News & Blogs
Mitchell Robinson to leave Knicks and sign 3-year contract with Celtics: Source – The New York Times
Eastern Conference Offseason Tracker [UPDATED] – Posting & Toasting
Sources: Mitchell Robinson, Celtics agree to 3-year, $47.4M deal – ESPN
Mitchell Robinson leaving Knicks to sign with Celtics – SNY
Celtics pry Mitchell Robinson away from Knicks on three-year deal – Posting & Toasting
Ariel Hukporti leaving Knicks to sign one-year deal with 76ers: report – SNY
Breaking News: Mitchell Robinson Signs With The Celtics & The Knicks Are Officially In Trouble! – Knicks Fan TV
Mitchell Robinson Signs With Celtics | Hukporti Joins 76ers – Knick of Time
BREAKING: Mitchell Robinson signs with Celtics (REACTION) – Knicks Film School
YT News
247 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.07.02)”
Moving on…
The East is pretty mashed up right now. Just about every team has either tinkered with or blown up their starting lineup.
The Sixers seem to have improved the most but Embiid is still the elephant in the room. If VJ develops, this will be possibly the best team he’s ever played on.
Indiana has been lying in the weeds. (Thank goodness they got unucky with the lottery balls!) But Carlisle is really good and Hali & Co., minus Turner but plus Zubac, should be gunning hard for us.
Those two seem to be our most serious competition. Maybe Toronto too if Kawhi is 100%.
Every other team seem either unpredictable or underwhelming. But with no tanking any more, I don’t see any 60-win teams in the EC, and think that even though losing Mitch is a significcant blow, we should be in a good position to return to the finals no matter how we replace him, so long as we stay reasonably healthy.
I am not completely out on the Celts. Losing Brown will hurt, but the draft capital will help them retool and PG13 can still shoot from 3 way better than Brown. And once PG becomes trade-eligible his salary could be repurposed with those picks as sweetener. Brad is probobly far from done.
Will Brown get along with his Sixers teammates? He seems to piss off a lot of folks. Will the Celtics be better as a single superstar driven team, tensions reduced and a mix of youth and vets? The Celtics are going to have health concerns with Tatum, George and Robinson for the foreseeable future.
The Lakers’ sign and trade for Walker Kessler seems like a massive overpay.
This Mitch thing is such a weird thing for me to process. Let me be clear- I am NOT mad at Mitch for getting his bag. I am soooo happy for him, considering he’s been my favorite Knick since we drafted him, and the fact that his last deal was a descending one. But at the same time, going to Boston to get said bag just doesn’t feel right. I’ve heard some people compare it to when X-Man left for Boston, but he wasn’t nearly as impactful as a Knick as Mitch was. I dunno..maybe Mitch and his agent felt like with his injury history, that he’d better take the first bag he can get. I mean, he did sacrifice money on his last deal to help us win a title, and then the title actually came to fruition. I just don’t know if imma be visceral or not when he takes the court against us like I normally am when we play Boston.
Is it weird that he was still my favorite Knick even over Brunson’s ascension? Even now, I think I’d pick Hart and Anunoby over Brunson as my favorite Knick because of what they do in their roles. And I’m not trying to slight Brunson- he is that dude and I’m super proud of him. But he’s the team superstar- I expect him to do what he does because I know he’s that good. I dunno..I feel like I sound crazy right now lol.
The oddest thing about the Brown trade is that it is to an historic rival. Maybe deep down Brad thinks he will hurt the Sixers in the long run? Truly a head-scratcher.
That first game in Boston will be must watch TV.
If Mitch turned down the Knick for the Celtics, I’d be pissed at him, but since his Celtics’ deal is basically just his current salary, I think it is pretty clear that the Knicks weren’t able to go into the second apron, so if that was the case, then what could you possibly do if you’re Mitch? Take less than HALF of the Celtics’ offer?
That would be absurd. This isn’t Juan Soto turning down $750 million for $800 million, it’s more than DOUBLE what the Knicks could offer. Who could expect him to take that deal?
How big of a salary can the Knicks aggregate Between McBride, Dadiet, Kolek, and their available cap? Which backup center can you get for this price in a trade?
jazz, good point about the C’s health concerns. Although I do expect Tatum to be 100% recovered from the achilles going forward. And if Mitch’s foot/ankle is truly “fully healed,” who knows? But PG13 is a 40-game season waiting to happen.
I think Z-Man said it best the other day when he was (sadly) correct in assuming Mitch had to be gone, which is, “Okay, be sad about, but we have to move on.”
My only bit there, though, is that it’s one thing to say, “Oh well, this sucks, but hey, they just won the TITLE, let’s just move on and hope for the best,” which I’m 100% down with, and “This was a blessing in disguise” or “not a big deal” or whatever. Come on, dudes. It’s okay to say, “Oh well, this sucks, but hey, they just won the TITLE, let’s just move on and hope the best,” especially because, as Z-Man rightly notes above, the rest of the Eastern Conference still pales in comparison to the Knicks.
I thought that the Knicks were a cut above the rest of the Eastern Conference before last season, and I assumed they’d make it to the Finals (the WIN surprised me, but it didn’t surprise me by the end of the Eastern Conference Finals, of course), and unless some teams make some DRAMATIC changes before the season, that sure looks to be the same in 2026-27, even if the loss of Mitch sucks (and boy, does it suck).
Grimes to the Lakers, 60 mil for 4 years. I’m happy for him.
The issue with aggregating is that there are a required number of full roster spots for NYK to cover (14) and not a lot of dollar room to do it (about $8.5M for 3 spots), while staying under the second apron. If that remains the goal, Knicks can’t aggregate in any significant way.
Have to think about trade targets on cheap, or potentially cheap, salaries. Moussa Diabate would fit that description.
The aggregating problem will apply to any hypothetical trade deadline deals as well.
I am worried about Mitch in Boston. The fans there suck and they are going to get tired of him shooting 30 percent from the line real quick. He wa never booed by Knicks fans. We all just accepted him and his flaws because he was awesome and he was ours. But Celtics fans are gonna expect more from him because he’s their big FA acquisition. Boston is also not a friendly town. People talk about NYC being rude or whatever but New Yorkers are generally pretty kind at heart once you pierce the tough exterior.
I do think Leon can still turn this around and we can make up for this loss in other ways. The way the team plays is going to change a bit but that’s up to brown to find the new strengths.
I will feel much better about the situation once we sign at least one center lol.
Thanks, timo.
(Repost)
The way things went down with Brown & the Celtics gives me reason to re-examine KAT’s season. If dangling Brown for Giannis just ended with the Celtics having to break up a beloved, championship-winning pairing in one of the worst trades in franchise history, then it’s clear we (and I, in particular) underestimated the impact of KAT being similarly dangled throughout the season.
New role, new coach, and trade rumors? In hindsight, I should have given him more grace, particularly when he moaned about being the one asked to sacrifice. It seems no surprise he began to improve after the all star break.
And it makes KAT even more admirable IMO. He could have easily gotten stuck in his feelings like Brown but he fought through it.
Boston wasn’t friendly before. Now imagine their fans when you couple Brown’s loss with a shitty start to next season and Mitch is clanking free throws to lose games. He will get in his oversized truck and never come back.
“I’ve heard some people compare it to when X-Man left for Boston, but he wasn’t nearly as impactful as a Knick as Mitch was.”
I guess, but the situations were a lot different. X-man (no relation to Z-man) was a 1-year merc, and he left because he didn’t want to wait on the FO while they worked on another deal (was is Charles Smith?) That was mostly on X. Mitch was homegrown and the longest-tenured Knick. In this case, the Knicks just flat out refused to pay him. In that sense, it’s a lot more like the Jeremy Lin non-match. Both are due to Dolan, the only difference is that with Lin he was being petty, while with Mitch he was being “anti-suicidal,” whatever that means.
My personal opinion is that Lin wouldn’t have made much of a difference, but losing Mitch could be much moer impactful, especially this season. We’ll see!
That dude is by far one of the most emotionally mature players in the NBA (which, to be be fair, is a league full of men-child), but we didn’t truly learn about it until he became sage-like off the court in the finals.
Sucks to lose Mitch.
Hard to know what was going on behind the scenes in Boston. Obviously the FO is fully behind Tatum and was never fully behind Brown. One presumes that Tatum will be better now further from his achilles surgery, but there were a lot of worrisome numbers for Tatum including career low % of attempts at the rim, lowest FG% in the restricted area and 3-10 feet, overall 2P% since his age 21 season (upcoming year will be age 28 season), career low 3P%, etc.
Durant remains the major outlier in that he was great after coming back. I hope for the sake of Tatum the person that he’s back to himself, but the injury concern with Tatum + Mitch + PG core… yikes.
Regarding the Lakers — Walker Kessler is really good. But wow that is a huge price to pay. Interestingly he played only 5 games last year but shot 6 of 8 from 3P range.
I am struggling as to why the Knicks didn’t extend Huk the qualifying offer. maybe they wouldn’t have matched the Sixers offer anyway, but Huk just played productive minutes at the highest levels and played reasonably well! At least it would’ve given you the choice to match.
I completely missed Norm Powell signing with the Bulls. Lots of teams in the East getting better, even if I think we’re still top of the heap.
But also, what are the Pistons going to do for a secondary playmaker now that Powell is off the market?
Also re Mitch – maybe this was fully a financial decision about the 2nd apron, but if it were Brunson, Towns, OG they would’ve gone over the 2nd apron to retain them. On some level the calculation was that we won’t go over the second apron for Mitch. Sure he played only 20 min per game or whatever, but also the Knicks FO knows his medical + mental health issues better than anyone. In the most charitable view you could possibly have (and I do not believe this), the FO doth protest too much about the 2nd apron thing (which immediately equaled Mitch leaving) and let Dolan take the heat for it.
I do hope it’s Celtics Knicks at MSG for the ring ceremony — Mitch deserves to be on the court getting his ring when everyone else does. Celtics’ first 2 games of the season will likely be first game at MSG, second game at home vs Philly.
Swifty I think Mitch is such an endearing person that he’ll very quickly be embraced in Boston. You have to be a special kind of cunt to not love that guy.
It’s also going to be extremely easy for Mazzulla to manage the free throws thing bc he and Queta are interchangeable in ways Mitch and KAT are not. Mike Brown could never do the start-of-each-quartet thing bc he had to prioritize KAT over Mitch. Mazzulla’s got no such worry.
Boston’s going to play Mitch the first 6 mins of each quarter and if you want him out of the game you’re going to have to hack yourself into the penalty and then all that’s going to happen is Queta comes in and Mitch will rest til the start of the next quarter.
Hack-a-Mitch is over. And that’s another reason to be happy for him, especially if it was contributing to his mental health struggle.
Trey Murphy?
It will cost a lot.
Beyond the Pacers (who added Oubre, but whatever) he team that has stood the most pat in the East seems to be the Magic. They must really believe in internal development. I guess the Wizards too, but they are adding the #1 pick in the draft.
The Powell move was a true “tanking is over” move, as there’s no other reason to give him that bag otherwise.
Doesn’t sound crazy at all.
Boston
I’m obsessed with the Cisse idea. It seems plausible enough that he’s a quality backup that wasn’t ready to steal minutes from Gafford, Powell, or Lively yet. He certainly moves more fluidly and has better hands than Huk… AND in 35 career minutes against Wemby he’s had 7 points, 13 rebounds, and 4 blocks
My boy sent me this, thought it was funny!
I’m pretty confident it will be.
Also pretty confident it will be Knicks v Spurs on Christmas, but not gonna lie I’m a little worried the league wants to put Wemby over so bad they’ll play that game in San Antonio.
Under Mazzulla (4 full seasons), Boston was 30th, 30th, 28th, and 26th in FTA/game. His offense just doesn’t generate free throws. Jaylen Brown led their team in FTA by a country mile last year. Second was Tatum (who generated the lowest FTR last season since his age 22 season). 3rd was Derrick White who averaged 2.6 FTA/game in 34 min/game. PG averaged 3 FTA/game.
Hack-a-mitch will probably still be a thing — because it’ll make Boston change their offense to try and take advantage of that, but they don’t really have players who are good at drawing fouls — or more importantly, they don’t have players who want to take contact to draw fouls
One advantage Mitch will have with the C’s is that he can be penciled in as the nominal starter, meaning, he can start all 4 quarters and then subbed out before Hack-a-Mitch makes sense, and then subbed back in situationally after the 2:00 mark in any quarter. It was problematic to do that when someone like KAT was in front of him.
I would think that Knicks-Pacers would be a much more juicy opening game for banner-raising and ring ceremony. The Celts just aren’t cool anymore.
Mitch has to be on the floor in the last moments of a close game to alter shots and grab rebounds – otherwise, what’s the point. But that is where hack-a-Mitch still matters. It will still be a thing.
But if it’s the last 2 minutes he will only get hacked on screens and rebounds, so it’s a thing but not as egregious. The real damaging time is the minutes between going into the penalty and the 2-minute mark, where it makes at least some sense to foul him away from the ball on every possession.
Doing it early in the quarter is less advisable because it just gets your team into the penalty faster, and at a time when your starters are on the floor and could be picking up those fouls. It also means your team is going to try to score against a set defense rather than in transition even if Mitch misses both.
But it will be a good problem to have for the C’s, especially having Queta as the other big.
Z-man
1. Doobie Brothers started a little slow and were a little too loud and distorted for my taste, but picked it up in middle and had the place jumping by the end. They played with a lot of energy. The singing was as good as ever.
2. Santana’s percussion section was the best I’ve ever seen live. His wife on the drums was great. She’s a fireball. She did a couple of drum solos that were relentless exhibitions of energy and power. One of them was with the bass player that was more of an improvised session that unbelievably broke out into Iron Man by Black Sabbath. I was dying. 🤣. The whole percussion section was awesome.
Santana himself was super relaxed. He sat down for much of the session and just improvised filler stuff. He was good, but probably not up to his very best.
Al in all it was a great show. Enjoy Jones Beach.
Hack a Mitch will definitely still be a thing and even if you say “oh well he’ll only play until they get in the penalty” that puts a limit on how many minutes he can play a game, no?
And there will be games when Queta gets into foul trouble and they’ll have to play him more and Hack a mitch will happen.
And even without Hack a Mitch, he’s still going to get fouled sometimes and have to shoot free throws.
Just saying there are gonna be limits to how much he can play because of the free throws and I don’t imagine Boston fans being as forgiving as Knicks fans when he cans free throws.
It just still surprises me they signed him to this contract knowing his limitations and also trading away Brown. The situation must have really become unbearable with Brown in order to give him away for that. Count me as someone who has always been team brown over team Tatum.
Tatum is soft. If I was GM of Boston, I would have looked to move Tatum over Brown if you have to move off one of them. But really i would have tried to repair this relationship.
As a stathead, the Jaylen Brown discourse is pretty fascinating. The whole on/off, record with and without, seventh best player on a team discussion about a guy who had the highest contract in the NBA is crazy to watch from guys like Windhorst and all the rest.
The point is to impact the game in the 24-28 minutes that you play.
Hack-a-Mitch is over, for the most part. Sure there will be moments when Queta is injured or in foul trouble and it will rear its ugly had, but those will be random as opposed to regular. It no longer makes sense to employ this strategy in every playoff game if he’s going to start every quarter.
It’s pretty easy to manage when your centers are similar like Mitch and Queta as opposed to KAT and Mitch. That’s why we didn’t have this problem in the ’23 & ’24 playoffs when we had Mitch & Hartenstein. It only became a thing when we got KAT and he had to start.
And it could randomly happen in a playoff game.
My problem with the theory that this was more of a “won’t go over the second apron for Mitch” thing than a “won’t go over the second apron, period” thing is it just doesn’t align with a half-rational analysis of our timeline.
We just won the NBA championship and basically the entire core is 30-32. Everyone from the drunkest guy at your local sports bar to a Sloan conference participant to a random person who doesn’t follow sports much but understands some basic things about life would tell you the same thing–that is the exact time to push in every last chip.
Instead we’re taking an intentional step back (and yes, that’s what it is, even though I’ve repeated a bunch of times that I still think the team can be very good) in Brunson’s age 30 season, with the nominal explanation being that this will let us invest more heavily in his age 31, 32, etc. seasons.
Why take the bird in the hand when, if everything goes well, you might be able to get two older birds in the bush? That’s how the expression goes, right?
This, above all else (and there are other things too, such as our refusal to draft a replacement who, god forbid, might be on our books at ~$3M AAV going forward), is what makes me worried we’re looking at far more than a simple calculation that Mitch specifically is not worth it.
“Hack a Mitch will definitely still be a thing and even if you say “oh well he’ll only play until they get in the penalty” that puts a limit on how many minutes he can play a game, no?”
swifty, that’s why I said “nominal” starter. I don’t think it would be wise to play Mitch a lot of minutes no matter what, and maybe not even back-to-backs if possible. So to me, the thing is not the amount of minutes but the timing of them.
What would really be crazy is if Mitch pulls an Andre Drummond and gets his FT% up into the .550-600 range and proves he can handle 25-30 mpg on a regular basis. Then he becomes a massive steal at that price.
Anyone know if James Nnaji will be on the Knicks Summer League roster?
Yeah, that could happen, too. I think we may have managed his minutes very well last season and finally got him out of the woods with his injuries and he might now be able to handle a bigger role. Not a full time starter guy who plays 35 to 40 minutes a night, but maybe someone who plays 25 minutes and doesn’t take as many games off.
Not everyone is injury prone forever. If he’s out of those woods then yeah, we fucked up. But also, playing behind KAT he will never have the opportunity to take on a much bigger role.
So this could be about the SA, about his salary, about him wanting a bigger role, and about us being wary because of his injuries and free throws, mental health, etc. It doesn’t have to be just one reason.
Well, we obviously have no way of knowing right now whether Dolan would go over the 2nd apron to keep Brunson or KAT or OG. (The time may come for that, but it isn’t now) so we can only speculate whether this is a pure 2nd apron brew or whether there’s a bit of Mitch infused into it. Or not really just Mitch per se, but any bench player.
I do guess that it rankled Dolan when Mitch line-drived FTs into the back rim, or broke his hand punching a wall before the most important playoff series of Dolan’s entire run. It sure rankled the shit out of me. But sure, maybe it made no difference whatsoever.
“Anyone know if James Nnaji will be on the Knicks Summer League roster?”
Last I heard, he was granted permission to play in the NCAA and then re-enter the draft…
Of course. It’s not extinct. Only hitting 70% of his free throws can do that. But I don’t think it’s going to be a constant nightmare for him any more, and I’m happy about that.
One reason to do this now is that ultimately we are going to run into second apron issues again. There are upsides to delaying that by one year that could extend our widow with this core a year or two and avoid the harshest second apron penalties that would impact our future picks.
IMO It’s a pick you poison scenario.
You either let Mitch go now, take a small step back at the team’s peak or you probably have to blow up the team earlier.
To know which side to come down on I would have to know who we replace Mitch with. We may not have that answer until the trade deadline.
Then after the fact we’ll see how Mitch’s body holds up to more games and minutes and whether he declines further next year and after.
None of that takes profits and tax penalties into consideration.
The NBA had its most significant finals ratings in a good long bit. The Knicks did that. An interesting marketing push certainly got some people in on Wemby but our guys carried a story with them into the finals that captured a nation. Dolan is not to be recommended but I’d be sore as fuck paying the league to be its connector to its largest market share.
We all knew what was going to happen but wished it wouldn’t. What make losing both Mitch and Huk hurt most is that they went to our biggest Atlantic Division rivals. But this was easy to predict weeks ago.
But Leon has a plan. What is that plan? I’ve heard a lot of “Trade McBride” to get a backup. I’ve heard a lot of “sign this guy to a veterans minimum”. I think both of those approaches work for one spot on the roster. But I don’t really think that’s the plan.
I believe that Leon’s waiting patiently (we ain’t) for the right players. I think that one is certainly going to be a vet. That vet would be the guy left standing after the free agent duck-duck-goose game shuts most other landing spots for him. Is it Looney? Drummond? Richards? Plumlee? There’s a whole bunch of cast-off’s that wouldn’t mind hanging around for another paycheck.
The other center is going to be a kid, most likely an undrafted FA. The Knicks have 1 player signed for the summer league. Let’s see who they add there. And let’s pay attention to the kids on other summer league teams. And don’t fret, there’ll be camp cuts too.
Unlike almost all other teams, the Knicks brought back 8 of the 9 rotation players (the 5 starters plus Deuce, Shamet and Alvarado). They signed Diawara to a long term team-friendly deal (we’re gonna look back at that deal and rave about how it’ll be a steal in a couple of years). They have solid 3rd stringers in Kolek and Dadiet in the fold.
Those 15 minutes will get claimed. But I think we need to be patient because there’s about 9-10 months between now and our march to a second title begins. We may not be patient but I’m glad that the guy behind the wheel is.
Hahahahahaha
And I think Pritchard is pretty good. But a sleeper Jalen Brunson?
Hahahahahahahaha
sometimes kb mourns the smoldering 24th pick like an inexorcisable phantom limb. but lose an eight year homegrown nyk warrior prince for nothing, and this blog reads like it’s hoovering will mackaskill vitamins in a desperate attempt to avoid even an instant of plaintive rage. the herd needn’t transmogrify memento-style into a gaggle of stepford wives in order to avoid ruminating straight into traffic. there’s a fine line between basketball buddha and utility robot.
iow, long live mitch.
You make an excellent point, Clarence. I can appreciate Dolan’s soreness, I just wish he didn’t choose to take it out on his team. I like the way the Dodgers stick it to their league better 🙂
And Strat, you make a good point, too, but the luxury tax bill will become a bigger issue than the second apron down the line. That’s when we’ll know if this was really about money or the apron. Because Leon can keep the core together under the second apron for $500M/year in taxes. If Dolan pays that, well, right or wrong, it really was about the apron, and I’ll tip my hat to him.
Couple points:
I cannot wait until Mitch plays in the Garden for the first time in green. I’m fairly convinced he will get a minute long ovation.
And I will be very disappointed for the Knicks if Mitch plays 70 games, or even 65.
As for the EC, I still think it is the Knicks and the Pacers because both have the best “teams.”
I think there is still a star fucker mentality in the NBA, where teams try to assemble journeymen stars who hope to congeal into a championship.
But I believe the Knicks put the lie to the concept. This was an incredibly unselfish group. I think that gives them an advantage. It has become the Knicks way.
I believe Brown to the Sixers likely improves them. Maxey is great, but not necessarily an alpha. Embiid is on the downside. They have a fearsome starting roster, but not great depth.
I think Cleveland’s mistake is they believe they are better than they are. And Harden is an abomination.
It’s going to be the Knicks and Pacers.
Summer league roster is live.
No strong opinions. That’s certainly a list of guys. No Kayil is weird even if we’re stashing him.
Thank you.
LOL.
Yes, I think we will get one FA center at the vet minimum before camp starts but it might be a week or so before that person is signed. I really hope it’s not Drummond though. I just have never liked that dude, lol. Probably a bit irrational.
I like Nic Richards. Vet but still young enough for a little bit of upside.
Then I think Leon will wait and see. Might do a trade, might pick someone off the waiver wire.
Nnaji can’t re-enter the draft. We have his draft rights. This is overwhelmingly unlikely to matter at all, as he was not that good as a 21 year-old backup center in college.
The thing that pisses me off the most (after you know, Mitch leaving, and going to the Celtics, and losing Hukporti, leaving me standing in the waves on Huk Island staring into the sun), is that it’s not just having a dearth of centers. It’s that we’re going to have to make a trade to get anything back, which means tearing up the band even further. Outside of Clarkson, there’s nobody on this team I’d willingly trade for an upgrade. So it’s TWO terrible and unnecessary moves.
Plus, really, what backup center out there is Mitch-worthy as a replacement, even if you could get them (which we can’t, because of the Baba Yaga second apron). They’re all shite.
To me, “invest in the team when everyone is around 30” vs “invest in the team when everyone is older than that” is not a pick-your-poison scenario. It’s more of an “are you an idiot or not” test, which is why I’m not actually convinced it’s the dilemma we were facing.
The Kayil thing is confusing as hell. The player himself said he was definitely coming to the NBA on draft night. That didn’t seem like a statement one would make without first discussing it with the team.
A few days later, reports started to surface which said the Knicks wanted JK to spend at least one more year playing in Europe.
Now, he’s not even listed on a SL roster filled with barely warm (no)bodies.
Very strange.
“My boy sent me this, thought it was funny!”
That link doesn’t make sense, as it has Dean Wade on the Lakers…….but he just signed with Philadelphia the other day, so…….
“Also pretty confident it will be Knicks v Spurs on Christmas, but not gonna lie I’m a little worried the league wants to put Wemby over so bad they’ll play that game in San Antonio.”
We won every game played in San Antonio during the Finals.
I hate to make things worse for you Raven but we don’t even have Clarkson in the fold right now, either.
I know. It’s the indignity, though.
I don’t think it will happen but the fact that I can picture Silver doing it is enough.
We need to get his guy who reviews Wemby flagrants to look at Balogun’s red card.
The only true center on the summer league team that I can see is Liam Robbins. Am I mistaken?
Well, sounds like we can rule out the “he wanted a bigger role” stuff.
Hopefully that upside includes semi-useful 3rd string NBA center
I’ll say this about Mitch – his flaws were out there for everyone to see, but his contributions shouldn’t be understated. The critical defense, offensive rebounds, etc. Nick Richards is a good offensive rebounder, but Mitch nearly doubled (7.7 to 4.0 Oreb/36) his offensive rebounding rate, and his TS% is over 100% higher. despite the FT%.
It’s easy to see the bad parts of a players game, but it’s much more difficult to see the production you are missing with a lesser player. You won’t see the OREBs Richards doesn’t get, or the .5 blk/36 he won’t make, etc.
I think it’s crappy he went to the Celtics of all teams, and hopefully whoever he is replaced with can make up some of those deficiencies, and Mike can find a way to use that center in ways Mitch couldn’t function to make up for the productivity.
Young Mitch running around swatting 3s left and right is still one of the more surreal things I’ve ever seen on a basketball court
While I 1000% agree with you, let’s acknowledge it’s possible smart people may not think Mitch is worth that contract. I think they’d be wrong, but it’s not totally idiotic. That’s why I agree with Frank earlier when he suggested that we probably would have gone into the SA for someone else.
Even before Dolan spoke on the radio, hell even before the playoffs, a lot of us thought Mitch was a goner. Me & Owen even metaphorically poured a drink out for him back in March. I just don’t think this front office ever loved him as much as we do. It’s frustrating, but it is what it is.
And let’s be honest, it’s impossible to rage against this front office over Mitch, but it’s very easy to rage against Dolan! And that’s what I think is happening here. Dolan is our douchebag scapegoat. He gives us a healthy outlet to rage at, even though (I think) the front office almost definitely had something to do with the decision, too.
And seriously, Mitch is one of the few centers outside of Wemby that made guards and wings think twice about driving to the hoop. The intimidation factor is a huge part of the game when it’s available, changes everything for the other team. Also not a thing that one can find in the box score.
Or on the center scrap heap.
The “c word” seems to be getting more and usage on here lately. Like Alan with politics, the word is super-offensive to me and I’d rather not have to read it. This is not a command of any kind, but rather a plea to not use that word, or at least to use it a lot less. That is all. 🙂
Look, James Dolan is an idiot and probably doesn’t deserve anything he has but we have to live with it. Good luck to Mitch, hope we beat him. Thanks for the highlights and our oldest tenured Knick
That was a public message to Anunoby after OG posted a tear emoji on Mitch’s page.
I forget which basketball person I heard say this… might have been Breen, but it was definitely someone with authority… OG Anunoby loves Mitchell Robinson, and every time OG mentions Mitch he says “that’s the best defensive player in basketball, no question, no doubt.”
OG was one of us yesterday.
Trying to forecast what James Dolan may or may not want to do in a year’s time is a mug’s game.
In addition to being a world class poopyhead, the man is a massive flake.
He’s mercurial as hell. The same man who once scarcely batted an eye at paying a thoroughly washed Joakim Noah 4 yrs/$73 million to join a 32-win team is now nickel ‘n’ diming a championship roster.
Who knows where he’ll be this time next year?
Noted, Doogie, and happy to oblige.
I’ve been hanging out with a lot of my English friends during the World Cup and they have very potty mouths. I think I picked up a few foul words.
Lol, Bill Simmons decided not to record a pod last night? Amazing. Never change, Bill.
Edit: nevermind, apparently he did one this morning.
I’m not even Mitch’s biggest fan by a long shot and it’s obvious to me that his productivity is going to be missed greatly. It’s pretty likely that we won’t be as good without him this year, and very possibly could be the difference between winning and losing a particular series or even a championship.
My way of coping is to accept that this is the price you pay for rooting for a team owned by the likes of James Dolan. Mitch and Huk are spilt milk, perhaps needlessly and stupidly spilt, but spilt just the same.
We all choose to cope in different ways. Some feel better dwelling on the horror it, some rationalize it by focusing more on Mitch’s negatives and less on his positives, some just want to grieve quietly and move on. I’m definitely in the third camp, since again, that ship has sailed.
I think we all hope for the best, though. I haven’t heard anyone say “Hell with it, this is the last straw for me, I hope the Knicks lose just to fuck Dolan over!” As I did with other players we lost, or bad deals/picks we made, or good deals/picks we didn’t make, I’m moving on from this with optimism and gratitude that we’re discussing how to best defend a championship and not how to assemble a sustainable playoff team.
Also, the Celtics reputation-destruction machine for players that leave remains unmatched.
Centers:
Wendell Carter Jr. (C)
Moritz Wagner (C)
Goga Bitadze (C)
Nikola Vučević (C)
Two-Way Contracts:
Colin Castleton (C)
Izaiyah Nelson (C)
How many centers does Orlando need?
I’m thinking they may want to hand us Goga for Dadiet, Kolek & a couple of those 2nd round picks we not using anyway.
Mo Wagner is now a Net
I just find it ironic that Dolan is opposed to other owners getting money (for nothing) from him, while Dolan himself fleeces the city of New York for $43M/yr via MSG’s tax free status.
OK. I give up.
We often say Mitch is 1 of 1 but he’s 1 of 2, really, because Steven Adams is very similar. And the Rockets never recovered from losing him this year.
Offensive rebounding rates like Mitch’s and Adams’ are historically rare, and they can fuel an offense. Recall we once had the #3 ORtg in the NBA under Thibs back when we were 20th in eFG% — all bc of Mitch and iHart on the offensive glass.
Besides being the best defensive player on the team, Mitch was a one-man offense for the bench unit. It’s going to be impossible to replace his contribution to the second unit’s ORtg.
None of this means we’re not still the best team in the East and none of this means the front office can’t replace him (sorry — I have to say this every single time because the illiterate trolls will suggest I’m predicting doom if I don’t). But we’re not going to replace him with some dime store C like Kevon Looney.
Just some things to think about, with the assumption that Dolan is a despicable, dumb asshole (which we all agree on I think!)
Dolan has been directly responsible for (or meddled in 3 major decisions in the Leon era.)
-Hiring Leon
-Firing Thibs
-Staying under the second apron this year
I would say that the first two decisions worked out incredibly well. The third decision probably won’t but possibly could, sort of like splitting 10’s at the black jack table when the dealer has a 6 showing. It’s a bad “probability” move but could work out if things fall just right. And the odds of it working in year 2 or 3 might have increased at expense of lower odds in year 1.
So for me, yeah, it was stupid odds-wise but I’m hoping that it works out. Just like hiring Leon, who hired Thibs, locked us into a lower probability way of building a championship team but he beat the odds and did it, perhaps faster and better than anyone else would have in the same position, especially given all the mistakes he made (and the big ones he was luckily prevented from making, such as the Spida trade.)
But anyone who thinks that we “increased” the odds or repeating, or of winning a chip in the next 3 years, by this decision, is kidding themselves.
Billionaires don’t think about fairness. They only think about how can they make/keep the most amount of their money.
Last try…
Centers
Daniel Gafford (C)
Dereck Lively II (C)
Santi Aldama (C/PF)
Morez Johnson Jr. (C)
Two-Way Contracts:
Moussa Cissé (C)
Maybe Shmitz @ Dallas will let us have Derrick Lively for Dadier, Kolek a couple of 1st round swaps and a couple of 2RP?
“The “c word” seems to be getting more and usage on here lately. Like Alan with politics, the word is super-offensive to me and I’d rather not have to read it. This is not a command of any kind, but rather a plea to not use that word, or at least to use it a lot less. That is all. 🙂”
I had been thinking about this and appreciate you saying this, and I also appreciate Hubert’s thoughtful response.
Yeah, I was mutedly happy about the Looney signing when I thought that it had actually happened, but when I delved into his injuries and some other stats I was kind of happy that it seems not to have happened at all (at least not yet). And this is from someone in the “just sign *someone* already!” camp.
Thanks very much on the other thing, Hubie. I really appreciate it.
The Bill Chisholm era has been filled with nothing but cost cutting since he purchased the team less than a year ago. It’s one thing to pass on signing Brown to that two-year, $141 million deal he was eligible for later this month, and it’s another to send him to a conference rival to boost its championship chances while you’re left with a 36-year-old who was suspended 25 games last season for violating the league’s drug policy.”
@GwashburnGlobe
Hmmm
.
I would say that’s enough of a damning statement to blame Dolan 100% at this point. Not that we didn’t already know this was him playing with his poop, but it’s just unreal for him to do this right after a championship.
All we can do is pray for a Donald Sterling-type scandal at this point, but I’m not even sure that would work in the Trump era.
We have not increased our odds as of this moment but that doesn’t mean the odds can’t go back up as the season goes on and Leon makes moves.
I mean, if we get Lebron on the minimum, even if we end up with some vet minimum back up center like Looney, our odds probably go up a lot.
If Diawara emerges as real talent, our odds go back up.
There could be a good center that becomes available as teams waive the white flag on their season.
I know we’re all sad. I’m sad too. But Leon can still do something to get us back on track. The playoffs aren’t until April. There’s a long time between now and the trade deadline.
While I do not think Dolan is as dumb as many here have suggested, I’m more than certain that he has the self awareness of a goldfish.
As for coping with the loss of Mitch, I no longer have the shock absorbers to get emotional over events that I have no control over. Feel incredibly fortunate that Team Leon navigated through the difficult Straits of Dolan and brought us a chip. (and that my daughter, who never showed interest in the Knicks now has Brunson and Bridges tees, events that were + 200,000 on Kalshi before the playoffs).
Finally welcome Gonzo. Enjoying your posts!
I love Lively’s upside/potential, but his injuries scare the heck out of me: “Mavs center Dereck Lively on if he’s set a timeline for his return: “I can’t even say that. I’m just waiting to see that my foots good. Even when it’s good, I gotta wait even more.”” I also think that the Mavs definitely see him as part of their future, for which the arrow is definitely pointing up. I’ll pound the table all day for a chance at Cisse (or Gafford?), though.
“Finally welcome Gonzo. Enjoying your posts!”
Same here.
Dereck Lively was taken with the pick the Mavs stole from us anyway -with that totally shameful tanking at the end of whichever season that was. I think that was the year of our Lord -2 BC? (Before Championship)
I will give Leon a lot of credit for this, too. It would have been very easy for him to leak news about how he broke his finger, or to spill beans about his medical report. I’m grateful he doesn’t run that kind of shop. (Although I do really want to know how he broke his finger!)
Also, this kind of pisses me off:
You can just say “there were locker room issues.” You don’t have to say this dumb rich guy thinks he’s so smart… and btw Brown IS smart! He has:
– Become an MIT Media Lab Fellow.
– Lectured at Harvard University on sports, race, and education.
– Received an internship offer from NASA due to his interest in physics.
– Learned multiple languages.
Wtf does Colin Cowherd know about anything?? Also why not bring up this “money disease” in regard to, say, every white NBA owner? Hmmm I wonder…
some people really have zero insight / introspection – they might as well have said “how can Jaylen Brown be the smartest guy in every room when I’m the smartest guy in every room”?
definitely racist undertones too.
I thought of Lively yesterday, too.
While yes, he is young, and you would think the Mavs would want to keep him, he is also in the last year of his rookie contract. It could actually help them to cash in on him now so they can maintain flexibility for Flagg’s prime.
That said, he’d be very expensive to acquire. I think he’d cost the 2033 pick.
That said (pt 2), I’m open to using that pick to acquire the right player. The time is now.
Yeah, Director said something earlier today that really crystallized something for me that should have probably been more apparent to me earlier than this:
We don’t use our draft picks. We really don’t. We pretty much haven’t been using them for years now, and it’s clear that we’re not going to start now. So yes, we should be quite willing to freely and easily use our picks to get players that we want and/or need. For us, it would almost be like getting something for free, because we weren’t going to use them, anyway. (Not really, but you know what I mean.)
I blame it all on Roy Kent.
But slightly more seriously, while I am normally all in favor of the heavy abuse of swear words, and despite the British tendency to use it like we use “asshole,” the simple fact is we all have (and perhaps are) assholes, while only half of us have the other thing, and with the ugly rising tide of misogyny, led by our favorite “Grab em by the Roy Kent”, I tend to favor Doogie’s position.
Lol it’s you and me carrying the torch right now, brother 🙂
I am heartbroken about Mitch. I feel like I have been clear about that.
He has his flaws but is one of the most unique physical talents the NBA has ever seen and exactly the kind of player I love to watch.
So for him to be a Celtic is awful. And screw Dolan if he really is the reason why.
Most likely Jaylen Brown, an extraordinarily accomplished basketball player, doesn’t gladly suffer the foolishness of the pasty pipsqueaks who throw a bunch of ultra vires data in his face by means of trying to tell him how to play basketball.
Entirely understandable.
In terms of the racial angle, it hasn’t escaped notice that Stevens’s attachment to his white boys — first seen in the Giannis fiasco in which Brown was involved, and now in the vision of Pritchard as Brunson — has become a bit discomfiting if not downright odd.
I’m trying to speak it into existence. P&T just had a post about it this morning too.
Two Offseason things I’d like to see happen to offset the Mitch vibes:
1. Bring back Clarkson on his non birds rights max (approximately $4.2M). Good for the vibes, great for the trade flexibility.
2. A Deuce extension
Both of those things I think are more important than replacing Mitch, which I see as more of an in-season thing.
Two things I don’t want to see:
1. Use the TPMLE. No one seems worth it. Dolan-capped and hard-capped are two different things, and I’m not entirely convinced he wouldn’t change his mind.
2. A KAT extension. Don’t see the benefit anymore unless it’s very team friendly.
Let’s not forget I’m still on a heater since Lent. I spoke the Knicks championship into existence after game 4 vs Atlanta 🙂
(I also tweaked OG’s hamstring. Still sorry 🙁 )
Jason Tatum didn’t play most of last year. Why didn’t Payton Pritchard turn into Jalen Brunson then?
Clearly all Jaylen Brown’s fault.
I’m not against it. Now that we’ve won a championship, it wouldn’t be about him. But I don’t love it, either.
Still, if we went back to back, I could probably muster up a bit more enthusiasm…..
The Mitch thing hurts emotionally. In many ways he is the most ethical basketball player in the modern era. Avoids shooting threes, never travels, shoots a high percentage, and never foul baits. Hell I think he understands that he doesn’t want to win by shooting free throws because it’s not in the spirit of the game.
He gives the people want they want — blocked shots, offensive rebounds, monstrous put backs, and the occasional elbow to alien throat technique.
I’ll miss you big guy.
Any thoughts on giving a training camp invite to James Wiseman to compete for that 3rd string center role.
Marvin Bagley Just got picked up by Denver. I feel like theyre the same exact player. Ironically Both drafted #2.
It’s probably pretty telling that we haven’t signed Looney. That seems like a bad idea waiting to happen, and I say this as a guy who thinks the version of Looney from a few years ago was a solid player. He had an off year two years ago and then flatlined last year. He seems like an unacceptable risk.
We have no backup center. You gotta get one via trade, right? Seems to be no other route.
Another thought… an added benefit of bringing Clarkson back and addressing backup C in season… if you go into the season with KAT and some bums at backup C, it’s a great way to “explain” to Dolan the folly of his mandate. Some idiots don’t get it til they experience it.
You can be both smart and be obnoxiously overconfident and persecutory in your assessments. This board may be familiar with the phenomenon.
@ Hubert
We have to consider whether Mcbride’s game has plateaued. He’s not a facilitator, not really a point guard. Not great at driving through the teeth of defense. He had a terrible finals. He was just chucking 3s. That’s the extent of his game.
His On ball defensive is definitely a major plus.
I know we all love Mcbride in the way that we loved Mitch. Home grown Knicks. But it may be that we replace Duece with a younger version of himself. A 2nd round pick on a team friendly deal whom we can develop in the way we did with Mcbride.
Unless we can resign him to a reasonable number then I’m okay with keeping him.
Anyone who has even entertained the idea that letting Mitch walk wasn’t a bad idea really needs to look at the type of shit we’re left contemplating now.
“And then she told me the details of the trade and I thought I misheard because I was still groggy from the anesthesia so I asked her to repeat them. And then she said, reading from her phone, “Paul George and two first round draft picks.” You know what I said to her then, Sal?
I said, “I wish you’d told me I have colon cancer.””
Good points, Yeahitsmemjsays.
I love Landry and I’m glad we have him back but I’m not certain he’s going to be the Landry we love for very long. I think Deuce has long term value to the team, not to mention sentimental value like Mitch.
Any extension would assume he is comfortable with a bench role and a corresponding salary. If he wants starter money like IQ, it won’t work out and he’ll be traded like IQ.
The first two mins of this pod are great.
Simmons has aged very well. I really enjoy him now.
Deuce is a nice player who could be attractive to another team, and it seems like it’s easier to replace Deuce with a competent TP-MLE guard than it is to find a competent center with that money.
I still think that’s the play. Deuce (plus extras probably) for a good cheap young center, then sign a Deuce replacement in FA.
“In terms of the racial angle, it hasn’t escaped notice that Stevens’s attachment to his white boys — first seen in the Giannis fiasco in which Brown was involved, and now in the vision of Pritchard as Brunson — has become a bit discomfiting if not downright odd.”
I’m very pleased to say that that “racial angle” did not enter my consciousness, even for a second. Wiseman entered my consiousness for a second yesterday, and then quickly left. The idea of Looney entered my consciousness as being a good thing for about a half hour yesterday, and then left after I learned more about his last couple of seasons (much like JK).
I’m not down on LeBron coming here. We have the chip now, so why not give it a whirl (assuming that it is on a minimum contract that does not fundamentally change our team even more, and assuming that he comes in with our “all about the team mindset” that dictated our championship run this past season). I think both of these caveats could happen.
And thank you, Raven.
“I still think that’s the play. Deuce (plus extras probably) for a good cheap young center, then sign a Deuce replacement in FA.”
Pretty much all in on this idea, and I really do like Deuce a lot. Deuce + picks to shore up our backup (*not* our backup backup) center position is a thing that should probably happen before we have to deal with Deuce’s contract after next season. This is the way that smart teams/front offices handle such things.
Looney as backup backup center? Maybe I could live with that, but I still think that we could do much better than that.
JK (and everyone), would you rather use Deuce and seconds or filler and the 2033 pick to get the backup C?
I’m in fuck dem picks mode now. I’d rather keep Deuce.
The case for keeping the 2033 pick is that it’s overkill for a backup C and you might need it later when Josh Hart ages out.
The case for using it is backup C is a really important position that often has an outsized role in determining the winner of a series. The Celtics just lost to the Sixers because they had no backup C, and the Spurs lost to us in some part because of Luke Kornet (after Kornet almost single-handedly cost them the Thunder series).
I don’t think this is a Kornet issue so much as a Wemby drop-off issue (when their defense is basically geared towards Wemby’s mobility). Kornet was very good last year against the Knicks in the Celtics series.
Boston has all their #1s moving forward. I can’t imagine they think they got a reasonable price for Brown (2 #1s and a corpse). There was no need to move him for at least 2 months. No practices or team functions. They just aren’t that stupid.
I have the sinking feeling Mr. Jokic is quietly coming their way at some point…
Given those two options, I’d *much* prefer keeping Deuce and use filler and the 2033 pick to get our backup center. I’m just not sure that’s enough to get us a *good* backup center (as you say, having a productive backup center can be critically important), so I’d up that to some combination of seconds, filler, and the 2033 pick to get what we need. I’d almost always rather lose assets that are not actual players to losing actual players (and again, we don’t use picks, anyway). Add to that that I truly think that thinking *at all* about 2033 and basing our current decisions on something that is 7 years away is a truly foolish idea. (We could all be living on the moon or under the leadership of the Iranian government by then, or each NBA team may be required to have at least one AI robot on the squad). You get my point—with the way the world is right now, it’s too far away to worry about.
So yeah, if we can get a productive backup center *without* losing Deuce somehow, sign me up right now.
I’m thinking more of moving Deuce’s salary for cap reasons. Seems like it might be hard to fit the backup C’s salary into the slot of whatever detritus we’d be sending out with the 2033 pick.
Deuce for, say, Yves Missi works in the trade machine straight up, then you get an additional year of Missi’s rookie scale salary plus whatever guard you can sign with the TP-MLE. You could probably bring in some vet like Kenrich Williams or somebody similar who could give you a reasonable Deuce facsimile for a year.
Trading any pick past the Mikal pakage is absolute suicide.
All of what JK just wrote: also true. I go back and forth between remembering that we’ll need to deal with Deuce after next season, and that it might be smart to head that situation off at the pass, and forgetting about it because I like Deuce so much (and now *he’s* our longest-tenured player). I do worry a *little* bit about Landry’s shoulder, but not really much more than I worry about OG’s hamstring or injuries to any of our core group.
“Trading any pick past the Mikal pakage is absolute suicide.”
That is very reminiscent of a quote by our (un-)beloved owner.
If Deuce becomes a non-Knick after five years of service here, who then becomes the longest-tenured Knick? Would it be…….Jalen Brunson?!?
Now, for an upgraded actually very good young player like Kel’el Ware, I’d definitely be willing to part with the 2033 pick. He’ll, I’d do Deuce AND the 2033 pick for the Porzingis-lite Ware.
Thanks!
Not really a newcomer at all. Been lurking here since the mid-2000s and then began infrequently posting under the moniker Count de Pennies. When the site was upgraded, I was unable to log in under that name so I resumed lurking full time, figuring that my usually insipid takes would not be missed.
Following a few years of absence, I felt the need to weigh in on some matter or other but figured I would need to create a new user name in order to do so. The first name that came to mind was Gondrezick, after the late, never-great Glen Gondrezick – a player the Knicks drafted in the late 1970s.
The wisdom of that selection became a hotly debated topic between myself and Herbie, my #1 Knicks running buddy at the time. I thought the team had gotten a steal. Anything I knew about college players in those days was based on what I had seen on TV. Gondrezick had come from one of those Jerry Tarkanian-coached UNLV teams whose games were televised a lot back then. Although he wasn’t a star for UNLV, I at least had heard his name mentioned frequently on broadcasts. Such was the depth of basketball analysis by 20 year old me.
Herbie did not share my enthusiasm for Mr. G, calling him a stiff who would amount to nothing in the pros. We went back and forth on this for a few weeks until one night we were out at an east side club called Mr. Laffs. We were standing at the bar when who should walk up but Cal Ramsey, who then worked as an analyst on Knick broadcasts. While Cal was waiting to be served, I seized the moment to solicit his opinion of Gondrezick. With barely a glance in our direction, Cal muttered, “He’s a good ballplayer,” before grabbing his drink and walking off.
Duly chastened by this proclamation from on high, I heard no more dissent on the subject from Herbie. The future excellence of Mr. Gondrezick was now a settled matter… until we actually saw him play, at which point it became painfully obvious that my friend’s initial skepticism had been warranted.
Glen Gondrezick was the first – and certainly not the last – Knicks draftee/signee who I would foolishly dream upon, squinting hard in search of a core competence that would ultimately prove elusive. This exercise, of course, is one of the main things that sustained the Knick fanbase during its many long years in the desert. We’ve all had our own Gondrezicks at one time or another. So that’s my name now and I’m sticking with it!
Hasheem Thabeet is worth a look too.
Doogie it already is Brunson. We got him and Deuce the same summer.
“Now, for an upgraded actually very good young player like Kel’el Ware, I’d definitely be willing to part with the 2033 pick. He’ll, I’d do Deuce AND the 2033 pick for the Porzingis-lite Ware.”
Yes, yes, and yes.
Not helpful, Donnie.
Deuce: July 30, 2021: Traded by the Oklahoma City Thunder with Rokas Jokubaitis to the New York Knicks for Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.
Brunson: July 12, 2022: Signed a multi-year contract with the New York Knicks.
Deuce has been with us for five seasons, Cap for “only” four.
The primary benefit of staying under the second apron is being able to trade that pick.
EDIT: my bad, doogie
That was kinda the point 🙂
Of course, that fact doesn’t make it automatically wrong. I’m sure his advisor from Mc Kinsey would concur.
You can say all the bad shit about Dolan (most of it absolutely factual) but you have to grant him for being a Machiavelian bastard in business. Imagine the balls to fuck your own father out of control of his own business.
He’s going to try everything he can to avoid as much revenue sharing as possible. He’s going to pay his 2 best long term pieces (Burnson and OG) and sell off KAT, Mikal, Hart whoever becomes too expensive.
If KAT doesn’t accept a “reasonable” extension this summer, he’s the first piece that goes for a 35M facimile, and on and on.
Melo got his building rebuilt and with the championship he can keep his best two players for the next 5 or 6 years and keep a 50ish win team that fills the building by swapping out very good players for good cheaper players.
To Dolan, profit is God.
Ahh Gonzo ( ne CDP) IIRC you were in search for a Gus’s style NYC pickle back when the Knicks were mid.
If the apron is going to continually be an issue, the move might be to give Deuce the next contract and move Mikal instead. Mikal showed his immense value in the playoffs but it’s still $33M for our 4th or 5th offensive option.
Instead of bargain hunting with Deuce’s contract, which is too small to bring back meaningful pieces, we could move Mikal for a strong backup C and another rotation player.
Could depend on how amenable KAT is to working with the FO on his contract number.
The problems with trading Deuce for a back-up center is 1) we’re almost certainly going to be worse at back-up center regardless, which is annoying as hell but there’s no Mitch-equivalent out there.
AND 2) we’ll lose another integral part of the bench in Deuce. He’s probably more replaceable than Mitch, but even though his finals were weak sauce, he shot .413 from three this past season, and is an absolutely fantastic on-ball defender. Yes, Landry Shamet somehow morphed into Deuce there at the end, but the ability to be redundant at that position is pretty great, between injuries, guys on a heater, and just different looks. There just aren’t a lot of similar guys out there.
Plus, of course, every stadium in America reverberating with “DEUCE!” when he makes a three.
Count me among those that think all the fuss over rolling out picks was a lot of wasted energy over a 5% loss on a not particularly important dollar given how we were rebuilding the team.
Count me among those that think the reaction to losing Mitch is being overblown in basketball terms and is assuming a lot of things we don’t even 100% know to be true. We don’t know if it was just Dolan’s decision, Dolan and management’s decision (management would clearly like to avoid blame) or Mitch wanting a bag and role on the team that was greater than we could or wanted to give him in monetary or basketball terms. Mitch has wanted to start and be used more on offense since day one.
Mitch was/is an “occasionally’ high impact player that made some of the biggest plays I can remember for this version of the team. He was/is a very likeable person. He was also constantly injured and broke his hand in non basketball activies at what could be argued was the most inopportune time in franchise history. We are extremely lucky it wasn’t the difference. He’s also about to make 45 million dollars and get a bigger role on a different very good basketball team. I’ll miss him. I’d rather he returned. But I’m not losing sleep. He’s probably in a better spot for him anyway.
Yeah, not sure there was a front office masterplan here, you guys.
Maybe Kayil isn’t playing SL because he’d lose leverage to come over if he gets injured.
Anyone mention that Cam Reddish is playing for Orlando in SL yet?
I just envisioned what happened: Leon did told Dolan that the 2nd apron was suicidal, just not now… but last year. Dolan badly wanted some starfucker move (maybe tearing down all the team for Giannis or Durant) but Leon did not budge, or maybe even tricked Dolan into a hard cap by signing Yabusele. Now, Dolan’s hurt ego is forcing the team to stay under the apron.
You guys say how you love we won without a “superstar”, but for Dolan, it is the other way around. He obviously loves being a champion, but he is saddened that the face of the NBA isn’t in his team, and holds a grudge for it.
Can we get Missi (in other words, are the Pellies just playing hardball), or should we give up on this one? He’d be a really good backup center. Still hope they’re working on Diabate (unlikely) or Cisse (more likely).
Still upset at how little Dallas paid for Aldama, but if it increases our chances of prying away Cisse even a little bit, I’m all for it.
There’s a pretty big difference between a black hole like Kevon Looney who only played 300 minutes for a terrible team because he mostly stunk, and a promising young player like Missi who actually got Looney’s minutes because he was both younger and much better. You’re not replacing Mitch with Missi, you’re mitigating the effect of the black hole that was created when he left.
I’m using “Missi” as shorthand here, feel free to apply that to any decent rookie scale backup C.
lol is this going to be like last summer except this time they leak every backup C we try to trade for instead of every coach we try to interview?
As long as I’m in a contrarian mood (gearing up for the Saratoga meet), I want to say I think Paul George is a better fit on Boston than Jaylen Brown.
When he’s healthy, even at this age, imo he contributes more towards winning than Jaylen Brown.
Brown is a more aggressive scorer (which they don’t need as long as Tatum is there), but he’s not as good from 3, can be a bit of a ball stopper at times and didn’t even defend all that well last year.
Granted, Boston is making a big bet on two guys that are often injured in George and Mitch, but if they do manage to get 60 games and the playoffs out of both of them, they are going to be very good (and they got some pick assets out of it for the long term).
Boston “may” have screwed up by not adding a little more to the Giannis trade to get him and they may have overestimated Brown’s trade value around the league, but IMO the league is right. Brown is a very good player, but he’s not as good as he thinks, the media thinks and award voters think.
And EB is probably right. Short of a miracle, the only way out of this is trading Mikal for two pieces. That’s not a move I expect to happen this year, though. Only next summer, when/if we’re unable to pull a rabbit out of a hat
–
I knew there might be a problem when they didn’t draft a big and then let Hukporti walk over a million dollars. I know there are a lot of costraints to deal with, but when you know Mitch is gone you have to do one of those two things unless you know something I don’t know. I see no evidence of that so far.
LOL media.
“Feverishly?” I wonder where that characterization came from? Has any veteran negociator ever “feverishly” negociated anything? What bullshit. Stupid NBA media.
I’m sure Yves Missi is unavailable. That’s why he was 11th in mpg for the Pels last year…. unavailable… do these guys ever read the crap they write?
I have to think at this point the league will save Sixers-Celtics to have on the day after opening night. It’s too funny for them not to profit from this.
We might end up getting a Knicks-Cavs rematch instead.
He was 7th in minutes per game for qualifying players, but point kinda taken.
re: the c-word – the problem I think lies that different countries applies the word differently. In America, it’s 100% a slur against women, and often they are the target of this insult. But in other English speaking countries the target is normally men and it’s either used as an insult or affectionately.
We need the English speaking countries of the world to come to a consensus or for the c-word accepting nations to just adopt another term.
This could be a country song itself
They could have let Shamet and Alvarado go, promoted Kolek to backup PG, and given Dadiet or McCullar a whirl as backup SF to see how that goes until the deadline.
They actively chose Shamet and Alavardo over Mitch and to not bring Huporti back.
I agree with 2 out of 3 of those decisions and the 3rd is marginal.
IMO all they really need is a backup C. Once they signed Shamet and Alvardo, Deuce became the logical piece to trade both from what we have to offer point of view and the fact that he’s up for an extension and is going to get paid. I’ve been saying this all awhile.
We may have to find a team that can give us a quality backup for Deuce.
I heard a pundit floating the idea of that the Celtics Doctors finding something on Paul George’s physical so they could rescind the Jaylen Brown trade. Similar to the Mark Williams Lakers fiasco.
Under said hypothetical theory. If that happened who would be in favor of trading Mikal Bridges plus a sign & trade of Mitch’s contract for Jaylen Brown and picks?
Not sure it works in Trade machine but if Brown can get traded to Philly why not Ny?
Son just went in for an MRI on his wrist/thumb at HSS, was right behind Josh Hart in line. Probably still having trouble with his finger.
“They actively chose Shamet and Alavardo over Mitch and to not bring Huporti back.”
And the 24th pick in the draft and, less directly, Deuce. Though there’s still time to move some pieces around and keep Deuce. Money’s very tight next year, though, too — and they just added Shamet and Alvarado to it, the latter an unforced error.
One theory I’ve seen kicked around Rangers boards is that now that it’s looking very likely that Chris Drury’s “we’re going to rebuild, fans” letter from last winter was just issued to get Artemi Panarin to not want to stick around for a rebuild and instead waive his no-trade clause (*), similarly the second apron mandate was put out there to be able to say bye-bye to Mitch.
I don’t buy it, but it’s not entirely crazy and the Panarin part of it adds up.
(*) Which he did.
Getting decent championship level rotation center now is 3X as difficult as last week.
No one is going to want to bail Leon out. He’s in the same boat as Brad Stevens was with Jaylin Brown. Offers keep getting worse and worse.
Best chance Leon has it at trade deadline dealing with a tanking team trying to loose…but with new draft rules, – that train may have left the station too.
“Under said hypothetical theory. If that happened who would be in favor of trading Mikal Bridges plus a sign & trade of Mitch’s contract for Jaylen Brown and picks?”
How can we do anything with Mitch’s contract since we don’t hold it anymore?
“Best chance Leon has it at trade deadline dealing with a tanking team trying to loose…but with new draft rules, – that train may have left the station too.”
Ummmmmmm……. We can’t wait until February to get a backup center.
I’d honestly rather have Bridges than Brown straight up
Among other issues, that wouldn’t match money-wise. Jaylen makes a stupid amount of money.
If they were going to do so, it would probably happen after years of careful team-building got rug-pulled by their idiot owner leaving them with a large hole in an otherwise championship caliber team after other potential avenues to fill that hole had been squandered in what appears to be reliance on said owner not being an idiot
Trading Mikal wouldn’t be about this year. It would be about the next several years when KAT, Brunson, and OG ask to get paid again.
If we refuse to go over the apron, something has to give eventually.
Also, most $4M centers suck
Under the radar, but not nothing: In a separate transaction, Anfernee Simons also went to Philly after spending most of last season in Boston.
Two things can be true:
1. The Knicks have been a very good organization under Leon Rose
2. They seemed to have screwed up here with this backup C situation
Part of the issue here seems to be that they had a plan, and Dolan fucked it up.
Letting Mitch go as a basketball decision could at least be debatable, particularly as it would only happen if the FO had a Plan B.
Thinking that you will be able to keep Mitch and then having to come up with a Plan B on the spot is utterly stupid.
Not realizing that you could possibly even need a Plan B (in the event that Mitch left, which became more likely once you decided you didn’t want to pay him) is utterly stupid, as well.
As someone who has had a recent surgery for a boxer’s fracture, I can virtually assure you that outside of martial arts, there is no possible way one can be doing something smart, or careful, when it happens. I suspect that has much more to do with the end of his tenure here than anyone is willing to share publicly. But your own conclusions drawn from that simple reality should suffice.
What was Anfernee Simons thinking?? Maxey and Edgecomb are gonna get a ton of playing time, and Philly is really high on Philon. Even if he’s the primary backup at the 1 and 2, it’s gonna be hard to get him 20-plus minutes a game. Plus..there’s only one basketball
You plan for these things way in advance. I’m sure there were conversations with Mitch’s agents, etc. Pulling the rug from under the FO leads you to this.
Sure, you probably had to plan for the contingency that he decided to leave on his own. But that’s different than thinking that you will be able to keep him, and the owner doing this.
I’m sure they had plan B, C, D, etc…but they all dry up fast in free agency when you dont have any fucking money to spend so you end up window shopping.
What Leon needs costs more than what he has in his pocket. What he can afford to buy is just not worth buying.
To borrow a line from The Unusual Suspects – “is it Friday already?”
“As someone who has had a recent surgery for a boxer’s fracture, I can virtually assure you that outside of martial arts, there is no possible way one can be doing something smart, or careful, when it happens. I suspect that has much more to do with the end of his tenure here than anyone is willing to share publicly. But your own conclusions drawn from that simple reality should suffice.”
OK, but he *did* play in every game of the Finals, limited or not, and made some key plays. I was annoyed at the apparently self-inflicted wound (literally), too, but we hurt ourselves more by letting him go than we would have if we had just sat him down and told him that he can’t do shit like that anymore.
Look like Leon hafta pull off another “impossible” trade somehow, i.e.
– acquiring OG is impossible because the Raptors would never trade with the team that’s suing them; and
– acquiring Mikal is impossible because Lil Brother would never trade with Big Brother.
As others here have noted, any halfway decent Mitch replacement will need to be acquired by trade as the quality of the backup Cs available on the FA market ranges from piss poor to lousy. I climbed aboard the Diabate train a few days ago but right now it seems impossible that Charlotte would want to trade him for whatever meager scraps Leon has to offer. We’ll see how that goes.
The NBA is a Salary-Capped league.
Whatever you think of Mikal Bridges versus Jaylen Brown, Mikal Bridges is making $33M this coming year. Jaylen Brown is making $57M this coming year.
Bridges is a phenomenally better contract to have on the books.
Jaylen Brown 2.2 EPM
Mikal Bridges 1.8 EPM
Factoring in chemistry and fit I’m taking Bridges even at the same salary
A nice reprieve for his own head. 😏
I hear ya. I wasn’t advocating one way or another, just attempting to contextualize some of what the Knicks were potentially thinking. Who knows the extent to which this kind of non-basketball headache has been discussed with him already. Perhaps they have ultimately determined that it’s the right time to step away from a persistent issue and go their separate ways. Whatever it is they clearly felt they could afford to let him go.
It’s practically impossible.
But so was getting Yabu to waive his second year and trading him for a useful PG.
They might be high on their own supply. You pull a rabbit out of your hat once, you think you can do it all the time. Or maybe they’re truly magicians. We shall see.
Trading Mikal’s 33 million and turning that into 2 rotation pieces would be ideal especially since KAT, HART, BRUNSON extensions are coming up. Mikal is the most replaceable piece.
Kolek didnt have the trust of Mike Brown to earn playoff minutes. Probably due to his defensive shortcomings. So unless he earns that trust this season we need to clear his salary for someone playable. Along with Dadiet. Between the Mikal, Dadiet, Kolek we’d have roughly 40 million to spread around.
And if Kat takes less, Hart takes less along with annual cap increases we would be in excellent shape.
If they can find a tall guy at Rucker park today, you know he’s a gamer. Sign him up.
Re: the word that starts with Cade’s last name – ningham + t
Some of you same dudes use the word that is the new Celtic’s first name – M + B here all the time, so not sure why the sudden snowflakiness.
Also, I’ve seen the word that is the name of the guy who scored 25 points on Spike Lee in ‘94 – ggie miller + (the first name of the Rocket’s best free agent – i Eason) + (the word for all the knicks first round draft picks – tra) bandied about here a lot lately without anybody being offended on behalf of E’s basketball takes.
Everyone knows MR’s obvious strengths and weaknesses.
I’m guessing someone dealing with mental health issues and who has a panic attack every time he’s near the free throw line, sitting him down and trying to reason with him in advance against self immolation was probably tried and a fool’s errand..
I mean why wasn’t Leon and the medical staff smart enought to employ that obvious strategy. Just TELL him loudly not to break his hand before it happened. That’s the trick.
Thanks for the review Strat, I will recap tomorrow!
OKC re-signs Kenrich Williams for a mere $5M, so there’s a potential Deuce replacement off the board. Options shrinking here as the clock continues to tick.
Not that we were so hot for Kenrich in the first place, but… time is not our friend here.
Ridiculous. All of it.
Fischer says we have, in fact, reached out to LeBron.
From a purely basketball and presumably cap dollars standpoint I would not be opposed to LeBron. They can’t make up the loss of Mitch like-for-like. So they need to improve in other ways to be even better.
But with all this talk of a film crew and being his last dance, it would be such a fuckin’ circus, it really doesn’t seem to fit the vibes our guys have worked so hard for and that, one could argue, are a significant part of this roster’s quality.
His main contributions were solid D against prime Cs, lobs and offensive rebounding.
Just like it’s difficult to see the production you are missing with a lesser player same goes to the difficulty to see the trouble that his ft shooting causes to a team’s rhythm while giving the opportunity of hacking strategy and the team’s constant forced adjustments to his offensive limitations and his poor ft shooting.
Are LeBron and Curry friends now? LeBron used to be jealous of Curry (and Thompson) for skipping the line in what was a fascinating display of classism in the “new” nba. Both born in Canton, one to a single teenage mom, the other to a well-off mixed race couple. I’d like to see him go out with Curry, there’s some poetry to that that transcends beating teams like the Timberwolves.
I wouldn’t call losing Mikal ideal.
This is exactly what the Denver Nuggets did after they won their title.
Who cares about Jeff Green and Bruce Brown? They only play 12 mpg. All we need is our starting 5.
One year later, the starting 5 is taxed because their replacements suck.
Two years later they’re breaking up the starting 5 so they can turn Michael Porter into multiple pieces to try to replace the guys they were too cheap to pay.
Three years later it’s all over, and now Jokic trade rumors are circulating.
It’s a slippery slope when you get cocky and pinch pennies
At this point Lebron is our only avenue to avoid a significant downgrade in overall team talent, so this is the main thing I’m holding out hope for.
It’s not a lot of hope.
Without this, we basically open a new thermal exhaust port where we KAT gets 2 fouls and we have to play a losing lineup.
I don’t expect this dynamic to reduce the prevalence of the two quick foul special.
I will do everything in my power to limit myself to one post on this topic.
Before Mitch left I probably would’ve had an irrationally negative response to the idea of signing LeBron, even for the minimum. We built this damn thing ourselves, don’t need an interloper, yada yada yada.
Now I am unfortunately quite worried about the lack of big depth we have. So yeah, sign me up for LeBron being our starting 4 and small ball 5.
You can’t seriously say no to LeBron at the vet minimum. That would be crazy. He won’t come here though.
Really enjoyed the Bill Simmons pod and Goldsberry’s comments in particular
I’m not negative to Lebron or even the Devil himself if he’s willing to buy into what we have right now and make it even better.
The way i see it Lebron has 3 options.
To go after money, fun or pride.
If he’s still into his ‘Chasing Jordan’ crusade to prove he’s the GOAT then choosing the Knicks to win a couple more chips might not be a bad choice for him.
Cavs and Warriors are apparently the two finalists for LeBron. I’ll be glad when he signs so we don’t have to read LeBron fantasies here anymore.
There’s a better chance of the Knicks signing one of us than there is of them signing LeBron.
Leon has to stay calm, and not pull any of that Celtic duress bullshit. As Jk said, he and Brock dropped the ball, no question about it. They were hi-fiving instead of setting up a Mitch contingency plan. We’re like Flounder when Otter admits his failures, “You fucked up….you trusted us.” The brain trust will have to scour Summer League rosters, for now, and then patiently wait for an in-season option. The bad part is – everyone knows our desperation.
The two of you can just skip past my LeBron fantasies the same way I skip over you guys when you’re moaning about your shitty baseball teams 😉
https://x.com/SiteNYK/status/2072327326512168996?s=20
Can we say nuct instead of cunt, Doogie. Or cnut.
And for the record, it’s not down to two finalists. That’s just what the Warriors beat reporter guessed:
“It’s about a 50/50 right now,” Friedell said on 95.7 The Game. “It’s Golden State and Cleveland. I just don’t see another team that makes that much sense.”
We got this, Swifty.
Speaking of podcasts , I thought podcasts were audio recordings, like radio, that you listen to with a podcast app. And some are indeed om these apps. But the Bill Simmons one isn’t there as of yet and it seems now they are TV instead of Radio, and Simmons’ are on Netflix. But when I search Netflix for podcasts I find very little and no Ben Simmons at all. Can someone please explain to me how they work nowadays? An audio type option is better for me since I tend to listen on the way to work.
Ok, I’m starting to get into the Lebron thing. Now that they already have a title, it’s totally fine.
The Brunson-Mikal-OG-Lebron-KAT starting lineup would be ridiculously good.
Like, imagine a Lebron-KAT P&R with Brunson coming off screens, Mikal and OG in the corners. It’s unguardable.
Yes Leon and Brock were busy high fiving each other after winning the freaking NBA championship instead of worrying about possibly losing their backup center…
They all eventually reach a podcast platform like Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Honestly my biggest concern is that LeBron will want to play for the Knicks but Dolan won’t let us go over the second apron to sign him.
Yep, BigBlueAL, we did win and we were happy for a while and we will be happy upon further reflection. But today and tomorrow there will be hundreds of unhappy posts about a 10-15 minute back-up center that is not currently on the roster- because we are kind of nuts.
I hear you Hubert. Loosing Bruce Brown was a big mistake. But the real reason that team has declined so much is the crappy play of Jamal Murray.
The only reason I advocate for eventually moving Bridges is his inconsistency. But if he can gave a better season then he’ll be worth every penny.
LeBron wanted #23 and Mitch didn’t want to give it!
Now it all makes sense!
He’s definitely coming!!!
🥳😂
But hasn’t he said he’d sign for the vet minimum? And aren’t we required to roster a certain number of players?
I don’t think he’s coming but if he does, how does it cost us money we would not be required to spend anyway?
Sign me up for Lebron purely for the basketball reasons it makes alot of sense. He’s a smart player. Wouldnt have to expend himself so much since we have playmakers and defenders. He’d seamlessly fit in and could share the “Hub” duties with KAT.
We’ve seen him work with small ball dominant guards such as Kyrie.
We got shooters Shamet, Duece(when he’s on), OG, KAT.
Off ball slashers. Mikal, OG.
Plus how can you go from L.A back to Cleveland.
Here Lebron gets to play 41 games in the World Most Famous arena.
Only question that remains.. would he truly play for the vet minimum or is his Ego going to insist on getting the 15 million MLE and require a team to gut itself and sacrifice its depth as “tribute to the King”.
Low key agree with this. With LeBron at PF, Hart becomes our super-sub again, Alvie backs up Brunson, Shamet does Shamet things, and we can then, with some sorrow, trade Deuce for a legit backup center. It makes too much sense.
But would LeBron really want to work for Trump’s bff? I’m gonna say probably not.
Edit: mj, we could give LeBron the Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception, I believe.
Thanks Marechal.
The Ringer made a lucrative deal with Netflix earlier this year to be their exclusive home for all their video podcasts but the audio versions should still all be on Spotify.
Well that’s at least nothing to worry about since we can’t sign a free agent from another team and go over the second apron.
It makes even more sense, because you don’t have to trade Deuce at all.
We only need a real backup C for the deep playoffs — maybe the ECF, definitely the Finals.
So just get a journeyman chump for the first 90% of the season. And then in the finals LeBron slides to C when KAT sits.
Lebron is a brilliant and unselfish player. I dont really follow the side show stuff and would be thrilled to see him play with the Knicks. It could make for some beautiful hoop, at least on offense.
But then were hard capped at the 2nd apron and we gave one player 6 million instead of filling out the roster with remaining cap space. Remember we need to get to 14 players. Easier to divide our remaining room under 2nd apron between several players on vet mins at 2.4 mil.
With that being said if Lebron demands TPMLE, then thats what he gets. It would be disrespectful to offer the King anything less. Now that I think about it. It would be a show of respect and allow him to save face.
Dadiet and Kolek should be traded ahead of Deuce if we needed to make more room. Thats 5 million right there for two guys who cant get any playoff minutes.
You can go over the SA to sign a vet min player.
We can’t sit around and wait for LeBron, who wants to take his time. We have to do what’s responsible and fill out the team. Bring back Clarkson and sign a couple bums to play C, and that puts you at the SA. Then signing LeBron to the min puts you over.
It would be a million percent worth it. But Dolan.
Then the team is
1 Brunson, Alvarado, Kolek
2 Bridges, Deuce, Clarkson
3 Hart, Shamet, Dadiet
4 Anunoby, James, Diawara
5 Towns, James, bum, bum
Yes, I have LeBron coming off the bench. It will be his idea. That’s the only way this works. That and no farewell tour.
He can have the production crew, though. I think the players would love that. Brunson & Hart aren’t exactly camera shy.
Haters will think the cameras are just there for LeBron. Real ones will know the series won’t be about him, it will be about the greatest Knicks team ever. LeBron’s a genius. You think he doesn’t know how much money he’ll make selling a series about the Knicks to Knicks fans?
fun to speculate, but, the story feels already written…lebron james will finish his career where it started…
no doubt he wants to milk this moment for all it is worth, but he’ll need to move forward sooner than later so the cavs and warriors can both move forward too…
maybe then we will do what little moves left that we have…although, I don’t think out backup center issue gets solved ’til next trade deadline…
maybe the cavs can figure out a way to sign and trade harden for kyrie…
remove harden, add lebron and kyrie and they have a serious shot next season…
If by end where it started you mean go to a Cavs team that won’t win it all, then yes, I guess that would make perfect symmetry to his career. And no doubt the fans in cleveland would love to have him back and The Cavs would like it cause it would make them better but also not really fuck them up too bad for the future.
But been there, done that, right?
I mean, he already went back to Cleveland. Got them a title.
He has never played for the Knicks in Madison Square Garden in the playoffs.
And I said it earlier. I don’t think its’ about getting another ring. At least not in the sense that the only goal in his mind is to say he won one more.
It’s to get to experience the highest level of competition going deep into the playoffs and winning one more time before he retires. In a situation where he can truly just be one great player among many. On a team that plays a style of ball he loves and excels at.
I mean, look, I get why people think it’s a pipe dream. But since it’s been reported he would play for the vet minimum and Mike Brown used to be his coach and Leon used to be his agent and he’s always talked about how much he loves MSG…why the hell not?
No they don’t. Let’s be serious. They got fucking swept by us. 41 year old Lebron makes them better and Kyrie is better than Harden but Kyrie is also hurt a lot and not exactly in his prime either (and also not the most reliable). And with Kyrie and DOnovan you have 2 ball dominant guards.
I don’t see Lebron and Kyrie being enough and that’s IF they can unload Harden for Kyrie.
from a business perspective, maybe even from a basketball perspective the knicks make a lot of sense…
from a personal legacy perspective:
I could be right, I could be wrong
It hurts so bad, it’s been so long
Mama, I’m coming home
I don’t believe LeBron will come here, even though this is gaining steam on various social media platforms and rumor sites. Knicks for clicks.
But if this actually DOES happen? Hell yeah I’d be psyched. He wouldn’t have to do much heavy lifting, and you could make about a million different effective lineups with him.
Exactly. He could easily play 2 more years here. Plus if he is serious about playing meaningful basketball he’s got to consider NY. Or else why is he still playing. He did the Hollywood thing already. He did Miami. Unless Vegas gets a franchise in the next few months I dont see another fit that gives him the chance at both on court success and off-court opportunities as much as playing in NY can.
Golden state is risky business especially with the fact that A.D wont be made available. Plus how could you join the team you went to war against. This is his turn to be selfish & pull a KD move.
The whole production crew thing is not a vanity project, it’s reportedly his way to make up the money if he has to take the minimum.
If you were producing a show to make money, wouldn’t you want it to be about the team that just blew the doors off the league’s ratings records?
He sounds like a regular Lord Disick.
interesting, had no idea whom scott disick was before this moment…
you seem very familiar with him donnie…please tell us more…
Lol is that a real person? I thought Donnie was just continuing his game from earlier and calling LeBron a huge dick.
I am very envious of those of you who don’t know who Scott Disick is
Sports Gossip had a funny bit about all of the leaks about Taylor Swift that Page Six is running, and it makes the most sense that the leaks are coming from Dolan.
I’m 6’2″, so exactly the kind of player we stockpile. Not really a backup 5, though.
For all you aesthetes out there who aren’t familiar with him, Scott “Lord” Disick is one of the greatest athletes ever, with nothing much left to prove except that he can stay at the top of his field longer than any mere mortal ever has. He’s a self-made billionaire, and he’s already set his kids up in the family business, but he still needs to keep a camera crew around him at all times, to make up the money he lost from being dumped by Kourtney.
Kourtney was always my favorite Kardashian.
feels like at any moment you are completely prepared and eager to start trying to sell us all mary kay cosmetics…
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