The parade is happening now, and I thought it’d be nice to have a thread to discuss it!
Hubert let us know the sad news that Gkhenman passed away in April. Our condolences to his family and friends. He was a great commenter.
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The parade is happening now, and I thought it’d be nice to have a thread to discuss it!
Hubert let us know the sad news that Gkhenman passed away in April. Our condolences to his family and friends. He was a great commenter.
167 replies on “Knicks Championship Parade Live Thread”
I’m watching the ABC stream but there’s a ton of them: https://share.google/e7ILa4FUcQko8ZeAC
Hope everyone has a great and safe time. Really wish I could’ve gotten out of work to be there myself!
Maybe this is an old guy perspective but all I can think about is all those people who’ve been standing there since 4 am and where they’re gonna pee!
LOL, another reason I wouldn’t have been able to go.
I did 2009, since it was right by my wife’s office at the time. But yeah, I never did any of the other 1990s parades. It’s more fun to just watch it on TV (like the ball dropping on New Year’s Eve. I did that once, and once is enough).
Watching on NBC, love the F-bomb from one of the dudes in the crowd when he was talking about how much he loved the Knicks. That’s a true Knick fan.
I wanted to go in 2008 after the Giants Superbowl. I was still living in NJ but nobody else wanted to go.
I legit didn’t know Richie Guerin was still alive.
EDITED TO ADD: He’s 94. Wow.
Did the very crowded Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade (77 and CPW) for like six years straight when my son was young. I’ve aged out.
D-mar- 32 ounce bottles were invented for a reason
I love the Knicks but I prefer digital real estate. Would not venture close. Looks absolutely nuts.
I did Yankees ‘96. That was the first championship any of my teams won. I was at Fordham University at the time and attended a ridiculous amount of games. They sold same day tickets every day for the RF bleachers for $6 until the World Series. Then you had to line up before the series and buy them for $10. What a different world! Unfortunately you were limited to one game, and I chose the one we lost 14-1 instead of game 6 🤦🏻♂️
Shout out to Swifty, man. You always said you didn’t want to win the title with LeBron or Durant bc it would be all about them. I’m so fucking glad we’re celebrating Jalen Brunson and not one of those guys
Wouldn’t have minded Durant but I definitely didn’t want the root for the Kyrie circus.
Now that I’m thinking about it, it’s been 15 years since any NY team won a title, right?
I bet that was a record drought for the city.
EDIT: I should say any men’s team so Noble doesn’t @ me
Mens team in the four sports..14 years
2012 Giants
OG hanging with Mamdani and Hochul
Is that Brunson in the street now with the trophy
lol novak’s on a float doing the belt
Guy on SNY speaking facts . You have to keep this team together . Hi Dolan..
Begley thinks Dolan was talking about a few years in. He doesn’t think Dolan was talking about next year.
The math doesn’t add up for two years in if you bring everyone back.
Got there around 6:30am, by that point all the entries were closed LOL. Went back home to watch on TV. The speeches are the best part anyway!
I read that Dolan’s stooge on FAN did a hatchet job on Oakley.
Man, the mayor really knew how to capitalize on this!
That was something! The crowd bum rushed the barricade, so we were able to get within a half a block. Mostly I saw arms and cell phones, still! Great to be there!
thank you very much hubie for sharing the news about g-man…you are our glue guy…I appreciate you sir 😊
trying not to feel too selfish about his loss, can definitely feel it though…
hope his family is well, and knows he was a part of our community and welcomed here…
our time together is precious…
It’s Mike Breen at City Hall
It’s easy to change the math one year in. Boston just did.
Sochan’s commitment to not wearing a shirt, even at City Hall, is admirable.
Leon is looking dapper…
How about Bridges wearing a Dadiet uniform backwards?
you’re welcome, geo. I’m going to reshare it here because it got threaded. And I’d really like the mods to check in on DRed, presuming they must have his email and maybe enough personal info to do a google search. At this point I think a wellness check on any Knicks fan you haven’t heard from in months is fully warranted.
I prefer a more planned and sensible approach than throwing prime assets overboard next summer in desperation, at fire sale prices.
NBA TV has shown the entire MSG broadcast of the parade.
Reposted from last thread…
I have some sad news to share.
I recently learned that Gary Henman, known to many of us here as Gkhenman, passed away suddenly on April 10. I only discovered this after wondering why he hadn’t been participating in a group chat of Knicks fans he & and I were in.
I had dinner with Gary when he visited New York earlier this year. He was exactly the kind of person who made an evening better simply by being there. He was gregarious, warm, and genuinely interested in others. He spoke often about his family, especially his daughter, Asha, of whom he was immensely proud.
Gary worked for Vanguard and was approaching retirement. He told me about his plans to move to Belize and spend the next chapter of his life in the place he loved most. It was clear he was looking forward to it.
There is one part of this story that I can’t stop thinking about.
Four weeks ago, Gary’s family scheduled a celebration of his life and invited those who knew and loved him to gather in his honor. The date they chose — a month ago! — was Saturday, June 13th, the very day the Knicks won the championship.
It’s hard not to feel sadness that Gary wasn’t here to witness this run himself, knowing how much joy he would have taken from it. But I prefer to think of it another way. Maybe, in some small way, he was guiding it all along.
Rest in peace, Gary. You will be missed.
For those who would like to learn more about Gary or see some of the tributes shared by his family and friends, I’m including a link below. Please note that it is his daughter’s Instagram page.
https://www.instagram.com/thetalldoll/p/DW8_cwTFZH-/
This guy Avery Wilson is definitely good so I’m not hating or complaining, but how the hell did he get to do the anthem at two finals games and the parade? I had never heard of him before!
Oh oh the mayor mentioned Charles Oakley wish we could’ve seen Dolan’s face at that moment.
Mamdami trying to show his BONAFIDES.
Mardy Collins lol
Damn he just credited Thibs
And the great RJ Barrett
I wonder if Mamdami got any game
Analytics
We should throw prime assets overboard now for nothing because I don’t want to throw them overboard a year from now for more than nothing.
– E
Oh my god, look at Dolan being a little douchebag during this awesome speech.
Yeah Dolan is fuming. He wants to cut his mic off
that is very sad to hear
How high is this dude…and who the hell is he and why is he up there?
So many Jalens in the NBA. Got to give him a pass ..
Jumaane Williams is big in the NYC political scene.
Sucks Dolan doesn’t have anyone in his life to tell him that jacket is fugly
Dolan seriously couldn’t get someone to write a speech for him?
Dolan is such a dynamic public speaker
Dolan was smart enough to cut it short, I’ll give him that much.
After his Stasi goons kidnapped Oakley, Dolan actually went on the public airwaves and called Oakley a drunk. What a gnomish turd.
What a disaster the owner is…embarrassing
Leon Rose 🌹 is speaking for the nay sayers
That Dolan Speech was terrible .
Dolan is an inarticulate, unintelligent buffoon. There should have been no expectation that he could get up on a podium and orate to a crowd at anything other than -6.5 BPM level.
James Dolan makes Leon Rose seem like an inspiring, moving speaker.
I hope Hal’s speech in October will be better than Dolan’s.
I mean the only thing I wanted to hear from Dolan was “and by the way, I was talking about going in 3 times in 5 years!”
If Brock Aller doesn’t give the FO keynote, this parade was a waste
Dolan gave better effort to Carton
Veselka is overrun with Knicks fans right now. Amazing vibes.
Here’s a fascinating fact. Brown filled in for Kerr in the 2017 playoffs, and they went 11-0 in those games. So he coached two of the longest consecutive game streaks in NBA playoff history!
It is hilarious how they keep trying to avoid his cursing, and he gets the cursing in anyways.
Name dropping Porzingis was the mayor’s biggest misstep.
That and leaving Marcus Morris out of the extended credit list 😉
The Brunson discourse now on social media is so funny now that he has a title . Fake ass media
Captain with the middle finger to the pundits
I know that that was extemporaneous, but that was not a good speech by Brunson. I mean, whatever, he’s an amazing player, he doesn’t need to be a great speaker, but yeesh.
Brendan o Connor kind of underrated . Make towns and Brunson work on defense
Key to the city and you never play must be nice
Dillon Jones is wearing a Dillon Jones graphic tee.
Wait , why didn’t more people speak? No towns??? , hart or bridges ???
I have an advance copy:
“Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone will be returning.”
Very surprised that Bridges got a better slot that Hart.
Never meet your heroes.
He cost more
I think we underestimate just how much shit Brunson has heard and buried deep down to use as motivation.
Very cute approach by Keys on this tune.
Great event, and Breen is the best!
Hilarious piece by Tom Haberstroh about why the Knicks’ title deserves an asterisk with it.
https://www.tomthefinder.com/p/new-yorks-title-needs-an-asterisk
Tom the guy who picked the Spurs to win the series …Haaa
Haberstroh: Spurs in 5. Wemby, Finals MVP. I’ve backed them all season long, and there’s no turning back now. The piranhas of the Spurs backcourt should give Brunson more fits than he’s had all postseason, and that’ll free up Wembanyama to wreak havoc in the paint. Wemby stands to be the youngest Finals MVP since Magic in 1980”.
This is what he wrote before the series started. No need to switch up now.
https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/nba-finals-2026-knicks-vs-spurs-predictions-who-wins-here-are-our-championship-picks-020900019.html
Haberstroh does this schtick every year and most of his sports takes are clickbait anyway. I find him hard to read/listen to.
My feet hurt lol.
I was watching the parade from Greenwich St, like 30 yards from Battery Pl, where thankfully, the parade began. Had to tippy-toe (I’m only 5’8) and zoom in to get footage.
But I saw the floats. I saw the parade. Somewhat barely, but I saw it. Saw the city in literally all blue and orange.
I saw it, with my own eyes. Sorry I missed those of you that were there, even though it was indeed buttcrack-tight in there.
everyone gets some in communism – I kid
Tyler Kolek mistaken for a fan:
https://x.com/espn/status/2067670244915585058?s=20
That Mamdani speech was incredible.
Unfortunately, watching on a delay bit me in the rear, as my recording cut off right after Mike Brown’s speech. I’ve seen a clip of Brunson talking about the haters. Is there anything else I should try to chase down on social media later?
No, that’s pretty much it, Alan. Those two speeches were the only notable ones (and only one of them was notable for being a GOOD speech).
This happened … lol
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yQroVhisX1Y&ra=m
Found the ABC stream archived on youtube. Yeah, Mamdani’s speech was fantastic (the line about Alvarado growing up in public housing really got to me, even more than all the Remember Some Guys listing), and Brown’s was really good. The rest? Ranging from Meh-to-Bad.
Very sad about Gkhenman. I wish he had a few more weeks.
I mean, Brunson was literally clotheslined near the end of Game 5 in front of the refs with no call. He got a lot of haterz to (not) address. I think he’s earned some grace.
Rest in Peace gkhenman. Thanks Hubie for letting us all know about his passing. Let’s pour one out for him as we celebrate.
Oh sure, I’m not, like, “Get him!” Just that he gave a bad speech. It’s no big deal. Some dudes aren’t good at this stuff.
Sorry to hear about Gary’s passing. I completely missed the earlier mention as I’ve only been skimming through.
He was a meaningful contributor here and I hope any other absentee posters find themselves in good health and enjoying the parade.
Brunson’s generally not a great speaker. Super charismatic on the court when he’s doing his thing, way understated and reserved off it.
Speaking of which, my (mostly) all-Knicks video mailbag published today, and it included discussion of what SVU role Brunson should play, and also which Knick, past or present, would I be happiest to see play themselves in a TV guest spot:
https://www.whatsalanwatching.com/ask-alan-almost-all-knicks-edition/
I’m still enjoying Thunder reddit:
RIP gkhenman
They won every game he sang the national anthem for, so I get it. I like when teams stick with their less famous guys in the big time moments.
Like (and I know it’s different, since he was a legit star when he first started doing it) the Lakers rolling with Jeffrey Osborne for decades.
The NYPD racial profiling of Tyler Kolek was hilarious
Poor Tyler.
RIP Gary. Always loved his takes and I am also sorry he didn’t get to see this.
Desus on PTFO had a nice comment on his parents, what big Knicks fans they were, and how much they would have enjoyed this.
And DRed, wherever you are, we miss you…
Exactly. That’s why I was so convinced he’d be willing go over it next year. If they are contenders again, great. If the wheels start falling off and they know they are going to have make some more significant changes they can make some moves like Boston did and then retool.
Kind of like Matthew McConaughey
Yeah, they could trade KAT for a guy on his rookie deal and take $61M off the 2027-28 payroll. Or OG and take 50-ish off. Stipulated. Not exactly sure what that’s supposed to be showing or demonstrating.
Also, I cannot believe Mamdani shouted out Renaldo Balkman. He has my vote locked down just for that.
Hope Dolan doesn’t make any personnel decisions based on whether or not specific players go to visit the White House.
The parade did very little for me.
The stress and joy of the playoffs, OG’s shot, Brunson’s epic 4th quarter and game and ultimately the title I’ll never forget. But I had already come down from the high of it all by this morning.
I’m ready to talk draft, summer league, second apron, the Celtics changing styles on offense, where is Gianis going, will the T-Wolves get a high level PG and join the top group, will OKC add a better second option than Holmgren or Williams, will James go to Golden State, will the Lakers wise up and let James go, can Orlando stay healthy and add another shooter/scorer, will the Pistons add a scorer, will the Hornets keep developing and add another piece, will Haliburton and the Pacers be the same, will the Nuggets finally make a smart move while Jokic is still great….
They can’t have all of Josh Hart, Deuce, Mitch, and Shamet on the team and be under the SA in ’27-28. So they need to choose which ones in that group they want to keep, now, in 2026. There’s no avoiding it, no punting it.
There’s no “Dolan doesn’t really mean it.” He lurched at the reason why by trying to blubber something evincing his surely superficial thoughts that the SA is bad in basketball terms, but then got right to the real reason when he said he’s not writing a check for SA dollars.
You were probably secretly rooting for the Spurs.
Every top team is going to run into the same problem and tough decisions.
The 2nd apron rises with the salaries and if you choose to drop back below it and punt and retool for a year, you should do so depending on why you think you were failing at that time. That could be any number of players and probably NOT a significant amount of money .
Sprortrac has the contracts and the projected apron levels down to the dollar, years into the future. It’s easy to find. There’s no need to guess about whether or not it’s a “significant amount of money.”
They’re $19.7 million under the ’27-’28 SA, assuming they exercise Josh Hart’s 22M club option for that year. That covers only seven contracts. No Deuce, no Alvarado. Market level contracts for Mitch and Shamet this summer would eat up virtually all of that $19.7, unless they take one year deals would would then defeat the premise of “market level contract.”
Dolan was mumbling so much that I didn’t even catch his bizarre shot at Mamdami.
The passing of Stacey King reminded me of a moment from one of the Bulls’ championship ceremonies from the first threepeat. King took the mic, quoted “Go New York, go New York, go,” then added, “They gone.”
I know in the age of social media, these multiple talk show appearances, etc., hearing all of them speak at City Hall would have been somewhat unnecessary. And some guys like OG would probably need to have their teeth pulled to even consider it. But I would have enjoyed speeches from any or all of KAT, Hart, and native son Alvarado, you know?
Dolan was truly bizarre. What a sad human being.
I know some people who have worked for Dolan and have heard stories secondhand from others; as bad as he looks in public, he’s worse in private.
As to the parade I mean, honestly, I don’t have a whole lot of hope that I’m going to get much interesting from pro athletes and so it’s impossible to be disappointed on that front.(*) These guys are plucked out of society at like age 11 and from then on are single-minded in pursuit of athletic success and riches. That isn’t going to lead to a lot of well-rounded people, particularly among the group that actually succeeds in making the big money.
The ’73 guys weren’t even allowed to play college basketball their freshman year, but instead were required to take the year to get integrated into college and social life before then loading up the schedule with sports. They didn’t play basketball quite as well as the modern guys, but as people, they were quite a bit more well-rounded.(**)
These guys aren’t Willis, they aren’t Lucas, they aren’t Phil, they aren’t Clyde, they aren’t Debusschere. Times change. Is what it is.
(*) Big college football fan growing up, went to best academic school in a big football conference, happened to get assigned to the dorm and floors where the freshman and sophomore players football players lived, illusions ended at 17. No change since.
(**) Some of this is the natural capitalist division of labor, which magnifies as time passes. Capital has no interest in well-roundedness. The development of professional and now college sports demonstrates this principle perfectly.
Just watched the speeches.
Mamdani may not being in KB level of diehard Knicks fandom but He Definitely KNOWS and seems to care about the Knicks A LOT.
Dolan needs psychedelic drugs, military workouts and tai chi walking in his life.
Given Dolan’s lack of impulse control , I am going to wait until Leon, Brock, and WWW re-explain the SA to him before wasting brain cells on Mitch ( dope truck) vs. Shamet etc.
Say what you want about Steve Cohen but if he owned this team you can be damn sure they’d be going into the second apron, and that he also wouldn’t have kept wearing that shit ass orange jacket even though the Mets’ colors are also blue and orange
Mike Brown, Kat, and Clyde should have been the only speakers. Certainly wan’t fair to have those guys follow Mamdani..
Maybe a Nova trio bit.
Dude all they have to do is trade Mitch & Landry one year after signing them.
Still wouldn’t get them under. They’re $19 and change under now, already without either of the two on the books, and owe a bare minimum of around $15 as vet minimum placeholders for the other seven contracts they have to carry.
With Deuce still to sign.
And that’s assuming an incineration/charring/punting of this year’s 1. And that Dolan actually really doesn’t mean he’s not going over at all.
“These guys aren’t Willis, they aren’t Lucas, they aren’t Phil, they aren’t Clyde, they aren’t Debusschere. Times change. Is what it is.”
There’s a lot of reasons for the differences between these guys and those guys. The times is part of it, but the personalities of the players on this team and those teams are also fundamentally different beyond the 50+ years that separate them. Their coaches also had very different personalities.
Very few athletes at that time had the freedom to speak their mind at that time, both on and off the court. Nor did they have as many opportunities to speak. Nor did what they said make it to as many eyes and ears. If Mayor Lindsay threw a parade for those ’70’s teams, chances are that all the players would have worn their Sunday best.
The discussion about this started by revolving around whether it makes basketball sense to be a perpetual SA team, but that’s been superseded by Dolan saying they aren’t going into it in any event. So we’re kind of continuing a discussion that isn’t really even a thing anymore.
The discussion now is “Who do you think should be thrown overboard,” as between five guys (*) plus this year’s 1. There’s no chance this core is staying entirely intact — again, assuming Dolan doesn’t change his mind somehow. (Never say never, but it’s extremely unlikely he will.)
(*) Six, if you include Dadiet, who only has a team option for ’27-’28.
Most of what I now know about non-Knicks players I grew up watching, beyond the big names like Wilt and Russell, was from videos I have watched on YouTube. You just didn’t get much non-print media coverage of athletes beyond the typicak pre-game/post-game sound bites. Once the parade was over, if you missed the speech live, you might at best see a clip of it on the evening news.
—
I’m in agreement with those who believe that Dolan probably can’t be trusted to articulate what Leon will do (or be allowed to do) in coming days, beyond in very general terms.
I guess we will not have to wait very long to find out, though. That’s one of the things about winning a championship…the time window between the end of our season and the draft/free agency is so much shorter than we are used to. Last year we lost to indiana on May 31 and that was the longest we had played in over 2 decades. Now the draft is in a few days and free agency starts in less than 2 weeks. It’s kind of disorienting!
I think we’re going to lose Deuce to what Pat Riley called the disease of more.
I hope I’m wrong but he probably wants to start and make money.
Your whole thesis is wrong. You can bring everyone back and decide next summer. You can even decide the summer after that.
You’re suggesting we should panic today for a tomorrow that may never come.
It’s very simple. Which is better:
A. Having Mitch & Landry next year
B. Not having them but being able to use the tpmle and aggregate salaries.
The answer is clear
I saw a great line about Dolan on social media. “And when he tells the story, he will add, ‘And then everyone cheered!'”
You’re vastly underestimating how tight the ’27-’28 numbers are.
But in any event, all this talk has been premised on being able to go over the SA this year and as things stand now, that’s not going to be allowed. We’ve been discussing something that isn’t a thing anymore. Unless the players agree to extremely team friendly contracts (and they incinerate/char/punt the 24th pick), they can’t even fit in Mitch and Shamet (and obviously not Clarkson) this summer.
If Dolan’s edict stands, they have to make who goes overboard decisions now. Forget next year.
Mitch was, uh, pretty bad in the playoffs. He did get the one monster rebound. I mean, I love the big goofy guy and I understand the whole bit about the apron and how we could essentially circumvent the salary cap by paying him, but… he wasn’t really all that good.
We’d need a backup center who could play a credible 12 MPG, play some defense and grab some rebounds, maybe make a free throw every now and then. Seems like maybe that’s a piece you could find somewhere.
Landry was a vet min signing, and while it might be difficult to replicate that this offseason, perhaps that wouldn’t be impossible either. Point is, we have the chrome and leather now: Brunson, KAT and OG were more than good enough to win a chip. The nuts and bolts are easier to find.
I’d spend the $5.7 on 24 and then fit in whatever can be fit in after that. (Which isn’t much.) I might even put Diawara higher on the list than Mitch or Shamet.
I’d be surprised if that’s actually what happened.
IF. If, E, if. You talk as if pearls of shiny truth are the only things that come out of that sad sack of shit’s mouth. When instead most of what he says is bloviating dung.
It’s very Old-School Pags. And just when he got better…
Go over the 2nd apron this year. If things don’t implode, go over the next year. After that, KAT comes off the books and we’re fine.
Yeah I’d love to keep Shamet and Mitch but….
1. Our sudden dominance in the playoffs happened bc the starting five finally figured it out. All of last season and most of this season our starting five was a net negative when on the floor but they unlocked the code and that’s what led to them dominating. And our starting five is all back next year.
2. Mitch excels at defense and O boards but he also has clear downside and he wasn’t this huge difference maker in the playoffs. Huk could be ready to step into that role or we could draft someone who, on the whole, could be as good or better than Mitch.
3. Shamet will be hard to replace but deuce had a bad playoffs. But before his injury he was having a great season. There’s nothing that says Deuce would have a bad playoffs next year.
4. If they opt to keep Diawara, he could be the guy who had the biggest shot at really catapulting to the next level.
5. There will be vets that will want to ring chase and join our team.
6. Leon is the master of the in season trade that gives us what we need.
In conclusion, I’m not taking off the rose colored glasses and saying we can’t repeat if we lose Mitch and Shamet.
No, I’m not.
I’m correctly estimating how variable they are bc 1 million things could happen between now and then.
We don’t need to panic bc of a column in a spreadsheet.
E must be so relieved to finally have something negative to latch onto and pound into submission.
Mitch led the playoffs with a 23.1 ORB% and 22.9 TRB%.
He grabbed 8 Orebs/36 against the Spurs.
In the last game of the finals alone, Mitch grabbed 6 offensive boards.
I’m not so sure.
The Spurs are paying Luke Kornet $10M/year and they couldn’t play him 12 mpg without getting run off the court.
And we need a lot more than 12 mpg bc KAT’s always in foul trouble.
A $6.1M TP-MLE isn’t going to get you much in the way of nuts and bolts.
A healthy Deuce could probably replace Shamet, but you’re staking a lot on Hukporti making a leap, a rookie C being immediately impactful, or an end of career vet coming and not falling off a cliff.
We 100% know we have a championship caliber roster, why gamble on a worse one?
Last year it got us Yabu. And he was top of his class.
We’re probably not going to replace Mitch with the next Niemis Queta if we let him walk. We’re not even going to be able to get someone like Kornet. We’d most likely replace him with someone like Yabu.
It’s suicidal.
Mitch shut Wemby down TWICE at the end of Game 2, and played well on Wemby in Game 5, as well, after Towns fouled out. They were literally bringing the guy in for defense on all of the most important end of game possessions. He was still a major part of what made the team great in the playoffs.
And this was subpar Mitch, playing with a broken finger and mental health issues.
He was dominant in the ‘23 & ‘25 playoffs.
Mitch is a quandary. He can absolutely wreck some teams in a way that is immensely valuable. And against other teams, he can be a negative if he plays too much. And, you know, foul shots.
I’d keep him for the wrecking, and because it’s Mitch, but unless Huk makes a nice leap we may need a back-up center who can play minutes.
Mitch also had a .423 TS% in the Finals, with a -36 plus/minus. If you foul him while the Knicks are in the bonus it’s essentially an automatic turnover. I’d rather have him back than not, but he had a pretty dodgy playoffs overall.
Which raises the point that he’s not really A+ in the reliability department. Maybe next time he punches something and can’t play at all.
But all he costs is James Dolan’s money, so I’d still rather have him back than not.
I am over the moon that we won a chip!
But I don’t have a lot of confidence in this exact rotation repeating. Can we? Definitely! In fact, there might still be juice to squeeze out of this roster! I just don’t think it will happen.
Frankly, I was not all that impressed with any of our opponents, particularly in the EC. the Spurs’ 3 best players were 22, 21, and 20. I think fortune smiled on us the way it does for many champions.
I agree that not going into the second apron is likely to hurt unless someone surprises., either a kid on the roster, a draft pick, or a vet’s minimum type. Certainly not unimaginable, but definitely iffy.
I’m not that concerned about replacing Shamet or Clarkson. Deuce is under contract, and Alvo has a player option that he well might exercise. Mitch is the real dilemma as I see it. The minutes restrictions, load management, and FT shooting don’t help his cause. Neither does the mysterious hand injury on the eve of the finals. He averaged 13mpg in the most important series in forever. Investing in a guy with a baked-in minutes maximum when you have a foul-prone guy in front of him is not without risk. But I’d be fine with something in the 3yr/$40-45M range…just not sure whether that would be enough to keep him if there’s as much interest out there as is rumored. Maybe the FTs and hand thing are enough to keep the demand down.
Maybe Mitch will be the only Knick to go to the White House and that’ll convince Dolan to go into the second apron
I suppose that Huk would be the backup C by default if they decide to let Mitch walk. I kinda like the kid! He’s definitely not Mitch, but he’s a pretty good rebounder and rim-protector and might be able to do a decent job of backing up KAT without the minutes restriction stuff.
He played 13mpg in large part because the player ahead of him led the playoffs in BPM and was 2nd in EPM. He wasn’t limited to 13mpg.
If you really look at Tyler’s season versus Alvarado’s, they were pretty similar. Maybe Tyler played a lot more garbage time, but he might be able to handle those minutes next season should Alvie opt out. And Tyler is 24 versus Alvarado’s 27.
Obviously my preference is to bring back everyone, but that’s maybe where I’d start if this 2nd apron stuff is real.
Then you pretty much have to let Shamet go. Between Deuce, Hart, maybe Dadiet, and whatever vet mins we bring in, I think we can cover his minutes.
And finally, as problematic as Mitch can be, no one can really replicate what he does. I think we saw in these playoffs that 80% of Mitch will hurt you compared to 100% actual Mitch.
I would sign him to a slight raise and fill out the rest with vet mins and rookies.
It’s weird. Mitch has so many glaring flaws and risks to resign but his plusses are so through the roof that he is kind of a huge wild card that opposing teams can never really game plan for.
Whereas Shamet was just a fucking flame thrower for three rounds of the playoffs and is solid all around but I feel like you could maybe replace him easier with Deuce stepping up or hitting on another vet or you draft lucky.
So I’d probably prioritize resigning Mitch over Shamet.
The best would be we resign Mitch and then the league changes the rules to discourage hack a Mitch and suddenly that weakness disappears.
I’m honestly expecting the Knicks to make some sort of small move to improve cap flexibility and deal with the possibility of three new players from the draft that they don’t have roster spots for. I suspect they already have an idea what they will do and Dolan knows it which is why he was confident they won’t go over the second apron.
I don’t care if the team never repeats.
I will care if Dolan breaks up the team we love for no logical reason.
Man, if you guys think Mitch’s warts are bad wait til you see Hukporti average 13 mpg in the playoffs
Let’s say we could bring in Andre Drummond on a vet min.
That would probably be fine. Maybe he doesn’t give you quite as much rebounding or defense as Mitch, but he has become at least a somewhat respectable FT shooter so you can’t foul him, and shockingly he can even shoot the 3 now. And he might be both available for the vet min, and willing to chase a ring.
That wouldn’t be a massive downgrade, I don’t think.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather have Mitch, who only costs James Dolan’s money. Fuck James Dolan’s money. I’d rather Guitar Jimmy spend it on a player I already like. But if Dolan decides to be an asshole, Drummond on a vet min would be at least one possible option that wouldn’t kill your chances of repeating.
“The Eastern Conference remains wide open…”
What is the matter with stupid pundits? I know, I know, they’re stupid. But we just set record after record riding roughshod over the Eastern Conference throughout the playoffs, and then repeatedly humiliated Wembitch and his little gang of pantywaisted thugbunnies.
Maybe everyone heard E saying we had to tear it down to the studs or something…
The question remains:
Why would we shoot ourselves in the foot like this?
Next year is the first year of Brunson’s pay cut. And we’re going to reward him by saving money?
1. The best thing would be for Mitch to stay. It only costs James Dolan’s money. Money that I don’t care about.
2. James Dolan is a stupid asshole, so if he decides not to spend the money, there’s not a whole lot anybody can do about it.
3. A player like Andre Drummond or others like him might be a reasonable contingency plan. If James Dolan decides to be an asshole, as is his wont, perhaps there are solutions that wouldn’t kill you.
4. Maybe he’ll decide not to be an asshole, and he’ll go into the second apron. Which would be great! But if he doesn’t, how much worse would we be with vet min Drummond? Probably not a whole lot worse.
5. Maybe the actual Drummond wouldn’t be available, which means you gotta rummage around in the vet min reject bin some more. And maybe you wouldn’t get somebody as good as Drummond.
I think it would be worse by a lot. To the point that if we had Drummond instead of Mitch we would have lost to the Spurs quite easily. So it’s basically championship determining.
That’s insane to think that. Mitch was -36 in his minutes.
I’d say Mitch had two outstanding plays in the series: the rebound and pass to Shamet at the end of game 5, and the contest of one of Wemby’s shots at the end of game 2. Not the final shot though. The last shot of game 2, Wemby got a clean look and just bricked his shot.
Mitch’s best game was game 5, and he was a good contributor in that game. For the rest of the series his shifts were mostly poor.
Huk turns the ball over more times per 36 minutes than Jose Alvarado despite the fact that all Huk does is set picks and hand the ball off to another player… sometimes that player is even on his own team.
Huk doesn’t seem all that playable to me, just doesn’t process NBA game speed well enough to really be considered as a rotation piece. You’d need a proper replacement for Mitch because Huk ain’t it. He’s down in the Jericho Sims tier.
Alvarado plays defense. Kolek does not.
I remain staunchly pro-Mitch. -36 is ugly thiugh.
What kind of plus minus did the starters put up in the playoffs and finals?
Serious question that I’d rather post in the next thread but I will be volunteering at the US Open so won’t have the ability:
The conversation seems to imply that Leon wants to go into the second apron and is being overruled by Dolan, who called going into the second apron “suicidal.” How do we know that Leon even wants to, or thinks it would be sound strategy? Do we know what Brock Aller’s thoughts are on the matter?
We have ample evidence that with Dolan it’s never just about the money, or about the money at all. But with Leon, Aller, Wes, and Perrin, we are mostly in the dark because they don’t say shit. But what they all seem to have in common is that they don’t give a shit about allegiance to fans, and to a lesser degree, to the players. I doubt that they are just gonna run it back because of “feel good” reasons, although who knows?
I would love to know what people here think about what Leon and Brock think about going into the 2nd apron.
Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if Leon, Brock, and Dolan were all on the same page. Brock is the one of best cap-ologists out there, if not the best. He has pulled shit out of his ass that no one here expected to squeeze deals through, most recently at the trade deadline. Not that all have panned out (Hi iHart!) but it seems that the prime directive has been “Thou shalt not go into the 2nd apron under any circumstances!”
Put differently, is it possible that they had a plan for next year that was not going to be affected by whether this team won a championship or not?
One other wrinkle: we all know that an expansion draft in the next 2 years is a near certainty. Assuming that the Knicks can only protect 8 players, might that be a consideration in the cap management conversation going forward? Might they leave a higher-salaried unprotected?
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