Knicks Morning News (2026.03.14)

Mitch has always seemed like kind of a novelty act to me. I’m not gonna get all hot and bothered about a superb game against a tanking team missing its two best players, but will admit that when he gets it going and becomes a 1-man wrecking crew on the boards, he is a lot of fun to watch, especially when he has 0 FTA.

I certainly enjoy the Mitch Freak Show at $15M AAV way more than the KAT Follies at $60M AAV, but count me in among those who will not miss his many glaring flaws when he is gone.

“Yeah, no, I usually agree with Z-Man but not on this one, you don’t replace what Mitch brings with a big in the 20s.”

If we’re talking about the idealized version of Mitch (healthy, not vulnerable to smart coaching and deep talented rosters in later playoff rounds) on an AAV that begins with a 1, sure. And that’s what I mean by this being it as far as I’m concerned. Either (a) he that version this year for the entirety of the playoffs, then bring him back at any salary that doesn’t put us into the second apron(*), unless we win a championship in which case I don’t care, or (b) he is not that version, in which case we should let him go, period, or (c) he is something in the gray area, in which case Leon should re-sign him to no more than 10% of the salary cap (he’s at 8.38% of the cap this year at $12.9M).

“This is certainly a hot take, but outside of Wemby and Joker, and on the odd days when Embiid is functional, I’m not sure there’s a center with greater on-the-floor impact than Mitch right now.”

I think it’s an extremely hot take, but hey, that’s me.

“Gee, not in my experience.”

Maybe not in your experience as a Knicks fan, but lots of teams have these kinds of players. Take the Celtics, for example. They have exactly 3 guys who are not either off the scrap heap or taken late in the draft, and have a better record than us after losing their best player for the vast majority of the season. Mazz is a very good coach, but no coach is that good.

(*) I don’t believe that Leon will go into the second apron with this roster if it doesn’t win a chip this year. There will be some big moves, and that might allow Mitch to be offered a bit more, but even there I expect that they have a “reasonable ceiling” on his value, and I think that ceiling is somewhere less than $20M AAV.

Somehow the Celtics found Luke Kornet on the so-called scrap heap, then replaced him with Neemas Queta, another scrap heap guy. Kornet is now kicking ass with San Antonio at a contract that starts at 7.5% of the cap and descends.

Beyond the Bird rights conundrum, the hype over our oft-injured and deeply flawed backup center here seems pretty extreme to me. I personally can’t wait until Leon can figure out how pivot to a better C rotation combo than KAT-Mitch for his $80+M in cap space (assuming that folks around here seem to be itching to spend $20+M AAV on a Mitch extension.)

“I don’t have the energy to engage in much of a back-and-forth about this because we’ve been having some version of the argument for years, during which time Mitch has so clearly been essential to our success both via the eye test and the numbers that if anyone is unconvinced at this point I can only assume it is a position from which no amount of evidence can budge them.”

So clearly to our team success, if you purposefully ignore all of the evidence to the contrary.

Let’s look at a few things since he signed his extension:

-2022-23: Missed 23 games (fwiw we went 12-11 with Jericho Sims as his backup) Then, after being totally dominant against the Cavs overratted front line, he was hardly a factor against the Heat, a team whose backup C’s were the corpse of Kevin Love and the great Cody Zeller.

-2023-24: Missed 51 games and then put up a 0.0 BPM in the games he played. Then after a promising game 1 vs. PHI, got hurt (thanks, Joel!) and was totally ineffective after.

-2024-2025: Missed 65 games. Knicks were 38-20 when he returned, with our backup C role being filled by Sims and Precious. we were 10-7 after he returned. At the same point this year, the Knicks were 37-21. Then in the playoffs: he was pretty meh against undersized DET, with his only impactful game being the game 5 loss. Then vs BOS, he went 3-10 from the line in Game 1 and 4-12 in Gamw 3. The only game where he was significantly impactful to winning was game 2, where for some reason Mazzulla went away from the hack-a-Mitch strategy. His best game was game 5 which we happened to lose. Then he was a total non-factor (at best) vs. Indiana.

I don’t know how anyone that has the least bit of objectivity can conclude that Mitch has been “essential to our success.” He’s been better than Jericho, Precious, and Huk, so there’s that! Still, we’ll never know whether things would have been different if Mitch signed with one of the many teams lining up to sign him in summer 2022. Maybe we rethink passing on guys like Jalen Duren and Mark Williams in the draft.

But hey, maybe come playoff time he lives up to the sanitized version of Mitch we continually get from his apologists and he “essentials” us into the finals. If that happens, no one will be happier than me. I was among the very first to be hyped about him at draft time, and it would be nice for him to finally live up to the promise he showed in his rookie year. But to me, he’s been a disappointment on balance. To each his own!

–

If the team clearly falls short of expectations (and Dolan spelled out in no uncertain terms what those expectations are), then Leon should move some of the bigger contracts and pivot…like the Celtics just did. The first guy on the way out should be KAT, even if we get nothing but freed-up cap space in return. That would make it possible for him to do whatever he wants with Mitch, Landry, Diawara, and Deuce. Or go all in for Giannis and fuck it. In any case, I’m already queasy about it…so let’s hope we defy the odds and go all the way!

Owen and geo, I agree with the sentiments about homegrown talent, especially when its a guy who was picked well outside the lottery or in the second round. Mitch is endearing, and as I have made clear, his great games are astounding…there’s just not enough of them for my tastes…and not only due to injury.

I like Mikal more than many/most, even though I thought at the time that the price paid for him was beyond idiotic, and feel even more so today. But even with his latest doldrums he’s still posting a 3.0 BPM, and as they say, the best ability is availability. But I have no issue with folks feeling otherwise, he clearly polarizing, and in that sense, he’s similar to Mitch. Hart is also polarizing. So in that sense, I still think they all belong in the same tier, although I might waffle on the order.

Shamet is indeed having a good year, maybe his best, and he’s a really good guy and smart player. I just don’t feel like I’d miss him in the big scheme of things, especially if he leaves because he gets paid. The shoulder issue feels like a time bomb. I think I would miss having a good back-of-rotation player on a minimum deal more than I would miss him in particular. There is definitely a gap between him and Alvarado, yet I am hesitant to put him above KAT in his own tier.

Anyway, this his only how I feel today, things can definitely change depending on how the playoffs go.