yabu will be the guy, but I’m not convinced. Maybe Diawara will be the guy while we are still in this window.
A young toolsy player with an NBA body. Who knew they likely didn’t draft him just to be Dadiet’s playmate.
Thanks for the clip, EB. I would say that Diawara was an excellent draft pick, but since Leon hates the draft, that can’t really be true.
Did you even read what I said?
I said his overall impact was underrated by boxscore people because the value of his switchable defense and quick accurate ball movement was not captured.
Again, we all knew he’d have to get a lot better on offense, but he did not because he was hurt every season and never had summers to work on his game/shot. He was always rehabbing. Summer is when most of the development occurs. He’s 26 now going on about 22 in development time with a body that’s probably closer to 30.
IMO, Frank was goiing to become a very useful switchable 3&D wing with secondary playmaking ability. Some guys get injuries that delay or prevent them from ever reaching their potential, whatever that may be.
strat, you often make good points, but your deathgrip on your horrific Frank sugarcoating takes waters down any credibility you might have in this area. It’s way worse than E’s glossing over all of RJ’s many flaws.
As you know, and you can check the archives for confirmation, I have watched significant amounts of film of both Frank and Diawara, and have come to two very different conclusions. It was obvious to me before the draft that Ntilikina would be a total bust based on what I saw on film. No handle. No motor. No off hand. No shooting ability. No finishing ability. All I heard from his stans was “wingspan, wingspan, wingspan!” and “U18 MVP!!!”
So please give it up with the “used incorrectly” and “always injured” nonsense. He fucking sucked before the draft, and he fucking sucked for every one of his NBA stints, healthy or not.
I’m not guaranteeing anything about Diawara’s ceiling, but I will 100% guarantee that his floor as a #51 pick is significantly higher than Frank’s ceiling (very predictably for all who put the work into film study) turned out to be as a lottery pick.
I love what I see from Diawara. But he’s averaging 2.2 asts/36 in SL and shot 55% from the FT line in France this year.
The stuff looks good on film but he needs to drive a lot more for his passing to matter and he needs to hit free throws before anyone considers him remotely close to hitting 3s.
thats what coaching and practice are for
“Summer is when most of the development occurs.”
This is being grossly overstated to serve your narrative. It ignores two things:
1) players, especially scrubs, develop all year around. Development occurs in games, in practices, in G-League stints, and watching games on the bench.
2) Players hit ceilings where no amount of off-season work makes any difference any more.
Stop making excuses for this certified scrub. It makes you look dumb.
Laker fans are so desperate to get out from under the Daddy LBJ & the Nepobaby Product.
They’re so desperate that #lolKnicksSupv tries to conjure “real” trade rumors for the Knicks to get James. Text convo last Saturday (yall can guess by now who’s saying what):
“You see the 4 teams that have made offers for Lebron?”
“ Dude… WE DONT WANT HIM! 🤣🤣🤣”
“ They’re the 2nd best offer”
“ What’s the source of this so called 2nd best offer?”
“ Bleacher report is one. KAT and 3 picks”
“BR is trash”
“ You’re getting Bronny too”
“ Listen bro… Yall stuck with the James’ Nepo Baby Project. That’s yall cost for LeBron winning yall the chip in ’20. If Bron was really serious about playing elsewhere he would’ve opted out of his player option. Yall go ahead and have fun with him and wack-@$$ Bronny.
G’nite 🤣🤣🤣”
Be patient Laker trolls, you only have one more season left! 😂🤣
what the hell is even that
We live in a topsy-turvy world where up is down and black is white, but I’d have felt comfortable putting the mortgage on LeBron staying in LA.
It’s interesting to wonder where the endless rumors came from, and I like what Cdiggy is kind of intimating, which is that it was all from desperate Lakers fans…
Sorry strat, but nah. The constant deer-in-headlights demeanor he had on the court, I felt like I’d literally had to pray he’d do something aggressive with the ball. The day he lost me completely was when he couldn’t D-up Trey Young on that gw shot in the playoffs… and yeah I know he stuck to him Trey as well as he could but still.
Here’s my hot take of the month: Frank was more of an indefensible draft pick fail than Obi, and I was wrong about Obi. But I’ll go one deeper: I think he was worse than Knox (not by much admittedly).
And then you posted RAPM data that contradicted this and confirmed what both the box score stats and the eye test say—Frank Ntilikina, during his brief time as an NBA player, contributed nothing offensively.
I’m admittedly no trainer, but I would think NBA offseasons are a great opportunity for players who have existing NBA skills to build on those skills. I have never heard of an NBA player who could not do anything at all offensively learning how to play basketball in a summer, or summers. “Learning how to dribble” is more of a middle school thing than a year 3 in the NBA thing.
But hey, Frank’s healthy now to the best of my knowledge. So if you’re right, he’ll inevitably finally learn to pass, dribble, make layups, and shoot, and return to the association with a vengeance. We’ll see I guess!
“I love what I see from Diawara. But he’s averaging 2.2 asts/36 in SL and shot 55% from the FT line in France this year.”
The FT% is definitely a concern, but it’s a small sample, he’s very young, and the form doesn’t look broken, so I expect that it will come around. Thankfully, it’s probably a reason why a guy with his physical tools and skills was available so late in the draft.
As to the passing, considering that he’s more of an off-the-ball player, I would put more stock into his assists vs. TOVs…not the ratio per se, but solely that it’s positive. In 500+ minutes for Cholet, he had 39 assists and 22 turnovers. Here in summer league, he again has more assists than turnovers. The nice thing is that his assists are coming off of drives into the paint, both in halfcourt and transition. These are areas where turnovers can be a problem for lanky players with loose handles who make emergency passes without reading the defense or get stripped.
It’s kind of easy to predict: regardless of age, if a player struggles as a rookie then gets statistically worse in his second season he is going to be a bust. The knicks should have cut Ntilikina in 2019 and put their time into developing whatever undraft rookie was behind door number 2.
Yeah Raven, he wasn’t walking away from that 52mil.
It’s funny to me that he and Rich Paul were passively trying to fan the flames of a trade or buyout. Bro, no one that you’d want to play for has the cap space or maneuverability to take you on. The true contenders (like us) also don’t need the daily LeBron attention/rumor mill distracting their squads.
However, based on the film’s lowlights, I would say that Diawara’s solid ast/tov ratio is inflated by the fact that he took lots of ill-advised shots off the dribble rather than emergency passes, making his shooting that much more of a swing factor.
I think that at the end of an NBA bench, he’s going to be a lot more accountable than he was in Cholet, where he could do anything he wanted. In terms of him being able to give non-destructive NBA minutes this year, it’s all about the defensive footwork. He’s getting blown by way to much to be even a low usage defensive energy wing. He’s got to be developed from the feet up.
The Clips were sneakily close to a title last year. I thought the four best playoff teams were OKC, Indiana, Denver, and the Clippers. The randomness of the seeding out West just pitted two of the best against each other in the first round. Had they won game 7 vs Denver I think they would have given OKC just as tough a series.
Beal is still just 32 (younger than Powell) and remains a good shooter. I think he’s going to be an excellent add for them. And the specter of Chris Paul joining them for the minimum still remains.
My goodness, I just looked at Ntilikina’s bk ref page, his career numbers are a real eyesore. They are down there with the numbers from knicks salary ledger under Isiah. Frank has to be on a very shortlist of worst players ever to log 5000+ minutes. Olowokandi, Duckworth, Knox, …?
[edited to add: I just asked google who the worst NBA player with over 5000+ minutes was and it said that it’s Dennis Fortney, who had a -5.46 career BPM, which I admit is worse than Ntilikina; however, Dennis Fortney also never existed, so there is that.]
that was pretty funny though cdiggy…yep, sometimes the other side scores every once in a while…ha, we’d be getting bronny, that’s a good one…
Duckworth started at center for a team that went to the finals in two out of three years. I haven’t looked at his numbers, but is he really a candidate for worst ever?
yes beal is younger than powell a whole 34 days younger so i would say that tidbit is insignificant at best you forgot nikoloz tskitishvili and michael ruffin as worst players to play a lot
The fact that Strat is still clinging to Frank Trutherism makes me feel better about keeping the faith a year too long. (Though according to Z-man and JK, maybe 2 years too long…or all the years….)
“Quick accurate ball movement” lol. Frank was legitimately terrified to have the ball in his hand, so he’d hot potato that MF to whatever teammate was standing near him at the first possible opportunity. This resulted in beneficial basketball outcomes approximately never. He was possibly the most comically bad offensive player I have ever seen. The running joke here was that he’d make an excellent bench player for Limoges someday and that turned out to be wrong only because he ended up coming off the bench for Partizan instead. I think the anti-Frank contingent gets the W on this one.
He could slip through screens pretty good though. I will give him that.
So what’s the difference between this Diawara highlight reel and Ben Simmons’s strengths? (Size, handling, passing, defense, NOT shooting)
Excellent understated work bringing up completely unsolicited both me and RJ Barrett in you boys’s ongoing dugout-clearer about Frank — of all people.
Ma, come in — they’re STILL ARGUING about Frank!!!
I rooted for both of them. That makes *way* more sense in every conceivable dimension than shilling for Leon or some random merc. Not apologetic about it in the least.
In terms of basketball, Alan’s inchoate notional dot connecting yesterday tells us all that need be known.
Yay, E just said “merc” for the first time in forever! I can finally hand in my winning Knickerblogger Bingo card!
diawara has much less of a chance of being as much a headcase as ben simmons seems to be
I actually didn’t notice that Brian had said he was the same age as Powell. I mentioned it in light of the general narrative that Beal is washed.
Not sure where his head or body is at, but 75+% of whatever Ben Simmons was would be an exceptional use of that vet’s minimum slot. But since there’s no way to feel confident in either of those things, maybe it’s best to move on.
Damn it I was so close after getting “argue about Frankie Smokes in 2025”.
I just needed Reub to come back with another pseudonym for the win.
The difference is that this is a highlight reel compiled over 3 games. Diawara hasn’t shown he can make enough passes in a game to be a PG. I don’t think his handle is on the level of Simmons, despite Diawara looking very polished for a player his size. Simmons averages 8.3 asts/36 for his career. As mentioned above, Diawara is at 2.2 in SL.
Simmons also plays much better defense at this point (or at least was pre-injury) while Diawara has gotten blown by a number of times. As z-man says, it looks fixable with better footwork, but that probably won’t help us this year.
Stats also say Simmons is the better rebounder.
The idea of Simmons would be a great fit with the Knicks. But, I am not confident in his health, or attitude. But imagine it worked out. He could help in a lot of areas. He also used to be so good at getting the rebound and pushing the pace.
I rooted for Frank too. I also wanted Rise Of Skywalker to be good. I had hope that Chinese Democracy might have some good songs on it. I kept thinking Jason Bay might turn it around.
We had some good times on Frank Island, Rama. I still remember when we drank too much rum and put a picture of Frank over the UFO on the Fox Mulder “I want to believe” poster.
Did that Diawara vs. Simmons question even merit a serious response? I give you credit, EB.
As Bradley Beal leaves, Suns’ trade for him goes down as one of franchise’s worst
Headline for this Athletic story when the article only refers to one other historically bad decision by the team, and it’s not a trade: letting Joe Johnson leave as a free agent in 2005. Obviously, this isn’t Sunsblogger, but the Beal trade was such a calamity, I wonder what else rivals or even surpasses it.
Agreed, and I don’t think they lose much from Powell to Beal, so you add in John Collins, and I think they’ve slightly improved from last year on paper.
The issue is that they’re all one year older, and thus more likely to just crash. But if they DON’T crash, that team has at least a puncher’s chance in the playoffs.
Frank looked the part of a great young switchable wing. The only problem is that he just wasn’t good at basketball.
To be fair, he was super young and didn’t have a lot of stats to go on yet. He looked super “toolsy” and teams liked that. But he never got any better. I actually think Knox was a less defensible pick because he had pretty poor college stats in his lone college season. But yeah, Frank was mostly a total stab in the dark.
I actually can’t believe he never broke the .400 fg% barrier in the NBA. That’s really quite an accomplishment.
Agreed on the Clips. Collins fills a need, and I’m not sure Beal is worse than Powell (though I didn’t post enough attention to comment on either’s defensive chops). Harden seems pretty durable, and Kawhi always misses time, so it’s just a question of who can play come the post-season. I’d like to see CP join them just to make Lakers fans pissed.
But the Suns – I was thinking about it a few days ago, and just as during the Isiah, Phil, and Mills eras, I was confident that the KB hive mind would infinitely outperform their FO. Delusional move after delusional move that anyone could see was ill-advised, with Beal being the topper. Yikes.
“I wonder what else rivals or even surpasses it.”
Rivals, but not surpasses: 2018 draft pick
The Clips also added Brook Lopez this offseason. They are pretty deep.
Also, I’m starting to think Cam Payne is still our best bet for backup PG. Sad but true.
There’s no contest between Frank and Knox as bad picks – Knox by a mile, both with what we knew then and obviously what we know now. Yeah, Donovan Mitchell, but Mikal Bridges, Miles Bridges, and oh yeah, some guy with the initials SGA… Not close.
Probably, but odd that Shamet is mentioned and never Payne
Don’t get me started on the Melo trade.
Who is, or was the worst NBA player with over 5000+ minutes?
ChatGPT: Mark Madsen (not the worst choice, I guess).
Claude: Kevin Willis (ouch, he was actually pretty good, in the nothing but eye test days).
Also Claude: “For individual seasons, Michael Olowokandi had the worst single season in NBA history in 2000 with a BPM of -6, meaning he hurt his team by about 6.5 points per game while playing significant minutes”
Isn’t the Durant trade worse? They gave up so much and they gutted a team coming off 58 and 64 win seasons. Granted Paul was done and they needed to pivot, but they could have just Paul and those picks for a star who fit with Booker, Bridges, and Johnson.
I recall some egregious penny-pinching moves during the D’Antoni era, like when Sarver sold the Luol Deng lottery pick to Chicago for $3M.
Guys, I’m specifically talking about trades made by the Phoenix Suns. Because that headline (which I know that the author of the article didn’t write, because that’s not how it works) feels awfully mealy-mouthed. If it’s not the absolute worst, then say what is.
When judging trades, imo one has to consider “theory” vs. “outcome.”
In theory, the Durant trade was at least somewhat reasonable. The Beal trade never was even a little bit. The injury history, fit, size and length of contract in a punitive cap environment, and no-trade clause make it the runaway winner.
I was partial to the Kurt Thomas trade where they dealt TWO first round picks to dump Thomas’ $8 million contract when he was still actually a good player (that one of those picks became Serge Ibaka made it even worse).
But no, I’ve been convinced that trading the #7 pick to save $3 million beats that, especially when the pick was Luol Deng. Go make a trade like that, please, Leon! Get someone to give you the #7 pick for no reason!
My defense of the Beal deal is that, while it was a terrible deal right from the getgo, and made absolutely no sense, and we all knew it was doomed to failure, I don’t think Chris Paul was getting you anyone better at the time. The Suns were just fucked by the new apron rules. They made the Durant deal thinking things were one way, and then they were another. They were doomed no matter what.
And they’ll probably still not even lose any of the first round draft swaps in the end.
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