News & Blogs
NBA free agency 2026: Why blockbuster trades have taken over the East – ESPN
Best value acquisitions of the NBA offseason – The New York Times
Knicks, Andre Drummond agree to one-year deal – SNY
‘Knicks Still Champs,’ Josh Hart Reacts to USMNT’s World Cup Loss to Belgium in Knockout Bracket – BleacherReport
Wizards hiring Knicks legend Patrick Ewing as assistant – SNY
Monday Posted & Toasted Notes: Mitch reveals the truth, afraid Melo take – Posting & Toasting
Tuesday Posted & Toasted Notes: Mo’s turn, Andre vs. Mitch, veterans on parade – Posting & Toasting
Pod Strickland Episode 609: Filling Out the Fringes – The Strickland
Why the Knicks should NOT sign DeMar Derozan #Knicks #NBA – Knicks Film School
YT News
176 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.07.08)”
Warriors not matching the Quinten Post offer sheet. First time that’s apparently happened with an RFA since 2020?
https://x.com/SamQuinnCBS/status/2074634996241801292
The tweet has an attached graphic that notes that KAT and OG combined to take up slightly less than 60% of our cap (Brunson was only our third-highest-paid player), and the only teams over 60% in this stretch where the 22 Warriors (Steph and Klay at almost 75%) and the 17 Warriors (Steph and KD at slightly over 60).
Or, to put the salary thing another way:
The Knicks now have pretty much a set rotation. It wouldn’t be a great landing spot for DeRozan.
We need a 3rd string C. That’s about it. If Clarkson wants to tag along, sure, but he needs to understand that he will probably get even less minutes than last year.
I don’t think Derozan can hold up on defense well enough to be on a contender, and I’m not looking to catch lightning twice by betting on another high usage player committing to defense
His defense is bad, but he’s a very good scorer who can pass a bit. That’s useful if you need that, but I don’t think we really need that all that much. I also think that, as we saw with Clarkson, defenses in large port about effort. Demar could probably be coached up to make the effort, but still, he’d be taking playing time away from somebody already in the rotation. And that wouldn’t be healthy for the locker room.
“We need a 3rd string C. That’s about it. If Clarkson wants to tag along, sure, but he needs to understand that he will probably get even less minutes than last year.”
Or a second-string center. Depending on who we get, Drum might move down in the rotation.
Macri’s newsletter is sort of a “what if” re: the Spida trade. I posted about it yesterday, but me, it was the luckiest break of Leon’s tenure that his best offer (and possibly any offer) to Ainge was rebuffed.
I consistently said back then that I would personally withhold judgment on Leon’s tenure until Fall 2023 or until he made an all-in move. In that moment, I thought the die was going to be cast in the extreme negative. I even went on Termine and Johnson’s show after the Cavs’ deal was made to express relief that the deal didn’t go through and that I represented a broad swath of fans who felt the same way.
Nothing that has happened since has changed my mind that Leon was extremely lucky to have avoided a catastrophic mistake, most likely (but of course, not definitely) an unrecoverable one. And at the time, it definitely shook my confidence in Leon, but the rest of that offseason was pretty solid (I didn’t mind the draft-day stuff all that much) and, well, here we are…..defending champs!
And this has nothing to do with it not working out for Cleveland as they had hoped.
“Or a second-string center. Depending on who we get, Drum might move down in the rotation.”
Fair. I just don’t see that guy readily available.
I really don’t get why Cleveland signed Spida to that massive extension. Maybe they think that they have no chance to win a championship beyond this season so might as well ensure that they are somewhat competitive and keep fannies in the seats. He and Mobley clearly aren’t a championship core going forward into their extensions.
As to Drummond, I think he has the ability to be very close to as good as Mitch on offense and on the boards. It’s the defensive end where Mitch will be missed most, especially situationally. But can he be coached up? We’ve seen Brown and his staff work wonders with all three of KAT, Brunson, and Clarkson. Even with plus defenders like OG, Mikal, Deuce, and Mitch, seems like the schemes maximize their effectiveness.
Drummond’s biggest issue is that he’s heavy on his feet. He was never all that quick laterally in terms of covering the court, while Mitch was obviously elite. The goal should be to close that gap as much as possible with a conditioning program, film study, and practice reps. I just worry that with a guy at Drummond’s age and weight, you risk injury by asking him to do too much.
“I posted about it yesterday, but me, it was the luckiest break of Leon’s tenure that his best offer (and possibly any offer) to Ainge was rebuffed.”
I generally agree with your take. But it ignores two things in the counterfactual: Thibs’ imprint on Donovan versus JB/Kenny’s; and the Brunson/Mitchell dynamic (Macri insinuates that Jalen would defer to him ala Luka–don’t agree). Of course it would have meant different or no OG, Bridges, KAT trades, but the last 2 were 50-50s until this post season. All I know is that you need a lot of luck to be champs–whether it be a trade that did not happen, a Shamet 2-3 bounce on the rim before going in for a crucial 3, or a star rifling the ball into the back of his teammate in the last minute of a game on a knife-edge.
“But it ignores two things in the counterfactual: Thibs’ imprint on Donovan versus JB/Kenny’s; and the Brunson/Mitchell dynamic (Macri insinuates that Jalen would defer to him ala Luka–don’t agree).”
The pairing would create two intractable problems:
-one of the worst defensive backcourts in the NBA
-a closer issue…who waters down who? Clearly Brunson is the superior closer, and that would eventually cause Mitchell issues, or at least make him not worth his contract.
I don’t think Thibs or anyone else could solve that riddle. And there was a guy named Randle to deal with. And Mitch would have gone out in that trade. It would have been a clunky mess.
However, I do think that Spida could have been offloaded for decent value, even if not as much as went out to get him. Maybe after a year or two, Leon would have pivoted in a way that made more sense, and got lucky and hit some home runs in the process.
Thankfully, we’ll never have to find out.
In my eyes, Mitchell was the only guy who competed in the Cavs series. I can see why Cleveland re-upped him even if they have no real shot of winning it all.
I think the Harden trade was a big mistake for them, though. They went out early last post-season and then weren’t on track to win 60 games again, so they panicked and made that Harden trade. I think they should have been more patient and waited for another move.
It’s interesting that Kayil is having trouble getting released from his old team. It suggests they aren’t happy about losing him, even though they might be contractually obligated to release him eventually. I consider that a good sign for his talent. Of course, it could just be a simple bureaucratic mess too.
It’s not just a cheat code it’s a prerequisite.
The biggest advantage OKC has is not Presto’s stockpile of firsts. It’s that SGA is on a non-Rose extension. He’s giving them $100M of value for 25% of the cap. We have a similar advantage with Brunson.
Every NBA champion from now until the time this system changes is going to be led by a player in Brunson/SGA/Tatum age group, simply because of the math. Superstars 30 and over are fucked.
There’s an easy way to fix this.
Instead of one overall salary cap, create one slot that exists separately — call it the 1A slot. Every team has one single 1A slot. A team whose 1A is Wemby at 24 won’t have a major advantage over a team whose 1A is Steph at 35.
This will also make sure talent is distributed evenly because NBA player will be angling to get the 1A slot. No one’s super teaming anymore.
Only teams that don’t have their 1A slot filled can participate in the lottery.
And you can only trade your 1A player to a team that has an open 1A spot. If you make a mistake and give your 1A spot to Jaylen Brown, that’s on you. You suffer until the contract is over or someone is willing to take him.
There should be an advantage to not filling the 1A spot. Like an extra $20 to spend on the rest of the team. You don’t want teams using it just to use it. But if you want to use your 1A spot, you have to shed the extra $20M to be able to.
Rookie contracts get reduced to 2 years. If you draft a rookie and another team is willing to offer him their 1A spot after 2 years, you can either match or let him go. If no one offers him the 1A spot, he’s a restricted free agent.
I’m just spitballing here, but this is the bones of a better system.
Spida is a great, great player. You pay guys like that, even with the second apron. He’s not the reason the Cavs can’t get over the hump. It’s like those offseasons when the Yankees won’t go after the absolute top-tier free agents because they’ve already spent too much money on B/B+ vets in previous offseasons. Or when Rangers fans said ARod was making too much money for them to compete, when the problem was what their FO was spending on everybody else.
As to Drummond, I think he has the ability to be very close to as good as Mitch on offense and on the boards.
i think drummond is close to replacement level and we’ll be desperate to replace him by the asb. it’s not just that he’s slow laterally, he extremely slow vertically inside now as well and is too slow in his weight shift to play cat and mouse in drop.
i don’t think he’ll be anywhere near mitch on offense. 56% from 0-3 for is a 1st percentile result for his player-type. he’s a much better passer but he gives all the value back with tov when teams actually try to run through him more. the three guys directly above him last year in fg% 0-3 ft were dennis schroder, jared mccain and rob dillingham.
he’s still a great offensive rebounder but mitch was otherworldly last year. the difference in orb per possession between mitch and drummond was the same as that between drummond and justin champagnie. drummond’s two-year orapm ranks 647th in the nba and mitch is 80th.
“In my eyes, Mitchell was the only guy who competed in the Cavs series. I can see why Cleveland re-upped him even if they have no real shot of winning it all.”
The problem with those 35+% extensions is that the 2nd apron makes it highly unlikely that a team can compete with one guy at that level and another guy anywhere near it (Mobley) unless one of them is a Wemby-type freak.
It seems like players have to decide whether they want to max out their dollars (Hi Patrick! Hi Melo!) or sacrifice 5-10% of the cap for the sake of building a championship roster around them. The question may very well become: what is your championship legacy worth to you?
I think that for me personally, if I already was already guaranteed to be a hundred-millionaire, it would mean everything. I respect that others feel differently, but to me, there are things that money can’t buy.
Now it can be argued that using the additional earnings to do positive things beyond sports is more important than championships. Or even to maybe own a team. But I’d be interested to hear what Patrick or Melo have to say about how much of their earnings would they have given up in retrospect if it meant winning a championship.
I hear you, pt, and clearly the only reason Drummond was even available for the vet’s minimum is because of that.
However, I am optimistic that at least some of Drummond’s woeful numbers are situational. Philly seemed like a mess to me. I’ve never been a Nick Nurse fan, and Embiid is a toxic whiny bitch. Brown & Co. should be better able to compensate for the things you allude to, both in coaching Drummond up and in scheming around his unfixable issues.
I’d be a lot more comfortable with a viable alternative to Drummond, a more mobile type. That’s why it is so upsetting to me that Leon let Huk walk for nothing.
Drummond got single digit minutes in 3 of our 4 games against Philly, and that was with Embiid missing 2 games. He was complete and utter barbecue chicken. He’s not a playoff player for a contender, period.
I’m fine with the signing because you surely need some regular season innings eaters, but as of right now, and before anyone yells at me I am aware this is subject to change, the plan seems to be “run it back, except be much worse at center.”
Easy to say this when we aren’t in this stratosphere financially, but I tend to agree. I mean, shit man, if I was worth even 10 million dollars I feel like I’d retire right now and just spend the rest of my life doing whatever the hell I wanted. So it’s hard for me to comprehend already being worth 80 or 100 million and thinking I need an extra 20 million vs. going after the ultimate dream of my career and being a world champion. Plus, even if you aren’t in NYC, there are obviously a lot of long term financial benefits to being a world champion. Their post-retirement careers tend to be far more lucrative.
One potential “fix” for Drummond’s relatively low % from 0-3 feet is to have him kick the ball out more when he corrals an OR. His usage, while less last year than it was historically, is still significantly above Mitch’s. Can he be coached into being a lower usage/higher efficiency player? Kicking ORs out to the perimeter to set up opportunities for 3pt shooters seemed like a staple in Mitch’s diet.
We likely need to develop a strong center-less lineup for the playoffs.
The team most likely to punish us for letting Mitch go is — I hate to say it — the god damn Indiana Pacers.
We had enough trouble guarding their frontline when it was just Siakim and Turner. Now they have Zubac, who is a mountain of a man.
When KAT goes to the bench with foul trouble against that team, either a) we play Drummond and the Pacers continuously march straight to the rim, or b) we go small and never get a defensive rebound.
Fuck you, James Dolan.
I’m fine with the signing because you surely need some regular season innings eaters, but as of right now, and before anyone yells at me I am aware this is subject to change, the plan seems to be “run it back, except be much worse at center.”
No one should yell at you for saying this, as there is much truth imbedded in it. However, I would qualify it by saying that the team will be much worse at C in the playoffs in the 13.9 mpg that Mitch played, and that there are schematic ways to compensate for this. Where I tend to agree is that by letting Huk go for no good reason, Leon exacerbated the problem. Not picking up a defensive C in the draft (and selling one that you did draft for peanuts) didn’t help, although we’re probably talking sub-replacement level for this year anyway. Huk was the best “bad” option available to Leon. I truly don’t get not bringing him back.
Maybe Leon has a plan C/C/D that isn’t manifested yet. But right now it looks, shall we say, suboptimal?
Things have been kinda rough lately, but I can’t believe I missed yesterday’s question.
What’s the best new song or album you’ve listened to lately?
They Might Be Giants is my favorite band, and I like their new album (The World Is To Dig), but I’m not super crazy about it. Although the DJ for Bagel Radio likes it, so maybe it an album for non-TMBG fans. If you haven’t checked them out since Flood, I’d recommend Glean or Nanobots instead.
Same with Bug Club, I’m not crazy about their last album (Every Single Muscle). I think their other ones are much better Very Human Features and Green Dream in F# are phenomenal. I just saw them live (again) and they put on a good show.
Talk-sing seems to be the rage for modern rock, indie, alternative, whatever-you-call-it these days, so if you’re interested you can check out:
* Cheekface – on the poppy/nerdy side.
* Dry Cleaning – also great live, more rock than pop, more serious than tongue in cheek.
* Dead Anywhere – very similar to Dry Cleaning.
Everyone know about Wet Leg now, but they’re worth a listen.
In an interview Johns Flansburgh recommended 100 Gecs’ stupidest girl. It’s hyper-pop, lots of sampling and auto tune. If you know the Avalanches song Frontier Psychologist, and asked if it could be faster tempo and taken to an extreme, this is it. Give it a listen, and I bet you’ll be humming it all day.
Surrbort is an odd band. Kinda Kim Gordon-ish, but way more literal. There’s a bit of fuzzy/distortion as well. Reality Star is worth a listen.
William Paquinn’s Hahahaha is somewhere between Fountains of Wayne and indie solo rock. Real catchy stuff. No one knows about this, and it’s a shame.
I actually think that Zubac is the kind of C that Drummond can still cope with, as compared to, say, Turner. And Indiana’s backup C’s are Jay Huff and Micah Potter. So long as KAT doesn’t get into foul trouble, I don’t think Mitch vs. no Mitch makes all that much difference relative to the difference vs. other teams.
Leon is going to make a move before the trade deadline to get us a real back up center. Drummond is fine to start the season.
Even if DRummond was as good as mitch, we would still need a third stringer. But Leon is gonna find someone who is better than Drummond and Drummond will eventually get moved to the 3rd string.
I have faith this will happen.
He’s just gotta sign Lebron first.
Re: Mitch, the team I’m most concerned about in the EC is the Celtics. It’s a multiplier effect of them gaining whatever we lost. The “kick out ORebs to shooters” thing is going to be tough.
The over/under for Pacers ORtg with Andre Drummond on the court would be approximately 200, and I’d bet the over.
I’ll take that bet.
Celtics made the wrong choice choosing Tatum over Brown and it’s going to be obvious come mid-season.
No way, Swift.
The Celtics are going to be better next year. A lot better. Call me a heretic but I actually think they deserve their status as favorites in the East right now.
They’ll definitely be the 1 seed, I’d put good money on that.
I also think the Celtics will be better…not record-wise (they won’t have tanking teams to beat up on) but playoff-viability wise. They were exposed as frauds vs. the shitty Sixers. Healthy Tatum is better than Brown. PG13 adds some shooting. Mitch adds rebounding and rim-protection they sorely lacked. Their kids will have another year and offseason under their belt. Mazz is possibly on the hot seat.
I still think we are better than them and will beat them in a playoff series, possibly in a short series.
Okay, I don’t actually think LeBron is coming here. But pretend for a moment that he is. How does this work, basketball-wise? He starts at PF, OG and Mikal slide down one spot positionally, and Hart goes to the bench? Leaving aside what that could do for Josh’s confidence — and he’s one of several key players we have (KAT and maybe Mikal are others) whose play fluctuates wildly depending on how good they’re feeling about themselves — can he defend consistently enough at that spot, at his age? Would we want the ball in his hands more when we’ve just unlocked Point KAT? If not, is he wasted as a guy spotting up in the corner?
Obviously, if the guy who’s either the best or second-best player in NBA history — and who’s still really good even at his age — wants to sign here for the minimum or part of the TPMLE, you don’t turn up your nose and say no thank you. It’s just not as obviously clean a fit as it would be for the Wolves or Philly, I think?
Chemistry is going to be an issue for the Celtics. That team last year liked each other until… Mitch is not a native son and pg13 is an echo of a good player. Tatum has yet to be The guy that the team has coalesced around. Pistons are gonna be trouble.
This is the fly in the ointment. Not because I think it would affect Hart’s confidence, but it’s just wrong and I don’t think the organization wants to do it.
LeBron would have to be willing to come off the bench, and that’s probably a bridge too far.
I have no doubt LeBron could actually defend his position consistently, though. He’d be in the free safety/secondary rim protector role, which would be much easier for him at his age than covering wings.
“Okay, I don’t actually think LeBron is coming here. But pretend for a moment that he is. How does this work, basketball-wise? He starts at PF, OG and Mikal slide down one spot positionally, and Hart goes to the bench?”
This is what I assumed. Hart has shown that he doesn’t have a problem going to the bench for the good of the team (relegating himself there for Mitch in the midst of the 2025 playoffs), and he might be fantastic as a “super-sub” for us in that role. No way that LeBron would come off the bench, nor should we ask him to. I also think that OG and Mikal each sliding down a spot would be great for us, overall.
I’ll try to answer this for you.
First, why would Lebron go to Philly or the Twolves? I don’t care about “fit.” Does he really want to end his career in fucking Philadelphia or Minneapolis?
Cleveland and Miami make some sense because he played there before. Cleveland probably more so since he’s from Ohio and started his career there.
Golden State makes sense if he really wants to stay on the West Coast and play with Steph.
But as far as The Knicks, I would try to get him to agree to come off the bench. Pitch him the idea that he would be the 6th man and could win that award (which he has never won). To me, that would be a cool thing to achieve at the end of his career, especially if it led to us winning another title.
If he doesn’t go for that, then you talk to Josh. Josh is the one guy who’s confidence I’m not worried about. Lebron is in his 40’s. Even if he starts, we would probably limit his minutes most nights and he’s going to take games off. Josh would then be the 6th man, a role he has played before. And he would still get PLENTY of minutes.
And yes, you play Lebron at PF and move OG to SF, which he can actually be even more effective defensively, I believe.
Brunson/Alvarado/Kolek
Mikal/Shamet
OG/Hart
Lebron/Diawara
KAT/Andre
Or
Brunson/Alvarado
Mikal/Shamet
Hart/Lebron
OG/Diawara
KAT/Andre
The beauty is Lebron can play positionless basketball, so you can plug him in anywhere. He’s another ball handler and playmaker, which, even with Alvarado, we need.
To me, it’s a no brainer. He might get some ring chasing flak from haters but he’s won 4 rings, so it’s not like he’s desperately riding our coat tails like Durant did with The Warriors. And we have the depth and talent to let him coast during the regular season.
I disagree.
We just won the championship. We shouldn’t bench anyone.
And LeBron is 42. He should be playing 20 minutes off the bench instead of starting and playing 33. Less is more at his age.
If LeBron doesn’t see it that way, I understand. But those are my parameters if I’m Leon. And I think he can make a very compelling case that it would serve LeBron extremely well, too.
Remember the comp is Bill Walton on the ’86 Celtics, not Kevin Durant on the Warriors.
Yeah, but he also talked this season about how difficult it was for him mentally when Brown started off the season with the double-big lineup. He won’t raise a stink if he’s moved back to the bench, but he thinks of himself as a starter now, rightly. And he is a guy whose confidence comes and goes. He has said this. The beats have said this. It is a thing. His willingness to shoot stems from his confidence level. And his willingness to shoot is the difference between a Josh Hart who wrecks the opposing team’s game and the Josh Hart who can wreck his own team’s game.
“Obviously, if the guy who’s either the best or second-best player in NBA history — and who’s still really good even at his age — wants to sign here for the minimum or part of the TPMLE, you don’t turn up your nose and say no thank you.”
Yes you do.
LeBron’s game is going to fall off a cliff sometime very soon. His BPM has declined for 3 straight years. He had a .550 TS in the playoffs and was 32.7% from 3, after shooting only 31.7% during the regular season. And while BPM is a better metric than WS48, it seems pretty ominous that his WS48 in the playoffs was .098, a career low by a country mile. It ain’t gonna get better, or even stay the same.
NBA lives are like dog lives. When things start to go, they don’t decline gracefully, they fall off a cliff. The problem is, the mind still thinks the body can do what it used to do. And in the event that he declines significantly, is there any graceful way to handle that?
LeBron should go back to Cleveland for his farewell tour and maybe help that sorry-ass team get over the top. Or he should do a last hurrah with the Over the Hill Gang in Golden State. He isn’t coming here, nor should he, nor should Leon want him to. I’m shocked that any of the smart folks here are even entertaining that fantasy.
LeBron is not warmiong the bench for anyone. I think he’s going to Philly.
I wouldn’t even do that, Swift. And I don’t think Leon would, either.
I still want to watch our starting 5. If LeBron comes in here and displaces Josh, it won’t go over well with the fans or the players.
It only works if he’s the humble one and takes the bench role. There’s no other path for him to get over with the fans or his teammates.
He can have the time of his life if he does it. Or he can go to Cleveland and get his ass kicked. His choice. But we should compromise nothing.
If, as I continue to believe, LeBron will weigh narrative fit as much as basketball fit when choosing his next team then the Knicks were never a serious contender for his “talents.”
“Aging superstar piggybacks on NBA champs in search of one last ring” is hardly the storybook final chapter of legend (Rich Paul said as much when he said LBJ would have considered NY had they not won)
Cleveland (“Return of the Native Son”) is still the clear frontrunner from a storyline standpoint with Golden State (“Aging gunslingers team up for one final battle”) a distant second.
Doesn’t he have some sort of godfather/godson type of relationship with Tatum, though? If I’m remembering that correctly, going to Philly to play with Tatum’s nemesis Jaylen Brown would be even weirder.
Paul George is the Celtics’ potential gaping hole. He missed about half of the Sixers’ games in each of the last two seasons and had a -0.4 and 1.7 BPM in those two years. He has crept to below league average in both eFG+ and TS+. His usage has been down in the low 20’s after about a decade in the high 20’s/low 30’s. He averaged 14.5 points on a .528 TS% against the Knicks in the playoffs and made one free throw in 134 minutes.
He may not be completely cooked, but he’s getting there. He’s clearly in a very real decline phase.
It was for Bill Walton.
Philly makes sense on paper, but not in reality. Really, the place that makes the most sense is Cleveland. If he helps them, great! If not, he gets the best farewell tour possible as a returning hometown hero, not a shell of a GOAT on his last legs in an overhyped merc role. Miami would be a close second, as he has history there and Giannis could use any help he can get.
“It was the perfect ending for Bill Walton.”
What a ridiculous comparison.
I don’t see it that way.
Last year they filled his position with Sam Hauser and Jordan Walsh. Everything they get from him is gravy.
They have an army of try-hards to do all the hard work in the regular season and keep him fresh for the playoffs (where he was very good, especially against Boston).
They’re going to be incredible on defense, and high eFG% on offense with high 3PA volume and a dominant possession team (low TO, high OReb).
They built a four factors machine. George is just a small cog.
I agree with JK’s assessment of PG13 overall, but think that the role he will play in Boston is more accommodating to his decline phase than his role in Philly was.
The Sixers have had the disease of Daryl Morey’s shitty management hanging over them for years. He has churned that roster in the dumbest of ways to try to save his job. Paul George was the straw that broke the camel’s back. He was brought in to be a second or third star, when his ceiling was pretty much 5th banana. Now he can be that in Boston, as a nominal starter that plays 25 mpg mostly in a catch-and-shoot role.
LeBron doesn’t want to come here and help us win another ring. He wants to fuck us one last time, wants to beat us like it’s his one last boss battle.
Cleveland is probably his best bet, because if we beat them again he can fall back on the “I just wanted to go back home” storyline. But he’s not coming here, and doesn’t want to come here, so we can all stop trying to make Fetch happen.
Hauser and Walsh were pretty good low usage guys.
I think the Bill Walton comparison is apt.
Also, Clyde when he went to the Rockets, who had just won a title. Of course Clyde was only a little bit out of his prime.
I think the narrative that he’s ring chasing would be something a few haters would talk about on social media but beyond that, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Plus, all of that goes away if we actually do repeat and if he’s coming off the bench, it can be spun as he’s sacrificing for the team and going for the 6th man award, a kind of cool feather in his cap achievement.
And yeah, Hubs. I do agree that Josh should still start and this should only happen if Lebron is willing to be the 6th man.
I don’t want Lebron, not even if he wants to come here. Let’s keep what we’ve built, and try to improve it. Getting a player that would be greater than the team, be it him thinking that, or the fans, media, etc, is irrelevant. I don’t want him, i want us to try to win the right way. The way we did this season, like brotherhood, or a family!
Lebron in Philly starting lineup could end up having all 5 hall of fame players. Three are already in…
Maxey is a 2x all-star and all-nba player at 25yrs old while VJ is a young stud with incredible head on his shoulders. Surrounding them with veterans like Lebron and Jaylen Brown will assure they become the best version of themselves.
I even think Embiid will be influenced to take his professionalism to a championship level.
Winning a chip with his 4th different team in the city of brotherly loved for the first time in 44yrs, – is not nothing.
Lbj just like having his well known game he also has his well known character which is traditionally toying/teasing/provoking with the knicks.
Even his manager’s recent line that He would have definitely went to the knicks if they haven’t won the title seems Waaaay Too Pretentious and Trollish among other characteristics.
Cavs may seem like the favourite destination in the press right now but i wouldn’t exclude a team such as Phi, Bos or Mia that would give him a good chance to a chip +a final attempt to irritate his “beloved” knicks fans…
They still have them! They don’t need George to be the George on Philly. This is going to be the most reduced role of his life.
This is a very impressive depth chart to me:
1 White, Pritchard, Conley
2 Scheierman, Pritchard
3 George, Gonzalez, Walsh
4 Tatum, Hauser, Walsh
5 Robinson, Queta, Garza, Cenac
Defensively, that team is a monster.
Offensively, they’re going to be at the top of the NBA in TOV% and OREB%, and they will pair that dominance with the highest 3P volume in the league. The math is in their favor. (I made a mistake earlier, though, they’re not a high eFG% team.)
That team is good.
On paper
The one thing that would worry me if I’m the Celtics is that Derrick White looked awful the last three months of the season. Was that random or the start of his decline? If the latter, forget everything I said.
Tatum coming back fucked their chemistry.
Now if LeBron chooses NYK for whatever reason I’ll definitely root for him but I’d like to have him constantly under supervision to not fuck up team’s chemistry.
z-man
I’d amend that to say they need a 2nd string C. 😉
Has there ever been a LeBron team with bad chemistry? The dude is still friends with the guys he played with in high school.
It’s like worrying that Michael Jordan might diminish your team’s desire to win.
“We need a 3rd string C. That’s about it
z-man
I’d amend that to say they need a 2nd string C. 😉”
We already did this today.
Bill Walton was a MVP-type for a little more than 2 years, peaking with his post-championshp year with the Blazers in 1977-78 when he went down and never came close to fully recovering.
he never played more than 33 games between then and 1983. Then for 2 years he sas a part-time starter for the terrible Clippers. He never played more than 26 mpg after that.
He played one good with the Celtics at age 32. Then the next season he got injured, was terrible in the playoffs, and finally got benched in the ECFs and finals. He retired right after that, totally washed and broken.
There is zero comparison with what Walton did and how he did it with what LeBron is doing and how he’s doing it. Walton was thrilled just to be on the court with a contender and was willing to do whatever was asked of him, within the limits of what his body was capable of. LeBron thinks he is doing teams a favor and is milking the limelight, just like he did with The Decision, only worse because he is a shell of that player at this point. It’;as actually pretty disgusting, in my book.
But Director… the Sixers are our bitch.
Out of all the teams, that’s the one that’s going to give him his most shameful ending.
“It’s like worrying that Michael Jordan might diminish your team’s desire to win.”
I prefer LeBron’s character to Jordans off the court, and in some ways on the court.
But Jordan didn’t have to ring chase in his twilight years. He quit for 3 years, then came back to a shitty team that had no chance of winning a title, just for love of the game. He played 3000 minutes for the 37-win Wizards in his final season. He didn’t care about playing the media and fans like a fiddle, or being a scrub ringchaser on a championship team.
Boston is going to need a lot of heavy lifting from the Pritchard-Hauser-Scheierman-Gonzalez group. Those guys are all… I mean they’re all decent players, but they don’t strike a lot of fear in me as a core group of a playoff rotation. Tatum-White-George also seems a little light to me as a “three stars” group.
I guess we’ll see where their health is at when the playoffs roll around. At full max 100% health they’re pretty deep, but a couple of the key pieces are injury risks. If Paul George is watching the playoffs in a suit, then they gotta rely more heavily on the Pritchard-Hauser-Scheierman group that wasn’t good enough to get it done this year.
They’ll be good because they’re always good, and because those guys are all competent. I just don’t see a lot of pop with some of the guys they’ll be counting on to carry them deep into the playoffs.
With all these star names being thrown around, I’d like to take a moment to marvel at the 6’2”, FedEx driver-lookin, non-traditional point guard who somehow willed our team to a championship against a walking redwood tree of a manchild. These types of stories are never about a Knick—until now—and I’m going to goddamn relish it all summer.
There were rumblings out of LA that LeBron chafed at his demotion to second banana under Luka. If those rumors are accurate, then he likely avoids going to a team where his arrival won’t be the biggest story.
Can’t see that being Philly who just traded for a Jaylen Brown who wants to lead his own team. At GS, he’d be sharing the spotlight with Steph which he’d probably prefer to playing Robin to Luka’s Batman. But in Cleveland, he’d be the undisputed main attraction owing to his native son status and past history with the team. I’d be shocked if he doesn’t end up there.
I’m with Cyber on not wanting anything to do with LeBron. Recognizing his amazing career, I’ve spent the last decade happily ignoring any and all fanboi press about him, and I would like to continue to do that while reading about my Knicks (as compared to all the stories about the Knicks being about LeBron fucking James).
Having said that, I really hope he goes to Golden State, as I can see a world where any of the teams in the East that he might end up on being better with him. Which is annoying.
My father in law made a career out of buying/selling jazz records. He would buy them at flea markets, etc. Then would turn around and auction them. This lasted even into the internet era. He had around 150k-200k of them by the end.
This is a song that reminds me of his exploits, and may be meaningful to you in this endeavor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3urXygZXb74
I feel about Geese now like I felt about the Strokes back then – I just don’t see the hype. I’m not saying they’re bad, but I don’t understand why so many people like them, as I don’t think they are that good or have that kind of appeal factor.
Of course now we know Geese manufactured their hype, which makes sense…
Very charming and evocative clip, Knickerblogger. Thanks for that.
So far my favorites from yesterday’s music recs are:
Earl Greyhound
Broken Social Scene
Twisted Teens
Good stuff all!
Yes but it’s easier making those decisions in your 50s/60s with hindsight. It’s harder to do that as a smooth-brained 28 year old who could be a knee injury away from having no career.
Also reminder that ‘Melo forced the trade instead of just waiting for free agency which partially gutted the Knicks. So he kinda already answered that question.
Started as a metalhead in the 80s before diving deep into alternative/indie stuff and then turned much deeeeeper into the 60s/70s garage/psych/prog/kraut/electronic before returning back-home to metal lately!
Strokes were the band i remember as the frontrunners along with White Stripes that made me lose interest about “today’s pop rock”…
And Melo forced the trade specifically because he was worried a new CBA could potentially cap his earnings if he signed his next contract after it went into effect.
He made his choice. I don’t hate him for it, but I will also never love him as a Knick as a result of it.
I’m not gonna lie, even I’m starting to get out on LeBron (sorry, Swift).
It was basically my cope for losing Mitch. But now that I’m deeper into the acceptance phase of that, I kinda don’t care.
It’s a little fun, actually, that all his choices are so sad and lame. And that he wishes he could come here but he can’t. I’m getting a certain satisfaction out of that.
I fear you haven’t heard that Pritchard is as good as Jalen Brunson
Not me, lol.
A championship team has to try to get better if they’re going to repeat. Rockets got Clyde. Warriors got Durant. Those spurs teams never repeated but almost always tried to find a way to bolster their bench from season to season.
Staying pat is a recipe for not repeating. And we didn’t stay pat because we lost a huge advantage off the bench, even if he played limited minutes.
We need to find a way to offset that and get better. We can’t just assume we’ll turn it on again come playoffs.
Lebron would be the simplest way to do that and his age lines up perfectly with our window because we’re talking one, two years tops here.
But, yes, I acknowledge its a long shot and also very dependent on him buying in and accepting a lesser role to some degree.
But otherwise, how else do we get better? Hope Diawara takes a big step forward? That’s about it!
lmao
Post of the day.
This is not really the case. Geese hired a PR firm called Chaotic Good that did a very standard modern PR campaign for them. This firm has worked with a ton of breakthrough artists, specifically mk.gee, Dijon, and sombr, three very successful acts who didn’t receive the same backlash that Geese got for their “manufactured” hype.
There are other agencies that use the exact same influencer-spreading tactics. Chappell Roan, Lorde, Charli XCX and Doechii, for example, all worked with firms that used the same sort of promotional campaigns. It’s just the way the industry works, and for whatever reason Geese got singled out for it.
Their hype was actually very organic, and started to swell with the low-key release of Cameron Winter’s solo album “Heavy Metal” in late 2024. That was a December release, and it’s a quirky album that received very little promotion but caught on through word of mouth and flagged him as a young songwriter who was worth watching. It came out too late to make most year end “best of” lists but it’s a beloved album. That record was put out almost under the radar but people connected with it enough that it really raised Geese’s profile leading up to the release of “Getting Killed.”
Watch a clip of a Geese show and you’ll see a packed house singing along with every word. Their fanbase is similar, although on a much smaller scale, to Zach Bryan’s fanbase, in that there seems to be a real connection to Cameron Winter’s lyrics. They’re also a “musician’s band” and have been championed by people like Nick Cave, MJ Lenderman, Jeff Tweedy, Julian Casablancas, Richard Lloyd, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Josh Safdie.
They’re not for everybody, as they’re kind of an art house thing. I hear traces of Roxy Music, Talking Heads, and the Velvet Underground in there with their more contemporary influences like Radiohead and TVOTR. To me they’re the best Gen Z rock band by a comfortable margin.
I haven’t seen any under/over estimates yet, but I started my early analysis so I am ready to make some bets when the time comes.
Take this with a grain of salt because there will be plenty more changes. I’m just getting started.
1. IMO going from Mitch to Drummond is going to cost use between .50 and 1.00 points on our theoretical SRS. So we’ll have to make that up with improvement from Diawara, a full season of Alvardo, another move at C etc… to be as good.
2. So far (and I hate to say it), my most likely candidate for betting “over” is the Celtics. I think some people are overreacting to the loss of Brown. IMO healthy Paul George, even at this age and diminished level of play, is still pretty good and a better fit. They won’t lose much and they’ll have a fulll season of Tatum instead (who imo is much better than Brown). If they can get 60 healthy games out of George and Mitch they are going to win a lot of games. The big risk is injury, including Tatum.
3. If the Lakers had OG Anunoby they’d be one of the teams I’d bet to win the title even with the injury risk issues they have. But they don’t have OG. They have Grimes, who is going to have to return to his peak 3&D form (emphasis on the D) for them to just be a very good team on offense. They need a 3&D badly.
Veteran wing Khris Middleton is returning to the Washington Wizards, agreeing to a three-year, $17.6 million contract as part of a six-team trade that will include several other agreed-upon transactions, a team source told The Athletic on Tuesday. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been completed.
Also, the Lakers are trying to get Jonathan Kuminga from the Hawks.
The second season of Middleton’s three-year sign-and-trade deal with the Wizards will be partially guaranteed, while the third season will be non-guaranteed, according to a league source who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been completed. Sign-and-trade arrangements must be for three seasons, but not all three seasons need to be guaranteed.
The Wizards will acquire Middleton via sign-and-trade as part of a deal involving the Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, Milwaukee Bucks, Detroit Pistons and LA Clippers. The large deal will fold in several previously reported moves for cap purposes, including the Bucks’ acquisition of Caris LeVert from Detroit and the Pistons’ signing of former Clippers forward John Collins.
As part of the trade, the Wizards will send guard D’Angelo Russell and two future second-round picks to the Grizzlies while receiving a future second-round pick from Dallas. The Wizards will give up a 2029 Los Angeles Lakers second-round pick and the Wizards’ own 2033 second-round pick to the Grizzlies, according to a league source who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been completed. The Wizards will receive a 2033 second-round pick from the Mavericks.
The Mavericks will also receive 25-year-old guard Marcus Sasser from the Pistons in the trade. Sasser, a 2023 first-round pick, averaged 5.2 points in 12 minutes per game last season. The emergence of Daniss Jenkins made Sasser expendable in Detroit.
By sending Russell to Memphis in this six-team trade, the Wizards are able to take Middleton and the recently acquired Deandre Ayton into a larger trade exception that expires on July 9, then create two new $6 million trade exceptions by dealing away Jaden Hardy (to the Lakers) and Russell (to Memphis). Russell is the Grizzlies’ 20th guaranteed contract, so he is a candidate to be bought out.
Middleton, who will turn 35 in August and won a championship with the Bucks in 2021, averaged 10.2 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 63 games for the Wizards and Mavericks last season.
Also, the Lakers are trying to acquire Jonathan Kuminga from the Hawks.
I want nothing to do with Lebron. I think the last two seasons he started showing signs of serious decline. He only plays defense in spots now. I don’t see how he’ll get any better on that end. On offense, he could help a team like Detroit or Orlando that needs some scoring, but he was bordeline useless on LA when they had both Doncic and Reaves healthy. At best he should have been 3rd option playing mediocre defense most of the time. They did not need him at all.
This, by the way is the origin of my facetious post about Pritchard
https://hardwoodhoudini.com/next-jalen-brunson-could-already-hidden-celtics-roster#main
If anything gives us an edge for next season, it’s the plethora of pieces diminishing just what exactly we accomplished and how good our players are. Clearly Jalen is motivated by it; others no doubt are as well.
I think there’s a trade to be made with Diawara and Kolek and picks.
But I think we just have to accept that we’re not going to be better. We let a 3.5 bpm center leave for nothing, so we’re going to be worse.
The whole LeBron thing has been my denial phase.
As for people who don’t want LeBron, I really wonder what you’re thinking. One of the five best players of all time would be a pretty nice pickup on the vet minimum. Good Lord. If I could root for Derrick Rose, I could root for a guy whose biggest sin is an oversized ego. In 20 minutes a night and usage around 20%, I imagine he could summon the energy to play defense again.
I think people are still sleeping on just how good OG is. We have a legit big 3.
https://slamonline.com/nba/og-anunoby-slam-263/
OG made the cover of Slam!
If we could sign Lebron at what we can pay him, it would be stupid not to do it.
We proved we can win without him. Now take him in and take advantage of what will be his final season or 2 at a low cost
https://x.com/ALLCITY_NBA/status/2074911314615377931
What would that give us… like $7 mil of return salary? Who is good enough at that price—that a team is willing to trade—to make a difference on our team? Even if you did Deuce plus Kolek plus picks, that’s more like $10-11 mil… I just don’t know who the realistic target is.
Not many guys. You basically have Ware, Diabete, and Lively. All of them would require our 2033 pick and some high value future swaps.
THANK GOD FOR ALL THIS FLEXIBILITY, THOUGH, AM I RIGHT?
I don’t have to tell folks how much more flexibility we have now that we’re under it.
We are just swimming in flexibility.
To get a decent backup C in a trade I think you have to find a contender-ish team with too many bigs who would like to have Deuce McBride instead of one of the surplus bigs.
Something like Deuce and Dadiet for Goga Bitadze, for instance. I’m not necessarily advocating for that particular trade, but that’s the sort of thing you’d need to do, and then hope Diawara can give you something close to what you’d get out of Deuce in terms of two-way value.
I remember when it seemed like a great idea to bring on ol’ man Jason Kidd because he looked very decent the season before.
All we need for now is a minutes-eating scrub. Hell, Trey Jemison would be fine to start out. Something better will come up. In the meantime, run out some smallball bench with Mo at the 5 to eat some minutes.
Last year taught us that the regular season results are strongly secondary to creating a cohesive coherent line-up for the playoffs. The Knicks were a roller coaster all regular season and reached their apex when it counted. I would not be surprised if the Knicks win less reg season games in 26-27. Leon has until the trade deadline to make moves around the margins to set up the team for another run. Of course Knicks were pretty fortunate in terms of serious injuries so hopefully that good fortunes remains. Let MB tinker and see what he can do with the assets he has. I’m sanguine about their chances at this time.
Deuce and Kolek for Paul Reed entered my mind but we already lost Mitch let’s not exacerbate the problem by getting fleeced.
I’m just so glad we have the flexibility to make these terrible trades to fix a problem that didn’t exist before. Thank you for your infinite wisdom, James Dolan.
Can’t stand still in this league! What you need to do is get worse so you have the flexibility to make a trade that makes you even more worse.
If you’re talking about the 2012-2013 season when we won 54 games, it was a great idea to bring in Kidd. He was a hug reason why we won 54 games that year.
The problem was that Woodson ended up starting him all season and basically played him like he was 28 year old Kidd and not 38 year old Kidd. For all the talk at the top of that season for having a really strong team around Melo, when you factored in that all of them were super old (Kidd, Sheed, Camby, Thomas, etc.), the depth on that team was actually pretty thin.
So bringing in Lebron would not be similar at all. Again, we’re talking about bringing him in for an extra boost. He’s not going to be our savior. He’s just reinforcements.
I mean, Lebron basically won a playoff series two months ago all by himself. He’s still got juice left to squeeze.
For the record, I’m strongly against trading Deuce.
I’d rather suck it up and lose with Drummond than compound the mistake.
Plus Diawara has both more trade value and less utility. He’s the piece you use.
So did Kidd.
I agree with Hubie that the flexibility we have is concentrated mostly in our collective hamstrings, enabling us to do a nice deep bend to get screwed in the ass trying to replace Mitch’s borderline All-Star impact for his minutes.
We have the minutes-eating scrub and his name is Andre Drummond. What we needed was a C option behind KAT who is above replacement level. We now have no options whatsoever to get that without weakening the rest of our roster significantly.
Why not? Do you expect Dolan to sell the team, or quit being a dumbass?
I’m with Z-Man on seeing what we have with Trey to start the season as our third stringer, which we kinda should do anyway, and if he’s a flop find an alternative as the season progresses.
Plus I could gaze at that jaw line for hours…
I don’t really see your point about Kidd at all.
That team won 54 games and was 2nd in the East. Going into that off-season, we had very little room to add to the team from the previous season and Grunwald went the old veteran route, partly because it was cheaper and partly because I think he thought (rightfully so) that it would keep Melo in line.
Kidd was de facto coach on the floor and basically organized the offense. He was not supposed to start but Woodson went with the 2 PG line up and the team did very well in the regular season.
Who knows what happens if JR didn’t get suspended, KG didn’t pop out Melo’s shoulder blade and we face Indiana after getting rest vs. going into that series tired from Boston with our best player hurt.
Kidd sucked in the playoffs. But he also played way more minutes throughout the whole season than he should have.
This is not the same situation Lebron would be walking into at all. He’s not joining a 6th seed team that got bounced in the first round the previous season and has no real depth. He’d be joining a championship squad with maybe the best starting 5 in the league with two all-star caliber players in their prime and a team that is already has 8 solid rotation players.
You’re asking him to play 20 minutes a night and help keep the offense moving when Brunson or KAT sits.
I expect the consequences of forcing Leon to replace Mitch with Drummond to be so overwhelming that there’s a chance even a moron like Dolan will see how stupid it was to interfere with the front office’s business and maybe next year he’ll be marginally less dumb.
If not, I expect KAT renegotiates his contract to get the team far enough under the apron that they don’t have to lose Deuce.
And lastly, I don’t expect Deuce to get paid a lot.
Swifty, obviously, we are not going to get anywhere close to agreement on this. I think it would be an imbecilic idea and you think would be a great idea, the bottom line is, it’s not gonna happen so why even bother thinking about it?
Deuce is a goner after one more season anyway, so I’d be looking to cash him in now for a piece we need.
“I remember when it seemed like a great idea to bring on…”
Old hand Jason Kidd to be the coach to replace Thibs. Phew.
I remember being happy when we picked up Jemison and kept him around. Most of us were happy when we picked up Sochan. We barely used either of them last season, just as we did not use Mo in the playoffs. I’m thinking maybe this upcoming season we find out why we kept them all around.
If two of the three of those guys turn into rotation guys this upcoming season, the front office will be lauded as geniuses once again.
If so then it’ll be too late. The time to go over the SA was now. Going over next year won’t get us back Mitch, and the thermal exhaust port opened by losing him for nothing will be no easier to close. We’ll only have less flexibility and overall talent next summer, whatever we do.
I’m not so sure.
I don’t think he’ll be very expensive, and we have enough flexibility with KAT and Hart’s contracts to get way under the second apron.
You can’t explain the Strait of Hormuz to Trump until it’s actually closed.
He gets it now, though.
This is how these idiots learn.
Deuce seems close to a NTPMLE player, maybe a little less. I’d keep him as long as he’s a bargain, and make reasonable extension offers. If he doesn’t take those, and we wind up losing it for nothing, not a big deal.
If we don’t trade Deuce now, there’s opportunity cost attached to it in my opinion. You could lose him for nothing.
He’s a fine player, but he’s a little bit redundant for us while we have a giant hole staring us in the face. The chance to sign a good C for nothing other than James Dolan’s money is gone, so if you want somebody good now, you gotta give something to get something.
I think you guys are wildly overestimating Deuce’s value in this marketplace. He is a 6’0” wing. He’s not getting anything close to the same contract Mitch just got.
He won’t get what Mitch got, but that’s not really the point, as time is of the essence. We need a backup C immediately. Our window is NOW. In fact, our window was yesterday. We’re not as good as we were a couple of weeks ago.
If we’re playing for the 2027-2028 season we’re doing it wrong. The window could be slammed shut by then.
he’s been mentioned some times over the last days – goga bitadze is a player that consistently stands out coming off the bench when we play the magic…
stands out in an overly active and irritating way, so know i’d love him as a knick…he likes to run…
quick check on the back of his b-ball card, stats look fine…final year of his contract, making 7.6 mil…gotta give to get…
I’m with JK on this – Deuce makes the most sense for a trade. He has some value, and in fact the Magic could use his shooting more than almost anyone. Leon has shown that he won’t pay market prices for secondary pieces, so I doubt he’s in the plans if he won’t agree to another very modest deal. If his agent thinks he can get $12m or more a year, Deuce should take it, and we should trade him before he does.
Love the guy, but we have guard insurance, and we don’t have a cromulent backup center.
JK and Hubie have it right.
We do need to trade some combo of Deuce/Pac Daddy/future value for a competent backup.
Goga is one of the best options out there. Deuce + Pac adds up to $7M which is almost Goga’s 7.6M.
Goga is highly cromulent at over 2 BPM for the last 3 years. Very Mitch-like profile. I would jizz in my pants if Leon could swing this movie. Give up whatever we have to outside of the core.
Is the disconnect here because you guys think Deuce is a more valuable trade piece than Diawara? Bc I’m pretty sure the 6’9″ 20 year old with 4 years of team control has more trade value than than 6’0″ wing who is one year away from UFA.
champion ariel hukporti, champion mitchell robinson, champion whomever may need to be traded to bring in a backup big – most likely in the final year of their current contract, both ways…
bye second round pick, we probably weren’t gonna pick you anyways…any player we have from last season should be getting a bit of a recent champion availability bump, maybe even our picks too…thank you again landry…thanks jose…
i’d feel more like we might regret losing tyler rather than deuce, but the time is next season/playoffs…
we are now in full merc mode…because who cares about mezzanine stuff when you’re sitting in the best seats in the house, for a while…yeah, so, whatever…homegrown or not, bring in good people and players, see what happens…
find them, bring them in by training camp, let the departed get settled in where ever that may be, good luck to them, before the season begins…
stay below 2nd apron, things don’t work out – more moves prior to next trade deadline…
will there be a difference in feelings when it comes to a player leaving the team via free agency versus trade = yes, most certainly…
Deuce is more valuable to a contender, because he is an established rotation player in the NBA. His floor is very high. Diawara might be more valuable to a bad team that is rebuilding, but a team like Orlando would likely value a proven rotation vet over an intriguing but unproven guy like Mo.
For us, it’d obviously be better to move Mo, because “win immediately” should be the plan. We should be going all-in on a repeat. I could easily live with trading Mo.
you know, literarily, you could, very easily, replace the word today, with todays…and it would be totally fine, and correct…
welcome to our own little piece of punxsutawney…
Apparently the board has given up on finding an actual player and will simply summon a cromulent backup center into existence at the trade deadline wielding the power of The Secret, the bones of Brock Aller’s ancestors, and Kabbalist Dead Sea Scrolls.
That renders it moot.
We’d have to cobble three players together to get there, which means we’d have to fill two roster spots. Even if we got Nickel and Kayil at 1.4, that means we’d have to send out $10.4M in salary.
Deuce + Diawara + Dadiet doesn’t come close. You’d have to use Landry, Dadiet, and then Kolek or Diawara.
Don’t you guys see?
WE GAINED SO MUCH FLEXIBILITY!!!!!
let’s finish the lebron thing and then we can get to trying each one of those EB…
Valanciunas cut by the Nuggets. Like Drummond, he’s not nearly as good as Mitch. But I still say yes because of the price tag and because of the depth he’d provide… is OG our best “center” on defense now?
I think people forget how impactful Deuce was before the injury. He never fully recovered and the fan base has developed amnesia for anything before game 3 of the Atlanta series.
People were clamoring for Deuce to start and the numbers backed it up.
Deuce and Dadiet for Goga worked in the trade machine but maybe the trade machine is broken
better than bane…real solid backup though…most likely to overperform contract…
Okay yeah I tried it in the Sportrac one and it failed. For reasons I don’t understand even after the trade machine explained it to me.
I quit. I am never going to understand how the salary cap works in the NBA. We basically can’t trade anybody for anything apparently.
“We basically can’t trade anybody for anything apparently.”
Hubie would concur vociferously, because flexibility. Let’s just go get Jonas and call it a day, I guess.
Sorry guys, the Chicken Little routine jumped the shark a month ago.
This.
Don’t trade Deuce for a backup C.
My 2 cents? The difference between Valanciunas and Goga is not worth Deuce. But maybe the difference between Drummond and Goga is?
Centers who can defend well without being a complete black hole on offense and who also make like $5M or under are scarce commodities. Nobody is gonna give us a player like that for our junk.
We either have to give something good or live with Andre Drummond. There does not appear to be a door #3.
I would’ve kept Huk. But there’s also a really high chance that he was not the answer.
Utah wanted mo Bamba: got him for a 2-year deal.
I could do with less Bamba
I’m just flabbergasted at the level of the kvetching about the back up center. It is July 8th with nary a game to be played for over 3 months and 8 months to the trade deadline.
A small bit of history that might be instructive, 10/1/24, the Knick’s center position was manned by a constantly crippled Mitch and the superb My Precious. Chew on that a bit.
Then on 10/2/24 Mr KAT arrived.
Leon isn’t going through next season with KAT and Drummond as the only playable centers on the roster. He doesn’t have a death wish.
Pretty sure he’s going to assess the progress of Diawara, Dadiet plus his rookies before doing anything substantial.
It’s bloody July fellows. Take an Ativan and chill.
I don’t want Demar
I’d be ok with trading Deuce if we are going to lose him. I’d be ok with trading Diawara for someone good.
I definitely don’t think Drummond is 80% of Mitch at 20% of the cost. He sucks and I hope we find someone better. Still time.
Hey, pal! I come here *because* I know there’s people passionately discussing backup centers in July… also, Ativan and other benzos have nasty side effects. I don’t recommend them outside of panic attacks; maybe an interview or speaking engagement, if necessary.
There are no roster problems, there are only people who have not read The Secret.
My feed is still filled with the most delicious bits of fun Knicks clips. It’s so easy, tho, to forget just what a bunch of total bitches the entire Spurs team was. Both how they played (trying to hurt guys) and how they behaved (taunting). Unprofessional bitches.
It all made the result even so much better. Who knew.
On one hand, Valanciunas would add desperately needed center depth.
On the other, he would increase the number of players on the roster you don’t want anywhere near a playoff game.
These are the kinds of dilemmas you deal with when the owner wakes up one day and decides to downgrade the championship team.
Yeah, it was really stupid. People have said for years you can easily replace Mitch. You can’t.
I don’t know that I have strong negative feelings about anyone on the Spurs other than Wemby.
Yeah, it really sucks when your team wins a championship after a 53 year drought but might not repeat because the owner won’t let fans spend his money the way they want him to.
Jonas is an easy pass. He isn’t a good defender.
The Knicks summer league has only one center, someone named Liam Robbins. He 7’0” and weighs 260 pounds. He was undrafted in 2023 and then played with the Bucks for one year seeing limited minutes. He subsequently played in G league for the next two years. It seems like center pickings are slim everywhere.
Robbins is horrible . I saw him on the Bucks a while back . Maybe he plays in Westchester next season. The Knicks should’ve kept the center Onyenso they traded to the Pistons if they wanted somebody worth keeping an eye on.
That’s sort of my point. I suspected he was terrible and yet he is the only center on our summer league roster. I suspect we are going to just roster two centers unless you count the possibility of Sochan as our third center.
Valanciunas at least brings some scoring punch to the table. He had a high TS% on high usage last year in a 12-15 MPG role backing up Jokic. He has never been much of a defender but I’d say he’s a better player than Drummond. He can still get a bucket.
The more I think about it the less I hate the idea of JV as the primary backup. He’s a one-way player, but he’s legitimately good on one side of the ball.
There are over 3 months before opening day.
Agree with JK that Jonas is better overall than Drummond. Neither is ideal, but whatever.
I already have a strong feeling that Drummond isn’t going to make it through an entire season with us, don’t ask me why. I hope I’m wrong!
Well, I had zero idea what The Secret was til I Googled it. But there are no roster problems in July that are worth wetting ourselves over.
We have a GM that has a history of addressing problems in a timely fashion. He took a young poor shooting small forward and a back up tweener guard who wanted over 30M per year and swapped then for one of the best 2 way forwards in the league in january. He had in always injured Mitch and Precious as his only centers on the roster and brought KAT in 10 days before the start of the season in October. He played all last season til February without an NBA level back up point, but miraculously turned the detritis from dumping Yabu and 2 second round picks into a first class high energy back up that was a real part of the championship rotation.
Leon has taken the KNICKS on (as the card counters say) a random walk with an upward bias over 5 seasons upgrading every position and plugging holes as they pop up. Sometimes imperfectly, but a majority of the times well. I’m confident he’ll address back up center in the fullness of time.
Are you saying we should put down our phones, BPL, and go talk to our children, girlfriends, and wives instead? No fucking way.
“Well, I had zero idea what The Secret was til I Googled it. But there are no roster problems in July that are worth wetting ourselves over.”
Bob, are you that thick? The championship isn’t really complete unless we run it back. In fact, I’m not even sure whether they should hang a banner in MSG. It’s double or nothing!
I am the slow boy.
“He took a young poor shooting small forward and a back up tweener guard who wanted over 30M per year and swapped then for one of the best 2 way forwards in the league in january.”
Well, some insisted that Leon overpaid for him in that trade (one guy even said that RJ was better than OG straight up) and then overpaid again on his extension. If only Dolan stepped in then and said “Hey, no way you’re spending one extra dollar of my money on that guy!”
I hear you but Deuce isn’t all we have to offer.
Diawara + a pick swap in 2032 + an unprotected 2033 1st is a very substantial package. And I think Kolek has some value, too.
The trouble is the matching salary. That’s why I keep coming back to Clarkson. His $4.2M non bird rights max would be quite helpful.
If we wanted a backup C so bad i guess we’d have signed 2-3 undrafted/young ones to the summer league team.
LRose right now has my permission and trust not only to let Mitch paint his truck green but to do whatever the fuck he wants.
Even to blow up the championship team and start from scratch.
He earned it.
Just Play the motherfuckin’ roster blues punk!
I wish that the folks saying that we should dump Deuce for a backup C would go back and read their own hyper-panicky comments during the Atlanta series, especially after game 3. Leon should be fired, Brown is terrible, Mikal is soft a bum, and the Deuce we’re now looking to ditch for pennies on the dollar should be in the starting lineup.
I don’t blame folks all that much for ridiculously over-reacting in the moment. But one would think that after a sprint to our first championship in 53 years, including a 13-game winning streak where this team set the league on fire, there would be a bit more humility and patience going forward. Just a bit. Alas…
I would rather see 1000 minutes of Trey Jemison than trade either Deuce or Mo any time this offseason for a better backup C than Andre Drummond…at least until close to the trade deadline. Even then, I’d rather package Shamet’s $5.5M with Dadiet’s $3M and a bunch of seconds for some C on a team that is already out of contention and looking to pile up assets. Or if Leon thinks that Deuce, and/or whoever is signed for the remaining TPMLE is the package, okay. And by then we’ll have a lot more info on Mo, so if he is stalled enough in his development that he has upside but no present rotation value, fine.
But right now, it’s more than 3 months out from the preseason games in China. This is not the time for panic moves.
Z-Man, you’re getting pretty fucking tiresome. You’re really being a know-it-all asshole and a “reply guy” who is endlessly fixated on every opinion every poster has ever had here, like none of us are ever allowed to have an opinion again because the Knicks won a title which somehow vindicates you personally as being superior to everybody else.
Fuck off.
Really JK? Who is more of a foul-mouthed know-it-all asshole than you? The thing is, you never own the dumb, angry shit you say, and then say more shit just as dumb and angry as you aways do and think that it just disappears into the ether. You have lashed out at posters left and right in the most profane, condescending terms whenever one gets under your thin-ass skin.
Well, guess what? I’m not going away. Deal with it.
No. This is simple:
We do not have a good backup center. It is a major weakness that will need to be addressed by the trade deadline.
Deuce is a very good two-way player who will get a much bigger contract at the end of this year.
Leon has shown he is not willing to pay what he doesn’t believe players are worth. That may or may not include $12 mil per year (guess) for Deuce.
Guitar Jimmy said we will not go over the second apron. ANY raise for Deuce puts us over the second apron.
We signed Shamet for the Deuce role cheaply (half that possible $12 mil) for several years to come.
Ergo, Deuce – a good, homegrown player I quite like – makes the most sense to trade with whatever filler and picks will get us a good, cheap backup big for the next few years, because we aren’t likely to keep him and have an alternative on board.
In favor of this, but only if the center we get is:
30 or under
6-10 or taller
Able to average 10 points and 1 block per game on efficient shooting
Jalen Smith and Zach Collins are pretty close. I also think Charles Bassey could do it if given a consistent 15-20 minutes per game.
It feels more and more like we’re waiting on a LeBron decision before we make a move.
Yeah, none of that addresses or contradicts anything I said…
And the logic isn’t sound.
^ I think this ignores the current marketplace. Rui Hachimura is a 6’10” version of Deuce and he got 2 years, $28M.
Deuce isn’t getting the big contract you fear.
^ and this ignores the rising apron, KAT’s player option, and the team option on Hart.
Deuce’s AAV will likely be in the $7-8M range, and it should be very easy to bring him back and stay under the apron.
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