News & Blogs
Knicks 119, Raptors 92: “Didn’t see that coming.” – Posting & Toasting
Sources: Heat, Wolves, Knicks, Warriors among Giannis suitors – ESPN
Game Thread: Knicks at Raptors, January 28, 2026 – Posting & Toasting
Stage set for Knicks, Leon Rose to take big swing and land Giannis Antetokounmpo – SNY
Mikal Bridges, Knicks come alive in second half to beat Raptors, 119-92 – SNY
How to watch Knicks vs. Raptors: TV channel and streaming options for January 28 – The New York Times
Back to Back Victories | Will Giannis be a Knick? | Good Times Whiskey – Knick of Time
Knicks vs Blazers TRADE DEADLINE Preview w/ Danny Marang | PREGAME POD | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
Knicks vs Blazers Preview: Blazers Want Mikal Bridges? | How The Knicks Stop Deni Avdija & More – Knicks Fan TV
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124 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.01.30)”
I tried to watch Alcaraz Zverev last night and fell asleep at the end of the first. Glad I didn’t try to watch the whole thing. Holy cow, what a scoreline.
And pushed Sinner-Djoker to a watchable time at least. The old man is still fighting, srill nine years younger than me….
Seemed like a great match .
Novak and Sinner going 5 sets and Malika Andrews is covering this…
https://x.com/NBA_NewYork/status/2017155544683884940
Shot chat :
4/12 from 3
7/8 from 2
Hope Mike Brown can see his way clear to give him some real minutes here and there, as he did with Diawara and McCullar. And by “real minutes,” I mean 5-8 minutes in a non-blowout but also non-risky or pressure-cooked situation, like maybe towards the end of the first half in a competitive game. Throwing anyone out there for 3 minutes is not setting them up to show *anything* very well.
I’m not expecting Dillon Jones to play a single minute for the big team, except in extreme circumstances.
Can’t believe this match
More specifically, barring trades, I fully expect that Brown is going to continue to utilize Kolek, Huk, and Diawara to eat minutes. Each of them brings at least one bonafide NBA skill to bear.
I don’t expect McCullar, Dadiet, Jemison, or Jones to see anything but occasional garbage time or extreme roster crunch minutes.
Sinner going 0-10 on break points is like Steph going 0-20 from three
Wow Sinner. Huge botch job by Novak on that match point
Amazing stuff by Novak . Never would’ve imagined this.
Never count the old guy out!
@NBA_NewYork
@IanBegley
: “Knicks remain interested Alvarado…Missi…
Several teams saw Knicks outside…on Giannis…
Felt Bucks more interested in gauging…’Best thing for Knicks is if extends to offseason’
Maybe 3d team willing take Knicks player for picks (San Antonio perhaps)?”
https://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/steve-popper/knicks-giannis-antetokounmpo-karl-anthony-towns-jlwuafv1
⬇️What KAT said to Knicks writer
@StevePopper
Apologies if this came up yesterday, but Macri said on his postgame pod that he believed the Mikal comments about sacrifice and ego weren’t Mikal confessing to his own faults, but sending a message to KAT. Seems pretty clear that the other guys on the team don’t respect KAT and remain frustrated by his attitude.
There’s definitely *something* going on in the background, but as we all know it’s probably nothing that a 7-game win streak couldn’t help. Right?
Right?
Yeah Alan, the jury is out but I tend to agree with Macri. If Mikal had 10 assists or had a lot of FTAs ( he had 4 and 2 respectively) the comments of more coachable and less entitled would make sense if it were about himself. But the reason he had a great game was that he went 12-15 from the field–if anything a clip like that might be spurred on by feeling more entitled.
I like to think I have a high threshold when it comes to being annoyed by an athlete’s personality. It’s a tough, highly-scrutinized job, especially in New York, and I know I personally would struggle with the relative lack of control over where I live, who I work with, etc. They deserve a lot of grace when it comes to things that have no bearing on their ethical compasses.
All that said, I find myself very annoyed by KAT’s demeanor this season. All indications are he’s a fantastic person and I believe that 100%, but that’s a separate thing from being a good professional and I find him lacking in that (far less important, IMO) regard.
Not letting trade rumors and the like absolutely tank your play is a pretty basic responsibility of a professional athlete. Yes, it sucks that you can be sent to Milwaukee on a whim, but that’s what the $53M annual salary is for. I believe it was the great philosopher Andrew Bynum who once said “there’s an ATM in every city.”
We’re also talking about a trade rumor involving a top 15-20 player in the history of the sport, conservatively. If KAT thinks his play at any point in his career has put him above that, he’s delusional.
Nice guy, good person, and I think his contract means he’ll be here at least until the offseason, so I can only hope he gets it together after the deadline. But I’m annoyed.
Still not real interested in the outside-the-scope musings of one of the team’s C-plus performers.(*) Not really how the NBA works.
Nor was alienating a star to placate a C-plus really the right way to go.
Buuuutttt … with all that said, I’ll stick with my comments of yesterday in which it was noted that we should fully expect all this relatively meaningless regular season noise to disappear when it comes to springtime playing and winning time.
(*) And I mean, dude — you needed your own personal life coach last year. A little self-awareness, while certainly not expected, might be nice.
The press seems so excited about a Giannis trade and so many teams are reported to be interested, that the price for him is likely to be high. Of course, by definition it will be market price because that’s what a bidding war produces. But bidding wars very often result in someone paying more than intrinsic value and I don’t want that someone being the Knicks.
He doesn’t like his boss and the reduced role his boss gave him.
Doesn’t get any more “professional” than that. There are probably 10,000 super high achievers going through exactly the same thing in the United States as we speak. Probably more.
Yeah, Mikal should STFU about KAT, being that it obvious that the entire team knows that KAT’s dumbness and selfishness are beyond hope. Better to wait in silence until he is salary dumped.
[citation needed]
Forget Giannis. BRING IHART HOME.
Just watch this…
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DT6prDqDYOt/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Body language can easily be misunderstood so I’m not calling that damning evidence but it didn’t look great from all three of his teammates.
His own testimony.
Hate to break it to you boys, but he’s in a better position to know what his role is like this year versus last year than you are — by like eleventy billion orders of magnitude.
Perhaps after you boys are done telling us you’re right and an NBA player is wrong about his role changing, Z-Man can continue regaling us on how winning playoff games singlehandedly is a bad thing. It’s cold and snowy in NY, and these are the season’s dog days after all.
True, individuals are notoriously able to evaluate situations in which they are deeply emotionally invested with 100% cold, analytical rigor.
One day we need both RJ and KAT on the same team.
You boys are Sam Darnold seeing ghosts at this point. Entertainment value: High.
Trading KAT for IHart is complicated, but here’s something that works:
OG + Yabu + Dadiet for IHart and Caruso.
I don’t think I’d do it. IHart and OG together were so good.
I get why Towns is upset. He’s still a star player. First, he got traded by Minnesota and now maybe NY. He has an ego also. Plus, he always wanted to play in NY, felt like he gave a lot last year and was part of something special, but he found out basketball is still a business, even in NY.
There are two ways to repond to that.
1. Feel hurt and sulk.
2. Get pissed off, use it as motivation and work your ass off to prove your value.
He seems to have gone down path #1 which makes matters worse for him. He has to get past that and move to path #2.
Yeah, 497 playoff minutes over two years with a JB/iHart defensive rating of 121.30.
The pairing didn’t really work. Kinda did in the regular season, exposed in the playoffs. The fond and fuzzy memories aren’t reality.
I LOVE both Caruso and OG. I want BOTH and IHart. Can we arrange that? 😉
Ok, hear me out:
Bucks get: KAT
Knicks get: I-Hart, Caruso
Thunder gets: Giannis
Thunder sends a bunch of picks to Bucks.
(This works in the trade machine)
Brunson
Mikal
Josh
OG
I-Hart
Deuce
Caruso
Shamet
Mitch
This is the best team in the East, no?
I remember that iHart didn’t score in Game 7 against the Pacers. Would still like him back, but not at the cost of OG.
And there are similarly two paths to the response to his sulking:
1. Trade him for pennies on the dollar because of some January whining and the fact that he has a what-the-fuck attitude and doesn’t primally scream and glower enough; or
2. Wait until the spring when he won’t be sulking anymore.
I choose 2.
“He doesn’t like his boss and the reduced role his boss gave him.”
I don’t know if I’m a super high achiever, but this happened to me and I walked and it is still one of the better decisions I ever made.
Which honestly doesn’t reflect at all on the KAT situation. Just sayin’.
Certainly fair game to advocate, but in reality, rightly or wrongly, Leon ain’t salary dumping KAT. KAT’s one of Leon’s boys. Don’t be shocked if Leon actually extends KAT if the team has a decent playoff run. (That would be a massive blunder.)(*)
He’d trade him for Giannis, obviously, and I believe there are legs to the JB/Giannis/Jrue/skeleton rumors, but he’s not going out the door for Yves Missi and Jose Alvarado.(**)
(*) Dolan’s interview on the FAN made it sound an awful lot like Leon himself is only going to do this for a short time, two to three years or so, before he moves on.
(**) I highly doubt Dolan would even let Leon do that.
Marechal you are a genius. Just need any 1 but preferably all 3 of Horst, Presti and Leon to be lurking here.
iHart for Mitch and Deuce (plus Pacome, Dillon Jones and Yabu). Yeah, fine, OKC wouldn’t do it. But you have to admit that Mitch off the bench would be a killer for OKC and Deuce is a 3 and D guy with a great contract.
caruso’s too old, ihart, one of their good young players and whatever salaries needed (which may be caruso)…
Sorry, but isn’t iHart a li’l bit injury-prone, too? He’s played in only 82 games (out of 131, or 62.6%) in the year+ that he’s already been in OKC.
“iHart for Mitch and Deuce (plus Pacome, Dillon Jones and Yabu). Yeah, fine it wouldn’t happen. But you have to admit that Mitch off the bench would be a killer for OKC and Deuce is a 3 and D guy with a great contract.”
Couldn’t possibly say “no” to that enough times.
Deuce doubtful again for tonight, dammit. Avdija and Timelord questionable:
Expected Lineup
PG Jalen Brunson
SG J. Hart Prob
SF Mikal Bridges
PF OG Anunoby
C K. Towns
MAY NOT PLAY
F J. Hart Prob
G M. McBride Doubt
Expected Lineup
PG Jrue Holiday
SG S. Sharpe
SF T. Camara
PF D. Avdija Ques
C D. Clingan
MAY NOT PLAY
F D. Avdija Ques
C R. Williams Ques
G S. Henderson Out
F K. Murray Out
C Duop Reath Out
F M. Thybulle Out
G B. Wesley Out
You’re saying you would say no or OKC would say no?
Caruso is the salary slot. You’d have to combine multiple younger guys otherwise, and OKC probably would avoid that.
That said, I don’t see a reason why OKC wouldn’t deal directly with the Bucks. I-Hart also expires after next year if he exercises the option, so the Bucks don’t really need KAT instead of him.
By the way, “doubtful” in NBA injury report parlance almost always means “not playing,” just as “probable” almost always means “playing.” The only really meaningful designation is “questionable.”
“You’re saying you would say no or OKC would say no?”
Me. I would definitely say no.
Some of us are old enough to remember when iHart couldn’t guard Joel Embiid at all in the 2024 playoffs and they had to overplay Mitch — who *could* guard Embiid.
The team had a 130.47 defensive rating with iHart on the court that playoff season, in 388 minutes. That’s unplayable.
Stayed up for Alcaraz. This tourney…
I’ve always been keeping the light on for iHart. That’s a keep KAT move tho. We need Chet to become a dominant full time 5, and then I think Bridges for iHart might make sense for both teams.
Look, KAT has his issues on the court, but a lot of the other stuff is just conjecture at this point.
All he really said very early in the season is that he was still figuring out his role in the new offense, which totally makes sense. And the stuff about him being mad about a possible Giannis trade or Mikal insinuating that he’s got a bad attitude has zero merit.
KAT mostly just needs to stop driving into traffic and then whining about fouls while the other team races to score off his turnover, for one. I get that he wants star treatment, but even JB doesn’t get star treatment anymore.
I do think KAT plays with heart, but he needs to change some of his bad habits.
More scream and glower. Better than pouting and doubting.
Clarence. You need to get the ” pouting and doubting” to Clyde for his commentary.
I like that trade, Marechal. KAT is theoretically worth more, but his tab next year is astronomical, and he’ll want an extension and won’t feel that he’s worth less than the max. Does anyone here feel he’s worth the max? If not, then we need to get rid of him now or in the summer…and I have a hard time imagining any of those teams saying No. Giannis instead of iHart and Caruso? KAT plus five picks from the OKC cupboard? iHart and Caruso to address our needs? Seems like good value on all sides.
KAT, and I mean KAT only, has put himself in a terrible position. We were expected to get to the Finals, barring injuries or unexpected breakouts (eg Pistons). But if we are healthy entering the playoffs, anything less than the Finals (other than eliminated by the Pistons who bulldoze their way to the Finals))will be blamed on him. Likely unfairly as team construction, coaching, certain teammates having slumps probably have more to do with it–but if the narrative going in is that KAT, a star who should make you great, is not a team player, no matter what he does, he will be blamed. And rightly so.
KAT isn’t going anywhere because there is no market for him on his current contract. No GM in the NBA is as faux-starstruck as E.
Let’s just hope his ratio of playoff games won singlehandedly to playoff games lost singlehandedly is better than it was last year. Otherwise we’ll be stuck with him next year as well or with the aftermath of having to dump his salary for peanuts.
This is what KAT has done during this winning streak:
– 14 pts on 5-8 shooting in the rout of Brooklyn
– 10 pts on 2-4 shooting, fouled out in 16 putrid mins vs Philly
– 17 pts on 5-15 shooting, benched in the 4Q vs Sacramento
– 8 pts on 3-11 shooting (with an impressive 22 rebounds) vs Toronto
Everyone is responding to the adversity except him, and he’s the MFer who caused it!
These wins don’t mean “we’re ok, stand pat”, they mean “we will be ok when we kick his ass to the curb.”
On it.
Interesting stat – over our last 10 games, we are 3rd in defensive rating.
(Anti-KATers might say it correlates with his reduced minutes.)
Disagree.
KAT isn’t going anywhere because Leon Rose won’t look in the right direction.
Leon only likes to trade up. And there is no upward market for KAT, i.e. we can’t combine his salary with other assets to get a star.
There is likely a very strong downward market for KAT but that is anathema to Leon because he’s a starfucker like his boss.
This.
And obviously KAT is overpaid and might be better off on the bench at the end of games, but we still need to maximize him for this season and maybe longer. I’m still of the opinion that if we can tweak a few things around the edges, we could sneak into the NBA finals this year.
Well there is one. But Minnesota already traded KAT to him.
KAT has this year and next year on his deal remaining, plus a player option. Next year he makes $57M and the player option is for $61M.
That is not a very good looking contract. If he plays well, he walks after one more year for you, and if he stinks or gets hurt you’re on the hook for that other $61M. How many teams around the league really want to take that on? As an asset he’s getting kind of distressed looking.
But is OG overpaid? I think not.
It only takes one.
Please for the love of god no one tell me the Chicago Bulls wouldn’t take Karl Anthony Towns.
There is undoubtedly a market for KAT. We just don’t like what it is because Leon bought high on him and now he’s worth a lot less.
It’s a shit contract and the market for veterans on big contracts has crashed in the apron era. There was no market for Trae Young and he’s an expiring. There’s no market for Ja Morant. There isn’t much of a market for Anthony Davis. The NBA world has changed dramatically.
Eminently foreseeable, and it was Leon’s job to foresee it. It was also his job to foresee the greatly enhanced value of first-round draft picks in the apron era — I did multiple years ago, wrote on it here a bit, and I’m sure others did too — but he also badly botched that one.
You don’t sell an asset into a very distressed market when the market is distressed for structural reasons. Unless you’re not sharp. Or you’re in a teardown anyway. The Knicks are counting literal pennies on their balance sheet as it is. And they aren’t in a teardown.
Yet somehow the Celtics managed to unload both Porzingis and Jrue when everyone said it couldn’t be done.
Are the Celtics not sharp, E?
They got in right under the wire before reality fully sunk in in NBA GM world. Plus Porzingis is an expiring. And Jrue brought back a young risk also on what was thought by some to be a so-so contract.
Now, if you want to start talking about a Celtic-like retool with KAT going out for some young guys with upside and some risk, we might be in business. But as a fit trade for veteran dreck? Nah.
Start churning things like — repeat, “like” — KAT for Ja and Aldama through the trade machines and things might start making more sense.
Zion’s in the distressed market, too, at this point. That also makes sense. I’d trade KAT for Zion without blinking.
Of course Jokic is back tonight and I assume will be playing next week at MSG.
Bullshit!
They accepted reality and didn’t anchor to meaningless prior valuations.
That’s what Leon — and everyone who thinks “there is no market for KAT” — is unwilling to do.
KAT’s not a distressed asset. He’s a falling knife.
I get it, BBA. We keep saying we want to play the best teams full strength in order to see where we are…….but when it comes right down to it, do we *really*? (It’s kind of like how we keep saying that it’s all about the playoffs, and that meaningless January wins don’t really matter. But doesn’t each loss still drive us absolutely bonkers?) I mean, we’re fans, and we want to win every game.
KP and Jrue were both salary dumps. KP netted Georges Niang who fucking sucks and the Nets ate some garbage salary. Jrue netted Anfernee Simons, who is overpaid garbage but on an expiring deal.
So sure, if you want to unload KAT for garbage to get cap relief, you could probably find a way, although the fact he makes almost as much as Jrue and KP combined probably complicates things to the point that the garbage you got would stink worse and the seconds might be outgoing instead of incoming, or as with Trae, just not there.
KAT has one of the worst contracts in the NBA at this point. Is what it is.
Leon traded for him with four years, $220.3 million left on his deal. That’s brutal. But he’s one of Leon’s guys and so …
It was obvious two summers ago that this team, given its cap sheet and lack of draft assets and the aprons, was basically stuck as is. Both Leon and Dolan were and are by all accounts perfectly fine with that.
For all his faults KAT is still worth considerably more than KP and Trae, who were both chronically injured when dumped.
Simons has been a valuable player for the Celtics, and they got picks in the deal.
Again, please don’t tell me the Chicago Bulls wouldn’t take KAT’s contract. You just don’t like what he’s worth.
The Celtics didn’t cry about what Jrue & Porzingis used to be worth, they took what they actually were worth .
Chicago is $25 million over the salary cap.
What makes things even more annoying is that unlike Ja (head case, always hurt) or Zion (fat, always hurt) or AD (aging, always hurt) or Jrue (elderly) or KP (always hurt or sick) or Trae (hurt a lot, tiny), KAT is healthy and in his mid-prime and you don’t have to wishcast to visualize a reversion to something like his career numbers, which on the surface look like supermax numbers.
The issue is that no winning team wants a player on a supermax deal that you might be better off benching in crunch time. Not when you can pay half that amount for the likes of iHart or Myles Turner, or a fraction for Mitch or DeAndre Ayton.
Don’t tell me this trade isn’t sitting there for Leon Rose:
Bulls get – KAT, Yabu, Clarkson
Knicks get – Vucevic (expiring), Collins (expiring and injured), Dosunmu (expiring), Tre Jones
That’s probably the worst trade you can make for KAT, and a sharp team like Boston would have done it two weeks ago.
Then they’d start shopping Collins expiring along with the Washington pick to make another upgrade.
By the way, the two players that the Hawks got in the Trae deal, McCollum and Kispert, are thriving there. I’ve always kinda liked Kispert.
KAT for Vucevic (expiring), Patrick Williams’s meh contract, and Ayo (UFA this summer) works in the trade machine.
That at least passes the laugh test assuming they get Bird rights on both Vuc and Ayo. Would be better if Ayo was 22 and not 26 and of course it would have been even better yet if Leon had just drafted Ayo.
“Simons has been a valuable player for the Celtics, and they got picks in the deal.”
The Celtics did not receive any picks in the Simons deal, according to every report out there. They were widely expected to trade him from the moment the deal was done, and continue to look for trade partners. That he has played okay (far from great) in 24mpg off the bench on a $27.6M contract is meaningless, they would kill to get off of his deal before the deadline.
I do like Dosunmu, but he’s definitely not what we need the most right now.
Vucevic = Enes Freedom
I have to throw another 2 cents in on KAT because I think the conversation is getting too negative.
KAT may be struggling, but I still think he’s a hugely PLUS player on offense when being used well and also a solidly PLUS player overall. He and Brunson may be a little tricky to build around and may not be an ideal fit, but imo we shouldn’t be diminishing KAT as a basketball player just because he’s struggling in the new system and having some “head issues” with trade rumors and new coach.
He’s still a dynamite player.
We just have to get his head on straight, make the best of a less than ideal fit and see what happens in the playoffs. This is still an excellent team as is. It’s just not perfect. If they fail badly, then we’ll see what happens in the offseason to get better.
Phoenix is probably out of the star (or “star”) business, or maybe not and Mark Williams is outperforming but has to be paid, and who knows where PHO is going with all of it, but KAT for Jalen Green, Mark Williams, and Royce O’Neale works in the trade machine.
I’d do that. Leon should make the call, without question.
It would make zero sense for Leon to trade KAT for Chicago’s expiring flotsam and jetsam in the midst of a win-now season. That would be suicide. You either find a deal that brings back “win now” players or a win-now player plus good picks that can be used to trade for that win-now player. If that’s not out there, you eat the cost and keep him in the hope that he can be matching salary down the road. He can still be valuable to winning if you don’t coddle him like a max player, i.e. you bench him situationally as needed regardless of his all-NBAs and all-star credentials.
KAT is probably around a $30M player in terms of what he contributes to winning, maybe a bit higher, maybe even $40M. The only reason you trade him now is to get a combination of players worth more than $30M, not just to get off of his contract to create space (and since we would be close to the tax line even without him, it’s not like we could absorb a max free agent into his salary slot.)
This is the best KAT trade I can come up with:
NYK receives:
Naz Reid
Santi Aldama
Donte Divencenzo
MEM receives:
KAT
Rob Dillingham
MIN receives:
Ja Morant
KAT could definitely help lift a mediocre team like the magic, bulls or hornets in to the playoffs…
the magic have their own “star” issue, somehow banchero seems to make them worse…
the thunder no longer look like such a sure thing…they have an issue with rebounding and physicality…curious to see if they make some kind of move with all their assets…
Vuc has a higher OBPM than KAT this year, and Ayo is an excellent player. It’s a retool, win-now philosophy that adds an extra player and length to the bench as well as more financial flexibility come summer time and next summer time.
They have a combined value of more than $30M. Ayo still has several years of prime left.
And that’s only one idea.
You are correct. The original trade included Boston getting two 2nd round picks, but then Jrue failed his physical and the terms were adjusted:
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/45690072/blazers-celtics-trade-altered-swap-holiday-simons
The $40 million got added in late, up from $30, and if you and Hubert actually think he’s producing and contributing to winning at a $40 million level, then he’s barely even overpaid and you guys are just venting at him.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Like I said, “there is undoubtedly market for KAT,” you just don’t like what he’s worth.
As for suicide, they said the same about Boston’s trades, didn’t they?
That trade makes us better this year and sets us up better for the future.
There’s not much daylight between Vuc and KAT this year. Vuc is actually better. You’re trading past performance to a stupid team for players who three guys who can actually help you. You make that trade all day if you’re sharp.
Ayo is on an expiring, so if he’s as good as he’s played this year he will want more, but he also might be having an outlier year in a limited role and has a checkered injury history. His on-offs have never been good. Seems redundant with Deuce.
Vuc is old, and is closer to Freedom than to KAT at this stage.
A propos of KAT:
https://www.reddit.com/r/NYKnicks/comments/1qrfx6k/just_seen_this_but_its_hilariously_accurate/
That’s really funny!
Lol, pretty good. He should have driven to the hoop and then fallen twenty feet into the woods too….
I am not at defcon whatever on KAT. He’s got flaws but I don’t think his value is so dissimilar to say, Melo’s. He’s quite overpaid but he shouldn’t kill you on the court.
But his petulance is definitely annoying.
Not sure how I feel about Bridges calling him entitled though, if that’s what that was. Seems like that is not out of the good teammate manual.
One thing I feel sure of, OG is not overpaid. He’s been incredible the last two games.
“As for suicide, they said the same about Boston’s trades, didn’t they?”
What?! Everyone in the world knew that Boston had to drop salary! Everyone in the world felt that they did a great job of pivoting with those trades to get under the second apron!
And they traded an aging star and an oft-injured faux star on middling deals. I don’t see how that compares to the issues involved in trading KAT, given that he’s healthy, productive, and in his prime.
Meaning that he actually HAS significant on-court value both now and in coming years, unlike Jrue and KP.
If Bridges’ statement was a thinly-veiled message to KAT, whatever. He needs to hear it from someone, and Mikal is as good as anyone.
Z-Man everyone in the world said Boston had given up on this year by making those trades.
KAT’s past performance isn’t gonna help us win a chip this year, and there’s not much daylight between Vuc and KAT this year (well, there is, but it’s because Vuc is better).
There has to be at least *some* worry that KAT has started his permanent decline phase. He’s 30 now.
He’ll be 32 when he has that ridiculous $61M player option.
There’s a very good chance this nucleus starts getting old and kind of stale as early as this summer. NBA teams don’t function best with no fresh blood in the core nucleus. They’re already nagging on each other like 40-year-marrieds.
Some Celtics fans I’m close with bemoaning the spiritual return of Tatum. Watching a team grow is good for the soul.
If indeed that’s what Bridges was doing in that post-game, I’m down with the message and who it was for. However, the passive aggressive nature of it makes me think of Bridges a little bit differently (more negatively), too.
Kalkbrenner (6-11, 256) is still shooting 77.7 percent from the field, and has only taken two 3s all season. He’s averaging 13/9/2 per 36, and should probably be getting a little bit more press than he is.
Nikola Vučević?
IMO that dude is not even plus player anymore. I’m not even sure I’d want him as our backup if we traded Towns and were looking for someone behind Mitch.
Make that 7-foot-1. Kalkbrenner is 7-foot-1, not 6-foot-11.
Now I kind of want to win a chip just so we can all dance and pee on Hubert’s grave. And then go home and wash our shoes.
No insult, Hubert. Just a nice value added.
A little proud that Z kinda liked my Vooch/Freedom comp.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think Mikal was talking about KAT. Clyde had asked him about his performance in Philly and that’s what he said. I think it was self-reflective, at least it felt genuine to me. It’d be quite Machiavellian to use that opportunity to take a shot at KAT there.
The think about KAT complaining about being in trade rumors is that KAT is always glowing about the Wolves, who not just talked about trading him, but literally traded him!
Barely? You know how much he is going to be making next year and the year after, right? For his production, that’s a cap killer. Not this year, no, but soon and for the rest of his life…
I don’t think so either because Josh Hart had this to say about it on Twitter.
Also true of KAT, dude. That’s why we’re here.
“Z-Man everyone in the world said Boston had given up on this year by making those trades.”
I was not one of those people. Mazz is not one to tank any more than Thibs was. KP was not a loss considering his constant issues, and Jrue really started showing his age, although they would be better had they kept him, probably not by much over filling his role with syounger, hungrier players. They are essentially Thibs202021ing their way to this record, and my guess is that they are likely to meet a similar fate unless Tatum makes it back.
In our case, KAT is the equivalent of Brown in the pecking order. He’s clearly not as good as Brown (although the KB hive mind has shit on Brown for years as an overrated, overpaid bricklayer) but still pretty integral to the team’s success as currently construed. Leading the league in rebounding and putting up a .596 TS% on high usage is not nothing. And that’s in a rock-bottom year in mid-prime without an injury or athletic decline to explain it, so it’s likely to regress towards the mean once he gets his head screwed on straight.
So yeah, if the goal is to still be “good” there are trades to be made. But most of those will definitely risk falling out of the ‘legit contender” category for this year and probably for next, including the ones with the Bulls proposed above.
Leon should definitely work the phones until the deadline passes to see if something worthwhile shakes out, but he shouldn’t panic into a fire sale.
Yeah, seems a strange thing for Mikal to do. Not sure I buy it.
RIP Catherine O’Hara. Elite comedic talent.
Disagree.
He used to be solidly plus. IMO now he’s marginally plus, but we know in part why he’s not playing up to par. This can be turned around.
Exactly. You’re indexing to “used to be.”
Look at now. You can’t even tell me which one is better.
eFG% .522 vs .569
TRB% 20.1 vs 15.8
TOV% 13.3 vs 9.1
FTr .445 vs .111
TS+ .103 vs .101
PTS/36 – 23.0 vs 19.7
REB/36 – 13.3 vs 10.6
AST/36 – 3.3 vs 4.4
BLK/36 – 0.8 vs 0.8
STL/36 – 1.0 vs 0.8
Cancer – Team vs Lung
$ Owed – 2 yrs/$118M vs 0
“The $40 million got added in late, up from $30, and if you and Hubert actually think he’s producing and contributing to winning at a $40 million level, then he’s barely even overpaid and you guys are just venting at him.”
Yeah, what rama said…
And it’s not just that KAT is overpaid, it’s that he’s a bad fit with Brunson. That’s really the rub. I know that E feels that Brunson is the issue and that it would be better to trade him to build a team that maximizes KAT’s production/minimizes his weaknesses, and purely objectively there is some merit to that, but not much because Brunson is smart and a leader and KAT is dumb and not a leader. Whatever, it’s clear that Leon plans to only build around Brunson, so swapping KAT out for someone who fits better with him, or a couple or players, is preferable to keeping him, but not necessary if you can “platoon” him effectively with a good defensive big who is more well-rounded than Mitch (i.e. can hit FTs in crunch time.) Unless you can get real value for KAT, that would be my plan B…to find a player who complements him that isn’t injury prone or have a minutes restriction.
+1 on this. I think Mikal was talking about himself and may be alluding to heat he is getting or got from other players, maybe/especially Hart, as if to say “You got Thibs fired, so show us something we were missing.”
On that topic, I only watched the compressed highlights of that Raptors game, but the real takeaway for me was that Mikal suddenly went off in Q3 thanks to GOOD PASSING from Kolek. If that is/was Brown’s version of a motion offense, yes please. That is indeed something we were missing.
PS — def RIP Catherine O’Hara. My kids quote Moira from Schitt’s Creek daily.
I like Vuc, but defensively he makes KAT look like Hakeem..
at the time – it really stood out as almost odd, and a bit excessively self deprecating…especially after having such a terrific game performance…
and, if he was sending a message to one or more teammates, which at the time that’s what seemed like was happening – he did it with a straight face and in a single calm breath…
quite the understated statesman mister mikal is perhaps…
That is the whole idea.
The team gets better because Mitch replaces KAT, Tre Jones replaces Tyler Kolek, and Vuc replaces Huk.
Vuc is just here to carry Mitch’s water in the regular season so he’s healthy in the playoffs.
Ayo and Collins are trade chips.
One of my favorite all-time SNL episodes is Catherine O’Hara hosting, REM as the band. Great skit with her being “interviewed” by Dieter of “Sprokets.”
Thirty-five years ago now, her life was barely half over. Damn.
RIP.
The actual idea behind the Bulls trade is that Vuc could do a passable sulky-KAT impression for three months, Ayo (and even Williams) would add versatile and decent pieces (*) to a thin and shitty bench, and they’d get out of two years and $118 million of one of the worst contracts in the NBA.
And then this summer, have an effective option on Ayo’s second contract and way more flexibility.
I wouldn’t do it, but it easily passes the laugh test. The Phoenix trade is better, as is getting in the sweepstakes for similar distressed assets in Ja and Zion.
(*) And in Ayo’s case, a very good piece. As well as defensive backup for one of the worst defensive guards in the association.
Bottom line is it’s unreasonable to claim there is no market for KAT.
There are many ways Leon can trade KAT and make the team better, or at least tread water and gain flexibility.
If he’s still here after the deadline, it’s because Leon only wanted a star.
“Bottom line is it’s unreasonable to claim there is no market for KAT.
There are many ways Leon can trade KAT and make the team better, or at least tread water and gain flexibility.
If he’s still here after the deadline, it’s because Leon only wanted a star.”
Well if I were GM I wouldn’t make any of the Chicago trades and I don’t give two shits about KAT being a star or whatever. Of course, there can be honest disagreements on these things.
“I wouldn’t do it, but it easily passes the laugh test.”
Well, why wouldn’t you?
Deuce still out.
Saw some interesting videos on Knicks twitter about how KAT is quite a bit slower this season. They were specifically comparing him attacking Brook Lopez last season vs this season. He basically can’t get a step ahead of guys, which may explain his offensive fouls. Maybe he’s just not healthy (or, more worryingly, has lost a step after his offseason issue).
https://x.com/_prezidente/status/2017350512039837962?s=20
Mikal did speak for at least part of the team with Thibs last year. And said what needed to be said if he said what needed to be said this year. Hes an Ironman.
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