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22 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.07.18)”
donnie walsh its ok if you want to include lillard in the package that the blazers got for lillard but if you do so then you have to take ayton out since he is not on the team anymore you cant have it both ways
mccullar impressed me i would trust him with the ball in his hands at the end of the game or even to take game-winning free throws of course it is unlikely that he will be in either of those scenarios anytime soon for 3 pointers as odd as it sounds to say i like dink pates form the most and he hit 5 of 11 of them (he also hit all six of his free throws and those two things are somehow supposed to correlate)
Does anyone of note (other than maybe Beauchamp as a high-usage guy) play in our last summer league game? Could this be The Luka Scuka Game?
Dink is a nice kid t try to develop in the G-League…young, some skills, good measurables. No chance at all he plays a minute for us this year, he’s too physically immature to handle the physicality in the NBA.
McCullar’s issue is that he already played in the NBA so he’s a RFA. The only way we can keep him is if 1) no one makes him an offer above the vet’s minimum, and Leon uses that slot to sign him (not gonna happen) or 2) he agrees to another 2-way (reasonably likely). Either way, I don’t think he’s worth thinking about very much.
I’ve weirdly been enjoying the Luka Scuka Experience, admittedly supported by the delight surrounding his name. Even though he is not good at basketball (even discounting his horrible Celtics game [!] he’s still only shooting 36%), he seems like he’s in every scrum for the ball. Here’s hoping he has a long and fruitful career overseas and that our Euro contingent reports on him regularly…
Alan, maybe at most Kolek plays again because he needs the reps, but I think the FO has seen enough of the roster guys and Diawara.
Guessing (hoping?) that with Huk, Kolek, and Dadiet as roster givens, the rookie roster spot goes to Diawara and the 2-ways get offered to three of McCullar, Pate, Nnaji, and Beauchamp. But who knows? Maybe some Exhibit 10 player moves ahead in the 2-way pecking order…
Felt very bad for Biwali Bayles, probably gonna lose a season just for coming over to this shitshow for the exposure and experience. He played his ass off yesterday and I found myself rooting for him.
I think you have to play Kolek again, but maybe it’s considered disrespectful. As a second year guy and older prospect, he needs to show more.
Pate and Nnaji probably play. Though Nnaji barely plays even when he does.
Anton Watson, our other other 2-way to close out last season likely plays again. Not sure he’s all that noteworthy as his 3pt shot still looks off.
And yeah, I think Beauchamp should play, partially to advertise himself and partially to let the role players play as role players.
But peak basketball would of course be Luka Scuka and Yudai Baba dominating the game.
i hope diawara plays
Pate’s SL per 36 line is 17/13/6 with only 1.7 TOs. His fg% is awful, but give him 2-3 year of weight training and I’d bet that goes up.
My only worry about putting him on a 2-way is that he jumps ship when he’s actually good enough to play in the NBA.
Give me Pate and McCullar on a 2-way. I’d probably leave one spot open till after training camp, or nominally fill it to give someone a payday.
I am confused too. But I did note that Lillard is getting an extra year in his new contract with Portland, so whatever he gets for that year isn’t covered by Milwaukee and he definitely has incentive to get more than the minimum for that season.
I don’t know the details but I believe Clarkson was bought out and Lillard was stretched. I’m assuming it’s a difference between those two mechanisms, but it’s not something I’m going to really dig into unless it affects the Knicks.
Cool article from Owen Phillips about which Summer League statistics tend to be “sticky” i.e. remain stable in a player’s rookie season, and which ones can be mostly ignored.
Most of the findings are fairly intuitive–stats that say more about play style than play quality like 3PAr, AST/36, and BLK/36 are much stickier. Still, it’s a good read. I’ve always found the kind of nihilistic “it’s summer league ignore it all” approach to be a bit wanting, since at least anecdotally we can all recall so many canaries in the coal mines, both positive and negative.
Unfortunately there’s not a whole lot of relevance to the current Knicks, as we don’t project to give any real time to rookies and the article doesn’t touch on the implications for non-rookie summer league players.
Diawara, Huk, and McCullar are all nursing minor injuries. So the organization might not want to risk any of them playing in a meaningless game.
the applied set-off is only ~half the new contract for every year it overlaps the original bought-out deal. specifically it’s half new salary less the applicable minimum. so lillard gets to keep roughly $15mm extra of the $27mm over the first two years of the new blazers deal. similarly, clarkson would have benefited from a bigger deal. the discount taken in the buyout doesn’t matter.
Apparently we play tomorrow at 3:30 against the Wizards, who somehow suck even in Summer League.
Maybe a couple of these kids will eventually grow into useful rotation players long term as the widow on the current group starts to close, but I don’t see anyone I think is very likely to have an impact on wins this season.
I’m a big Kolek fan because I think he has high level court vision and passing skills. I like players with at least one elite skill. Then I can picture a role for that player as he hopefully develops adequacy elsewhere.
I suspected he’d have fewer assists because his summer league teammates would brick more of his good passes. But I’m not sure I’ve seen much development elsewhere. Even defensively, I can’t tell if he’s gotten a little better or he just looks a little better because he’s not guarding NBA caliber players.
IMO backup PG is still an issue on this team. I’ll leave it to Brown to decide if he thinks Kolek is ready. If not, I’m not in favor of some kind of PG by committee situation with Deuce, Clarkson and Hart. I’d want to add someone that can run an offense. I’d be fine with Simmons. He’s not ideal or reliable, but he can defend and run a team.
As crazy as it sounds, I’d actually be interested in inking Ben Simmons- shooting be damned. Size, defensive versatility, and playmaking is what this team needs more of. Question is- would he accept the vet minimum? I think he’d be fine on this roster- we just can’t play him and Hart on the court with Brunson because he won’t have true catch and shoot threats with him. But- as a 2nd unit chess piece? He’d help the offense get organized without sacrificing size and defense at minimum.
tnfh: i know that in the past we have not been projected to give any real pt to rookies but a lot of that was thibs i truly hope that in the new regime mike brown et al. see fit to develop those guys and part of development in my opinion is giving them a little time on the floor in actual games even on top of blowout situations as most if not all other teams do
alan: did not know (or remember) about those injuries to diawara huk mccullar so thanks
strat: i would love if delon wright was our backup pg and kolek was third string who still got 5-8 minutes per game
I’m spookily with Doogie on Please no to Ben Simmons and let’s just have Delon as back-up PG as he shouldn’t embarrass us, can play decent D and make layups, and would let some of our wings cook while Jalen sits. Kolek in garbage time until/unless he starts showing out, then he can take Delon’s minutes.
If we did keep Delon I’d expect him to be third-string behind Deuce, who would vacillate between point and two-guard depending on matchups. But I don’t want it to be just Deuce and Kolek when Jalen has to sit for a game or two because he rolled his ankle. And I REALLY don’t want it to be Simmons. We don’t need a giant version of Frank.
I’d have no issue with Wright. I like him. But he doesn’t seem to be getting any mention as someone they are still interested in.
thanks pt, so is it fair to say that my point that Clarkson could have theoretically waited for better offers and made more money actually stands? Not suggesting that he actually would have received substantially better offers, just that he could have tested the market and potentially benefitted financially, which was refuted when I pointed it out.
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