News & Blogs
Knicks’ free agency: 5 Mitchell Robinson replacements to watch if he leaves – The New York Times
REPORT: Charlotte continues to hit the reset button – Posting & Toasting
REPORT: Knicks, Celtics set to enter Pelicans’ center sweepstakes – Posting & Toasting
SEE IT: Knicks’ OG Anunoby throws out first pitch to Mets legend Jose Reyes – SNY
New Knicks Rumors on Mitchell Robinson, Landry Shamet Free-Agency Contract Buzz After NBA Title Win – BleacherReport
NBA champion Knicks to be honored with NYC streets named for entire team – New York Daily News
Shamet To Sign With Knicks!! |MItch Resigning With Knicks Unlikely – Knick of Time
BREAKING NEWS: KNICKS TO RE-SIGN LANDRY SHAMET! (REACTION) – Knicks Film School
Breaking Knicks News; Landry Shamet Returns To The Knicks 4 yr / $24 Million | KFTV Reacts – Knicks Fan TV
Knicks Free Agency Preview with CP The Fanchise | The Putback with Ian Begley – Begley Putback
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233 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.06.30)”
Happy four-year anniversary of Jalen Brunson signing as a free agent with the New York Knickerbockers!
Before we get back into free agency/second apron mania, a Question of the Day:
What are some of your favorite Brunson plays prior to this championship season?
Clear favourite is the crossover that got him about 8 feet of space to bury the Pistons last year.
I think the move is to sign Kayil to a 2-way and free up a spot for Huk. It gets us $5M for the TP-MLE out of a possible $6M. Probably enough for the level of Cs out there.
So:
Starters
1. KAT
2. OG
3. Hart
4. Mikal
5. Brunson
2nd Unit
6. Deuce
7. Alvarado
8. Shamet
9. Diawara
10. $5M Center or
11. Huk
End of Bench
12. Kolek
13. Dadiet
14. Nickel
2-way McCullar
2-way Dillon Jones
2-way Jack Kayil
EB, why sign Nickel to an NBA contract rather than Kayil?
Including trade candidates. Begley noted that we inquired about a Center who is currently under contract.
Now that Carton has suggested we’re ok going over the second apron for a year, I think these are more likely backup plans in case Mitch wants to leave.
Doesn’t matter financially which one. My thinking was that Nickel is older and his shooting should make him a bit more plug and play. Kayil might need some time to polish his game.
Worth noting that on the same ESPN segment where Vince Goodwill suggested some silly thing that I’ve already forgotten, Monica McNutt suggested that Mitch may want more than the Knicks can offer in a basketball sense. She said something like “he’s been a star in his role, but he might want to move on and have a bigger role somewhere.”
Monica is a thoughtful person and probably has some insight into Mitch. That might have been the key piece we’re all overlooking.
Hubert giveth, Hubert taketh 🤭
And if that’s what leads him to leave, you accept it and move on, and then you have no reason to want to go over the apron this year. I’d be sad to see him go, but that’s a perfectly understandable reason to lose a piece of a championship team.
I think there might be reasons on both sides that suggest that it isn’t going to work out. Mitch probably pissed our mercurial owner off with the mysterious hand injury on the eve of the finals, and said owner has also been watching him brick FTs in critical games all playoffs, which may not bother the more astute observer because of how he makes up for it, but could really rankle a shallow thinker like Dolan. He might be sort of saying, if we go over the second apron, it’s not gonna be to overpay for this guy.
On Mitch’s side, he clearly has some mental health struggles, and has also said some curious stuff in his social media posts over the years and recently (the “cardio” comments from the past sort of suggest he want’s a bigger role with more freedom to “create” and shoot. He probably doesn’t like getting load managed and getting yanked from games for his FT issues.
Obviously this is all speculation, but I do think it’s more complicated than just the money.
I of course love Monica but that feels very backfilled. All of the reliable reporting indicates the same thing: the front office wants to go into the second apron to keep the team together, but Dolan got it in his head somehow that keeping your prime age, championship team together is “suicide” even if there are no meaningful upgrade opportunities in the alternative.
That could be deuce next year too
I suspect if Deuce isn’t willing to extend this summer at a number Leon and Aller can live with, he will be traded, either in the offseason or by the deadline. Mitch would be the only important player this FO could potentially lose to free agency.
Piggybacking on Z-Man’s thoughts – Mitch’s departure is probably inevitable based on the totality of his issues. We need a player who can be healthy, a solid lengthy rebounder/defender, and neutral offensive contributor for 2 months in the Spring of 2027. That’s it. Mitch gives you 1 out of 3. Of course, that 1 is world-beating. The Knicks can try now or wait until mid-season to fill this role.
100%
I agree with the premise that whoever we get to replace Mitch as a primary backup is going to be a downgrade, and more of one situationally in the playoffs than over the. course of the season. As I said earlier, it would be up to Leon to patch the hole as well as he can, and up to Brown to utilize the replacement as effectively as possible. Clearly, no one is going to protect the rim or rebound our misses as well as Mitch. We’ll have to make up for that in other areas and hope that it nets out.
Yeah if Mitch wants a bigger role (he was a starter at one point), I don’t think there is much we can do about that.
I do think he could play more minutes this season but, end of the day, hack a Mitch makes it really hard to play him major minutes in the playoffs. So that’s on him, unfortunately.
I’m listening right now to The Rolling Stones song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and it feels appropriate with Mitch. We may not get what we always want, but I trust with Leon we’ll get what we need.
All I gotta say is at one point we thought we might lose Diawara, Shamet and Mitch (and maybe even Alvarado). and now we might only lose Mitch. If we do Mitch, if we can sign Looney for the vet minimum and stay under the SA, then we could potentially swing for a trade at the deadline for another center if we feel we need that.
I also do think there is a real possibility we will go over the SA and keep Mitch with the understanding that KAT and Hart will re-sign/re-structure their next deals to help us go back under next year.
And if that is what ends up happening, I think the vibes could potentially be immaculate next season with everyone getting paid and being happy (well, except Deuce, but he’ll just have to show out next season).
FWIW Monica said this extremely early, before any of the reporting. I think it was the day of the parade.
I believe all the reporting was accurate and that Dolan did get it in his head. But the Carton stuff to me is an extremely clear signal that Dolan has changed his mind.
26-27 offseason nyk-only cap simulator. no trades just signings.
https://www.entropyisrude.com/knicks_cap_2026.html
I also wonder whether Mitch is a bit homesick. That was quite the reception he got in Louisiana, and he looked really happy up on that truck in his 10-gallon hat. I wonder whether the Pels would be interested in a sign-and-trade for Missi plus whatever was needed to make the money work. Not that Missi is ready for prime time, but it would be better than losing him for nothing and Mitch would be both a home-town (sort of) hero and would have an expanded role.
Here’s the Monica link:
https://youtu.be/A-AKNmFGwoI?si=oXxMukCjNT0QwmHU&t=360
pt, thanks! That tracker assumes that the first year of Alvarado’s contract is for $4.5M, couldn’t it be theoretically a bit less than that?
I stand by the idea of swapping out Dadiet for Huk and putting both rooks on the reduced minimums, freeing up around $5M for a TPMLE guy.
Question: Can the TPMLE be used for a player we sign-and-trade Mitch for (e.g. Missi)?
Hubert just reframeth.
I think we’ve gotten past the major obstacle, which is Dolan.
So what’s the hold up?
It’s either KAT or Mitch.
My guess is KAT is willing to restructure his contract bc makes a lot of sense to get $150M extra guaranteed in exchange for a slight haircut in one year.
So that leaves Mitch. This whole time we’ve assumed he wants to come back. I’m not suggesting he doesn’t, just that maybe he hasn’t decided yet.
whoa, what a cool gadget there milo…well done sir…
I think if you listen to the Carton segment, it will make more sense.
I’m sorry to make you do it, he’s insufferable and it made my ears bleed.
But this is Dolan’s mouthpiece telling everyone that we’re going to go over the second apron if KAT does his extension:
https://x.com/krispursiainen/status/2071741623914962944
And it’s led to all sorts of speculation that Dolan is actually a mad genius who contrived this whole second apron thing to get a better deal.
We should all be familiar with this playbook by now.
pt, thanks! That tracker assumes that the first year of Alvarado’s contract is for $4.5M, couldn’t it be theoretically a bit less than that?
yes i think it could turn out to be as low at $4.3 or so.
Question: Can the TPMLE be used for a player we sign-and-trade Mitch for (e.g. Missi)?
no, but there would be no need to do it because the sign and trade (via bird rights) itself creates the trade exception. but we’d have to stay below the second apron.
Mitch wanting to be closer to home makes a lot of sense too. In his heart, he is a country boy and maybe his mental health would be better if he was closer to home.
If that is the case, then best of luck, Mitch. You will always be loved here no matter what.
Maybe we could do a sign and trade with NO to get Mitch paid and get something back (and still sign Looney as a vet minimum free agent?)
More and more I do like the idea of Looney.
and, as a bonus, get to ponder the nature of entropy and how it personally affects me…
my big beef though is with gravity…just feels like everything, body included, is on a crash course with the ground…friction isn’t so wonderful either…
why can’t we all just simply float on…
Operating under the assumption that Mitch will find bigger offers elsewhere, this Kevon Looney noise actually seems pretty optimal at vet min or some portion of the TMLE?
Brown knows him well from GSW years I would imagine.
Prior to going to the Pelicans (GSW let him go which might be red flag) –
he played 74-82 games every season from 2021 through 2025 and had about as stable a production as you can get during those years — 10.1-10.8 points/36, 12.4-14.6 rebounds/36, 3.4-4 assists/36. He’s a really good rebounder with TRB% in the 19-22 range and ORB% in ~16% range (in comparison, prior to this season when Mitch really was better on the boards than the rest of his career, Mitch had TRB% in the 20% range).
The major scary thing about Looney’s statistical profile is that he basically forgot how to shoot the basketball outside of 3 feet but that shouldn’t be anything new for us lol.
He’s only 29 years old if you can believe it…
but it feels like he could give us 85% of Mitch’s production (and is a better passer and free throw shooter) for much less $. I hate to see Mitch go but if Looney is healthy then that’s a pretty good pivot IMHO.
Hard for me to know what Mitch is thinking, but does he really want to go from a championship team with a legit chance of repeating to a perennially awful team( Pels)?
I like the idea of Diabate — and not just because he shares a name with a character on Pluribus — but
1)We’d have to give up assets to get him, and I’m not sure how excited Charlotte would be about Dadiet plus a bunch of seconds. (Or maybe their lack of PGs might make them interested in Kolek plus a bunch of seconds?)
2)He’s in the same contract situation as Deuce. So we’d have to do this dance again by either the trade deadline or next offseason.
But, again, damn the torpedoes, go for it while the core is all together and still in their primes, etc.
That’s the most important part, because Mitch is a human who we love. I want him to be healthy and happy more than I want him to be a Knick.
His mental health post came after two games against the Cavs where he was 2-10 from the line. Hack-a-Mitch grinded game 1 to a halt and contributed to the Cavs 21 pt lead, and it led to a reduced role in game 2.
It could have been related. We’ve seen links between free throws and mental health before. It plagued Nick Anderson. And it made Ben Simmons quit basketball.
Let’s be honest: it’s kinda brutal watching him go through it. If you have any empathy you can sense how painful it must be for him. I would not blame him one bit if he just wants to go to a shitty team like the Kings or Pelicans, have fun, make money, and just be happy.
pivoting turns a dead end in to another path towards possible success…
we (leon and company) can do this…
just need to win another 2 titles in the next 4 years to make the new york knicks universe right…
Back to the Hukporti thing:
all this armchair gm’ing stuff is making me tired…just woke and ready to nap already…sure, it will all be okay…
Mitch positives: Elite offensive rebounder, strong defender both at the rim and midrange, sets great picks, much stronger than he was as a rookie.
Mitch negatives: FT%, 3Pts, durability and usage.
The first two negatives are obvious. Hack-a-Mitch (I don’t know why Mitch-mauling never caught on) is crippling and he’s never attempted a 3pt shot and I haven’t seen him take anything more than a baby jumper for years so he doesn’t stretch the floor. The third negative is the biggy. He can’t play back-to-back, odds are that he’s going to miss time, he can’t play big minutes.
The second apron gives the Knicks an opportunity to blame the loss of a fan favorite on a bad CBA but the front office might feel like it’s best to move on from him.
I didn’t mention the emotional issues because we just don’t know but I worry about that too. I want him to be happy and a big pile of cash will go a long way.
Could the Knicks potentially let Huk go too and go after 2 veteran bigs in FA/trade? Like grab Looney and someone else like Richards? So get the more playmaking Looney but another more defensive/bruiser type who would be an upgrade over Huk?
It’s a moot point, Alan, since the QO wasn’t offered. My answer is: the most important thing is that he signs, so I’d rather that he take the QO than risk losing him, but my question back is: if he is offered the QO does he have to accept it? Or can he decline it and become a RFA?
It’s a moot point, Alan, since the QO wasn’t offered. My answer is: the most important thing is that he signs, so I’d rather that he take the QO than risk losing him, but my question back is: if he is offered the QO does he have to accept it? Or can he decline it and become a RFA?
no he doesn’t have to do either right away. the qo sits out there and he is (would have been) an rfa and he can accept it any time or decline by signing an offer sheet.
I mean, if he got a substantiive offer as an RFA (say, anything much higher than the minimum) I doubt we would match anyway and it might tie up our cap sheet for these critical days, so it sounds like they did the right thing. I hope he wants to come back, it seems like a great opportunity for him.
“…so I’d rather that he take the QO than risk losing him, …”
One thing we do know about Leon is that he does care about the players as people. No way he let the QO lapse without Huk knowing exactly what the future plan is.
Can someone catch me up on what not picking up Huk’s QO means for the team? I’m at my re-twist appointment it’s too awkward for me to scroll through and find out if someone already broke it down
I wonder if anyone can calculate how much more Mitch can make from sponsorships and other opportunities (speaking, workshops, etc.) in NY, vs. any city in the league other than LA.
It means we can pay him less money and have more flexibility.
Part of me needs to know what a re-twist appointment is, and another part of me is very scared of knowing.
BE I think we have ample evidence that Leon operates in good faith with players and agents. In fact, it might be his best quality as a POBO. WWW as well.
He also highly values team chemistry. That’s why I don’t see him bringing in a guy like Ayton, even if he might be a better player on paper than Looney, who seems like he would fit right in with the culture here.
hair
Mitch could make loads from sponsorships (Berman, relax, relax). But that is clearly not who he is. Unless you want to go the Steve Ballmer route.
LOL!
I have locs
Thanks to Poindexter (and Hubert) re: the re-twist. It still sounds like it might be painful, but not nearly as painful as what I was initially imagining. 🙂
$13 mil a year seems like maybe a lot for Rob Williams.
When healthy, RWIII is at least as good as Mitch and maybe better.
And yet 13 million a year for Mitch would be a slight pay cut.
If anything, that might be a good sign of what he can expect to make and if its 13 million, I think we should match that (for 3 years).
I’m seeing 3/44, so 14.6.
I’m more surprised by the three years than the 14.6.
It’s essentially the NTPMLE so definitely in Mitch’s ballpark. He’ll probably get a similar deal and deserve it.
It would really suck if he goes to the fucking Celtics. Athough he’d be kinda redundant with Queta.
If the market is:
Porzingis – $20M
Williams – $14.6
Nurkic – $11M
Sharpe – $10M
then I’d say Mitch’s market value has been established as between $14-16M/year.
Whats good fellas! New poster but longtime lurker. Dont know how to use quote feature yet..maybe someone can help me.. but heres my take on how we fill out rest of roster.
The smarter move is to sign both Nickel & Kayil to standard NBA contracts rather then 2 way contracts since 2nd round pick minimum deals start at 1.3 million. Vet is Minimum 2.4 million. Signing both Kayill and Nickel saves you an extra 2.1 million under the 2nd apron. That brings us to 11 players with 6.4 million left to fill 3 roster spots to get us to 14 player minimum. There’s no way we use the TPMLE under any circumstance which hard caps us and we have to fill out 3 spots at vet min for 2.4 million. The Math simply aint Mathing or am I wrong somewhere?
LeBron leaving Laker. AKA L-L-L
The LeBron thing is going to be fascinating. Since he left Miami, he’s been very clear that he expects to be paid as much of his value as is allowable
Under the CBA. Feels like he can’t do that now if he wants to win. So how much of a pay cut is he willing to take?
Will LeBron take the veterans minimum?
Lebron to NY for TPMLE who says no
“Lebron to NY for TPMLE who says no”
Leon. Thank God we have Leon.
I think Leon would roll out the red carpet for LeBron James.
moot point, though. seems like he’s been headed to the warriors ever since Draymond opted out. Not sure how Porzingis fits into it, though. Maybe he’s getting traded to the wizards for AD?
Seems a shame they’re leaving Klay in Dallas.
I wonder what salary LeBron gets on the open market? He fell off quite a bit this past year, but that’s still a good player.
Maybe a cap space team like Brooklyn would give him $20+ mil per year? Honestly I think Golden State would be a waste of time for him. That team is cooked. He’d be better off leaving an imprint on a young team.
Dang, Jock Landale got 1 year for 14 mil??
Landale to the Hawks for one year, $14M.
That takes a strong Mitch suitor off the board.
But LeBron’s decision makes the Lakers a serious threat. I believe they can blow past the MLE now.
LeBron on the Cavs would be extremely annoying because I think her actually make them better. Can they live with admitting every iteration of their team, ever, without him has failed?
LeBron going to Golden State is like a movie where a bunch of semi-retired jewel thieves crew up one more time for one last big score. “All right, you son of a bitch, I’m in!”
Steph, Butler, LeBron, Draymond, Horford, Porzingis and whatever other scrubs are hanging around over there. I’m actually all for that.
I’m more worried about Kawhi to the Raptors than LeBron to the Cavs.
Timelord is a fascinating player to me and I really like his game, but that three year deal is probably going to turn out to be a mistake.
Diawara, – done – dirt cheap
Shamet, – done – cheap
Jose, – done – cheap
Now, if Leon gets KAT to commit to a 4yr -$200m exception and he convinces Mitch that his current role is ideal for him so he should sign with us AND we get back under the apron the following year while locking up the entire championship rotation vibes, – Leon should be able to take the rest of the year off.
That will be one rickety-old team.
With Luka on that team LeBron was clearly just the foreskin. The Circumcision?
you know the spurs are gonna have this one teed up for the pregame intro when the dubs roll thru
https://youtu.be/23GrEhLUF_k?is=oBApIblLm9mJfQcM
With LeBron looking to transition to a post-basketball life as a film/TV producer, he may end up looking for a situation that also has narrative appeal.
Cleveland (you can go home again) & Golden State (JK’s one last heist trope) seem to have the most cinema ready scenarios. The Knicks would have been at the top of the list were they still in search of a savior to finally get them over the hump. Thankfully, that ship left port 2 1/2 weeks ago.
If Duren went to the Lakers do we think the Pistons would look at Mitch?
I suspect they would prefer someone more dynamic but I don’t know who that guy is.
I’m just guessing but I don’t think a 42 year old billionaire athlete whose home is in LA is leaving California to go back to Cleveland. The logistics of living in LA and working in SF are very easy, and the Warriors situation is fun.
Gary Payton and especially Karl Malone may want to have a word. Love to beat that team in the finals next year.
Lebron waiting bail on LA 24h after his son’s $2.3MM contract becomes guaranteed is just amazing.
Me too. These super teams of aging stars about to retire never really work out but I honestly feel like it’s the correct way to pivot when you have a franchise player like Steph and you’re riding them out till they retire. Cause then you can completely reset and start over when they retire.
And who knows, maybe they get lucky with health and make some noise in the playoffs. I feel like even if they just win a round or two, it would make for a fun story.
Yeah and even that team had prime Kobe and still (mostly) prime Shaq.
I actually think Mitch should sign with the Lakers. That’s a great spot for him. They really need his defense and he/Luka will team up for 150 lob dunks/year. With Ayton on the roster they won’t need to overtax him with minutes.
Porzingis’ inclusion in that group seems fishy, like seeing Michael J Fox in The Expendables. He must be trade bait for someone else.
Porzingis only fits in because he’s a 30 year old with the body of a 39 year old
For AD! Wiz might actually like KP back because he had one of his best seasons as a pro there.
KP for AD doesn’t work, cap wise.
Butler for AD works, but they seem committed to Butler (as of this morning).
I don’t know, I just think the last thing a team of old guys needs is a 30 year old who misses more games than all of them combined.
I agree that the Lakers would be a great fit for Mitch. Luka would pile up lobs and Kobe assists.
Love the Expendables. Think LeBron was leaning towards this the entire time. Thats why he was talking about Oct, Nov timeframe…good chance they just sign him late and rest him first 15-20 games to start the season
howdy yeahitsmemj…hope your day is well, and good to see you getting more involved…
at some point, everyone has got a knick fan for life origin story…
above the text box are a few features:
bold text
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have fun…
Welcome!
Yeah, the math right now is that we have 11 players with just enough to sign Kayil, Nickel, and a full TP-MLE. That brings us to the required 14 player roster. The one snag is that we’d only have 2 Cs on the roster and no Huk.
I’ve been assuming in my posts that Kayil & Nickel will both get the rookie minimum deals.
oh yeah, yeahitsmemj – forgot…
if you wanna get rid of the weird rorschach pic next to your name (don’t be lazy – just do it), create a gravatar account, and try to find a cooler pic than mine…not happening…
plus, if you have some thing to promote/share link it in your KB profile…
always go the whole way…
I do hope the team figures out some way to carry a third C, because you usually end up needing one of those.
EB I believe that the TPMLE can be split between 2 players, so we can actually sign both Huk and Looney, no?
We can split it. We don’t need to for Huk because we can just sign him outright. But yes we can only use part of the MLE and then sign Huk with early bird rights.
Before signing the rookies, we have about $9M left. We have 3 or 4 roster spots.
The TP-MLE is up to $6,066,000.
The rookie minimum is $1,358,084.
The vet minimum is $2,450,000.
Huk, Nickel, or Kayil can be signed to a 2-way deal, which costs nothing against the apron.
This gentleman (Josh Valdez of Athlon Sports) on Yahoo! Sports is saying that the *only* way we can keep Mitch is to execute a trade for someone else. Given what we’ve been talking about, I’m not sure that it’s correct:
https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/knicks-1-way-retain-mitchell-003335044.html
Important note here from @IanBegley
X · JCMacriNBA
50+ likes · 27 minutes ago
Important note here from @IanBegley: “The plan entering free agency for second-round pick Jack Kayil is that he play next season overseas …
Guess I should now mention we could sign neither rookie to a big league deal.
End up with something like:
1. TP-MLE $4M
2. Huk $2.45M
3. Clarkson or other vet min $2.45M
4. Kayil overseas or 2-way or college(?)
5. Nickel 2-way
So maybe the $4M TP-MLE is a big like Looney, with Huk as the #3 guy, Nickel on a 2-way.
Maybe there’s a better use of that $2.45 vet min than Clarkson. I mean, I thank him for his service and all, but I wonder what other ring chaser might be willing to come over for that salary.
Don’t believe college is still an option for Kayil. There’s a new NCAA rule that allows auto-draft-eligible international players age 22 (or turning 22) to be stashed in college and play NCAA ball.
But Kayil won’t turn 22 until 2028.
I’m confident Leon and Dolan will bring Mitch back and go over the apron for one year. Just can’t see the rational benefit of loosing him. You can always dump him or someone else next year if KAT is stubborn and wants every penny.
I think we can bring him back too but I also don’t think “we can just dump him” or at least we shouldn’t assume that. If we have to give him 3 years to stay and he gets hurt again and he’s making 15 million or more, he might be very hard to move.
There is more than just the SA to consider with Mitch.
If KAT is stubborn and wants every penny I would call his bluff and leave him unprotected in the upcoming expansion draft or let him walk for nothing rather than sign him.
Go. Over. The. Second. Apron.
Other teams aren’t going to stop trying to get better because James Dolan misunderstood something he heard on the radio!
I thought that KAT had already indicated that he’s willing to sacrifice some salary to keep the band together. Has he rescinded that possibility even being on the table anymore?
How about Matkovic?
James Dolan essentially wants KAT to pay for Mitch’s salary himself and we’re calling KAT stubborn?
How do you ask these guys to sacrifice when it’s clear you can afford to do this but are just being a dick?
Prior to that Raptors trade the East was looking like it was going to be worse next year.
Look, we are unlikely to replace Mitch’s contribution to winning when he’s healthy and playing well, but having someone available for as many minutes as we need him and for 70+ games makes up a LOT of the gap if we get Mitch for somewhere around 59, 21, 17 and 60 like over the last 4 years. It’s not just about who is better. It’s also about being available if Towns is injured, needs a game or two off, gets in foul trouble etc…
Hukporti may or not be the right backup, but if he’s not, we can address this again begofe the deadline like with did this year with Alvarado at backup PG.
Last season could have very well been an outlier for Kawhi. Also not sure that he really has that much around him on the Raptors. Ingram is as good as gone, so the gap between the two is really not all that much except maybe on defense, but Ingram isn’t horrid on defense, either. And IQ is always hurt, and RJ is always RJ. Barnes is only sometimes Barnes.
It’s a good return for the Clippers, but I think it’s a justified, albeit steep, risk for Toronto. The upgrade from Ingram to the Kawhi we saw most recently is massive. If he’s reasonably healthy they’ll win 50+ and have one of the best playoff performers in the game.
Of course, it’s Kawhi Leonard so everything could go straight to hell. But I’d be excited as a Raptors fan.
Kawhi is still one of the best players in the league and Ingram is pretty meh
Exactly my point…let’s maximize our odds of winning back 2 back and worry about 2027-28 next summer.
There are no certainties in life, just a spectrum of probabilities.
Odds of Mitch turning into an albatross contract at $15m aav are anemic.
Hate Dolan just as much as anyone but let’s be honest KAT is not getting $70M+ aav as a free agent in today’s NBA. Think $50m is a fair amount.
Kawhi was tied for second in the league in EPM with Jokic last season . Ingram is a low impact player and the team as constructed was a First round exit . Major talent upgrade.
Another big man off the board
No we can’t. The going rate for Mitch-caliber backup Cs is much higher than the rate for tiny backup guards who don’t shoot well. This will be out of our price range just as it would be to sign outright.
The way forward is to re-sign Mitch somehow, or sign & trade him if that’s allowed. All other possibilities involve a significant step down in team depth and talent.
Fuck! Precious was my dark horse budget Mitch replacement. The possibilities are narrowing: keep Mitch or get worse.
Kawhi just turned 35. he played 2000 minutes last year. It’s a significant short-term upgrade, but the deal probably won’t age well.
I agree, but KAT has a player option for $61M in 2027-28.
Dolan’s pressuring KAT to waive it and play for $50M instead so that he use the $11M on Mitch.
It’s a bitch move, and I don’t think KAT deserves any blame if he says no.
I love this deal for Toronto. There’s obviously some injury risk with Kawhi, but Ingram is often hurt also and his contribution to winning is not on the same planet as KL. This pushes them up closer to the top tier in the east without diminishing their defense. If they get Quickley healthy they are going to be tough.
Did you read all of what I said?
We should forget about replacing Mitch’s productively per minute and focus on a backup that can handle more minutes and play in way more games. That narrows the gap. How much more valuable is Mitch if he plays between 20 and 60 games with a minutes cap relative to someone that can play 70+ and a full game when we need it. Again, maybe Huk is not the right guy, but some other player might be. There are upsides to having a less productive guy, but one that is always available.
We need a “half thumbs up” button, for sure.
It’s a really good trade for Toronto but they’re still not in our class. It’s us and OKC at the top, with San Antonio trying to break in.
And as it happens, we’re already built to defend two big wings.
A worse player who is more available would probably cost the same as Mitch, with one factor offsetting the other. We could get that in a sign & trade.
A player who is more available and costs much less would have to be a lot worse. I don’t want to get a lot worse at our most important bench role.
May I remind you sir that SA has massive internal development upside while we are looking at taking a step back in overall talent.
We won that series by just 12 points and were underdogs going in. It’s not at all clear that we are likely to be better than them, especially losing Mitch.
Pags, The Kings were one of the teams supposedly interested in Mitch, though. So it kind of takes them off the board unless they want Precious to play PF and still bring in Mitch.
I think it’s a good thing they signed Precious with regards to us keeping Mitch.
This meant nothing though.
We won by 12 points but won in 5. So next year if SA gets better and we stay the same, we can win by 8 points in 6 games. No biggie!
Why?
Quite a bit more more valuable, actually. We don’t need someone who can play back to backs in March more than someone who can guard Wemby in June.
I’m just assuming Mitch is gone.
Replacing Mitch’s peak productvity per minute is close to impossible. Getting a player that is competent and always available is not.
You are assuming Mitch is available (50-50 at best) and we are playing SA. As far as I am concerned, OKC is still the favorite to come out of the west and depending on what happens elsewhere SA could legitimately be my 3rd choice.
Ok, fair point, and we’ll do that if Mitch leaves. It seemed like you were suggesting we needed someone who can play 70+ games more than we need Mitch.
I mean we do but this is what Huk is for.
I actually think the best development for huk would be to bring back Mitch because Mitch should still be load managed during the regular season, which means Huk can play back up on those back to backs or on nights when KAT is out with an injury. With Mitch back, Huk gets more minutes than a typical 3rd string C would get and can continue to develop and possibly get some playoff minutes too.
Speaking of Precious…my son likes him at vet min a lot more than Clarkson. Wonder what everyone thinks…
A typically dinwitted take from the worst poster on Knickerblogger.
We beat them in 5, and that was with Mitch playing mostly like a plate of hot garbage.
Imagine if they had beaten us in exactly the same way. You’d say they crushed us mercilessly and that we should break up the whole team, and everybody here knows that.
Yeah, it’s like we have the perfect situation right now and it would be stupid to fuck it up.
I understand this is almost certainly the direction we’re going to go if Mitch leaves and we find a decent replacement, but I gotta tell ya, I hate it.
What makes Mitch so valuable to the Knicks is that when he plays he’s incredibly impactful–I won’t belabor the numbers, we all know them–but because of KAT, we’re not forced to play him more than he can handle from an injuries and conditioning standpoint.
Replacing him with an innings eater type like Kevon Looney or Andre Drummond does very little for me. We don’t want someone of that quality on the floor anytime KAT is able to play!
He’ll be almost 33 by the start of the following season after that. No way he gets the max at that time, so guaranteeing 200 mill for 4 years, for his age 33-36 seems to me like a smart move.
KAT can be a free agent next summer at age 31.
It’s Dolan’s job to pay Mitch, not KAT’s.
Let’s not blame KAT or call him stubborn if he doesn’t take a pay cut to finance Mitch’s deal for Dolan.
You know, while we do have the Mitch Conundrum, which sucks, it otherwise feels pretty damn good to watch these blockbuster trades from our high perch and not have to try and figure out what kind of blockbuster trade(s) we have to do in order to become a real contender…
yeah, – but that would mean he opted out.
For ages, we count playoff time. During playoff years of 32-35 to be locked in for $50m as a 2nd and sometimes even 3rd banana is very generous.
Believe me, I hear the pro Mitch arguments and understand them, but they are mssing one point. That’s what has me less panicked than most if we lose him.
“when he plays and is at 100%”
On average he plays around half the games and half the time he plays he’s recovering from the previous injury for 5 games or more.
We won the finals despite the fact that he broke his hand and was NOT good in the finals. It wasn’t because he was so impactful.
If they go over the 2nd apron, I’ll be as happy as the rest of you. I’ve been arguing for that since the start. But if we lose Mitch I’m not going to be 100% convinced that it’s all Dolan’s fault and Leon was arguing strongly to keep him. I think they both understand the downsides of not being available, not hitting FTs and mental health issues. It’s not clear cut to go over the apron and lose any flexibility in coming years for a guy that’s often hurt.
That isn’t really the case this last season though. he was load managed but stayed healthy all year.
The hand injury was unfortunate but, fact is, it was self inflicted and not basketball related.
He’s always going to be an injury risk but maybe we’ve figured out how to load manage him properly and he’s out of the woods with injuries. He really just had the one really bad one that was mismanaged and that’s why he missed so much time.
OKC has Chet, Hartenstein, Mara, and Sorber at C.
We need Mitch vs the Thunder, too! Maybe even more than vs SA
As the adage goes, the best ability is availability. The only reason we’re debating this is because, actually, the best ability might be Mitch’s OReb rate 😂
Either retain him and kick the can down the road to next off-season. Or mitigate the loss in the aggregate production from additional minutes he wouldn’t otherwise give you. Just for the love of Clyde don’t get caught in the mushy middle.
KAT is the key that unlocks the whole team, and we’re at our best when we’re playing five out or something very close to it like four out plus Josh Hart.
I don’t know if it’s possible, and it probably isn’t to be honest, but the ideal backup to KAT would be a backup C platoon: a defensive specialist and a stretch 5. You’re not going to get an outstanding version of either player given our financial constraints, but it would be ideal to be able to play a lineup that doesn’t have horrible spacing if KAT gets into foul trouble or has to sit for extended minutes.
Some of the poor numbers of the Mitch lineups in the Finals weren’t necessarily because of poor play from Mitch, but were more of a matchup problem. It allowed Wemby to sag off and play stifling help defense closer to the basket.
Even a mediocre backup-level stretch 5 probably would have mitigated some of that. I know those guys don’t grow on trees. But ideally you’d have that sort of platoon backup C scenario instead of two Temu Mitches as your backups.
“OKC has Chet, Hartenstein, Mara, and Sorber at C.”
That seems like something that they might not be planning on keeping that way. One hour until free agency begins……. Should be much more exciting than the draft was.
We should look into Moses Brown. I know killing the G-League isn’t that impressive, but he killed the G-League last year and was always decent up in the pros. Oscar Tshiebwe, same deal.
But since we are getting Mitch back, this is all moot.
Again I offer up the suggestion of New Orleans’ own Karlo Matkovic. He made $1,955,377 last season and is slated to make $2,296,271 this upcoming season. 14/9 per 36 last season, with .604/.422./.732 shooting splits.
Seeing what KAT just did to the fake extraterrestrial (Aliens aren’t real) in the Finals until the league/refs conspired in vain to take him out of the games, he would absolutely eat Chet for a light snack. It’s about what to do in those I-Hart minutes…
Every time my phone gives me an alert, I think it’s going to be about Mitch, but it keeps being about Serena Williams. She is indeed sports royalty.
Surprised we haven’t gone down the Walker Kessler path, but then again, we can’t afford him. Would love Diabate, but unlikely. Would like Cisse, too. I think Gafford is unavailable.
Moses Brown is terrible.
“Moses Brown is terrible.”
Pretty not great. We could do better, for sure.
Cisse is def somebody that interest me .
Ok you’re right, 15 rebounds (5.7 offensive) per 36 over his career is terrible. My bad.
Cisse is kind of like a lesser Mitch clone, including very bad FT shooting. He’d be cheap, though.
Very fair point on Brown, ess-dog. And he’s from Archbishop Molloy in Queens, which makes me like him even more. Wasn’t he actually on our roster for a minute?
Omer Yurtseven, anyone?
I feel like the press in general has forgotten that Kawhi gets injured a lot.
Recency bias on Kawhi. Him playing 65 games last year was like manna for the Clips, but it’s also only the second time that he’s played in more than 60 regular season games over the past nine years.
Earl Barron available?
I want Mitch back and am just going to try to be hopeful it can work out somehow.
I wonder what kind of deal Marvin Bagley is worth. He’s no Mitch but I like him more than anyone else I’ve heard mentioned.
I’ve seen Moses play up close several times in Westchester. Trust me, he’s not an NBA player. He’s had stints at like 9 different teams. If he had any potential whatsoever, someone would have figured it out by now. He makes Skapenstiff look like Jokic.
Bagley would be a decent plan f or g or something like that. I would have to defer to Leon as to whether he has the right character for this team. But he definitely has some skills.
I would say the odds are quite good that Looney is a NYK before the end of the night.
I think everyone has forgotten about that whole clippers Kawhi money outside the cap scandal
is hannah storm really the best host espn can muster for nba coverage…
no disrespect to hannah, but c’mon man, at least keep it relevant to the current decade…
no, just adam silver…
The Earl of Barron shall disregard thine sarcasm, knave.
Kam Jones was waived. I only mention that because he’s Kolek’s homie.
Bagley was pretty decent last year, even making some threes on low volume. He has never been much of a shooter and only has a .685 career FT percentage, so there’s probably not an inner Larry Bird lurking in there, but maybe that perimeter shot could be coached up a little bit. He has been a solidly efficient scorer the past few years, different look from Mitch.
Looks like the 2nd apron came in a little low. Might change the contract numbers just slightly. Shouldn’t make any player differences.
Not to be confused with Kai Jones, the player who was technically taken with The Incinerated Pick, even if we all talk like we traded away the Jalen Johnson pick. (He was taken right after Jones.)
kawhi to the raptors, who also successfully got rid of Ingram, most definitely moves the needle…
I feel like we’ve entered the matrix…refreshing multiple sites like a madman.
Man, is this really necessary? Nothing I said is dimwitted or unreasonable, and I have tried to be better. Can’t we just talk basketball?
You’re intelligent enough to know that point differential is more predictive than record, and that two of our wins were by 1 point. This was a close series between evenly matched teams.
Mitch didn’t play his best, yeah, but if he was hot garbage Hukporti would probably have been flamin’ hot garbage and that might have swung the series.
Yeah, I’d have been upset if they handed us multiple gut punch losses like we did them, but I’m on record that making the finals was everything I ever wanted, and that it ratifies this team build.
And of course the places on the curve are very different between us and SA. They have a GOAT prospect who will be 23 next season. Dylan Harper looked like one of the five best players in the series at age 20 and figures to improve a lot. We, on the other hand, are maxed out.
Given that they were competitive with us in their current state, and have massive internal upside to get better, how is it unreasonable to say they could be as good or better?
As I’ve said before, if we bring back the band I feel we are a 65-win team. That isn’t inconsistent with positing that the Spurs might be a 68 win team just from internal improvement.
Let’s be better than this, man. Proper Pags is dead. My basketball demons have been exorcised, and you’re yelling at a corpse.
But they were so mid before. Giannis moved the needle, too, but I think all Toronto and Miami did was get up to Cleveland’s level.
Meanwhile Detroit has a Jalen Duren problem, Boston has a Jaylen Brown problem, Cleveland has a James Harden problem (i.e. they have James Harden), Indiana lost its coin flip, Charlotte broke up, and Philly seems to be punting already. Our Mitch problem is pretty rich compared to the rest of the East right now.
Do teams actually care about the moratorium now? I’m bored. What the fuck?!?!
Maybe not
https://x.com/MarcJSpears/status/2072075930328346687
I just traded my lack of sleep for a strong coffee
I’d grade that trade A+
The wording doesn’t make any sense unless Detroit is going to offer him the max. But it also doesn’t make sense to say Detroit is going to match any offer if they are already offering him the maximum they can give him.
It sounds like they made him a good offer, it’s below the max, they don’t think he’s going to get a max, and they’re actively trying to ensure that by scaring teams away from offering a max.
If I’m LA I offer the max. They clearly don’t want to pay it.
Pags, just coming on to say that I very much appreciate the reform.
Players might not be as motivated to win the NBA Cup next season…
Does LA have the max to offer? I do like the fit.
This time of year is a lot more boring now that we are the BEST TEAM IN THE LEAGUE. God, I remember the double-signing of Randle & Crazy Eyes like it was yesterday… the PF grab year!
OAKAAK Ousmane Dieng, unable to crack the rotation on a team where lots of guys cracked the rotation, signs a cheap deal with Milwaukee. We signed Landry Shamet for the same price with one additional year.
OAKAAK Tim Hardaway signs a cheap one year deal with the Heat. He’s getting old but will probably knock down his shots given that Giannis will be drawing lots of defenders into the paint.
All right, Pags. Fair enough.
deandre jordan re-signing with the pels
apropos of nothing
Maybe Leon loaded up Dolan’s iPod with a bunch of Lightning Hopkins songs to distract him while the adults conduct some business. Anyway, anyone know anything about Keith Palek III on our Summer League squad?
Thanks, Raven and JK. I do care about this community and respect you guys a lot. It feels good to be seen.
Pags, we are NBA Champions, you can change your profile pic to a happy clown! 😉 🙂
I got you, Pags…
https://www.watchmojo.com/articles/top-10-darkest-seinfeld-moments
I had forgotten that Ousmane Dieng had already been traded to the Bucks, for whom he played 800 very sucky minutes. Kind of surprised they brought him back for three years, but he is only 22, and they must have seen something they liked.
Btw I think everyone’s coming at this LeBron thing the wrong way. They’re all looking for teams he can join to put over the top. The guy’s 42 years old. You think he wants to play 35 mpg and be responsible for turning Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley into men? He’s too old for that shit.
If LeBron wants joy, if he wants to experience basketball nirvana one more time, he should join the Knicks for the vet min and volunteer to come off the bench. Think Bill Walton on the ’86 Celtics. Come here, be humble, serve the team, and he’ll be embraced by even the hardest haters. We’ll win 70 games and another championship. He’ll have no off court responsibility, no leadership stress, he won’t have to play major minutes, and for the first time in his life he can just have fun playing basketball. He will become the modern version of Earl Monroe, and he’ll get to show up at the Garden and be one of the boys.
And, of course, he’ll get to be teammates with Mitch.
This is by far the best experience he could sign up for.
Man bursts into tears. Says, ‘But cybersoze… that is a happy clown.’
Hubert, that actually does make sense, until you consider he’d have to pretend to like James Dolan
Lebron pretending to like people is kind of one of his key skills though?
There is nothing short of a Time Machine that would make me the least bit interested in LeBron James being a part of the Knicks, not even in a mascot uniform.
The problem with Hubert’s idea is two-fold. First of all, the media narrative would be nauseating, no matter what it would all be about whether LeBron can lead the Knicks to the promised land again, no longer about the team Leon assembled doing it again, or you know The Little Point Guard Who Could.
The other problem is that LeBron can be humble in exactly the same ways pigs can fly.
0% chance (which, to be fair, is only slightly less than the chances of this happening).
If Mitch signs with another team, can our players kidnap him DeAndre-Clippers-style? 🤭
Dimwitted and unreasonable is the brand.
This has been the most boring first 2+ hours of free agency ever!
Watching Slapshot on TCM to pass the time. Reggie Dunlop was right. Old guys from the northeast would miss hockey and want a team when they move to Florida. This was 15 years before the Panthers and Lightning.
What amazes me most in the nba is the speed in which stars become albatrosses, “Nobodies” become most improved, highly paid become overrated, Superstars become Losers and role players become bargains or go back to Europe.
It’s actually HR gambling if you think about it
That’s easy, they all know they don’t stand a chance against the Knicks and because of that they’re not motivated to make deals. 😀
Best part of the ESPN free agency show was Perkins saying LeBron might have wanted to go to Cleveland before but not after seeing what the Knicks did to them.
It’s hilarious how many teams would have been better off losing before they faced us.
San Antonio & Wemby would be the darlings of the NBA right now if they’d lost game 7 against OKC.
Cleveland & Philadelphia would have gone out putting up a respectable fight against a top 1 & 2 seed, respectively.
Conversely, Detroit still gets to feel good about themselves because we didn’t beat their brains in.
Curious question —
How is it that the Clippers are allowed to trade away Kawhi’s contract?
Does this mean that the League has told the Clippers that it will not be voiding the contract, or taking other serious penalties against them?
Does this mean that Salary Cap avoidance is a farce? Can the Knicks just politely send an anonymous note to Scarsdale Ford asking the dealership to send Mitch ten trucks, free-of-charge?
Asking seriously.
Good question, Rant. Does seem a bit weird that the investigation is still live.
“That’s easy, they all know they don’t stand a chance against the Knicks and because of that they’re not motivated to make deals. 😀”
Sorry you’re up so late for nothing!!
Surely the NBA has had to have told the Clippers “all good, go for it” – otherwise the lawyers will have a field day
(maybe they will anyway)
The Kennard and Ellis deals make me feel that much better about Shamet and Alvarado’s deals!
EB, I am confused about some of what you said. Of course Kiley and Nickel could be signed to two way contracts instead of second round minimum contracts (or even stashed in Europe in Kiley’s case), but wouldn’t that actually put us closer to the cap? We still have to fill 14 roster spots and now would be filling them with normal league minimum contracts which are more expensive.
windy trying to get jaylen brown to the cavs to entice lebron
forget it windhorst, you have harden and you will love it
The fact that they haven’t made any moves (and Mitch hasn’t signed elsewhere) sure seems to suggest that they ARE trying this KAT maneuver, right?
I meant Kayil, of course.
Yeah, Brian, one would think that Mitch would be off the board already if he really wanted out or the Knicks flat out told him no second apron. Of course, he could have a deal somewhere that is being kept quiet for other reasons, or he could be waiting for the highest offer. So no news might not begood news, but it’s certainly not bad news!
Knicks have a helluva group in next season’s NBA Cup, might be easier to defend the NBA title than the NBA Cup.
It’s not a recommendation, just a note of a possibility. Someone above me mentioned they might try to keep Kayil in Europe, so I thought I’d walk through the option.
There’s 2 reasons to roster a vet min instead of a rookie:
(1) We only have 2 centers. We could replace a rookie with Huk to add a 3rd. We’d only sacrifice about $1M in TP-MLE money.
(2) We may not need the full TP-MLE to sign our target. This would allow us to sign a solid vet or two instead of untested rookies. Being closer to the apron isn’t a problem if we get the players we want anyway.
Of course, we may need the full $6M for our target and rostering a single larger salary may make trades easier.
Now that we won a cup and a championship I’m not all that enthusiastic about winning another cup. I know some feel it’s good practice for high-leverage playoff games, but the extra game for no benefit beyond $$$ for the rooks is not worth going all out to repeat. If we get there, I hope we play the kids a bunch in the final game.
The sweet spot is losing before the knockout bc you get those two games against the bottom teams.
Once you make the knockout round it’s hard to not want to win.
As we speak Leon is working in a KAT extension where he takes less next year so we can go over the apron this year to resign Mitch and bring LeBron here to repeat.
The thing is, this is virtually the same team as last year, so if they really loved the Vegas trip, they’ll probably go all out but if they are more been there done that they might not care enough to play as hard as you need to to get there.
I truly am thankful that we won a championship without LeBron having any part in it. Same with Durant. The thought of having to hang either of their jerseys in the rafters next to Clyde and Willis is freakin’ nauseating.
Maybe it’s about time for the nba to come up with a reward connected to the nba season or the salary cap or the draft instead of just money.
It will make the teams care much more about the Cup tournament.
In a way I was more into the NBA Cup final last year because of the publicity and good will embedded in this showcase. Now that the whole world watched us in this most compelling finals run, that seems far less meaningful to me.
I know I’m years late, but Shams is such a hack. I miss Woj.
The Cup Final this year is at Butler college in Indiana, no more Vegas trip as motivation for the players.
Wow, BBA, that’s weird!
I hope they’re not planning to try an Indiana-home of basketball-Hoosiers-old timey uniforms-high schooley kind of theme that falls flat on its face.
LeBron Derangement Syndrome is baffling
The NBA is about to put an expansion team in Vegas so not surprising that the NBA is looking for a different home for the Cup.
Apparently the Cup Final will be rotating over next few years, looks like it’ll be taking place in older famous college arenas. The semifinals will now be in home arena of higher seed just like the quarterfinals.
I hardly think this is the place/time to pity (ahem) “poor Steve Balmer,” but you would think that the League would have had to file any case against the Clippers before Draft Day. But they didn’t.
Because if the Clippers are being docked any draft picks, then how can the League allow the Clips to trade them away? And shouldn’t the Clips know the effects of their action before they start to plan their free agency signings, or deals, or draft picks?
The evidence of Balmer’s misdeeds seems so overwhelming, and it seems the league is just unable to imagine punishing their richest owner. It’s terrible.
But that’s some great reporting by PTFO. Pulitzer Prize well earned.
I think it was very good reporting, but I think it fell short of smoking gun stuff, and the NBA typically likes to ignore anything BUT smoking gun evidence.
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