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Despite Jalen Brunson’s 40 points, Knicks come up short in 137-134 OT loss to Pacers – SNY
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Top 10 Knicks players with New York roots – Newsday
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86 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.02.12)”
On the day of the trade, someone on Twitter called Alvarado a 6’0″ Josh Hart. His first 3 games definitely remind me of when Hart came over from Portland.
Good morning, Clarence! Good to see you. I have no idea who Jordan Stolz is, or why he’s ridiculous—guessing it has something to do with the Olympics. Hope it’s in a good way that you enjoy.
DS, was Hart *that* good defensively, and *that* good a shooter? Alvie has been 10-of-22 from 3 for us, and that was with the dud game versus Indy as one of the three games he’s played in. (He’s also averaging more points per 36 in his three games with us—24.4—than KAT is averaging for the season—22.8, and is now averaging 4.1 steals per 36.)
I really want Brunson and KAT to sit the ASG out. They are beat to hell and really could use a reset. I mean- the ASG isn’t as good or as important as it once was anyway, right?
And man! Those Jose cheers IN PHILLY gave me the chills last night.
Not worried, they’ll each play around 12 minutes of no-D ball (no snide comments please) and otherwise rest for a week.
GTA is the new DiVenceno!
Wow. DDV doesn’t play defense like that.
I’m cool with none of our guys playing in the All-Star Game, but it’s not going to happen that way. Yes, they’ll only play a few minutes each, but hopefully neither of them will get hurt in that meaningless (and crappy) game. The last decent/competitive NBA All-Star Game was the 157-155 game back in 2020. It’s been trash ever since then, beginning with the 170-150 game in 2021.
My point is more that both seemed like modest pick ups but were electric in their early games as Knicks.
Got it. Yeah; definitely. I *still* like what Josh injects into a game just by his mere presence on the floor on most nights. We just look/play differently (better) when he’s out there. The perfect “Swiss Army knife” kind of guy. I hope McCullar (and dare I say Sochan if we added him?) could eventually grow into that.
Good morning, Doogie. Speed skater. Crushed the 1000m for gold. They’re just built in the most fascinating way…
I hope Brown’s approach to the season has been more balm than bristle for your Knicks anxieties. It has for me. Feeling very much like this team has a flight plan to land in the playoffs vs previous recent years where we were mostly in systemic orbital decay and just hoping the hull could handle the impact.
GTA next to Deuce (who I suspect we will see sooner than later)! fucking Bravo Leon.
I feel like maybe Saquon Barkley could have been an Olympic skater of some kind. OK, probably not, but he certainly has the quads for it.
What a weird 48 hours for this team. They must have been pissed after losing to the Pacers.
Alvarado! Insane!
Once OG comes back, our bench is going to be fire. Especially if Deuce can also be back for the playoffs.
Alvarado, Deuce, Shamet, Diawara and Mitch. That’s DAMN good defense with 4 3 point shooters. Really amazing bench work.
Let’s just get that back up 5 and we are set. Not even for the playoffs, just to help us on nights when Mitch doesn’t play the rest of the regular season.
Just gonna say one thing.
Forty-one effing assists.
And 45 percent shooting on 3s. We’ve kind of become 2024-25 Boston. When we’re hitting those, we win; when we’re not, we don’t.
I keep waiting for Diawara to start bricking 3s just to get me to calm down about his potential, but he’s not cooperating. 🙂
The comparsions are hard to make because of injuries and other changes, but I took a brief look at the team level data and there’s no improvement of team TS%. The improvement of our ORtg seems like it’s probably related to more OREBs (Mitch is back). The slight improvement in DRtg may also be related to Mitch.
I have to admit at times the ball movement has been brilliant, but at other times we slip back into the same nonsense we’ve seen in the past of too much dribbling. It’s hard to pin down how much Brown is helping, but I’m going to “guess” not much. I think the return of Mitch has been a huge plus and injuries and playing starters fewer minutes late has offset some of that positive (but will help long term).
Diawara has attempted 63 threes on the season and 54 of them have been characterized as wide open. That’s 86% of his 3PAs. Even a notoriously bad shooter like Hart has been left wide open for only 63% of his 3PAs.
At some point NBA teams will stop leaving Diawara wide open on every play. I’m not sure how he’ll shoot when teams give even a little effort to cover him.
It’s a good sign that he’s shooting well enough to be covered at all but his shooting hasn’t really been tested. At this point it’s kinda weird he’s still getting left open.
The fact that Mo and Josh are both over 40% from three is one of the best things that has happened this season
Great pull, EB. It’s wild to me that he remains ignored from the corners, but we’ll enjoy it while it lasts and I’m optimistic he can punish the closeouts when they come, though developing that may take some time.
We all woke up this morning to the New York Knicks having a top-10 defense. Sure is nice to have Behemoth Mitch in tow. We also might need a ruling from Phil Jackson on whether the 40 before 20 thing applies if you achieve it via your pythagorean record. I doubt he knows what that is but maybe the term caught his eye at some point because of the nominal involvement of triangles.
Last scattered observation: obviously he will not hit 8 threes and get 5 steals every night (I’d settle for 7 and 4), but there is something fundamentally broken about a league where Jose Alvarado gets all but given away at the trade deadline. Ties into a lot of the recent discourse around tanking and the like. Happy we availed ourselves of the benefits, but that doesn’t happen in a healthy league with a lot of teams trying to win basketball games.
Nail on the head. Team record. The most ever in an NBA game is 53 back in 1978.
3rd in offense, 10th in defense is not bad at all. There’s untapped potential there too, so maybe we’ll have a nice ending to the season.
15 games over with 27 games to play seems pretty okay…i’m happyish…
not sure what our playoff seed will end up being – shoot we could totally end the season at the 4th seed…detroit, boston, and cleveland do not appear to be slowing down much…
just got to try to be healthy and playing well at the end of season…
honestly, at the moment i like our first 8 against any other team in the league in a series…9 if deuce can make it back…
huk’s probably not ready this season, maybe tyler and mo though can be counted on in the post season, that would really be something…
we’re solid at the top, in the middle, and even down in to our bench…
KAT’s contract is a future issue for sure…gotta come up with answers for mitch, deuce and now mo (surprise surprise there)…
man, our med staff do not play no more, good thing we do go deep…OG and deuce are both key to our defense…
what a conundrum for jalen, seems like his sweet spot is fewer than 19 field goal attempts per game…too much more, and something goes wrong with our offense…it’s made for wing scoring…
This is a Pelican fans recent view of the Alvarado trade:
https://pelicandebrief.com/jose-alvarado-trade-details-prove-pelicans-got-fleeced
we should waive release jettison say goodbye deny access to the building mister clarkson…
he’s too old…once he’s gone KAT and josh then become the senior citizens of the team…
that’s a great dynamic, fuck another pj tucker situation…otherwise what’s the point of having a team captain and paying KAT and OG top dollar…oh yeah, and effectively paying two head coaches at the same time…
KnicksFan, I like that Alvarado cry-out, but I thought the mock draft bit further down was of interest — saying the Knicks might get Michigan center Morez Johnson Jr. in the draft. I know nothing about him, but he sounds like something we need from the description.
I get that the pelicans are bent out of shape because he’s a rootable player, but it really was not that big of a deal. It’s probably in the same class as the Obi trade, which netted a similar return. I think Alvarado is a great fit here, but when he levels off to his career numbers (he has never had a plus BPM season) and his career TS% of . 533 (never a season higher than .566) the reactions will die down.
Feeling very much like this team has a flight plan to land in the playoffs vs previous recent years where we were mostly in systemic orbital decay and just hoping the hull could handle the impact.
remembering thomas joseph thibodeau junior piloting the good ship knickerbocker in to some really rough landings in the playoffs…some of that for sure was on the folks who planned and filled out the crew…
one or two key injuries and poof, the ride’s over…
This is just not a very valuable datapoint when it comes to players who derive a lot of value from their defense. We are talking about a guy with two top-20 finishes in DEPM who is generously 6 feet tall. That is insane.
jose is six foot, 27 years old, played in about 170 games, started in 11…
pelicans haven’t really been that good, hardly ever, seems they cycle through a bunch of players, good for him for sticking it out there…
Yeah, geo, the team is much deeper. And the coach is not approaching every game like it’s 3 o’clock high. We’re gaming the ones that matter and letting the system prevail or not in the ones that matter less.
What a strange season. We’re 10-2 the last twelve games, which should have us all dancing in the streets. But we win by 49 and lose by 38. That’s emotional whiplash.
One of the reasons I like the Alvarez trade is his grit and grind may help us land on the positive side of that ledger more often. We’ll see.
Yep.
This this and more this. Watched the highlights and saw more pick and rolls last night than some entire seasons under Thibs. It seems we now have multiple cutters and multiple passers who actually look for them. The teamwork has gotta be coming from the coach, and, as Clyde says, it makes the game simple. For sure our three point shooting % will vary, but those easy buckets are glorious and will often demoralize opponents.
Even if/whenJose’s shooting regresses, I don’t think his motor ever turns off. His energy is/will be contagious, and that alone is worth the price. Previously, the team often looked lethargic and apathetic on D. Maybe that is over.
Against the other 4 Top 6 teams in the East that aren’t Detroit Knicks are 9-3 against them.
“Previously, the team often looked lethargic and apathetic on D. Maybe that is over.”
KBA, I think with this team it’s unlikely to be over. My hope is that it’ll be limited to a quarter here and there, rather than entire games.
With this team’s fire power, we can usually survive an apathetic, lethargic quarter now and again. Longer than that is problematic.
I’m as guilty as anyone, but I think we all need to stop overreacting to every loss, even to bad teams (which honestly doesn’t happen that often) Every good team in the NBA experiences ugly losses (the Timberwolves seem to have one a week), it’s just part of the January/February doldrums.
That being said, I really, really wanna kick Detroit’s ass next Thursday, you might say we owe them.
Yeah, don’t forget that Detroit lost to the Wizards. Also, OKC lost by 3 points to the Pacers back on January 23, as well. As bad as it feels when it happens, I wonder if the Detroit and OKC fanbases freak out each time. Maybe they actually do? Losses feel bad.
This.
At some point the entire management group deserves credit for determinine a plan and adhering to it.
The most vocal complaints at the end of the season was that the coach overplayed his top players on relatively meaningless games with too much iso and not enoung 3’s.
A year later the starters are down significantly in mpg (Hart down 7.0mpg, KAT down 3.7 (their 2 oldest heavy rotation guys) OG down 3.6, Bridges down 3.5 and Jalen down 0.8), 3 point attempts up by 16.8% attempts and makes up 19.6%.
Mitch has been rationed masterfully missing 3 games only once after his slightly delayed start of the season.
They plugged their only gaping hole at back up point for a virtual song.
The circle of trust (subs) now includes Mitch, Jose, Shamet and Deuce with Diawara knocking on the door.
Their Ortg, Drtg and Net are all improved.
They are in a better place entering the last 1/3 of the season and playoffs. They might get knocked out in the first round but the process and results are excellent, so far. That’s all you can ask for.
Agreed, but Brown must be thrilled by Jose’s example.
I may be misremembering, but IQ, Obi et al often came on as a second unit and gave the team a different/faster gear than the starters. Sometimes it made a little difference; sometimes a lot.
I feel like Jose and Diawara can do some of that, too, which can/should/will(?) remind guys like KAT that he’s a professional athlete who can run. Haha.
And, honestly, I can’t wait to see some lineups with OG and Deuce (fingers crossed).
Dudes – Mo Diawara is going to get an MLE-level contract offer this offseason which will throw our cap into second apron hell.
Per Athletic:
Cap space: Bulls (up to $68 million), Wizards ($50 million), Clippers (up to $50 million), Jazz ($45 million), Lakers ($38 million to $47 million), Nets ($36 million to $44 million), Hawks ($23 million to $28 million)
Full $15.1 million nontaxpayer MLE: Hornets, Trail Blazers, Spurs, Bucks
$6.1 million taxpayer MLE but unlikely full nontaxpayer MLE: Pistons, Pelicans, Celtics, Warriors, Suns, 76ers, Timberwolves, Rockets, Heat, Grizzlies, Pacers, Nuggets, Kings
Bird rights and minimums but not second apron: Mavericks
Second apron: Cavaliers, Knicks, Thunder, Magic
We have major market teams who will have lots of cap space and also probably lots of playing time. If Mo keeps up at this rate, why wouldn’t one of these teams take a chance on giving a full MLE offer sheet to a 6’9″ dude with 7’4″ wingspan shooting 40% from 3 and seems to have reasonable basketball IQ?
Question – i know he is a restricted FA and is limited to Arenas provision for year 1 (full NTMLE) and year 2, but google says “so that the incumbent team can match with EB rights or MLE” — but what if you don’t have the NTMLE available to you? And EB rights don’t kick in until after 2 seasons, and he only will have played one…
I gotta give Leon credit, man. It’s like he heard me praising the Pacers and said “watch this, Hubert, I’m going to hold Mitch out tonight and tell our guys to give minimal effort so we fuck up their tank, then unleash them tomorrow against the Sixers so you know it was planned.”
Well played, sir.
PS — we talk about Thibs getting fired bc of Mikal’s complaints or whatever. But I truly believe the core issue might have been that the new physio team came over from Dallas and had/has a verrrrry data-rich plan for maximizing our players. I believe Brown got the job in part by saying he would defer to their advice more than Thibs did. I think we see that in the minutes etc quoted well above by BPL. Let’s hope it all works out.
Last 12 games MOV:
54
3
16
21
30
12
31
3
-38
22
-3
49
So that’s basically +15 over that span. Pretty, pretty, pretty good.
There has generally been an unwillingness to do this to other teams’ RFAs. No one went after Austin Reaves, for instance, when it would have made a lot of sense to give him an offer the Lakers would be hard pressed to match. Hopefully that continues, because you’re right, another team could fuck us.
Why did we sign him to one year deal? Were there any apron-related reasons why it made sense or is this Hartenstein Part 2?
He’s a restricted FA. We can match any offer.
I’m skeptical teams will want to offer a player who has continuously been left wide open on offense a multi-year contract starting at $15M. Teams are rarely willing to tie that kind of money up for the week they need to wait on a match.
The #1 overall pick doesn’t make that much money.
Yeah $15M is crazy but even $5M could kill us.
Why exactly isn’t he on a 4 year deal like every other rookie?
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7039859/2026/02/11/spurs-jeremy-sochan-waive/
Apparently, we’re one of the teams that talked with San Antonio about Sochan before the deadline. So there could still be some interest there. But 1)Assuming there are at least a handful of teams willing to treat a recent lottery pick as a “second draft” candidate, would he want to come here to be on a team where he wouldn’t play much barring injury? 2)Do you agree with Macri that until/uless he learns to shoot, Sochan’s only viable position is center? And would you want him ahead of Hukporti?
Not interested in another very, very undersized center at 6-foot-8, like Yabu was. I’m not saying I wouldn’t be interested in him, but certainly not at center. So no, definitely don’t agree with Macri. I see him at PF/SF, like Hart (and McCullar)?
Famous last words, I know, but I would bet heavily against this. That would be an immense contract for a guy who probably won’t have accumulated 1,000 NBA minutes by that point.
Something in the ballpark of a 4/$15M deal is more realistic, and ultimately I think we’d just match and go into the second apron, as unless we trade for Giannis we’re likely hitting it anyway next season.
He didn’t have the leverage to negotiate this and the current structure is overwhelmingly more likely to be advantageous to us (we can keep his minuscule cap hold on the books, do whatever we need to do, and then re-sign him) than hurt us.
I am all aboard the Diawara hype train, but we avoided a situation in which his guaranteed money could prevent us from getting Giannis, and that was wise.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0iR4SXBQYsc
^ This guy explains the Diawarra situation. Basically the Knicks signed Diawarra just to fill the 14th spot as cheaply as possible, and could have added a second non guaranteed year but chose not to.
As much credit as Leon & Co deserve for identifying and drafting him (and I give him a ton — he’s a great pickup) the way they handled his contract indicates they saw him less as a prospect and more as a tool to stay under the apron, so much so that they didn’t even bother giving themselves any protection in case he popped.
I suppose teams might be reluctant to tie up MLE/room exception $ in a restricted free agent. But consider that i think his floor is probably Dorrian Finney Smith – who measured at 6’6.5″ barefoot with 6’11” wingspan – compared with Mo who is at least reported 6’8″ barefoot with 7’4″ wingspan.
DFS at age 32 coming off a season in which he averaged (per 36) 9.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 0.8 steals, 0.5 blocks, shooting 41% from 3 (career 36.8%).
Mo Diawara age 20 – per 36 averaging 13.9 points, 6 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.2 steals, 0.6 blocks, shooting 41.3% from 3. (and who by the way by NBA tracking has the same wide open % on 3’s as DFS did last season).
DFS got 4 years $53MM from the Rockets in July 2025 (looking like a terrible contract by the way).
I am higher on Diawara than any Knick draft pick prob since Porzingis, if only because the physical traits are so impressive. Loved Quickley Grimes etc but those guys clearly had a ceiling because of their size. But Diawara plays with a confidence and aggression which is really non-rookie-like, not even mentioning that he came from the FRENCH league and is relatively new to basketball.
I am enjoying the way Manhattan is turning into Mo-town but I would be very reluctant to buy into him. I love him and am very optimistic but the idea that he is a true talent 41% from three is something you just have to fade hard at this point, as others have noted.
And his defense is meh beyond the measurables
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7040888/2026/02/12/knicks-mohamed-diawara-basketball-sister/?source=athletic_user_shared_article_copylink&smid=url-share-ta
Considering the current discourse, an appropriately timed Edwards piece in the Athletic today…
Sochan is shooting 25.7% from three this year with a career under 29%. He’s basically Mo with no shooting skills whatsoever, and would take court time from Mo if we picked him up. Or we sit him behind Mo (i.e., replacing Dadiet), but as something of a head case I don’t see that ending well. He’s too short to play center, so I see no point.
Basically no reason to take him. Whatsoever. He’d basically be a bigger Clarkson in my book.
Sometimes you luck into a guy and they hit their 90+ percentile projection. Mo may just be one of those guys.
He’s still only 20 years old, and the sample size on his 3’s, while still small, is getting larger. He shoots them at high volume— 147 3PAr+. His TS+ is right at 100, eFG+ at 107.
He could regress quite a bit and that’d still be quite an age 20 season. And that’s just on the offensive side of the ball. Considering he didn’t have that much experience against high level competition coming into this season, his excellent play is downright shocking.
Owen stop dousing water on our Moptimism!
With Diawara emerging, I do think all we need is a true back up 5. Not a 4/5, not another wing, but a true, legit 5 that is an upgrade over Huk.
It’s not just “mitch insurance” because let’s be real. If Mitch goes down before or during the playoffs our title chances go down A LOT.
But it’s also KAT foul trouble insurance. Even assuming Mitch is available for all playoff games, he will probably only play around 25 minutes a game max, maybe 30 if its a game 6 or 7 or elimination game and we really need him. So we need one more serviceable big in case KAT picks up 2 dumb fouls early in a playoff game which, let’s be real, is probably going to happen at least once.
Yeah, even as the main resident on Huk Island, I was expecting more Mo-like growth this year, and it’s not really manifested itself (yet!). Another big would be nice, but I’d rather it were something akin to a junior version of JJJ, someone who can rim protect but also shoot the three and be a power forward if need be. OG (and Hart) can fill that role a bit, but they’re small.
I got a dumb email today about the Cavs now being the Eastern Conference favorites.
Fuck that shit. Fuck that shit soooo hard.
Mo does absolutely nothing on offense. He’s attempted 6 FTs all season and his 3 point shot looks good because he’s made 90% of his attempts from the corners. You can see a vision of the future though, if he can learn to shoot for real and add even a little ball handling that’s going to be a very nice player
That is definitely not the case if that video is accurate.
We gave up control over Diawarra’s future salary to take advantage of his low minimum salary now so we could afford to add Landry Shamet after previously signing Clarkson.
I know I’m the resident FO hater but I can’t kill them for that. Mo’s hitting his 99th percentile outcome, and even still we can match any offer if there even is one. But it’s worth pointing out we didn’t do it for Giannis, we did it for Jordan Clarkson.
What doesn’t make sense (and the guy in the video pointed this out back in October) is why they didn’t give him a non guaranteed 2nd year like they did Hukporti.
He seems to be a strange combination of the brilliance of both Aller and Perrin. Perrin for discovering him, and Aller for figuring out how to use him to stay under the apron. But not giving him the second year is a clear indication we were leaning more into Aller than Perrin when we signed him.
Not yet. This time next season we’ll have our very own Giannis (except he’ll be able to shoot 3’s).
Maybe his team decided that a two year discount would not be financially advisable. They were right.
That’s the Isaiah-Hartenstein-backwards-looking-fallacy again, Clarence. 51st picks don’t have the leverage to demand favorable terms on their first contract.
Marvin Bagley’s got to shake loose from Dallas, right?
That’s true.
I usually agree with swifty, but I really think that we need a 4/5. Someone who can shoot 3s at least a little bit to flow with what our offense has become. Again, what Yabu was originally supposed to do.
I also understand getting “Mitch insurance,” though. I do like Bagley, but he obviously doesn’t shoot 3s.
Not sure what the consensus is on which archetype we need more. Anyone we get is going to have to be satisfied with spot minutes except for in case of injury, so that narrows down a lot.
Love it. Whether or not Sochan can meaningfully contribute is still very, very much TBD, and like any other buyout guy if he plays a lot for us something has gone wrong.
But, it’s difficult to find guys who aren’t completely washed on the buyout market and Sochan doesn’t turn 23 until May. At a minimum, he should be an eminently cromulent backup big, and unlike most buyout signings there’s some upside too.
We just signed Sochan. Discuss!
The two are not remotely inconsistent. It saved them some money this season, yes, but it also ensured they can get off Diawara’s salary in the event they need to in 2026-2027.
In hindsight, they would’ve been able to do so easily even if he had a typical 4-year 2nd round exception contract, because Diawara has become a player other teams would gladly accept without additional assets. But I don’t think Mohammed Diawara’s mother foresaw that outcome.
DAMN! Leon makin’ MOVES!
I like it, even if he is small for a back up center and doesn’t shoot 3’s.
To Knicks2025’s question about what archetype we should get. IMO, when you’re talking waiver wires and end of the rotation guys, you get the best available/most talented player, IMO. If they don’t shoot threes but are better than the guys available who do shoot threes, so be it.
IMO, I don’t think we need more 3 point shooting. I mean, obviously you can always use more but we have Brunson, Mikal, KAT, OG, Hart, Shamet, Alvarado, Deuce, Diawara, Kolek. We got plenty of 3 point shooters. I know some of them (Hart, Kolek and Diawara) are less of a sure thing than the others but it’s ok if we have a few (Mitch, Sochen, Huk) who don’t shoot threes.
The standard two-year non guaranteed deal for rookies who previously signed exhibition 10 contracts (like the one Hukporti signed) would have done the same.
Certainly feel better about this than at any point with the Clarkson signing. The guy should be motivated and you have to hope Leon/Brown did some reconnaissance behind the scenes. Also, I think with the All Star break looming he gets his hands on the playbook and manages to get some practices in (along with Alvarado).
Interesting Sochan signing. Whose minutes is he going to get? I don’t imagine he would want to come to NYK without some sort of minutes guarantee?
Question though – we would not have any specific rights to him after this season other than non-Bird rights, correct?
To me this feels a little like working out potential OG replacements for if/when we have to trade OG in a Giannis trade…
*Eddie Vedder voice*: JERAMY SOCHAN SI-I-I-GNED TODAYYY
I’m cautiously optimistic about Sochan. It seems logical to me that Wemby single-handedly negated the need for a great defensive forward who can’t shoot, and that could have been what drove his value down to zero in San Antonio.
Sochan has been terrible this year, but he had been slowly working his way towards cromulence before the wheels fell off. His poor shooting that never seems to improve puts a hard ceiling on him, as he’s a space-killer on offense, while his defensive abilities seem to overlap with a couple of guys we already have in OG and Diawara. His best skill is wing defense, he’s a decent rebounder and he gets some stocks.
Maybe a change of scenery helps him, but either way as a back of rotation guy you could do a lot worse. He’s basically occupying Jacob Toppin’s spot on the roster, so when you look at it that way, it’s a no-downside kind of move.
I guess you could say that acquiring him comes with opportunity cost, as now we can’t use that roster spot on a backup big, but the pickings are pretty slim out there in that department as well.
I imagine he will be “situational”.
Deuce / Mikal / OG / Sochan / Mitch all-D lineup
Try scoring on that!
1 Brunson, Alvarado, Kolek
2 Bridges, Deuce, Clarkson
3 Hart, Shamet, Diawarra
4 OG, Sochan, Diawarra
5 KAT, Mitch, Hukporti
That’s kind of impressive. It does move Hukporti into an undesirable spot if Mitch can’t play, but at this point we’re kind of all in on Mitch’s health anyway, aren’t we?
Anyone else not aware that our newest signing is Polish? I had no idea.
Sochan has played 41% of his minutes at C this year and last year… not that the Spurs have a good track record playing him at appropriate positions.
I’m fine with Huk as a 3rd string C, he’s currently 18th in Actual DEPM this season. There’s a lot of noise, but given his defensive track record in Australia I’m willing to buy it. Don’t ask about his OEPM. Let’s not talk about that.
We do need some PF/big wing depth, and Sochan can credibly do that and play C. Plus, he wasn’t nearly this bad in 1300 minutes last year.
Not many great C options on waivers anyhow.
Sochan is a pretty frustrating player. On the days he’s good, he’s good, and on all the other days he’s not very good. Spurs even tried to him at PG. Nothing stuck. That said, not much downside to bringing him in if he actually wants to come.
Don’t forget Dadiet who I’ve heard has greatly improved his water fetching and towel prepping skills.
Kind of feels like Sochan is the Ben Simmons move that Leon was contemplating doing before the season began except Sochan is way younger/less injury prone, probably way more motivated, but has far less natural talent and ceiling than Simmons did.
FYI for those not paying attention, new Sochan thread up
You read “tea leaves” with metaphysical certitude better than Zoltan The Magnificient in “Big”.
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