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Knicks Injury Tracker: Miles McBride, Mitchell Robinson ruled out for Tuesday vs. Wizards – SNY
Selfless play at forefront of Knicks’ balanced attack in win over Lakers – SNY
Giannis Antetokounmpo mock trades: How Knicks, Warriors, more could entice Bucks with wild multi-team deals – CBS Sports
Knicks Bulletin: ‘Just trying to find a balance. I’m in a good headspace right now’ – Posting & Toasting
Fresh Knicks Rumors on Giannis, Karl-Anthony Towns and Plans for Roster Before NBA Trade Deadline – BleacherReport
10 best Knicks trades in franchise history – Newsday
Knicks 112, Lakers 100: Scenes from a second half turnaround – Posting & Toasting
Knicks Weekly: The Knicks Made A Huge Change & It’s Paying Off | OG Anunoby On Fire! – Knicks Fan TV
Knicks Dominance: Brunson, OG Lead Physical Win Over Lakers! #shorts – Knick of Time
The Run.down Knicks vs Lakers Postgame Show – The Strickland
How To Bet Knicks at Wizards | KFS Weekly Wagers | Knicks Film School – Knicks Film School
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116 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.02.03)”
Mitch is out tonight. I’m sad:
Expected Lineup
PG Jalen Brunson
SG Josh Hart
SF Mikal Bridges
PF OG Anunoby
C K. Towns
MAY NOT PLAY
G M. McBride Out
C M. Robinson Out
Cavs seemingly interested in a Donovan Mitchell/James Harden backcourt is a big bet the Mobley can regain his DPOY shape.
may have been asked/addressed in an earlier thread, but do we have early bird rights on Shamet?
and related question-> are we sure Deuce isn’t out because of trade talks?
Frank, bite your tongue, you rumor-monger.
It’ll be interesting to see if Joker plays tonight vs Detroit. Seems like superstars always find a way to be available at MSG so I wouldn’t be shocked if he sits tonight.
I’d be shocked if he sat tonight. He’s already missed 16 games and can only miss one more if he cares about being eligible for post-season awards (which he might not be, but the Nuggets organization probably is).
I know all teams get screwed by the schedule at some point, but the Knicks have 5 games in 7 days, all involving travel, playing the Pistons on the second night of a back-to-back (Pistons play the day before but don’t need to travel), and Philly (again) on the second night of a back-to-back (Philly is off the day before).
3 of their 4 games against the Sixers this season came on the second night of a back-to-back with Sixers fully rested (in one case, the Sixers had 5 days off as the Knicks had the post-Cup back-to-back of Indy and Sixers in two different cities!).
This is a real redboard opinion, but I’m not shocked they are good. I bet the “over” on them in the past. They’ve had a lot of injuries, but I could see them eventually turning into a good young team with Ball and Miller. I’ve been waiting for them to break out. Adding Knueppel seems to have done the trick.
Well then, it’s good that we’re banking all of these wins now. It had better continue tonight.
Yabu is apparently considering going to play in Israel, is that even possible?
Yeah marechal, I had mentioned that this would be a particularly brutal stretch. And then after the ASB we have some very tough games with only one 2-day break and lots of travel.
The “less bad” news is that the upcoming travel is between nearby cities so it’s more about three tough road games without much rest than anything else.
Any teams we can trade him to for a real back up PF? 🙂
I guess he could not pick up his player option for next year?
Yes, we do. I feel good about that being sufficient to keep him, but am loathe to say so because I thought and said the same thing about iHart.
I’m hoping that we can break out of this tie with the Celts and take the #2 seed all to ourselves again. That felt much better.
Sixers are scaring the hell out of me.
I don’t see a way for the Knicks to get cap relief if Yabu signs overseas, but AI says this:
I would assume, Z-Man, that maybe he means for next season?
Apparently Cavs are freaked out that Mitchell will not sign an extension this summer therefore become a free agent in 2027 so they’re desperate to win this season and I guess trading for Harden is their desperation all in move.
The apron situation in this CBA makes the impact of things like Spida not wanting signing an extension hard to determine. Is there a team out there that he wants to go to who can offer him more money, or even similar money, in free agency? Even though he’s a better bet in some ways than KAT, who wants to pay a player 35% of the cap unless it’s a sure-fire top 5 player in the league in his 20’s?
Seems crazy for Yabu to give up the rest of the money on his contract. That’s going to be about 1/3 of his career earnings.
If he’s really that miserable, go for it, but for a guy on his first non-minimum deal it’d be a really bold move.
Not gonna try looking through the CBA, but I’d be amazed if there wasn’t a provision giving us salary relief for him leaving.
I wonder if Atkinson is wearing out his welcome with the players. It might be part of their worse record this year.
I like Atkinson as an assistant but not as a head coach, always thought he was a bad choice. I feel sort of similarly about Mosley, and to a leser degree, about Bickerstaff.
Yabu was interviewed talking about how much he values the lifetime health care a certain tenure in the NBA entitles you to, along with the pension. Seems crazy he would leave.
Milwakee is really going to screw up Giannis exit management, if they don’t take the best deal available now.
It’s nice to have Jalen Brunson.
Yabu is no fool…he’s netting arund $2.5m a year after tax & fees. That’s ~ 5x the average euro salary.
the cavs rumors are fascinating because they are paying so much tax and if they really have come to think mitchell won’t re-up, the move is probably to pivot hard and trade mitchell vs try to appease him, just because the latter would be so difficult and unpredictable
Spot on ptmilo. Milwakee tried this with Giannis and here they are. Bottom of the conference with dame on their payroll and no picks for 5 yrs.
by the way how come it’s never us that gets to trade with Scott Perry and Joe Dumars?
I think trading Mitchell will happen in the summer if he doesn’t sign an extension with Cleveland.
Seems worth noting that Mitchell was always angling to come to NY and Evan Mobley is the perfect forward to play next to KAT.
Would we be interested in Grant Williams? He might be slightly better than Yabu.
Brunson and Spida as your $100+M AAV starting backcourt is a ridiculously stupid idea, and that’s not even counting what it would cost to acquire him. Hopefully Leon has moved past his Mitchell adulation phase.
How did I miss the Duop Reath for Vit Krejci trade yesterday?
Did we discuss this at all?
Knicks 2025, did you even bother to look at Grant Williams’ current contract before posting that?
LOL Did we need to discuss that trade?
Yeah, Grant Williams at $14 million is a hard, hard, hard no. Sorry I blurted.
The Warriors’ offer for Giannis really sounds like the best possible offer they are going to get, doesn’t it? It’s so draft pick heavy, and for a Warriors team that would be adding Giannis to an ancient roster, so those future picks might be goooooooood.
I don’t know how wise it would be to give up on Garland for Harden, but I have to admit it would make me a lot more scared of the Cavs as a potential playoff opponent. Garland has been injured and out of sorts all year, plus he’s thus far underwhelmed in the playoffs.
Harden comes with all kinds of bullshit and as a Cavs fan I think I’d hate the idea, but he seems like a better bet than Garland to help them a lot i 2026.
Mitchell and Luka would be fun.
“How did I miss the Duop Reath for Vit Krejci trade yesterday?
Did we discuss this at all?”
Not really. Reath is done for the season and Krejci kinda sucks, so it’s mostly a cap-related move. ATL gets two seconds, but they don’t seem like needle-movers in anything but a fringe trade.
One of the many problems with playing the ‘trade for X’ game is that our team is already fully stocked with good players and I don’t want to trade them as I’d be concerned that the return would not measure up, especially in a season where we have a real chance to make noise.
Of course it would be nice to have a real power forward, but even if someone would give you someone decent for Yabu and Clarkson and Dadiet, when does he even play? If he’s worth 15-20 minutes, then you’re having to play everyone 15-20 minutes.
A few days back I worked out a very cromulent minutes layout for the team, I don’t even remember why, and then discovered I’d completely forgotten Shamet. Which with his play is become more untenable every game.
If we trade Yabu to Israel for a yarmulke and a basket-full of challah, that would work. For a player deserving of time on the court?
Edit: I realize that this post puts me squarely in the “You’re a coach not a GM” bucket…
Have you forgotten about Playoff James?
“Harden comes with all kinds of bullshit and as a Cavs fan I think I’d hate the idea, but he seems like a better bet than Garland to help them a lot i 2026.”
Maybe, but between his tendency to invite drama and his own age and injury issues, Harden might be sort of an illusion. I agree that he has more short-term upside than Garland, but I wouldn’t touch him with a 10ft pole.
Wonder if the consensus opinion here is happy with Leon’s current approach to holding the line in the sand for Giannis.
Playoff James Harden seems very, very real, much along the lines of Playoff Lamar Jackson, but probably even worse.
Atkinson was the greatest coach on here last season. Knicks missed out on a future HOF
Cavs were a dominant 64 win team . Now they want to shake up the team .
Harden is better in the playoffs than Garland.
“Atkinson was the greatest coach on here last season. Knicks missed out on a future HOF”
Naah, you’re making this up, aren’t you?
“Wonder if the consensus opinion here is happy with Leon’s current approach to holding the line in the sand for Giannis.”
I mean, it’s such an obvious hard no that I’m only happy to the degree that Leon is not a total idiot for giving in to ridiculous demands. But hey, the bar is pretty low in these parts!
Anyway, I won’t truly relax until after the deadline. Still time for Leon to do something really terrible.
Vit is shooting 42.7% from 3 over his last 512 attempts and has 2 more seasons after this at the minimum.
It’s not changing the landscape of the league, but that’s a nice player to have.
Sixers’ Dominick Barlow last night: 26 and 16 (10 offensive). Wow.
Beyond the salary implications, I have an irrational hate boner for that dude. He’s not in my hate boner hall of fame because, as a suffering lifelong Knicks fan, it’s my duty to dislike the scrubs from the past teams (looking at you Lance Thomas and Eddy Curry).
But I could probably field a team of active players that I would absolutely hate to root for. Russ, LaMelo, Kuzma, Grant Williams, Draymond and a bench filled out by the likes of Clarkson, Grayson Allen and Cam Thomas. I’m sure they’re all lovely guys but their games, not so much!
How about Dillon Brooks?
Leon has been highly competent at keeping his trade moves under the radar. I won’t rest easy until the deadline has expired.
Not sure KAT would agree.
What makes you think he’s holding the line?
Leon + the sound of NY in winter = LeBron.
Strikes me as something that came from the other camp to depress Leon’s asset after some hard off season conversations.
wow. utah pivots.
Utah hasn’t done anything. At least not yet.
I want James Harden to just retire. Better yet..he should be stretched and blacklisted. You can’t keep doing the same shit to these teams without repercussions. It sucks too..because Prime Harden was phenomenal. Those years probably bought him way too much cachet..though he is playing really well at age 36
It depends where the line is drawn. Dolan said that they trust the current roster and never had any discussions with the Bucks. How much truth is in that statement? One the other hand, most people believe that the Knicks would have to sacrifice much more that KAT and, say, Bridges to get this trade done. Who knows where the line is drawn. We don’t know and perhaps we will never know.
I’d be ok with losing KAT, Bridges, and change, but not ok with losing OG.
Jock Landale trade I was waiting for finally happened.
Weird trade
JJJ to the Jazz for a load of crap. Western Conference. Yawn.
Three first rounders, if true, is not that much of a crap.
Draft picks matter if they hit in a good draft to tank in . Otherwise it’s overrated and I’m not a big JJJ fan. If they trade JA now they might have to be moved. Small market with a team nobody will show up for now.
Back to suggesting trades for players that are either illegal or would never happen, back to confidently but incorrectly correcting people. At least the “dumb Doogie” bit was easier to gloss over.
Anyway, Utah has a boatload of picks and they needed to consolidate them at some point. Jarvius Jorenson Julius is a weird player, but theoretically a good fit with Markkanen if the two are ever healthy at the same time.
I suppose they will trade Kessler at some point?
I guess Markannen, Jackson, and Kessler are all very tall, if that’s what they want to do.
Jake Fischer
@JakeLFischer
Outside of the Suns pick . I don’t see big value here
Interesting trade. Agree with TNFH, Utah had to do something. Plus they really seem to like Keyonte and Ace, so yeah, good time to pivot before the youngns contracts kick in. Plus, it behooves the Grizz to get worse this year, since this is a great draft to move up in. Gotta figure Ja is headed somewhere soon.
don’t markkanen and jjj play the same position?
The Grizz should’ve got the Jazz pick this year
Ainge couldn’t even get a single pick on top of getting the better player, he’s losing his touch
JJJ + Kessler could be hellacious on defense.
Maybe they’re hoping JJJ unlocks Flip as a viable player. Or maybe Filipowski stops playing entirely because they’ve got Kessler/JJJ/Marka$#%en
For the Grizz, Cam Spencer, Cedric Coward, Jaylen Wells, Santi Aldama, and Zach Edey is such a weird, interesting lineup!
Grizz do have Ty Jerome . He most likely is the starting PG
not quite the centerpiece, but clayton looks pretty good to me. shot hasn’t fallen this year but it probably will. plays defense, does some point guardy things, very competitive.
presumably minnesota has something big
coming next?
@ShamsCharania
Remember when the Knicks were trying to trade up for Ivey..
Number 5 pick ends up getting moved for this. Draft is a crapshoot
Huge sigh of relief Detroit didn’t trade for Donte.
I imagine the odds of Giannis to Minnesota just went up.
The JJJ trade seems like a win-win, given that Utah still has a boatload of picks coming.
Ivey might turn out to be pretty good if he can ever get healthy.
It was pretty obvious that Ivey wasn’t worth a top ten pick, and there are posts to prove it. Still has upside, but certainly not ideal next to Cade anyway.
Weird how Minny got nothing but cap relief…so something has to be coming soon for them, right? Oops, sorry, pt beat me to it…
I’m guessing Coby White to the Wolves.
Edit: unless they somehow have enough to trade for Giannis now?
I really thought I had identified a CBA violation off the top of my head. Saric was traded to the Bulls two days ago, so I was nearly certain he can’t be aggregated for two months.
It turns out this doesn’t apply if the receiving team takes the recently traded guy into an exception. Huh.
I’m glad nothing NBA CBA related was offered as a law school class at NYU because I definitely would’ve signed up for it and then likely failed it.
Ainge is a genius
Ivey is a reasonable buy low move from Chicago
JJJ & Lauri are just there to catch passes from Keyonte George
Well, Leon didn’t throw the kitchen sink at Jon Horst last summer and he hasn’t accepted his counter, so far. Looks like he’s holding the line to me. Shot clock expires in 48 hours. TBD, I guess.
You think otherwise?
I think you’re assuming a lot.
For all we know Leon did offer the kitchen sink but nobody wants KAT.
Vucevic to the Celtics for Simons.
That’s the most impactful move so far
Mazulla will hide his defensive shortcomings
I’m clearly not assuming anything.
The absence of a Giannis trade is not proof that Leon held the line.
Vooch is trash and they got a lot older in the deal. I don’t get it. Of course it’ll probably work out, because it’s the Celtics.
I like the idea of Giannis in Minny…. But what do they have to trade? If I’m Milwaukee I’d rather have Mobley or KAT or Jalen Johnson or even Ware than a Randle pupu platter. I love Julius, but if you can get a star in their prime or a young guy with star potential, you do that all day every day. And for all the KAT detractors around these parts, the idea that he lacks trade value is silly. Plenty of teams would be thrilled to have him in the mix.
The idea that the Warriors have enough to do a deal also strikes me as hilarious. Why in the world would MIL take Butler’s contact?
https://x.com/TheStrickland/status/2018774044091240801 Not bad
I just don’t think any team has enough to get Giannis right now except OKC. And I don’t think they’d do it.
Unless Horst comes down a lot, Giannis stays until the summer.
Vuc means they can easily go back to 5 out even if it’s limited minutes .
38% from 3 is solid . Makes them much more annoying to defend
I kinda like (or hate from a hater’s perspective) that move for the C’s, Simons was a pretty good placeholder as a bench spark but not really their kind of player, whereas Vuc is a smart, starting-quality veteran C with a diversified offensive game who hurts on D but is a silid placeholder at a position of higher need.
The possible problem for them is that they are replacing perimeter dynamic athleticism with a sort of unathletic post player. Maybe they have lots of faith in their kids and are looking down the road to Tatum’s return, which would push one of the starting young wings to the bench.
It’s not but you then make the assumption that Leon offered the moon and was rejected, which you DEFINITELY can’t make that assumption off the absence of a Giannis trade.
FWIW, Vucevic & Simons are roughly equivalent by EPM.
Neither is capable of playing defense and both can put the ball in the hoop. Guess Celtics wanted more C depth and thought they were good at guard/wing. If Tatum comes back you don’t need Simons.
Jaden McDaniels is a pretty big chip.
I’m in DC for the game tonight… let’s GOOOOOOOOOOOOO
To assume that Leon offered the The Moon + Kitchen Sink and was rejected by Jon is disingenuos or just hating when his entire roster is full of legit 2way NBA players, near All Stars, All Stars and All NBA players.
Leon reportedly rejected their counteroffer. What does that tell you?
OK… one I was gonna let go… but two?!
Is this the first day you guys heard someone use the expression “for all we know”?
It does not mean “I assume”.
“Vooch is trash”
He’s not very mobile, but he’s 17-9-4 this year and almost 38% from three. That’s pretty damn cromulent. I’d pick through that trash.
Nothing.
For all we know (https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/For+All+We+Know), the counter offer Giannis + Kuzma + Portis for KAT + OG + Deuce.
You want to throw Leon a parade for “holding the line”, be my guest. But it sure looks to me like he’s thoroughly undermined his team by engaging in a bullshit sweepstakes he had no real chance of ever winning.
Perhaps Leon didn’t engage, he was engaged and a sweepstakes ensued. He did due diligence and then here we are. If I recall Giannis said NY before this whole shebang got to bangin.
Thanks for the idiom lesson. It was actually helpful. I see your point now but I do not agree.
If a player who can shift your conference becomes available, you have to pick up the phone and find out what they want for him. Then you make an offer you’re ready to live with and hold the line when they counter.
That to me is prudent management.
I don’t think that Leon should have known that his KAT +Deuce has no chance against a 36yr old crazy Jimmy Butler + picks or Gobert + Jayden or whatever snake oil potion Pat Riley put together, – so I might as well not try at all.
I think it’s assumed that for all we know can be attached to pretty much everything written by laymen on a fan blog. We don’t even know stuff we see with our eyes here, that’s why this blog was founded.
Except on Knickerblogger, here we know all that Leon did and didn’t do. 😀
I’m not suggesting you don’t have a conversation. But you asked if people were happy with Leon’s approach to this whole thing. I am not. I don’t think there was ever a reasonable trade for Giannis to be had this year, and I think the extent to which he’s pursued one has been to the detriment of the team and this season.
The Giannis ship sailed when he traded for Bridges. This was a case of not wanting to lie in the bed you made.
Somebody said hate boner earlier, a term I find faintly disturbing, but somehow applicable to certain people who like to write about little Leon.
The Celtics like playing spacing big men, but when was the last time they played as poor a defender as Vooch?
EB, Portland fans are ecstatic about getting Vit Krejci. They really need shooting and the price and contract are good.
OG now 10th in the league in dunks. Kind of amazing.
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