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Knicks Morning News (2025.09.02)
09/02/2025 12:00:00
09/02/2025 11:38:29
09/02/2025 06:16:00
09/02/2025 05:37:04
09/02/2025 01:29:43
09/01/2025 23:00:23
09/01/2025 23:14:00
09/01/2025 21:49:05
09/01/2025 21:00:00
09/01/2025 20:05:21
57 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2025.09.02)”
The bot lives!
Feel for Rokas…
“STATEMENT FROM LIETUVA BASKETBALL
The latest news on Rokas Jokubaitis’ injury – tests carried out in Tampere revealed a left knee ligament injury.
The point guard is expected to be sidelined from basketball for at least six months.”
That’s rough. Especially after he played so well the other day.
I’m with you.
They did great from an asset management standpoint, especially fleecing the Pelicans. And I think they’re poised to execute a move that would make me take them seriously. But as currently constituted I don’t see them as a threat.
Finals or bust. Season’s goal is to win the conference and then play with house money.
Only legitimate threat is Cleveland.
Orlando & Philly have a punchers chance at an upset.
Everyone else is BBQ chicken.
Q: What do those three teams have in common.
A: Size, Toughness and Rebounding.
Hart or Deuce starting lineup scenarios need to be checked at the door this season. We’re not going up against Boston wings and 45 3PA per game modern style. East will be won in the paint.
“They did great from an asset management standpoint, especially fleecing the Pelicans. And I think they’re poised to execute a move that would make me take them seriously. But as currently constituted I don’t see them as a threat.”
When they traded for Dejounte I thought they would be a threat, when they moved from Nate to Quin I thought they would be a threat, and when they traded Dejounte for Dyson and replenishing some picks I thought they would be a threat. Wrong each time and the common denominator seems to be that the fulcrum remains Trae. So while I think this year’s moves are an improvement, just like all the others, as long as Trae is there agree with you I don’t see them as a threat.
As long as we don’t meet them in the playoffs…
Atlanta strikes me as a serious threat to make a Giannis trade, now that I think about it.
My favorites for him are still Cleveland (for Garland, Allen, picks and swaps) and Houston (so many ways to get a trade done).
But Atlanta has quite a few ways to put a good package together. They might even want to use Trae as the centerpiece and build a team without the problems he constantly presents. Trae + Risacher + Pelicans pick + whatever picks and swaps they can cobble together seems pretty appealing.
It’s a real downer about Rokas. I saw him play in one game and he looked great. Others thought so too. To quote:
Bucks handed Thanasis $2.9m 1yr extension. Think this means that Giannis is staying in Millwakee until at least next summer.
millwakee is a decent place
Nobody purposefully chooses to play for The Hawks.
Why would Giannis leave Milwaukee to go anywhere but Cali, NY, Miami, or Texas? He’s already the king in a small market; he’d only leave for quality of life or championships or both.
The only team that can offer him everything is Houston (if you like Houston, I guess). NY would probably be second, or possibly the Spurs, but NY doesn’t have picks and the Spurs don’t have players. (Unless they deplete their thin core.) I’m not sure what Dallas, GS or the Clips could trade; Lakers and Miami got nothing.
In short, seems unlikely Giannis is going anywhere anytime soon.
I should add there is always OKC, but it isn’t in their MO and they don’t need to, so I don’t consider them a factor.
Love what Atlanta did. Still not scared of a Trae & KP 1-2 punch. Hell of a defense though if KP stays healthy.
Re: Rokas,
Obviously, I love him—I wanted to bring him over this year—but he did have a pretty easy Eurobasket schedule other than Germany.
Great Britain, Finland, and Montenegro aren’t exactly top tier competition.
How can it be house money when Leon’s spent 7 years worth of assets to go all in?
We are the most leveraged team in the NBA outside of the shit show in Phoenix. We’ll most likely lose Yabu after the year. Possibly Mitch, too. Boston and Indiana will get their stars back. The younger teams in the conference like Detroit and Orlando will mature and reinforce.
This is it, man. There’s no three year window here. It’s only even open now bc of two ruptured Achilles tendons. If we lose in the finals this year it’s like losing to Houston in ‘94.
Even after Haliburton comes back, they still lost Myles Turner.
Boston has gotten rid of a lot of their role players in order to reset and keep the Tatum/Brown duo together. Horford will be retired by the time Tatum is back. KP is gone.
These teams aren’t just going to magically bounce back to where they were before those injuries. Not saying they won’t be good. They will be. But come on, man. The panicked this is it attitude is silly. Our core dudes are all in their prime. And where is it guaranteed Yabu doesn’t pick up his player option or Leon extends him?
there will be pivoting and manuevering that needs to happen after this season. That happens EVERY SEASON. our core guys are all in their prime.
To say we have a one year window and that’s it is alarmist.
Indy has a couple young guys that look close to a breakout, but C does look like a pretty big hole at the moment. It’s absolutely fixable by next year, which will be their next competitive year anyway.
Boston does look to be on the decline. They have two absolutely massive contracts that will make it difficult to reload. Both their Cs are out (Horford to GS looks like a done deal) and Jrue is gone….oh yeah, we also beat them already.
All that said, I still don’t love our own team, which has its own holes without the ammo to add more. We absolutely are getting a huge break and still might struggle to take advantage.
Also, I think we’re cooked if Mitch goes down, which is really damn likely.
If it looks like this team has hit a plateau in some point over the next 2-3 years, Leon could always start selling off the component parts, as at least some of these guys will probably still be good. That’s going to be the real danger zone. The thing to fear is that once the decline starts to happen, the front office will be too slow to realize it and won’t pivot to a rebuild. That’s my fear, anyway.
In the meantime let’s go win some games.
“This is it, man. There’s no three year window here. “
“ In the meantime let’s go win some games”
Yes, JK and preferably early on because Mike may need to do another migration to handle the 500+ angst ridden comments posted every day of next season.
Yes, that is definitely a danger. I could see Leon trading anyone but Jalen though. Even though he might be the one who has the most trade value
Lots of delicious Greek food in NYC! I only learned about this place a few years ago, despite passing it all the time.
https://www.yelp.com/biz/kikis-new-york
EDIT: There’s no signage or any other indication that this is a Greek restaurant. It kept all the Chinese printing services signage.
I think it’s silly. It’s probably close to 50% Leon is going to make another significant move before the deadline unless the team is playing great.
We could probably use a starting PF that can defend and shoot 3s (unless Yabu breaks out and defends well enough to start). That will move OG to SF, Bridges to SG and Hart to the bench.
We could probably use a real backup PG (unless Kolek breaks out).
We could probably use another high level shooter (kind of like DDV) to start and move Hart to the bench.
We could probably use another 3&D wing that could guard the POA to start instead of Hart to free Bridges to guard wings like he’s supposed to at this stage of his career.
Who gets moved and for what depends on whether Mitch is healthy, how important he is next to Towns, whether Huk breaks out and who else is playing well or poorly.
We have a couple of young players (aside from Mitch) that may make the rotation this year that would suddenly become assets with some improvement.
Not ony do I not think the window closes this year, I’m not so sure it’s really even fully open yet. I’m pretty sure this is not the final version of the team unless they are playing so well under Brown Leon decides to stay with this group and run it back.
If you like food trucks for lunch, Gussy’s is fabulous for Greek.
You said it: Championships
1 Daniels
2 Alexander-Walker
3 Johnson
4 Giannis
5 Porzingis / Okongwu
Jesus, that could be the entire first team All Defense. And with Kennard off the bench they can surround Giannis with 4 lights out shooters any time they want.
Plus that’s not even a tax team so you they can add anyone they want on the buyout market and use the full MLE next summer.
That’s hella better than us.
I’ll say again that rim protecting 4s who shoot don’t really exist outside. There’s JJJ and maybe a couple other players who aren’t reasonably attainable.
Play a C with KAT or shift OG to the 4 like we did last season.
I also said “the only reason we even have that window is bc of two ruptured Achilles tendons.”
It’s still a mezz team to me. Too many structural flaws and a very clear path to the thermal exhaust port.
But this is a special year. Everyone other than OKC is in the mezz now. So either they repeat, or someone from the mezz wins like when that Warriors team stole a title in ‘22.
You’re not getting Giannis to Atlanta without giving up at least one of Daniels or Johnson.
If he’s good, he’s gone.
If he comes back for 1 year/$5M, it will be bc he wasn’t very good.
So if Giannis wants out, The Bucks wouldn’t take KAT for Giannis because why would they want to get KAT and not do a full rebuild if they lost Giannis. But they would DEFINITELY want Trae Young!
+1 on KiKis. Been going there for years. Lovely spot during nice weather, when they open the windows and the breeze flows through the rooms.
Alarmist and…
Now I am very happy because when I googled “a person who makes poor word choices is called a” it came back with “dysfunctional” or “incompetent.”
And no, Hubert, I don’t think of you as either one, to be honest. I was just amused. But calling every team in the NBA but one as “mezz” is, if not a poor word choice, at least lazy as hell.
First, they’re not all on the same level.
Second, the actual definition (and god, we’ve been over this endlessly) of mezzanine is “intermediate.” Another term for intermediate is middle.
I agree OKC is leading the field, possibly by a lot. But I think there is a group that is right behind them (dare I call them contenders?), followed by a third group who would need things to break just right but it’s not impossible to imagine (puncher’s chance?).
I think we used to be in the puncher’ chance group. I think we’re in the contender group now.
You want to lump all that, and the Wizards and Nets as well, into the mezz, nobody can stop you. But it’s the best view I’ve had from the mezz in decades…
You’re playing 3 non-shooters between JJ, Dyson and Giannis, which is a big issue when Giannis is your #1 offensive option.
Giannis has also needed someone else to run the offense down the stretch, Middleton or Dame, he’s not the biggest halfcourt threat.
KP, NAW, and JJ have combined for 2 career all-defense votes, both by KP, one vote in two different seasons. Very good defenders, but they’re not all making an all-defense team.
KP and JJ possibly could make all-defense if they hit the games minimum, which KP has only done 1 time in the last 7 years ( he played exactly 65 games) and JJ has only done 1 time in his 4 year career but only played 15mpg.
Correct. But that’s not this team. That’s the next team.
The franchise could reboot in two years and open a whole new window. But this team, i.e. the one with Brunson, KAT, OG, Mikal, Josh… has a one year window IMO. If it doesn’t work out, start making the trades immediately.
We have been over this endlessly bc someone like you always comes in and tries to redefine a very clearly defined term to suit your purpose.
You are correct about one thing, though: it was silly of me to say “everyone else is in the mezz”. I was wrong to assume everyone would know I meant the contenders. I should have known someone would be so thirsty for internet points that they would make believe I was suggesting the Knicks and Wizards are on exactly the same level.
Oh good. Another mezzanine argument.
Listen, “Mezzanine” is one of the greatest trip-hop albums of all time and one of the best albums of the 90’s period. Debate over.
Everything we have done this off season is to give us a multi year window. The 2 ruptured Achilles teams have made moves that verify we have a multi year window at least vis a vis them. This situation is a far cry from 1993-4 where (certainly in hindsight but likely evident to the astute) the window was Jordan going to the minors.
if it was so clearly defined, there wouldn’t be constant debate about it.
I think my favorite part of the definition of mezzanine is that it says, “In modern construction, mezzanines are valued for their flexibility and cost effectiveness in maximizing usable space.”
Which is exactly the opposite of Hubert’s complaint about our current situation!
Losing to OKC in 7, means we need to break it up asap? – Because why, Boston is coming? – It’s NY and Cleveland top heavy for 3yrs.
Although, I could see a scenario where we become the Utah Jazz during 1997 and 1998 seasons where we keep running run into Mike Tyson.
Bruh, it’s the middle tier of a subjective three-tiered system.
Tier 1: championship caliber teams
Tier 2: fundamentally flawed contenders
Tier 3: non contenders
And since tiers don’t require even distribution, you can easily be the 4th best team in the NBA and still be in the middle tier.
Savvy?
When you go to a theater, you don’t count the number of seats and declare that the mezzanine is seat #250 of 500. Or do you?
Giannis and Tatum are trapped in bad situations & Embiid is cooked. I’m not afraid of anyone below 25yrs old. Is anyone really afraid of Blankero, Trae, Garland or Cade? We have a three yer window. every year is finals or bust.
Folks, we don’t have a generational young talent on this side of the isle. No Kermit, Wemby, Luka, or Champions like Shai, Jokiq, Steph, LBJ, KD…or a generational great team like OKC followed by really really good teams like Houston and Dallas.
It’s just NY and Cleveland. That’s it. Need a top 10 player to win a championship and I just can’t find one in the EC that’s not trapped in a bad situation.
Director, I don’t mean you have to do a total tear down and sell everyone off for picks.
What I mean is I’d scrap “keep the top 6 and tinker around the edges with vet minimums” after this year and begin trading core pieces like Mikal and/or Josh for new core pieces that fit better in order to open a new and improved window of opportunity.
Hell I think I’d like to do that now before we lose in the finals.
And I’ve said this before but I think KAT is a ticking time bomb and I absolutely want to trade him before he needs an extension. We could lose game 7 of the NBA finals this year and next year, and I’d probably want to trade KAT instead of giving him an extension.
I think it’s very possible to have a second iteration of a Jalen Brunson Knicks team while he’s still in his prime, one that is constructed much better than this one. And if we don’t win the title this year I’d probably get started on it immediately.
So to be clear: the franchise might have a longer window than one year, but this team doesn’t.
Here is a pleasant suprise… aka Leon delivering a rotational piece that fills a perfect need for $5m. He’s even cheaper that ihart
https://x.com/i/status/1962980233247916280
OK. Let’s leave it at this…what else can I say.
Yabu balled out today, granted not sure how tough a team Poland is to score against.
36 points and 6 threes! Poland had been undefeated including a win over Luka and Slovenia.
yabu and clarkson are both great fits on the team…expect to see a lot of effort and energy from both…if huk can get some time on the court that would be a lightening quick second unit…
hopefully what ever bad chemistry that may have been going on with OG, mikal, josh, jalen and anyone else gets resolved early on this season…
new coach, fresh slate, should allow players a chance to feel their ideas and feelings about stuff are being heard more than last season…
hope OG starts and stays at the three and mikal plays the two next season…
statistically do we have anyone other than mitch rated as a good rim protector?
huk doesn’t really seem like that guy…
You’re incredulous that I wouldn’t want to give KAT a 4 year, $300M extension starting in his age 32 season as a reward for losing in the NBA finals?
glad that yabu is doing well in eurobasket but id much prefer that he not be playing at all right now
The KAT extension should worry us all
What has led you to believe that Leon will do that? – It’s clearly an irrational fear so I’ll just leave it alone.
I never said I fear Leon would do it.
I said I would trade KAT even if we lost in the NBA finals.
I don’t think the entire Jalen Brunson era should be weighed down by KAT making $75M in his decline phase.
For whatever its worth the Knicks just hired somebody who’s been with the Clippers the past 9 years to be their Senior Director of Minor League Operations.
Losing Turner is rough on paper, but honestly, he was the only Pacer I came away from my abrupt fandom from with a worse impression of than I went into it. Carlisle didn’t even play him much in game 7 and his achilles was fine.
Between Huff and Isaiah Jackson, who is presumably rehabbed and ready to finally take more minutes, they should be able to do the old 80/20 thing at C. Huff’s /36 stats were better than Turners across the board and he even shot a higher 3pt% too, while Jackson averages more rebounds and blocks on his career than Turner gave them last year. And, of course, their backcourt is already upgraded thanks to addition by subtraction. Also, the East is weak man. Pacers ain’t dead yet!
Once the decline phase happens? The top 7 are 30, 29, 29,29, 28, 27 and 25. Decline phase is an eternity away in NBA terms. None of these guys are in marginal condition with James Harden’s nightlife tendencies, so I would expect them to age nominally at worst and better than most. Catastrophic injury is the bugaboo.
Hey, if it can happen to Luka…