Happy weekend. This from Macri: “They finish the preseason with the 10th most 3-point attempts per game in the league.” Sort of surprised that there were nine teams with more. Definitely not my grandpa’s league anymore. But glad we’ve modernized a bit.
I got tickets to Thursday’s Dodgers game to see Ohtani pitch, then they bumped his start back a day “in preparation for a game 7”, even though they were already up 2-0 with three straight home games coming up. Needless to say, Thursday’s game was unextraordinary in every way, it was a day game that wasn’t even sold out. And Friday’s game was one of the greatest individual athletic performances in American sports history. Should I be bitter? Sports fandom has suddenly become confusing to me again after so many years of clarity.
A thought occurred to me that probably doesn’t amount to much, but real games are a few days away, so…
When the rose administration actually bothers to use its draft picks, it’s been good at finding small guards (or small wings, in the case of Grimes) and decent at finding backup centers, but not so great with bigger wings and power forwards.
Maybe diawara or Dadiet grow enough to buck that trend. We’ll see.
Thanks to Donnie I looked up what Ohtani actually did last night. Dude seriously struck out the side in the 1st and hit a leadoff home run. Remarkable.
I’m officially on the Diawara train. Where are we going? In the immortal words of Stymie, “I don’t know brother, but we’re on our way!”
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When the rose administration actually bothers to use its draft picks, it’s been good at finding small guards (or small wings, in the case of Grimes) and decent at finding backup centers, but not so great with bigger wings and power forwards.
Perrin’s biggest successes are Donovan Mitchell (13th overall) & Rudy Gobert (in the 2nd Rd), so that kind of fits the trend.
Millsap (2nd Rd) was a PF, but played a bit like a C and probably has more in common with modern Cs than modern PFs.
Hayward is his big wing success, but they used the 9th pick on him. Not as much of a surprise to get a strong wing there.
Hubert, he hit the 2nd home run clear out of the stadium, it was like a scene out of The Natural.
I’m officially on the Diawara train. Where are we going? In the immortal words of Stymie, “I don’t know brother, but we’re on our way!”
His absolutely 100% meaningful and perfectly predictive per 36 numbers over 52 total minutes:
50.4 TS%
2-7 from 3 (preseason total)
+23 net rating (per 100 possessions)
He’s a good passer even if the stats don’t show it. Looks great when he drives and kicks, which could help in the halfcourt, but teams will probably Josh Hart him.
Tried one pretty ugly floater last night but it went in.
By the eye test, he has every intangible you could want. He’s smart with his cuts, makes the right passing reads, and might be the biggest hustle bunny we’ve seen yet.
buenos dias…so is our roster set for the beginning of the season?
Hubert, he hit the 2nd home run clear out of the stadium, it was like a scene out of The Natural.
Obviously because of the CLA, Donnie. Ye of little faith.
Diawara should have been drafted in the late first round. I don’t get why the scouts didn’t like him. His film looked great to me, relatively speaking.
The two lefty finishes in traffic were telling, he just ignored defenders and used his length to go over them.
The shot needs to come around but even so his defensive length and ball handling combo is extraordinary.
Diawara should have been drafted in the late first round. I don’t get why the scouts didn’t like him. His film looked great to me, relatively speaking.
He looks great on film but his stats were pretty underwhelming. He wasn’t a starter and in his last season he put up:
11 pts/36
5.8 rebs/36
2.4 asts/36
.557 FT%
.282 3p%
In 140 min between SL & preseason, he’s been a much better rebounder and hasn’t been any worse scoring. So he’s already overperforming what most teams likely projected.
Teams also see a ft% that bad and it’s a red flag that he’ll never figure it out.
I think we can all agree that it’s good that we have a few young guys with some upside. The more the merrier. There are no guarantees, but I like having lottery tickets both for the short term low probability break out and for longer term development when some of our key players age.
Going into next week, I’m disappointed Brogdon didn’t work out because I thought he would bring something to the table we need. I’m also a little concerned about the defense because it sounds like they are going to handle Mitch with extreme care in terms of B2Bs and minutes. Other than Mitch being healthy, I think a good case can be made our defense is worse. But I’m happy Kolek looks a little better in case we need some PG minutes and so far I like Brown a lot even though initially reacted badly because I preferred someone else.
diawara > dadiet > kolek
I can see diawara more at the 4 than 3…20 years old and he’s already listed at 225…
also, been glad to see jemsion yhe 3rd out there this pre-season…him and diawara aren’t the worst I durance policy up front…
EB I think that nearly every 19yo NCAA player drafted in the late first round would have put up ugly stats in that league. Conversely, I think Diawara would have put up much better stats in the NCAA.
maybe we should give doogie editorial access, that way he can go back and fix all our typos and renegade auto-correct terms…
EB I think that nearly every 19yo NCAA player drafted in the late first round would have put up ugly stats in that league. Conversely, I think Diawara would have put up much better stats in the NCAA.
I don’t know how teams project rebounding progression for players overseas, but I’m pretty sure they don’t double it like Diawara did in the preseason.
Hugo Gonzalez went 28th in the same draft. He put up 13pts & 6 rebs per 36 playing for Real despite being a year younger. His ft% also means he’s likelier to become a shooter.
Noah Penda. Same draft. Same league. Early 2nd Rd pick. Put up 13.8pts, 6.8 rebs, 3.5 asts per 36. Much better ft%.
His absolutely 100% meaningful and perfectly predictive per 36 numbers over 52 total minutes:
With all due respect, 52 minutes of exhibition game play is perfectly predictive of absolutely nothing. That doesn’t mean Diawara didn’t perform up to snuff and may be a fine player. But LOL sample size trying to draw any definitive conclusion.
For example, Kevin Knox in his first 52 minutes of actual league in season play (his first 2 in season games against real in season line ups) showed 27 points, 4-9 from 3, 6 rebounds, 2 steals and a block.
That would be irony, Bob
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Can I hop on the Diawara train?
And I like the fact that we have 5 young players we drafted (or acquired draft day trades) to develop and they all have different base positions.
That’s fair EB. I would say that given Diawara’s elite wingspan and standing reach, plus his ball- handling, ambidextrous finishing ability, and motor, he deserved to be drafted right with those two. He has more margin for error. His standing reach is 4” higher than Penda…that is a HUGE difference.
I get that the numbers are what they are, but international numbers for 19 year olds should be taken with a grain of salt. To me, film is more reliable if looked at with the numbers in mind. Very few guys with his elite measurements can do the things he did on film. If his numbers were better, now we’re talking lottery pick.
Obviously he needs to develop but there is a lot of there that can’t be taught.
The larger point is that finding value at #58 is really hard and this is the 3rd time Leon has done that (Sims and Huk). That’s pretty cool!
Bob, Knox was a lottery pick. Diawara was one pick away from being undrafted. If he flops completely ( don’t worry, he won’t!) it will be the most typical outcome for that draft position.
The good news for us is that he will never get the long leash that Knox and Ntilikina got due to their draft position and being on shitty teams.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the kid so far. He looks like a plus prospect everytime I’ve seen him play and looks like he outplays his numbers. It’s just that him going 51st doesn’t surprise me much.
The shooting in particular is a problem, and I think that’s what you may be underrating. Diawara projects as a terrible shooter. I don’t think they’re sagging off him in preseason like they would if he were a regular rotation player.
Obviously players can improve their shooting, but most of those players show potential with a solid ft% first, which is a solid predictor of future 3pt performance. Tankathon projects him at 31.7% from 3 in the NBA. If Hart can be an issue at 34%, then Diawara needs to be a terror in every other part of the game. Wings who don’t shoot just aren’t NBA players very often.
All that said, if he keeps rebounding like he has in SL & the preseason, then you can throw everything above out because that’s a pretty intriguing player to me. I vaguely recall reading that he would press PGs a lot, so he may have just been too far from the basket to collect rebounds in Europe.
What’s really wild is how many draft bloggers didn’t even rank him. Vecenie had him at 79, but only writes up the top 75. He & Hollinger’s immediate reactions were that Diawara would never make it to this side of the Atlantic.
As near as I can tell, Diawara is still on his training camp contract and hasn’t signed a regular contract yet.
The deadline should be Monday at 5pm eastern time.
Here is recent update from RealGM
The New York Knicks waived center Alex Len and wings Garrison Mathews and Matt Ryan. Len and Mathews were signed to Exhibit 9 contracts. Ryan was signed to an Exhibit 10 contract and is expected to join the Westchester Knicks for the G League season.
The Knicks appear to have set their regular season roster with 14 players on standard contracts and all three two-way spots filled. Landry Shamet and Mohamed Diawara appear to have made the opening roster. New York will carry an open standard roster spot into the regular season, because they don’t have room to fill it under their second-apron hard cap.
well then KfniNJ – let the games begin 😊
As an Angelino in a city still in agog over last night, I’m trying to figure out the basketball equivalent of what Ohtani did. It’s like if a hockey goalie scored 3 times while also not letting any pucks in the net; or if Tom Brady threw three touchdowns and got 10 sacks. Basketball is all two-way, and a great player can impact 80% of possessions, so I don’t know… maybe a quintuple-double to send your team to the NBA finals? (Even though that’s never been done, it seems eminently more possible than what happened last night).
(Sorry doogie, I see that I failed to remove the preposition after I changed the incorrectly used noun “awe” to the more accurately descriptive adjective “agog”. My bad.)
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A PG playing Center in the 80’s is probably as close as you can get in basketball to playing two sides, so there might actually be a basketball equivalent: when Magic Johnson started at C for an injured Kareem in game 6 of the NBA finals and had 42 pts & 15 rebounds (as a rookie, no less). I’m pretty sure he even flashed a sky hook, although I might have gotten that from Winning Time on HBO.
Shams: “Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant has agreed to a two-year, $90 million contract extension with the franchise, his business partner and Boardroom CEO Rich Kleiman tells ESPN. The new deal includes a player option in 2027-28.”
I’m trying to figure out the basketball equivalent of what Ohtani did.
You mean the guy hitting .220 in the postseason? HE’S A BUM.
A little bummed we’ll never see Durant as a Knick. It seemed like something that should have happened. If you gave him truth serum, I bet he’d admit he made a terrible mistake in 2019. Dude’s been adrift in a sea of NBA meaninglessness since then. Supposedly he really wanted to come here this summer but we had no interest in bringing him in.
Something tells me that before his career is over Wemby is going to do something unprecedented in the playoffs.
The Magic game was pretty unbelievable.
Never quite follow the cap/two-way/roster madness, outside of hoping X or Y makes it (or Z doesn’t, bye Alex Len). Can someone tell me why Jemison isn’t on the roster layout that Edwards laid out this morning?
I really liked the idea that for those B-to-B games for which Mitch sits out (Donnie, you made me nervous there), Huk and Jemison step in. Depends on the opposing center, of course, but that’s a nice pair to throw out on the floor, one after the other. Did something happen or is that still a thing?
Raven, Edwards didn’t list any of the guys on two-way contracts.
Found the story of Guy Hecker hitting 3 HRs as a pitcher in 1886. It’s wild reading about him. It all sounds kind of like:
Guy was the second pitcher to ever throw a no hitter, one week after his teammate threw the first. They moved the mound further back that week. It may also not have been a no hitter because the score keeper was black out drunk the last 3 innings and couldn’t decide if the play fans described was a hit or an error upon awaking. The teams then played the second half of a double header combining for 13 errors and 9 unearned runs in a 22-5 Louisville victory, the players having gone to the bar with scorekeeper between games. The games lasted a combined 2:15 and they set 43 records, 37 of which would be broken by the end of the third game.
Later, they would go on to ban running starts on the mound signaling the beginning of the end for Guy, after finishing the previous year going 50-22 for the second most wins and also leading the league in batting, which they only discovered 40 years later because nobody in 1886 knew how to count. The researchers also not knowing how to count fucked up that number too. The following year the league forgot that walks aren’t hits.
Jemison may get real minutes. He can play up to fifty NBA games and we only have two true centers on the roster so if Huk or Mitch misses a few games, I can see him getting called up.
Although, this analysis leaves out Towns playing center
Cameron Payne was released by the Pacers.
I’m definitely betting on Jemison getting minutes at C. Yabusele looked unplayable at C in his minutes there and Jemison has looked pretty good.
With Mitch taking games off, you’d need KAT & Huk to stay healthy pretty much the entire year in order to keep Jemison off the floor.
The Pacers releasing Payne seems weird, given that they have no point guards left.
It can’t be because of aesthetics, as Haliburton’s shot is almost as fugly.
A little bummed we’ll never see Durant as a Knick. It seemed like something that should have happened. If you gave him truth serum, I bet he’d admit he made a terrible mistake in 2019. Dude’s been adrift in a sea of NBA meaninglessness since then. Supposedly he really wanted to come here this summer but we had no interest in bringing him in.
His terrible mistake in 2019 was leaving GS one of, if not the greatest teams of all time due to ego.
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I haven’t watched the preseason because I don’t think it tells us anything meaningful beyond showing us what the coach wants to work on. Those of you who have been watching seem to agree Yabu looks terrible at C. He played 73% of his minutes their last year. If he’s suddenly unplayable at his best position then we wasted the TPMLE.
Those of you who have been watching seem to agree Yabu looks terrible at C.
The problem is defense.
That’s what I’ve been saying about the Precious for Yabu swap since we signed him. He’s an upgrade on offense, but likely a downgrade on defense. Let’s just hope he’s getting used to playing with these players in this system and will be OK at PF. I think if Mitch is on a minutes cap with no B2Bs, we are going to need Huk to step up at backup C.
His terrible mistake in 2019 was leaving GS
I disagree. That was the right move for him. His decision to join the Warriors backfired. It was perhaps a little unfair to him, but they broke basketball and the public resented him for it. He needed a third act
His terrible mistake was having faith in Kyrie. (That and not getting his toe behind the three point line against Milwaukee.)
Yabu’s best position isn’t center, even if that’s what he played a lot of in Philly (see Embiid, broken). He’s a fairly cromulent backup power forward, if he plays to the back of his trading card (which he has not so far as a Knick, but preseason).
Again, we have a 7 footer and a 6’11” as backup to the center position, both of whom seem perfectly okay to throw out at backups and maybe even lesser starters in the league (I’d say both Huk and Jemison are ahead of Sims at this point, although maybe for Jemison that’s more promise than current fact).
So if Yabu starts hitting threes and our big bench dudes continue to show up, I’m not at all concerned with our big man rotation.
Injuries change the equation, but that’s true across the roster.
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we are going to need Huk to step up at backup C.
I’m currently sticking with “preseason basketball is meaningless and Yabu will be fine”. But the reports are concerning. I recall folks talking about Bridges looking bad last preseason and thinking nothing of it, but that turned out to be valid.
Basketball is all two-way, and a great player can impact 80% of possessions, so I don’t know… maybe a quintuple-double to send your team to the NBA finals? (Even though that’s never been done, it seems eminently more possible than what happened last night).
How about Wilt going for 56 and 35 (plus God knows how many blocks) in a series clinching playoff game vs the Syracuse Nationals that sent his team to the NBA finals vs Boston.
Or two way all pro Chuck Bednarik playing 58 of 60 minutes at center and middle linebacker in Philly’s 1960 World’s Championship win vs the Packers and making the game saving tackle of Jim Taylor inside the 10 on the last play of the game.
tres bien corbeau…
I hope we sign Diawara to a longer contract. I also like his long term potential. As for Shamet, he is fine and I’m not upset at him being our 10th/11th man but I think he is pretty redundant with two of our other primary backups in Clarkson and McBride.
I would love to see us get a big man or a bigger wing. Jeremiah Robinson-Earl was just released and I think he is a solid player that primarily plays the 4 and can play some small ball 5. He can shoot a bit and has shot about 39% from the corners (over 40% last two years) on almost 200 attempts. He would be a significant upgrade over Shamet positionally, has some upside, and is a better defender.
Mo Bamba, also released, while I don’t like him as much, would give us good size and good defense with a bit of shooting and upside.
I think if we don’t go big with that last slot then a specialist would be better than a does everything kind of ok player like Shamet.
For me, I would prefer getting a defender. Dennis Smith Jr. was also released and he could be a good pick up if we wanted at least one elite POA defender to bring off the bench when needed.
If we really wanted a shooter then Seth Curry got released and while he is old and a bad defender, he is still a top 5 shooter in the NBA.
Both would be better than Shamet because instead of just general depth it would give Brown specific tools in his tool box to employ situationally.
I think he started the year as a PF but was forced into playing C because the 76ers ran out of actual centers halfway through the year.
It is just preseason so I’m probably overreacting, but getting abused by Marvin Bagley seems not great.
I disagree. That was the right move for him.
Of course, you do. 🙂
But factually, how’d that (leaving Golden State) work out for him? Think it might have been better if he stayed? I mean GSW weren’t run by Jerry Krause and Reinsdorf. They would have continued to pay him max dollars into eternity to keep that group together.
Now his rep is that of arguably the wing greatest scorer in basketball history who was never happy, torpeoded one of the greatest teams of all time due to his ego and shot his way out of Dodge City several other times. Nice work.
The Pacers releasing Payne seems weird, given that they have no point guards left.
Bear witness to the rise of the Math.
He’s a fairly cromulent backup power forward, if he plays to the back of his trading card
The back of his trading card actually suggests he’s a terrible PF, but to be fair that was in Boston before he learned to shoot.
Last year when he played PF the results were fugly:
– a 102.4 ORtg and -17.6 net rating in 166 minutes next to Drummond
– a 109.5 ORtg and -0.6 net rating in 186 minutes next to Embiid
I’m not suggesting these are definitive samples but this is the back of his card. He seems like a guy who needs space for his rumbling forays to the rim, and to get that space he needs to either play C or next to Towns. Play him next to Huk or Mitch (with Josh Hart, no less) and I’m not sure cromulent is the word we’ll use to describe him.
I posted this during after the game on Friday: Mikal had 4 FTAs in over 90 minutes of preseason. I’m not sure I see the “new, attacking the rim” Mikal that some of the analysts have talked about. Maybe he has switched a few fadeaway 2s for 3s, but otherwise he looks like the same guy to me.
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he is pretty redundant with two of our other primary backups in Clarkson and McBride.
I don’t think Shamet and Clarkson are redundant. Clarkson is more of a slasher who plays terrible defense and isn’t a great shooter. Shamet is a shooter who plays okay defense but doesn’t attack the basket much.
I would love to see us get a big man or a bigger wing. Jeremiah Robinson-Earl was just released and I think he is a solid player that primarily plays the 4 and can play some small ball 5. He can shoot a bit and has shot about 39% from the corners (over 40% last two years) on almost 200 attempts. He would be a significant upgrade over Shamet positionally, has some upside, and is a better defender.
I think if we don’t go big with that last slot then a specialist would be better than a does everything kind of ok player like Shamet.
It’d be nice to have another big or forward, but I don’t know that we need one after watching preseason & counting 2-way players.
At PF we can play:
(1) KAT
(2) Yabusele
(3) OG
(4) Hart
(5) Diawara
(6) Dadiet
(7) Evbuomwan
(8) McCullar
At C:
(1) Mitch
(2) KAT
(3) Huk
(4) Jemison
(5) Yabu
Looking at guard/wing, I’m only seeing a handful of players that can both shoot & defend.
Guards/wings who shoot & defend:
(1) Deuce
(2) Mikal
(3) OG
(4) Shamet
(5) ???
That’s a very short list.
I mean GSW weren’t run by Jerry Krause and Reinsdorf. They would have continued to pay him max dollars into eternity to keep that group together.
They actually forced him to take a pay cut after the ’17 season (his first one in GS) in order to keep the core intact. And it wasn’t a fake pay cut like Brunson (who actually signed the max deal he was eligible for; he just chose not to wait). Durant, as a free agent, took $25M from the Warriors when his max was $34.5 so that they could pay everyone else.
He did everything right in Golden State but never got his due and never would have. Leaving was the right call. Following Kyrie to Brooklyn was his mistake. If he had signed with the Knicks there would likely be a monument to him here by now.
“Dennis Smith Jr. was also released and he could be a good pick up if we wanted at least one elite POA defender to bring off the bench when needed.”
I like DSJ in theory…the problem is that he was invited to training camp to vie for a space, opted out so didn’t compete and then would be rewarded over guys who competed. Sounds unfair unless perhaps you factor in he thought he was competing against Brogden’s semi guaranteed rotation spot…
I posted this during after the game on Friday: Mikal had 4 FTAs in over 90 minutes of preseason. I’m not sure I see the “new, attacking the rim” Mikal that some of the analysts have talked about. Maybe he has switched a few fadeaway 2s for 3s, but otherwise he looks like the same guy to me.
This actually is a marginal improvement of his FTs/36, but FTs is an imperfect metric.
Looking at his preseason shot charts at NBA.com, he took 11 of 42 shots within 3ft of the basket. That’s 26.2% of his shots. He hasn’t been that high since his 3rd year in the league when he had a 15% usage. In contrast, last year he was at .185.
Eye test, he looked for his shot more aggressively and within the flow of the offense. There wasn’t any Mikal iso-ing into a back down midrange jumper. Not only was he attacking the basket but shooting 3s off of cuts instead of waiting for the kick out. His midrange shots also looked like they came as counters after getting cut off on the drive rather than looking like the only thing he knew how to do.
I think if you watch it you can see it more than in the numbers. Small sample and it’s preseason and it’s eyetest, but it really looked that much better to me.
“If he had signed with the Knicks there would likely be a monument to him here by now.”
The likely consequence of him signing with the Knicks would be Steve Mills constructing the rest of the roster with his triple mantra of using up all cap space, you can never have too many PFs, and player options are irrelevant. And that’s even ignoring Kyrie in tow.
And that’s even ignoring Kyrie in tow.
I think Kyrie actually towed him to Brooklyn, but that’s neither here nor there. I already cited his faith in Kyrie as his biggest mistake, so I meant coming here without him. Had they both come here, I’m sure it would have ended terribly, too.
It’d be nice to have another big or forward, but I don’t know that we need one after watching preseason & counting 2-way players.
I don’t think we should count on our two-way guys for anything other than garbage time.
If we look at non-two-way reserves that can play the 4-5 we have Yabusele, Hukporti, Diawara, and Dadiet. (Hart can in a pinch but gives up a ton of size) Only 1 of those 4 can reliably give us 25-30+ minutes a game or start if needed.
As for non-two-way reserves that can play the 2-3 we have Clarkson, McBride, Hart, and Dadiet. 3 of the 4 can play 25-30+ minutes or start if needed.
Plus our three most injury prone players are Mitch, Towns, and OG. Those are 3 of the 4 players that we have that we can count on to play major minutes at the 4 or 5.
Mitch is almost a lock to miss some games this season, if not many games. If he misses extended time we get really small really fast.
Right now our top 4 bench guys are Clarkson, McBride, Hart, and Yabusele. 3 players 6’4″ or shorter and 1 player who is 6’8″. Size is our biggest weakness going into this season and Shamet doesn’t help that at all.
Plus calling Shamet a “defender” is generous. He is mediocre at best defensively, especially if he is stuck defending larger wings which is likely since Clarkson and McBride will usually be on the court with him.
My main recollection of Precious Achiuwa last year was that I was almost always very excited when he would come out of the game. He’s a defensive-oriented player who isn’t even a very effective defender because he has molasses-slow reaction time. It’s not very surprising that he finds himself not on an NBA roster as the season is starting. He’s a solid one-on-one defender so he has his moments where he looks pretty good, but if Yabu has a similar season to his last season in Philly we’re getting a better basketball player in that slot. I’ll take his high eFG/low usage and spacing over Precious’ intermittently good defense.
for you married type folks/habitual cohabitators…
are you ever alone sitting in bed or standing in the shower wondering if the juice is worth the squeeze…
Go Alan! (And thanks for the Jemison clarification…)
JK47
I don’t disagree with you about Precious’s defense, but there are worse defenders in the NBA. It’s his offense and inablity to shoot that’s potentially keeping out of the NBA.
I also think Yabu will be a net plus over Precious because he’s much better on offense. That will more than offset what could be worse defense. What concerns me is that I can say the same thing about Payne to Clarkson.
So a team that already had issues on defense may have even bigger issues on defense this year whenever Mitch is not on the court.
Assume I am right about Yabu and Clarkson just for discussion’s sake, hearing that Mitch may not play B2Bs and will have a minutes limitation even when he plays, Brown may have to be better defensive coach than Thibs just to have a defense that’s not embarrassing when Mitch is not around .
Nice work, Alan. Task is dope.
Jaxson Dart is giving me feels.
And Brian Burns is a beast. A lot of good defensive players here, even if it’s not a good defense yet. Is Joe Schoen… good?
That Skattebo character is pretty funky, too. What a name.
I don’t understand how I’m watching this live on Youtube, but whatever…
Is Joe Schoen… good?
whatever he is should be diminished because where there a kickers who kick 65 yd Giants don’t have a kicker who can reliably do PATS. ( He did have a great draft this year).
If we look at non-two-way reserves that can play the 4-5 we have Yabusele, Hukporti, Diawara, and Dadiet.
Sure, but they can slide OG up to the 4, Mikal to the 3, and have Shamet inserted as a 2 in the rotation as another backup option.
If you’re putting Earl in with the 2nd unit, you don’t have any spacing between him, Hart, Clarkson, and possibly Hukporti.
Plus calling Shamet a “defender” is generous. He is mediocre at best defensively, especially if he is stuck defending larger wings which is likely since Clarkson and McBride will usually be on the court with him.
He’s not all-defense, but having an average defender when you have Brunson, Kolek, Clarkson, and Dadiet taking up roster spots, it can be useful. He was a godsend last year against Indiana because none of our other guards could slow down McConnell, save Delon who can’t shoot.
I don’t have a strong opinion either way, I just don’t think we’re in desperate need of height for the sake of height. I’d rather have the extra shooter.
In that last game, I think it could be argued that Jemison outplayed Huk…not by enough to displace him, but by enough to feel good about him as an emergency big. He seems to have a better motor than Jericho Sims, for example. Sets great screens and then explodes towards the basket. Also like the way he battles for rebounds.
whatever he is should be diminished because where there a kickers who kick 65 yd Giants don’t have a kicker who can reliably do PATS. ( He did have a great draft this year).
The Schoen era feels a lot like the Steve Mills/Scott Perry time in NY. They each scattered some great moves that set the franchise up for future success but they both have the general stink of incompetence.
Barring any unexpected moves between now and opening day, I am very happy about the way things have shaken out with the roster at this point. Yabu is still a question mark, but largely (npi) the kind of player you gamble on with the TPMLE. I feel pretty confident that he will start making shots once the season starts and he settles in. It will probably take a few games for Brown to figure out how to best utilize him.
hoping a KAT/yabu and huk/yabu combo is effective…fairly positive about it…
mikal needs to consistently bring the ball up over half court, maybe even initiate some offense going to the rim from time to time…
looks like he’ll most likely be either handing it off to jalen or feeding someone at the top of the key…mikal playing more aggressive on both ends of the court would be a big plus…
of course that would be no way to catch a.c. green…can’t imagine anyone ever hitting that mark again…
So James Edwards III had some musings on minutes. Obviously the rotation will be 9 essential guys, with players like Huk, Shamet, etc. being spotted in when Mitch rests. Obviously Huk is going to play on those nights, but my guess is that he will play no more than 20 minutes, and possibly less, so whatever the decrease from Mitch to Huk will be divvied up primarily to Yabu and Hart…although I could see Brown just playing Bridges, OG, and KAT more minutes on those nights and getting them rest on the nights Mitch plays by subbing in Dadiet, Diawara, etc.
On nights Mitch plays:
C: Mitch 24, KAT 20, Yabu 4
PF: OG 18, KAT 14, Yabu 10, Hart 6
SF: Hart 20, OG 16, Bridges 12
SG: Bridges 22, Clarkson 16, Deuce 10
PG: Brunson 34, Deuce 14
On nights when Mitch is out:
C: KAT 28, Huk 20
PF: OG 26, Yabu 16, KAT 6
SF: Hart 28, Bridges 12, OG 8
SG: Bridges 22, Clarkson 16, Deuce 10
PG: Brunson 34, Deuce 14
Now maybe I’m overestimating how many minutes Brown will roll with Yabu and Clarkson, but I think he will give them a long leash at least to start the season and then tighten things up if they are not as effective as he had hoped. I could also see him trying to cut KAT’s minutes down a bit.
Not sure it matters anymore, Bo. Mara’s probably getting a 4 year extension drawn up after that TD.
Dart already my 3rd favorite Giants QB ever behind Eli and Phil Simms.
Z-Man, if Jemison can play up to 50 games with the big boys, why isn’t he on the bench (and out on the floor) in the games Mitch doesn’t play?
Shams: “Portland Trail Blazers guard Shaedon Sharpe has agreed to a four-year, $90 million rookie contract extension with the franchise, agent Mike George of Klutch Sports tells ESPN. Sharpe and the Blazers lock in the long-term deal for the ascending scorer and playmaker.”
giants need the insurance score big time
Hold that contract John Mara, this would be a loss on par with the Herm Edwards Miracle of the Meadowlands play. Daboll coaching scared.
hold ’em
edit: ruh roh
“Z-Man, if Jemison can play up to 50 games with the big boys, why isn’t he on the bench (and out on the floor) in the games Mitch doesn’t play?”
I’m guessing that Jemison is still behind Huk on the depth chart but I agree that he will be on the active roster for those games and will definitely play. So sure, the Huk minutes should be viewed as interchangeable Huk/Jemison minutes.
Whatever the final score winds up being Shane Bowen needs to be fired as soon as this game is over.
Just Bowen? This game is shaping up as a great excuse to clean house, and I kinda don’t want them all to get away with it.
Vince Mc Mahon is the NFL commissioner.
Bowen should’ve been fired after the Cowboys game.
Craziest last few minutes of a football game I’ve ever seen.
Sadly its a typical Giants loss for the last decade.
This is actually a great loss. All the players looked good while the incompetent coaches and GM got pushed closer to the door.
The last thing the Giants need is for Mara to bring everyone back because he’s happy they won 7 games.
The amazing thing was the defense had Denver completely stymied for 50 minutes… Adebo’s injured and the wheels fell off.
Well, after watching that Giants game, I’m glad the NBA season starts this week. What the actual fuck just happened?
The egregious error of having that incompetent kicker cannot mask the total collapse by the defense even with the injuries to Adebo and Holland.
This is actually a great loss. All the players played well and the incompetent coaches and GM got pushed closer to the door.
Yup.
And John Mara’s move is going to be to give Belichick a 5 year contract at 75 🙂
I know Wink is a prick but if he were still the defensive coordinator Giants would be 4-3 right now.
If the coaches and the GM had any honor, they’d fall on their swords and resign.
The egregious error of having that incompetent kicker
Two missed PATs, two failed 2 point conversions, two allowed 2 point conversions…
I don’t know jack about NFL play-calling but the turtle act down the stretch boggled the mind. Feels like I saw the same thing in that Dallas game.
That has to be one of the worst individual games an NFL kicker has had in a very long time.
Koo wasn’t even bad last year, at least he made all his XPs. Why’d we go with a guy who discovered American football in 2020?
Yall beat me too it.
The egregious error of having that incompetent kicker cannot mask the total collapse by the defense even with the injuries to Adebo and Holland.
Bowen cannot be allowed to get on that plane back to NY. Under any circumstance.
Luckily for all New Yorkers the Knicks season starts on Wednesday!
What did Bowen do, go into total prevent again? I was only half paying attention. It seemed like Dart lost the game with that terrible interception, and he couldn’t hit a WR in the last 6 minutes to save his life. He got bailed out by that pass interference call, not to mention the lucky TD bounce. Totally fine with that, he’ll learn. But Daboll’s play calling was awful.
I actually know the bad PAT vibes all too well:
Three years ago, our football team came into the season without a half-decent kicker. We blew at least three games that year due to repeated failed PATs, and that was a season we finished 2 games out of first place in our conference (and an auto playoff berth). We had to bring in our men’s soccer players to fill in as kickers, and even that wasn’t enough.
But that 4th quarter defense…
Totally fine with that, he’ll learn. But Daboll’s play calling was awful.
Dabol’s only bad call was allowing Dart to throw with 2.40 to play and Denver having only one time out left. Run on 3rd down, punt it away and make them drive it 80 yards with no time outs, score a touchdown and then recover an on sides kick. The only way to lose at that point was to turn it over deep in your own territory. And he allowed it to happen.
BTW, they scored 5 TD vs the second best defense in the NFL with one professional receiver, so the play calling in general was good. Just stupid to let Dart make a mistake with a 10 point lead vs a disguised defense.
I don’t like letting Daboll use a rookie QB as “the illegitimate love child of Charley Tolar and Tom Rathman” to save his job. He’s taking too many hits for my liking. On the go ahead TD, for instance, sure it was technically a good call but let the kid throw. We should be prioritizing his learning curve, not riding his legs.
I don’t like letting Daboll use a rookie QB as “the illegitimate love child of Charley Tolar and Tom Rathman” to save his job.
One designed RPO and a QB sneak which gave them the lead with 37 seconds left. This is the wrong week to criticize him calling too many designed runs.
32 passes/31 runs, 5 TD, 30 minutes of TOP vs the league’s 2nd best defense. Try harder.
I feel the same level of pity for the talented Giants players that I have for each of the 45 people waiting in line to use the one public bathroom in Cold Spring this afternoon.
1
mike’s backyard BBQ in gilroy is the 💣…
okay, after more reflection on matters of the heart – car rides are nice, I love to go grocery shopping and that’s more enjoyable with 2…eating together…
there is also something to be said for the joy of hanging out in bed together, yeah, sort of the highlight of the whole shacking up together thing…
111 replies on “2025-10-18 Weekend Post”
Happy weekend. This from Macri: “They finish the preseason with the 10th most 3-point attempts per game in the league.” Sort of surprised that there were nine teams with more. Definitely not my grandpa’s league anymore. But glad we’ve modernized a bit.
I got tickets to Thursday’s Dodgers game to see Ohtani pitch, then they bumped his start back a day “in preparation for a game 7”, even though they were already up 2-0 with three straight home games coming up. Needless to say, Thursday’s game was unextraordinary in every way, it was a day game that wasn’t even sold out. And Friday’s game was one of the greatest individual athletic performances in American sports history. Should I be bitter? Sports fandom has suddenly become confusing to me again after so many years of clarity.
A thought occurred to me that probably doesn’t amount to much, but real games are a few days away, so…
When the rose administration actually bothers to use its draft picks, it’s been good at finding small guards (or small wings, in the case of Grimes) and decent at finding backup centers, but not so great with bigger wings and power forwards.
Maybe diawara or Dadiet grow enough to buck that trend. We’ll see.
Thanks to Donnie I looked up what Ohtani actually did last night. Dude seriously struck out the side in the 1st and hit a leadoff home run. Remarkable.
I’m officially on the Diawara train. Where are we going? In the immortal words of Stymie, “I don’t know brother, but we’re on our way!”
Perrin’s biggest successes are Donovan Mitchell (13th overall) & Rudy Gobert (in the 2nd Rd), so that kind of fits the trend.
Millsap (2nd Rd) was a PF, but played a bit like a C and probably has more in common with modern Cs than modern PFs.
Hayward is his big wing success, but they used the 9th pick on him. Not as much of a surprise to get a strong wing there.
Hubert, he hit the 2nd home run clear out of the stadium, it was like a scene out of The Natural.
His absolutely 100% meaningful and perfectly predictive per 36 numbers over 52 total minutes:
11.0 pts
11.0 rebs
2.1 asts
3.4 TOs
1.4 stls
0 blks
50.4 TS%
2-7 from 3 (preseason total)
+23 net rating (per 100 possessions)
He’s a good passer even if the stats don’t show it. Looks great when he drives and kicks, which could help in the halfcourt, but teams will probably Josh Hart him.
Tried one pretty ugly floater last night but it went in.
By the eye test, he has every intangible you could want. He’s smart with his cuts, makes the right passing reads, and might be the biggest hustle bunny we’ve seen yet.
buenos dias…so is our roster set for the beginning of the season?
Obviously because of the CLA, Donnie. Ye of little faith.
Diawara should have been drafted in the late first round. I don’t get why the scouts didn’t like him. His film looked great to me, relatively speaking.
The two lefty finishes in traffic were telling, he just ignored defenders and used his length to go over them.
The shot needs to come around but even so his defensive length and ball handling combo is extraordinary.
He looks great on film but his stats were pretty underwhelming. He wasn’t a starter and in his last season he put up:
11 pts/36
5.8 rebs/36
2.4 asts/36
.557 FT%
.282 3p%
In 140 min between SL & preseason, he’s been a much better rebounder and hasn’t been any worse scoring. So he’s already overperforming what most teams likely projected.
Teams also see a ft% that bad and it’s a red flag that he’ll never figure it out.
I think we can all agree that it’s good that we have a few young guys with some upside. The more the merrier. There are no guarantees, but I like having lottery tickets both for the short term low probability break out and for longer term development when some of our key players age.
Going into next week, I’m disappointed Brogdon didn’t work out because I thought he would bring something to the table we need. I’m also a little concerned about the defense because it sounds like they are going to handle Mitch with extreme care in terms of B2Bs and minutes. Other than Mitch being healthy, I think a good case can be made our defense is worse. But I’m happy Kolek looks a little better in case we need some PG minutes and so far I like Brown a lot even though initially reacted badly because I preferred someone else.
diawara > dadiet > kolek
I can see diawara more at the 4 than 3…20 years old and he’s already listed at 225…
also, been glad to see jemsion yhe 3rd out there this pre-season…him and diawara aren’t the worst I durance policy up front…
EB I think that nearly every 19yo NCAA player drafted in the late first round would have put up ugly stats in that league. Conversely, I think Diawara would have put up much better stats in the NCAA.
maybe we should give doogie editorial access, that way he can go back and fix all our typos and renegade auto-correct terms…
I don’t know how teams project rebounding progression for players overseas, but I’m pretty sure they don’t double it like Diawara did in the preseason.
Hugo Gonzalez went 28th in the same draft. He put up 13pts & 6 rebs per 36 playing for Real despite being a year younger. His ft% also means he’s likelier to become a shooter.
Noah Penda. Same draft. Same league. Early 2nd Rd pick. Put up 13.8pts, 6.8 rebs, 3.5 asts per 36. Much better ft%.
With all due respect, 52 minutes of exhibition game play is perfectly predictive of absolutely nothing. That doesn’t mean Diawara didn’t perform up to snuff and may be a fine player. But LOL sample size trying to draw any definitive conclusion.
For example, Kevin Knox in his first 52 minutes of actual league in season play (his first 2 in season games against real in season line ups) showed 27 points, 4-9 from 3, 6 rebounds, 2 steals and a block.
That would be irony, Bob
Can I hop on the Diawara train?
And I like the fact that we have 5 young players we drafted (or acquired draft day trades) to develop and they all have different base positions.
Kolek (1), Dadiet (2), McCullar (3), Diawara (4) and Hukporti (5).
I think that all can contribute this season.
That’s fair EB. I would say that given Diawara’s elite wingspan and standing reach, plus his ball- handling, ambidextrous finishing ability, and motor, he deserved to be drafted right with those two. He has more margin for error. His standing reach is 4” higher than Penda…that is a HUGE difference.
I get that the numbers are what they are, but international numbers for 19 year olds should be taken with a grain of salt. To me, film is more reliable if looked at with the numbers in mind. Very few guys with his elite measurements can do the things he did on film. If his numbers were better, now we’re talking lottery pick.
Obviously he needs to develop but there is a lot of there that can’t be taught.
The larger point is that finding value at #58 is really hard and this is the 3rd time Leon has done that (Sims and Huk). That’s pretty cool!
Bob, Knox was a lottery pick. Diawara was one pick away from being undrafted. If he flops completely ( don’t worry, he won’t!) it will be the most typical outcome for that draft position.
The good news for us is that he will never get the long leash that Knox and Ntilikina got due to their draft position and being on shitty teams.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the kid so far. He looks like a plus prospect everytime I’ve seen him play and looks like he outplays his numbers. It’s just that him going 51st doesn’t surprise me much.
The shooting in particular is a problem, and I think that’s what you may be underrating. Diawara projects as a terrible shooter. I don’t think they’re sagging off him in preseason like they would if he were a regular rotation player.
Obviously players can improve their shooting, but most of those players show potential with a solid ft% first, which is a solid predictor of future 3pt performance. Tankathon projects him at 31.7% from 3 in the NBA. If Hart can be an issue at 34%, then Diawara needs to be a terror in every other part of the game. Wings who don’t shoot just aren’t NBA players very often.
All that said, if he keeps rebounding like he has in SL & the preseason, then you can throw everything above out because that’s a pretty intriguing player to me. I vaguely recall reading that he would press PGs a lot, so he may have just been too far from the basket to collect rebounds in Europe.
What’s really wild is how many draft bloggers didn’t even rank him. Vecenie had him at 79, but only writes up the top 75. He & Hollinger’s immediate reactions were that Diawara would never make it to this side of the Atlantic.
As near as I can tell, Diawara is still on his training camp contract and hasn’t signed a regular contract yet.
The deadline should be Monday at 5pm eastern time.
Here is recent update from RealGM
well then KfniNJ – let the games begin 😊
As an Angelino in a city still in agog over last night, I’m trying to figure out the basketball equivalent of what Ohtani did. It’s like if a hockey goalie scored 3 times while also not letting any pucks in the net; or if Tom Brady threw three touchdowns and got 10 sacks. Basketball is all two-way, and a great player can impact 80% of possessions, so I don’t know… maybe a quintuple-double to send your team to the NBA finals? (Even though that’s never been done, it seems eminently more possible than what happened last night).
(Sorry doogie, I see that I failed to remove the preposition after I changed the incorrectly used noun “awe” to the more accurately descriptive adjective “agog”. My bad.)
A PG playing Center in the 80’s is probably as close as you can get in basketball to playing two sides, so there might actually be a basketball equivalent: when Magic Johnson started at C for an injured Kareem in game 6 of the NBA finals and had 42 pts & 15 rebounds (as a rookie, no less). I’m pretty sure he even flashed a sky hook, although I might have gotten that from Winning Time on HBO.
Shams: “Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant has agreed to a two-year, $90 million contract extension with the franchise, his business partner and Boardroom CEO Rich Kleiman tells ESPN. The new deal includes a player option in 2027-28.”
You mean the guy hitting .220 in the postseason? HE’S A BUM.
A little bummed we’ll never see Durant as a Knick. It seemed like something that should have happened. If you gave him truth serum, I bet he’d admit he made a terrible mistake in 2019. Dude’s been adrift in a sea of NBA meaninglessness since then. Supposedly he really wanted to come here this summer but we had no interest in bringing him in.
Something tells me that before his career is over Wemby is going to do something unprecedented in the playoffs.
The Magic game was pretty unbelievable.
Never quite follow the cap/two-way/roster madness, outside of hoping X or Y makes it (or Z doesn’t, bye Alex Len). Can someone tell me why Jemison isn’t on the roster layout that Edwards laid out this morning?
I really liked the idea that for those B-to-B games for which Mitch sits out (Donnie, you made me nervous there), Huk and Jemison step in. Depends on the opposing center, of course, but that’s a nice pair to throw out on the floor, one after the other. Did something happen or is that still a thing?
Raven, Edwards didn’t list any of the guys on two-way contracts.
Found the story of Guy Hecker hitting 3 HRs as a pitcher in 1886. It’s wild reading about him. It all sounds kind of like:
Jemison may get real minutes. He can play up to fifty NBA games and we only have two true centers on the roster so if Huk or Mitch misses a few games, I can see him getting called up.
Although, this analysis leaves out Towns playing center
Cameron Payne was released by the Pacers.
I’m definitely betting on Jemison getting minutes at C. Yabusele looked unplayable at C in his minutes there and Jemison has looked pretty good.
With Mitch taking games off, you’d need KAT & Huk to stay healthy pretty much the entire year in order to keep Jemison off the floor.
The Pacers releasing Payne seems weird, given that they have no point guards left.
It can’t be because of aesthetics, as Haliburton’s shot is almost as fugly.
His terrible mistake in 2019 was leaving GS one of, if not the greatest teams of all time due to ego.
I haven’t watched the preseason because I don’t think it tells us anything meaningful beyond showing us what the coach wants to work on. Those of you who have been watching seem to agree Yabu looks terrible at C. He played 73% of his minutes their last year. If he’s suddenly unplayable at his best position then we wasted the TPMLE.
The problem is defense.
That’s what I’ve been saying about the Precious for Yabu swap since we signed him. He’s an upgrade on offense, but likely a downgrade on defense. Let’s just hope he’s getting used to playing with these players in this system and will be OK at PF. I think if Mitch is on a minutes cap with no B2Bs, we are going to need Huk to step up at backup C.
I disagree. That was the right move for him. His decision to join the Warriors backfired. It was perhaps a little unfair to him, but they broke basketball and the public resented him for it. He needed a third act
His terrible mistake was having faith in Kyrie. (That and not getting his toe behind the three point line against Milwaukee.)
Yabu’s best position isn’t center, even if that’s what he played a lot of in Philly (see Embiid, broken). He’s a fairly cromulent backup power forward, if he plays to the back of his trading card (which he has not so far as a Knick, but preseason).
Again, we have a 7 footer and a 6’11” as backup to the center position, both of whom seem perfectly okay to throw out at backups and maybe even lesser starters in the league (I’d say both Huk and Jemison are ahead of Sims at this point, although maybe for Jemison that’s more promise than current fact).
So if Yabu starts hitting threes and our big bench dudes continue to show up, I’m not at all concerned with our big man rotation.
Injuries change the equation, but that’s true across the roster.
I’m currently sticking with “preseason basketball is meaningless and Yabu will be fine”. But the reports are concerning. I recall folks talking about Bridges looking bad last preseason and thinking nothing of it, but that turned out to be valid.
How about Wilt going for 56 and 35 (plus God knows how many blocks) in a series clinching playoff game vs the Syracuse Nationals that sent his team to the NBA finals vs Boston.
Or two way all pro Chuck Bednarik playing 58 of 60 minutes at center and middle linebacker in Philly’s 1960 World’s Championship win vs the Packers and making the game saving tackle of Jim Taylor inside the 10 on the last play of the game.
tres bien corbeau…
I hope we sign Diawara to a longer contract. I also like his long term potential. As for Shamet, he is fine and I’m not upset at him being our 10th/11th man but I think he is pretty redundant with two of our other primary backups in Clarkson and McBride.
I would love to see us get a big man or a bigger wing. Jeremiah Robinson-Earl was just released and I think he is a solid player that primarily plays the 4 and can play some small ball 5. He can shoot a bit and has shot about 39% from the corners (over 40% last two years) on almost 200 attempts. He would be a significant upgrade over Shamet positionally, has some upside, and is a better defender.
Mo Bamba, also released, while I don’t like him as much, would give us good size and good defense with a bit of shooting and upside.
I think if we don’t go big with that last slot then a specialist would be better than a does everything kind of ok player like Shamet.
For me, I would prefer getting a defender. Dennis Smith Jr. was also released and he could be a good pick up if we wanted at least one elite POA defender to bring off the bench when needed.
If we really wanted a shooter then Seth Curry got released and while he is old and a bad defender, he is still a top 5 shooter in the NBA.
Both would be better than Shamet because instead of just general depth it would give Brown specific tools in his tool box to employ situationally.
I think he started the year as a PF but was forced into playing C because the 76ers ran out of actual centers halfway through the year.
It is just preseason so I’m probably overreacting, but getting abused by Marvin Bagley seems not great.
Of course, you do. 🙂
But factually, how’d that (leaving Golden State) work out for him? Think it might have been better if he stayed? I mean GSW weren’t run by Jerry Krause and Reinsdorf. They would have continued to pay him max dollars into eternity to keep that group together.
Now his rep is that of arguably the wing greatest scorer in basketball history who was never happy, torpeoded one of the greatest teams of all time due to his ego and shot his way out of Dodge City several other times. Nice work.
Bear witness to the rise of the Math.
The back of his trading card actually suggests he’s a terrible PF, but to be fair that was in Boston before he learned to shoot.
Last year when he played PF the results were fugly:
– a 102.4 ORtg and -17.6 net rating in 166 minutes next to Drummond
– a 109.5 ORtg and -0.6 net rating in 186 minutes next to Embiid
I’m not suggesting these are definitive samples but this is the back of his card. He seems like a guy who needs space for his rumbling forays to the rim, and to get that space he needs to either play C or next to Towns. Play him next to Huk or Mitch (with Josh Hart, no less) and I’m not sure cromulent is the word we’ll use to describe him.
I posted this during after the game on Friday: Mikal had 4 FTAs in over 90 minutes of preseason. I’m not sure I see the “new, attacking the rim” Mikal that some of the analysts have talked about. Maybe he has switched a few fadeaway 2s for 3s, but otherwise he looks like the same guy to me.
I don’t think Shamet and Clarkson are redundant. Clarkson is more of a slasher who plays terrible defense and isn’t a great shooter. Shamet is a shooter who plays okay defense but doesn’t attack the basket much.
It’d be nice to have another big or forward, but I don’t know that we need one after watching preseason & counting 2-way players.
At PF we can play:
(1) KAT
(2) Yabusele
(3) OG
(4) Hart
(5) Diawara
(6) Dadiet
(7) Evbuomwan
(8) McCullar
At C:
(1) Mitch
(2) KAT
(3) Huk
(4) Jemison
(5) Yabu
Looking at guard/wing, I’m only seeing a handful of players that can both shoot & defend.
Roster:
PG: Brunson/Clarkson/Kolek
SG: Mikal/Deuce/Shamet/McCullar
SF: OG/Hart/Dadiet/Evbuomwan/Diawara
Guards/wings who shoot & defend:
(1) Deuce
(2) Mikal
(3) OG
(4) Shamet
(5) ???
That’s a very short list.
They actually forced him to take a pay cut after the ’17 season (his first one in GS) in order to keep the core intact. And it wasn’t a fake pay cut like Brunson (who actually signed the max deal he was eligible for; he just chose not to wait). Durant, as a free agent, took $25M from the Warriors when his max was $34.5 so that they could pay everyone else.
He did everything right in Golden State but never got his due and never would have. Leaving was the right call. Following Kyrie to Brooklyn was his mistake. If he had signed with the Knicks there would likely be a monument to him here by now.
“Dennis Smith Jr. was also released and he could be a good pick up if we wanted at least one elite POA defender to bring off the bench when needed.”
I like DSJ in theory…the problem is that he was invited to training camp to vie for a space, opted out so didn’t compete and then would be rewarded over guys who competed. Sounds unfair unless perhaps you factor in he thought he was competing against Brogden’s semi guaranteed rotation spot…
This actually is a marginal improvement of his FTs/36, but FTs is an imperfect metric.
Looking at his preseason shot charts at NBA.com, he took 11 of 42 shots within 3ft of the basket. That’s 26.2% of his shots. He hasn’t been that high since his 3rd year in the league when he had a 15% usage. In contrast, last year he was at .185.
Eye test, he looked for his shot more aggressively and within the flow of the offense. There wasn’t any Mikal iso-ing into a back down midrange jumper. Not only was he attacking the basket but shooting 3s off of cuts instead of waiting for the kick out. His midrange shots also looked like they came as counters after getting cut off on the drive rather than looking like the only thing he knew how to do.
I think if you watch it you can see it more than in the numbers. Small sample and it’s preseason and it’s eyetest, but it really looked that much better to me.
“If he had signed with the Knicks there would likely be a monument to him here by now.”
The likely consequence of him signing with the Knicks would be Steve Mills constructing the rest of the roster with his triple mantra of using up all cap space, you can never have too many PFs, and player options are irrelevant. And that’s even ignoring Kyrie in tow.
I think Kyrie actually towed him to Brooklyn, but that’s neither here nor there. I already cited his faith in Kyrie as his biggest mistake, so I meant coming here without him. Had they both come here, I’m sure it would have ended terribly, too.
I don’t think we should count on our two-way guys for anything other than garbage time.
If we look at non-two-way reserves that can play the 4-5 we have Yabusele, Hukporti, Diawara, and Dadiet. (Hart can in a pinch but gives up a ton of size) Only 1 of those 4 can reliably give us 25-30+ minutes a game or start if needed.
As for non-two-way reserves that can play the 2-3 we have Clarkson, McBride, Hart, and Dadiet. 3 of the 4 can play 25-30+ minutes or start if needed.
Plus our three most injury prone players are Mitch, Towns, and OG. Those are 3 of the 4 players that we have that we can count on to play major minutes at the 4 or 5.
Mitch is almost a lock to miss some games this season, if not many games. If he misses extended time we get really small really fast.
Right now our top 4 bench guys are Clarkson, McBride, Hart, and Yabusele. 3 players 6’4″ or shorter and 1 player who is 6’8″. Size is our biggest weakness going into this season and Shamet doesn’t help that at all.
Plus calling Shamet a “defender” is generous. He is mediocre at best defensively, especially if he is stuck defending larger wings which is likely since Clarkson and McBride will usually be on the court with him.
My main recollection of Precious Achiuwa last year was that I was almost always very excited when he would come out of the game. He’s a defensive-oriented player who isn’t even a very effective defender because he has molasses-slow reaction time. It’s not very surprising that he finds himself not on an NBA roster as the season is starting. He’s a solid one-on-one defender so he has his moments where he looks pretty good, but if Yabu has a similar season to his last season in Philly we’re getting a better basketball player in that slot. I’ll take his high eFG/low usage and spacing over Precious’ intermittently good defense.
for you married type folks/habitual cohabitators…
are you ever alone sitting in bed or standing in the shower wondering if the juice is worth the squeeze…
hmmmmm, probably not…
Our own @alan has an op-ed piece in the NYT! ( FWIW, I really enjoyed Task). https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/opinion/hbo-task-yellowstone.html
Go Alan! (And thanks for the Jemison clarification…)
JK47
I don’t disagree with you about Precious’s defense, but there are worse defenders in the NBA. It’s his offense and inablity to shoot that’s potentially keeping out of the NBA.
I also think Yabu will be a net plus over Precious because he’s much better on offense. That will more than offset what could be worse defense. What concerns me is that I can say the same thing about Payne to Clarkson.
So a team that already had issues on defense may have even bigger issues on defense this year whenever Mitch is not on the court.
Assume I am right about Yabu and Clarkson just for discussion’s sake, hearing that Mitch may not play B2Bs and will have a minutes limitation even when he plays, Brown may have to be better defensive coach than Thibs just to have a defense that’s not embarrassing when Mitch is not around .
Nice work, Alan. Task is dope.
Jaxson Dart is giving me feels.
And Brian Burns is a beast. A lot of good defensive players here, even if it’s not a good defense yet. Is Joe Schoen… good?
That Skattebo character is pretty funky, too. What a name.
I don’t understand how I’m watching this live on Youtube, but whatever…
whatever he is should be diminished because where there a kickers who kick 65 yd Giants don’t have a kicker who can reliably do PATS. ( He did have a great draft this year).
Sure, but they can slide OG up to the 4, Mikal to the 3, and have Shamet inserted as a 2 in the rotation as another backup option.
If you’re putting Earl in with the 2nd unit, you don’t have any spacing between him, Hart, Clarkson, and possibly Hukporti.
He’s not all-defense, but having an average defender when you have Brunson, Kolek, Clarkson, and Dadiet taking up roster spots, it can be useful. He was a godsend last year against Indiana because none of our other guards could slow down McConnell, save Delon who can’t shoot.
I don’t have a strong opinion either way, I just don’t think we’re in desperate need of height for the sake of height. I’d rather have the extra shooter.
In that last game, I think it could be argued that Jemison outplayed Huk…not by enough to displace him, but by enough to feel good about him as an emergency big. He seems to have a better motor than Jericho Sims, for example. Sets great screens and then explodes towards the basket. Also like the way he battles for rebounds.
The Schoen era feels a lot like the Steve Mills/Scott Perry time in NY. They each scattered some great moves that set the franchise up for future success but they both have the general stink of incompetence.
Barring any unexpected moves between now and opening day, I am very happy about the way things have shaken out with the roster at this point. Yabu is still a question mark, but largely (npi) the kind of player you gamble on with the TPMLE. I feel pretty confident that he will start making shots once the season starts and he settles in. It will probably take a few games for Brown to figure out how to best utilize him.
hoping a KAT/yabu and huk/yabu combo is effective…fairly positive about it…
mikal needs to consistently bring the ball up over half court, maybe even initiate some offense going to the rim from time to time…
looks like he’ll most likely be either handing it off to jalen or feeding someone at the top of the key…mikal playing more aggressive on both ends of the court would be a big plus…
of course that would be no way to catch a.c. green…can’t imagine anyone ever hitting that mark again…
So James Edwards III had some musings on minutes. Obviously the rotation will be 9 essential guys, with players like Huk, Shamet, etc. being spotted in when Mitch rests. Obviously Huk is going to play on those nights, but my guess is that he will play no more than 20 minutes, and possibly less, so whatever the decrease from Mitch to Huk will be divvied up primarily to Yabu and Hart…although I could see Brown just playing Bridges, OG, and KAT more minutes on those nights and getting them rest on the nights Mitch plays by subbing in Dadiet, Diawara, etc.
On nights Mitch plays:
C: Mitch 24, KAT 20, Yabu 4
PF: OG 18, KAT 14, Yabu 10, Hart 6
SF: Hart 20, OG 16, Bridges 12
SG: Bridges 22, Clarkson 16, Deuce 10
PG: Brunson 34, Deuce 14
Total minutes:
Brunson 34
KAT: 34
Bridges: 34
OG: 34
Hart: 26
Mitch: 24
Deuce: 24
Clarkson: 16
Yabu: 14
On nights when Mitch is out:
C: KAT 28, Huk 20
PF: OG 26, Yabu 16, KAT 6
SF: Hart 28, Bridges 12, OG 8
SG: Bridges 22, Clarkson 16, Deuce 10
PG: Brunson 34, Deuce 14
Total minutes w/o Mitch:
Brunson 34
KAT: 34
Bridges: 34
OG: 34
Hart: 28
Deuce: 24
Huk 20
Clarkson: 16
Yabu: 16
Now maybe I’m overestimating how many minutes Brown will roll with Yabu and Clarkson, but I think he will give them a long leash at least to start the season and then tighten things up if they are not as effective as he had hoped. I could also see him trying to cut KAT’s minutes down a bit.
Not sure it matters anymore, Bo. Mara’s probably getting a 4 year extension drawn up after that TD.
Dart already my 3rd favorite Giants QB ever behind Eli and Phil Simms.
Z-Man, if Jemison can play up to 50 games with the big boys, why isn’t he on the bench (and out on the floor) in the games Mitch doesn’t play?
Shams: “Portland Trail Blazers guard Shaedon Sharpe has agreed to a four-year, $90 million rookie contract extension with the franchise, agent Mike George of Klutch Sports tells ESPN. Sharpe and the Blazers lock in the long-term deal for the ascending scorer and playmaker.”
giants need the insurance score big time
Hold that contract John Mara, this would be a loss on par with the Herm Edwards Miracle of the Meadowlands play. Daboll coaching scared.
hold ’em
edit: ruh roh
“Z-Man, if Jemison can play up to 50 games with the big boys, why isn’t he on the bench (and out on the floor) in the games Mitch doesn’t play?”
I’m guessing that Jemison is still behind Huk on the depth chart but I agree that he will be on the active roster for those games and will definitely play. So sure, the Huk minutes should be viewed as interchangeable Huk/Jemison minutes.
Whatever the final score winds up being Shane Bowen needs to be fired as soon as this game is over.
Just Bowen? This game is shaping up as a great excuse to clean house, and I kinda don’t want them all to get away with it.
Vince Mc Mahon is the NFL commissioner.
Bowen should’ve been fired after the Cowboys game.
Craziest last few minutes of a football game I’ve ever seen.
Sadly its a typical Giants loss for the last decade.
This is actually a great loss. All the players looked good while the incompetent coaches and GM got pushed closer to the door.
The last thing the Giants need is for Mara to bring everyone back because he’s happy they won 7 games.
The amazing thing was the defense had Denver completely stymied for 50 minutes… Adebo’s injured and the wheels fell off.
Well, after watching that Giants game, I’m glad the NBA season starts this week. What the actual fuck just happened?
The egregious error of having that incompetent kicker cannot mask the total collapse by the defense even with the injuries to Adebo and Holland.
Yup.
And John Mara’s move is going to be to give Belichick a 5 year contract at 75 🙂
I know Wink is a prick but if he were still the defensive coordinator Giants would be 4-3 right now.
If the coaches and the GM had any honor, they’d fall on their swords and resign.
Two missed PATs, two failed 2 point conversions, two allowed 2 point conversions…
I don’t know jack about NFL play-calling but the turtle act down the stretch boggled the mind. Feels like I saw the same thing in that Dallas game.
That has to be one of the worst individual games an NFL kicker has had in a very long time.
Koo wasn’t even bad last year, at least he made all his XPs. Why’d we go with a guy who discovered American football in 2020?
Yall beat me too it.
Bowen cannot be allowed to get on that plane back to NY. Under any circumstance.
Luckily for all New Yorkers the Knicks season starts on Wednesday!
What did Bowen do, go into total prevent again? I was only half paying attention. It seemed like Dart lost the game with that terrible interception, and he couldn’t hit a WR in the last 6 minutes to save his life. He got bailed out by that pass interference call, not to mention the lucky TD bounce. Totally fine with that, he’ll learn. But Daboll’s play calling was awful.
I actually know the bad PAT vibes all too well:
Three years ago, our football team came into the season without a half-decent kicker. We blew at least three games that year due to repeated failed PATs, and that was a season we finished 2 games out of first place in our conference (and an auto playoff berth). We had to bring in our men’s soccer players to fill in as kickers, and even that wasn’t enough.
But that 4th quarter defense…
Dabol’s only bad call was allowing Dart to throw with 2.40 to play and Denver having only one time out left. Run on 3rd down, punt it away and make them drive it 80 yards with no time outs, score a touchdown and then recover an on sides kick. The only way to lose at that point was to turn it over deep in your own territory. And he allowed it to happen.
BTW, they scored 5 TD vs the second best defense in the NFL with one professional receiver, so the play calling in general was good. Just stupid to let Dart make a mistake with a 10 point lead vs a disguised defense.
I don’t like letting Daboll use a rookie QB as “the illegitimate love child of Charley Tolar and Tom Rathman” to save his job. He’s taking too many hits for my liking. On the go ahead TD, for instance, sure it was technically a good call but let the kid throw. We should be prioritizing his learning curve, not riding his legs.
One designed RPO and a QB sneak which gave them the lead with 37 seconds left. This is the wrong week to criticize him calling too many designed runs.
32 passes/31 runs, 5 TD, 30 minutes of TOP vs the league’s 2nd best defense. Try harder.
I feel the same level of pity for the talented Giants players that I have for each of the 45 people waiting in line to use the one public bathroom in Cold Spring this afternoon.
mike’s backyard BBQ in gilroy is the 💣…
okay, after more reflection on matters of the heart – car rides are nice, I love to go grocery shopping and that’s more enjoyable with 2…eating together…
there is also something to be said for the joy of hanging out in bed together, yeah, sort of the highlight of the whole shacking up together thing…