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Knicks Morning News (2025.07.25)
07/25/2025 11:00:02
07/25/2025 11:00:00
07/25/2025 10:00:01
07/25/2025 10:00:00
07/25/2025 03:57:00
07/25/2025 01:24:10
07/24/2025 22:54:00
07/24/2025 22:57:51
98 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.07.25)”
markelle fultz? victor oladipo? kevin love? i could probably talk myself into fultz but as always…….we have no minutes for him
Saw Fantastic Four last night. Not great, but very good. A solid double after Marvel’s struggled to hit singles for what feels like a really long time.
https://letterboxd.com/alan_sepinwall/film/the-fantastic-four-first-steps/
I read both of the Athletic’s best of summer league and worst of summer league. No Knick mentions at all. I guess that’s not surprising.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1050366707288840
Posted with Hubie’s ‘love’ for the Knick’s front office in mind. Cliffs notes… Austin Rivers agrees with Hubie.
Not that we should compare it to Superman… But how does it stack up against Superman?
They’re both doing that thing where they’re leaning into the comic book-y nature of the characters, rather than shying away from the most ridiculous aspects the way superhero movies usually do. I think the highs of Superman are higher — maybe substantially higher — but FF is more consistently good throughout. If that makes sense. If you could only see one, I’d go Superman. But it’s nice to have these two in close proximity.
If we were doing a list of the worst players to log over 15K minutes in the NBA, Austin Rivers’s name would be up near the top. Dude had a career average BPM of -3.1, and a career TS% of .516. As a shooting guard!
We all know that Thibs is the guy players voted the coach that they would least want to play for. We all saw how he handled Fournier, Kemba, and Reddish…let alone Rivers. Not to mention Obi, who barked at him in the playoffs. As to Leon and WWW, they are who they are as well.
But I wouldn’t shed any tears for how they treated Austin Rivers after watching him stink up the court for a prolonged period (he had a couple of good games vs. the Jazz which actually inflated his terrible overall stats) and seemed to pout when he was benched for sucking on the court, not because they acquired Rose. If anything, Rivers comes off as a whiny nepo-scrub who got a lot of mileage off of Doc’s coattails.
Seems like the NBA has pretty much given up on Lonnie Walker IV, who I really liked at draft time but aside from some flashes in the playoffs with the Lakers never really developed. Just signed with Maccabi but has a NBA buyout clause.
I don’t think the Knicks can promise minutes to anyone left out there willing to sign a vet’s minimum. They can promise an opportunity to earn minutes, but that’s it.
If these sorts of guys want guaranteed minutes, let them sign with the “also ran” teams of the NBA.
Fultz is young enough and good enough to need to play, so he probably doesn’t want to come here.
Love seems totally washed, and Oladipo’s knees seem pretty shot. I’d pass.
I didn’t hear him talk about any any of my issues with the front office.
The coaching search was embarassing but that’s temporary and will have no impact on the season. It was wildly overdiscussed in the media because “lol knicks” will always get clicks.
The coaching search thing was probably blown out of proportion due to it being the Knicks (and formerly the lol Knicks). I mean, compared to what Denver and Memphis pulled, it was pretty mild. I always thought that the notion of “you shouldn’t fire your coach unless you have another candidate in place” was overblown.
Practically speaking, I agree that the optics will have no impact going forward, and although I’m not a Mike Brown guy, seemed like a perfectly cromulent process that resulted in his hire, and he’s a lot better than some of the folks whose names came up (Mark Jackson, anyone?)
(as usual, hubert and z-man on the same page)
I don’t think the NBA has given up on Lonnie, he just secured 3/$10M from Maccabi and has an opt-out clause after every season. So he’s getting a bit more than what his minimum in the NBA would be while maintaining flexibility.
My issue with the front office should be quite clear by now:
1. I think our lack of depth will be this team’s achilles heel.
2. I think our lack of depth is completely Leon’s fault.
I don’t give two shits about anything Austin Rivers had to say.
“2. I think our lack of depth is completely his fault.”
I have always agreed with this, but mostly due to the Bridges trade. As to all the other reasons, it’s a slippery slope. The strength of this FO is cap management, and given those constraints, the roster situation would be just fine if we still had 3 unprotected picks to trade. To me, our lack of depth is only an issue because we foolishly went “all in” on a non-“all-in” player at the expense of using picks to add depth via opportunistic trade.
However, I am very optimistic about both Yabu and Clarkson, and cautiously hopeful that more reliable “depth” will come from either the five “dreamable” kids (Kolek, Huk, Dadiet, Diawara, Pate) or via some sort of consolidation trade involving a couple of kids and a couple of seconds.
“I don’t think the NBA has given up on Lonnie, he just secured 3/$10M from Maccabi and has an opt-out clause after every season. So he’s getting a bit more than what his minimum in the NBA would be while maintaining flexibility.”
Well to me, when a guy with his skillset can’t land anything more than what Maccabi just offered him, that’s sort of being given up on. But hey, it worked out for Yabu!
If the coaching search hadn’t involved asking to interview sitting head coaches, and predictably being rebuffed in every instance, the process seemed normal. But that part struck me as weird, unless that usually happens behind the scenes and it was just lol Knicks that made it interesting enough for clicks.
I thought Rivers’ opinions were interesting not because he was a good player but because:
1… he illustrated how bad Thibs can be as a manager of people. What moron says to an employee at first meeting, “we know you suck and wanted someone else, but welcome aboard!? Dale Carnegie would not approve.
2… the lol notion that they fired Thibs with ZERO understanding of who was available or what direction they were going to go.
3… Rivers’ opinion (which seems to be buttressed by history and facts) that free agents aren’t exactly beating down the doors to get here.
We definitely suffered from a lack of depth last season, partially because of errors on Rose’s part (i.e. draft mistakes and Bridges), partially because it was a naturally consequence of making a good but depth-depleting trade for KAT on the eve of training camp.
This season, though, it doesn’t strike me as a weakness compared to pretty much anyone except OKC and their endless horde. Brunson, Bridges, OG, Hart, KAT, Mitch, Deuce, Clarkson, and Yabu are nine guys who have all either already had some amount of playoff success or, in Yabu’s case, should be able to have playoff success given the opportunity. Then you have whatever you can squeeze out of the remaining minimum slots and Huk/Kolek/Dadiet.
Naturally injuries and plain ol’ ineffectiveness will at times rear their ugly heads and make us feel like we have no depth. I think this happens to basically every non-OKC team. But from my POV it actually projects to be a strength this year.
The public coaching search didn’t really come off as negative to me. Maybe a little gross in its efforts. But some things were learned. It would have been nice if Holzman were available.
7yr NBA minimum is ~$10.1M for a 3yr contract. And his current deal probably includes a “May Be Hit By Missile” premium for playing in Tel Aviv.
I saw Superman opening night. I’m more of a DC fan than Marvel, plus I wanted to see how the new universe would kick off.
I’ve been debating FF because I like the retro futuristic aesthetic, but I’ve been pretty burnt out on Marvel throughout phase… 5(?)
You really tempted me on that South Park review Alan (but ima wait to watch first). Looks like you had fun watching.
Not to be pedantic but I think you mean the strength of this front office is what I would call “cap magic”, like the way Allen got the KAT trade done or the way he lopped off 5% of the Randle contract by making part of his contract a seemingly unattainable performance clause.
Because “cap management” is a major weakness of this front office. We once gave away 60% of the cap to a bunch of guys we had to pay to get rid of one year later. And we’re currently on the verge of the 2nd apron with just 12 players, 2 of whom can’t actually play. And of course that is with the unbelievable Brunson discount!! To be this bereft of options when you have a top 10 player making 22% of the salary cap underscores just how terrible the cap management has been here.
Felt like the coaching search was in party getting coaches’ deals extended. If this was part of the intention, they were fairly successful.
That South Park episode was one of the most unhinged things I’ve ever seen, given the complete context (including the Sky dance/Ellison acquisition of Paramount and the new $1.5B deal for South Park to continue). I would love a video of my face as I watched it. Holy cats!
Essentially agree with TNFH re: depth, although I would add the Mavs and Rockets to the list of deeper teams. I would say that Leon has built a strong and adequately deep roster, but at the expense of the ability to impactfully improve that roster via trade. That’s really the question for me: do our competitors with similarly strong rosters, depth, and cap situations have a greater ability to pounce on an opportunity because they have picks to trade?
It would seem that teams like Cleveland, Orlando, Detroit, and Atlanta have a leg up on us this year in that regard, and Boston and Indy will be able to retool for 2026-27. Maybe Miami works some magic and Toronto comes out of the woodwork. Milwaukee and Philly are the only teams in the East that seem hopelessly hamstrung.
In other news
https://bsky.app/profile/tommybeernba.bsky.social/post/3lusg3342ss2k
Doesn’t surprise me after his SL showing. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t get the rookie minimum roster spot.
Roster balance-wise, we could use an extra PF. He’ll only be in for the most emergency of emergency situations, but there might be some opportunity to play.
Trying to decide if it’s worse being one of Hubert’s old girlfriends (“She did everything wrong!”) or his current one (“She’s even worse!”).
Kidding, Hubert. I think.
Good news on Diawara. I look forward to his periodic two minutes of fame.
“Because “cap management” is a major weakness of this front office.”
False.
“We once gave away 60% of the cap to a bunch of guys we had to pay to get rid of one year later.”
That is an issue with talent evaluation, not cap management.
“And we’re currently on the verge of the 2nd apron with just 12 players”
Yet still under the second apron while acquiring 2 “superatars” and 2 high-demand role players, and building out a bench with 4 excellent role players. Let’s stipulate that Hart is a starter. You have Mitch and Deuce on way below market value deals, and Clarkson and Yabu making a pittance of the cap. You still can add a decent vet’s minimum player and a rookie salary. That’s a very good cap sitiation for a top-5 team.
“2 of whom can’t actually play.”
Which 2? I don’t see anyone on the roster who definitively “can’t play.”
“And of course that is with the unbelievable Brunson discount!!”
That speaks to cap management, doesn’t it? They pounced on a unique opportunity and turned it into a salary-cap boon, with the player’s approval.
“To be this bereft of options when you have a top 10 player making 22% of the salary cap underscores just how terrible the cap management has been here.”
I would rephrase it thusly:
“To have two all-NBA players and a supporting cast good enough to be considered favorites to get to the finals without a single impactful rookie deal or a single year of tanking and to be under the second apron that lots of smart KBers predicted would be impossible to stay under via the hybrid method without gutting the team’s depth underscores how brilliant the cap management has been here!
Again, cap management isn’t the issue, it’s talent evaluation, which is more akin to asset management. The team has ample cap flexibility compared to nearly every team in its win curve position. It just doesn’t have the residual draft assets to fully capitalize on it due to suboptimal asset evaluation.
Very happy about the Diawara news. We can quibble about where the floor is, but I think he has the highest ceiling of any player drafted in the Leon era.
about to watch my first south park episode ever, because why not…
enjoyed the recent superman movie…some hits and misses in the show…it was funny that many of the “side” characters were more engaging than the man of steel…
reminded me of some of steven spielberg’s movies where the attempt to connect with too wide an audience left it with an uneven feel…
absolutely loved the dog…and where the hell is plastic man?!?!
While Kolek and Huk look like G-league level talents, Diawara and Dadier have very high ceilings. I thought McCullar looked very efficient and healthy. He was a projected lottery pick that Leon gambled on too.
I get that he sucks at draft picks, – but if one or two of these three becomes a starting level NBA player, it will erase a lot of the pick incineration talk. Same as Brunson and i-Hart erased all his pre July 2022 mistakes.
Geo, make sure you get some “Woodlands Critter Christmas” in there at some point. South Park treasure.
I meant this season, and it does strike me as a major weakness to have just 9 legit NBA players on your roster. That number puts us in worse shape relative to all the other contenders, not just OKC.
No one needs perfect playoffs health this year more than the Knicks. Everyone’s fucked if one of their starters goes down but we’re the only team that’s fucked if one of our reserves does, too.
If Denver loses Bruce Brown or Julian Strawther they just move up Tim Hardaway Jr. The Clippers have Bogdan & Batum as their 10th & 11th men. Houston has more options than God.
Cleveland is in a similar boat if Nance (their 10th man) can’t play but even then there’s a huge difference between their emergency 11th guy, Jaylon Tyson (an NBA ready second year player who can play in a pinch) and ours, whether that be Dadiet or Kolek.
Agree Diawara news is good. Was thinking it is the reverse of Frederic Weis. But just read an article in the NYT published about 10 years ago about Frederic. Not what I remembered. He played in SL, and Van Gundy seemed to give him the Thibs-Austin Rivers treatment. Also a very sad personal life. Changed my opinion of him from “aloof French Knick hater” to a sensitive guy who got a lot of tough breaks.
I hear you and you’re right but it’s immaterial. The only thing that matters is the Eastern Conference. It’s super top heavy with NY & Cleveland. 3rd and 4th best teams are Orlando and Atlanta.
Anything can happen in a single series. Look at Indiana last year. Ran into all-time great level team and forced a game 7. Haliburton was lighting them up and Indiana looked like they were on the way to their first title before the injury.
Not really.
This is one of those years someone can steal a title like Dirk’s Mavs and that last Warriors team did.
I think this is the whole fucking window right now, like 1994.
Yeah, they used their 11th man (Thomas Bryant) in a critical playoff game against us and he scored 11 points off the bench.
You think Dadiet’s gonna be able to do that in June?
Depth isn’t just about injuries, it’s about options. It’s increasingly important, and we’re going to be bereft of them without depth.
If McCullar and Pate aren’t eligible for the rookie minimum (McCullar because he played a bit last year, Pate because we don’t have his draft rights), if Rokas ain’t coming, and if you agree that Diawara showed substantially more promise in Vegas than James Nnaji, then he’s really the only candidate for that last rookie minimum spot.
But that is a bold statement on Diawara’s ceiling, Z-man. Leon drafted Immanuel Quickley, who at minimum is a competent NBA starting point guard. Which, as all of you know who has watched this team for decades, is not as easy to find as one might think. Diawara has a long way to go to achieve that level of quality, never mind how good IQ could still become with better health (and also if he wasn’t playing on a team with so many guys who like to have the ball in their hands and shoot from the mid-range).
We can play with 8 guys in the playoffs, if need be. The roster is positionally versatile enough to support that in most scenarios.
We have the vet minimum slot that will go to a usable player. Shamet was in the rotation and now may not make the roster.
Huk was good enough last year to convince the brass to move Sims. He looks serviceable as a 3rd string center.
I’m not writing off Dadiet for this year just yet.
Y’all (except EB) seem to be selling my man Huk short these days. Not that he has a high ceiling most likely — good back-up center who can start if injuries occur — but I think he’s already a solid third-stringer who can play serviceable minutes. Not sure who else in that kiddie maelstrom would qualify as similarly capable.
yikes, scared to say it – but, starting KAT at power forward, adding yabu, and committing to huk as our 2nd (not counting kat) or 3rd string center makes us kind of good up front…
more concerned about the backup point guard situation…we shall see though…
big b-day weekend, getting a haircut now (what little is still there seems to have a mind of its own to point straight to the heavens), have arranged my schedule to be home alone for some time (minus the dog of course, which isn’t too intrusive a creature to spend time with)…
next week got the beck show down in diego…wondering if I wanna spend one of two days down there…
right now I just really don’t want to see or hear another soul…so we’ll ee how I’m feeling in a couple of days…
thank goodness it is friday…
I don’t think so. I’m not giving Leon extra credit because Jalen Brunson deserves a statue.
What speaks to cap management is using 60% of it on KAT and OG.
Compare to other top duos around the league:
Curry & Butler = 73.5%
Tatum & Brown = 70%
Embiid & George = 69%
Murray & Jokic = 65%
KAT & OG = 60%
Mobley & Mitchell = 60%
Halliburton & Siakim = 59%
Kawhi & Harden = 57.5
Davis & Kyrie = 57.5%
Durant & Sengun = 57%
Luka & LeBron = 55%
Edwards & Randle = 49.5%
It’s ridiculous that they are even on that list. It’s KAT and OG FFS! How in hell are those two guys sandwiched between Jokic/Murray and Mitchell/Mobley?
That is some dreadful cap management. Maybe not as bad as Morey, but still very bad.
Which front office got there without building statues for their players. I give him credit for Brunson.
Center is a weird position in the NBA bc you can simultaneously be “a solid third-stringer who can play serviceable minutes” and have no value to a contending team because centers who don’t shoot can’t play in the playoffs unless they make a major defensive impact.
I give him credit for acquiring Brunson.
What I don’t do is give him credit for good cap management because Jalen Brunson kindly took a discount.
It’s like giving the Spurs credit for cap management because Wemby makes $14M.
Cap management is not about the gifts you’ve been given, it’s about what you do with them. And Leon used his all up on KAT and OG.
Well by definition we will have another guy who played in the NBA in the 13th spot? Will he be as good as the Tim Hardaway Jr. who “can play in the NBA’d” himself to a .477 TS% and a -4.5 BPM against us in the playoff minutes, but hopefully Leon will find someone who can give us at least that.
Why not? Hiring people usually requires a conversation.
… except like wemby was drafted and Leon had to actually hire Brunson. And the like sign him. And like treat him like a human being and negotiate with him.
They both signed max contracts, Clarence. They’re only a discount because the CBA stipulates that their max is less than their value.
Deuce is excellent cap management. Probably the only example on the team.
Where are you getting your numbers from? Right off the bat, OG + KAT are making $92M this season, Lebron + Luka are making $97M. And Edwards and Sengun are only on their 2nd contract so are making less than what they’re worth. That has nothing to do with cap management.
I haven’t read Alan’s review yet (looking forward to it as always) but what amazed me about South Park is how quickly they must’ve made substantial edits. They referred to developments from the previous 72 hours!
“Compare to other top duos around the league”
This is an arbitrary way of looking at it, and frankly, one clearly chosen to suit a narrative. Why should an executive’s efficacy in cap management be determined by what the top two highest paid players are currently making relative to the cap? Why not top 3? Or top 4? Or when/how/why players were acquired given cap constraints and market conditions? Or roster fit? Or ability to move salaries if necessary?
You act like staying under the 2nd apron while being a top-5 team and making the playoffs 4 times in 5 years is easy to do when the starting point is a shit roster and only one player from that original roster and not a single first round rookie salary is in the top nine. How many other teams have done that?
I have some qualms with this methodology in general and also think in today’s NBA tradability matters more than production per dollar, however measured (your payroll inevitably increases anyway so using the cap to get good players in the door is crucial), but I mean, right off the bat, yeah, give me KAT and OG over these two any day of the week.
They’ve been doing that for practically the entire run. Their animation process lets them write incredibly close to when the episode has to air. In November of 2000 — while the Bush-Gore election results were still being argued in the courts — they did an episode about a disputed election for president of Ike’s kindergarten class, and it was referencing things that had happened only days earlier.
If you’re including Thomas Bryant as a useful NBA player, then you’ve set the bar very low. Based on that, I don’t think it automatically excludes Huk.
Hubert, I may not be a master debater, and I think KAT at max(Leon didn’t sign him) is silly – OG much less so, but if you can’t give credit to Leon for Jalen Brunson being dope af, then you can’t in the same breath blame him for Mikal being not dope af. I appreciate your contrariness, it’s refreshing on this blog where everyone always agrees but at least give the guy credit for securing and platforming the best thing to happen to the Knicks since Ewing and maybe longer. Masterbation is healthy.
Also, Kyrie is on a lower contract because he quit on his previous 3 teams, sat out a bunch of games (including playoff games) because he refused to get vaccinated, and is always injured (like he is now and will be all season).
nice clarence, you just did some long range jedi mind stuff and made me search:
what major american sports arenas do not have player statues
bottom line – it seems to be a trend which is growing, fan friendly stuff, also an assistive revenue generating thing…
the rickey henderson/A’s excerpt helps show it: Although the playing field was named “Rickey Henderson Field” and his number was retired, there are currently no statues outside the stadium. However, the A’s are planning for a statue of Henderson at their proposed new stadium in Las Vegas.
does vegas even want the A’s?
anyways, more player statues to come…and for the record – monument park stuff is/are in fact statues…whatever: to saying they are not…
My big problem with Hubert’s contrariness, which admittedly is interesting, is that it ignores the result, which hasn’t happened yet. Are we all about the chip? Then potentially fuck the unprotected firsts, fuck the draft picks or lack thereof, if we win a chip next year (and we are listed as #2 by more than one site), one can argue none of that matters, because whatever he did worked, whether or not you agree with those decisions. Mikal was an egregious overpay in a vacuum, and if he helps us win a chip it is no longer in a vacuum.
Does it put us in a worse position in a few years? Maybe, we’ll have to see. But I’d argue results matter, and are the ultimate deciding factor for how to judge all of this. We’re not the 8th best team trying to get into that top tier. We’re already in the top tier.
The percentages next to their salaries here:
https://www.spotrac.com/nba/new-york-knicks/yearly
I think using 60% of the salary cap on a problematic 2nd banana and a very nice role player has a lot to do with cap management.
I also think when you enter a summer with just 7 players and all you have is the TPMLE and two vet min slots, that says a lot about cap management, too.
And none of you are arguing otherwise. You’re just arguing.
NBA Stats PPP by play type data only goes back to 2015, so I went with a sentimental answer in Landry Fields.
Thinking about it some more, it was probably one of the 1970s championship Knicks.
What say you?
The percentages that say Luka+Lebron are making 66% of the cap?
Wasn’t that Bill Bradley’s whole deal? Just always knowing the right spot to be on the court for when Clyde and the others needed to get him the ball?
Like others here, I think we still need more depth. A couple of the picks we used to get Bridges would come in handy right about now.
However, keep in mind the path we took was to use the draft, free agency and to consolidate good players and picks into better players. IMO that’s what we were supposed to do given we didn’t draft a superstar when we were really bad (KP, RJ).
We only need to replenish the bench because we lost Hartenstein for nothing, gave up 2 key players to upgrade to Towns, 2 players to upgrade to OG and traded Obi and Grimes (who were not happy) for a bit of pick value (imo both these latter moves were suspect).
Let’s say we never made that move for Bridges. We certainly could have used those picks to add high quality bench depth, but then we’d be whining that we don’t have a high quality starter to replace DDV (who himself was probably better suited to a bench role).
Sure, they overpaid for Bridges, but it’s generally easier to find quality bench players than it is to find a starting two way 3rd option. So they overpaid for a guy that filled out the starting lineup (that had already been to a finals as a starter) in the hope they could fill out the bench with cheaper contracts and all the draft picks they made last year.
I think the disappointment so far has been that none of Huk, Kolek, McCullar and to a lesser extent Dadiet because he’s younger has been able to fill a key role (at least yet). If one or two had, we wouldn’t be worried about depth. We could focus on who should start (Mitch, Hart or Deuce) and whether KAT and Brunson will work.
i like the fact that huk’s speed on offense forces everyone else on the court to run faster…hopefully at some point soon he can slow down on his screens, give himself a one or two count before moving 🙂
not against KAT at the five, just would rather see him there for like 10 or so minutes a game, if needed at all…
feels weird calling for a primarily double big lineup, but i think KAT is someone whom you can do it with, yabu also to a much lesser extent…
there you go, bench mob:
deuce
clarkson
josh
yabu
huk
hope yabu’s ready to run…
not accounting for injuries, hopefully it allows for some deeper roster play when some of the players do miss games…stick to a 10 man rotation, maybe 12 against less lethal competition (we got a few in the east)…
so interested to see where mike brown’s pain threshold is regarding keeping the starters in with a 20 point/15 point/10 point lead…
I need you to repeat this to yourself.
I have never not done this, Clarence.
Leon gave us the Brunson era.
Leon has also done a lot of bad work (particularly in the draft) to lower the ceiling of the Brunson era and make it much harder to win a title in it.
And it surprises me every time someone calls this “Hubert’s contrarian position”. This should be consensus.
You guys are weird. Huk has already proven he can play a role, McCullar was drafted with an injury that everyone knew would cost him much of his first year, and Dadier (somewhat to my surprise) has shown indications that he could be a backup wing in a year – a pro good outcome for the bottom of the first round.
OMG, none of our non-lottery picks made a huge impact in their first year! Heaven forfend! What a terrible front office we have!
interesting list hubie, hopefully we can sign KAT to fewer years (3) less money low 50’s in a year and a half or so…
looks like we are about to pay mikal around 40 million a year for 3 to 4 years…
they nba is going to print more money (add another team) soon anyways, so why not…
And I need you to comprehend what I said instead of pretending that I don’t know why Anthony Edwards makes just 29.5% of the cap.
If you want to argue with me, argue that using 60% of the cap on KAT and OG is great cap management.
I hope we never sign KAT to an extension. Give me 1-2 more years and sell high.
The Knicks have a (true) puncher’s chance -according to someone – this year. Given that Brunson is a shawty, arguing that we could ever have anything more than that with him as your best player might even be disingenuous given how smart you is.
I wasn’t saying they are busts. I was saying given the way we were consolidating players and picks to upgrade the starters, we needed 1-2 of those players to break out in the 2nd half last year to have any hope for a solid bench. They did not for various reasons. But we are in a similar position this year in that a few players that did play off the bench last year will not be back. We replaced them (and tried to upgrade), but we didn’t really add depth. So we could really use for 1-2 younger players to break out this year.
I’m not sure if this was discussed here at all over the last couple of days because I was busy with personal issues, but it sounds like Mikal is going to be extended on a team friendly deal. What that means in dollars I don’t know, but the report I read suggested they want him back and he was open to staying on what could be good terms.
Your argument doesn’t hold up because you can’t compare salaries for rookies, 2nd contracts, and everyone else.
And, for some reason this needs to continuously be repeated to you, the cap will continue to go up so KAT+OG percentage will go down. And, as other players become extension eligible they will also take up more cap space than KAT+OG.
I’m not sure many people actually disagree with your positions (at least not in a huge way), but your standard for success seems to be anything less than “close to perfection” is not good enough.
If you look around the league every management team makes mistakes and has some good or bad luck along the way. I’ve been saying that for as long as I’ve been posting here. Some managements that would have been called elite a number of years ago look like the biggest idiots now even though they’ve been making mistakes for as long as they’ve been around. They just made bigger mistakes.
I think a reasonable standard is that management makes 1-2 brilliant moves, some neutral moves, a few small/moderate mistakes, but most importantly ZERO crippling blunders. If they do that and the luck is 50-50, they’ve done a great job. You can’t dwell on the smaller mistakes and say “if they were only close to perfect we’d be in a much better position”.
TC I made three arguments:
1. The 2024 draft was an egregious waste of 3 good draft picks that each presented the opportunity to secure us a good role player for this upcoming season.
2. Jalen Brunson’s “discount” is not a feather in Leon’s cap but a quirk of the CBA
3. An example of our poor cap management is using 60% of the cap on a problematic 2nd banana and a very good role player.
You’ve been arguing with me all day without once addressing any of them.
In fact you seemed to completely agree with point 2 when you said: “Edwards and Sengun are only on their 2nd contract so are making less than what they’re worth. That has nothing to do with cap management.”
Instead, you’re pretending I don’t know that percentages decrease when the denominator increases, pretending I don’t know that salaries are tied to experience, and pretending I said all the other duos on that list are a great example of good cap management.
If you don’t mind me asking, why are you in such a mood for make believe?
[slams laptop shut til Monday]
“1. The 2024 draft was an egregious waste of 3 quality draft picks”
That’s an opinion. Have at it!
“2. Jalen Brunson’s “discount” is not a feather in Leon’s cap but a quirk of the CBA”
Total bullshit to serve one’s own narrative.
“3. An example of our poor cap management is using 60% of the cap on a problematic 2nd banana and a very good role player.”
No, it’s an example of a gross and intentional misinterpretation of what cap management actually is, again, for the purposes of being obtuse and argumentative. Especially when the same guy who did this acquired a top-10 player and created the conditions where that player saw a potential championship in the making and settled for a salary way below his market value to facilitate the process AND ACTUALLY STATED THIS HIMSELF! (Unless one wants to argue that Brunson, the most self-confident player in the NBA, was leery about betting on himself!)
folks, each line item doesn’t matter, just the total at the botom of the page. Leon doesn’t get the credit for signing Brunson to a great deal both times? He doesn’t get credit for Duece and Mitch deals. Hart and Mikal are both underpaid too.
Btw, last season, KAT was the best NYK center since Patrick Ewing. If he plays the 4 this season, be the best NYK PF ever. OG is our best small forward since Melo. They’re not just average NBA starters.
Forfend is like parapluie — two words I want to use to re-name my annoying cat (right before I use her corpse to beat Doogie to death…).
We do not know whether or not McCullar, Dadiet, Huk, and Kolek will be useful roleplayers this upcoming season. The season hasn’t happened yet.
Perhaps not, but he made the KAT trade with the knowledge that Brunson was already secured under market value. The salary was not acquired in a vacuum.
In Leon’s mind, this argument likely extends to Mikal being on a cheap deal as well. But that’s a (massive) talent evaluation issue, not a budgeting one.
This is entangled with issue 2, because maybe those two are an overpay but the combination of Brunson/OG/KAT (and for many people, Mikal) at their combined salaries looks much better. You optimize for talent on the court, not for cap efficiency.
A little eye candy for the true believers…
the guys on our bench used to be the best we could hope for as starters…we’re pretty good now…mike brown better not fuck it up…
A starting lineup of Mitch, Yabusele, Hart, Deuce, and Flame would not necessarily be good, but they’d be fun to watch compared to some of the shit rolled out there over the last 25 years.
And all at the cost of around $45M in cap space! Imagine the bench you could build with what’s left over!
Go Yanks!
Apparently the Knicks are hiring a mister Charles Allen to the coaching staff, who worked under Brown in SAC.
Hopefully we still nab Priggie Smalls
howdy raven, never had a cat…had a few dogs in the past, never lasted more than a few months though…the latest pooch is a total outlier…
had some small turtles as a kid, they smelled, and didn’t last so long…
was keen on picking up one of them big grey parrot things when I was still in my 20’s, found out those things live for like 50 years or, got a little turned off on the notion…
so tell me raven/marlin perkins what’s this wild kingdom situation with your cute kitty?
The most important thing I’ve learned from this thread is that anything good that has happened to the Knicks is not because of Leon but everything bad that has happened is because of Leon.
“The most important thing I’ve learned from this thread is that anything good that has happened to the Knicks is not because of Leon but everything bad that has happened is because of Leon.”
Some folks are just born to get joy from pissing in the punch bowl.
Hey geo, she was found wandering in the countryside as a tiny kitten barely able to eat hard food, and with every disease known to cat. We patched her up and she’s kind of sweet and likes to lie on my belly but has a food fixation where if we left a big bag of food around she’d eat until she died, and she spends much of the day quacking like a duck asking for food. I do kind of want to beat someone to death with her.
She no longer bloodies me with her claws, but that’s because I’ve learned her cues for when she will strike. A little Jim Fowler-like.
Great story, Raven. Much respect!
It’s worth mentioning that the excess loose skin that gathers at the elbow is called a weenus.
Raven, you had me with “parapluie” – had to look it up, relieved it wasn’t an English word I didn’t know. Phew.
Sometimes I think Hubert stirs stuff up as a more tame version of Pags – it’s a routine he engages in to spur conversation. The willful contrarian. On the other hand, he’s confessed to doing it only because he’s over-caffeinated, so who knows. But this is a silly bit, for the reasons enumerated. Sure, if we end up having to give real minutes to our #11, #12, #13 players, that won’t be great…but so it would be for all but 3 other teams. And far as I remember, the FIRST 5 players tend to be a better predictor of success. And in that event, Leon has clearly done OK.
I have looked into a time share on Dadiet Island. Hubert may need to issue a retraction in 18 months…
Is it? I’m basing it on Diawara’s combination of size/length/athleticism/attitude plus fundamental skills.
You don’t see a lot of guys his age with a 7’4″ wingspan handling the ball the way he does. His passing is suggestive of strong court vision. He has a good defensive motor. His shot doesn’t look broken. He can finish adeptly with either hand. He’s got some meat on the bone for a 20yo. Seems bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
I would say his 100% outcome is something like an OG-Siakam hybrid.
Compare that to:
Obi
IQ
Grimes
Rokas
Deuce
Sims
Keels
Dadiet
Kolek
McCullar
Hukporti
Which of those guys *really* had a higher ceiling than Diawara prior to playing a minute in the NBA? Maybe Dadiet?
awwwww, a kind of furry tempermental companion…
I loved that one where marlin tapped out against this crazy huge anaconda…
poor jim had to wrestle that creature on his own, in 3 feet of water…that was so awesome…truly a torch being passed moment…
Z-Man, just to be obstreperous, given the measure you suggest — who had a higher ceiling before playing a minute — I think you have to give it to Obi, who even after playing for a while and clearly having a whole suite of weaknesses was still being talked about (by some) as a potential replacement down the line for Randle as a starting power forward.
Lunacy, and not taking anything away from Diawara, but there it is.
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